Ask Luke’s Mother-in-Law: Looking for Noah’s Ark

Got questions? Martha Boyd has all sorts of answers. A desert-dweller, self-proclaimed crazy cat lady, former LAPD officer and widow to a Green Beret, she’s seen and heard things crazier than you’ve imagined. And is ready for whatever odd questions you have, so bring them on!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYT. Yes it is that time of year again to wish Happy Birthday to LYT. A big round of TR happiness.

Well, another full, filled week in the desert has come and gone. We were doing the happy dance over the weekend – we got rain. Most of us were standing outside, looking up with our mouths open, going “The sky is falling!” Rain over the last few years has been few and far between. It was lovely to sit outside with my morning coffee on Saturday and get wet and not from being in the pool. I have a nice bench under the eaves to the house so it makes a great place to sit and not get super-wet. We even had great lightning. All of my trees and cacti are happy campers right now; they got watered.

On Sunday we got a real downpour, and I could not even see across the street. I have 2 seasonal streams that run on the property: one to the front of the house and the other to the rear. These are dry 99% of the year. However, on Sunday we flooded. I’ve included pics of the water to the front of the house which crosses my driveway. Floated a couple of little rafts down this. When Julia was little she just loved playing in these floods and getting all muddy. She was a little mud monster. The fence on the property would stop her from going off site and daddy was always right with her.

I-10 is partially shut down for about 2 months between California and Arizona – such fun. The storm took out at least one bridge and they are looking at others. Heard they are going to try and use just one side of the 10 with a cross over. This will mean more traffic going thru town as Hwy 62 is a work around detour for the damaged route. At least we still have the I-15 if we need to jettison the state. Lots of big rigs on the new I-62 (formally Hwy 62). I am now trying to avoid going East/West on the Hwy and use back roads.

As I noted last week I went to an exclusive showing of The Beast With A Million Eyes. So how many of you Googled this to see what the heck is she talking about ? Haven’t heard anything about this movie. Well the showing was exclusive – only about 10 people in total. The ticket price was right: only $3.00, with $.50 popcorn and a deal for $2.50 hot dog with trimmings and chips. The show started with – get this – a 1950’s high school black and white hygiene film on Going Steady. We next moved into the classic Baby Huey cartoon “Pest Pupil” in color, no less, and another cartoon “Dancing on the Moon” – cartoon animals on a moon honeymoon.

Then our main feature, also in black and white. This was filmed in a date grove in Indio in the 1950’s. The film starred Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer (Five Easy Pieces), Dick Sargent (Darin – Bewitched) and Chester Conklin. The most interesting person in the film was Mr. Conklin, as he had the longest career of anyone; starting in 1914 and ending in 1966. He worked in a lot of Charlie Chaplin films (check him out on IMDB.com. Anyway this was a B- movie. It covered several days and really the only one who had a wardrobe change was the lady who played the mom – she had 2 dresses. I understand the budget was only $30,000. The beast only had 1 eye when you finally saw him on screen for about a minute. The date grove got more time. The story was about aliens from a dying planet in one very small ship looking for a new home, but they were defeated by family love. Ahhhhhhhh.

Thank you to Copper Mountain Mesa Community Association for this fun night out. They will be showing other films thru the summer, and the entire night out cost me a big $6.00. Side note: they just got an $800 electric bill for the month and this was a fundraiser. If there are any TR friends out there who have a spare few bucks, just won the lottery etc, let me know I have a great place for a donation. This is a small community center in rural Joshua Tree in the Copper Mountain area. The county does not provide a lot of funds and they keep this going on Saturday breakfasts, a thrift shop, bingo, pot lucks and movie night.

Anyway – you all did not have very much for me this week. So I’m going to have to get you with pictures – that will teach you for not asking questions. HaHaHa (evil laugh). But for those of you with questions this week, here we go.

John Zoidberg:
I loved all the Dark Shadows photos, thank you for that! Question: did all the flash flooding a few days ago along the CA/AZ border affect you at all? I heard on the news some mentions of it being bad in some areas around Joshua Tree…

Glad you liked the photos in the gallery. It is a cool collection of movie/TV stuff, I also have cartoon cels, cabinets of dolls, and a glass collection.
As to the flood – I was looking for the Ark. Hope you like the flood pics of my yard.

Patch Ninetynine:
Now that I have been using FB for this site, I find myself checking my real life account, more often than I ever did before. The hatred and bias that is posted daily, makes me question if I really know these people. Do you think it has always been there and we just have a way to express it now? Or is our ability to tell the world, that is feeding the hate?

Well I think it has always been there, but the forum was not so open and public as it is now that we have the Internet, Facebook, Twitter etc. Sometimes people should just keep their opinions to themselves and not be so fast to hit the enter button on the computer.

James Polk:

Being in the desert, you don’t get cable. Being a cheapskate, and The Bad Nerd, I don’t have cable either. As such, I have seen way more of some random stuff shown on over-the-air channels than most people do. Which brings to mind a question. I there any random syndicated show you’d like to see reimaginged? For me I have an idea for a Jane and the Dragon/Game of Thrones crossover.

My biggest thing is that I wish they would bring the soap operas back. Almost all of my stories are gone. Glad to see Full House sort of is coming back. Would like to see spinoffs of Dallas and maybe some sort of new Dragnet reboot.

James Polk:
Also, thanks for suggesting the sausage and gravy pot pie things. I thought it stood on it’s own without any extra meat or other add-ons.

Glad you liked it – I tend to add hot sauce to almost everything. The extra sausage is because I just plain wanted more sausage. I was hungry that morning.

Want to remind everyone about the Joshua Tree International Film Fest. We have data now and a web site where you can get tickets. Sept 18-20 , 2015 at various locations around Joshua Tree. The web site is www.jtiff.org for tickets. Events and passes range from $15.00 (filmmakers brunch) to $65.00 for a day pass.

A couple of other fun things to do if you are in town. At the Hi Desert Playhouse is Lion King Jr (summer youth theater) from July 6 to Aug 8. Over in 29 Palms at Theatre 29 Peter Pan Jr (summer youth) from July 31 to Aug 1. Both are great programs for our area kids. Julia started her career at the Playhouse some 20 yrs ago.

If anyone is looking for a house to by in Glendora, CA, I just put mine on the market. It was built over 100 yrs ago and is a historic home in the town. Over the years it made a great haunted house for Halloween – we would do up the yard every year, always made rain, thunder, fog etc. Got lots of trick or treaters.

Well this brings another week for TR to an end. Again Happy Birthday to LYT. To all my friends, be good to each other this next week and as always HUGGS.

Got questions for Martha? On life, love, nerdy nitpickery and anything else? You can either post them below in comments, or email them directly to boydappraisal at yahoo.com. Nothing is off the table, so give it your best inquiry.