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The Family Tree
Thought for the Month: The SunTree Traveler
I guess that there is no need to mention the food at the SunTree event of Mother's Day Weekend in Organ, NM. I will only suggest that the appropriate quantifier should be "tonnage" in discussing the amount. Quality was supreme. There were two situations about this event that were so unusual that they should be mentioned in this newsletter. The first unusual situation was the result of an automotive accident at an exit from US highway 70 which caused the electrical power to the SunTree activities to be disrupted for several (many, all night) hours. This could have been a SunTree catastrophe if it had not been for the quick action of the hosts to respond to the emergency situation by using their experience and training to assure that backup power was available to assure that the refrigerator, hot plates and microwave were able to continue operation. The event was a success even though, because of the power outage, it could be described as a "hardship" club event since there was only one hot tub in operation. In spite of this, the club members were able to come through that harrowing situation in good spirits. The second unusual situation was the result of karma, the position of the stars or some other influence that I am unable to identify. In spite of the ready availability of numerous weapons of mass soakation (WMS, i.e. water guns), there was not a single water fight. There were several suggestions as to the cause (including the fact that our SunTree members who are tax accountants had other obligations and were unable to attend this event. Unless you know some of these people, you cannot imagine how wild some of these normally civilized individuals can become after 15 April). Mother's Day obligations by many of the participants caused the event to end prior to the time for Sunday Buffets at the area restaurants.
Due to the publication date of the June issue of the SunTree Newsletter, we are unable to report on the Memorial Day Weekend event in the Gila National Forest. At the time of this writing, the fire report for the National Forest indicates that there is medium fire danger. There are even indications that there may be some rain in the area prior to the weekend. It is anticipated that this should be a very good weekend.
The club has been invited to spend a wet weekend with Jesus and Maria at their water park in El Paso, Texas. They have a beautiful hot tub and swimming pool area in their back yard complete with a resident shark just waiting for the SunTree folks. This will be a potluck event over the two days. It is a great place to relax, talk, swim and eat.
Doc, Coletta and Duchess have pleaded with the SunTree water skating team to come to their home in Alamogordo to celebrate the opening of their pool and hot tub. This will be a potluck event. Be sure to bring an entrée, side dish, breakfast dish or snack with you. Be sure to have enough for yourself and a small, third world nation. (I may as well say that since that is what you will do anyway).
The Mysterious Case of the Month of the Vanishing Planets I guess that we could call this a Venusian eclipse, but since the planet will only cover one thirtieth of the face of the Sun, that might be a little ambitious. If you are in a position to see it, do not look directly at the Sun. If you do, you will be totally blind in eight years (minus two days) when this happens again. It is doubtful that your eyesight would improve much prior to the next time this happens in 2117. When this occurred in the eighteenth century, it marked several major steps forward in civilization. The Royal Society sponsored travel for a number of astronomers and surveyors to go to the most remote spots on the planet where they could measure the event and transit time from the various perspectives in order to calculate the dimensions of the solar system. Those calculations allowed us to get an accurate feel for the distances from Earth to the other solar family members. At the first transit, the newly introduced astronomer Mason and surveyor Dixon were sent to South Africa to make their measurements. The weather there was terrible and they were unable to make their observations, but Dixon was so excited at discovering a new sauce which was being imported into South Africa from Southeast Asia, that he bought large quantities of it to take with him when he returned to the UK. When Mason and Dixon were later sent to the American colonies to survey the disputed boundary line between the Pennsylvania and Maryland Colonies, it is probably that Dixon introduced the sauce (with various names, e.g. catsup, catchup, cat-soupe, ketchup) into the American colonies. It became very popular, though too spicy for some folks (that is probably difficult to understand for the SunTree Chile-heads). You will note that Samuel Adams and his band did not throw ketchup into Boston harbor. Sorry, back to sky news. Normally, when Venus moves from the evening sky to the morning sky, it just sneaks around the backside of the Sun. With the transition of the Sun this month, it does a more spectacular move into the morning sky. It will remain in the morning sky for the rest of the year. I guess that you are wondering why the column title refers to vanishing planets. The reason is that all the remaining bright planets, which we have been enjoying over the early months of this year, now sink into the glare of the Sun along with the soon to be forgotten winter constellations. On 23 June, the moon moves over next to the lonely planet Jupiter to comfort it in its solitary residence in the evening sky. Comets du Jure: Summer begins with the solstice on 20 June at 4:57 PM MDT © 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Summer 2008 |
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The Mother's Day Pool Inaugural at Sandy and Cals