The Pendulum Swings

After months with nary a cloud in sight, we had two partly-cloudy weekends in a row. A few weeks ago I had a four-day weekend because I had use-it-or-lose-it vacation time. That extra couple of days off did miracles for my health. I didn’t realize how exhausted I truly was. I camped out on the sofa for two of those days, doing virtually nothing except fixing some quick meals.

The third day I had off, we made a run to our older daughter’s house in Kearny, taking her printer and a handful of other things she couldn’t fit into the truck when she hauled everything back a few days earlier. We took the rest of the day to drive through some old mining towns, finding one that hasn’t technically been listed as a ghost town – yet – but probably should be. We’d been to Hayden before. For some reason, though, we missed her abandoned buildings before. Or maybe we just didn’t recognize them back then as being worth photographing.

The painted sign on this old commercial building doesn’t look too bad. A glance around the corner, though, shows it’s a burnt-out husk. A LOT of the buildings in Hayden burned. It involved a mining crash that coincided with people having just voted on a substantial school bond. When the mines closed, it dumped the bill for the school bond on taxpayers. For some people it more than tripled their mortgages. It was cheaper for them to burn places to the ground than pay the property tax.

Hayden wasn’t the only spot where the homes had seen better days. The place in the photo below, while faded, is still mostly intact. Granted, its paint has literally left the building. Despite driving through Kelvin several times, that weekend was the first time I noticed this old house.

The next weekend, we drove back to The Windmill Winery & Event Center in Florence, which is a straight-up oasis in the desert.

I spied this snowy egret from the car window and held my breath in hopes he wouldn’t fly off before I could capture his portrait. The lake is manmade, of course – there are no natural lakes in the low deserts. But it’s one of the more beautiful ones, with trees and flowers lining its banks. It was created to mimic nature, albeit a nature far removed from the desert.

Across the lake from the egret was one of several strategically-designed event locations, When we were there, its patio/dock area overlooking the lake had been setup for a wedding, though there was no one there when we visited. I took a photo but it was unremarkable and I’m too lazy to post it.

Several other beautiful buildings provide additional event space and different variations of atmosphere, including this big red barn. It’s the most visible feature from the road. Without it, you’d probably drive by without realizing it wasn’t just somebody’s random farm. (No random farm in this part of the world has a barn in such pristine condition.)

We didn’t go inside the barn. From what we’ve seen on the website, it’s geared for larger weddings and receptions.

To the left of the barn is a garden area for outdoor events. There’s a fountain, stone arches, and lots of flowering trees and bushes.

My power chair was in for repairs, and it was too far for me to hobble in. I could see glimpses of the garden, though. (Incidentally, my wheelchair is back and vrooming along again.)

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I originally started this post a few weeks ago, going in a wildly different direction.

In the interim, we’ve had a few significant family changes — thankfully all of them good. Life is a series of crazy pendulum swings.

As mentioned earlier, the older daughter went back to her house in Kearny, which wasn’t an option for a few months. The only reason she was able to go back is with the specific warning that her husband had to keep his distance. She has the legal muscle now to back it up. It’s a better place for her and the boys than camping out in our tiny living room, and certainly better for us. Her little guy is getting his meds dialed in and is doing better, they all have their own rooms, and they’re managing well.

THREE of our grandkids graduated this year, including a surprise nobody saw coming – not the graduation, the grandchild.

I don’t know how else to describe the situation.

The youngest daughter had a son with her ex-husband. The ex pulled mechinations and shady tricks worthy of a mafia boss to get custody of their son when the son was less than 2 years old. That was the last time any of us saw or spoke to him. The grandson turns 18 in August…

…And moved in with his mom a few weeks ago, after his dad kicked him out (Again, as it turned out.) This is the youngest daughter, the one living in northern Iowa.

I won’t get into all the ugly BS behind it. From everything we’ve been able to put together, he’s a good kid with a POS for a dad. (We knew the dad was a POS, but didn’t realize he treated his son as badly as he treated my daughter until now – though I’m not sure why anyone is surprised. An asshole of that caliber is an equal-opportunity asshole.) I’m just grateful the grandson’s getting the rest of the story now, after dad kept him from our side of the family and lied through his ass about us for all those years. And I’m proud of my grandson for graduating from high school despite a lifetime of horrific treatment from his dad and dad’s family.

Another grandson in Iowa also graduated from high school last month, too. His situation was significantly less dramatic, but I’m just as proud of him.

And finally, our oldest granddaughter graduated a few days ago – from ASU, with her bachelor’s degree in Social Justice/Human Rights. Given her first name is literally Justice, it’s about as on-the-nose as you can get. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of her!

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I don’t know if anyone reads my blog any  more, now that I dumped my primary FB page. If anyone still reads here, I reopened a page there, and would gladly re-friend you. I just couldn’t cope with the deluge of political warfare. Reality is bad enough – don’t inundate me with the stuff that’s half-truth and outright lies. There’s more to it than that, but that was definitely a huge part of it.

I’m not naive enough to think everything’s peachy and I DO keep up on legitimate news websites. But Social Media is not a legitimate news website, and I just… can’t.