What Scouts Do in Santa Barbara

Casey's first official Boy Scout camping trip.  He loved it.

The Joads, three generations later

I went to the "Brothers and Sisters" party on Saturday up in the CV (Central Valley) and it was indescribably fun. My aunt calls the party the Brothers and Sisters because it is her siblings and their kids that come to the thing.  Other than the two that died (including Hippie Artist of course.)

I come from some seriously sturdy stock.  By sturdy, I mean hard workers.  Here is a picture of most of the family (excluding the recently out of the woodwork aunt, the two deceased, and the current family hermit):

See a sample of a couple of cousins below.  I heart them.  First cousins, though I am 10 years older than the oldest, I really enjoy hanging out with them.

The kid on the right is an architect in SF.  He is actually getting all SFd out by losing some weight and wearing expensive shades.  And the black clothing of course.  He and I had a conversation about how we have never had a job where our hands got really dirty.  Yet my uncles have all lived long and hard laboring lives.  To them, 12 hours in a hot moving truck, with hot asphalt, or digging ditches for 8 hours in the sun is just a day's work.

My generation is soft.  What would we do if someone threw us into a truck and said "hey go work in the hot Central Valley sun for 8 hours" ?

We would all melt away.

While we were chatting about this hard-working paradigm of our elders, lounging in chairs and listening to stories of my uncle's prison record, where were my aunts?  In the kitchen cleaning up.  And by the time I offered up any help, the work was complete.

Our idea of a hard day's work is sitting in a chair and talking on the phone for 12 hours.  We might have a headache when finished, but we bear no calluses and have exerted no muscles.

And I wonder if my aunts and uncles and second cousins think of us as lazy.

Or maybe my generation IS the American Dream. My grandparents migrated across the country during the dustbowl farming along the way so that their children could own homes and their grandchildren could rub elbows with the middle class, maybe even BE middle class.

So while I commiserate with cousin Jay about figuring out how to work the Droid, and wonder with cousin Bernice about the political direction the country is taking, we have fulfilled the vision of what it means to be an American.

And may we endeavor to have even lazier children.

A Few Updates

Droid is great. I am used to it now, have no complaints about the service or the interface and it has now taken the place of my iPhone. I will always love my iPhone but I can no longer say that it was a better phone. Too many cool things on the droid.

Gillian is doing really well--we took her this summer to get a second opinion from a specialist in Utah and he said that the treatment she is getting here is stellar (current treatment: do nothing, medically known as "wait and watch')

I have a list of 13 things I am going to do in Santa Barbara before I leave town. I completed #1 on Saturday. Here is my list, feel free to join me if you like and reviews welcome

1) Gaviota Hot Springs (it was like a warm, stinky bathtub, the girls totally went swimming and loved it, picture coming next post)

2) Tidepool--the problem here is that the low tide is early morning or late at night so I have to pick a Friday night or something

3) Painted Caves

4) Red Rock Swimming Hole

5) Railroad depot to take pictures of my kids

6) UCSB Art Museum

7) Storke tower--I want to see if I can find my way to the top, I hear they don't do that anymore but I would love to try

8) SB Orchid Estate

9) Clairmont Lavender Farm

10) Gaviota Coast Conservatory

11) Ganey Vineyards

12) Drum Circle on East/West Beach

13) Oak Park Wading Pool

I know that anyone who lives here has already done all of these things, I am just a slacker. We have already done cool stuff locally but we don't get out enough.  It is tough to do everything when you live a mile from a couple of beaches, a butterfly preserve, a couple of nice hikes, a lake, and a Costco.  Who else can claim that?

Happy Birthday Megs!

In honor of Meg turning 2, here is her favorite video of herself. Happy birthday little Megs!

A quiz

Which one of these cars would you rather be behind on the freeway?

A.  Mark IV cobra.  I used to have a picture of this car hanging on my wall as a kid. I think my step-brother used to refer to nice cars as "cherry" so I thought that I should have a red mark IV hanging up.  Blame my parents for taking me to the car shows at the Marconi Center in SF.

OR

2.  Dodge Grand Caravan, 2006, largest storage in the minivan market at an astonishing 72 cubic feet (and full red circle in consumer reports for its sound system).

Now, you my readers are savvy and will get the answer correct to this little quiz...but before you make your guess, let me ask you the following questions:

• Which vehicle can go from 0 to 60 in less than 5 seconds?
• Which vehicle is most likely to go from 0 to 60 is less than 5 seconds?
• Which vehicle can go as fast as 160?
• Which vehicle is most likely to be running late for an appointment and drive faster than the law allows?

Right.

Now taking your votes.

Magic Kingdom (girls only)

Bridget and Gillian got their own trip to Dland yesterday.

We stopped at Sephora at downtown Disney and it was heaven for these two little ones.  I hope they don't fall asleep in class today.