Older and Wiser?

They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Well, the lion showed up a day early this year:


Big, wet snow flakes making for sloppy streets and sidewalks. It was gone in the lower elevations (translation: around our house) by the afternoon. We're getting a brief respite from the clouds and rain this weekend. It is very nice today with temps into the low 60's predicted. The birds are taking up residence in the nest outside the computer room window once again, cleaning and fixing it up for the next generation. I'll try to get some pictures and figure out exactly what kind of birds they are.

We're into March which means I've passed another birthday. I find they are becoming less and less significant at this time in my life. 56. Still a long time to go to retirement, been a long time since the dreaded "Big Five Oh". What with R into his third year of retirement, P getting ready to start on Social Security later in the year, and our good friend, the Widow Davis, retiring in January, I'm still the young one. All this birthday does is provide a measure for how long it will be before I can join them. Discussions about future activities often end up with the observation: "except for John, he still has to WORK!"

When the weather clears up and the rivers calm down some I think I will be sick occasionally, the kind of illness that only a boat ride on the river and a wet fishing line can cure. We have a fishing trip scheduled for early June in southern Oregon, along the Rogue River. Last time we were anchored in the Sixes river, plunking our bobbers into a pool at a bend in the river. This time will be in a boat drifting down the river. R assures me it’s a totally different experience. I’m looking forward to it.

Several weeks ago we went to a dog show in Albany, about an hours drive from here. Last December R lost Hanna, the Basset Hound that ruled his life for 14+ years. While nothing will replace Hanna, he is starting to adjust some. Not that he’s ready for another dog just yet, mind you, but some friends of his have English Springer Spaniels that he’s had fun with in the past. He talked to local breeders and found out about the dog show. We got to the show around 10:30 only to find out that the Spaniel judging started at 8 am, naturally. Luckily, admission was free so we wandered around taking in exactly what a dog show entails. There were 12 large areas with three foot fences around them where the judging took place. The judges evaluate the contestants as a group and individually, checking the eyes, teeth, shape, physique, how they stand, move and run. The handlers were just as fun to watch, a different breed altogether.

We were able to wander around the grooming area in the hall next door. All the dogs resting in cages, or getting baths and being primped for their moment in the ring. Very interesting, behind the scenes. Here are some pictures I took during the Sporting Group judging. In the morning the dogs compete against others of the same breed. A Group competition takes all the winners from similar breeds for judging. There were 22 different breeds in the one we watched: half a dozen different spaniels, a slew of terriers, poodles, labradors and others I'm not sure about.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I didn't see any one else taking pictures except for official winner photos. I didn't use the flash and was using the zoom a lot. I need more practice, obviously. The black and white dog in the last picture above is an English Springer Spaniel names Stewie. This is the type of dog R want to get. And, as it turns out, Stewie was judged best in the Sporting Group. That means another blue ribbon and a chance to compete for Best In Show. I still haven't been able to find the results on line so don't know how he did on Sunday. It was a very interesting experience, all in all.

Winter Lull

It was a very nice day today, sunny, clear, no breeze or wind to speak of. Bailey's walk today was along the paths at Dawson Creek Park. I took some pictures last fall. I took some more of the same scene today

Before (22 October 2006)

After (28 Jan 2007)

Naked Trees!!!!


I have to note that this is the 101st entry in my blog. Now, I'm not the most talkative person in the world but somehow I've managed 100 entries. True, it has taken me two and a half years.

I'll keep plugging along 'til I finish the next hundred.

The Great Snow Storm of '07

About five days ago we had an artic cold front settle down over us. It pushed a moist warm front out of the way causing a little snow. Fortunately it all melted the first day and we've had dry roads and frigid temperatures since then (for here at least, dipping into the low teens and high single digits in the wee hours of the morning). We've been waiting for a warm front to blow in off the Pacific and move the cold front east, where there are people use to and ready for those kinds of temperatures. It appeared that that was going to happen last night. The weather people weren't sure exactly what would happen as one front pushed the other out: from cloudy skies to 3 inches of snow. It had already snowed a good half an inch and still snowing when I went out to get the paper out of the drive way at 6 am. Need I say here how glad I am not to be delivering papers anymore? I think that is well understood by now... It took me 45 minutes to make it to work as I had to go a bit out of my way for a route that didn't involve an slope greater than 15 degrees. Lots of cars in the ditch and minor fenderbenders along the way. I made it to work no problem. A little late, but no problem. People straggled in as they could, the rest calling in saying it just wasn't worth it. The boss made it in about 10, stayed for a couple of hours to see who made it in and make sure the hottest fires were being doused. Our fiscal first quarter ends in a couple of weeks, not an ideal time for a snow day. But to his credit, the boss did say as he left just after noon that everyone should leave by 2 to make sure they get home before dark.

I took a couple of pictures around work with my phone to show you what it normally doesn't look like

No lunch on the patio today!

The poor rhodies.... and the cars of the hardy souls that did make it in to work!

Who knew that the sidewalks were that wide?

Now it turns out the warm front isn't strong enough to push the cold front all the way off of us. The sub freezing temperatures will stick around until the weekend is the best guess. There may even be some more precipitation tomorrow morning! Doesn't sound promising.

In the mean time we are full, warm and well lubricated. What more could you ask for?

Where Have I Been?

It has been brought to my attention that I have been neglecting this blog and that it is high time to get my butt in gear and write something. Anything. Just write. Well….

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you that I was off work the week before and the week after Christmas, plant shutdown. It seems that this quarter is suppose to be “flat” for the company but they are predicting that we will make it up and then some in the remaining three quarters. This time it will be Wait and Hurry UP! instead of the usual Hurry Up and Wait. So, I’m back at work getting back into the swing of things, trying to remember all the things that were going on just before the break. I should have left myself more notes….

The weather has been particularly wet as of late. We set a record for the wettest November on record with close to two feet of rain. There was some let up in December but it was still pretty wet. We are well on the way to an above average January rainfall already. Better wet than cold I say, but the freezing level is supposed to get down to 1000’ tomorrow. Our house is somewhere between 500’ and 1000’ and, as we all know, predicting the weather is NOT an exact science!)

P’s brother, R and I were suppose to go fishing in southern Oregon the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We drove down to Port Orford but thanks to the record rain didn’t get a chance to wet a line. The rivers were very high and muddy. They looked like milk chocolate pudding. No fishing for us! We managed to make a trip of it though. We actually saw some of Port Orford. Usually it’s dark when we arrive, dark when we get up to go fishing, spend the day on the river and getting dark when we get back to town. This time we actually went down to the “Port” and found out the main industry there is crabbing! While we were looking around a lady came down to the end of the dock and dropped in a crab pot with a nice chicken breast as bait. She said she’s had good success there in the past. You just lower it down into the water and come back several hours later to see if you’ve caught anything.


Crabpots, lots of crabpots

Crabbing off the end of the dock

A trawler towing someone with engine trouble into the dock at Port Orford

Ok, time for bed, more later….

Something has got to be done with this getting up and going to work thing, especially after two weeks off, staying up late and sleeping in. Time to win the lottery or something…

Fall

 

What a beautiful day. Temp in the mid 80's, a light breeze to make it not too hot in the sun and refreshing in the shade. This is a tree in the park we took Bailey to today. It just couldn't wait any longer to start changing colors.

I found a neat website called mooch.com that helps everyone with too many books in their library. You list the books you're willing to let other people mooch off you and you'd be willing to send to them. In return, you get to see, and mooch books that they list in their library. It doesn't cost anything, other than postage and there is a point system for books sent and received to prevent abuse of the system. I've managed to pass on several books from my past and am awaiting several new (to me) to arrive. Thanks to www.lifehacker.com for pointing me to the site.

RIP FD

We buried Fred today.

He and Diana are the oldest friends with have. No, I said that wrong, but you know what I mean. Fred was wounded during his stint in Viet Nam. Purple Heart worthy. He was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma about ten years ago. We thought we were going to loose him then, but an experimental treatment sent it into remission for several years.

Earlier this year he grew some abnormal lumps near the lymph nodes in his neck. They removed the bumps the day after the doctor saw them: Merkle Cell Carcinoma. The doctor had never seen a case Merkle Cell Carcinoma much less the two diseases together. He started Fred on an aggressive series of treatments: radiation sessions on his neck and lower face and chemo at the same time. The doctor wanted to hit it with both barrels. Fred was feeling poorly for a while there. He'd have to go in to get his blood checked three times a week, and depending on the results get an infusion of platlets or a transfusion of whole blood, and occationally both.

He managed to keep his wits about him most of the time and his sense of humor never failed him. P drove him to many of his doctor and hospital appointments. One time she made a left turn with a little less margin than usual regarding oncomming traffic and jokingly told Fred she wasn't worried because, it was his side [if there had been an accident, the oncomming car would have hit Freds side of the car]. Fred replied, Thats OK, I'm half dead already! and laughed.

Fred was responding to the treatment. The doctor was impressed with the progress he had made, it looked like the treatment was working. Fred started into the third round of chemo in late August. Early Saturday morning, August 26th we got the call from Diana, she had gotten up and found him in the bathroom, ice cold. He had passed away sometime during the night.

Late this morning there was a service in the Willamette National Cemetary complete with military honors: a three volly [gunfire] salute, the playing of taps in the distance and the presentation of a US flag to the widow in recognition of the service to and sacrifice for his country. It was a moving cermony, the first of its type I'd experienced.

Fred had the last word, though. Per his instructions as the service ended and everyone milled about talking, remembering and catching up, the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, Bad Moon Rising blared from the boombox that earlier played the somber Nearer My God To Thee and the Navy Hymn.

So, in his honor, we are raising our glasses and wishing him godspeed. Our thoughts go out to his widow, daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, and the rest of his extended family.

You will be missed, Fred, but never forgotten.

By the Numbers

It's been warm here lately. Not hot enough to stop everything like three weeks ago when we were tying all time records (108!) but warm enough to make any activity uncomfortable - low to mid 90's. There's talk of a cold front coming up from California that will cool things down some and bring the chance of thunderstorms. The rain will be welcome, but the lightening will undoubtably start more forest fires in central Oregon. My boss's parents had to evacuate their home last week when a fire got too close to their community. They were told to leave their houses unlocked so that firefighters wouldn't have to break into any of the houses if they had to fight the fire house to house. They said the evacuated neighberhoods were heavily patrolled. Sure hope so.

But those aren't the numbers I refered to in the title. As you know, I've been on an excercise and healthy, low fat, low sugar, high fiber, high fruit diet since the beginning of the year. I have managed to loose approximately 40 lbs and have the stamina to walk several miles nearly every night of the week. My weight has stabilized very close to what it was when I was in college, when I didn't care about what I ate or what I weighed.

The numbers I refer to come from an annual health screening the company offers. They check your blood pressure, pulse and cholesterol levels. They ask about your life style: smoking, drinking, exercise, amount of sleep, stress reduction and the like. I will get a pamphlet in a couple of weeks with general analysis and places to go to find out more about questions I might have. My appointment was at 3:30 in the afternoon and I had to fast for 8 hours before the cholesterol test. I hadn't eaten since breakfest. Normally I'd have had breakfest, lunch and a couple of snacks by then. I was a little light headed. So, the numbers:

total cholesterol 167
less than 200 is desirable
HDL cholesterol 72
greater than 60 is desirable (this is the "good" one)
cardiac risk ratio 2.3
3.2-3.9 is desirable, higher is considered more of a risk
LDL cholesterol --
less than 100 is good (mine didn't even register)
triglycerides <45
less than 150 is optimal
glucose 89
60 - 110 is considered normal

It sure is nice to get confirmation that you've made some good decisions. Incentive to keep it up.



I just had to brag.....


In other news, Tyfini got her drivers license last Friday. She was in an accident Sunday night. Everyone is ok, it wasn't her fault, but Tabs car will be in the shop for a while. This is what being a parent is all about.......

HOT

We tied the record at 108 degrees here yesterday. It was 96 in the living room upstairs at 10 o'clock last night. Phew! It's a balmy 82 here in the computer room right now, 8 am. And that may be as cool as it going to get today. The weatherman says it's going to hit 102 this afternoon. I don't know.... I pretty much can't tell the difference once it gets over 100. And on top of the heat, the power went out for a while in the middle of the night. We don't have air conditioning, just a lot of fans, including a ceiling fan in our bedroom. The ceiling fan stopped. We started sweating just lying in bed. I don't know how long the power was out, but I do remember the fan starting back up. Ahhhhhh drying that sweat and cooling me down, some... Well, its time to take Bailey for a short walk. It's Saturday. He doesn't let me out of his sight until we take the walk. Have to do it now, it's not going to get any cooler today than it is now.

Home Again

We made it. Home, once again. 8,452 miles. Time to unpack, clean up, catch up and get ready for the regular routine.

More to follow.....

Birth place of Dwight D Eisenhower

Monday evening. I've been having problems with very slow and unreliable internet connections. And expensive internet connections too. I will add photos when I get home or we stop somewhere that has a truly high speed internet connection.
We are in Abilene Kansas, birthplace of Dwight D Eisenhower and location of his Presidential Library. Never having seen a presidential library, we will check it out in the morning.

After Wilgus State Park we made it to the Foxwoods Casino in eastern Connecticut. Had a good time, and actually won a few bucks playing poker with a bunch of guys with from Boston and Providence. Took a while to tune my ear to the eastern seaboard accents. Very interesting listening to the way they talked. We thought about staying over another day because Atlantic City was shut down. And that was exactly why they didn't have any rooms available for Thursday. It was just as well. We played a little more in the morning and headed for Cleveland. We drove across Connecticut, New York and half way across Pennsylvania before we stopped for the evening in Bloomsberg PA. Got a room in a nice little motel called The Inn at Turkey Hill.

Friday we drove to the outskirts of Cleveland and hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing Saturday morning. Some really cool stuff there. Its right on the water front. The building was designed by I M Pai. Very futuristic, glass and chrome, lot of angles with has six floors. The basement has the bulk of the collection and the floors get smaller as you go up. The top two floors are for whatever special exhibition is going on. We caught one of the last days of the Bob Dylan exhibit. Lots of memorabilia from his early life and early career. They had a bunch of sound booths to listen to his music while reading about it's significance in its time and even today. We spent about four hours there and could have just as easily spent another four hours.

We proceeded to Speedway Indiana, just outside Indianapolis. Sunday morning we visited the raceway museum and took a lap around the raceway itself in a tour van. They have a number of cars that participated in the races over the years. The raceway will be 100 in 2009. Look for a big celebration that year. The collection includes the STP turbine powered car that lead the race the whole way until a gearbox failure knocked it out of the race with 4 laps to go. I vividly remember listening to that race when I was a kid in Milwaukee. They also have some Nascar and Formula 1 cars represented in the collection. The Formula 1 cars can go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! I have been following Formula 1 racing for a couple of years now. It was great to be able to see a couple of cars up close. We missed the US Grand Prix by a week. (Michael Schumacher won in a Ferrari, if you were wondering...)

After the racing museum we proceeded to St Louis and arrived in time to check out the Gateway Arch. They have a tram (little cars, kind of like pods, that hold 5 people each) that goes up to the top of the Arch. There is a viewing area with windows that overlook the city on one side and the Mississippi and East St Louis (Illinois) on the other side. We headed out of town to find more reasonable accommodations for the evening and discovered that there is a Harrahs Casino and Hotel in the outskirts of St Louis. We managed to get a room there. It was pretty crowded. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at that, this is prime vacation time afterall.... So we had a nice meal and tried some games of chance. P seemed to do ok but the people I played cards with must have seen me coming. It wasn't a good evening for me. We were going to check out the Budweiser Clysdales but you have to make a reservation first. It isn't something you can just drop in and see. So, we turned the car west and here we are in Kansas. We had a nice storm pass by in the last hour. Only a little bit of thunder and lightening. We have been very lucky so far, weather wise, this vacation, in all the places we've been. I think this is the third time the rain has caught us in the 17 days we've been on the road. Lets hope it stays that way.

Tomorrow we hope to be in Denver or beyond. We've been away from home for a long time. Getting to sleep in our own bed is sounding better and better to us.

Beyond Pennsylvania

Made it to Cleveland and will check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing tomorrow. We're really looking forward to this.

We left Montreal Wednesday morning and went even further east so we could could head south going down the boarder between New Hampshire and Vermont. We went this way so we could stop at the Wilgus State Park. Had to get some pictures of that. When I told the park ranger I was a Wilgus, he gave us some information about the Wilgus who donated the land, just off the highway, as a place for travelers for travelers to rest and recouperate. A nice park!
















We proceeded to Foxwooods Casino in easter Connecticut. The place is HUGE! We were lucky in getting a room, considering that the casinos in Atlantic City were closed down. After dinner I played some poker. I managed to walk away with a few of the other players chips. P had fun playing the slots and some of the other table games. the next morning we played some more before heading out. Unfortunately, the results weren't the same. We headed west through Connecticut, across New York and on to Bloomsberg, PA. We get a room at The Inn at Turkey Hill. A nice place! I'll have some pictures tomorrow, hopefully.

More of the Montreal Festivities

We made our way into Ottawa on Sunday, the day after Canada Day. Couldn't come all this way and not check out the capitol of Canada. The government buildings have a lot of character. the rest of the buildings in the surrounding area tend to be newer, in age as well as architectural style. It kind of work. It is an impressive area. One block away has been converted into a pedestrian mall with kiosks and vending stands in the middle of what was the street at one time. All kinds of people walking about. Left over from the Canada Day celebration the previous day? Or just coming in after, like us, to see the clean up afterwards. We stopped at Tim Hortons (kind of like a cross between a Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts with bagels and sandwichs. We got a window seat and watched the people walking by. Quite a show.

It only took a couple of hours to get to Chateau des Caribiou (H & B's house in Beaconsfield, outside Montreal). We were greeted by H, Mark A and the dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, part Australian sheepdog and "who done it?" We spent the afternoon catching up, enjoying the treats and drinks on the patio next to their pool. J, Mark B & S, Alex and the twins, M & J drifted in over the rest of the afternoon. Bo even called to say he wished they were here too and add some of his energy to the gathering. H had brats simmering all afternoon. It didn't take long on the grill for an excellent dinner.

We went to the Montreal Jazz Festival that evening. They closed off five or six blocks in downtown Montreal with a main stage at one end and smaller stages at the side streets. We scoped out the scene, took in some jazz by the Phantom Power Combo Deluxe. A horn player backed up by a bass, drums and keyboards. Nice. We caught the act on the main stage too: Spectacle Suprise, and Australian group with a heavy latin influence. A good live show that ended some time after midnight.

Monday we checked out an antique shop and some of the waterfront area on one of the islands that make up this area. Old buildings, very close together, narrow streets lots of foot traffic on the sidewalks. a nice feel, kind of artsy. But I couldn't help thinking what it would look like under several snow storms in the middle of January.

The twins demonstrated thier guitar licks, they both play electric guitar. Harvey play his piano for a while. Jason arrived in early afternoon. He's been with Mesa Airline for a little over a year now, based in Orlando. He loves what hes doing.

The whole crew went to dinner at a small resteraunt called Yoyos. Excellent food. I had some deer, P had one of the specials of the day, halibut with a mint sauce. H had sweetmeats. But then thats just the kind of guy he is. Afterwards we went to a Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead concert. Some of had heard of Christopher O'Riley as a classical pianist. I'd heard of Radiohead, but none of us were familiar with their music. The concert was in a small chapel in "Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur". An excellent concert. We got seats in the third, fourth and fifth rows and were able to see his hands as he played. Impressive.

Tuesday, when we finally got around to motivating ourselves, we aren't as young as we used to be, we met the rest of the gang at the Chateau des Caribiou and proceeded to downtown Montreal for some lunch and browsing through the shops. H took P and I through The Basicila of Notre Dame - Montreal. Absolutely amazing. Very impressive.






A Fine Meal











Rock N Roll!

Montreal Jazz Festival

Beer, food, music. How can you go wrong?
















This requires more beer!













The Out of towners








Trouble? Who? US????











Can we get a drink over Here????

More BUGS!

 
 
 
 
  
And this is what was waiting for us when we went out to the car! Had to get a towel and try to wipe them off before opening the door. They don't want to move. Exhausted after a night of cavoreting I suppose... 

Bugs

 

This is what we saw when we opened the curtains this morning. I'd killed a couple that had made there way into the room last night. 

North Bay

It rained pretty hard when we left Marathon. Even a little hail thrown in. It rained very very hard as we drove east with some lightning and thunder thrown in. It took a couple of hours but we managed to drive out from under it. We stopped in Sault Sainte Marie last night. We took a trip over the International Bridge this morning and cruised through the American Sault Saint Marie. There was a ship in the lock, headed up river. Massive vehicle up close. From there we crossed back over into Canada and made our way to North Bay. We're going to Ottawa tomorrow. We're going to see if we can catch some of the Canada Day celebration.

Maybe not. There aren't any hotel rooms available in Ottawa. Going to have to wing it. We have reservations in Montreal starting on Sunday. Just have to figure out where to stay Saturday night.

Lake Superior

 


The picture doesn't do it justice..... 

The Museums

 

Need I say more? 

Smokey the Bear & Friend

 

International Falls, Minnesota 

View from the Buffalo Jump

 


This is the view to the east from the Buffalo Jump. Quite the view.