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Sunday afternoon
April 29, 2002 by Sue in Wielesek
Sunday afternoon. What a lovely weekend! We puttered around Saturday morning, then picked up Isa while Seraph and Robbie went to tea. Dick, Isa and I went out to the farm to see the horses, definitely one of her favorite trips. It was so pretty that we sat out in the sun rolling an old basketball around after we exhausted our supply of sugar cubes. Isa is definitely
fearless. For some reason she is at a stage when she looks a lot like my kid brother Dick and Meg's middle daughter, Julie.
We came back into town to meet Seraph and Robbie at their house, while Dick ran the manly man weedeater around the edge of their yard - the big gas one rather than my wussy electric one.
Then Dick and I picked up some tortilla chips, salsa, some Pacifico beer, a couple of lemons and Training Day, and settled in to get a head start on Cinco de Mayo next weekend.
We have such a big Latino/Mexican population that our Cinco celebration has been renamed Fiesta Latina. For the first time, the League of Women Voters will have a table there; our state organization is now printing our Voters Guide in Spanish as well as English.
A quick movie review..I'm not sure that Training Day is exactly a funny lighthearted movie, but Denzel Washington definitely earned his Oscar.
Adam and Jamie brought Sam over, and we made another trip to the farm. Sam watched someone burning garbage, and told me that he wanted to be a "Burner" when he grows up. Well, a Burner and a Cowboy. It was kind of fun for him to meet our tenant, Jerry, and see his rodeo belt buckle. A good time was had by all!
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Hi, just the quickest note to all from mom th...
April 18, 2002 by Sue in Wielesek
Hi, just the quickest note to all from mom the attorney, who is right in the middle of a custody case. I truly think that after this batch, I'm going to stop taking custody cases. They are emotionally wrenching, and generally hard on people, and kids.
Other than that, life is fine. Sadie wants to take a car back to school next year. I wonder if the old Nissan can make the trip. Of course, that means that Seraph and Robbie won't have an extra car. We'll have to work on this issue.
We had a nice, albeit form, letter from Smith, saying that
Sadie was part of some event for outstanding scholars this Saturday, and we were welcome to drop in. For more details, call me....
Hugs to all, om
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Oh, I forgot to say that when we took Sam out...
April 12, 2002 by Sue in Wielesek
Oh, I forgot to say that when we took Sam out for pizza, he discovered centrifugal force while spinning the pizza pan with a piece of pizza on it. Science. It's great.
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Well, the Great Zimbabwe is pretty great! If ...
April 12, 2002 by Sue in Wielesek
Well, the Great Zimbabwe is pretty great! If you like African history, you've seen pictures of it - an elaborate complex/village of beautifully fitted stone walls and a huge conical tower. It was built about 600 or 700 years ago, and in spite of white explorers trying to tear down the tower, which is solid, in search of gold, the tower still stands.
While we were on our way, the most amazing thunderstorm came on. The clouds looked as though they were a solid black ceiling, about 30 feet above us, and I expected space aliens momentarily.
This part of Zim is home to the opposition party, and road blocks and searches seemed more frequent. Even though we appeared unlikely terrorists, at one roadblock we had to open the trunk of the car while they patted it down for guns. We didn't have any trouble, and got adept at hauling out our passports and the car rental papers.
This, our last night in Zim, was spent at a motel/resort which must have been new and quite fashionable in about 1960. We had a rondeval, and the dining room had a roof but was otherwise open. Actually, it was lovely, even if a bit down at the heels. The tree in front had obviously been a home for weaver-birds for many years, and was hung with all their nests, looking like large Christmas ornaments waiting for Martha Stewart to come alone with a little gold spray and some tasteful lighting.
And so, the next morning we regretfully said goodbye to Zim
and headed back to the Johannesburg airport, aiming to be there in time to put Sadie on the night plane to Amsterdam.
Dick and I stayed at a hotel near the airport, and spent (aargh!) the next day hanging out at the Johannesburg Airport. The trip back, which is more or less one continuous
flight, punctuated only by the mayhem of transferring from Gatwick to Heathrow, is pretty mind numbing. I did learn from my last trip; wear comfortable underwear.
And so a year of adventures ended, and we spent a lovely New Years Day with the family at Lohring and Yayoe's, celebrating a belated Christmas.
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Well, we had a delightful Easter weekend
April 08, 2002 by Sue in Wielesek
Well, we had a delightful Easter weekend. Seraph and Robbie planned a short spring vacation trip to Kahneeta, a resort on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. It was beautiful and warm, and although there is a casino there, the resort is fmaily oriented. There are literally warm springs on the reservation, and two big swimming pools, open year round. Apparently the water is so hot when it comes to the surface that they have to mix in cold water before it goes into the swimming pools. Seraph, Robbie and Isa went over on Thursday, and Dick, Hunni and I drove over on Saturday morning. We went into town to the Indian Museum, which was really interesting. On Sunday, there was an Easter egg hunt.
One part of the resort has a huge public swimming pool, playgrounds, a spa, and so forth, and this part must be open to all the Native people who live on the rez, since
the Easter egg hunt was crowded with lots of kids. I can't help but wonder if Native people from other Oregon tribes don't go to Kahneeta because it would be so nice to be surrounded by people who look the same, even if only for a
weekend.
I want to finish up our travelog. We left you, dear reader,
just as we were going into Harare to meet Brian and his family. In spite of some worries about whether we would be
imposing, we had a wonderful time. Brian is a banker, and Irene is a pharmacist. They have a five year old, Holly, who is amazingly cute. Brian has two older children, Ashley and Warick. Ashley lives in London, but she and her boyfriend were home for Christmas. They have a lovely home, with a pool and I actually went swimming on Christmas Day.
I had fun with Irene; they took us shopping at both a shopping mall very much like any shopping mall in the US, and a market which is quite a lot like Saturday Market in Eugene without the tie-dye and aging hippies.
While we were there, Dick, Sadie and I drove to a site north of Harare with cave drawings. These were huge hills which looked as though each hill was one continuous rock,
with water apparently flowing up out of the rock. Signs at the little museum at the site explained that the area had been a religious site for centuries. I don't know if I saw anything else in Africa which was so moving.
With great reluctance, we left the next morning, facing a hard drive from Harare to Johannesburg. We had trouble finding gas, but after some delay, headed southwest.
Next report: the Great Zimbabwe.
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