I finally went and did it

Howdy. I stopped at the petrol station for a fill up, and that cost a little over $112.00, would be fine to break a hundred were I bowling, huh, but not so good paying for petrol (maybe it is more costly than gasoline?) what is the most you have ever had to pay for gasoline, petrol, whatever. Emily is playing softball at school and she only needed a glove, bat and ball. She seems to like it. Joseph is in the middle of preparing for big kahuna tests coming up in all areas at school, well in all subjects he is currently, supposedly taking,i am sure he is ok. I am less dumb, have less word finding problems these days. Weight about the same. Still not strong like bull, smell like ox, i think. I am discovering some kiwi traits (in kiwis) - they don't put up with my silliness very well - good on them. I think they find no humor in the old saw if a man goes deep into the woods where no one can hear him and softly whispers an opinion is he still wrong? Or, guy staggers into a bar, gets thrown out by bartender; this happens over and over, and on the fourth round he says to the bartender - say, how many of these bars do you own? weather - beautiful mornings, crisp and clear, with nary a cloud on the horizon. New strawberries yummy - a berry nice place nearby. just started selling them. great big, about a kilo (just kidding), did find a fresh turkey we could buy for Thanksgiving - are having some Americanos over, from Carrie's world. Just took my magnesium - recommended by a treater - whoooooeeee, bitter, wish (not really) I could see my face, but am struggling, gagging, straining to get some food in my mouth that will take away the taste. Just shot the (barking) dog with my invisible laser cannon, but apparently missed as no dead silence. Have just started six hundred page plus book, The Children's Book, author A S Byatt, very good writing, and a good story so far. Six hundred pages in the paperback available at my nearest branch library. Wonder if we could add Punday to the work week? There are lots of little birdies flitting around, lots of roses and rhododendrons (sp?) blooming. and we are finally out of the predominantly white time. We have red and pink and pale something. Carrie soilders on, having to put up with googles of bs at work some days - some interesting research ideas written up from some of her students - i believe one had kids followed up from infancy through twenty or forty nine? anyway, not bad, students, good tries, and can tell you have really been thinking about your proposed project. I myself think an applicable word for kiwis is stolid, possibly rule bound, but friendly and nice in large part. We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of the bay of islands, next month. their literature lays claim to that area being subtropical. thank you for taking the time to read/scan this. our best to you and yours. Manford

promise

Hi. If anyone still takes a look at this blog from time to time, my apologies, and I PROMISE to try harder to write more often. Right now I will say: look for a new post during the last week of any month. I hope all our readers are well. I got an e-mail from a nice person who said, "Robinson Crusoe was the only man to get all his chores done by Friday." The rain here has eased off, and that large, bright object in the sky once more appeared. I am working as a volunteer at a local school for developmentally delayed children, it is called the McKenzie Centre, and the staff is just lovely - lots of smiles. Right now I am doing dumb work, like scanning in stuff to help reduce the amount of paper present. I had to get a new fuel pump for the BMW, as it was starting to just quietly die (at which time I would think, is my hearing getting worse, has the car suddenly become quieter, what is going on: then, energized by the opinion of the car(s) behind me, expressed mostly with honks, quickly put the gear shift into park and turned the key and lo and behold it was no longer quiet - especially with the cacophony of hoots behind me. Well, spring break is over, and it is back to school, where Emily sometimes struggles with social behavior issues (gee, I have no idea where she got that machine gun she brought to school, headmaster; or the other interestingly labeled stuff!). Joseph goes about his existence pretty quietly. I hack and snort. Carrie coughs. We walk, talk and breathe down here pretty much like when we were up there. Carrie has gone to Wellington twice, and Melbourne, Australia once. Her mom may come for a visit, and so, too, her dad. All are welcome here. Items of greatest scenic value stay largely in the South Island, but there are certainly opportunities for visual pleasingly sights here in the North too. What are some favorite spots you readers have visited. Would you like to go back. I would like to visit Berlin, and maybe Venice before it sinks, and Madrid. Take care, gentle reader. Manford

Rain

Hi,everybody. It has been a rainy seven days or so in our new hometown, Hamilton, with no let up in sight. An interesting characteristic is that it comes in spurts, and that it will be not raining, then suddenly raining, as though the clouds had finally gotten overloaded with moisture and said "Hey, that was alright up until now, but now you are too heavy to carry this high," and so they rolled over on their sides and dumped some of the water, and down it came, with an occasional clap of thunder which is worrying to Charlie (I think she just digs her burrow in the carpet deeper if inside, and who knows, outside, with trembling and shaking). She has a bump on her nose, or a growth of some type - will get her to the vet's tomorrow afternoon. The plus side of the rain is a very colorful Spring, with many blooming trees, lots of flowers, including one we did not plant, from a bulb, known in at least some quarters as Sprixia, purple with a yellow central part of each leaf, and no easily seen at least, stamen. Book of the week/month: La Vie en Rose, with a web site, www.extremelypalerose.com. Nice escapist reading - Wife and husband are off to France to sell Rose wine to the populace, setttle in, meet interesting people, write about it, make a little money, and then set up a blog. Memories of Provence were triggered for me. I will try and take some new pictures and see if I can figure out how to get them on facebook. Joseph Manford Barber resides there. I discovered a fairly close winery this weekend, taking kids to a Quaker youth camp in a park to our west and south, near Mount Pirongia, if anybody wants to look. Roast chicken for dinner - sometimes it is still a challenge to decide and cook and clean. Emily sends her regards. Carrie and I say hi to any readers. We hope you are well and that your lives are going good. Sincerely, Manford

Charlie and some other stuff

Our dog, a bearded (stubborn) collie, is now somewhat over two years old and has moved gracefully and rapidly into adolescence. She likes to supplement her diet whenever the opportunity arises - at home by raiding rubbish cans or the garbage bag in the kitchen or food on the counters there (she seems to especially like chocolate, which (unfortunately from some points of view) is only fatal if ingested in fairly large amounts, amounts which so far (hmmmm, there's an idea) have not been that large (hmmmm). Oh well, its all part of the circus. Which i so far have been unsucseccesful in convincing her that running away to one would be a fun and gratifying thing to do. She has developed some new fears so that walking her, which used to be a straightforward thing to do now becomes one of those random walks statisticians like to talk about (about which statisticians like to talk). Carrie gets to hear some interesting lectures at work - a classicly trained psychologist who showed movie clips to highlight various types of disorder, for example, showing parts of Annie Hall for neurotic, and (I think this is the correct title) Grizzly Man for psychotic. Wonder what he thinks of the real Kiwi blokes who start running around in boots or gum boots, singlet and shorts any time the temperature is above about twenty degrees Farensheit? Or not. I became a semi- unlicensed one this weekend, wearing shorts, but cheating with three layers up top. And sun glasses. And a cap. My chest now being harier than my legs perhaps I should reverse that???
I recently purchased (to shift topics) a new string trimmer, much more macho than the el cheapo I bought a couple of years ago, and what a joy it is to use as it chops up weeds, grass, trees, Charlie (woops! not yet), the back porch, our new fence, etc. Only complaints - it is loud, and drinks fuel like Charlie drinks spilled juice, etc. But enough about Charlie (unless something terrible in the future happens to her, etc.). I trying to remember some of my passwords for various places in the internet universe, sometimes without success, so go through the forgot your password (or pissword?) stich, and then forget the new one. So I finally wrote them in code in a one book, which of course I have forgotten the location of and which code I was using. Oh, well, gives me something to do. I believe that Kiwis in general (human type) use periscopes in driving, as when one stops at a red traffic light, or (sometimes) sign, one is supposed to be able to see the back wheels of the car in front of one, and as best I can tell they do that, by mounting a periscope upside down in their vehicle and thus follow along with at least the spirit of the law. If you are reading this, as you go ALONG if you see a word in caps makes it looks like a shout, not? But not here, where to shout means to buy a meal for others. How about or ?? You got me. Well I must be off to shout (or is it shout out?) tweedle dum and tweedle dee. Sorry to be so negletful a writer, and here is a promise (if Charlie does not eat the computer, which she seems disinclined to do as long as Joseph keeps feeding her his partially done homework)to try and write more often. Love to hear from any of you readers, here or facebook or manfordb@gmail.com or manford_barber@hotmail.com. Etc.

Newspaper quote of the week and other stuff

"We tried every other form of contraception and found that they all suck. Being a scientist, I was interested in what could be done," by a guy who invented a NZ1250 dollars ovulation detector - a tiny thermometer that is worn on either arm that alerts the wearer when her temperature rises half a degree Celcius as a result of ovulation - either do it then and get pregnant, or don't and don't, I guess. On the front page, a big pictures of kids getting new shoes, titled "Kids take a shine to new shoes". Well, we are having beautiful weather here, finally, not so awfully cold (remember what it was like in Auckland, Marge), clear skies, birds tweeting, flowers starting to bloom (see a few pics on Facebook for Joseph Manford Barber). Had a very nice visit with a lady doing research on meditators views for her doctoral dissertation. I will be making a collection of some Hamilton sights, sites, this month, hopefully, and will share them on facebook. Had Emily's school conference; left feeling school is concerned with developing her socially, that grades at this point are not important; some testing she did do, however, indicated that she is bright and she gets a special class during the day for bright kids. She invented a game where she sets up eight or so play mobil figures and then rolls a marble to see how many she can knock down, then it is my turn, then hers, etc. Have been reading a fairly new book from Elmore Leonard, and a couple of books that outline short trips one can take in NZ. Carrie is busy at work. Joseph seems to be doing more real school work in the evenings. I am feeling well, finally more right/left balanced, and feel my (mighty? I don't think so) muscles are better supporting my skeleton than before. Well, thanks for reading this. Sharon, hope things are ok. Sincerely, Manford

Potpourri

Hello again, and warmest greetings from relatively cool down under, or next to down under, since Australia is what one usually thinks of when hearing or reading "down under" (reminds me of a saying I like - When you hear hoofs galloping you don't usually think of zebras" which leads to another I like - "When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail," and the last one for today, attributed to various authors, "I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time" or some variation of that. I am going to recommend a book, because I think it catches the essence of some of New Zealand: Long Cloud Ride, by Josie Dew. I could not find it in any Kansas library, but you can get a paperback from Amazon for about eight bucks plus shipping and handling. It was written by a lady who cycled around NZ in 2004 or thereabouts - went in the summer, but rained much more than usual. Some good descriptions of places, characters and events. And dead right. Hope you can find it. Joseph is taking driving lessons, three so far, with some progress. He has already passed the written portion of the license. Emily stayed home yesterday with a modest sore throat, but because of the concerns about swine flu the schools are being more conservative re when you should not attend. I would also, today, like to recommend a video/dvd that I was late to come by, Conversations With My Gardner, a French movie, sweet and sad. And a more recent movie, The Grocer's Son, also French. Fun thing - my sis sent me a magnetic poetry set, and Carrie's created this poem/haiku?/whatever: "zen for monkey look impossible in world of silent grasshopper be now you" and Emily's: "know all when insect grin is at work". Pretty profound, huh. Or not. (Har, har, har). For my birthday I got several e-mail wishes for a happy birthday - thanks to all of you for that, a book on organic gardening, and another that is in the disc world series, and a word game sort of like scrabble called addictionery - starting with a three letter word each player in turn then modifies it by adding a new letter or changing existing ones - e.g. egg goes to beg goes to big, etc. Joseph and I went to the new Harry Potter movie on opening day and liked it. Even though it was not entirely faithful to the book, apparently. Wish I could look a hundred years into the future to see what has been happening to/in NZ and USA. Interesting to think about. We are trying to cook more different things, even though the kids don't always like what we make I think it is good for them to at least have a taste. Emily and I had a good week during her school break - she and I partnered up the first week and went here and there, one of her favorites being Smiggle, a sort of home/office supply of various pens, pencils, notebooks, desk top stuff, in vibrant colors, including pink and purple. Then she had YMCA camp daily the next two weeks. She seems to really like speech and drama class at her school. Joseph is involved with a school assignment for his computer class designing a program that Emily can use to learn to type. I am looking into doing Pilates, or some old geezer version of that. Carrie is very busy at work. We don't have specific plans for the next school break, but will try and go somewhere by the ocean. I plan to get out a little more, see local sights. Most days are book ended with taking Emily to school, then picking Emily up from school, but I can squeeze in some short trips, and on Tuesdays Carrie picks her up which will allow me to go further afield. Well, have to stop now and walk the dog. Arf, arf, arf. Sincerely, Manford. Oh, by the way, Liz we wish you great success and interesting times in Rwanda.

Fact.....or.....Fiction

The average New Zealander walks 100 K/hour (fiction - it is 101.4 K/hour): The average consumption of beer at the 21st birthday celebration is 101 bottles (fiction - 101 cases): It takes at least twice as long to complete a road trip than the mapquest/google/etc. web sites say it will (fact), no matter where you are going (fact) : Emily won best player of the day ribbon at her latest soccer game (fact - though it may be the case that they like to spread that award around - she was goalie in the second half and even got recognition from the competition's coach for one save!): there are no earthquakes in New Zealand (fiction - recently mild earthquakes near Lake Taupo caused the evacuation of a small community because of fear of a landslike (these have occurred in the past)). And so on, and so on. Well greetings. It has been the coldest winter in 50 years, the locals say. We get frost on the car even the though the ambient temp is above freezing - I am sure the brighter readers can explain that. Emily is home this week - she gets a three week break from school - will go to day camp most days starting next week. My car is in the shop for its biannual (? - every six months) checkup. Finally had to buy some rear tires last week - Toyos or something like that. We are thinking about getting a wireless printer. Carrie has now had basic training in how to assess little, teeny babies using the Braselton scale. Joseph is off to Auckland at the end of July for a chess match. Manford is doing well, and is out more often, helping trim plants for propagation at the local Hamilton Gardens (they are a must see for visitors though none of our visitors so far have seen them), once a fortnight, and Thursday goes to a lecture about godwits, birds that fly from Russia (Siberia) to NZ. I still don't understand cricket, as well as some newspaper reporting of the goings on of rugby players during a game, but at least some of the local teams are doing pretty good in that sport. We are welcoming a new psychology staff person and his family today, so have to stop here and take a shower and wash my hair. I was pleased to read that Bill is making progress, and our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to him and his family. We also read that Liz is leaving for Rwanda in August: good luck and best wishes - what an exciting adventure. Sincerely, Manford

Boo, some nostalgia, and recent visits

Hello from a rainy (most days some precip) and pretty cool NZ. Our thoughts and prayers are being sent out to Bill and his family in their recent struggles with a poor hand fate has dealt them. Lots of support from their friends should help them get through this hard time. We are fine. We had a lovely visit with Sue and her mom, here for a week. Toward the end of their stay a nice guy has been coming over and is building a replacement fence for the old, beat up, cracked and gnarly painted one that was there along the east side of our property, plus adding fencing at either end to provide yet another enclosed space in which Charlie the wonder dog might amble at her highnesses convenience. We did take her to a two day stay south of Taupo, and also took there our out-of-town guests, seeking snow but alas, alack none was found within driving range of our vehicles (though had we had chains or a four wheel drive vehicle we could have gone higher in elevation and found some, for Emily had plans to make a snow angel, throw a snow basll at Joseph, etc.). Previous to that jaunt I had a nice trip to Auckland riding a bus up and another back, on the Naked Bus line, though to my disappointment (sp?) there was no nudity anywhere (or perhaps to my shame for wrong thoughts?). The maratime museum was splendid, with many fine models. Also went to a natural history museum with a variety of exhibits, some creaky, some not. Walked a lot, too. Per recommendation of a podiatrist had bought some Asic gel running shoes, designed to reduce my tendency to pronate my arthritic feet, and they do make a (positive) difference. Stayed in Mt. Eden, with no sign of Adam or Eve, at a Quaker owned rest house, could take the train or a bus there from downtown, free for old geezers like me, after nine a.m. Ferry free, too. But it only goes in the water. Huh. Imagine that. The workshop there has inspired me to try and contact other mortals to see what I can do re possibly testing kids or adults for auditory processing disorder; the Listening Program sounded (har, har) pretty good for the right type of disorder. There are other rehab progrms for auditory processing difficulties. Google those three words in that order all on one line for more info re that topic. I'm sorry, did not mean google "those three words" - google (while you giggle?) auditory processing disorder, and you will learn more. Carrie and friends attended fielddays yesterday, a serious get together of almost everything related to mostly rural NZ life, hopefully she will blog that experience. I am trying to get pictures on Face Book. More later. Here is hoping all our readers are well and in good spirits. Manford

A lesson and fences

Well, I learned today that if you put a small Revere sauce pan on a very hot electric burner the used to be flat bottom will distort and no longer sit flat on any burner. Re: fences, Hamilton is a city full of them. What is your neighborhood like? There are small ones, short ones, some only a brick high, tall ones, decorative ones, ugly ones, freshly painted ones, mixed brick or stone and wood ones, some token ones, like one that has a post about every fifteen feet and fairly strong wire strung between them at the top and in the middle one, keep out ones around a transformer facility, with barbed wire at the top, sagging ones, new ones, old ones, painted ones, unapinted ones, partial ones, long ones, short ones, pretty ones. Look around. Let me know. It has been very interesting to note that to date we have not heard from anyone in the USA since our April visit. Hmmmm. Wonder what that means. I am planning to go to Auckland toward the end of this month for a one day workshop on a listening program that seems popular here, though controversial elsewhere or at least some places. I have built in a little extra time to see the maratime museum that is there - looks pretty good on paper, and maybe another museum. Hope the weather isn't too bad, but even if it is I'll be inside, won't I. Well take care. Hope to hear from you. Manford

It ain't over 'til it's over and it ain't over yet

It ain't over 'til it's over, and it ain't over. I apologize for not getting on the computer more often to let my faithful readers know what is up with the Barbers in NZ. We had a wonderful trip stateside in early April. We are finally settling down from that trip. A good friend from Kansas, and her mom, will be visiting in early June. Events of note - Emily's screaming girls late birthday party on May 9 that went off without mishap. She wants a living pet. Any suggestions? I thought snake, but those are not allowed into NX. Maybe a bird? No mice for me, thanks, and am allergic to cats, spiders don't seem friendly, possibly a gerbil/hamster if not a bird? Yesterday we had a brief hail storm, unlike our unfortunate neighbors to the East at Mt. Monganui, where I believe they reported 8 inches of hail and one shopping mall shut down because of flooding. Lows here are in the 40's, so we have lots of blankets on the beds. We had the carpet cleaned yesterday - thinking it would be prudent to wait until after the party to get it done. Joseph is working on a project related to NZ's part in the Vietnam conflict. Emily is designing a pocket plucker for science, a musical instrument of sorts so far composed to two 9 mm long old croquet mallet handle pieces with a rubber band or two or three tied to each, so when you hold one handle in each hand and stretch the band(s) you can pluck them with your teeth and make music. She is taking clarinet lessons at school and has to practice at home - sometimes when doing this she will hit a sour note and that sends Charlie the wonder dog skeedadling. She is pretty good. She also draws well. Does anyone in the reading group ever look at Wired on the web? Interesting article today about a guy who is trying to create a more powerful search engine than any available currently - ask it a question and it will tell you no lies. Cool. In NZ if the listener does not understand the speaker the NZ person will say "Pardon?" I also was asked to give two lectures on sound and its perception at the local uni - the first one was to me pretty bad, the second better - I do not know if I will ever be asked back or not. Will be interesting to see what happens. I learned a lot about the cochlea and organ of corti, anyway. I miss my old friends, and hope to be back for a visit in two years. We don't know when/where Joseph might go to college, and that may influence our travel plans. Well, it was so good to see old friends, and I wish all my readers well. Manford

Better late than . . .

Hello gentle reader(s). We got into Auckland International Airport a little before 5 am on Sunday, and I still have some jet lag, having not slept any significant amount of time on the good ole big iron bird in the sky - but did watch most or all of four (possibly five) movies including one Japanese, one Chinese (with subtitles), Yes Man, and something else i may remember some day. How wonderful it was to see old friends, and it was not without a touch of sadness that we left. I think that was the happiest time I had had for a long time, for adjusting to NZ has not been all peaches and cream (though it is pretty tasty here at times). We had roast chicken to eat for dinner Sunday night. The house was so pristine thanks to the house sitter and her friend. The dog was retrieved sunday late afternoon from the kennel where we take her, and looked a little shaggier but was otherwise recognizable - there was a real bark symphony (maybe Beethoven wrote a symphony for assorted size and voice barkers - one seemed to have a hoarse voice from barking so much). There are tiny, medium and large dogs at the kennel - a pretty cool place - we like the people who own/run it. Back to the past - i really wasn't sure how it would feel to go back for a visit, but it felt right. Of course, I wish we would have had more time, but we feel we did ok with what we had. Contact with old friends certainly measured out in generous dosages the value of friendship and family. I did at times feel I was in a foreign country - possibly from the differences in appearance of USAers vs. Kiwis? And the stores have such a rich bounty of things compared to NZ, which seems rich to people from a lot of countries. There were so many cars in Los Angeles (do the angels cry about this?) that I almost couldn't count them. Same for some areas in San Francisco. Fortunately more were heading north when we were heading south from Sac to SF. I found I did miss walking, since I am not very good at working things in when there are such nice people to be with. There is new construction on a major road that is about two blocks from our house, started today, i believe, and will go on for a while. I will avoid it, taking long cuts if necessary since no short ones seem to be available. I did learn from this trip - one thing being that I need to get out more, be more in contact with others, socially and intellectually. And I needs to get me muscles stronger, a la Popye (sp?). Maybe I could take up an instrument - eg gong, bell, glass bottles, stems of grass, or humming? The options seem endless, and may end my existence if i annoy others too much. Hmmmmm. Better rethink that. I will go on reading, and will try and post a list at some point of ones I especially liked or found very interesting. Emily and mom, mostly, are getting ready for her birthday bash somewhere around May 3. She will be 40 (in 31 more years), and we hope she enjoys her youth before aging kicks in. I am reading a couple of interesting nonfiction books that talk about the brain, CNS and socialization aspects. I may get to tell some people about Fast ForWord, a remedial program i like. Well, my boots and tennis shoes are made for walking, so that's what I'm gonna do and one of these days they'll walk right back to you. Salud and love to all. Manford

An interesting week

This has been an interesting week. Carrie left last Sunday for Sacramento - she flew Auckland to San Francisco then got a ride with a friend of her mother to Sacramento. We have lost a very lovely man, Vince, Carrie's step dad - he passed away a few days before she got there. She has been, I am sure, a great help to her mom (or mum as they say here). The kids have been real troopers, with little fussing or complaining. As often happens, things did not go as I had expected, primarily blood test results came back and Emily was diagnosed as having whooping cough. So, she had to go on a regimen of an antiboitic, and was told to not go to school or any other activities for five days, to give the medicine time to do its work. I negotiated this down to four days with her school nurse. We suspect she had pertussis for some weeks prior to the blood test results date, but the rules are once it is diagnosed there is an isolation period. So she won't reinfect already infected ones? So she has been pretty much mome bound since this past Wednesday, missing a school swimming meet, chapel at school (this is a mandatory requirement one time a term - hope we are not all doomed to Hell for not going), drama lesson, tennis on Saturday, a picnic on Friday (it was called off because of rain), and a birthday party (she will party on dude with the little girl who invited her at some unkown date). Joseph has an amazing (to me, anyway) new computer game - Empire Total War - that is not in the Quaker tradition you would think, but prior to any wars it is pacific - it lets him create towns and settle other territories, I believe, and of course as with most of the new software has remarkable (again, to me) graphics. Of course it has also caused him to want a more advanced graphics card! He has a little more homework. Emily has some Mon - Thurs, and is liking the clarinet (no way as squeaky as a violin can be, at least in her capable hands - with encouragement from her mom, whose clarinet it is, and who played clarinet for many year). Well to change the subject, we watch the news from MSN, NY Times, other papers and internet sites, and hope none of our readers have been deeply stung - I am hoping that if we are patient enough we will get back, if not all, at least some of our mutual funds and other investments. So far New Zealand does not seem to be hurting quite as much, though house valaues have gone down considerably and the NZ dollar is the weakest it has been in a long time. There are still flowers of one or another kind blooming prettily but leaves are starting to turn on the relatively few decidious trees, and there is a little touch of fall in the air. We are looking forward to our April visit. Hope all of you are well and getting along ok. Remember the phrase in fake latin - Illigitimus non carborundam (I think I almost spelled it right - look it up in Wikipedia for a number of different versions). Sincerely, Manford

I'm back in the saddle again

Well, not really. But I am today feeling much more like the old me. It is a lovely day here, temp in the 60's this morning. I took Charlie for a walk, left her in the back yard, and walked some more to the local grocery store, and as a reward had a scoop of hokey pokey icecream. I have a few aches and pains, but my surgery went well and blessedly I don't have to go pee nearly as often. Let's see: I had laser surgery on my eye to close up a small retinal tear, then on my bladder to demolish a bladder stone (wonder how they did that ? I don't see any scars) so I guess next will be one or the other foot - maybe to wipe out a virulent foot fungus? Oh, well. Here is a family update: Charlie recently went to the vet for a sore on her nose - it seems to be clearing up, hooray. Emily has her first clarinet lesson at school today. She has lost/misplaced her uniform hat so we will probably need to buy another. Joseph has more homework by far than last year. Carrie is still not having to teach - classes start in March, but is very busy with research and with departmental matters. You have already heard enough about me. There are lots of peppers on our raised-bed pepper plants. We had some burly guys come and take out all the junk vegetation (privet hedges, grass, miscellaneous green things) so right now, today, our flower/plant beds look swell - I will really try to keep up with removing unwanted things from the beds from now on out. Rhubarb plants are very interesting - huge leaves, and you don't eat them, do you. Our strawberry plants have pretty much stopped making strawberries. Our tomato plants would, if we let them, take over the world, so it is snick, snick, snick to their unwanted branches. Marigolds have done well. Something is eating holes in the recently planted broccoli plants. Charlie is digging holes in the yard here and there. We will soon be putting down more bark in the beds. We are having pasta and homemade by Carrie tomato sauce and garlic bread tonight. Energy companies here are discouraging baths - one ad shows a bird on the edge of a plastic small pool, with the text "baths are for birds. Have a shower instead." Our nice big phillips lcd tv has been intermittently going blank though the sound remains on, so we have left it at a local repair shop for diagnosis and possible treatment. We had a sweet Valentines day, and hope you did, too. More later, hot potater.

When the examiner starts calling you "sir" you know

Welcome to my story page. Every year I have to take a driving test, with a driving instructor and an occupational therapist giving me their attention as I ferry them around in my car under varous conditions (country driving vs. city) for which I pay them a couple of hundred bucks. Well we started off on not so good a footing - after a short time I was asked to pull over and was told I needed to look in the rear view mirror more often, keep more to the center of the street or road and scan upcoming cross streets for possible intruders (well, something like that). I did those things better and did fine at speed (up to an exciting 60 miles an hour, or 100 kilometers per hour), then I was so happy that the test was almost over that I forgot some of the things I was supposed to do (like signal a left turn when going through a traffic circle and continuing on straight) and did not watch my speed so went a little fast in traffic and the instructor said something that included the term "sir" which I realized was a sign of displeasure. Sure enough my lack of defensive driver got commented on, but they are still letting me drive. Whew. I need to keep drivig to get Emily to and from her new school. Enough of that. Except as I watch other drivers I think they would get zapped more than me - as they cruise into the bicycle lane, fail to signal when they should, etc. Ah, well. For some reason I became rather brain dead, or developed writer's block, after our South Island trip, and life has not been a barrel of laughs - I had a bladder stone and could not get it taken out for no charge at the local hospital for at least six months, more or less, because they don't have enough docs and suites to meet the general populaces needs - so paid for having it done privately, in secret, far away from the prying eyes of the hospital. Apparently I did not recover consciousness in the recovery room, but in the post recovery room. And I was out from a cocktail of various drugs that worked quickly. I am much improved in the bladder department so I guess I will stop wearing diapers (just kidding). But enough about me. We are thrilled to think we will be seeing old friends during our upcoming April visit to the states. I will have more to say tomorrow. I want to post this before I erase it. Manford

We're back--and it's 2009!

I promised myself I would blog before I got lost in the heaps of e-mails I no doubt have waiting for me, after two weeks completely computer-free.

We just got home from our big trip to the South Island (known to the locals--not us--as the "mainland"). We spent the first week (Dec 28-Jan 4) at the Quaker Summer Gathering, at a boy scout camp outside of Christchurch. Not exactly luxury accommodations, but lots of interesting people around. About 110 people, lots of families, including the "Junior Young Friends" group of which Joseph is a member, who basically hang out and play cards and talk. We went to a park and beach one day, and into Christchurch on Joseph's birthday (15) to a museum and art gallery and food and ice cream. Before we left that day, Joseph got brave and went up the really tall climbing wall and abseiling down. Yes, I got pictures. He let me take a lot more pictures than usual of him this trip, so I will look at them and post some later...We were very lucky and had good weather almost all the time we were there--the only precipitation being a very dramatic and Kansas-like hailstorm.

We left the gathering early last Sunday morning to catch the TransAlpine express--a train across the mountains that are the center of the island. It was a nice ride--maybe not quite the spectacular mountains I was expecting, but I think I am spoiled by Colorado and the Sierra Nevada, and the biggest mountains are a bit farther south--Mount Cook--and were hidden by clouds most of the time we were there. We picked up a car when we got to the west coast, and spent the next week exploring the middle of the island, including perusing beach stones for jade (called greenstone here), going on an early morning boat ride to look for birds in the Okarito lagoon, a jetboat ride on a glacier-fed river (jetboats are a NZ invention and tourism boon, kind of the roller coaster of boating), a tour and detailed account of where and how they filmed the big battle scene at the end of Lord of the Rings (pictures to come), and, on the final day, a strong contender for favorite, seeing the penguins come home in Oamaru--both a few rare and solitary yellow-eyed penguins, and several rafts (that's what they're called, really) of gregarious little blue penguins, who clamoured up the rocks while their chicks wrestled and hopped about excitedly, awaiting their parents' return. Oh, yes, we did see little blue penguins also in captivity--injured ones, rescued and kept at the Antarctic Centre, where we also went in a room full of artificial snow to simulate an Antarctic storm. We had hoped to see Franz Josef Glacier, but it was very rainy that day, and we decided not to brave the walk over slippery stones. We thought we might see Fox Glacier the next day, but it was still rainy, and we opted to go on to Wanaka, which was inland, huge beautiful lakes. And that day, two Indian tourists were crushed by an ice fall at Fox Glacier. So maybe it's just as well we didn't go. We would probably not have disregarded the warning signs that are all over, especially in the rain, but according to the paper, 1/3 of tourists do ignore the signs and go try to touch the ice.

Now, home sweet home, still filled with Christmas debris. It seems like we've been gone forever. The garden looks like it, too. I picked a weird cucumber, gigantic squash, and possibly the ugliest carrot I've ever seen. Looks like the birds have found the strawberries, the rhubarb is trying to take over the world, and we will soon have a bushel of tomatoes. And one of dandelions.

Now I guess I'd better brave the e-mail and the laundry, before I go back to work tomorrow.

Happy 2009! Stay warm!
Carrie