When you change the way you look at things..

Wrote this many years ago. Still having the same thought process.

We will go to the local "Memorial Park" in Cupertino and say a silent thank you to the folks who let us have the life we do by sacrificing their lives. We also went to the Livermore temple and said a prayer for all those souls to rest in peace. All of those folks gave their lives to fight for the USA, just to ensure "our way of living" is secure, but as civilians, shouldn't we all think the other way around?

Maybe we shouldn't have to be in this many wars and have our servicemen put in harms way for no reason? Can we reduce the number of casualties in our armed forces, if we change our habits for the betterment of the US and the world? Maybe consume less gas, waste less water and food, even use less plastic packaging, electing the right politicians, disconnecting the war mongering machinery that creates more conficts to ensure arms suppliers continue to make a profit at the expense of the world, etc. etc. every choice we make every minute today seems to make it worse for our armed forces! 

In true American tradition, we cut down a bunch of 50 year old oak trees, put a road through it and call it "Oak tree road", kill every bear and dry out the local creek and call it "Bear Creek road", butcher every native in the area and name the roads after their tribe.

Along the same lines, we send a bunch of kids to war in far off lands to die on false pretexts and erect memorials in their name. 

Yes, the cynic in me is at a 100% and the irony meter has maxed out, but isn't that what is going on even today?

We should think about the consequences of our actions and see what we can do to change them. I give up most times, because the changes we want simply don't seem possible,  especially when you realize that you are fighting big money, and the only way to fight money is with more money!

In any case, irrespective of our choices and where we are, where we are going to end up in as a country, the dedication of our servicemen is something we should all be grateful for.

This year, we are not traveling for Memorial day.

One good thing about having a blog is you can see where we have gone for this weekend over time.. In the last 10 years we have visited so many different places (we could have a similar list for 4th of July, Labor day or Thanksgiving and Christmas) 

2005 - India Trip for Grandparents wedding wows..

2006 - Disneyland, Seaworld with San's grandparents

2007 - Yellowstone National Park

2008 - Mt. Shasta, Lassen National Park

2009 - Menocino, Fort Bragg

2010 - Monterey Bay Aquarium

2011 - Palm Springs 

2012 - Stayed home, went to Great Mall and Cherry picking in Brentwood

2013 - Denali National Park

2014 - Lassen National park - a rerun

When you set the travel bar at this level, there is an expectation to go somewhere, anywhere! This year, I am just too tired. Simply do not want to see an airport or sit on an airplane seat. Just happy to be at home, eat, sleep and finish off some chores at home. At least that was the plan when I wrote this post on Saturday morning and forgot to "post".

I did manage to clean the Aquarium which was long overdue. Then I got the flu on Saturday night. The last 72 hours has been very painful. Travel get sick. Don't travel, still get sick.. So per San and the kids, might as well travel and be sick.

Sometimes a three day weekend is not enough just to get to a sense of normal! The kids think given I got sick, it is normal. They can be cruel sometimes with their jokes.

To think that I am complaining about a 3 day weekend not being enough when our troops don't get to see their families for years at a stretch is maxing out the irony meter again.

Here's to the guys who defend our "freedom". That freedom should be freedom of speech, expression, social values, religion, etc.. not freedom to be irresponsible! 

Long weekend

After many years, we are staying put at home for the long weekend, helping my parents adjust to the USA.

Daddy and the little one are also recovering from their sore throats, surprise gifts from the weather change here. It was a 15 degree drop from the usual high temps the last two days.

We decided to go hit the one local indoor place where the grandparents could walk and the kids could have fun for a few hours! The Great Mall..

It took us a good 25 minutes to find a parking spot, but off we went with the sea of people shopping for "sale" items and got the kids some summer wear.

They promptly posed for my indoor photo shoot.

More tomorrow..

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Tahquitz Canyon - Videoblog

Was struggling to edit these HD movies from the 5D. Now that we have a new laptop (courtesy daddy's workplace) with Windows 7 and a new free Windows Movie Maker, editing videos and adding captions is simple again.

Photoblog is here..

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Tahquitz Canyon - connecting with the past

The last day of our Palm Springs trip was spent visiting various canyons.

We saw the Palm canyons (no waterfalls unfortunately but a great natural oasis and a pleasant walk through a canyon that goes for 12 + miles), Andreas Canyon and Tahquitz canyon. By the time we came to Tahquitz center it was almost 3 PM and they said we have to do a 1.8 mile round trip hike and be back before 5PM when the entrance closed! So only myself, Balaji and the oldest of the four kids made it on the hike. The rest of the group said "pass". We did make it through (with photo time) in almost an hour and a half.

The canyon and the sights were amazing. You get to see Palm Springs between the mountains as you go up and the streams are on one side all along the walkway.

The Indians had figured out that there was a waterfall which fell into a flat rock and made a natural swimming pool out of this place. Truly breathtaking falls and pool. The water was 2 to 5 feet deep and ice cold but extremely refreshing. We saw little kids swimming in this pool of fresh melt ice water! They had come prepared in swimming gear with the adults.

This place is strongly recommended provided your kids can handle it. Older adults will have a tough time in this hike because you go up rock steps, some of which are almost 18 to 24 inches tall. You have to lift your knees pretty high to get on the steps one at a time. You also need to pick the right weather do to this hike as it can get pretty hot up there.

Overall, strongly recommended if you hit the palm springs area.

Thanks to Balaji for snapping a few pics with me in them! We now have at least a few pictures with me in them. It was also suggested that yours truly was camera shy before because of extended-tummy-itis and now have changed. Well, time will tell..

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Cabazon Dinosaurs - Photoblog

The original target location for the long weekend trip was to see the Concrete Dinosaurs of Cabazon. We wanted to go someplace where there was something for the kids and something for the adults. Websites told us that the Dinosaurs of Cabazon which were as high as 70-80 feet took 10 years to build and they were built with the help and consultation of top paleontologists and included a museum of sorts which educated kids..

We sure had some surprises!

Cabazon must be one of the windiest places in the US! We were almost lifted off the ground the minute we set foot on the parking lot. The high winds, the mountain backdrops and the large dinos in the middle of palm trees set an eerie stage that make it look like they could have walked the very area.

Very lifelike and life size dino's greeted us miles away. The kids and adults had fun posing in front of the dinos, climbing on whatever they were allowed to climb...

You could actually go inside the dino by climbing stairs and the belly of the beast was actually a gift shop! The surprise in the place was not the dinos but the propaganda. There was not much of the original paleontology or science left. Apparently the dino museum is under new management. Right wing creationists have taken over the place. So all the old posters have been replaced by laminated powerpoint slides and new boards which talk about how God created man and dinosaurs and they all lived at the same time.

Guess there are a lot of people who are offended by being related to monkeys! The kids were reading the boards and had too many questions which were funny.

I guess we can call ourselves creative evolutionists?! We teach our kids that god created everything. At least my grandpa taught me that when the celestial beings (Deva's) did a sacrifice many things came out of god including different castes of humans, the sun, the moon, the stars, wind, fire, water, animals, birds etc. etc. which gets passed on to my kids thanks to occasional temple visits, India trips, slokam learning and Amar Chitra Kathas! So there was no issue with god doing the creating part.

As people who are very open to evolution, genetics, DNA, carbon dating, archaeology and paleontology, ie., science in general we believe that the dinosaurs were there a long long time ago before humans were there and were wiped out long before we showed up and evolved into modern day reptiles and birds. The new displays at the dino museum pretty much questioned all of the above!

They even sent T-rex to church which was hilarious!

Guess we all have to get ready for Sarah Palin sooner or later or accept these alternate realities because money can buy everything.. especially science!

Next thing you know the sun and planets will be going around the earth, which happens to be flat and the likes of Kepler, Copernicus and Galileo will be turning in their graves!

As for Watson and Crick, well let us leave those poor souls alone!

Still strongly recommend the Cabazon dinosaurs. You should have no problem if you are into right wing creationism and want to go to church with T-rex!

Otherwise, be prepared to answer questions to your kids. At least they get to know there are people who believe in things that are different and that is a good thing.

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