(209) 269-8000
contact@rrop.org

12 September 2010 – The Hard News

Schipol Airport is a working model of a nice world. Clean lined furnishings, cordial Dutch efficiency, places to rest and work. It’s well-oiled and orderly. I was there, unexpectedly on my way back to Kenya a few days ago. There had been a robbery at the property. A group of…...

Read more

10 August 2010 – The Story of a Long Journey, Told in Two Parts

Like many true stories about long journeys, much gets lost in the telling. But in all good tales, what remains is worth the telling. This one started a long time ago when people and their hopes were young and uncomplicated, and some of that true story has already been told…...

Read more

22 May 2010 – Neighborhood News, Pipe Dreams, Queue for the Loo

Come on in. It’s been a long week, and now, it’s finished up. The tools are cleaned and stowed in the container and the guys have cleaned up, changed into their good clothes and headed off for all that Saturday night offers. . Here’s some of the fading footprint of…...

Read more

11 May 2010 – The Not So Straight and Narrow Paths

“It is both the grandeur and the pain of the remoter moods that they avoid the pathway of sound. ” Thomas Hardy. We dig a trench about five inches deep in the black cotton soil, fill it with murram, compact it with the compactor, and put an inch of the…...

Read more

5 May 2010 – Half Pipes, Part 1

Hello, . I hope your Cinco de Mayo was all you hoped it would be. Ours was, guacamole and all. Lots has happened in your hemisphere. The Chief and Karen got married, Tom turned sixty, and some other very important stuff that is still classified. Here we have marked our…...

Read more

23 April 2010 – This and That

Just saying “hi.” Here are a few photographs, randomly assembled, from the last few days. We’ve been tinkering with the website some. The best way, I think to view this post is to click on the first photo, which will get big and then just use the arrows underneath the…...

Read more

14 April 2010 – Stand. Up.

Here’s a relatively dry update on the last week and half or so. Seems we’re on solid ground again. . . . . We’re beginning to love these houses, and we’re continuing to love you. . From the sweet heart of this place, . David...

Read more

1 April 2010 – Holy Thursday

Hello, . All the holes we dig here take a lot of work to fill back in. Usually with lots of rocks and sledgehammering and so on. But this one twisted us around in new ways. A different kind of baptism. . . Then we got the bright idea to…...

Read more

22 March 2010 – So There You Are

Welcome back. To both of us. About the time you were picking out your Christmas tree we spoke last here, and now the single remaining St. Patrick’s Day Guiness is sitting in the cupboard wondering where the time went. . I’m pretty sure I can’t answer the big question, but…...

Read more