May 2025 be a year of adventure, prosperity, calm, and meaning for you and those in your life who earn it.

Now for what I did during my Holiday season.  We flew to mom and dad's the Friday before TG. We had a great time and visits with all but 2 of the Rags clan. Only SS and Nephew-1's DW were absent. Both are struggling with anxieties. Hopefully they will be in a better place by the 2025 EOY holidays and can join the gatherings.

DW and I spent a week on the Vegas strip in a resort the second week of Dec.Lots of feasting at top restaurants down town.  Two Bobby Flay venues, a Gordon Ramsey venue, and a 5 star dim sum venue.  We did one evening in the resort doing a tequila tasting and a pub dinner.  We checked out on Friday and mom and dad arrived at our home that evening (Dec 20th).

We had a great 2wks with my parents. We had our usual great time together. Lots of laughs, energetic discussions, and shared adventures. Leading up to Christmas we all hung out together, did night lights drives through the city, planned holiday menus, did the grocery shopping, and pre-baking, etc, and finished up the holiday decorating.  My Aunt arrived the evening of the 24th to spend Christmas with us and to celebrate mom's 80th on the 26th.  We had a great Christmas day with the AM gift activities.  A usual feast of ham, turkey, side dishes, and mom's crack level baking magic. DW did several low carb baking wonderfulness and side dishes.  We chose to get both mom and dad high end sun glasses. The models we chose are highly recommended for recent lense replacement and cataract surgeries.  Mom and dad have pretty much lived in them since Christmas morning.  We did out usual ad nauseam research before selecting the choice for each of them.

The 5 of us celebrated Mom on Dec 26th at Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen.  Mom and my aunt were usually incorrigible selves when they are together and in public.  Dad was doing his best to keep them from causing public riots with their antics.

DW and I took my aunt on a long day of site seeing on the 27th. We started with Hoover Dam then hit Valley of Fire State Park.  The park was the big hit. My aunt was awed by the beauty and vistas.  We put my aunt on her return flight on the AM of the 28th.  

The rest of of mom and dad's visit we did several day trips.  Mom petered out yesterday and wanted a down day.  Dad was hell bent of hitting Death Valley NP to show DW and I the Race Track Playa. That is the dry lake bed where the rocks slide around which is a huge ongoing "mystery" as to cause.  Dad worked with USGS for the first 10 years of his career. The did studies of the phenomenon in the mid 60s. There really has been no mystery since then. The area is seismically and volcanically active. When the surface of the Playa gets wet the swelling and retraction of the lake bed slurry moves the rocks.  Most recently there has been some bunk that it is ice and/or wind. Nope. Not a chance.  To move some of the low profile flat rocks on the Playa would take several hundred MPH winds to accomplish and even that level of wind would likely not budge a flat rock weighing a hundred or more pounds. 

While at the Playa yesterday we met and walked around with a young geologist spending his EOY vacation at Death Valley. He and dad were geeking out on the Race Track. DW who is a rock hound was geeking out along with them. I stood back and grinned and chuckled at those three getting their rock geek party on.

The last time dad was at Race Track Playa was in 2013.  His route planning and estimate was that we could get from our home to the Playa in about 2.5 hours. The road "is in great shape".  Ummm. Sorry dad.  The 11yrs since his last visit has not been kind to the dirt roads. From the turnoff of the paved road to Race Track Playa road to the playa took 2.5hrs of dental filling shaking, concussion inducing, kidney rupturing roller coasgter adventure.  As we were approaching Teakettle Junction (Google it) we started noticing a track of oil in the dirt road.  Someone was driving way too fast over the GM Torture Test Track road had punctured their oil pan.  We passed Teakettled Junction where there were three young people looking at their Subaru and scratching their heads. There were two 4X4s full of tent campers there with them. We stopped to check on them. They had been going way too fast on the extremely rough road.  The Subaru was fully capable of transiting the road without incident.... if.... they had not been trying to drive it a 30MPH instead of the 15 - 18 MPH that we were driving in our Jeep.  When we had hiked all over the playa we headed back out back to Ubehebe crater and the road back home.  As we were driving back the three Subaru kids were hiking out to the playa in T-shirts carrying tiny back packs. The hike is 6 miles one way from Teakettle to Race Track.  We hope that they survived that choice since the night time temps are below freezing.  Hopefully the campers that were there when we checked on the Subaru kids successfully contacted a rescue service to go get the kids and their seized motor car.

Interestingly, about half way back to Ubehebe an Acura sedan passed us heading out to Race Track. They were plodding along at about 10MPH and doing fine.  Brains count even when trying to do something with an entirely inappropriate choice of vehicle. As the Acura passengers were demonstrating. When we finally got back to paved roads and cell phone coverage, dad called mom. We had been without coverage for nearly 8hrs. We learned of the NYD terrorist attacks. I have to tell you that being disconnected and in the middle of rugged beauty has something to recommend it.

We got home 2+hrs later than forecast arriving at 18:45 in time for NYD dinner with mom.  More ham, black eyed peas to ensure good fortune in 2025 (A southern cook thing), and a laughter filled dinner together.

DW headed to the office this AM with a wrinkly chin after good bye hugs with mom and dad. I helped dad load their truck, hugged them good bye and have tried t stay busy today to keep the sad at bay.  Mom and dad and our time together are all treasures beyond measure.

So, back to laundry and job networking, applications, etc.....

Have a great year STalkers. Take care of you.