So much has happened!

I have shamelessly neglected my blog. I wonder if anyone still checks it out. Whew! First, on October 26 I became a grandma! Totally new experience, full of unknowns, haven't even held him yet. But I'm traveling to see him soon, off to rainy Oregon for two weeks around Thanksgiving.

And I have done so much traveling and taken so many pictures!

Oh, and last night I won second place in a poetry competition at the community college where I used to teach biology in a former lifetime. That made me ridiculously happy and got me a basket of treats, including a twenty-dollar bill.

Cousin Hooly visited, and we had scenic drives and hikes. Here's Cousin Hooly on the trail to the natural bridge (ha) in Chiricahua National Monument. We mathematically challenged dodos had done a 2.6-mile hike, so naturally we figured that a 4.8-mile hike with steeper hills would be a snap.

We also intended to visit Garden Canyon inside Fort Huachuca, but Hooly has reached the ripe age of 55 without learning to carry her car registration "at all times," so I had to go back there alone after she left for home. Maybe I can blame her for the disappearing tire (nothing left but raggedy edges) on my way home from this second visit to Sierra Vista, stuck on the freeway at night too scared to change a tire with humongous semis blasting by at 75+ mph. AAA rescued me. I bow to AAA. After this incident, I conclude that in an emergency I am a totally useless basket case, instantaneously stupid. AAA of course wanted to have some better clue to my location than "somewhere between Tucson and Phoenix." I was in the middle of nowhere, literally. Nice lady losing her cool over the phone suggested I get out of the car and look around for something informative. Grumpily, I did so, totally forgetting that my car has a navigation system complete with a helpful map-on-screen, on which I could easily have located the nearest crossroad, without having to climb out between madly whooshing monster trucks to read the sign on the overpass that turned out to be right behind me. Anyhow, Hooly, here's a little of what you missed: