Postcard Weather From The Valley

Hi Friends,

It has been so nice here in Washoe Valley I decided to take a walk almost every afternoon to explore some of the beauty in the place we call home. I took lot’s of pictures while I was exploring, you can see them all here on our Flickr page.

I hope you are enjoying weather like we have or at least are enjoying the weather you have. You know I think there is something beautiful in every day. Sure sometimes you have to pause and relax to see the beauty, but it is always there.

Have a wonderful day, hug someone you love and share a smile.

Later,

Don http://www.tuckertimes.com

Hiya Buddies!

Hi Friends,

I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. My name is “Peppy” and I am the newest member of the Tucker Clan. I am having a real good time here at Don & Brenda’s place. My favorite things so far are licking faces, biting Brenda when she won’t play with me enough (Brenda calls me an alligator)and going to work with Brenda.

I can run forever and a day, but when I stop I just fall into whatever arms happen to be around and sleep. Boy can I sleep! I can almost sleep all night long without having to get up to …. well you know, but I am getting better every night.

Yes that is sort of a mohawk on my head, pretty cool huh? It gives me my own style and sets me apart from the crowd, I guess that is why Brenda picked me out of the bunch.

Rusty, my big brother and mentor, is starting to like me more each day. I still get on his nerves from time to time and I have to remind myself that he is not a pup anymore and has a reputation as a grump. He let’s himself go once in a while and we play and run all over the house … it is a blast!

So I had my human friends make this little video to show you just how cute I am. I hope you like it. It is here in YouTube!

Talk to ya later friends,

Peppy!

My Journey, Learning From Things and People and Events

Hi Friends,

For some reason I have been drawn to the news accounts of the lost Father and climbers in Oregon the last few weeks. It is not just because they were the local and National news top stories, it was like there was something deeper that was trying to get into my mind and heart.

First there was James Kim who took a turn en route to the Oregon Coast and died trying to find help for his family. Then last week and this week I listened to the story of the three friends that decided to climb Mt Hood in Oregon and got caught in a snowstorm that ended in tragedy.

The one thing that really got my attention was the strength of the families as they faced the press, the daily not knowing and eventually the fact that their loved ones were not coming back. I looked on my own to find some answers and find out what it was that was gnawing at me like metal to a magnet.

One of the first places I looked was for the source of the strength of the family of Kelly James. It seemed that much of what help them together was their faith in God and a simple belief that what was happening was in Gods hands not theirs. I found a church in Texas that Kelly James was a member of and downloaded the Podcast of the past weeks sermons by his Pastor Gary Brandenburg of Fellowship Dallas. They were simple and not filled with catch phrases or fancy speaking techniques like some TV Evangelists. It was Gods message delivered like pure milk and it was very good. Pastor Brandenburg is now one of my favorites on my iPod and his Podcasts are on my must hear list each week.

Then came the interview of Kelly James wife on CBS News. It was full of emotion and was at times difficult to watch. She described what Kelly’s family had gone through the two weeks as they went from missing to lost and the recovery of the body of their beloved father and husband. As this drama comes to an end and Christmas/New Years comes our way here are the things I have learned and what I hope to keep from all of this.

God still has a plan for me and has not given up on me no matter where I might be of what I might have become. He has and is using things in this world to get my attention and touch my heart so that I will sit quietly and listen to His voice.

I want to be one that touches others especially my wife, so that when I am gone they look back and can talk about how I made their days a bit brighter or their life a bit fuller. When Kelly James wife talked about how he “…took her to the moon and back.” it made me want to be a better husband. I don’t know just what that means yet, but I am sure the journey will be exciting as I try to figure out what I can do to make a positive difference in the life of my beautiful wife and others.

Thanks for stopping by today…. May God bless you this Christmas and bring new adventures your way in the coming year.

Lots of Love,

Don

Missing My Friend, Looking Back at The Worst Day Ever

Our Blog today is more for my therapy than for entertainment so adjust your viewing/reading to reflect that. This has turned into one of the hardest blog entries to write, taking more than two weeks so far.

Recently we lost our 4 1/2 year old Chihuahua, Pee-Wee, to a heart defect he had all his life. Even though Pee Wee had lived with this health problem, his sudden passing has left our house with a deep sadness that has not been easy to overcome. For the first time in my life, my heart hurt, the sadness was so intense, and i think we cried for a week. Our little friend had lived with what the vets call a reverse shunt, a heart defect that maybe could have been helped if detected anytime in the first 4 years of his life. We are very quick to get all of our animals to the vet if they need any kind of medical attention, and we have had Pee Wee to many different vets in his life that had not seen anything like this shunt at all.

Pee Wee was our constant companion, traveling with us on all of our trips, occupying the little open space between the front seats that seemed to be made by Honda just for him. Our last trip with him was to Cambria, CA for the family reunion where he walked on the beach and barked at other dogs, an generally had a great time. Always ready to relax on your lap in the afternoon or share a bit of ice cream with you (vanilla was his favorite) Pee Wee more than any other dog I can remember was happy to be part of every move you made. One of my favorite things was the way he would lay down on your legs in the evening while we watched TV and got caught up on our days events at work. He would sleep so sound and occasionally look up at you before going back to sleep where no doubt he would dream of chasing the cat or eating dandelions.

Pee Wee went with Brenda to work (she was so lucky). He sat just a few inches from her keyboard and when he needed a drink of water or something he would very lightly touch her hand and she would get him just what he needed. I am sure the fact that she was him more than me, means she will miss him even more.

So now we are trying to come to grips with the fact that we will never hold him again or hear his little bark when we leave the room (his way of asking, why he was sitting there all alone). We are asking if the vet that saw Pee Wee on his last night really knew what was wrong with him, or if he was just doing a job and had to get things settled before the next round of emergency room dogs needed the space that Pee Wee was occupying.

Pee Wee was buried under the flowering plum tree where he will be able to enjoy the shade on hot Summer afternoons and where the dandelions will always be within reach. In his box we buried his favorite toys … a old snake that he had for ever even though we had tried to replace it with a new one. We also left him with frog toy and one of his favorite yogurt drops. He looked forward to bedtime because he would get one of these yogurt drops and maybe be able to con Brenda or me into a second.

Thanksgiving and Christmas this year will be less than fun for us. It seems that decorating for Christmas just doesn’t seem appropriate since we won’t have Pee Wee around. I am sure that we will shed a few tears thinking of him as Christmas approaches and maybe take a moment to think of him healthy again, running in a field and maybe pausing once in a while to look to see if Brenda and I are there to pick him up.

We love you Pee Wee and think about you every day.

Don, Brenda and Rusty

Family Reunion, What a Blast!

Hi Friends,

Brenda and I are just back from the Heiden Family Reunion in Cambria, California. This is only the second one of these that we have attended (don’t ask why we have held off for so many years, it would take too much time and too many hours of counseling).

This year we were off to beautiful Cambria in Central California right on the coast between Heaven and breathtaking. This alone was worth the drive and the money as Cambria is now one of our favorite places to visit and relax. We stayed at the Moonstone Beach Inn, an amazing place to stay with animals (or without). They treated our little puppies just like they treated us and that was amazing. I don’t know what it is about the people of Cambria, but they seemed like some of the neatest people in the World. You could even find them out at night after they baked fresh cookies and brownies for the guests, visiting and having a nice evening beverage while sharing the sunset. I hope you get to visit this wonderful place some day and that it is a weekend to remember for you too.

On saturday we visited with family at the Heiden family reunion. The setting this year was a quaint little park just down the street from out room and full of beauty. It backed right up to the Ocean so we were forced to take a short walk from time to time on the beach listening to the sea or searching for the elusive Moonstones that have made this place very special.

After a full day at the park we went back to our room for a quiet evening with Rusty and PeeWee (the Chihuahuas) before we had to be on the road again towards Casa Tucker the next morning.

We have plenty of pictures to share if you have a few minutes. Just stop by and check out our Flickr page right cheer! I hope we are not turning into those relatives that would invite themselves over and bring their slide projector and screen. At least with us you can just Google away from here if you want.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing our adventure. We look forward to sharing our next big fun with you.

Lots of Love

Don and Brenda & Rusty & PeeWee Too!

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

The first snow has fallen in the mountains, not much, but just enough to remind us that Winter and all that it brings with it are just around the corner. Now is the time we look back at 2006 so far…. what we have done and what we didn’t get done.

We really made some amazing memories this year during our many adventures. They will be with us forever and remind us of this time in our life. This particular time in our life is one that moves us away from being young and towards what is called mid-life. I guess that is what it is but I don’t feel that much different now than I did when I was 17 or 18. Oh well, I would rather be 46 and act like a teenager than be 46 and act like I was 70. I am not ready to give up any of my dreams or adventures to age as some have done.

Looking back at 2006 so far, we started the year off right with Spring vacation at the beach again. Gold Beach is just a wonderful place to unwind and bring things into focus. I think this should be a twice a year adventure, but companies being what they are, 2 weeks vacation seems to be all you get until you have been with them for 10 years. So we have to make the best of what we are allowed until we can find something else to do that gives a bit more for the effort you put in. But back to Gold Beach, it is truly one of Gods greatest works, and one of our favorite adventures.

Disneyland in July. They said we were a bit crazy, but it worked and it was fun and we are ready to do it again.

The TruckerFest truck show in August. Lots of work and even more fun. This year we put more effort into getting the truck ready than in the past and it paid off by shining brighter and we are looking forward to next year already.

The Rare Bear air race team and the Reno Air Races. Again worth all th effort and we look forward to next year.

A hike to the top of the World, or at least to the top of the mountain we look out on every day from the front yard. Mount Rose summit was a blast if not hard work. It was so beautiful and peaceful and well, it was everything that life and the World should be. Note to self … more time spent like this!

So now we welcome this Winter and make plans for some adventures in the midst of the snow and cold and general yuckyness (my word) that Winter brings. Maybe with a little work and imagination we can turn this Winter into something just as exciting as this Summer has been. I have always wanted to snowshoe and there are plenty of places within driving distance that don’t have snow. Then again maybe there are some adventures that can be done in doors.

Stay tuned as we look for more family adventures this Winter.

Lots of Love,

Don & Brenda

Goal Accomplished!

I can scratch off one more item from my list of things that I just had to do. Today I hiked to the top of Mount Rose and looked out over Northern Nevada and California.

I really enjoy getting out and going for a good walk in the woods now and then and today I finally got off my rear and began hiking to the summit of Mount Rose. It was a bit more than any hikes I have taken in the past with a good 2000′ rise in elevation in about 2.5 miles. Luckily I had read a bit about this hike or I might have been too intimidated by the trail in a couple of spots. Monday night I took a few minutes to read in the Tahoe Rim Trail Book and found that it was an amazing hike but the last few hundred feet rise towards the end was a real test.

I was on the trail at about 11:00 am and it took all of 3 hours to reach the summit. I rested and of course called Brenda at work to tell her where I was. She was really not too excited but listened to my adventure story anyway.

It took about 2 hours to fall …. I mean walk the 2.5 miles back to the car before returning home. This is going to be remembered as one of my favorite hikes because of the beauty of the Mount Rose wilderness and the views from the top of the hill. I hope to return sometime early next Spring to see the falls when they are really running and to check out the Spring Flowers.

So check out our Flickr photo’s from this adventure, I know I will look at them this Winter when I am cold and stuck in the house. It will warm me up for sure!

Talk to ya soon…

Don

Quality Time!

I had the amazing opportunity to spend some quality time with my Neice Lindsey a couple of weeks back. We wanted to do something really different and fun so … we made a movie! Lindsey came up with the idea and directed the whole thing. We had so much fun that day, I hope we get to spend a special day like this again soon.

Here we present our finished product… the movie, ‘Big Croc, Little Croc’

Time to Look Back, Relax and Find Myself Again

Hi Friends and Family,

It has been a busy couple of months after Disneyland. When we got home it was back to work and as you know that is always tough. I am looking for answers to making the return from vacation back to work a enjoyable experience, but I think that will take some looking inside to discover just what that requires.

We spent a couple of very hard weeks getting the ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ truck ready for TruckerFest 2006. It was one of our best efforts to date with a lot of extra attention to detail we have never done before. We sprayed the frame rails and polished things we hadve missed in the past and generally were very happy with the results. You can see all the pictures from our efforts on our Flickr page. We also added some neat elements this year with a theme. We picked a very cool Mohawk logo that was designed by Disney in the late ’50’s, Tommy Mohawk. With lots of help from friends and Ebay we set up a very cool display.

After TruckerFest it was time to put our full efforts into getting the Hauler ready for the Rare Bear Air Racing Team and the Reno National Championship Air Races. It was quite an effort as this Hauler has been in a field for the past 5 to 10 years and really was showing the signs of being a tired old trailer instead of a very cool piece of air race history.

We got the trailer/hauler ready just in time for the races and took it out to the air field for the races. Then we shifted into another gear to help the team get the Rare Bear ready for another shot at history. The week went well until the Bear lost a cylinder and our race week was over. Now we have the trailer back home and it dreams of the coming race season and a new paint job and interior to show off next year.

Finally… How cool is the picture on the right? I had the extreme cool opportunity to ride a Seguay. I have been wanting to ride this amazing two wheel marvel for years and finally got to spend some time on it. It was everything I dreamed it would be and more. Now I am trying to convince Brenda that this is what we need even above food and power. More pictures of our Rare Bear Hauler and the Seguay can be found on our Flickr photo pages so check em out if you have a minute.

I finally had a day that allowed me to catch my breath and think about my future adventures. It felt good to just sit and relax and contemplate my navel. Tomorrow if the sun is shining and I have another short day …. the mountains are calling me to come back and explore and dream.

More later…

Don

Could This Be True?

Just talking so far, but you know me … it’s never too early to start thinking and counting down to the next adventure.

So with that in mind, I am adding a countdown ticker for our next Disneyland Adventure. Looks like it may happen during Spring Break 2006 so it is really right around the corner. March 26th, 2007 here we come, now if we can just get past Winter and Christmas and New Years and …. oh well, it still seems right around the corner.

Ta Da …. Here it is!