Heading Out of Rawlins

We be better. Thank you all for the warm thoughts. We both had great check-ups and visits with doctors who support our lifestyle. The neurologist Dave saw in North Carolina in January was kind of irritated with us, said we should stay in one place so we could get proper treatment. Dr. Schloesser, the neurologist Dave just saw in Bend said, “That’s eastern thinking. Do what you’re doing as long as you can, it probably keeps you younger.”

Dave did better on his cognitive testing than he did in January. Dr. S. spent three minutes looking at Dave’s brain on his monitor, and 10 minutes looking at the Bluebird web site with us. Dave likes him.

I am off insulin, taking an oral medication that mainly keeps the liver from releasing too much glucose into the blood. My blood sugar numbers are very good. I still test three or four times a day. I’ll be faxing my numbers to my doctor in Bend every month. Now that I’m off prednisone and on a diabetic diet (lost 11 lbs.), I am hoping to stop the diabetes meds before long.

We’re so grateful for our Bend friends and so sorry we could only stay a few days. We will be back in Bend in early June for a longer visit and we’ll eat with you all (small portions, no cake)!

We’re very interested in this year’s presidential campaign. We both support Obama but have doubts that he can be elected because he’s black.

When I was in high school, my mother came home from Mass one Sunday and said a colored man was at church that day. In 1957 there were few black families in Eugene, Oregon. The next Sunday she and I watched the colored man come in with a petite white, blond wife. My mother, who prides herself on not seeing color and who raised two kids with only minor biases, was, nevertheless, very tight lipped. “Well, it’s the children who suffer,” she said. And the next Sunday, sure enough, the colored man and the tiny blond wife were at Mass with a chubby, chocolate baby. I could feel me mother’s “tsk, tsk.”

But, after church we went outside to see a bright red auto with Hawaii license plates and the colored/white/chocolate family got into the car. It was Mr. Souza, the new coach at St. Francis. And in one moment of recognition, he was no longer black. He wasn’t even colored, and his wife was perfect, his baby darling.

I’ve thought a lot about this over the years and wondered what made the difference in such quick acceptance of this man. Was it because he was from Hawaii, where we think everyone is kind of mixed race? (Once you knew Mr. Souza was from Hawaii he looked slightly Asian.) Or was it because he was ours – the coach who would lead us to a championship.

It’s human nature to rationalize when we want something we don’t quite approve of. My favorite piece of laundry room wisdom comes from Moses Lake, Washington: the lady said, “Well, he’s not really black-black; his mother is Filipino or something.” Totally misinformed, still she’s trying to find a way to vote for Obama.

We are finishing up a job in Rawlins, Wyoming. While the texture of the land was very beautiful traveling east to get here, varying from crop to crop, once we arrived we were almost at a loss for words. We don’t very often end up in a place we can’t wait to leave. This might be it.

Rawlins grew from the transcontinental railroad coming through, and now has a population of around 9,000. It is surrounded by oil fields, and the little company town of Sinclair, 2 miles down I-80, is built around a huge refinery. The town is a good example of what happens without a plan and no zoning, lots of trailer parks and open spaces of blowing dust. Geologically, the area is very interesting, and part of the town is wedged under what is called “the uplift.” The lady at the museum says that the uplift shows evidence of life from the beginning of time to the present, all exposed in rough layers.

On our way to Rawlins, we stopped in Rock Springs, WY for the weekend and drove south to meet Jamie’s parents at Flaming Gorge, a Utah landmark. Jamie’s sister Lisa and her neat kids also came. It was great to see them, and we were once again, agog over the beauty of Utah. It is very hard to believe that we are here, in the armpit of the West, only 100 miles or so from Flaming Gorge. The wind blows pretty constantly, and with an annual rainfall of less than six inches, there is plenty of dirt to blow around. I guess we should be grateful it isn’t snowing, because most of that precipitation comes in the form of snow. Days are still sunny; nights are near freezing.

Rawlins is preparing for the construction of a 2,000 unit wind farm. We can attest this is a good spot for a wind farm. It’s hard to imagine the impact of a project that big. We may have to come back next year just to see what has happened.

Love to all,