Welcome to my World

Welcome to the domain different--to paraphrase from New Mexico's capital city of Santa Fe which bills itself "The City Different." Perhaps this space is not completely unique but my world shapes what I write as well as many other facets of my life. The four Ds figure prominently but there are many other things as well. Here you will learn what makes me tick, what thrills and inspires me, experiences that impact my life and many other antidotes, vignettes and journal notes that set the paradigm for Dierdre O'Dare and her alter ego Gwynn Morgan and the fiction and poetry they write. I sell nothing here--just share with friends and others who may wander in. There will be pictures, poems, observations, rants on occasion and sometimes even jokes. Welcome to our world!

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Alamogordo to Anchorage in twelve wild hours


We (my friend Jim and I) left Alamo about 2:30. It’s about  90 minutes to the El Paso airport, which is smaller than I expected. Check in was mostly done by internet already and I slid through security easily. But then I noticed the flight to Phoenix was delayed.  Ooops, please no glitches right now, I prayed. The connection at Phoenix was tight, under an hour. So I worried—and waited. Finally the plane arrived and it seemed boarding took forever but at last we were off.

I always enjoy looking out—but there were too many clouds to track where we were, although they were pretty. It was sunset when we landed at Phoenix. Again everyone moves at snail’s pace but I was finally out and running. A couple from Las Cruces also heading to Anchorage went by me, old hands at this.They live in Las Cruces but have grandkids here. We'd landed in the B21 gate and were to leave from A26—about as far as it could be. I was thankful I had taken Jim’s advice and checked my larger bag. I ran on the moving sidewalks, recalling  how my brother Alex and I had done this years back on the way to Kentucky for our mom’s funeral. As then, they had closed the door to the jetway but let me and another woman board. Whew. That was too close but my prayer was answered.

It was pretty dark then but we followed the last strip of light west and north. I spotted as slim crescent of moon, crimson, probably from the smoke of many west coast fires, as it sank toward the distant horizon. I have never seen a crescent moon so red.  It was beautiful, though eerie. I sat beside an old gentleman who bad a Chihuahua in a carrier that would not fit under the seat so that was stowed overhead and he held the dog the whole way. Thankfully it was a very well behaved little dog.

I don't  think I have ever been so far north—the sky stayed bright and even more so as we got closer to Anchorage. There it was deep dusk, like maybe five in the morning or eight thirty at home. The airport is big and busy—bigger than El Paso it seemed though no Sky Harbor, O’Hare or DFW of course.  I got off and went down to retrieve my suitcase and stepped out into the cool night, into an area crowded with trucks and SUVs since the evening’s last flights must have arrived en masse all at the same time! Pretty soon my hostess arrived in a big Dodge diesel dually and  we were off to Wasilla.

Anchorage, I leaned from a resident, has about 375,000  residents, half the state’s population and there you could be anywhere. It was a bit too dark, and too many trees along the road to see the mountains I had heard of but that will keep. Too dark for an arrival selfie, too, but that is okay.  I am here, on time and all of my stuff with me. The travel gods were good to me!

I got to bed about 4:00 am my home time so a good 22 hours up and going. Today I will rest and recover and tomorrow I  will start to get busy!

Later:
The site here is lovely, a bit out of town and on a small lake. There are lakes all over here! I've seen a bit of the town now, which is much more spread out than I had visualized but I will have the use of a car here most of the time.  So far the only dog is the resident Chocolate Lab, a big baby, but got a small doggie fix to hold me for now. Nice big house but three teens bopping around. I can deal with that LOL. I did take a few pix this morning but have yet to download. That's next on my agenda. Selfie and scenery coming up soon. But the big thing is I am here!!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Almost on the Launch Pad!

In twenty four hours I will be past security and waiting to board the first leg of my trip to Alaska! Thanks to the many friends who have wished me well as this exciting time draws near. I used to love to fly. Not so much now with all the hoops to be jumped through but once airborne it is still enjoyable. I'm just sorry it won't be in bright daylight for a good bit of the journey as I love to glue my nose to the window and just look--I do hope for a window seat although that is harder to get out of to move around a bit as I will need to for an 8-9 hour flight. But I have a book to read if that doesn't happen. Also hope it is not super crowded... But the main thing is getting there!! Other than swim or paddle my own canoe, I'd do whatever it takes.

I just got an email from Kristy Berrington, one of the twin sisters who are rising stars in the musher world and eager competitors getting stronger each year they run the Iditarod. They are willing to meet and talk to me while I am in the area. One lives near Wasilla and the other some distance away but to Alaskans, a couple hundred miles is even less than it is to Texans and the rest of us westerners. She's eager to learn more about my book, too. I'm sure we can make it happen.

I'm all packed and ready, really, and that's good since I am definitely not a put-it-off-til-the-last-minute kind of person! This way I can relax, spend some quality time with my dogs and rest a bit for what will be a very long day. Vaya con Dios, one and all.


Saturday, July 26, 2014

A Couple of Poems

I'm getting pressed for time and very excited but wanted to add a wee bit to the post I did the other day. I really got into the idea of making champions, or perhaps I should say self made champions and then, since it is still July, I'll also share a verse I wrote about fireworks. I went into my passion for them earlier this month. Things from my heart tend to come out in rhyme; they always have.

Next time you read a new post here I expect it will be coming from Alaska!!! I have my good camera and two backups so there should be pictures. Extra batteries and what not, too. I may not get a selfie at the Anchorage airport since I am not sure how light it will be at 12:30 a.m. but there is a chance. If not I will try to get one at Wasilla with the ubiquitous mountains in the background to show where I am!

BTW, my box arrived according to my hostess so I will have clothes besides the one change going in my suitcase--a small one that will stow under the seat. I hate to check bags--so much can happen to them.  So here are two poems. They are copyrighted as all of this blog is, I  might remind you. not that any of  my dear friends and readers would violate that! Go in peace and we'll visit again soon!

Self-made
A Champion is made within
From will to try, to strive, to win.
To work with all your heart and soul
And mastery make your total goal.
To stretch, to hurt, to sacrifice,
To listen to mentors and advice
But then to follow your own star—
However high, however far.
To want much more than anything
To scale that peak, to snatch that ring.
To say I will, believe I can;
Be deaf to any beast or man
Who seeks to hinder, hold you back
From dogged following that track.
You silence every sneaking doubt,
The ones within, the ones without.
Until a champion you may be,
Forever best and forever free.


                        20 Jul 2014 GMW


Fireworks
Flowers of fire light up the night,
Colors so vivid, brief but so bright.
Ephemeral patterns sparkle and fade
Fairy dust scatters, light into shade.
One time a year, a magical hour,
Anticipation adds to its power.
Sublime and inspiring, yet so quickly gone.
Once more just a memory, faded ere dawn.
How many times have I watched in delight
As the flowers of fire light up my night?

                                    4 July 2014 GMW

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Serendipity and Daring to Excel

I love it when things just seem to happen spontaneously and it all links together into a wonderful Celtic Knot of a pattern! As I review the last five months or so, I am almost blown away at the way things have worked out for me and my audacious plan. (LOL--one more example: the puppy for today is a husky mix!! I saw that when I reviewed this post after writing it Perfect.)

In March I conceived the idea of going to Alaska and almost at the same time of doing a book about the women who pursue the challenging and amazing sport of sled dog racing, especially the long distance endurance type races like the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest. There is now also one in Norway that at 1,000 km is the longest of all. (One meter you may recall is about 39" as compared to 36" for the English yard we use and k stands for 1,000, so you can figure the distance roughly!)

Anyway, at first it seemed impossibly expensive and so far out of reach as to be pie in the sky. But it has proved to be very possible and in just over a week I will be off on the journey with air fare paid, places to stay, and appointments to meet at least a few of the lady mushers who have become major heroines of mine and will headline my planned book.

Along this progression, more ideas for the book began to take shape as well. I met and talked to Joe Runyan, who has won the Iditarod once and writes about it, covers for some of the major sporting goods firms and blogs on the ITC website and elsewhere. He has also co/ghost written the stories of some of the male mushers. So an idea emerged for me to perhaps do the same for any of the women who are hesitant to tackle that project on their own. More on that later!

Then Sunday I was listening to the local PBS radio station and heard a program called "Making a Champion." The interviewer was talking to an author of a book by the same title (I need to research who and all and I shall) and several women athletes were interviewed or quoted in the course of the program. The bottom line was the determination, dogged pursuit and especially exceeding one's personal limits are what make a true champion. If this does not apply to the lady mushers I am not sure what does!  Then surviving members of the Girls Baseball League of the WWII era have been at a reunion in Albuquerque and they too offer inspiration about rising to challenges. They were the reality behind the movie some years back called A League of Their Own. Though now in their eighties they are still feisty and proud.

Perhaps it is a bit like when you get a new car and suddenly see others of that make or model everywhere when you had never noticed them before. This subject and notion has so taken over all my spare moments of thought that I am 'hearing' related things almost constantly! Has it always been out there or is it a theme whose time has come? If the latter, I hope I am not too late to contribute another chapter to it.

Some of Amy Purdy's remarks on Making a Champion especially resonated. She is the snowboarder who had the world by the tail and then was stricken with a life-threatening disease and lost both her lower legs. She is now a champion Para-Olympic athlete and came in second in the last iteration of Dancing With the Stars. This is one amazing woman! She said she was not truly competitive with others but with herself--constantly striving to do more, better and to exceed her previous best by breaking through her own self-imposed limits. That philosophy got her from her hospital bed to championship and now serving as an inspirational speaker and  beacon of light for all who aspire and seek. to achieve.

Some of the lady mushers have similar if less dramatic stories. Deedee Jonrowe, for example, raced and finished, I believe in the top ten, shortly after undergoing post breast cancer chemo and radiation! She has finished the race at least 32 times and placed second more than once.

It comes down to the fact you have to be willing to hurt, to sacrifice, to struggle and never to give up if you want to excel. Also on the same radio program, there was a discussion of success versus mastery and the bottom line was nearly the same. Mastery requires the extra effort, the ultimate exertion of will and a no-surrender approach. Success may be fame and fortune but only mastery is reaching that true pinnacle.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Whoo hoo--it works!

I did it. I can download pix to the little netbook and that means I can share some of them while I am on my trip!! I downloaded just what was in the camera--I had pared it down to a mere 80 very fave images--and they zipped across neat as you please. I am so stoked!

It isn't even dampened despite the fact we had a horrendous storm last night. I think two thunderstorm cells drew together and merged and the varying wind currents really caused a blow. We estimate there was about a half hour of sustained winds near or at the lowest hurricane and tornado strength. That means 70-80 mph!! We had damage to our cooler--now fixed and not too major--and lost shingles off both the house and garage roof. The damage is not imminently threatening but we have to get it fixed. Around town there were trees broken and blown down, a lot of roofs mangled, light metal sheds tossed around, large multi-family trash bins moved a block or more and even some block walls and other fences blown down. Of course the dogs were totally terrorized and I have to admit I would have liked to crawl under the bed myself. Wow, that was a savage and incredible storm. Oddly though we got only a little rain.

A big box of clothing and personal items headed for Alaska today--I got my Wasilla hostess to agree to accept it for me so I do not have to drag a huge suitcase on the plane. It was costly but I think worth it. So the reality of this trip is getting stronger all the time. It is almost out of the dream realm now and into the category of "This is really going to happen."

I'm close to having a 1 September deadline story ready to submit which will be a relief. There is another but I think I can get a little leeway on submitting it. All in all, things are coming together amazingly well. The way it has worked out and what seemed daunting obstacles have somehow been resolved and overcome make me truly believe this is something I was intended to do--that some Divine Power planted the idea in my head last March as the 42nd Iditarod was winding down and now, four months and a bit later, I am less than two weeks from 'blast off'.
I know all of you will be traveling with me in spirit and I do promise to share as much as I can while I am traveling and of course much more in the form of a book or two and some inspired fiction after it is history.

Just for fun here are two not great shots of my brother Charlie and the band he is playing with called High Mesa Dance Band. This was at a dance at the Senior Center here in Alamogordo a week ago tonight. The first is the whole group setting up and the second is Charlie--under the hat--and Joanne Casabella the lead chick singer. Just for spits and giggles!! BTW Charlie is playing one of his Telecasters. He has about 25 guitars of every size, style and kind, both electric and acoustic. He is also learning to play the pedal steel guitar, which is an amazing and complex instrument! Yeah, I am kind of proud of my kid brother! We are both enjoying retirement and doing things we have always loved or dreamed of doing!



Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Challenges!!

This is going to be short, sweet not so  much! No pretty pictures but that may come soon. I am playing with a new toy and you've heard me whine about the old dog and new tricks before. It was a small challenge just to get here but since I want to be able to blog while on my rapidly approaching trip, I need to get a handle on this! As I say, the pictures may come later.

I'm using a dear friend's mini Acer netbook that she loaned me for the trip which is kind of a tablet-notebook cross with full computer level power and running Win7 as its OS. I'm still learning Win7 on my big laptop and --well, no sniveling allowed!

But I am here and two weeks from this very day I will be on my way to El Paso about now with my friend Jim (Jim5 as he is called at times--he knows and knows the reason) to deliver me to the airport to embark on this great adventure. Of course I an excited!

Anyway, I am adjusting to a keyboard that is slightly larger than me semi-smart cell phone's and too freakin' many new tricks to shake one of Ginger's "flute" sticks at! I am biting my lip on the naughty words and concentrating with all my ability. It's getting  better and the trip more real by the hour.

One final thing is to see if my camera will download pictures directly to a library here--new term; I think in terms of directories and folders being an old MS DOS user from back in the dim dawn of the computer age when you saw a black screen with a white C>: or something like that blinking at you! "Gee grandma, no touch screens or anything? That was caveman stuff!"  And indeed it was. So libraries to include one called my pictures. That's where I hope to get stuff from my Kodak digital camera to end up.

I also hate taking pictures with a phone! I mean I grew up with Ansel Adams stuff like Rolleiflexes and Leicas!! Even 35mm Nikons were kinda newfangled but I did go digital, just not phone pix and only a very few selfies!!

So upward and onward and I will keep y'all posted, okay? .

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Fireworks

With Independence Day coming up and Canada Day just past, the topic of fireworks comes readily to mind! To this day, three score years  and some, I still love fireworks. If I don't get to see any on the Fourth of July, I feel a real sense of loss. As well as I can remember, I was probably eleven when I first really saw them.

Anyway, my first memory of fireworks; at that time, my family lived in a little town called Clarkdale in Central Arizona. To the east across the Verde River, an "ox-bow" of the old riverbed had been cut off eons before and existed as a small lake and marsh area. It is now a bird sanctuary and closed to vehicular traffic but that's now. Back then, it was a public park and there was some fishing in the lake. It was also the site for the local holiday fireworks display.

I'm not sure how who hosted and managed the event, probably a fraternal group like the Elks, Lions or perhaps a Masonic Lodge. At any rate, they set up in the central "U" which was almost an island. From that point they fired the rockets out over the lake at about its widest spot, perhaps a quarter of a mile or so.

We could watch all the aerial display from our front steps, and from the first summer there, 1954 on, my brother--later both brothers--and I did so. Mom and Dad could care less, it seemed, and were not about to drive anywhere to watch such frivolity, From that first summer, I was an avid fan. This is my Grandpa Witt, Charlie and me on that little porch that summer.

One year a few summers later, my brother and I hiked over to the lake, about a two mile walk along the dusty unpaved road where the traffic had stirred the dry dirt to a powder of tan. It seemed that half the northern Verde Valley was going there--Clarkdale and Cottonwood with perhaps a few folks from Jerome, Bridgeport or even farther away!

We sat on the grass in an area where no cars had parked and watched. It really wasn't much prettier but a lot louder and I got to watch the antics of a couple of boys, one on whom I had a crush  who chose to ignore me, the skinny weird girl who rode horses and mules.  From then on, the front steps were sufficient until I left home.

From that time on,, I didn't see any fireworks for a number of years. Not sure why--I expect Flagstaff where I attended college and lived for several years--may have had a display somewhere but then maybe not, due to the forest all around the town and the fire danger. Finally I graduated, went south to my first 'real' job at Fort Huachuca and wound up living in rent-cheap Bisbee where I soon met my future husband. That's another story for another time. But Bisbee was fireworks friendly.

Every year either the city or again a fraternal organization put on a good display atop the "Number 12 Dump" which was a huge pile of rock and dirt that had come out of the open pit when the underground mine was opened into that form in the late forties.  The stony ground was fireproof and the site was visible all over town. My new family and I watched from various viewpoints for the four years that we lived there.

This photo is not mine but I do have one similar taken in Bisbee with lightening thru the Mule Pass and fireworks closer. Apparently I have not scanned it yet. Nor any of the other attempts I made at taking photos of fireworks. It is incredibly hard to get a good one!  I may try tomorrow night to get some digital shots but it's a tricky thing to capture them. More fun just to look and oh and ah and enjoy!

Then in the fall of 1973, we moved to Colorado and another long fireworks drought ensued. We lived out at a then-rural community called Falcon and Colorado Springs was not visible due to a few low hills in between. Then another mover, this time to north central California where we lived in Olivehurst, just south of Marysville. From there we had a good view of the annual display held on Beale AFB where I worked part of the time we were there, later transferring to McClellan AFB on the north side of Sacramento. Sometimes we got up on the roof to improve the view a bit. So I had six good summers of a fireworks fix.

Finally in 1983, it was back to Arizona and the little house on Old Church Road that became home for the longest I've lived anywhere. It was in Whetstone, an unincorporated community north of Sierra Vista at the junction of highway 90 from Benson to Sierra Vista and highway 82 from Sonoita to intersect with highway 80 just north of Tombstone.

The nearest town, Huachuca City, had good fireworks as did Sierra Vista, Tombstone and Benson. Sometimes we watched both Huachuca City's and Sierra Vista's displays from the roof of our flat-topped  garage and sometimes we drove to various sites to take pictures and see at least part of almost every display around. By then it was just my husband and me and sometimes a dog or two.

In 2004, when I was again alone after Jim's passing, I found a good spot on highway 82 just west of the junction where I could see at least the displays of Huachuca City, Sierra Vista and some of Tombstone's. It was far enough the noise did not frighten my dogs so they went with me for company. It was a little lonely but also nice and peaceful with no traffic or uproar. That went on until I moved to New Mexico in the late summer of 2008.

2009 found me in Colorado Springs again. The area where I lived--moving in with the same brother who hiked to the lake with me so long ago--offered no real visibility of the display in Palmer Park nor one at the Air Force Academy so it was back to only a few neighborhood maverick displays. I didn't drive at night too much so was not about to try to fight the crowds. Although we could, if the weather allowed, see the display a group climbed to the top of Pikes Peak to fire off on New Year's at the stroke of midnight! One year that was pretty spectacular.

Then in the fall of 2011, fate brought us to a new home in Alamogordo, NM. The first July here, 2012, we had just adopted little Rojito and I discovered the local fireworks display, shot off up the hill at the Space Musuem parking lot area, was awesome! I also found our backyard provided almost a grand stand seat! But it's close enough to be pretty loud...

The dogs were not so happy with that so we put them in the house in their 'safe rooms' and cranked up the music on a radio or stereo for them to deaden some of the 'bombs bursting in air' effects. A trick my late husband and I had discovered to calm a dog who freaked out about thunderstorms also works for fireworks. It seems that a tape or CD of a British military band with lots of bagpipes really muffles the noise and most dogs seem to like ti. I know there are jokes about bagpipes making dogs howl, but maybe ours were Scots in a prior incarnation. Anyway, they dig it! That's a blessing as I can now enjoy the sights without guilt while the fur kids get their serenade indoors.

Anyway after all these years, I still love fireworks. They seem to be more and better every year and it is said that Alamogordo has one of the best displays in the state. The paper boasted 7,000 items to be fired this time! The Powers-That-Be willing, I will have eyes to see them and a patriotic home to celibrate them with until I leave this life. I wonder if they have fireworks on the other side?

Happy Independence Day to one and all and never forget that Freedom is not Free!!