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Yes, another year gone by. Life is still very good for us after a rather challenging year. As John will say, it’s good to be here. First, this is your invitation to our annual Black-Eyed Pea Party at our home on Thursday, January 1, 2009. We hold two seatings, one at 1:00 pm and one at 3:00pm. It our tradition to invite our friends to share a day of our lives, with plenty of black-eyed peas, ham and cornbread. For my yoga, vegan, and kosher friends, we make a vegan pot of black-eyed peas. Click here or on the 2008 Black-eyed Pea Party link to the left for directions and a map. Health Health wise, for John, it’s been a challenging year. Thankfully with a happy ending, he’s still here and healthier. The details are once again too much information. Not for delicate sensibilities, please click here to read more, but at your own risk. For me, Leticia, I experienced an incredibly healthy year. I do my daily yoga practice, with swimming, hiking and dancing to keep and improve my health. So far it is working, this year I only visited the Chiropractor once, and spent only $75 in prescription drugs. I improved my chaturangas, plows and back bends, increased my yoga practice to include the Ashtanga style yoga (more of a power yoga). I figure by the time I’m 60, I’ll be ready to open a yoga studio. House, Home and Cats We’re still on Tanglewood and we love the house. No big changes, the plan is to clean the garage and office this year, I’m off a few extra days at the end of the year. You can check on my progress when you drop by on the first.
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And Black-Eyed Pea Party Invitation |
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Jillato is settled in. She’s still a young cat, full of energy, running, dashing, playing with intermittent bouts of sleeping and eating. With all her energy, I roughhouse with her a bit too much, so watch it when you play with her, she does swipe and nibble when excited. |
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Scruffy and Jillato, our matching cow cats are happy and healthy. Scruffy is starting to show his age. He’s at least 14 years old. We got him in 1994 as a stray abandoned on Christmas Eve. After several months and years of food and love, he’s become this great house cat. |
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Finances and Work
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With all the excitement this year, John and I happily stayed status quo on the work front. Verizon just renewed me for another year. John’s concrete / rebar supply business increased toward the last six months of the year. So we’re doing okay. |
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Vacation - Solar Eclipse in China 8/1/2008 |
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We continued our hobby of chasing every solar eclipse on the face of the planet till the day we die. I do admit that with this year’s challenges, that statement has a deeper meaning than a couple of years ago. On July 16th, we left for China, our trip included Beijing, Chongqing, travel down the Yangtze river to Wuhan, a flight to Urumqi, travel through the Gobi Desert to our eclipse site near Yiwu, and a trip on the Orient Express to Xi'an. I full description of this trip on my blog at Tmbwitw.blogspot.com. Here are some of the highlights. We started in Beijing, the site of the 2008 Olympics. We benefitted by the immense preparations for the Olympics. The pollution, noticeably reduced just in the |
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Map of our trip, click on the picture above to link to the public Google map. |
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week we were there and the traffic cleared up as the city instituted an Odd / Even plan for cars. Everywhere, street cleaners and river cleaners worked to make the city a showcase for the Olympics. With a local guide, Nancy, I shopped via the Beijing Subway, visited a silk factory, went to a tailor for custom silk suits, and shopped the local bazaars.
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Sleeping Panda at the Zoo |
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We also did the tourist tours, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Palace Observatory. What caught my eye and fascination was the intricate bas-relief work on the Forbidden City Ramps. Yes, Ramps!! As I walked around the city, I kept imagining a possible market in the US and all over the world, to have the same design of the Forbidden City Ramps as Your Driveway!. It just struck me as decadent the use of such wonderful bas-relief work for something you’d walk or drive on. Hmm.. Do you think there is a market? |
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After our tour of Beijing, we left for our river cruise down the Yangtze River. One of the things that impressed us was the number of bridges going up all along the river. The amount of building all over the country is incredible.
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Some places were still idyllic and peaceful, like this beautiful village, Shennong, nestled in one of the tributaries along the Yangtze. This remote area, has it’s own Chinese dialect from centuries of isolation. |
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But of course the highlight for this crowd of eclipse chasers, many of them engineers, scientists and doctors, Three Gorges Dam. It amazed me how many ships were crowded into the lock with very little clearance. |
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The clearance from our ship to the barge next to us was minimal. Also, there were a total of six ships crowded in the lock. |
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After our cruise on the Yangtze, we flew to Urumqi on the other side of China to start our trek to our eclipse site. After several days of travel by bus, we arrive at our eclipse site near Yiwu.
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From here, we watch yet another great solar eclipse, but not without excitement. Yes, with comfy chairs, we are experienced chasers. |
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Totality!! And No clouds!! |
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After the trip we continued on to, Dunhuang and Xian. In Dunhuang, we were amazed with the 900 Buddhas carved into the Mogao Caves in the middle of the desert . This is a place I plan to return and study. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. |
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Of course we had adventures on the way. |
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We arrived in Xian. Xian is where China’s civilization started from it’s position straddling the Silk Road. Frankly, Beijing felt like any other international city. Xian felt like a true Chinese city, granted with lots of western amenities. |
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After Xian we went on to Tokyo for a couple of days. A wonderful place that we get to visit next year for the 2009 Solar Eclipse. Our next trip, for the July 22, 2009 Solar Eclipse, will take us back to China, this time to Shanghai then on to South Korea, and Japan. We’re traveling with Astronomy Vacations on the Costa Classica to “mid-point / maximum eclipse ” for a 6 minute 39 second eclipse. Join us to see the best and longest eclipse of the century.
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That’s the highlights of our year. We hope you had a great year. We wish you and your families Happy Holidays and a Great 2009. If you’re in the DFW area, be sure and drop by for Black-eyed Peas on Thursday, January 1st. If not, maybe one year.
Leticia and John
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