Family

Bobcats and Stuff

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Debora

Today the kids and I continued our hike-every-mile-of-the-Trinity-River-between-Ft-Worth-and-Dallas project by hiking this stretch of trail:

We haven’t figured out our pick-up and drop-off arrangements yet, so our distances are still limited by the fact that we have to backtrack every mile of trail that we cover. Still working on a solution for that.

Perfect weather for a hike, with just a touch of fall coolness in the air.

We met a guy on the trail, a retiree who volunteers his time to the parks and helps keep track of the local wildlife. He is so tuned into the bobcat population that he knows all of the individual bobcats who live in the area and is concerned that six of them have gone missing in the past few months. We ran into him twice, in different places on the trail, once on our way out and once on our way back, and each time there was a different young bobcat hanging out with him. First this pretty girl…

…and then this gorgeous boy:

We also saw a couple of armadillos. They are cuter in real life than I expected. They look like fat squirrels wearing armor.

Other wildlife sightings included a great blue heron…

…lots of pretty butterflies and about a gazillion grasshoppers everywhere.

It’s kind of amazing, the abundance of wildlife that thrives here in the middle of the Metroplex. When we first decided to move here I worried that the kids and I would miss the “great outdoors,” but that definitely hasn’t been an issue. City people really seem to appreciate their green spaces. Probably for the same reason the kids and I do — no matter how much you love all the benefits of civilization, sometimes you just need to walk in the woods and relax.

Categories: Animals, Cats, environment, Family, kids, Life, Trinity River Project, Wildlife | Tags: armadillos, bobcats, heron | Leave a comment

Exploration

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Debora

This morning Mahogany and I took our first trail ride since she arrived here. She has always had a strong preference for the company of other horses, but it was never a huge issue until this morning when I tried to ride her away from her new pasture mates. I had an honest-to-goodness fight on my hands. I finally opted to dismount and lead her off to the trailhead and out of sight of the herd and stables. This basically just relocated the fight instead of ending it, but at least it was just the two of us there with no human or equine witnesses to the struggle. Having a battle of wills with your horse in front of curious onlookers is like dealing with a tantruming toddler in a grocery store…it’s just awkward no matter how you handle it.

So anyway, I led her through the back gate and remounted, and the battle resumed, and I eventually won. And once I got her onto the river trail and she was basically locked onto the path, we had a really lovely ride. The flipside of Mahogany’s willfulness is her bold fearlessness, which makes her a wonderful exploring companion.

At a couple of places along the trail we found cows sheltering in the brush.

(For the curious: I always try to include bits of horse in the photos I take from horseback. That’s how I tell my trail ride pics apart from my hiking pics.)

When we looped back into the pasture, Mahogany set up for another fight. She wanted to run straight to her buddies, and I wanted to remind her who was steering by making her walk around the perimeter of the pasture. That ended up being more of a heated argument than an actual battle, and then she remembered that I’m even more stubborn than she is and did her laps without any more fuss. But I can see that this will be our first training project here: Mahogany needs to learn to leave the herd behind whenever I ask her to, without a struggle.

Luke and Elizabeth and I have fallen into a pattern of exploring at least one new thing every weekend, and today we investigated the Colleyville Library. We found it nestled in a village with a remarkably Southern California vibe. The whole setting reminded us of a cross between the Mission Inn area of Riverside and Disneyland’s Main Street USA.

While the Hurst Library is still our reigning favorite, the Colleyville Library is far and away the prettiest one we’ve seen in the Metroplex so far.

One of these days I’m going to just drive around and take pictures of all of my favorite buildings in the Mid-Cities area, and post them. There is some crazy beautiful architecture here.

I freaking love this place.

Categories: Animals, environment, Family, Horses, kids, Life, trail rides | Leave a comment

Sea World

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Debora

This isn’t a real post; I just want to share some pics I took at Sea World yesterday, and this is the most convenient place for me to display a stack of photos.

Orcas are always bigger in real life than I expect them to be. They are technically dolphins, not whales, so my brain always thinks of them as large-dolphin-size. And then I see them again in real life and remember that they are actually small-whale-size. Photos don’t really do them justice.

This was a belated birthday trip for Elizabeth, who turned 15 about three weeks ago. My little (hah, she’s taller than me) adrenaline junkie wanted to check out the new roller coaster, Manta. When we saw it in person Manta looked disappointingly tame — no loop-de-loops or steep drops or gimmicks, just a nice swoopy coaster. It’s unexpectedly fun to ride, though, we did it twice yesterday and loved it. (Actually there is a gimmick, but you don’t see it until the ride begins.)

The older coaster, “Journey to Atlantis,” is still the reigning favorite. Elizabeth’s bff Emma rode it once, Luke and I rode it twice and Elizabeth braved the chilly weather and splashy soakiness to ride it three times.

I love the Atlantis-themed aquariums in and around that ride. Really beautiful designs.

They’ve added a few new rides besides Manta since the last time we were there.

There’s also a new sea-turtle exhibit over by the Shark Encounter.

Sea turtles know how to boogie.

Can’t remember which aquarium this guy was in. He seemed to enjoy looking out as much as we enjoyed looking in.

I don’t know what these are, but I like them!

Petting the mantas.

Why do they call these sea lions? They look and sound like dogs…all they need is little corgi legs.

April in San Diego is gorgeous. Everything is in bloom.

Obligatory “smile big” pic. Can’t believe how tall Luke is getting.

That’s probably enough for one post. Happy Birthday, sweet girl. You make me so proud.

Addendum: A Sea World rep has asked if I would include a link to the park in this post. I don’t really do advertising on my blog, but I see no harm in this case — Sea World is pretty awesome and we love it.

So here is where you can check out the park’s attractions and visiting info.

(I have no affiliation with Sea World and I’m not being paid to add the link, it just seems like a good cause.)

Categories: Animals, Birthdays, Family, Friends, kids, Life, Love, Wildlife | Tags: Sea World | 3 Comments

At Year’s End

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Debora

My poor neglected blog. I see that the last time I posted here was in August, and here we are on the last day of December. I can’t use the excuse that nothing’s been happening, because 2012 has pretty much consisted of one life-changing event after another. In fact, so many wonderful and terrible things have happened this year that I almost failed to notice when a lifelong dream quietly came true a few weeks ago.

In my defense, I’ve been a bit distracted. Let’s look at the scorecard, shall we?

In 2012 I wrote the complete outline and about 90% of the first draft of what I hope will become my first published novel. It’s going to be amazing once it’s polished up.

In 2012 I lost a cherished friend of 24 years. That was…difficult.

In 2012 I finally realized that trying to keep the peace by endlessly accommodating my ex-husband’s escalating demands was not only futile, but actively counterproductive. It only made him see me as weak, an easy target for bullying. 2012 was the year I stood my ground.

In 2012 hate and violence were brought to my doorstep, presumably to teach me a lesson about standing my ground. If that was their intention, it backfired.

In 2012 I realized there’s not much that scares me anymore.

In 2012 some other important things happened that I’m either not comfortable talking about on my blog, or that I’m not at liberty to post here.

So you can see why it almost slipped past me unnoticed, this small but significant accomplishment.

But yesterday it hit me: I am now a paid writer. It’s not the way I’d always planned, and one unfortunate tradeoff is that my novel has been moved to a back burner as I write informative articles, product descriptions, how-to guides and so on. But people are giving me money to conjure words in my head and write them down, and that is momentous. I can now officially call myself a writer, and not feel like a fraud. I am paying bills with money that I earned writing down words. People, that is one big fat checkmark on my shortlist of life goals.

So farewell, 2012. You were not always kind nor gentle, but I have emerged from your flames a stronger, braver and wiser person. And I have emerged A Writer. For real.

Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s hoping 2013 brings us all a few more granted wishes and a little less of the other stuff.

Categories: books, Family, Fiction, Horses, kids, Life, Love | Tags: writing | Leave a comment

Storming The Castle

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Debora

Yesterday the kids and I went to Castle Park in Riverside for Luke’s birthday. He won’t officially turn twelve until next week, but the Castle will be switching over to their fall (well, school year) schedule next week so this was our last chance to catch the summer hours/rides.

The scorching heat kept the crowds away, so we didn’t have to stand in a single line all day. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Elizabeth was the only one of us with the intestinal fortitude to ride Fireball.

…Twice in a row.

They’ve added a water park since the last time I was at the Castle, and that’s where all the people were. Next time we’ll bring bathing suits and spend more time splashing around.

I was a little disappointed to see that the actual Castle building itself has suffered a decline in artsy ambience. The upstairs is closed off now; when I asked an employee she said it had been converted to offices. And the awesome old medieval decor downstairs was traded in at some point for just cramming as many arcade games into every square inch as could possibly fit. There were still air hockey and skeeball though (and air conditioning!) so we did spend a little time inside.

But where Castle Park really shines is in its miniature golf courses.

Sadly my favorite course was closed yesterday, but the one we played was almost as fun.

Confession: I’m not the world’s biggest fan of youngsters in general. But I love hanging out with these three in particular. They’re smart and funny and fun and nice.

Elizabeth’s favorite ride was the flying saucer. I didn’t think to get a pic of it because it doesn’t look like much from the outside. Riders walk into a UFO-shaped structure and stand against padded walls. There are no restraints, and none are needed. The saucer starts to spin, faster and faster, and centrifugal force makes the padded sections of wall slide up, with the people pressed flat against them so their feet leave the floor. I’ve ridden it before but I didn’t yesterday, because my 43-year-old stomach can’t handle the spinny rides the way it used to. Emma and I waited outside while Luke and Elizabeth tried it for the first time. We both marveled at how fast it was spinning. “It looks like one of those…what are they called?” I asked Emma.

“Those things they use to train astronauts for zero G?”

“No, the tiny things that scientists use in labs.”

“A centrifuge?”

“That’s it! How do those things work, anyway?”

Emma gave me a tidy little discourse on how and why a centrifuge can separate blood cells from plasma and so on. It was awesome. Even the ride operator was listening in. When Luke and Elizabeth stumbled out of the UFO we asked them if their blood cells were all separated from their plasma now. They said it was entirely possible. And for the rest of the day Elizabeth couldn’t stop talking about how amazing and mysterious centrifugal force is. And the thing is, I know very few adults with whom I can have those kinds of conversations and make those kinds of jokes. I do know a few, and treasure their friendship with all my heart, but why aren’t there more grownups who manage to bring their wonder and whimsy and uncomplicated enjoyment of life with them into adulthood?

Anyway, we had a ridiculous amount of fun yesterday. Happy almost-birthday, Luke! You’re one of the coolest kids I know, and I love you like crazy.

Categories: Birthdays, Family, Friends, Humor, kids, Life, Love | 6 Comments