Jesus H Christ

Now, don't get your panties in a bunch, you Christian folk.  I'm not swearing.  I'm not belittling.  I am simply reporting.  This question has been niggling around in the back of my mind for quite some time and I finally decided it was time to find an answer.  Actually, there are 2 questions:
1.  Did JC have a middle name that started with H?
2.  If not, where did the H come from?
I got online, checked several sources, and here's what I came up with.

The answer to the first question is most certainly 'no.'  I couldn't find any evidence or theories that His middle name was Huey or Hank or Hymie or any name starting with H - nor any name, period.

There is no definitive answer to the second question.  There are, as you can imagine, several theories though, some quite interesting.  Here are 3 of them:

1.  The Holy Monogram, ever heard of it?  I never heard it called that, but have seen it numerous times and you probably have, also.  It's a Christogram, a favored symbol in some Christian faiths, is often found on printed materials and vestments and other paraphernalia.  Here's a picture of it:

IHS comes from the Greek name for Jesus, the first 3 letters of which are iota-eta-sigma.

Sometimes the Christogram is seen with J replacing I, and C replacing S, hence JHC.  So, easy to see how H was considered to be a part of Jesus' name.  I heard somewhere that Catholics believe the Christogram means Jesus Holy Savior.  Anyway, this theory is the most credible.

2.  Another theory is that the H stands for Harold, and originated in The Lord's Prayer (The Our Father).  Most folks were illiterate in Jesus' day, so prayers were passed along verbally instead of in writing.  Apparently, many folks misheard the phrase "hallowed be thy name", thought they were hearing "Harold be thy name."  No, I did NOT make that up!

3.  Last, and in my view, least, is the term 'haploid.'  It means having half the chromosomes normally found in a given organism.  Jesus allegedly had no biological father, so technically he was a haploid.  Jesus Haploid Christ?  Give me a break!  Who the H came up with that one?

Lick it up!

Dad was Irish.  It's rumored that folks of the Irish persuasion have quick tempers.  I'm here to tell you, in Dad's case it was no rumor.  Look up 'hair trigger' in the dictionary and you'll see his portrait there - eyes staring straight at you, wearing an expression that makes you think I don't want to mess with that guy.  He has another portrait there, too, beside the word 'impatient.'

In my early years, I was terrified of the man, as were my 7 older siblings.  No rod was spared, no child was spoiled.  It may be that by the time I came along, the hair trigger had become slightly less hairy, worn down by time and the rigors of coping with the first 7 kids.  Can't say one way or the other.  Can say it was still hairy enough to make me pee my pants - which, I actually did.  Once.

Mealtime was generally enjoyable, more so if you were seated on the far side of the table, out of  Dad's reach.  If his temper flared up, you got whacked, no matter where you were - but being further away felt safer.  The older kids got the best seats of course.  The younger you were, the closer to Dad you sat, and since I was the youngest, I was stuck in the pole position for the duration.  Lucky me.

Mealtime was definitely not enjoyable if you spilled something, especially milk.  Dad was all over it.  I swear: the milk from the tipped glass would still be flying through the air, hadn't even touched the table yet, and Dad would roar, "Lick it up!"  And, lick it up we did.

Ah yes, just can't beat those warm, fuzzy memories of the good 'ol days.  Truthfully, I do have to grin when I think back on the lick-it-up days of my youth.  Well.......some of them, anyway.

5.1 Surround Sound

Although not really an audiophile, I do enjoy good sound.  In my OR home, I had a Boze 5.1 system that was awesome.  In LHC, I've been using a sound bar with wireless subwoofer - much better than built-in TV speakers but far short of 5.1 surround sound.

Why didn't I install a 5.1 system in the LHC house?  Too lazy.  You have to run the speaker wires through the walls, which means drilling holes in the framing and fishing the wires through the holes to desired wall locations.  So, you're down in the crawl space, slithering through dirt, cobwebs, pipes, wires and dead mice, toting your electric drill, trying to avoid knocking yourself silly on the beams.

But, the LHC house is built on a slab, no crawl space, gotta run the wires through the attic.  Oh boy!  All the aforementioned fun stuff, plus you have to keep all your weight on the joists at all times, and those joists are hidden, covered with insulation.  If you slip off the joist or miss it altogether, you're toast.  You break through the ceiling, impaling yourself on the floor lamp, or landing on the dog, the cat, or your (soon-to-be-ex) wife.  

It gets worse: if the speakers need to be located on an exterior wall where the rafters angle down and meet the wall, you have to wedge yourself into that tight angle as far as you can.  Then, you reach forward and drill through the double top plate at an angle, making holes for the wires, praying your drill bit misses all the screws and nails embedded in the wood - all the time being careful to remain balanced on the joists.  Finally, you have to fish the wires through those holes and down through the wall, trying not to get hung up on the fiberglass insulation.

Browsing through a recent Costco sale brochure, I saw a sound system on sale, $50 off.  The ad said it was a 5.1 wireless system.  Huh!  Wasn't aware such a thing even existed.  I bought it, hooked it up and voila!  It's not totally wireless, has wires running from the subwoofer to the rear, wall-mounted speakers but I can live with that.

This is it.  

Regular Costco price is $280, good deal, major hassle avoidance.

2015 Summer Summary

Stats, Favs and Bummers

1.  90.  Total days of RV travel

2.  28.  Number of campsites.

3.  5380.  Number of miles we towed the Cougar - plus about 100 non-point-to-point miles for gas and grocery stops, missed turns and assorted screw ups.

4.  6/5.  Number of places/states where I played Pickleball.

5.  KOA Campground, Casper, WY.  Worst value campground; $54 for a gravel parking lot.  Sometimes KOA is the only game in town and we're grateful to find them.

6.  Terry and Lisa's home, Buena Vista, CO.  Best value 'campground' (free); thanks T and L!

7.  Call of the Yukon.  Worst DVD movie we watched; filmed in 1938, lousy script, acting, directing.  It was 1 of 8 movies in $5 set, a couple of which were okay, haven't watched all.

8.  Rain Man.  Best DVD movie we watched. Close 2nd: When Harry Met Sally.  Both were in another cheap 4-DVD set.  We'd seen them all before, old friends revisited.

National Park Service brochures we collected this summer.

We visited a couple other sites that didn't have brochures.

9.  Dinosaur National Monument.  Our favorite National Park Service (NPS) site.  Bought T-shirts.

10.  Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Least favorite NPS site; lousy weather, vicious biting bugs.

11.  Grand Junction, CO.  Favorite city due to paved, scenic bike trails; Pickleball; size; climate.

12.  5/1.  Projected/actual number of pounds I gained in 3 months of travel.

13.  Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery.  Santa Fe, NM.  Favorite brewpub, bought T-shirts.

Picacho Peak State Park, AZ

We're headed home today after spending our last night on the road at Picacho Peak SP.  The Peak is the most remarkable landmark in the stretch of I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix.  Picacho is a Spanish word meaning large pointed isolated hill.

Picacho Peak.

There are 2 trails that lead to the top, demanding but not technical.

Had a rip roaring storm here late yesterday, heavy rains and high winds for several hours.  I weighted down our entry floor mat with a large rock when the storm started.  The rock's still there.  The floor mat, who knows?  The bottom of the Grand Canyon?

Chiricahua NM

It's located in southeastern AZ, 35 miles from the small town of Willcox.  We toured it yesterday, found it to be somewhat similar to Bryce Nat'l Park, although not as colorful and not as eroded into hoodoo formations.

The CCC worked in dozens of national parks and monuments, including Chiricahua.

I had no idea of the CCC scope, was amazed by the above statistics. 

This deer, standing 20' in front of the visitor center, was really chomping down on 

whatever it had in its mouth.  Mushroom?  Pancake?

You have to hike quite a ways for the best photo ops. 

 We had neither the time nor the inclination, found the above and below pix online.

Balanced rocks, dozens of them, everywhere you look.

Makes for nervous driving when you see these specimens 100's of feet above you. 

A little push from a gust of wind and you're buzzard bait.

White Sands NM

I thought White Sands, near Las Cruces NM, was all about the testing of the first A-bomb at the location known as The Trinity Site.  Uh uh, not at all.  It's all about a unique area of gypsum sand that looks like the aftermath of a heavy blizzard on a Midwest prairie.

Above and below pix taken on the short drive into the dunes area.  

I wonder how often they have to plow the road and parking areas.

Fires

Near the town of Carrizozo, NM, there's a BLM campground called Valley of Fires, where we spent 1 night.  The name was inspired by volcanic activity that occurred there 6000 years ago.  Most BLM camping is either basic or boondocking (no hookups or improvements of any kind); VoF is an exception, offering electric and water hookups, ramadas, picnic tables, fire rings, dump station, restrooms and showers.

A paved path with handrails meanders through the lava field, wheelchair accessible, with sporadic benches to rest on, and interpretive signs.

It is the best lava field walkway I've come across to date, have visited 2-3 others.

Above picture was taken from our campsite, pix below were taken along the path.

I thought the spiky plant was a yucca.

Nope: it's a sotol plant, a member of the lily family.

Interesting flow patterns in the lava.

This gnarly juniper is 400+ years old. 

Link to VoF website: http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/roswell/valley_of_fires.html

If the name, Valley of Fires, sounds familiar, it's because there's a state park northeast of Las Vegas, NV, called Valley of Fire (no 's').  The NV version is named for its fiery red rock formations rather than volcanic action.  We visited there last Thanksgiving with friends David and Elaine, and I wrote a blog post about it.