Curmudgeon's Retirement Party

Today was Paul's turn for a retirement party and a big one it was. The Finance Division is noted in the County for the big occasions that it stages. Its taken the top award for Haloween office decorations for two years running. I (Paul) asked for Northern New Mexico food, minus the really hot spices it often contains, and the fixings were all there. The luncheon/party was held in the Commissioner's chambers and all ate well. Afterwards, I was sat down in the chair you see in the photo and a fisherman's hat was placed on my head. The Finance people had put together a video which showed my career with the County, along with some more youthful pictures that Marolynn had slipped to them when she came up with me in the morning. Then gifts galore, including certificates to eat in some of my more favorite restaurants, and a big certificate to a sporting goods store that is in Albuquerque and in Utah. All sorts of folks came out with tributes, including the County Manager shown next to me in the upper photo. Retirement partys are something like weddings and funerals - a big deal in Santa Fe.

Ashanti Symbols
I found a book on Symbols in the half-price bin at a local bookstore, and discovered that it includes Ashanti symbols. The book states, "One of the richest traditions comes from the West African Ashanti people who make Adinkra cloth and live in and around the coast of the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Ashanti children are brought up listening to the legends and stories of their kings and ancestors, and the symbols they use on their cloth often refer to these stories. The word "Adinkra" may refer to an ancient battle between the Ashanti king Nana Osei Bonsu-Panyin and Adinkera, king of Gyaman (now Ivory Coast), or may simply be an inversion of the word "Dinkra," meaning "farewell to the dead." This latter idea is supported by the use of the special cloth at funerals. Adinkra cloth is carefully hand printed and was probably taken up by the Ashanti peoples from Gyaman sometime between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

Aban: castle or palace is the Adinkra symbol of the seat of power, strength, authority, respect for the law, ligitimacy, and magnificance. The symbol commerates a historical event: the building of a magnificent palace for the Asantehene (head of the Ashanti) in 1822. The Aban also became known as the palace of culture before it was destroyed by the British later in the 19th century. Aban can also represent a fence as well as signifying security, protection, and love.

Adwo: This Adinkra symbol means peace, calmness, spiritual calm, and continuity. It is often used in a political contect and derives from the Ashanti saying "Where the king has good counselors, his reign will be peaceful." It is a popular symbol in Adinkra cloth design.

Adinkraheme: The most important Adinkra symbol is Adinkraheme, which literally means "chief or king of Adinkra designs." This symbol represents greatness, firmness, magnanimity, chrisma, and leadership. It is said to have been the founding or primary symbol for the other Adinkra symbols, and in itself symbolizes the importance of playing a leading role. It is also the primary Adinkra printing symbol.

Akoben: Akoben represents the war horn used to give the battle cry to summon warriors to the battlefield. It stands for wariness, alertness, vigilance, and the readiness to be called to arms or to fulfill one's duty or fight in a good cause. The symbol is used to represent loyalty to one's nation and the need to be ready to serve one's nation when it is threatened.

Akokonan: This symbol represents the saying "The hen treads on her chicks but does not kill them," or in short, "the leg of a hen." The Akokonan symbol, a stylized hen's foot, symbolizes the idea of parenthood, of being able to protect and, if necessary, punish one's child. In a wider context it is a call to nurture children but not to spoil them, or could be also understood to be showing mercy.
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I'll add to the list as time goes on.

(from Symbols, by Sandra Forty, Metro Books, 2008.)

Monsoon Tryout
Well it's June now, nearly the first day in summer when it starts getting light at 4:30 am and stays light until after 9 pm. Monsoon-type invasions of tropical air have been trying to establish themselves for a month now, generally 3 or 4 miles up and leaving little precipitation. The tropical Pacific is warmer than average, setting up a El Nino condition for the first time in four years, which promises a wet "monsoon season." This morning there is a light-steady rain which we're not complaining about but the forecaster is talking about real hot summer weather in the coming week. Marolynn's happy because the rain drives us inside to pack still more boxes and get ready for the big garage sale that we must have. This picture was taken (not by me) north of Santa Fe up by Espanola and ended up on the Albuquerque Weather Service site.

Dont have to do this anymore...
After fifteen years of putting away textbooks at the end of the school year, Marolynn finished the last of the after-the-school-year work and turned in her keys today and left Desert Ridge Middle School for the last time in a work capacity. The custodian remarked with amazement that he could see her desk again in her office.

We spent an hour in the afternoon on the phone with an officious Social Security staffer, getting Marolynn's Social Security payments started and trying to get Medicare - part B, to prepare for the health plan we'd get from the school district through the state. He ended the conversation by saying that he'd send some more forms for us to fill out. The secret in getting Social Security benefits is in dealing with the friendlier folks in that organization.

Jellystone Park
On Saturday, May 30, we made it into Yellowstone park and all the way to Old Faithful which is surrounded by new construction and renovation of the lodges, and still a few patches of snow on the ground. We stopped at a few geysers and hot pools on the way, including this one that kept splashing and fuming all the time we were there. Back home, I told my boss that the ranger said that for ten bucks, I could name the little geyser for a day and that I handed over the money and called it "Mom's Temper".

Of course, "Mom" took a picture of me at Grand Prysmatic Spring, and you now know why most pictures in this blog are of her, rather than me. I can't say as I'm too photogenic at this age.




Yellowstone seems full of Buffalo, or rather Bison. In 1900 there were only 50 Bison in the park and they were interbred with 20 plains Bison which were almost extinct after the great slaughter of the late 1800's. Now the protected animals are everywhere and all the fields by the river look like the rangers come out and give them a close mowing every week. Perhaps there might be a wee too many Bison in the park now.

The Suski Folks in Ammon
While we were in Idaho Falls, I gave my old friend Allen Suski a call, but we have a knack for visiting each other's town while the other is away somewhere. Allen was off to his 'property' up by Spokane for the week, but I left him a phone message. We were in West Yellowstone on Saturday when Marolynn's cell phone rang, and it was Allen who gave us his folk's (changed) phone number. I stayed with George and Lee Suski in Tucson each year when Allen and I went to the big mineral show there, so we knew them pretty well. Several years ago they moved to Ammon, Idaho which is really just the east side of Idaho Falls. They are probably the only non-Mormons in Ammon. Allen had moved to Idaho Falls to return to work with the company we had worked for in Albuquerque. George and Lee are doing just great in Idaho, still with that Northwest spirit indicative of our friend, Jan in Oregon.

Best Man
We took Jon up to Idaho Falls where a couple of his best friends, Derek and Kendra who he met while he was at Snow College, were married. They asked Jonathan to be best man at the reception on Saturday (May 30) and to attend their marriage at the Idaho Falls Temple on Friday. Derek is going to school at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg and Kendra comes from Alaska. Jon had lots of fun while his folks went to Yellowstone on Saturday before the reception.

Where Jon Works
Jonathan in Salt Lake City looked for, applied, interviewed and got a job on his own in the middle of May. He is a tour guide at the Wheeler Farm, a kind of a pioneer farm and large city park a couple of miles away from where he lives at the Mineer house. Though it is just a part time job where he signs up to take tours as they come up, he likes it very much. So far the tourists and his employers like him too. The big building behind Marolynn in the picture is a Scandinavian barn-like structure which houses a community hall and features all kinds of fun activities for kids and their families. There's also a house on the grounds; haunted, so many people say. It does look quite like Disneyland's haunted house. Parks are one thing I really like about Salt Lake -- big expanses of grass and trees all over town. We made another Utah trip a week ago and visited Wheeler Farm, taking Jonathan to work.