The Ridgecrest CA Suorez Family

July 20, 2008 And the rain just kept on coming down. Poly was watching as two boys were floating down the flooded gutters. Fortunately, there were no cars parked along that side of the road. The rain has stopped, but the water keeps running along. This is our third cloudburst in a week, and our area is as saturated as it can handle! To watch the short video of our flash flooding, click on the photo. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload even more dramatic footage by the time anyone sees this!

March 30, 2007: Ship 118 Graduates from Boot Camp We flew into Chicago on March 29, then drove to Great Lakes. It was a pleasant trip on Frontier Airlines, with a bunch of very friendly and helpful people. The one downfall Frontier showed is the terribly unfriendly people they choose for their boarding gates. We went through this four times, and three out of the four were looking for a reason to snarl at passengers.

The graduation ceremony was quite nice, although I'm not sure it was the spectacle I had been told to expect. The picture at the left was taken right after Marcus was ordered to fall out, and he looked up in the stands and saw us. He was allowed liberty the remainder of the day, then during the daytime over the weekend. He had a lot of funny stories to tell us about boot camp, as we took in a bit of Chicago.

After graduation, we went to a restaurant for lunch. Marcus told us that, out of all of the sailors in his ship, he was ordered to eat breakfast in his utilities that morning (everyone else wore their dress uniforms). Apparently, his CPO and shipmates had noticed that he's a fairly messy eater, and the CPO wasn't going to have him show up for final review covered in breakfast. Another time, during "Battle Stations" (held at the end of boot camp), he had been put in charge of his group and had done well right up to the end. Unfortunately, he "died" right before the final exercise. Fortunately, they had to bring him back to life for the final exercise because he was the only one who knew everyone's assignments. Because "Battle Stations" is a secretive activity, he couldn't tell us any specifics, only that he had felt foolish for "dying" so far into the exercise.

The rest of Friday was spent watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" at the local mall, and generally taking it easy

Polly and Marcus in front of the planetarium

On Saturday, we drove into Chicago and went to the planetarium and the Field Museum (within walking distance to one another and to the aquarium). Anyone who gets the opportunity should make sure they see these two places. Besides having great displays, the planetarium shows great movies on the domed roof of at least one of it's two observatories. We saw a great movie on black holes that added a lot of information to our "Trekophole" backgrounds. I now know (or think I know) more about black holes, worm holes, and time dilation than I did previously, and think I understand why we aren't going to be traveling through worm holes, despite Stargate's script writers.

Polly and Marcus in the Field Museum

The Field Museum (across the street from Soldier Field) was an excellent Museum of Natural History. They have a wonderful permanent dinosaur exhibit and a temporary, fairly mediocre dinosaur exhibit. The permanent exhibit has great exhibits, while the temporary show explains some of what paleontologists actually do. It isn't all looking at bones, apparently.

Sunday was a day of rest. Marcus enjoyed getting to sit in a comfy chair and watch a DVD in our room. Apparently, sitting isn't one of those things you do in boot camp. We took him back to base that evening, and prepared to return home the next morning. Marcus' next assignment will be A-School, which for him is at Fort Meade, MD. He looks happy and excited about what he's doing. What else can a parent hope for?

 

February 1, 2007: Marcus joins the Navy  I guess it's time to start keeping this web site updated, since we'll be having a lot of pertinent family news to share . Here is where Marcus is learning his new trade (click the graphic to vies the site). At 1:00 p.m. today, Feb. 4), it is 0 degrees, with a 20 mph wind causing a wind chill of - 20. Not quite the same as the balmy 58 degrees we're enjoying here in Ridgecrest.

October 15, 2006: Polly's brother, Dr. Stephen King, makes the (link:) Arts and Leisure section of today's New York Times for one of his pieces.

July 9, 2006: Okay, I've been playing with the web site prior to going on vacation. I've added a "Discussion Page" (the link is above, and is repeated on the sidebar. Hopefully, someone who stops in will leave some comments!

July 8, 2006: Polly and I are loading the car, getting ready to leave on our summer vacation. We'll be spending five or six days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Marcus had been working in Yellowstone, so we had planned on visiting him at Canyon. Unfortunately, they overstaffed and had to let people go (Marcus was one).

We talked to Sky yesterday. He was able to visit with his cousin, Will Gryc, while the tour was in Buffalo, NY. After spending the last couple of weeks working up and down the East Coast, they bands are starting their swing across the northern states this week. They have several shows in Ohio, then Minnesota, then come to the West Coast, moving up and down from Washington to Southern California. For a complete listing of their tour stops, visit the Rx Bandits' 'Tour" page.

Grayson is waiting for Activision to start their next project, which should be within the next two weeks. Until then, he is encouraged to take time off (he'll be working six days a week once the project starts). Interestingly, he's been dating a former student of mine (from when I taught first grade numerous years ago). Makes me feel old (I guess I am, huh?).

While we're on vacation, Marcus will be holding down the home front. He'll either be searching for a job or playing online video games.

June 19, 2006: Monday after Fathers Day Or, "Help! My son is trying to kill me!" Grayson always has my best interests at heart - or, at least, I think he does. Either on my birthday or on Fathers Day, he takes time to come home and make sure I don't go totally sedentary by inviting me to do something I probably wouldn't do on my own. Last year, we hiked up Sand Canyon (I stress the "UP"). This year, he invited me (and several of his friends, as it turned out) to take a day hike up to Flower Lake from the Onion Valley trailhead via the Kearsarge Pass trail. For those not familiar with it, Kearsarge is a popular egress onto the John Muir Trail (a section of the Sierra Crest trail), which stretches from Yosemite Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney. It is rated one of the easier passes in the Eastern Sierras, starting at an altitude of 9200 ft. and rising to Kearsarge Pass at 11,760 ft. Flower Lake sits at 10,500 ft, and is a mere five miles up. Not a real challange, unless you've let yourself get out of shape.

Thank you, Grayson, for wanting to spend time with your dear old dad, and for inspiring me to get in shape or die.

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005: While Sky and Joa enjoyed a week in Hawaii visiting Joa's dad (okay - Joa enjoyed two weeks, but Sky had to return home to work), Polly, Marcus and I went down to Santa Monica to visit with Grayson. We got there on Sunday morning because Grayson is supervising the graveyard shift at work. We spent a fun day at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific (explaining the photo to the left). After working up an appetite, we headed across the street from the aquarium for a late lunch at Bubba Gumps. The fish were beautiful, and oh so delicious! CLICK HERE to view all my photos from the day.

 

Here are the Ridgecrest Suorez portion of the Suorez clan. Left to right are Grayson, Polly, Marcus, Sky, Joa, and myself. This photo was taken in January of 2003, at Polly's parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary.

In May of 2004, Grayson received his Baccalaureate degree from San Francisco State University, where he graduated with a major in Philosophy and a minor in English. He is also a talented photographer, as can be seen by his 2001 Yellowstone photos. Currently, he is living and working in Santa Monica, CA. He has also started committing some of his musings to the Internet, at Grayson's Blog. Please visit! Right now, he's working the graveyard shift at Activision, and will be supervising a testing crew as soon as they start a new project.

Sky has earned his Bachelor of Applied Science in Comprehensive Sound Arts degree from Expressions Center for New Media, and was working the sound boards for iMusicast.com before leaving for Japan. In December of 2003, he toured as the sound man for the group "Desa". Joa has received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, CA. Following their marraige in June of 2004, they moved to Japan for a year of teaching and traveling.

Skylar and Joa spent a year in Fukuoka, Japan, teaching and tutoring English in Japanese middle and high schools. They enjoyed their visits throughout Japan, as well as taking trips to Thailand (during Christmas of '04 - does "tsunami" ring a bell?) and South Korea. You can enjoy photos of those experiences by going to Skylar's web site.

Since August of 2005, Sky has been managing Asian Man Records for world-renowned Ska great, Mike Park. During June and July of 2006, he is touring the United States, working as the sound man for the bands DESA, Rx Bandits, and Men, Women and Children. We'll actually get to see them when they pass through Bakersfield near the end of July.

Polly is chairing the counselling department at Cerro Coso Community College here in Ridgecrest, CA. She is also the person who keeps me sane. We have been married for 29 wonderful years (as of September of 2006) 

To say the least, I am very proud of my sons. Not only are they very accomplished, they are wonderful young adults. Personally, I just keep plugging away, and have changed from Fifth to Second Grade at Faller Elementary School, a California Distinguished School and part of the Sierra Sands Unified School District. In my spare time, I design and maintain websites, such as the Burroughs High School Football site and the Faller Elementary School site.