TRANSCRIBED NOTES ETC:
Due To Head South At Any Time
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Ah, the start of a new year. A new presidency? Nope. A new dispensation? Nope? Any new hopes for peace, prosperity and joy? Nope. But at least we should be able to travel soon, if the money allows. Our minds and eyes are aimed southward.
Waiting In Bisbee
Saturday 1 January [tape munged]
Wednesday 5 January [tape munged]
Hmm, I wonder what happened there? Now we'll never know... And otherwise, I haven't been recording many journal entries (since I'm not driven to record the mundane details of mundane existence) so we'll have to continue depending on emails. Read on.
Monday 10 January 2005
I procrastinated shamefully in keeping sister Barbi informed:
Hiya Barbi:
Sorry I didn't write sooner. I've been feeling uncommunicative lately,
not doing email, not doing discussion groups, no journal updates, nothing more
than talking with the neighbors. I get that way sometimes, just can't
bother with text. I've been shooting and editing lots of photos, so maybe
my visual cortex has placed my verbal cortex into submission. Whatever.
We're still in Bisbee, don't know yet when or where we're going. We got the
final house payment delivered, now we're waiting for papers saying that we
own it, so THAT is out of the way. What's holding us up now are 1) waiting
for the financial settlement to see if we'll have travel money - that
should be negotiated today or tomorrow, and 2) Maureen's medical stuff,
which we're also jumping on.
Maureen has had bad rashes for a couple months, and we're off in a few
minutes to see a dermatologist. But she also has some swollen lymph nodes
on her clavicle, just at the right place for any thyroid tumor to have
metastasized to. Last time we checked, her thyroid was failing but not
cancerous, but she needs to be biopsied again before we head south. If they
can't do a good job nearby soon, then we'll head back to Volcano so she can
go to Kaiser Medical in Sacramento. And just when blizzards are blowing in
there...
Weather here in Bisbee has been pretty good, snow only rarely and much
higher up. Life in general here has been prety good. We're being invited to
participate in community affairs, like they're trying to get me to organize
music/culture festivals. And we're signed up to oversee a gallery show on
Wednesday. This is what we get for associating with the movers'n'shakers
here, eh?
Gotta go now, we're off to see a doctor. More sooner.
Luv, Ric
Thursday 13 January 2005
Tom and Jacque in Nebraska deserve an update every now and then:
We've learned that our newly-refurbished adobe here is one of the oldest
structures in Bisbee. We'll call it the Toland Adobe (after its builder),
origin late 1880's, and we'll rent it to snowbirds and vacationers and
herbalists and birders etc while we're gone. Hopefully that'll help
pay for our travels.
Meanwhile it's been hunky-dory in Bisbee, even with an occasional
blow-by snowing - those Pacific storms mostly head north of here,
but we get some snow on the outskirts every now and then. Snow here
means fewer snowbirds, but this is still Bisbee's busiest season.
A new face here is Grady from Tombstone, who walks around town with
his dog - who has a cat riding on her back - who has three mice riding
on her back. They're family, he says. People give money and take pics.
We did our first volunteer gig here today, gallery-sitting a painting
exhibition at an ex-public school (now an artists' space). I've been
invited to work on organizing a jazz festival, as well as helping promote
other events in town. My idea: a viral marketing campaign that says
BRING IT TO BISBEE. Got an accordion? BRING IT TO BISBEE! (for a new
accordion festival). Got a fiddle? Got a poetry jam? Got some erotic
sculpture? Got a spastic dance? BRING IT TO BISBEE! This is already
a place where old hippy artists come to retire -- if we can rope in a
bunch of other exhibitionists, this could be a happening town...
--Ric
Friday 21 January 2005
Just after inauguration day -- time for another update to Barbi:
Hiya Barbi:
Gosh, we've done so much this week! Sunday we drove 20 miles west to
Coronado National Memorial and up into Montezuma Pass, then climbed Coronado
Peak to look out over zillions of square miles of Arizona and Sonora. This
is supposedly near where Coronado crossed into the US, but nobody knows for
sure, there are absolutely NO traces of his expedition. But it was a nice
clear warm day -- other hikers there were from Alaska and Montana, no
surprise...
Tuesday we drove to the Mexican consulate in Douglas to find exactly what
docs we need to spend time in Mexico, but they close early so we'll have to
return. That evening we hit the local golf course trailer park for a lecture
on Bisbee history, where we learned (among other things) that the
conquistador's name was Francisco Vasquez de Coronado - and in Spain and
Mexico he's called Vasquez, since Coronado is his mother's name and thus
totally unimportant. Yankees just don't know any better, and anyway, who
cares about a conquistador named Vasquez?
Wednesday we did the Sierra Vista loop, 60 miles round trip for a new pair
of shoes for Maureen. Of course, that could be a typical shopping
experience in Los Angeles too. Another nice clear warm sunny day, looking
at snow atop the Huachucas whilst noshing on cost-effective tortas (Mexican
sandwiches) at our favorite 24-hour taco shop. Then walked thru the Mall,
right past the only Dillards within 100 miles. One of the most boring malls
I've ever seen.
Yesterday we slept real late, did very little, but late afternoon we went to
lower Bisbee to pay bills and cruise some desert views. And we made the
Tsunami Dinner -- a local fund-raising effort, volunteers cooked up chili
and cornbread and cakes, pay what you can and talk with the locals. So we
did our good deed this bleary inauguration day...
And today we're in Bisbee, City in the Clouds. The sun is blanketed and
rained out, mist drifts among the miners' shacks, it's not a day for
stomping around town. We're planning a Monday shopping trip to Tucson,
hopefully our last in the US for some months. The money's almost together,
Maureen's health is together (see below), we've got to do some paperwork and
we'll be on our way -- but those papers might not show up for a month, so
?quien sabe?
> Hi, yea I know the feeling, not being in the mood to communicate.
I'm getting better.
> So sorry Maureen is having trouble.
She saw the dermatologist, goo was prescribed, and her rash AND the clavicle
lymph-node swelling have gone down! So the latter had no thyroid
involvement, as a good local GP confirmed. Now we just need our several
months' supply of pills to arrive in the mail from Kaiser...
> Sounds like mucho fun being involved with all the Bisbee culture. I
guess that sounds sarcastic but I don't mean it to be. Really does
sound interesting. What does a gallery overseer do? And organizing
the muscic/culture festival you will meet others of your own kind.
When I tell Bill about being with others of my own kind I don't think
he gets it. Bueno suerte! Barbi.
Overseeing the gallery means sitting there for a few hours and making sure
none of the infrequent visitors to this off-the-beaten-path former
highschool don't run off with the artworks. And wandering all over the
building, shooting pictures and leaning out windows and making funny sounds.
Zowie, those ancient staircases sure are loud! As for festival
organizing -- that's more commitment than I care for right now, so I'll pass
on that for a few months.
And as for meeting others of "our kind" -- that's kinda inevitable, since
Old Bisbee is just crawling with retired artistic hippies. And others. A
new face here is Grady from Tombstone, who walks around town with his dog -
who has a cat riding on her back - who has three mice riding on her back.
They're family, he says. People give money and take pics. Really classy
panhandling, eh?
And that's the news from Bisbee. Hope life doesn't suck too bad in NYC now.
Luv, Ric
Tuesday 25 January 2005
I sent Yet Another Update to Maureen's mother Bobbie and sister Sharon:
We just went to the Mexican consulate and US Customs office
in Douglas today to find exactly which papers we need to get ourselves and
the car into Mexico and back, and we're still not sure if the title is
mandatory, but I'm sure it'll make the passage much smoother.
Our other excuse to be in Douglas was a free concert at the jr college by a
small group of Agua Prieta guys playing Andean music. Wonderful! This was
the kickoff of a Brown Bag series (bring or buy a lunch, enjoy the music) --
next week, the performers are the Buffalo Soldiers. Don't know quite what
to expect, but we'll be there. And this is a real Culture Day for us --
this evening we'll be back at the golf club trailer park in Naco for our
second lecture on Bisbee history.
We're still waiting for the next stage of Maureen's workers comp paperwork
to arrive, the settlement acceptance stuff, which we'll send back for the WC
lawyer to massage through court. Hopefully this will speed right by. And
tomorrow or Thursday we'll head to Tucson for our (hopefully) last shopping,
and to get free vaccines from the health dept. Step by step, departure
nears...
Love, Ric
And then another note to Sharon, still trapped in the New Jersey winter:
Hi Sharon:
> How's the weather...just dandy if you're a polar bear!
Ah, it's a lovely warm sunny clear day hereabouts today, just excellent for
our drive to Douglas (see the note I cc'd you, addressed to your mom). Eat
your heart out. Oops, I mean, g'z it's too bad you're stuck in that
blizzard stuff.
Our rough time frame for the trip is: leave sometime soon, as soon as the
claim settlement is OK'd by the court. Enjoy good weather in February and
March to explore the Maya lowlands. Head uphill when it starts to rain and
get hot, spend April and May exploring the highlands of Guatemala and
Honduras (maybe) and southern Mexico. Spend June slowly winding our way
back through the Mexican cordillera. Be back here (in Bisbee) and back home
(in Volcano) in early July. Of course, this schedule may be accelerated or
retarded, depending on how the cash holds out.
We're getting excited. This could actually happen. More later.
--Ric
The weeks go by. Items disappear in the mails. Delays and disheartening delays. Will we ever be done with this? Bisbee is a much better place to be stuck than some other locales I can think of, but stuck here we are, for now. And we keep recalculating the travel budget...
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Chomping At The Bit
Thursday 3 February 2005
A couple days ago, Ground Hog Day. That night, a GHD party, out at Nirvana Ranch on the far side of the Divide.. Maureen reports to Sharon:
I saw your groundhog. She is a cutie.
The GHD party was a hoot. We stayed late with 4 other musicians and traded
songs on the guitar . The host played on a gutbucket / wash tub bass/ tub
thumper for percussion. One woman sang her own songs with a voice style
like Maria Muldaur but better. Ric sang some of his funny songs, and even
remembered to give me credit for co-writing one. Our neighbor, the sports
writer Allan did a couple of sweet ballads that he wrote. The pot luck
offering were exceptional and served along with the hosts outdoor mesquite
smoked/roasted chickens. There were thousands of super bright stars in a
black velvet sky and trees in winter silhouette when we walked down the
hill to our car. We made some new friends and one of them invited us to his
house for a party on Friday night. You are going to love the beauty of
this place. And the people are a treasure.
Aha, today is Marsha's birthday! (I won't say which one.) Naturally I neglected to send a card or anything, but I'll make it up to her, no matter what it takes. Yeah, I'm like that -- if the holiday card is a day or a week late, it must be from me.
From: "Ric Carter"
To: "Marsha Carter"
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 6:17 PM
Subject: Happy B'day, etc
Hiya, little sister:
Tis that glorious day in which you are forcibly reminded of your continued
aging and eventual decline into senescence, eh? Tis the day that, with such
thoughts uppermost in your consciousness, you may wish for festivities that
may obliterate such thoughts. Hopefully your thoughts are being merrily
obliterated at this very moment. If not, perhaps we can help.
Thinking that we may actually head across Mexico sometime soon, tomorrow
(Friday) we have appointments with the Pima County Health Dept (150
Congress) at 11 am for vaccinations. It occurs to me that you might be
hungry and conscious and not too far away during the noon period. How would
you like to be taken out for lunch, to be feted and fed and plied with
whatever you wish? Sound tempting?
We've eaten (without regrets) at El Charro Grill, 311 N. Court Ave, which is
within eyeshot of your workplace. Or perhaps you have some local favorite
eatery. Whatever. Name your pleasure, and we'll meet you there or
transport you there or whatever. RSVP: Call or email tonight (Thursday).
--yr thoughtful bro
POSTSCRIPT: Maureen JUST NOW received an email saying that her claim has
been approved by the settlement judge, they're sending a big check tomorrow,
and her file is closed. YAHOO!! IT'S ALMOST OVER!! I guess we'll actually
be packing etc. next week. Hopefully we'll be in Mañanaland by next
weekend. YAHOO!!
Not surprisingly, she replied very quickly, and about as expected:
I would like to eat lunch on your dime... If you want to park
in my building's parking lot, under the building, do your business, then
come up and get me. Bring the parking ticket and I will validate it for
you. We can walk to El Charro, it's just up the street....
See you tomorrow.
Saturday 5 February 2005
Not surprisingly, we were misdirected to the Health Dept in Tucson -- we got sent to their HQ office, not the International Vaccinations clinic, which was 10 miles away in South Tucson! And then they ran out of one potion, and I had to go to another office 10 miles away in East Tucson a few hours later. But the lunch was fun and all missions were fulfilled. I sent a brief report to Sharon:
We made it to Tucson, got our shots (after some misdirection), took
my sis Marsha out for a b'day lunch, did some next-to-last shopping,
returned to find snow enveloping Bisbee, then made it to our 3rd party this
week. G'z, just as we're leaving, we get into the party circuit! Hopefully
they'll remember us this fall.
Tuesday 8 February 2005
This morning, after constructing lists and lists, we headed down to the San Jose flatlands to handle insurance-finance-tax matters, then lunched heavily on Gaviota's buffet -- cheeze-potato soup, Mayan BBQ riblets, tempura shrimp puffs, gordito tostadas, et al. Sealife painted on the walls seemed indifferent to us.
Then we rolled down to the border, the Great Wall, the checkpoint. Naco, Sonora, huddles under the snow-dusted foreign flanks of Pico de San Jose, a sleepy border town much like Agua Prieta, but less so. Businesses in the first few blocks seem to consist mostly of boardinghouses and farmacias. Our goal was the latter; we bought a few medicinals at great savings.
preperation dosage amount
Terramicina P. 10,000 µg 28.4 g
Terramicina CAP 500 mg #16
Topsyn Gel. (Fluocinonida) 0.05% 40 g
Aralen (Cloroquina) 150 mg #30
Clotory (Ciprofloxacina) 500 mg #14 x2
Six containers, costing about US$7 each (including 10% discount), with an expected US cost of about $240. What a deal! This purchase certainly paid for the lunch.
We drove back home, then returned to Naco, Arizona for the evening history talk: The Gunfight at the OK Corral, and the Bisbee Massacre. Next week will be our last of this series: The Revolution at Naco.
Saturday 12 February 2005
Take-off approaches. We'll be packing up (in the rain) this weekend, and plan to actually depart on Wednesday or Thursday. Partly that timeframe is due to lots of little details that still need tending, and partly because we want to hear a talk on Tuesday night. We've been attending a series of Cochose County history lectures by a local journalist, Gary Dillard. Great stuff!
For instance, there's a reason the top of Mule Creek Pass is known as the Continental Divide, even though the real CD is a hundred miles east in New Mexico. Y'see, Bisbee had Chinese exclusion laws. No Asians were allowed in town after sunset -- they all had to be west of... The Continental Divide! The continents so divided were America and Asia, eh? And the exclusion laws weren't arbitrary -- Bisbee had many widows of miners, and the town council wanted THEM to run the boardinghouses, eateries, laundries and other businesses that were usually the domain of Chinese.
Sunday 13 February 2005
Didn't yesterday and tomorrow used to be holidays? Seems like so long ago... Yesterday we packed, fasted through the afternoon (almost), then took ourselves to the Nth Annual Chocolate Tasting Festival, a fund-raiser at and for the town library. All the Choc-o-rama one can stand for $10.00 - and we walked away seriously buzzed. Yow.
Somewhere along the line, we stopped in a new local gallery, in the spot where a gift shop had just failed. We chatted amiably with the artist-proprietor, then I broke part of a sculpture. Oops. She let me off cheap because she could glue it back together. Damn, does this mean I can't fondle ceramics anymore?
The effort to pack and load and prepare for departure increases -- we're not quite worn out yet, but we're getting there. The rains pounded yesterday, they may return in a few days, so we have a brief window to patch some cement and paint the TOLAND ADOBE sign on the wall, and to stay dry whilst carrying stuff to and from the car, etc. But rain or shine, I MUST finish the website tonight. Aaargh...
Tuesday 15 February 2005
EARLY MORNING: Around noon yesterday I finally finished the TOLAND ADOBE website (click here) and it looks pretty damn good, too. Then we cleared and initial-loaded the car, grunted a lot, and drove over to Sierra Vista for the last time in a long time. The quest: shoes big enough for my huge feet. And we got lucky; now I have two pairs of incredibly sturdy size 18 Nike ZOOM-AIRs, spacily weird.
Maureen has been doing most of the packing. Today I get to archive the last system files, then break down the office, pack big computer & printers & supplies for return to California, and log all the gear we're taking on the trip so that US Customs doesn't assess duty when we come back. And make some necessary calls. And load everything portable into the car. I think we have a laundry run in here too. Then go to Naco for tonight's Gary Dillard talk, THE REVOLUTION IN NACO. (We saw the Dillards at WalMart today, shopping for greenscreen fabric to ease their video-taping and -editing tasks.) Then we'll finish (??) packing, and hopefully depart Wednesday morning. That's the current fantasy. (I left out all the stuff we want to finish but probably wont't.)
These last few days, computing has been difficult. Y'see, I use the big Toshiba machine, GOLIATH, to dialup my ISP to access the net, because it can handle incoming phone calls, so our voice-fax-net needs can all share the same crappy phone line. I necessarily upgraded its OS to WinXP Home SP2, which has enhanced security -- and which security occasionally shuts down the local ethernet, which consists of our two Sony sub-laptops, GINOME and GAZELLE. We run mail clients on the Sonys. Since GOLIATH's data-cop stopped allowing any local net traffic with the outside world a few days ago, the Sonys have been isolated, shunned, made to stand in the corner with bags over their heads. Bummer. But we'll survive, and I'll get these notes posted indirectly. Just one damn thing after another...
This will probably be my last entry here until we return in about six months. Our journey notes will all be posted to Go2: The eList, and compiled on my Maya2 Journal pages. Cya later.
Wednesday 16 February 2005
EARLY MORNING: Er, well, stuff happens. We got tired, we didn't load everything up; but we DID manage to buy auto insurance and travelers' checques; and we DID manage to oversleep the evening and miss THE REVOLUTION IN NACO talk. Damn. Ah well, we'll finish the packing and loading today, and be gone Thursday morning. Hell, we HAVE to be gone Thursday, the house goes up for rent on Friday. And we're almost out of live food. And the season is advancing. Tempus fidget, eh?
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Back In The States
While returning from Mexico I got an email from sister Marsha, who recently relocated from Southern California to Tucson, 100 miles from Bisbee. It seems my sister Barbi, now in New Yawk City, is seriously considering retiring to some nearby locaton. (She's always loved Aridzona. Her dog is named Zona. Her New York house has an Aridzona room. Et cetera.) Marsha wrote:
Hola, mi hermano
Barbara and Bill might come to visit 6/19 to 6/25. She wants to look at
property, like in Tombstone or Sierra Vista. I gave her the Long Realty web
link, and will send her some homes for sale magazines for her reading
pleasure. Can you please give her your impression on Sierra Vista...
If B and B visit that week, will you be back in Bisbee? are you coming back
to Bisbee or heading straight for CA mountain home?
Being my ever-helpful self, I quickly responded to Barbi:
I don't know for sure when we'll be in Bisbee. You and Bill are more
than welcome to use the house as a base for exploring. If we're not around
just see our realtor.
Meanwhile we'll keep y'all posted as to our whereabouts, if/when we know
what/where they are. We are. Whatever.
As for Tombstone and Sierra Vista and Bisbee, here are my impressions.
[Makes funny faces and sounds, twists into odd postures, farts a little.]
And for my next act... but I digress.
Old Bisbee is a quaint gnarly mining town, tiny twisted houses on tiny
vertical lots. It is home to many supposed and aspiring artists [because there's nothing else to do here, says our neighbor]. New
Bisbee consists of mining-shack suburbs and the newer-house flats near the
border. Bisbee is far from everything except Mexico.
Old Tombstone is a western theme park, overrun by tourists and buses on
occasions. Greater Tombstone consists of a couple off-highway housing
developments and many scattered (semi-)rural homesteads. Tombstone is far
from everything except Sierra Vista.
Sierra Vista (SV) is a growing city, and will thrive as long as Ft Huachuca
stays open, which may be for quite a while. It's the biggest business
center between Tucson AZ and Las Cruces NM. SV and its southern suburb Hereford are a typical
southwestern mini-metropolis, spread out over many square miles. Hereford
especially is suburban-rural, nearly every home a mini-ranch. To the east
is a little river, to the west a high range of mountains. Tucson is just an
hour away.
Douglas is further east, in the border across from Agua Prieta, lower and
hotter and cheap cheap cheap. There's a reason it's cheap. But it's a
business and transportation center.
Bisbee is higher and cooler than Douglas, Tombstone, SV and Hereford (and
cooler than Tucson and MUCH cooler than Phoenix), but like I said, remote.
Hereford is a bit higher than SV and is pretty and is close to stores and
services. SV has the stores, and many many Asian restaurants, and many
uniformed folks wandering around. Tombstone has tourists and ranchers.
Other places to consider: If you want to be cheap and remote, go east of
Tombstone and northwest of Douglas, there's a big agricultural valley there
and sparsely inhabited hills. If you want to be rural but closer to Tucson
and Nogales, try the area around Sonoita, west-northwest of SV. And even
Nogales is high and cool, and is certainly an exciting place to be.
Hope this helps. If not, you know where the DELETE key is.
Tuesday, 31 May 2005
FLASH UPDATE: The local specialist I need is on vacation, so we'll head back to California tomorrow. Further news will be posted in the mundane journal below. But the drive to California will be an extension of the journey, and thus will be chronicled in a Journal Supplement Report (click here).
Goodbye to Mexico and Bisbee, hopefully not for long.
PS: As usual, we're leaving our Bisbee house, The Toland Adobe, up for rent while we're gone. We just got an email from our realty agent:
As far as tenant comments, people have been very happy there with
no complaints and think the place is just darling. I have had one
potential tenant turn it down because it is without cooling. But
they were from Yuma and didn't believe me when I told them they
wouldn't need it.
Wednesday 1 June 2005
Two days since Memorial Day
Don't worry, something will happen. It usually does. Have you ever noticed that, no matter that every individual event is infinitesimally improbable, stuff happens anyway? Wow.
And what happens next will be chronicled on the next page (click here).
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