After Christmas we went to my mom’s house. One morning I woke up and looked outside through the window. Are those pussy willows? No, it’s winter. They’re snow willows.
We have two cats at home. Because of Christmas, my boy wanted to go to the pet store and buy some cat presents. So today he and I went to the pet store. He chose a cat toy, etc.
When we go to the pet store, my son likes to look at the hamsters, mice, etc. Because he’s becoming more responsible I bought two gerbils. Taking care of gerbils is easy, clean, and not stinky.
The light brown gerbil’s name is “Raezy” (ray-zee). The grey one’s name is “Jerris”. The two are young and cute.
I put the cage on the book shelf, but now the two cats are standing there looking at the gerbils. It’s a lazy cats’ TV!
We don’t see Japanese things around here. Today I was driving south on the Interstate. I saw something surprising. There was a large truck. I saw the name of a Japanese company on the door in kanji and kana.
I quickly took one picture with my iPhone. (Taking a picture while driving is dangerous. Please don’t!) You can see “米国ヤマト運輸” (USA Yamato Transportation) in the picture. There are a cat and a kitten. The cat is carrying the kitten.
We don’t see Japanese things around here. Today was a lucky day.
My bike is unusual. It’s a tricycle, but not a children’s tricycle. It’s a “recumbent trike.” It’s called recumbent because one stretches one’s legs out in front and comfortably leans back in the seat. It’s called a trike because it has three wheels.
Recumbent cycles have many benefits. My favourite benefit is that it’s really fun! For the practical benefits, there is safety, and it doesn’t stress the legs much.
In this picture is a friend. She looks comfortable, doesn’t she?
There are recumbent bicycles also. One man rode a recumbent bike from Japan to England (7,400 miles). That’s amazing! (His web site is here. It’s in both Japanese and English.)
In this video he talks about the recumbent bicycle. (Japanese with English subtitles)
Much of our state is open land. Utah has twenty-four federal parks. We went to a small town for a vacation. It’s called Moab. It’s popular for outdoor vacations.
Today we went to Arches National Park. It has beautiful scenery. The wind and rain has slowly carved the land. This type of unusual feature is called an arch.
違う景色があります。これは「フードゥー(hoodoo)」です。これは「釣り合いの岩」と呼びます。
There are different features. This is a “hoodoo.” This one is called “Balanced Rock.”
The name of one place is “The Devil’s Garden.” It has a variety of scenery. There are eight arches. I don’t know why it’s called “The Devil’s Garden.” It’s arid, but it’s beautiful. It rather looks like some gods made it.
この写真は「悪魔の庭」の入り口です。
This picture is of the entrance to “The Devil’s Garden.”
小さいアーチを見ました。30メートルほどは高いです。名前は「壁アーチ」です。
I saw a small arch. It’s about 100 feet high. It’s called “Wall Arch.”
帰る時はカメラマンを見ました。写真を撮るから、彼は60メートルほど岩の上に上りました。
When it was time to go back, I saw a photographer. In order to take some pictures, he had climbed about 200 feet up some rocks.
This place is a high mountain desert. During the summer time, we frequently have very hot weather of over 100°F. People are usually out during the mornings and evenings. Rain rarely falls.
Starting in September the weather becomes nice. We play outside, in the water, and have picnics.
This morning, an unexpected thing happened. It has been raining since Saturday, and today the first snow fell in the mountains. A lot melted by the afternoon.
Sometimes we’ll get cold storms. They come, they go. Rarely do they bring snow.
In America we have an old tradition. People find old cars, repair them, and paint them beautifully. Car shows are extremely busy. There are car shows all year round, but summer is a good time because they are so frequent.
写真: