Texas style

Our trip to Texas has come and gone. Two 14-hour days of driving and two days spending with family. Although it is a long haul, I do enjoy those trips and a little time away from home: the place looks different when you come back and you get to appreciate what you have. Visiting family is always good as both of us are apparently isolationists. And then there are the two dogs, Zach and Jessie, who love to see us and so love to be loved.

Texas itself is far removed from our home in the wilderness. It is an artificial world where everything is BIG. Big cars that seem to dwarf our little Subie, especially at 70 mph on some Dallas freeway, the roads are wide, the houses expansive, the shopping malls and stores beyond huge and there are more of them than I can imagine people might need. The interesting thing is that a sense of community is attempted to be developed in the new style shopping mall, which is a "village". Not a covered mall, but an assembly of shops where outside parking may be more than 5 steps away. There is even a community garden. The growing there should be great as all "the village" was built on prime agricultural land.

To my Arizona eyes, Texas knows nothing of recession: people in restaurants and people spending money in all those new shops. I added my bit shopping at a brandnew 42,000 square feet Whole Foods store within a mile of La's house. We were back home in 5 minutes!

All that artificiality is not really for me. Too much uniformity, too much forcing of nature. Manicured lawns, lollipop trees, big fences, way too much indoor living, lack of movement and not enough air. Still, Emma and Shawna may be dreaming of a roll on that luscious grass. I think we, or at least Dan, will be back sometime this winter. We ARE part of a family.

A sense of place

After all that courtroom sitting last week I needed to get moving, so we went on our conditioning hike this morning. We took our cameras, but the photo emphasis was a bit different. A couple of weeks ago, Dan took a photography workshop with National Geographic in Tucson. It was held at a very nice resort (Miraval), and he enjoyed himself a lot and picked up new techniques and more creative vision. One day was spent in downtown Tucson around the Barrio, and one day in Saguaro National Park. There also was one evening photographing a Navajo dancer at sunset. Every day every one's photos were evaluated and critiqued.

So in addition to getting some exercise, we went out to "get a sense of the place". We always end up taking the same photos of the same rocks and although something may be picturesque, it is not necessarily photogenic. See, I am learning too ...

We got a bit off the trail and tried to capture that "Stronghold feeling". I will continue to post photos to this blog in hopes of seeing some improvement over time. Photos 1 and 2 are mine, 3 and 4 are Dan's.

I am done

With jury duty that is. Now that all's finished, I must admit that it was a worthwhile experience. There were a couple of things in my favor, I believe. For one, the case was not murder or manslaughter, or some kind of harming of (wo)men or beast (only the threat thereof), and I ended up with a great team of jurors. We all respected each other and each other's opinions, had some fun, and we were smart enough to choose the perfect jury foreman. We were able to work out our verdict (10 hour's worth) without anybody losing their cool, and be satisfied with the outcome.

The District Court treated us with the utmost respect, kindness, and courtesy (I already got my check in the mail today), and we were given the opportunity to speak with the judge and the lawyers after the verdict had been read. It was enlightening.

Now that it is over I can reveal that it was a human smuggling case. Here the smugglers are called "coyotes" and the smuggled people "pollos" (chickens). Being in southern Arizona this does go on. There were 2 defendants and each were indicted on 5 counts. On all but 2 of the indictments we were able to come to a unanimous guilty verdict. Unfortunately we only dealt with the 2 individuals running the "drop house", and of course there are additional people in the chain, from Nogales, MX to Tucson, AZ.

I learned a thing or two about our legal system, what the term "hostage" really means, and one of the jurors, who used to work downtown, took me to this great cafe for lunch one day. It is in the Tucson Museum of Art and is called Cafe a la C'Arte. It is very small, with indoor and outdoor seating in a beautifully sheltered courtyard. The food is fabulous, and I had to take Dan there today after we went grocery shopping. He agrees with me.

So I am done with the 11 hours away from home and driving 150 miles a day, but with a 9:30 am start and a 5:00 pm end of day it really was not too bad, thanks to Dan who had taken care of the WD and who had dinner waiting for me.

Now it's east to Texas on Monday for a couple of days because we missed La (Verne)'s birthday, which is today.