Story

Today was the beginning of the long haul across Texas. The dreaded day. I am not going to lie; I had many predetermined notions of what I felt Texas would be like that were entirely ungrounded in reality. And boy am I glad that I was wrong. Surprisingly enough I actually almost enjoyed the long ride across half of this gigantic state. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of greenery compared to New Mexico and Arizona’s stark desert lands only broken up by sparse shrubbery. There were rolling hills and cut out passes for the highway through nice limestone walls and it was rather enjoyable compared with the experience I thought I was going to have today. Touche Texas, touche. ...

Yesterday was our official rest day that was still extremely eventful. We were staying for two nights at my lovely relatives’ home who where gracious enough to put up with us, dirt balls as we where. We got to stay in their beautiful adobe in New Mexico that had a gorgeous back yard and beautiful southwestern style architecture and of course, sheepdogs. They used to show and breed old English Sheepdogs and so they have four currently living in their home. It was like having a herd of sheepdogs at all times; marvelous, simply marvelous. These fluffy monsters are so much fun and so great I couldn’t help taking a million photos of them instead of simply taking pictures of our temporary home. We where welcomed into their home with open arms and it is sad knowing that we only had one whole day to spend with them, I could have stayed forever. ...

We began our second day adventure with Tucson, Arizona after a drive through the Sonoran Desert. The closer we got to the city of Tucson, the more cacti began to fill the scenery around us. This being so, and Tucson being home to both sectors of Saguaro National Park we decided to make a cacti stop in the Western section of Saguaro National Park. This park is filled with unbelievable amounts of cacti, tall and towering, the stand like sentries over the dry land of the Tucson desert. Driving into the park we climb a hill that at its peak allows for a grand view of a huge valley blanketed with this type of cactus. This landscape, unique to Tucson was quite a sight to behold driving around that top corner of the peak. The quirky twisted and jumbled arms of the Saguaro cacti are amusing and beautiful. Some even looked as if they were hugging themselves. Others had beautiful flowers standing on the tips of their arms. It was quite a nice park. ...

Today my mom and I left for our third adventure across the USA in our car moving towards (albeit on a somewhat random and very indirect course) our final stop in Upper Michigan, Bootjack where we will spend the summer. This years course is a very different one than in our past. We have really out done ourselves this time. We will be heading out from Santa Cruz on a nearly two week excursion across the very bottom of the US all the way until New Orleans and then heading almost directly up, through lower Michigan, to our final destination. ...

The post of the mailbox shook, reverberating the metal mailbox with a steady but anxious beat. Like a drum struck with hesitant but impatient strokes of a hand not quite large enough to have a melody or harmony of its own, the mailbox sang its steady tune. The hand struck the mailbox post absentmindedly, not even aware of the affect that enabled the mailbox to sing. Hanging listless and open the small hand swung like a pendulum back forward and down again, encountering the slowly splintering wood that was breaking apart under the stress that had not yet cracked the young boy. The pendulum of this grandfather clock belonged to a young boy and each swing of his short but sinewy arm kept the beat of a clock counting out the seconds, then minutes, and eventually hours of the day with all the consistency of the human heart and its resounding drumbeat. ...

This evening around 6:30pm there was a rare annular eclipse of the Sun which was visible in Northern California. According to Professor Marcy at UC Berkeley an annular eclipse is “when the Sun, Moon, and Earth are lined up, but the Moon is farther than average from Earth, so it looks a bit too small to fully cover the Sun. Thus, if you are at one of the right places, the Sun will form a ring, or annulus, around the Moon. It’s a special, fun form of a partial solar eclipse.” ...

This is a small excerpt from a larger piece I have been working on for the last couple of months. Tentatively titled Avery’s Sojourn this excerpt is just a little blurb from the beginning. It is still a major work in progress but a couple of people have been asking for previews but everything is still under heavy construction and there is a lot of work to do still but here is a tiny glimpse into Avery’s life. Enjoy. ...

I just got back from a brief but wonderful visit with one of my oldest and best friends who now resides in Napa, California. Yes, that does mean I have an awesome excuse to visit the beautiful wine country just a short car ride away from Berkeley. She attends the Culinary Institute of America in Napa training to be a chef and baker! Yes, she is that cool. She showed me the place where she gets to learn how to cook and make pastries at the CIA and I was a little jealous. It is so different from the life I am living at college here at UC Berkeley that it was refreshing and new. ...

Yesterday at UC Berkeley was a celebration of the India holiday called Holi. At Uc Berkeley and many other places this festival is considered a celebration of the coming of spring. ANd who is it celebrated you might ask? By a bunch of people gathered together in one place to throw handfuls of color at each other. This is the before photo where we are all nice and clean. It didn’t last long at all. ...

I went with my little brother to watch his team mates do a race in Salinas. They are the ones in the bright green helmets and amazingly colorful jerseys sporting blue, pink, and green. The Ritte team did an amazing and entertaining job. They seemed to have a lot of fun. I am proud to say that his entire team dominated the field and took first and third place in the race. It was really fun watching these passionate young men do what they do best, cycling. ...