Sharing Hearts

Friends are for sharing blankets at nap-time... Okay, okay, maybe not all friends (I know what you're thinking, Harles), but certainly these friends.

Cherished Checkerboard XII

After Pulcheria had been mollified (by me), pacified (by time), and drained (by Beemer), she agreed to this shot. I loved the way that the hail-stones filled up the little wrinkles on Checkerboard Mesa. It looks cool normally, but here the squares really seem to pop because of the contrast. Of course, to me, the best part about this shot is that its human subject is smiling again.

Hail to the Canyon XI

So, we're up at the top of Zion proper, and I decide that we need some photos of this cool little canyon with a little stream running through it. It's drizzling slightly, but Pulcheria grudgingly agrees to it, anyway. We bundle up Beemer in my sweatshirt, and we're off. Now we're at the bottom and the drizzle turns to rain to hard rain to hail. Pulcheria becomes Pulcheria irata. This moment of transformation was captured to be admired for a long time to come. Here is the nervous/ irate mother protecting her offspring from the elements that the short-sighted father led them into. We can't help but laugh when we look at this shot. Ah, the memories.

Rain Falls X

And here's those same falls as shown below, after it had been raining, on and off, for about 18 hours. The transformation was startling! I have found out that being at (in? with?) Zion in the rain is one of the most surreal, transcendent experiences out there. Desert is totally transformed, and, everywhere you look, living water shoots forth from barren rock. There was not a single spot from which we couldn't see at least a few waterfalls. It was gorgeous beyond the capacity of my miniscule vocabulary to describe.

Pre-rain Falls IX

[We now return to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.]

Here's a shot of the waterfall (from Weeping Rock VIII ) from a few hundred feet away. I loved the way it looks like braided silk, as it falls. This is, of course, before the rains came that day... and continued to come throughout the next day.

Ludi Romani C

And finally, here we are to be found with (from left to right) Dr. Norm Jones (USU History Dept. Head, and Elizabethan England Expert), Dr. Mike Sweeney, Journalism Professor, and Dr. Christopher Pelling, the Regius Professor of Greek Language at Oxford. Yes, the Oxford (that's right, he's the current occupant of the worlds most prestigious Greek position).

Ludi Romani B

And here we are with Professor Kevin Doyle, one of my favorite people at the University. Kevin is a teacher in the Theatre Dept., and is one of the few directors there that I've had the chance to work with in recent years. This year he was playing the Eastern god, Mithras.

Ludi Romani A

[We interrupt the normally scheduled program, "Ahenobarbus' Amazing Vacation Travelogue," in order to bring you some breaking pictures.]

Tonight was Utah State University's annual presentation of the Ludi Romani (i.e. The Roman Games), a kind of live version of Risk, where the board is a huge room, and the armies are real people. The setting is ancient Rome, during the transitional phase between Republic and Empire.

The picture above features me, Ahenobarbus, with one of my mentors, Dr. Fran Titchener (here playing Juno). Holding Dr. T's finger is our own Pulchella (a.k.a. Bree).

Weeping Rock VIII

We didn't do any of the hard hikes on this trip, since Bree was coming with us. But Zion has so many options that it ended up being fun, anyway. Weeping Rock is a short hike that leads to a place where ground water seeps out of the Navajo Sandstone. That's what we're facing, here in this photo. The waterfall behind us actually isn't part of the seep spring at all, since it cascades down from the cliff tops above.

Zion NP VII

This is day one in Zion National Park. This particular place is pretty much right across the street from the trailhead for Pine Creek Canyon (my favorite technical canyon I've done, so far), but also looks like the end of a canyon hike that I have yet to do (including learning its name). The only parts of me that you may be able to detect in this photo are my hands, as they steady Bree on top of this cool rock.

Whaling Wall VI

Here's another part of Vegas' Whaling Wall. I love this shot. The angle that Pulcheria shot this from makes it look like the whale is cruising through the trees as if they were aquatic vegetation. NB: you can also see what makes this particular wall unique (as far as I am aware), namely the fact that he left a large part of the canvas (i.e. cinderblock wall) blank so the children could add their own depictions of life from the hydrosphere. I think that's awesome.

Vegas V

We spent part of a day in Vegas, mostly so I could hit a couple of caches, but also because I wanted to get a cute little Roman outfit for Beemer (pictures forthcoming). While there Pulcheria spotted a Whaling Wall (by world famous Wyland), and the joyous moment is now forever captured. You can tell just how much she likes Wyland by the huge grin on her face.

Mons Ignis IV

At the top of the drive, just outside the park, is an extinct volcano. The upper strata flow that lies on top of the sandstone helped to preserve the rock beneath it, and so Snow Canyon itself owes its existence to this long dead giant. The basaltic aa flow is a bit tricky to navagate, so I didn't go too far up. I would have loved to go on, but my shins began to quiver in fearful anticipation. Pahoihoi would have been fun to walk on, but I'm not aware of any Pahoihoi flows extant here on the big continent. Oh well. Perhaps someday we'll make it to Hawaii and I'll get my chance. Until then, I'll just have to make due.

Snow Canyon III

I just want to take a moment to say that I LOVE my growing (but still conveniently small) family. They're all so photogenic! This shot shows Bree and Pulcheria playing in the soft sand dunes of Snow Canyon.

Snow Canyon II

Don't let my legs blind you. Remember, I've been locked indoors up in Logan, due to our horrendous weather, for the greater part of 4 months. This is Bree and I in Snow Canyon. It's a great little park just east of St. George, with some cool hikes. Next year we'll have to remember to get there before March 15, because after that they close some of the rock climbs and certain slot canyons because of possible disturbance to the nesting Peregrine falcons. Not that I begrudge them that. I love falcons. I would like to have seen them on this trip. Maybe next time. We saw plenty of a few Red-Tailed Hawks, a couple Vultures and plenty of Ravens, though.

La Verkin Overlook I

Spring Break has been over for almost a week now, so it's time to fill in all my fans on our doings down south. We decided to go just down to Southern Utah for the break, since we only had a few days (i.e. San Diego wouldn't have been worth the trip for a two day stay). Ah, it was glorious. We left our 30 degree weather behind us, and it was mid 60s to low 70s for most of our trip. Here's a view just a couple minutes drive from where we were staying. It's on a dirt road that overlooks the town La Verkin. I love being in Red Rock country. There's some quality about it that we just don't get farther north. Don't let the snow-capped peaks fool you: they're farther off than one might expect.

Puellula Pulchella

I don't know what kind of animal she's supposed to be, but--wow--she's a cute one! Those ears up top look so funny, but her smile melds the whole ensemble together. We were bragging about her sleeping patterns to some friends last night. Boy was that a mistake! The gods love to strike down those who brag. We went on about how she has slept nine to ten hours a night since Christmas.

Well, last night set that record back to zero, with her waking up at 1:30 am, and then again at 7:45, on a night when we expected her to sleep until 9 or 10! Oi Moi! Hopefully we will have learned our lesson, and that won't happen again. But even when I went in, groggy and grumpy, to pick her up, she stopped crying and grinned at me. So I couldn't even be mad anymore. Such is the power of "cuteness."

Wood and Beaver

I'm wearing myself too thin,"like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something," (FotR, 41). I pulled another all-night study session a few days ago. I had a terrifying test in Classical Latin to prepare for, including writing two essays that I should have written prior to that night. Perhaps one day I shall learn that procrastination (lit.= "the act of tomorrow-ing forth") is never as beneficial as a slower, constant, steady pace.

On my way to drop Bree off at a friend's, so I could have a couple of hours of concentrated studying without worrying about her, I saw that a tree-branch that had been girdled (and the girth had been getting increasingly thinner) by a beaver had finally fallen down. Once down, the rest of the bark had been completely stripped. I thought that was pretty cool. Another testament that patiently working on a difficult project eventually provides a lot of tough, fibrous arboreal cortex to enjoy without interruption. Words to live by.

branches ache for light
they stretch up through frozen earth
yearning for sunshine

Drip, Drip, Drop

Okay, okay, so I am probably being a little too harsh on Logan weather. After all, it is starting to melt, even if just a little bit. Only a few hours ago there was a gigantic icicle hanging from my roof. I went out to take a picture of it, just now, and it had fallen to its doom. This picture shows the now uninterrupted view which also used to show the aforementioned icicle. Even though it's melting slowly, it is still, in fact, melting. Did I mention how slowly it's melting? If not: it's melting slowly.

At any rate, enough apologies. It's time for me to get back to work. Papers to write, Greek to translate, Latin to be tested... So much self-torture, so little time.

Runoff

Oh, I can't wait until Spring Break. I've got so much to do that I've got to spend the first part of it writing papers, finding connections, and being logical. As soon as that part's done, though, I'm off to find the sun. Logan is terrible! Yesterday's high temp was 30*, but an hour's drive would have gotten me at least to 50*! Amazing. We've still got quite a bit of snow on the ground, but down in Salt Lake, or even Ogden, they've got nothing in the valleys. Aargh! I want to go somewhere warm for Grad. school! Maybe I'll make that my primary criterion.

white turns clear with warmth
cascades down rock and sheer cliff
brown returns to green