Mr. Fiesta

After my Open Heart Surgery, while in recovery, the Chandler Regional Hospital Staff gave me this 'Heart Pillow' to aid in my recovery. They teach you sort of how to use it to sit up and move around etc. It turns out to be quite comforting in that process, and I became quite attached to mine.

As I understand it, at Chandler Reqional they are made by volunteers, and some are more plain then this one. I sort of like the whimsy of mine though. When my daughter  was able to come in and visit me, she named it 'Mr. Fiesta'. I still find myself reaching for 'Mr. Fiesta' when I am unsure about my recovery. :)

To all the volunteers out there who pay back a little love to society, I salute you.

Cheers, nca

Sealing Video

My Wife's Aunt made this video of our Sealing...thought I would add this one to the mix. My wife is and always has been the love of my life.

Cheers nca

There Should Be A Word For This Emotion

What do you call the feeling you get when...you are feeling like you own the world, happy as a clam, sitting on a natural high...and suddenly someone or something drags you down with a single word or a short one line phrase?

Example: There was this stone drinking fountain in the very center of the YMCA camp I worked as a young man. The drain had stopped working years before I came around, so it was always a couple of inches full of water, which would run off the side. Occasionally, when I was feeling full of vim and vigor, ornery to a fault, feeling my testosterone and adrenalin pumping, on top of the world - I would seek out a pretty girl in the crowd, run her down, and carry her to dunk her bum first into the drink. Harmless, yes. Perhaps politically incorrect a bit in this day and age, true. But fun, exciting, sure to get a laugh from the crowd, and a release of my pent up excitement and adrenalin.

So one time, I did this exact thing. Full of all this energy and vigor. The girl I can't remember, but someone I had known for years, for sure. Dunked her in...and she turned to me and said 'That is the third time you have done this to me over the years and I just don't appreciate it'. Ouch. Talking about Slamming a Door, cutting off the adrenalin, nipping the testosterone in the bud   :)

Just an example. But not all that rare of an experience, this emotion....whatever you want to name it. The sudden plunge, the deflation, the dip, dive, dump, the dire droop.

Cheers, nca

Daughter #2 Video, Done Before Her Wedding

Video of my youngest daughter, done some time back

Glasses or Bad Dates

Do you follow up two stories about glasses with another one? I have plenty :) Or do you follow up a bad date story with another? Have a few of those too :) I just don't know what transitional ethics would say.

So Nick as bad date story II...

One year the YMCA Camp staff asked me to join up with the Adventure Camp kids. Among other things, the trip that summer was Havasupai. That could be a story all in itself, but I have no way to transition into that one yet. The staff included me, Mark *, and Marilynn *. Mark was an old friend and the leader of the group. Marilynn had the girls cabin, and I had the boys cabin. Marilynn was a college track jock, very athletic and a great hiker.

Marilynn and I became pretty good friends on the various trips we took the kids on. At the end of the summer, Marilynn, Mark, and I all joined the regular Summer Camp to help at the final week of Family Camp. My good friend Neville was there, and we were a pretty fun group. After family camp, Neville and I were going to set out on our trip up to Alaska, across Canada and on to New York. Mark invited us all down to his house in Tempe before we were to start off on that trip. Neville's girl friend of the time was to join us.

It was kind of natural to pair off into couples. Mark with his wife, Neville and his girlfriend. It left Marilynn and I. I think there were some other camp staff staying there that week too, long forgotten in my memory now. But one night as Neville slipped off with his lady friend for a romantic walk to the park, Marilynn and I found ourselves alone in the Living room. One thing led to another, we found ourselves kissing and embracing on the big square couch.

Oooh...Romantic huh?


Well, sure, except remember...this is in "Nick Romance" land. If you read the previous blog, you know what strange territories that can lead to....

Oh yeah....deep in what would be passionate kisses, my nose started to bleed profusely. I guess the move to the dry Valley left my nose veins unprotected, and the crimson faucets started flowing. I quickly had blood on Marilynn's coller and neck. End of Kiss, End Of Romance.


Cheers ... nca

P.S. Not so dire really. We were still friends after that. She was a very sweet person. But an interesting side to that story is that Neville and I also stayed at her house for one night before our trip started. She lived with her parents in West Phoenix, and they were quite hospitable to two homeless travelers. She had a cute lab named "Buttons" too. Up in Western Canada Neville remembered to send a Post-Card to Buttons thanking him for putting us up for the night. Neville was always a gracious guest, particularly to his animal hosts.

Another Glasses Story - World's Worse Date?

I was never any good at the whole dating thing. In fact, I was terrible. Case in point:

A young lady friend and I decided to go camping up in Flagstaff. We were working up in Prescott at the Y-Camp, and we had 24 hours off. Her dad had a membership in the Continental Country Club...so we thought...a little dinner, a little dancing...you bet!

The dinner was great. Both of us were a bit underdressed for the Country Club...we were after all camping. But the food was awesome and the dancing was fun too. No big sparks were flying though, so I suppose for someone it might have been a disappointment. For me, I was just having fun.

We camped out in a nearby Forest Service Camping area. Sometime during the night I must have rolled over on my glasses and smashed them. Oh yeah...another Nick and Glasses story. Ha Ha. They were smashed into pieces, and we had nothing there camping to fix them with.

My car at the time was a old Willy's Jeep Wagoneer, with a manual transmission. My friend could not drive a manual. So it was up to me, blind as a rock to get us back to camp. I think we ended up driving about 30 miles an hour back to Prescott. I was holding up on side of my glasses to my eye manually the whole time.

Poor girl, must have been convinced she had met the world's biggest nerd loser ever.... (who takes a girl on a date in a 57 Jeep Wagoneer anyway....ha ha ha ha...not exactly a romance wagon).

To make matters even worse....she later told me that her Dad had sent her the bill from the Country Club...he had told her that he was not going to pay for her shennanigans (ok sure, he might not have used that word :) ). She asked me if I would pay for it, and I told her 'No'.

'No'? Are you kidding me??? What was I thinking?  'M*****' (name withheld to protect the innoncent !!!), if you ever read this....please send me the bill and I will pay for it now. I am willing to repent for every single one of my early dating faux pas (and there were a lot of them  :) ).

Cheers --- nca

Four Eyed Forest Service Worker

I worked for a brief stint in the Forest Service after High School. I think the program was called the YCC (Youth Civilian Corp) or something like that. It must have been for maybe 6 months or so. I had always loved the forests of Arizona, so it seemed like the natural job. One of my postings was with a Tonto National Forest Survey Team, we would work on doing surveys of Forest Service Land. My team had an older married dude, maybe in his 40's, conservative and set in his ways; a really cute single girl, kinda rugged and rural in demeanor. She was probably in her later 20's. I think her name was Robin. It figures I would remember her name and no one else's. :) Anyway, there were two of us YCC workers to carry the stakes and do all the grunt work, while the regular Forest Service people handled the Survey equipment and did the official work.

One week we were to do a survey on Four Peaks, north of Fountain Hills Arizona. I had been told the week before to plan on a week up on the side of the mountain. That weekend, I was at the park playing basketball and I broke my glasses badly, they could not be worn. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am blind as a bat without my glasses. There was no way I was going to be able to make the Four Peaks trip without glasses.

For some odd reason, some months before, my Mom had had me buy a pair of prescription goggles. I was prone to breaking my glasses with all the activities I was always involved with. Mom had suggested I buy the goggles for those activities, but they looked really geeky and there was no way I could wear them in public. They were made out of a clear plastic material and wrapped completely around my head with a elastic band on the back. They made me look like a short awkward version of Kareem Abduhl Jabbar.  :)

Needless to say, there was no way I was going to miss the Four Peaks Trip. And there was no way I was going to be able to make it blind. So when I showed up at the rallying point Monday morning wearing those goggles, it looked like the Team Leader was going to have a stroke. And Robin could not stop laughing at me. I got strange looks the entire trip. And no, I never managed to sweep Robin off her feet.  :)

The Four Peaks trip was awesome. The survey involved laying stakes around the Forest Service Boundaries of an old historic Amethyst mine up there. The views of the surrounding area were breathtaking, and we camped in a saddle area on the side of the mountain just below the Amethyst mine. The trip ended a few days short when a storm swept over the mountain, and we were helecoptered out...the pilot giving me strange looks from time to time.

Was embarrassing myself worth it?.....no doubt....

As in an earlier post, I love Arizona. From my earliest youth I remember savoring every moment to explore my beloved home state. The Four Peaks Area is just a few minutes North-East Of Phoenix, but beautiful and rugged and solid.

Cheers....nca

For A Interesting Tidbit of the Historic Amethyst Mine....Click Here