Once more for the old year

I don't want to wish my life away, but I have to be honest. I can't recall another year I've wanted to kick under the bus more than this past one.

Goodbye 2011...don't let the door hit you.

It's been a rough year around here, but let's talk of pleasant things instead. Right now, my family and I are really enjoying a visit with our eldest daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter from California. Certainly one of the highest points of the year, along with their earlier visit near Thanksgiving.

Other highlights...back in June, my wife, my sister and I drove to Ohio to visit some of my relatives. That was a really fun visit, we enjoyed seeing my aunt, uncle, and four guy cousins and their wives. Stories were told, pictures were taken, and dinners were eaten. The other thing that made this special was the time spent with my sister visiting, taking turns driving and listening to music.

I also got to do a couple of things I've always wanted to do. Our church had a fireworks tent this year, and I volunteered to work a shift. And in mid November, I helped a friend of the family wire up a professional looking Christmas light display...animated, computer controlled, and set to music. The works. The family and I drove over there a few days ago to watch and listen to the show. It turned out really nice.

So I ought to just leave it at that, count my blessings, and end with my wish for a healthy, prosperous, and Happy New Year. May 2012 be a better year for us all. It just about has to be (I didn't go into all the various losses here this year, so just trust me on that).

I did get to thinking about one other thing...what was new in my life in past years. Regular readers of Poppy's Front Porch know that I like to make lists. Anyway...

Some positive things the years have brought...

1957 - my family's big trip to Colorado

1959 - our move to a bigger house and my start of school

1964 - baptized and joined the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod

1966 - lit the candles at my sister's wedding and added a brother-in-law to my family

1967 - flew with my dad to Atlanta and back. Later, discovered the hobby of model rocketry.

1969 - watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on tv and started high school in the fall

1972 - graduated high school and went off to Central Methodist College

1975 - transferred to the University of Missouri (lost some credits, but hey...)

1977 - graduated with a BA degree and got my first (short lived) mapping job

1979 - became interested in genealogy and started working on the family tree

1982 - married my best friend, still my lovely young bride. Saw the ocean for the first time on our honeymoon to Florida.

1985 - our first daughter born

1986 - attended a National Association of Rocketry regional meet and started becoming active in the NAR

1988 - landed my longest mapping job (lasted 13 years)

1989 - our second daughter born

1991 - our son born

1995 - our third daughter born

2005 - our first daughter's wedding. Later, our first granddaughter born.

2009 - our family's big trip to Colorado, Utah (Zion NP), California (our daughter's house and Disneyland), the Grand Canyon, and back

2010 - our second granddaughter born

I could probably find a few stories in all that.

Mom and me and the family

Happy Mothers' Day, one and all! To celebrate, here's a couple of pictures from back when...scans from slides, actually.


Colorado vacation, 1957. My sister, my mom, my dad and myself; as best as I can figure this is a park in or near either Silver Plume, or Georgetown Colorado. What I remember most about the day was I had a great time digging holes in the park with dad's rock pick.


Christmas 1966. Mom looks on as I open a gag gift from my sister.

And this only touches the surface of the family photo archives...I need to get scanning some more.

2009 in Review: Vacation part 3 - Arizona, Nevada, and into California

I haven't mentioned this for a long time (maybe not ever), but move your mouse over the small image and left click when you want to see a full screen image. I assume most people are familiar with that, but you know what they say about assumptions.



After leaving St. George, Utah, I-15 travels generally west-southwest through the Virgin Mountains, which I hadn't heard of before. The interstate clips across 29 miles worth of the northwest corner of Arizona, before entering Nevada. There was only one exit that I recall and no cities to speak of. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the scenery. Here's a few of several photos I took out the windows.









Once we crossed the state line and passed Mesquite, Nevada - which isn't very big - there wasn't much to see. The freeway itself, guard rails where needed, a mere handfull of exits, and occasionally a power line stretching into the distance. As for green growing things, forget it; just packed desert sand or rock, whatever it was. Desolation and not much else to see...



...until we got into Las Vegas, that is.



Our first sighting of palm trees.




As our goal was to get to our daughter's house in California, we didn't allow time to drive down "The Strip" and see the lights, but we did see some impressive buildings from I-15 and I snapped a few pictures.







Near the southern edge of Vegas, about the last chance to fill up the car and have a quick rest stop. Also some nice palms for a closeup shot.

South of Los Vegas, we started to see billboards advertising "Alien Fresh Jerky"; kind of eye catching in a "what kind of marketing is this" sort of way. I wish now I'd gotten a picture. Anyway, a few miles down the freeway we had our answer, it's this place in Baker, California. It's right next to the worlds largest thermometer, dontcha know.

Also along I-15 we were slowed down and we came up to an agriculture checkpoint, a big structure stretching across all lanes of the freeway. I expected we'd be stopped and asked if we were bringing in any plants or produce, but we were waved on through. I guess we either didn't look like the profile of who they wanted to stop that day, or it was just a random sample, every X number of vehicles; and we weren't number X.




Desert clouds above I-15



I think these might be what they call lenticular clouds.

Did I mention it was hot?




Just a very, very few of the windmills in the Tehachapi wind farm.




Scenery along California 58 to Tehachapi.

Soon we arrived at our daughter's house, and unwound for the evening. I didn't get my camera out until the next day at Disneyland...check back for the next installment!

2009 in Review: Vacation part 2 - Zion Canyon National Park

There are some beautiful parks in Utah with great scenery. This was the first time in Zion NP for me and the kids.


Morning in Springdale, Utah; our second full day of vacation began.



Cactus? Cactuses? Cacti?



The entrance to Zion. We left our car in the parking lot, paid to enter, then rode the shuttle bus. I admitted when I paid admission that we knew we didn't have as much time as we'd like to do the park justice. It was suggested we ride all the way up to the last stop, and get out and walk along the edge of the Virgin River.


One of several pictures I took out the shuttle window.


The last stop on the route.



The Virgin River isn't much more than a creek here. A very peaceful place.




On the way back down...taken up through the skylight of the bus.







I like this picture as much for the sky as for the interesting rock formation.


This sculpture in the visitors area was a foot long or so.




These skinny evergreen trees were planted in tight groups. We saw quite a few in the area.



Back in Springdale.



The motel where we stayed the night before. Ready to hit the road - to be continued...

2009 in Review: Vacation part 1 - Colorado & Utah

Last year we drove to California to see daughter number one and her family. I wanted to post something today, so why not some of the better photos from the start of the trip?


My son at an overlook at the Alpine Slide in Golden, Colorado



Looking down from the overlook you can see part of the Alpine Slide track towards a small amusement park


The first tunnel west of Golden on I-70


The town of Silver Plume Colorado in passing



Eisenhower Tunnel east portal


On a previous trip I saw one of the other runaway truck ramps in use, with a truck with smoking brakes stopped at the far end


A newer part of Vail, Colorado




Writing postcards



A nice view of the creek at Vail...we walked across a footbridge on our way back to the parking area


Colorado scenery along westbound I-70







Interesting "Reef" rock formations along a desolate stretch of I-70 in Utah

The Evening Rambler for August 28, 2009

Goodbye analog television

A few months back - June I think it was - the switch to digital tv happened. We had applied the government coupons we got in the mail to the cost of two Zenith converter boxes, weeks ahead of the deadline. I didn't know if the picture would be that much better, after all, it would end up on an old analog tv picture tube anyway.

What I hadn't taken into account were all the additional sub-channels. Instantly we went from 10 local channels to 22, and a 23rd channel, a free movie channel, was added later. (And no, I won't buy cable or satellite. Thanks for asking.) Two of the channels show the local weather radar, and that has come in handy more than once. Also, the image is noticably better.

One thing I'll miss though, is those times when odd atmospheric conditions would allow long distance stations to skip into my tv. When I was a kid, it wasn't all that rare to pick up channel 6 from Sedalia Missouri, 7 from Pittsburg Kansas, and the two 13's, Topeka Kansas and Columbia Missouri. I recall watching the old black and white movie, "The Fly" on 13 out of Topeka one night. Every so often the picture would dissolve in static - interference from Columbia 13 maybe - then come back. That made an already scary science fiction / horror movie even more intense. We'd rarely get the Springfield Missouri stations though, their channels 3 and 10 were usually clobbered by "bleed-through" from our local channels 4 and 9.

Years later, I made a game of it when I noticed the atmospherics were especially good. In the 1990's we had a small portable color set that was excellent at picking up those weak signals. If I could spare the time, I'd set down with paper and pen and channel surf, noting all the unusual channels. Then I'd try to make out where the broadcasts were from. That little tv would pull in stations, not only from other parts of Missouri (Columbia, Springfield, Joplin, St. Louis), and Kansas (Topeka, Pittsburg, Wichita), but also from Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, and I think Fayetteville Arkansas once. Not all at the same time, of course. The long distance champ...channel 55 out of Springfield ILLINOIS, of all places. I have absolutely no clue how that high of a UHF frequency could have skipped that far, but it did...briefly.

Digital tv is definitely an improvement, but it's a whole different animal. Pulling in long distance television signals will never happen again.

I have questions for my readers

Speaking of missing things, here's the first question...

1. If you could travel back in time to the 1960's, what modern thing that didn't exist then would you miss most? (It doesn't have to be just one thing, list all you want)

2. If you knew you could Not fail at something, what would you attempt?

3. Phooey, there was a third question...maybe it'll come back to me. For now I'll turn it around...What would you like to ask me?

Ah, I've got it, the third question was...well, I guess it has to be number 4 now...

4. What's the oddest tourist attraction you've ever seen on vacation? (Again, list more than one if it's a toss-up.)

I'd really like to get comments from you all. I'm curious what thoughts I've jarred loose with this.

The Evening Rambler for November 23, 2008

Something new, well new to me anyway.

In looking through a bookshelf a few months ago, I came across my dad’s four paperback Zane Grey novels. Westerns aren’t my main interest when it comes to reading for pleasure, so I don’t plan to keep all four; there’s just so many books in this house as it is. It’s time to edit and get organized. I do want to keep one though, after all, these were dad’s. I gave him at least one for either his birthday or Christmas, though I don’t recall which one…and it might have been all four. So, which one to keep? I figured eventually I’d read them all, and probably I would like one more than the others.

A month or so ago, I picked up the oldest of the four stories we have here...”The Heritage of the Desert” (original copyright 1910). Then on to “The Rainbow Trail” (1915), which I got part way into, then put down. It wasn’t quite working for me, though in fairness I probably ought to finish it. A day or two ago, I finished “The Man of the Forest” (1920), which I guess I’d call a western romance. The relationships and conversations between the characters seemed to be more developed; I’ve liked this one best of the three I’ve read so far. And yesterday I started “To the Last Man” (1922).

I won’t pretend to make this into a book review, I’m really not qualified to judge western novels (ask me about science-fiction sometime). I will say I was surprised these were written that long ago. Had you asked me before, “Bob, when did Zane Grey write his novels?” I probably would have answered, “Oh, I dunno, 1940’s maybe?”.

These have been easy to read, though there were some words and turns of phrase no longer in common use. There were some regionalisms like “I reckon”, or “savvy” for understand. Also some spellings to emphasize the western drawl (“Wal,” at the start of a sentence for “Well,”; also “shore” for sure and “pore” for “poor”. Sometimes it was “horses”, unless spoken by an outlaw in a gang, when it would be “hosses”).

One thing I liked was how the curse words were edited. A few times one character or another would get agitated and I’d read a “h---“ or a “d---“. I knew what was meant, and I appreciated it was a time when you just didn’t publish words more explicit and put them in front of the readers faces. They were fans of your novels, and the last thing you wanted to do was offend them. (Then again, It’s possible Mr. Grey spelled the entire words and the publisher said, “No, that won’t go”. I don’t know.) In one particularly angry confrontation, a sentence began with the word “----!”.

I’ll never know for shore what that cowboy “said”, which is just as well. I reckon it was a powerful bad word.

The other thing I’ll say is that Zane Grey was very descriptive, he could, as they say, paint a picture with words. Enough so, that I wonder if he ever tried his hand at landscape painting. In these novels he showed a love for the deserts and forests of southern Utah and northern Arizona.

Anyway, it’s been good for me to read something different from my usual. It may help me develop more of a general feel for how novels are crafted.

Travel memories.

I’ve been out west a few times. To me, “out west” is kind of a flexible definition which could mean west of Hays or Great Bend, Kansas; or in or west of one of the panhandles (Nebraska, Oklahoma, or Texas). My first big western vacation was our family trip to Colorado and New Mexico in 1957 – July, I think. Then in 1968 a big road trip through the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, New Mexico, Arizona (Meteor Crater, The Petrified Forest, and The Grand Canyon), Utah (Bryce Canyon), Colorado, and back through Kansas. We were chased by a tornado for a while, just out of sight but according to the radio it kept pace about half a county behind us until about the time we stopped at WaKeeney, Kansas for the night. We chose to stay at a motel that night. Dad pulled a Starcraft pop-up camper behind our Thunderbird for that trip.

Then in 1972 another camping trip, this time with a Holiday Rambler travel trailer, to Colorado, Wyoming, and back through Nebraska.


(I'm just lazy enough tonight to keep my searching for photos to a minimum, but I had this one close at hand. An old church or school building somewhere in Colorado, 1972.)

In May of 1976, twelve of my college friends and I caravanned two cars and a pickup through Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. We made it as far as Glacier National Park, a truly beautiful place; then came through South Dakota and stopped at Mount Rushmore on the way back.

Almost a year after I got married, my wife’s insurance job at the time sent her to a branch office in California. I flew out there (yes, on an airplane) to join her for the better part of a week. I rented a car and we drove up and down the coast and saw parts of Los Angeles, visited friends in Laguna Beach, went to Disneyworld one day, then up to Edwards Air Force Base (or as close as they’d let us get) to witness a night landing of the Shuttle. Of course, all the lights were off for security so we saw nothing, but did hear the sonic boom as the shuttle decelerated and landed. Then we drove north to see the Monterey Peninsula (Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach), and spent much of a day in San Francisco (Fisherman’s Wharf, Lombard Street – the famous winding back and forth drive down the hill, the Ghirardelli Chocolate factory, and across the Golden Gate bridge to Muir Woods).

Since then, most of our trips out west have been return visits to Colorado. Once we flew out and rented a car, and spent time in the Denver and Colorado Springs area. Another time we drove out through Denver, up the mountains with a stop at Georgetown, then through the Eisenhower Tunnel, then down to Vail. Rode the alpine slide there twice. The last time our whole family has been in Colorado at the same time was a trip in late July and early August of 2000.

So more and more lately, I’ve been thinking how good it would be to take a trip out west again. Part of that may be from reading those western novels, but mostly it’s been such a long time since I’ve seen that interesting country. That and I would like to go see our eldest daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter at their place in California.

One thing that’s kind of funny. That time in 1968 when we traveled through desert areas of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah I was aware that roadrunners supposedly live there. So I had it in mind to take notice as I was watching the scenery pass by while dad drove. Never saw one that trip. A few years later in northwest Arkansas I saw two of them. Go figure.

Along those lines, I’ve been up and down I-35 and I-45 in eastern Texas several times, and have seen a few dead armadillos. Never a live one though, at least in Texas. I did finally see a live armadillo in Florida once.

The most surprising thing I’ve ever seen along the roadside was on one of the Texas trips. We had left Houston heading northwest on I-45, and were maybe 20 miles past the northernmost edge of the suburbs. Off to the right, just in the grass off the side of the road was a huge black cat. A panther, sitting pretty as you please, just watching the traffic go by.