Random Post of the week 2

Cowboy George and the Dragon





















The other morning when feeding the horse I, Johanna, ran into an unexpected obstacle. It would be infinitely more exciting if I said it was a foul breathed, fire breathing, hideous scaly dragon; as the title of this post might suggest. And that there was a giant tournament held to decide which knight was the bravest in the land to come rescue me. However I am very glad to say that this is not the case. For one I don't cherish the idea of being held captive by an over sized fire breathing Gieco gecko with wings. And two I have never been quite comfortable with the idea of just one brave knight coming to rescue me. If I were really being held captive by a dragon, I would want the whole army, peasants with pitch forks, and who ever else could be found to come to my rescue! Not just one brave fool dressed like a Jiffy Pop pan!!! That aside I return to my trip to feed the horse. On my way I was surprised when I nearly stepped on something that was long, red, black, and yellow. Most commonly known for his little rhyme ''Red and yellow kill a fellow'' I returned to the house, and with complete calm and composure yelled, "CalViN!...CAlvIn!...CALVIN!!! There is a Coral snake outside, and I just nearly stepped on it!" Well maybe not complete composure, but I tried. This is not our Coral snake, but this is what he looked liked.
Coral snakes are (I believe) the most poisonous snake in North America, but not the most dangerous due to there slowness, small mouths, and lack of fangs. All the same they are not the kind of guest that are nice to have around.

Cowboy George came to my rescue, and I did not mind that he did not have an army with him. Due to the slowness of the coral snake, and my brother's promptness it was not hard to relocate the foul serpent. My brother then proceeded with reconstructive surgery, or rather destructive surgery with the machete. We quickly learned why God said he would crush the serpents head rather then just cut him in half. Though in more then one piece that snake thought he could still slither off. It was then we realized this serpent was a proponent of The Divine Right of Snakes and more drastic measures had to be taken. There was only one way to dispatch a tyrant such as this. With drum roll beating and a cry of "Sic sempre tyranous!", we executed the slippery serpent by severing the head from the body and thus ended his life. The danger passed, the horse was fed, and the snake left to the birds. We named the snake Charles Stuart after King Charles Stuart I of England. The tyrant king who was known for his slippery ways, forked tongue, belief in the divine right of kings, and who met the same fate as our snake for his crimes against the people of England in 1649.

THE END

Random post of the week

~Life~

He may live without books,-what is knowledge but grieving?

He may live without hope,- for what is hope but deceiving?

He may live without love,-what is passion but pining?

But where is the man who can live without dining?

Author unknown

2007 California trip 2

There at last!

After a long second day of travel we made it to our destination. We met Grampa Whitey and Grammie in Monterey where they were treating us to a high class stay at the Pacific Grove. After some time we settled down and goodnights were said, we retired for the night and retreated from the cold to a wonderful night's sleep in comfortable rooms with warm cheery fire places.

Jo and Becca kiss Grandpa goodnight.


The morning broke cool, crisp, and beautiful. We broke our fast in the suites' charming dining room. Here we have the knights of the breakfast table round.

Sir Robert

Sir Calvin

Lady Johanna

Lady Rebecca

The Rock incident

The four of us brave knights finished our breakfast first, so we left to go do some exploring. Behind the dining room we found a wonderful pile of inviting boulders and rocks to climb on. We didn't have many big rocks to climb back home, so the temptation was irresistible... to at least two of us. The one downside to this wonderful natural jungle gym was that it was in plain view of the dining room's large windows and French doors. Calvin and I just had to climb those rocks though! There were no signs saying not to, and who cares if a few breakfasters see you climbing some rocks? Robert and Rebecca could not be convinced however, and made sure they were far enough away and out of sight so as not to be associated with us. They were sure we were going to cause an avalanche. Combined Calvin and I didn't even weigh three hundred pounds, how could we displace several thousand pound boulders? Full of adventure we climbed.

It was beautiful up there! There was a delicious breeze blowing, the gentle winter sun was warm, and you could just see glittering Monterey bay over the tree tops. We tried to persuade Robert and Rebecca up again, they really did not know what they were missing! But they were stubburn and kept reminding us of unwanted eyes watching from the dining room .

Nevertheless we enjoyed ourselves. We hopped from rock to rock, enjoyed each view, and took pictures. After some time we eventually decided to come down. Calvin started down first, as spry as a mountain goat he hopped from boulder to boulder to rock...OoPs! Calvin stumbled as the very last rock he stepped on coming down shifted loose. Three mouths gaped open, six eyes nearly popped out, all hearts stopped. Not at our brother who quickly recovered himself, but at that giant rock rolling towards that big pretty dining room French window........Thud! WHEW! It just missed and hit the side of the building instead! Four sets of hearts started again. As a matter of fact they jump started into overdrive. The thought of eyes from the dining room suddenly became an uncomfortable reality. I scrambled down as quick as I could and tried to help Calvin remove the rock from the side walk and replace it where it belonged. Hmmmm... For being so willing to roll in the first place, it sure wasn't in a hurry to get back! Twerpish Rock! We pushed, we pulled, we grunted, we strained, turned red in the face and then.....! Nothing. We never got that stupid rock to budge as much as an inch. I have no idea how Calvin bouncing on it caused it to move in the first place! It was a special act of providence, and that is all anyone can say! It was meant to be there I suppose. Our efforts to move the dumb rock were obviously futile, and when someone who had seen our shenanigans from the dining came out and suggested we just leave the despised piece of matter alone before we hurt ourselves, we took her suggestion. Who knows, to this day it might still be lying rolled up against the dining room as proof of the Martinez clowns having been there.
We were not yet done with our scene making for the morning. Later right before we left, Calvin managed to catch one of Robert's fast balls in the nose while playing catch. You would have thought that you were at a crime sceen if you saw the mess it made in the parking lot!


Monterey Bay

Later we drove down to the bay, it was beautiful. We were really looking froward to the giant twenty foot tall waves Grandpa kept telling us about.Wow! Look at that wave! To poor Grandpa's chagrin the only waves that day barely broke twenty inches, and perhaps would make a tide pool proud! (Grandpa you need to come to Texas and see some real waves!)
Waves or no waves it was beautiful.
And cold! BuRrRrR!

Lone Cypress Point

The lone Cypress is the most photographed tree in the world.

Grandpa & Grammie took us on the Seventeen mile drive.
As you can see it was quite beautiful as well!

Johanna, Rebecca, Calvin, and Robert with Lone Cypress in the background.

Mum and Dad

After Monterey we took a trip down Highway 1 and saw Big Sur

Mother and daughter

Mom backdropped by Big Sur

We stopped at the Phoenix for lunch and warmed ourselves up with hot cocoa and coffees.

Shopping in Carmel

After Big Sur we went to Carmel and saw the two houses that Great Grampa built.

A very full and good day!

(Except for the rock)

2007 California trip 1

The California Trip

To end the old year and kick off the new, our family decided to take a trip up to California to visit our Grandparents over Christmas and New Year! It had been about twelve years since we had traveled up there as a family, so we were over due for a visit. We went through the usual Martinez packing routine, which in and of itself can be quite exciting! We ended up vacuum sealing most everything that could be to get it to semi fit, and then stuffed all the suit cases, blankets, pillows, extra jackets, sleeping bags, scuba gear, parachutes, one submarine, the kitchen refrigerator, two elephants, and six wild and slightly squashed Texans into the car. We weren't twenty minutes on the road when we remembered we forgot the piano, but we realized we would just have to face whatever adventures lay ahead without it. Thankfully we did not forget our twenty first century version of the star of Bethlehem, that is our GPS, who's name is Miss Garmin. Without Miss Garmin we might still be lost hauling that submarine somewhere in the Arizona desert.

Look at that beautiful blue Texas sky!

We really loved West Texas! It had such a wild beauty!

We made it through the first day with only one little adventure. We nearly ran out of gas in the desert! We got to sit and watch the computer's miles till empty reading drop and drop. When we would go up hill it would say we had three miles left to go, when we got on flat land it might spike to seven. And yet there was nothing but desert as far as the eye could see. We finally found a gas station with 1 mile left to go! And we were all relieved that we would not have to camp with the coyotes!

Who would have thought you would find the star of Bethlehem in El Paso? Sure enough there it was! Shining hundreds of feet above the city. They had it on the side of a mountain, but in the pitch darkness it really did look like it was suspended in midair. We drove through New Mexico the first night and started our second day in Arizona.

Good morning Arizona!

We really liked Arizona's big cactus!

The most amusing thing we saw in Arizona was an advertisement for a shrimp farm! How they raise shrimp in the desert beats me, but I guess they manage!We somehow did not manage to get any pictures of the scenery once we reached California, but that might be because it was all covered up by a sand storm when we got there. We finally reached our destination at 11:30 PM West coast time. Boy were we tired!

Introduction

Howdy from down in Texas.

Welcome to Martinezmania! We will be giving updates and pictures of what we have been doing, so as to keep y'all up to date on our comings and goings. So please stay tuned for our exclusive Texas loony tune series!
The Martinez Clan