In the “uncomfortable” days following my surgery in early March, I wrote my counsin Pat in California: “I'm in ‘get me outta here mode!'”  I sure needed something to look forward to.

“Come on out,” she replied, so Jerry kindly booked flights for me, Kelly, and Kelly's buddy Alaina to visit “the cousins” in California.  We planned it for this week with the assurance that I would be recovered and literally ready for flying high, which I was, if just barely.

Waiting for flight at 7:00 AM in Austin

 Kelly and Alaina have been terrific traveling companions, cheerfully handling all the luggage, including mine, since I'm still limited in what I can heft.

Kelly began stressing about getting her watch changed to California time two days prior to departure.  I told her I was not attempting to change her watch to conform to California time.  Only Casey seems to be able to do this, and during the switch from Standard to Daylight Savings Time she is consumed with resetting all the Ranchers' digital watches, no two of which work exactly the same way.

Kelly agreed to keep her watch on Central time so she would know what Sterling and the other Ranchers were doing at any given hour.  She could ask me or check for the local time on her cell phone.

Sleeping on plane at 9:00 AM over AZ

I remind myself that for Kelly, who copes with her disability by careful attention to scheduling and routine, it's very disconcerting to have time go squirrely and loosey-goosey on you.

Similarly, Kelly is not flexible regarding meal schedules, which has called for a lot more flexibility on my part.  For Kelly, if you're in one time zone at noon it's time for lunch, and if you enter an earlier one, it's time for lunch again! 

Well, yea!  We're on vacation.  What the heck.

Yesterday Pat's daughter Melanie took us to the Ocean Institute at Dana Point. 


Dana Point Tide Pool Basin

This is an enchanted cove, nestled at the bottom of vertical cliffs against which pelicans fly in formation, casting their shadows like something out of Jurassaic Park. Kelly and Alaina sunbathed while we searched for anemones and critters among the beautiful rocks.

Pat and I sunburned the tops of our feet.

My sunburned feet

Later we dropped by Melanie's so Kelly could meet cousin Cory, at 15 years six feet plus tall and still ascending, a star shooter for the Dana High basketball team.

“How many cousins I got, anyway?” wondered Kelly aloud as we drove back to Pat's place.

Last night after supper we went to see Soul Surfer, the terrific new movie about Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm at 13 to a shark and came back to build a career as a professional surfer.

Tomorrow it's Disneyland, with dinner on Main Street.  We'll go late and stay into the evening.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch, Jerry reports that this year's round-up to vaccinate the cows, bring in Mr. Bull for another round of bovine reproduction, and castrate the little bull calves (sorry, Dude!) went very well.  Sterling, Travis, and Kyle were the wranglers for the day, and Jerry was super proud of them.

Jer promises to post a blog on it, maybe tomorrow.