Monday Miscellany

I haven't written anything here in a while, and I haven't written a lot of emails either. Although we are busy, it isn't primarily an issue of time. Yes, I still feel like we are in our "hunter-gatherer" stage, but I'm bringing far less of my work home with me than I did back when I taught high school. The bigger problems are that our internet service is very spotty, and even when it is working it is sometimes so slow that it is useless. On the weekend, I wrote a bunch of stuff that disappeared when I tried to save it. An additional problem is that the kids all need computer and Internet time for school. I'm not sure how I'm going to get all that resolved. I've heard that higher quality Internet service might be available, but I haven't chased down the rumors yet. I may also need to buy one or two more family computers. I don't really want to spend the money, and I don't really know how to go about making sure I don't get something cheap and counterfeit.

So for now, here are a small set of photos that are interesting, but they didn't lend themselves to any previous posts. I'm going to do this on a semi-regular basis, and I'll be shooting for Mondays. Yesterday my connection went down, so technically it is now Tuesday, but I like the alliteration, so I'm sticking with my title.



I miss our old house. Perhaps missing it isn't the right word. I don't miss paying for it, and I don't miss Phoenix (although I do miss people). Whenever I get back to Arizona, I want some place in the high desert, with some open space around me. Given all that, I know it was the right thing to sell it. I guess mostly I just can't believe it isn't ours anymore, and never will be again. Here is a photo when it was looking its best, right before it went on the market.


This is a picture I took in Benson, Arizona, the week before we left. We don't get sunsets like this in China.


This is a big model of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park), on display in what I guess you would describe as the Chamber of Commerce building. The clear buildings across the center are those that are projected to be built in the future. Some of them are currently under construction. By this view, our neighborhood is within the lighted area on the left, near the foreground of the picture.


Our Apartment complex, Hua Ting Gardens, is at right center in this view. The building next to the canal at farthest right is ours.


We had to get a rather thorough physical as part of our residence visas. It included an eye test, ultrasound, blood work, and dental checkup. All of the various examination rooms lined the walls of a central lobby, and we all had to go from room to room in a strange scavenger hunt. This is a picture I sneaked of the dental examination room. Dad, I figured you would like this picture.