The End of the Dusty Trail

This past week marked the last Official Visits for this Grand Chapter year.  I didn't even realize that we were on the last ones until someone mentioned it, but now we enter into Reception season and the next thing I know it will be time for Schools and Grand Chapter again.

People always told me that time runs faster as you get older, but evidently I am over the hill and gaining speed because for the life of me, I can't figure out where six months of this year went.  The end of this week is July and a week after that is the first reception, which is mine!  AAAHHH!!

So we made a big, big loop this past weekend, with lots of miles between locations.  I confess that I flew the circuit because I just can't sit in a car that long any more.  So I left San Jose in my little plane on Friday afternoon, flew to Bakersfield, attended the Official Visit there, stayed overnight, flew to Palmdale, attended the Official Visit there, flew to San Luis Obispo, rented a car and drove to Santa Maria, stayed there overnight and then drove back to San Luis in the morning for the LAST OV of 2011 and then flew home to San Jose.

My brave escort went with me on this flying loop and some of the other Grand Officers and Escorts were teasing her about being so very brave, but her dad was involved in aircraft so she's been around planes lots.  And anyone who has flown with crop dusters no doubt finds my flying a bit on the boring side, since I tend to stay in the middle of the air and avoid the edges (you know, ground, outer space, mountains, stuff like that) except when landing.  Every time I take off, I remind myself that now I have to land the plane, one way or another because landings must always equal take offs.  It is inescapable math, just like the speed of light and the power of gravity.  Try ignoring that sort of math and bad things happen.

It was hot in Bakersfield and Palmdale, although the locals told us that the weather was actually quite nice for their area for this time of year.  But then, I am a weather wimp and proud of it.  I want the temperature between 60 and 85 at all times and anything outside those parameters is cold or hot, respectively.  When my family left Boston and I started visiting my sister in Las Vegas, I made myself a promise not to live in places with certain problems such as

Having to dig the car out of the snow
Having to plug in your car at night so it doesn't freeze solid
Having to wear mosquito netting in your back yard
Having to use the tail of your shirt to open the car door because the metal is so hot it will burn your fingers
Having to wear sunscreen to go to the grocery store
Having to install misters so that you can use your patio

Luckily it cooled off a lot when we got back out to the coast, so that was great!

The Official Visits were nice, but there weren't very many members there.  I  wonder if we were running into vacation time since a lot of people I know go on vacation as soon as school lets out.  It would have been nice to get to visit with more of the members, but I had a wonderful time with those who were there.

In Bakersfield, we attended the traditional Kern County dinner and Social Style OV, which made me wonder about something that happened earlier this year.  When we went to the Orange Belt and to San Diego, I remember that some of the members were put out about having to pay for the meal and entertainment to attend the Official Visit and that it was suggested that we have a "free" part of the event where locals could meet the Grand Family and not have to pay and then go into our meal and entertainment part for those who did want to pay.

However, for forty years, or so they said at the event, the Kern County OV has been a dinner followed by the Official Visit and everyone pays and no one has ever said boo about it.  So is the problem the paying or is it just that it is new?

I also have started wondering about that on receptions because I was told, when I was an appointive officer, that you could not charge the attendees for a reception, although you could charge for add on events, if you organized a separate outing for those coming to the area or not.  But one of the invitations I got for one of this year's receptions asks for a payment for the food and such and I am curious if something has changed that I never heard about.  I am sure that someone will tell me all about it.

Anyway, in Kern County, there is a tradition that the previous year's Grand Family come and help serve the food and afterwards, they all go off somewhere and eat something else.  My daddy always told me to be a little suspicious about people who cook or serve you food and then don't eat the same food, so I am wondering a little bit, but maybe I will find out the secret in 2014, when I get to help serve for the first time.

The Official Visits in Palmdale and San Luis were Traditional Style, but they did not have as many officers and I would have liked to see for the numbers of Chapters in the District.  At least that keeps the introductions shorter. :-)

Next week I will stay home and finish the preparations for my reception and the Conductress/AC/AP Designee workshop, with two work parties planned and hopefully enough.

I'm Late, I'm Late, For A Very Important Date

This past weekend, I enjoyed two Official Visits, in Los Molinos and in Yreka.

I started out flying from San Jose to Redding and parking my airplane there.  It is as north as you can reasonably go and stay in the valley.  After Redding, you  have to start climbing over the Shasta Cascades and the weather can get annoying.  So we parked the plane in Redding and then drove down to Los Molinos for the OV.  Driving along, I never knew how much stuff there was to do and to see in the Redding area.  After all, I've only gone up there to go to a meeting or event, or as I was passing through on my way to farther north.  So I definitely have to put on my list of "things I am going to do when I have time again" (which is maybe only three years from now :-) to go to that area when I have free time and go see all the bridges and caves and recreational activities.  Alas, that time is not now, so we drove to Los Molinos, had dinner and went to the Masonic Hall.  The Chapters there did a lovely job and I had the opportunity to visit with quite a few of my Dragon Riders, which was great!

After spending the night in Red Bluff, we drove a couple of hours up to Yreka for their Social OV.  Their theme was Mad Hatter's Tea Party and they had done an absolutely amazing job on costumes, decorations, the whole nine yards!  The Worthy Matrons and Patrons were dressed like the characters and there was even an Alice and a couple of Alice "clones" from the local youth group.  They even had a table that was set up crooked.  They did a great little skit bit building on the theme too.  I cannot imagine how much time those wonderful costumes must have taken though.  There was a White Queen and a Red Queen and a White Rabbit and a Caterpillar and a Mad Hatter and more!  It must have taken them weeks of preparation.  They put on a great party and everyone had a lot of fun.

To add to the excitement, it turns out that this past weekend was some sort of pioneer days celebration in the town.  The street alongside the Masonic Hall was closed for booths and I think that they were re-enacting black powder gun fights as part of the entertainment because every now and then we heard stuff being shot off.  I told my girls that I had never realized there was so much gang violence in a little town like Yreka. :-)  They assured me that it was limited to one weekend a year, but that it happend to be this particular weekend. :-)  That is one of the tough scheduling problems that we all face - when we set up a calendar a year or more ahead of time, we never know if it is going to be the weekend that there is some big local event and there is nothing we can realistically do to change the weekend if we find out afterwards.  A Grand Chapter calendar is like a Jenga game which is right near the end.  Everything is precariously balanced and you can't change one thing without throwing tons of other stuff completely out of whack.

Today, I am hoping that the overcast clears in Fortuna so that I can fly myself up for the OV this evening.  I wanted to make all the OVs this year and I have so far, but Mother Nature may prevent me from this one because I can't fly up safely if the overcast doesn't burn off.  So I will know in about three hours if I will make it.  I will be going to Bakersfield, Palmdale and San Luis Obispo this weekend.

Mountain Flying

This past weekend, I attended the Official Visit in Susanville.  For those of you who do not know where that is, from the San Francisco Bay Area, you drive four hours to Reno and then you turn north on 395 and drive back into California and an hour and a half later or so, you get to Susanville.  It is in a lovely vally with very friendly people, but I can understand why they feel just a little isolated.  Basically, from there, you have to drive at least an hour or two to get to somewhere from which you can go to somewhere else.  There is no easy way.

Of course, I did cheat a little because I just can't sit in a car for five hours any more without serious pain.  My hips are uneven, so sitting straight with my feet on the floor without crossing my ankles or my legs is tough for me for more than a couple of hours and sitting in a car for five, even with a meal break or something, is just torture.  At work, I have an ergonomic chair, but even then I try to get up and walk around every hour or so, which you just can't do on long drives if you actually want to get where you are going.

So I flew myself from San Jose to Susanville, a total flight time of about two hours because the roads in the air are very straight.  The only annoying part about doing that is that you have to fly over mountains and there are very few radio navigation aids in that part of California.  But if you can look out the window, you can use pilotage, which means watching the ground and steering based on what you see.  I chose to fly from San Jose to Oroville and when over Oroville, turn up the river valley and fly from there to Lake Almanor and then turn right and fly into Susanville.  It is always harder to go than to come back because the first time into a strange airport, you have to find the airport, but coming back, you've already seen the terrain and you are flying to somewhere familiar, so that is better.

When I got there, a very nice young lady gave me a lift into town and dropped me off at the Masonic Center and her dad fueled my plane while I was gone, and afterwards, one of the brothers kindly volunteered to give me a lift back, so that was all very easy.  That part of flying is really cool!  But no one wanted to go up or come back with me.  I guess with little planes, you either love them or hate them.

All of the members at the Official Visit were very welcoming and they were very touched and pleased that I had made it.  I was very glad I had made it also.  The members there really appreciate how long and hard a drive it is for anyone to get up to visit them and I appreciate that it is a long and hard drive for them to get to visit anywhere else.

There is also a perception, which I hope to help dispel, that lady Grand Line Officers never visit the far away places until they are Worthy Grand Matron.  I don't think that this is true, but it is a persistent myth.  I do appreciate how isolated and alone some of our areas must feel when most of the state seems to give the impression that California only goes from Sacramento to San Diego and east only as far as Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside.  So if my visiting can help our members in the North and East feel welcome and appreciated, I am happy to do it.

The only other puzzlement for me on these far away Official Visits is whether it is better to put only one or two in a group, or put them in a week long trip where you go from one to the other each day, whether the Official Visits are better during the day or at night and what we can do to get the most members to attend.  This Official Visit was on a Sunday afternoon and it looked to me like there were about sixty local members there.  I don't know if that is the total, active membership in the District, or if there are more members who would come in the evening or on a weekday or on a Saturday.  I wish my Lucky 8 ball had those sorts of answers on its little float. :-)

Next weekend, I will be in Los Molinos and Yreka.  I  will not be going to Oregon.

Carneval! No, Fiesta! No, Festival!

This past Saturday was our Summer Festival at our Senior Living Community in Yorba Linda.  This is an annual event that raises funds to pay for something special for our Residents or to boost our Endowment Fund that provides the income to run the facility.  For many years, this was a two day event, but a few years ago, they went to a one day event instead.  It used to be that each Grand Officer had a booth to fit the chosen theme for the year and the Grand Officers collected donated items from all over the state to fill these booths.  Some booths are sort of pre-set, especially for the line officers, while many of the appointive officer booths changed from year to year to accommodate the theme.  The day started bright and early with the Associate Patrons preparing and serving breakfast and went well into the evening with a dinner and entertainment night to cap it all off.

Some changes were made last year that have carried into this year and some more changes made this year, so we are all waiting to see how it went.  Last year's car show came back this year, with even more cars on display, including some real beauties, and booths were again made available for outside vendors, which made it a nicer draw for the community and the public to come.  Most of the appointive officers did not have individual booths, but they did help out with drinks and other booths.  The line officers and a couple of other groups had their traditional booths, mostly serving food and beverages, except for the lucky Conductresses and Chaplains, who sold formals and books respectively.

Now the thing about the formals and the books is that they are bulky and they are heavy, so getting them gathered up from all over and brought down to Yorba Linda can be a challenge calling for an entire logistics corps, but instead, I had two brave Chairmen, who got it all together.  They were awesome!  Extra special kudos go to the husband of one of my Chairmen, who did the work of five people and I am grateful that he survived the experience, (although, come to think of it, I am not sure I did see him come back from that last dumpster run. :-)  I could not have managed without these three hardy souls.

The thing about the formals booth though, is that it is one of our biggest money makers because lots of people are thrilled to get a gently used formal for only ten dollars and our overhead is the lowest, since all the stuff is donated and we don't have to pay for ingredients or paper products like the food booths do.  But it is a never ending work load.  We no sooner got everything up and running but we were had our first customers.  It really takes two people to handle each sale, one to collect the money and give change and another person to bag the purchases.  At the same time, we had people who were dropping off more donations all day long, which was great because it meant that our stock kept getting refreshed and people who came by later saw new stuff and not just picked over stuff, which also gave people an excuse to come back and buy more, but it also meant that I had two people who were busy all morning and a pinch of the afternoon getting the new stuff onto hangars and sorted into our racks.  We sorted the dresses by color rather than by size because size sorting would have been impossible and usually, people are looking for a particular color.  But it was more work to keep it that way than it would have been to just toss everything onto a rack.

So that was four full time people all day, but then you also need to give people breaks and take turns getting lunch and snacks and water and such.  I only got out of the booth for a lunch hour and potty break which included the inevitable picture taking session for the Grand Family, so I never actually saw any of the other booths or the car show cars, darn it.  But we had a good day, I hope, and had a great booth!

Next weekend, I will not be going to Fresno, but I will go to Susanville if the weather cooperates.