To Virginia and Back

Last week Sheila, Courtney and I boarded a plane to take us to Sheila's sister out in Chesapeake, VA.  After connecting in Atlanta (my first time thru that airport) we arrived at their local time at 1:00 AM.  The folks at the Avis counter were top notch in that one, and Delta Airlines managed to regain some points with me.

I had met my sister-in-law when she was here in Tucson, but I had not met the rest of her family.  They were great hosts and I felt an instant connection to my brother-in-law.  Side trips were made to Virginia's Eastern Shore and down to Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina where I got to visit the spot where the Wright brothers changed the world on one cold December morning over 100 years ago.  

While in the Tarheel State, I sampled some eastern North Carolina barbecue, which I had when I was last there in 2012.  This time it was a different place, and no offense to anyone there, but I just wasn't impressed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it had flavor, but my palate seems to be more favorable to what I had in Texas and what I've had off of my grill.  It's that I won't go out of my way for eastern NC barbecue, but I hope that sometime next year I will be in the western part of that state to try it Piedmont style.

Virginia is a beautiful state, and was when I lived in Manassas in 1975.  My memories of Manassas are very fond, and for a long time I wanted to go back there and live.  While in Arlington on business in 1989 I drove to Manassas and saw that it had changed so much that I wouldn't even consider living there now.  It's grown, the traffic was worse, and I'm sure that it's reached the intolerable point some time ago.

I should post some pictures of this, which means I might create a photo album page at some point in the future.  I'm still too jet-lagged to do anything like that today.  We got back late Wednesday night, and I'm slowly unpacking and getting things back to where they used to be before we left.  We enjoyed that trip very much and definitely want to do it again next year.  

There's still some traveling we want to do.  Our next road trip will take us over into the Land of Enchantment, as that I want to visit the Space Museum in Alamogordo as well as some other places.  After that I'm thinking Prescott and Sedona.

Before I go, one announcement that I didn't think I'd be making.

I'm giving some thought to coming out of retirement.  No, I am not bored or anything like that.  It's that some of the jobs that the recruiters have been contacting me about look like they'd be really fun and interesting to do.  I have turned down lots of interview requests recently, but I'm thinking, why not update my resume, throw it out there, and see what happens?

Ideally it would be a part time contracting gig, and one of my former employers would offer me that, and possibly another former employer.  The money would be useful and would help further my recreational pursuits.  

It's something to think about some more, but I can't tell you which way I will go on this.  

But as busy as I have been in retirement, if I go back to the workforce then I could get some rest.

Sunday 2/2/25: Warming Up in the Old Pueblo

 The past week or so saw below normal temperatures.  Today we are above normal and it will be that way for the rest of the week.  February can be a great month here and it can also be a cold month.  I would have thought we would be in for snow this winter, since it does that every third winter or so, but not this time.

Since I last checked in, we were up to San Jose and back for my mother's memorial service.  It was a great service and the whole process went a whole lot smoother than I thought it would.  We took three days to drive up there mainly because I-40 was used instead of I-10.  You can do it in two even using I-40, but I budgeted an extra day of driving since we wanted to bypass L.A..  Even if L.A. wasn't having their fire problems you still don't want to pass thru if you don't have to.

The first night saw us in Needles, where gas was $5.89 a gallon.  We discovered that one road that takes you into Mohave Valley AZ that the locals know about, and got gas there at $3.49.  Gas along I-40 and I-5 varied.  In Barstow and Lost Hills you could get it for around $4.00, but in Kettleman City figure on popping at least $5.70.  In San Jose it varied between $3.85 at Rotten Robbie's to $4.89 elsewhere.  At a Chevron in Morgan Hill where we stopped for a bio break there was a sticker with a QR code that said the high prices were due to taxes, and scan the code to figure out how to fight back.

Well the best way to fight back is at the ballot box, but the mentality of 80% of California voters suggests they aren't capable of processing the concept that if you vote differently you will get different results.  

Anyway, the drive back was also along I-40 and we came home in two days.  We made a mistake stopping for the night in Mojave.  We've stayed there before with no issues but we will never stay there again.  No, we weren't harmed or injured, but Tehachapi would have been a better choice.  (You do NOT want to stay in Barstow unless you want your car broken into overnight!)  

Meantime, I have started the process of getting my mother's estate settled.  I have distributed the first part of the assets with the second part being done pending sale of her house.  I don't see that happening until later in the year, as that we've got to get it ready, and finish going thru her things.  It is going to be a long process.  I have also had to re-arrange some things financially.  All of the debts save for mortgage and HELOC have been paid.  The mortgage is fixed at 3.5%, and with the CD I set up two days ago paying 4% I am in that unique position of the bank paying me more interest than I am paying them.  I can settle the mortgage right now if I want to, but right now it's free money.  

I guess this now brings up the retirement question.  I've had a few co-workers ask me when I'm going to do it.

Last December, when I was asked, the answer was "some time between tomorrow and one year from tomorrow."  A date has been tentatively selected but I am not announcing it, as that it's still subject to change.  I am being treated very well at work and it's been years since I've enjoyed a job as much as I've enjoyed this one.  I will admit there is a desire to take a sabbatical, and come back part time as a contractor.  

And if the sabbatical goes on for a year, no big deal.  I have places I want to visit, books that I want to read, and things that I want to do.  

My Mother Has Passed

Five days ago my mother has passed.  I knew some four weeks ago she was slowing down.  She got COVID some three weeks ago, which she recovered from, but she did not recover from the two falls that she got shortly after that.  Falls in that age bracket are sometimes the beginning of the end, which was true in her case.  She was given two weeks to two months, the next day it was one to two weeks, the next day after that she was given one week, and then it was a few days.

My brother and sister were able to make it down here in time.  It was a hard week for all of us.  As I am writing this, I am still dealing with arrangements and other matters related to this.  I have been off of work for these past two weeks, with the exception of yesterday since there wasn't anything to do on the home front (and I felt the need to start working on getting back to the status quo ante). 

We take comfort in knowing that she is with the Lord.  

I regret that due to her dementia, I was not able to have "deep" conversations with her like I was able to many years ago.  To be honest, she was very difficult to deal with this past year.  We were able to get her into assisted living last January, and that was not easy.  

As stated before, I am still working on arrangements.  I am taking today off of work in an effort to get them finalized.  

No comment at this time on the election results.  

Some Genealogical Musings

Most of the updates here have been on the Parker family, which has its own page.  I am thinking of creating a "Genealogy Main" page as the first stop for anyone who stumbles here looking for information on my research.  There is the intention of creating pages for Pierson, Pilkington, and Bonsall family histories.  There are some families on my mother's side I want to research as well.  I sometimes wonder if I'm opening a can of worms here on my Parker research, as that I am learning that it just wasn't my third great grandfather's family who migrated to Indiana and then Kansas.  One of his brothers' families migrated as well, along with his younger sister's.  And earlier I learned today that some of his cousins came too.

A year or so ago I started tracing downwards as many known descendants of William Riley Parker, mainly to learn where they went after settling in Kansas.  I may have to reach back even farther and go back to his grandfather.  That will shed a lot more light on the migrations of this family, along with the Hodges who migrated with them.  

If the information gets big enough it will justify its own website, as if I really want to be taking on other projects in addition to what I have going now.  This blog started out mainly as a chronicle of my random thoughts and life experiences, and now side pages are popping up.  I'd like to do a side page of my foreign banknote collection, alongside the "Ugly Money" page, which also needs updating.  

I probably shouldn't be doing this until I retire, and the problem with retirement right now is that I'm having so much fun in my job to where I don't want to give it up.  I am nearing the end of my career, I am in my groove as a Senior Product Test Engineer, and it's giving me plenty of satisfaction.  Yes, I sometimes miss being a satellite engineer, where I learned a great deal about orbiting satellites, and got to go to Japan three times and Italy once in that capacity.  

As for retirement, I have picked out a date, but am not making it public.  I may delay it a few months.  I can see pulling it ahead if the company re-organizes into a structure that I don't like.  Management changes at the very top of the corporate structure have taken place, and some have taken place at lower levels.  I am concerned with business units becoming too big to manage unless they are broken down into more manageable segments, which defeats the purpose of consolidating them into larger units which they say we need in order to meet our corporate goals.

OK, I just looked at the clock, and I've decided that I should shut up and call it a night.  This transmission is now officially coming to an end.  

Sunday, 6/2/24: Just Checking In

I haven't had very much to blog about this past six weeks, as that the activity here has been adding to the family history pages.  I have it in mind to create few more.  I find history fascinating, and as I learn about the migrations of my ancestors I end up learning some details that were too far down in the weeds for any high school or college course.  

As for my research itself, I've found that some of what I thought was right may not be right.  For a year or so I would have claimed John Webb Sr of Philadelphia as a 6th great grandfather, but one of the reliable websites has dissolved the connection to being the father-in-law of one of my Pilkington forbears.  Now that Pilkington did marry a Webb.........there's no doubt about that........it's that we're now not certain who her father was.

Weatherwise, we hit the century mark a few days ago, and it's still a dry heat.  The monsoon will be starting up anywhere from three to five weeks from now, and we have to take what rain we can get.  You wouldn't think that a desert would get any rain, but this one does.  It's just not a lot of it.   

That's it for this entry.  

To the Metroplex and Back

 Sheila and I spent most of last week in the Dallas area.  I could have told you last March that we were intending to this, but I'm not known for announcing travel plans in advance, and plus it's not a sure thing that you're going until you pop for the tickets.  Even then it's not a sure thing.  Our airlines, as good as they are (or are not?) sometimes suffer from outages of one kind or another.  Sometimes you get stranded in airports.  Getting stranded from a missed connecting flight though was not an issue as that almost all cities that are big enough to heard of will have a flight to Dallas.

Anyway, there was more than one reason to do this.  Sheila's best friend from her high school days is living in the Metroplex.  Mark, my best friend from high school, visits the Metroplex on Thanksgiving.  I was thinking, we have an opportunity here.  Why not take it?  And plus, there's that Texas barbecue.  I was also figuring that we could play tourist and visit the Grassy Knoll to look for spent shell casings.

Well we got to see Mark and his wife.  We got to see Jody and her family.  We had some really excellent Texas barbecue, and there was a most unforgettable hot pot place in Plano called Sea Pot (I highly recommend them!).  We didn't get down to Dealey Plaza though.  (Aside:  I have my own unique theories about the JFK assassination.  One is likely, another highly unlikely, but neither tend to fit the prevailing mold.  Especially my second theory).  

As for that part of Texas, I really loved it.  I have been to Waco before, I've visited east Texas, I've been to El Paso, but I had never been to Dallas, outside of connecting in DFW more times than I can remember.  If the Metroplex is really representative of the rest of the state, I'd say that Governor Abbott is doing a fine job.  But, I'm hearing some bad things about San Antonio as well as Austin,  I don't have a favorable view of El Paso either.  

It was a nice getaway, we both needed it, we have standing invitations to visit again any time from both Jody and Mark's son-in-law, and if Mark makes it out there next April well then we just might go out there too.

No..........I did not apply for work at Strumdum Industries.

Where Things Are Now..........and Some Interesting Family History

 I have been intending to post these past couple of weeks.  With this evening being one of those rare ones that are short of distractions I have an opportunity to catch up, so lets get going.  

The first part is Where Things Are Now.  That is, where they are in my life.  I am in week number four of the new job and my first thought to pass along that it's nice to be doing real work again.  When I was in the Navy TechRep office, opportunities to make technical decisions were rare.  I can only recall making one, and I can't remember what it was now.  In that role we were facilitator between a defense contractor and a Navy Program office for a variety of projects.  It was paperwork, attending meetings, and sitting around doing a lot of nothing.  I hated that, and I kept asking for more things to do.  That got me noticed for performance review time, as that I got an "Outstanding" rating and the maximum raise package.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way as far as workload goes.  I'm pretty swamped.  My first two weeks were training, and I'm still in training in the OJT sense.  I've never been a Production Test Engineer before.  I have some understanding of factory flow, but I haven't worked in a manufacturing capacity since 1985.  I've been development, I've helped transition projects to get ready for production, and I've done some field testing of equipment.  So what this is, is a new animal for me, and it is definitely stretching my envelope.  I regard that as a good thing.  As busy as it is on the factory floor, I am not working overtime, and none is expected.  There are test techs working around the clock, and if something goes wrong then the team that I'm on takes care of it when we come in the following morning.  And I've already written up two evaluations on the electronic subsystems we are testing, which gives me that sense of accomplishment that I want to take home with me.  It's so far a lot of fun, and I see myself riding this train for some time.

With that, we now get into the other subject I want to talk about.

During my 2 1/2 week hiatus, I decided to do some digging on my ancestry.  Now it's been known since I was in high school that I am descended from some colonials.  Most of my ancestors came over in the 1840s from their home country of Germany, some came over from Ireland around the same time, but my paternal grandmother had some Scotch-Irish ancestry and one of my uncles did some digging into this.  He found that we were descended from a William Riley Parker, who was born in Surry County North Carolina, and moved to Indiana and later on Doniphan County, Kansas.  Later in life he became interested in politics, and was elected to the lower house of the Kansas Legislature where he served one term, failing to win reelection.  

We know that his father was John Parker, who had a good chunk of land in Surry County, and in my digging I found that his brothers farmed across the state line in Virginia.  William Riley Parker's father-in-law was Edmond (Edmund?) Hodges.  There appears to be evidence that John Parker and Edmund Hodges served in the Revolutionary War, but I can't prove it.  There was also a John Parker in Surry County who was a moonshiner, but we don't know if there was a second John Parker there at the samet time and the same county.  Census records so far indicate only one.  So I'm going to claim descent from a moonshiner and proudly so.  OK?

Well my recent research went in another direction.  My grandmother also descended from a Levi Pilkington, and she was a granddaughter of Letitia Pilkington Penny.  Family legend has it that Levi Pilkington was run out of the Quakers for swearing and engaging in military activities, and yes I'm going to take some pride in that one.  I decided to see what I could learn about Levi Pilkington.  And here is where it gets interesting.

Levi's grandfather was also named Levi Pilkington, and one website has him as a Revolutionary War veteran.  He was born in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I took the Pilkington line back to 1687, and then took his mother's line back some.  This continued on to John Dudley, the 1st Duke of Northumberland, who was a trusted advisor of no less than Henry VIII!  John Dudley, who was also the 1st Earl of Warwick, has a Wikipedia article, as that he was executed for high treason at the Tower of London for trying to get his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, on to the throne.

The line goes back even farther, as that I have learned that I share a common ancestor with George Washington.  And that's the good news.  The bad news is that King Charles III is also descended from this same ancestor.

Another trace that I need to work on (verify) is one that goes all the way back to Charlemagne.  There is also evidence of Spanish and French royalty, and who knows where it will go from there when I pick this up again.

Meantime, this has inspired me to learn about British history.  How do Dukes become Dukes?  How does an Earl become an Earl?  I've learned that the reigning monarch made those decisions back then, as a means of recognizing and rewarding talent that they valued in those times.

I am now reading a book on Henry VIII, and already John Dudley is being mentioned on page 7.  I may have to search Amazon to see if anyone has written a book about him.  I get the sense that my ancestor is not well liked as a historical figure, in spite of some significant military accomplishments that he led.  

All of that said.........I've got a lot of work to do, not only at work, but also in family history.

Some Major Life Changes

I'll get straight to the point.  I haven't felt like posting for a while.  My father passed away last month and it is still affecting me.  For all I know it may affect me for the rest of my life.  I don't know.  I've never been thru this before.

He would not have wanted a whole lot of attention to this.  There was no published obituary.  I got the "get up here right now" phone call from San Jose, and Sheila and I were on the road the very next day.  I got up there in time to see him.  He knew I was there but he couldn't talk.

I can derive comfort in knowing that he is with the Good Lord.  Some of his friends at church found out for the first time, during his memorial service, that he was heavily involved with Project Apollo and the moon shots.  As proud as he was for getting to do that, he wouldn't talk about it.  Oh, he would talk about it to me, and told me some stories.

I can't tell you which is worse......the buildup to this event, or the aftermath.  Both are unpleasant. 

As for what he would want the rest of us to do, he would want the rest of us to be good citizens, be the best Americans we could be, and to do our best.

If there's anyone out there who is going to accuse me of being a good citizen......which I won't accuse myself of.........my dad had something to do with it.

Teach Kids to Smoke!

When I was growing up, cigarette usage was a lot more common among the adult population than it is today.  My parents smoked, my aunts and uncles smoked, and it's possible that my grandparents also smoked though I have no memory of them ever lighting up.  Smoking was the cool thing back then.  I noticed in my first year of junior high school that some of my classmates had taken up smoking.  They couldn't smoke on school grounds, so the new seventh graders would join their friends and upper level classmates outside the perimeter of the campus and light up before the morning classes started.  It was a rite of passage for them; it was the cool thing to be hip, and even though Florida state law did not allow for minors to have possession of cigarettes they somehow got them and used them on a regular basis.

Warning labels, were of course, on cigarette packages in those days.  This appears to have started in the 1960s when the Surgeon General went after tobacco.  I remember health warnings on the cigarette packages back then that said something like "Smoking may be hazardous to your health".  The warnings got more direct as time went on, and while that was going on the faculty of the junior high school started "educating" the students on the dangers of tobacco.  They wanted its use to end and were discouraging it whenever they felt the need.

Smoking of course went on, and it wasn't until the late 70s that the anti-tobacco crusaders decided to amp up their fight against cigarettes.  They pushed for a ballot initiative in California in 1978 which ended up being defeated, but the crusaders weren't going to give up.  Smoking was banned in grocery stores, then in other public places, tobacco taxes were increased, and eventually they succeeded in getting smoking banned in bars (as if people visit the bar on a regular basis for their health).  This spread to other states, and if that wasn't enough, tobacco taxes were hiked by several states and eventually the federal government in an effort to discourage smoking.  Tax increases were sold to the public on premise that revenues collected would go to treat lung cancer and provide health care for poor children.  There was also a multibillion dollar extortion from Big Tobacco, and Joe Camel, who was said to be more recognizable than Mickey Mouse was virtually banned.

Now growing up I was very much anti-cigarette smoking, and in my adulthood I too wanted the smokers punished.  I wanted them banished into the functional equivalent of leper colonies.  I wanted taxes on cigarettes hiked.  Yes, I wanted them to pay.

Well, like how President Obama's position on same sex marriage has evolved, so has my position on cigarette smoking evolved too.  I think collecting tobacco taxes to pay for health care of poor children is a very noble thing to do, but my concern is that if everyone quits smoking then there won't be any more taxes collected for this.  The parents of poor children obviously can't pay for doctor visits or trips to the E.R., and if tobacco taxes aren't collected then the health of poor children is at risk.  Some of them may die.  I think this is wrong, and if you're a level-headed person then you'll be agreeing with me on this one.

Now we can't really expect the adult ex-smokers to resume the habit.  Many of them have spent hundreds of dollars in trying to kick the habit by getting medication or hiring hypnotists or even subjecting themselves to electro-shock therapy to kick that habit.  I don't think it's fair to them to tell them that their money and efforts were wasted on that.  They've already spent several years paying their fair share of tobacco taxes, and I think they've done enough.

So if we can't approach the ex-smokers to start smoking again, then what do we do?  The poor children need their health care.  We could start taxing fast food, but we need fast food taxes to pay for the health care costs of the obese who got that way by eating fast food, so that's off the table.  We could tax alcohol, but alcohol taxes have been earmarked for treating alcoholism and rehabilitation of drunk drivers, and it wouldn't be fair to divert those funds to provide health care for poor children.

The obvious answer here is to somehow keep the revenue stream from tobacco taxes flowing.  We do that by recruiting new smokers, and the younger we recruit them then that's more years of them paying tobacco taxes, and thus they are able to better bear the burden of providing this much-needed health care for the economically disadvantaged.   In other words, this problem is solved by teaching our kids to smoke.

Now before anyone flippantly dismisses this idea, we must stop and think about this some.  If parents start teaching their children to smoke, the children will start thinking that their parents are cool and in tune with their generation.  Imagine the family out on the back patio smoking cigarettes after Dad has finished with the barbecue and Mom has done the dishes.  Dad and Junior can light up their Marlboros, and commiserate about what Justin Bieber is up to.  Mom and Sis light up their Virginia Slims, with Mom giving Sis instructions on how to twerk better than Miley Cyrus.  This would be a family bonding experience. 

This would even be better if extended family comes by.  Grandpa lights up his corncob pipe.  Uncle Joe brings his chaw.  Aunt Jane brings a cigar and lights up, showing Sis what a liberated woman can do in this day and age.  Grandma joins Uncle Joe in the chawing, and shows off her skills in projecting used Skoal into the spittoon that's on the corner of the patio.

I think it is time to end the war on tobacco.

I hereby call on school districts nationwide to stop discouraging tobacco use.  Instead, junior high schools and high schools nationwide should have smoking areas set aside, and the teachers should join the students in lighting up during the cigarette breaks so that they can better relate to their students.

It's time.  It's time.  It's time to start teaching kids to smoke.

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LINK

Catching up, April 2016

I regret to be posting that my uncle Tony passed away last week.  He was a member of the Greatest Generation.....those who went overseas in World War II to defend our freedoms.  I was aware that he was on board a plane that was shot down behind enemy lines, and spent six weeks in the care of the Yugoslavian resistance.........but I had no idea that he had earned two Purple Hearts.  He didn't tell us that when he was discussing his experience with my cousin Tom and myself when I was in Iowa several years ago.

I also regret not having met him many more times.  He spent his postwar career in the Nebraska Highway Department, while I was growing up in Kansas, Louisiana, Florida, and other places.  He inspired confidence in those that he met, which is a trait that should be much more common than it is today.

Goodbye Tony. 

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I am now over two months into my new job, and the longer I'm there, the more that I enjoy it.  It's challenging to simultaneously develop forty......yes forty.......test protocols simultaneously.  They are almost ready for dry runs.  I see twenty of them being done by close of business on Wednesday and the remainder by the close of business Friday. 

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A really good place to stop off at if you're ever passing thru Tucson is the Triple T truck stop right off I-10 at the Craycroft exit.  This was established in 1950 or so when there wasn't an I-10.  The highway was the old Arizona State 86, which still exists east of Tucson, but used to take travelers from Tucson right to the New Mexico state line.

They're open 24/7/365, and breakfast as well as lunch are served all day.  I was there Friday morning meeting a longtime friend for breakfast, and I had the Cowboy Omelette.  It was devastating in a very good way.........so filling that I didn't bother with lunch.

The chain truck stops are good places to eat, as that there's a lot of competition amongst Love's, Pilot, and Petro to serve home style cooking for those who are on the road for long periods of time. 

TTT, which stands for Tucson Truck Terminal, is an independent, and remains one of my favorite places to eat.

 

* * * * * * *

I am really still amazed to be back home in Tucson.  Every time I get to go to TTT or to one of the fine Mexican restaurants here, or to church, or even if I'm driving around, I feel this gratitude about being back home, and it may be a long while before it wears off..........if it ever does.

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I'm still doing yardwork, and the yard is showing signs of getting to where I want it.  It will be an ongoing thing.  If just one cubic inch of the garbage can is empty, it means that I haven't done enough yardwork. 

I also am itching to resume getting my coin collection better organized.  I am itching to buy a box of nickel and sort thru them, and that just might happen within a week.

 

* * * * * * *

That is it for now. 

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!

Life's Events

The month has been up and down so far with the good and the not-so-good.  A great moment of joy was had on the 3rd when Sheila's oldest daughter gave birth to a baby boy, making Sheila a grandmother and me a grandfather by virtue of marrying into the family.  I was pleased as punch to see a picture of the little guy when he was barely an hour old.  I kept looking at it and realizing that life itself is a miracle.

Then there was news of some complications with the young one, but within the few hours the complications were showing signs of self-correction and the day after we knew that the new family member is doing OK.  I am going down to see him on the 27th.

At work, we seem poised to do some great things that have never been done before.  These are things I can't talk about, but you'll read them in the news if you know where to look.  There is most definitely a market for what we're offering and my challenge as an engineer is to help get the product to the marketplace.  I'm having loads of fun working there.

As for Las Vegas itself, I was Downtown yesterday strolling around and people-watching.  I saw the usual collection of panhandlers and weirdo street performers along the Fremont Street Experience.  No, I didn't gamble, but I found a nickel on the ground so I was able to come out ahead.

I took a different way home, mainly wanting to check out this Salvadorean restaurant that was on Main Street, a few blocks north of Downtown.  I figured I would drive by it and see if I could get a feel as to whether or not I would want to go inside sometime.  What I found out was that part of Main Street was a real trashcan of a neighborhood, and of course I was remembering what Bob Self had to say about Las Vegas. 

That of course obliterated the positive view of southern Nevada that I had when I went out on a drive to Amargosa Valley last Saturday.  I hadn't been up that stretch of US 95 since July 1993, and I wanted to re-acquaint myself with that area.  The mountains in the distance had this signature scenery to them, and in a few places it was a lot like being out in the middle of Cochise County back in Arizona.  I'm thinking that I should go out there again, but I'll likely wait until I have new tires on the back of my truck, and I want to put that purchase off until I'm in the next billing cycle of one of my Visa cards.

Meantime, I can report that the weather is finally warming up.  We had an unusually cold and wet winter in Las Vegas this time around according to a ten year resident here who I cross paths with at work.  I spend most of my lunch hours walking around the campus with another co-worker; I do 1.7 miles each day unless I get the wild hare to leave the plant for lunch.  I have discovered some great eating places that I can get to and back before my allotted one hour for lunch is up, and I'm thinking it's time to check out one of them.........that being the Bacon Bar (it's tempting to go there for breakfast tomorrow). 

That's going to be it for now. 

Visitors!

Yesterday afternoon my brother rolled in from Santa Fe. He lives in the San Jose area, but decided to take a vacation touring the western states and stopping off to get in some serious bikeriding. He stopped off in Nevada, again in Colorado, then New Mexico, then he came here to Tucson.

It wasn't his first time here, but it has been a long while. Cousin Todd came down last night from Gilbert to visit, and the three of us were up late last night knocking off a New York style pizza and a few rounds of Corona.

He would have stayed one more day, but needed to get back to San Jose in time to resume work. I advised him to take two days to drive back instead of one, and that San Bernardino is the halfway point between here and San Jose.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm meeting two friends for dinner at one of Tucson's fine Mexican restaurants. One is in from Pennsylvania and another is in from Queen Creek. We'll probably be there for a few hours. Then Monday it's back to work.

* * * * * * *

I'm finally at that "fireball" story in the Alfred Hitchcock collection! This time I've gotten farther into it than I did some 37 or so years ago. It's building up nicely, and I hope to complete it this weekend.

The other stories were also good, with a few of them quite chilling. I didn't remember them all but the scariest ones I did remember, particularly "One of the Dead" by William Wood and "Journey to Death" by Donald E. Westlake. The "fireball" story is called "Out of the Deeps" by John Wyndham though Google research says that this was published as a different novel called "The Kraken Wakes".

* * * * * * *

On the world scene, we have Iran starting up their nuclear capability, a rumor that Israel will strike, and I have a sense of uneasiness that something big is going to happen in the very near future and it ain't going to be pretty.

The 1970s/80s rock band Styx had this song called "Borrowed Time", and I'm now wondering if we, as a nation, have been living on it a little too long.

* * * * * * *

That's going to be it for this evening. I don't have very much else to say right now.

SITREP, 7/12/10

I wasn't originally going to post today because I didn't think I would have anything meaningful to post about. However, with this weekend's events I think that it is appropriate and necessary to publicly thank my network of friends and family, most notably my sister, Aunt Marge, Mark J, Franz K and "Tobi's Mom". My parents have not yet been told of the breakup but I will call them later this evening to inform them. As it was, I did not read Lynette's email to me until the early morning hours, and that was not the time to call. They will be saddened by this as that I'm sure that they were convinced they were meeting a future daughter-in-law.

As for how I feel today, there is no single word to describe it. I can tell you that I am not angry about this, and to be honest, I really have nothing bad to say about Lynette. She was correct in an earlier email from last month in saying that I do not really understand her, and all I can say in my defense is that I'm not sure that a man can really understand a woman and vice versa. I'm not even sure that I understand myself at times, and I'm OK with that.

I do believe that my experience with Lynette was an extremely positive one. I can say that about every girlfriend I can think of, except for one, and I won't identify that one because she's been in the rear view mirror for a long time now.

And as for work, I was productive today, considering that I am simultaneously coming off of a vacation and a breakup. I had three technical problems to solve with a deadline of tomorrow afternoon, and two of them are done. If it hadn't been for a Monday (and the events) I would have had all three taken care of. However, I know that there are two possible solutions to the third task at hand, and I'll know which one is best before noon tomorrow. At that point I can then pull Wednesday's scheduled assignment ahead one half day earlier. (get this....me talking about work!)

As for where I go from here this week, I haven't finished figuring that out yet but I'll come up with something. I have Friday off from work and I will likely treat myself to a drive somewhere. I'm not sure if that will be to Arivaca to take some pictures or over to Greenlee County to take in the scenery.

You know, I forgot to thank my two cats, Moe and Larry. Moe was more interested in me this weekend than he was in the food dish. And Larry, well that guy is perpetually high on life, but he was more interested in cozying up to me than he was in attacking Moe.

That's it for now.

Time to resume life.

On the road in Coralville, Iowa

We are now in Coralville, where my aunt Marge, uncle Tony, and cousins Kirk and Todd and their families live. Kirk and Todd have done very well with their families. I feel somewhat embarrassed upon admitting that it's been six years since I last saw them. I really need to get here to the midwest a lot more often than I have been. Perhaps next year I should do a long weekend here in Iowa, flying into Des Moines. Marge and Tony know plenty about family history and I feel the need to learn as much as I can.

Lynette is not doing very well; she's had the same nagging cough that I have had for the past four weeks, though mine is at the end. I'm thinking that we might have to go to an urgent care tomorrow morning. We have done a lot of running around on this trip and that can't be helping matters any. Yesterday we were at her brother Larry's up near Waukesha, almost a two hour drive to get there.

Marge and Tony are doing very well and are in very good spirits. Kirk, Todd, and their wives had some questions about the border situation in Arizona. Kirk didn't waste any time in telling me that he supports that new law (SB1070), and I do too. No one has a problem with legal immigration. We need every good American we can get our hands on, and those who come here via legal means are an asset. As I told Kirk, his wife, and the rest, the federal government isn't doing its job, and that's why Arizona passed this law. Oh well. Enough about politics.

Again, I need to do better at getting out this way.

Tomorrow I think we'll take a longer way to get back to Roscoe. I've heard tell of an Amish community here in Iowa, and I'd like to detour thru there on the way back.

Checking in from Roscoe, Illinois

I am here in the middle of "flyover" country.....where the skies are blue, the hills are rolling, the grass is green, and cornfields seem to stretch in all four directions. We are staying with Lynette's sister Luann, and her husband Jerry. Our flight into Chicago was without any adverse events, which is good, and our stay here has been great!

Roscoe is about three miles south of the Illinois/Wisconsin state line. Clinton, which is where Lynette grew up, is about three miles north of that line. We were over there meeting her parents. I found them to be very nice people, and I have a better understanding now of where Lynette got her "niceness" from. I think if you were to meet her that would be one of the first things you notice about her.....that she's nice, and she tends to brighten up the room around her. As I told Lynette's mother yesterday, I feel very fortunate to have found her.

Today we were in New Glarus, Wisconsin, a small town that's very Swiss. It was settled by a group of Swiss colonists and the town today reflects that heritage. We ate lunch at a Swiss restaurant where I enjoyed a bratwurst roesti and a local beer called Fat Squirrel. It was quite the meal, and I probably shouldn't have had all those carbs, so I think I will have to go out for a walk later on this afternoon/evening when it's cooler.

On Monday, if plans hold, it's off to Coralville, Iowa where we will visit with Aunt Marge and Uncle Tony. My cousins Todd (not the one in Gilbert) and Kirk, their sons, live there too. I don't think our stay there will be as long as I would like but that's how it is when available time off from work doesn't grow on trees.

I can understand why Lynette misses Wisconsin. The scenery is neat, and the people are real nice.

The midwest is a great place to be from.

To San Jose and Back

Last Friday Lynette and I flew out to San Jose. The one in California, that is (there's one in Costa Rica too). The occasion was my niece Isabelle's #6 birthday party, but the prime motivation was to introduce Lynette to my family, and they to her. That trip had a way of sneaking up on us in the same manner that most trips do.

There you are, minding your own business, and you know that you've got a trip coming up. OK, you know it's coming, but you're still minding your own business. Eventually it hits you two days before that you need to start packing, and you'd better pack then because if you don't then you'll find out about the laundry that you need to do before you can pack your bag. I mean, most of us like to travel with clean clothes, and even if you're visiting family members it's still good form to wear clean clothes.

Yes, there was a frantic preparation period, and I was up until one in the morning on Wednesday night trying to get ready. I have class on Wednesday nights and the laundry needed doing. Even though I wasn't going to climb on board the plane until Friday morning I still needed to leave for Queen Creek on Thursday afternoon/evening. My frantic period was a little on the intense side, and I felt overwhelmed.

Anyway, when we arrived in San Jose, we were met at the airport by my parents, and I think my parents and Lynette ended up having an instant liking for each other. That's really good, because I think that whoever it is that you're contemplating marrying is going to have to "fit in", so to speak. I knew Lynette would, but there's still having to see it for yourself.

We returned yesterday, and regrettably, there wasn't time to see any tourist attractions aside from Santa Cruz. We did get to visit with Mark & Xiuwen, as well as Chip, Gabriela and Violeta.

It was good being there.

I don't miss living in San Jose one bit. I lived there for sixteen years and seven years in Santa Cruz, and I do not miss the crowds, the traffic, the high taxes, and the killer commutes.

I do miss the people there that I know, and I try to get back there from time to time.

As for meeting family members, we're not done yet.

On the 30th we get back on the plane, and this time we meet her family members in Illinois and Wisconsin. I'm looking forward to that, as that midwest food has this freshness to it that you can't get anywhere else in the country, and it's nice to see something different.

And for Lynette.......well........I'm still in awe of what a great find she is.

It's Getting Late Earlier These Days

Well the title of this post sounds a lot like something Yogi Berra, the Master of Malapropisms, once said. You gotta love Yogi and his quotations. "Nobody goes there, it's too crowded." "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." "You have to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." And my favorite: "You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours".

The title of this evening's post was thought up with Yogi in mind. I know that a long time ago when I was explaining Arizona's monsoon season I said "It doesn't rain a lot here, but when it rains, it rains a lot"......and I thought that's how Yogi Berra would have put it!

* * * * * * *

OK. The news that I am getting from Iowa has been very good. I mean, very good. Tony is said to be recovering at the rate that your average 50 year old would. He's got a ways to go, but I hear that he's now joking with the nurses.

I've sent word out to Lincoln (Nebraska) that I'm thinking of coming out there next year, with a side trip to Iowa. I'm leaning towards Memorial Day. I think my cousin Marie goes down to Robinson (Kansas) to lay wreaths on our grandparents' graves, as well as the graves of two of my uncles (of which one is Marie's father). If she's doing that next time around, I'd like to be there too.

* * * * * * *

Today there was a press conference in Winnipeg where Randy Bachman and Fred Turner have made it official: they are re-uniting, and recording some new songs (I think three or four have already been recorded). They will either be touring as Bachman-Turner Union or Bachman-Turner United. Interestingly enough, they worked together in 1981 in a band called "Union", and the album that Union put out was, in my mind, one of the best ever recorded.

The new CD will be out sometime next year. I hope that those guys will record a few more that follow.

As some of you know, I have been a big fan of Bachman-Turner Overdrive for many years....as in 35 years now. I never thought back then that I would ever get to meet all of the members, but I have. They have all been very nice to me, and I can never forget the kindness that all of the members showed me on the several occasions that I have gotten to meet them.

* * * * * * *

April Wine, my other favorite band, is also working on some new music. I have been a Wine fan for over 30 years now. Like BTO, they are from Canada, a most beautiful country that has given us a lot of great music to go along with the great beer that they brew.

My understanding is that the new April Wine CDs (three or four of them) will contain new material, live material, and re-worked versions of some old songs. Their last release was Roughly Speaking in 2007 and I highly recommend its purchase.......it was practically recorded right off the floor and there's a very strong blues influence in that one. Trust me, you'll like it.

And.....I've met some of the April Wine members too. They were all gentlemen. They took time to answer my questions and to sign autographs.

Next year could very well be a great year as far as new music goes.

* * * * * * *

Weatherwise, we had our first winter storm last night. Snow came down to the 5000 foot elevation (my house is at 2720 feet) and on the desert floor we had some rain. The wind was cold and chilly, which made it seem a lot colder than it really was.

You might not believe this, but it will snow here in Tucson on occasion. I've seen it maybe three times. The first was Easter Sunday in 1999. The last was in January 2007.

Snow is obviously, a novelty here.

It doesn't snow a lot here, but when it snows, it doesn't snow a lot.

* * * * * * *

I am not immune to the holiday stress. I was feeling it something fierce yesterday. I'm in a much better mood today. Did King Solomon say that there was a time to build and a time to tear down? I felt like I was tearing down things yesterday. Today I felt like I was building them back up.

Anyway, me thinks that I will be writing the Christmas letter tomorrow.

* * * * * * *

I haven't yet figured out when I'll be starting my road trip to San Jose. I've been waffling on that one. A week ago I found myself wanting to leave on the 14th. Yesterday I thought no, I'll leave on the 19th.

I'm now thinking of starting the journey on Thursday, the 17th. And the 17th will be my birthday. I'll be 51 years old that day.

You know, I really don't feel like I'm in my fifties. I think I feel better today than I did ten years ago. I've got more gray hairs in my beard than I did back then, but I really think I feel better.

Either way......when that new music from BTU and April Wine comes out, I'll be young again.

:)

* * * * * * *

I can't resist quoting this BTO song from 1975: "Don't let the blues get you down".

Here's the song if you want to listen to it: LINK

Thanksgiving Eve and Some Memories

There's always something special about the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. It means some time off from work for most of us, reflection for others, and anticipation of the meal that we're going to have the next day. Tomorrow I will be up in Gilbert, that's in Phoenix metro, to spend the day with my cousin Todd. His wife Annette, who happens to be a damn good cook has graciously decided to provide the meal for us. Todd and I kicked around the idea of preparing the main dish on the barbecue grill, but Annette wouldn't hear of it.

Yes, I know, turkey is traditional. And I'm a fan of tradition as much as the next guy. Yep, gimme some turkey, some stuffing, a load of those mashed potatoes and slather on that gravy. Baked beans? Sure. Pumpkin pie? You betcha. (I didn't mention cranberry; I've never been a real fan of that). Then off to the back patio for a long conversation ranging from next year's deer hunting trip and where to go, or maybe getting the clan together in Palm Springs or something. I figure it will be one of those days that will again be filed away under the Memories section of that organic computer that God gave me that I call my brain.

As I think about tomorrow and the drive up to Phoenix, I can't help but think about previous Thanksgiving Eves and the memories that they have provided me over the years. There are a few of them that stand out, a few that I come back to whenever another one of those Eves arrive.

The first one I think about is the one in 1975. That was Wednesday the 26th of November. I was not yet 17 years old, and we were living in Virginia at the time. We knew next month that we were moving to California. That evening my dad took us all up to Hatboro, Pennsylvania, so that we could have one last turkey meal with my Uncle Buss, Aunt Anne, and cousins Gary and Margie. Buss is one of my dad's older brothers, and while we were living on the east coast we would try to see them from time to time.

That particular day my mind was more on the purchase of the first album recorded by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. I had been a huge fan of them for over a year at that time, and I was looking to complete my musical library with every last song that they had ever done. I've always been partial to that album. It had a lot of great songs on it: "Gimme Your Money Please", "Hold Back the Water", "Blue Collar", "Down and Out Man" and "Don't Get Yourself in Trouble" were my favorites. Not only did it have some cool songs on it, the design and artwork of that album was the best that I had ever seen, and I think it's the best that I'll ever see.

Another day that comes to mind was one here in Arizona, in 2003. I drove up to Chandler (also in Phoenix metro) with Peggy. Peggy was a former girlfriend of mine back in 2002. We had really had quite the passionate romance but I wasn't able to jump in feet first on that one. It was the first serious romance since my divorce in 1999, and my mindset of the time was that I wasn't ready for a serious relationship. Somehow though we have managed to remain good friends over the years. I'm still in touch with her. She's living full time in Palo Alto, California these days. Eventually she'll return to Tucson but her job is very demanding and I suspect she'll be up there for the next several months.

Anyway, on that day of 2003, I left work early to pick her up. We drove up to her sister's, and after a run to Sam's Club and Fry's Electronics I was relaxing in the hot tub with her and her sister. Her sister had this Siberian husky named Bo, and ole Bo was really quite the character. He'd place his head in my lap knowing that I would instinctively scratch it. If I stopped scratching, he would growl at me. If I still didn't resume scratching, he'd start barking. Dang, he was as assertive as a cat when it came to wanting attention!

I don't think though that this evening is going to rank up with the two aforementioned evenings, aside from the fact that this year I have a blog whereas I didn't the years before. I can't remember what I was doing last year on Thanksgiving Eve. I do know that in years past I took the whole week off from work. I wanted to do that this year but I'm saving what little vacation time I have left for the year for next month's road trip to San Jose.

On another note, I am mindful that a lot of people this year don't have as much to be thankful for as I do this year. I don't know why, but that bothers me. I can in one way identify with them, having been there once. That was in 1998, when some severe adverse circumstances were going on for me.

I hope that those others can find their way out like I did.

Tuesday, 11/17/09

Tony's surgery is being put off until the 30th. My cousin Kirk (Tony's middle son) was able to locate a surgeon who has more experience with this type of surgery. Kirk obviously is well-connected with the medical community; he once studied under one of the nation's top dental surgeons and I'm sure he knows who the top dogs are in several specialties. If he doesn't know, he will know who knows and he will make use of their advice.

* * * * * * *

It is with some sadness that I report the passing of noted shortwave/ham radio author Harry Helms, who lost his battle with cancer two days ago at the age of 57. I first read one of his articles in the November 1977 Popular Electronics magazine, where he wrote a fascinating piece about pirate radio. A few months later another of his articles dealt with "mystery" signals and clandestine stations on shortwave, including that one numbers station out of Cuba that I've briefly touched on.

Mr. Helms was quite knowledgable about the oddities in radio that were out there, but he knew a lot about some other things. He authored a book called "Top Secret Tourism" which I've been meaning to get a copy of. This book is about places that are not generally known to the public, such as Area 51. He was careful to caution his readers about respecting the signs that restricted access and trespassing.

I stumbled across his blog some six months ago, and he didn't know this but he was inspiring me to create this blog. I never contacted him via his email; he had enough on his hands as that he had been a terminal cancer patient for nearly three years. He was open about what was happening with him, and he faced that battle with dignity.

He will definitely be missed.

* * * * * * *

As of late I've been reading The Templars by Piers Paul Read. It's a fascinating history that goes into great detail about the rise of both Christianity and Islam, and the Crusades. The role of the Templars in this period is also examined in great detail.

Up until a year or so ago, this was one of the several areas of the world's history that I've been largely ignorant of. It isn't taught in public schools and if you learn it at a university you're either a history major or you took the class as an elective.

I will grant that a better understanding of the American nation can be gained by studying our nation's history, which typically begins with the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Yes, anyone graduating from high school in this country needs to know American history.

However, I'm wondering if maybe we should go back even further and make our children learn about medieval Europe, and the development of the legal system in England. It wasn't until I read a Supreme Court decision regarding the Second Amendment that I became aware that a lot of our "law doctrine" or concept of rights, if you will, emerged out of England. That in turn goes back to the Magna Carta, which most folks have heard about, but almost no one can explain how that came into being and why, or even what it said in the first place.

Getting back to the Crusades, I think it would do us all well to be knowledgable about them and what was left in their wake. I think the influence of the Crusades is still with us, even though many of us are largely ignorant about it.

* * * * * * *

That's it for this evening. I don't think I'll be posting for the next few days.

The State of the World as it is on Monday, 11/16/09

News from Iowa is that Uncle Tony will be undergoing open-heart surgery tomorrow. He will have a new valve put in and if necessary, a bypass will also be performed. He is 87 years old and it must be scary for him and for his family to be undergoing this.

I can't help but wonder what would have been happening to Tony if Obamacare were under effect right now. I think some bureaucrat would have concluded that Tony is too old for this surgery, so why waste a surgeon's skill on him? Never mind that Tony was off fighting the Nazis in his younger years. Never mind him raising three talented children, who all are working in various areas of the dental field. Never mind that he was a good husband to my aunt Marge and helped my dad out on something more than half a century ago (I don't know the details of that; very likely a private matter).

Enough about politics.

* * * * * * *

I had my first post-Kathleen date over the weekend. This chain of events was set in motion about three, maybe four weeks ago when I "unhid" my profile on Match and snuck in a clue about how I could be reached by email. Within a day or two of doing that, I was contacted by a lady that I will only identify as Debbie (I don't disclose last names here except on very rare occasions or if the person is famous.) There was an email exchange of about three weeks or so. We spoke on the phone Friday. We met at an Italian restaurant on Saturday.

I really liked her. I found her to be very attractive and she was very good company. Thing of it is, is that it was really hard to tell if the chemistry was really there. I was really hoping that she would have wanted to adjourn to a dance floor that was up the road by a few miles, but I didn't think that I would get away with that suggestion, so we said goodbye in the parking lot.

I haven't heard from her since then. I'm not sure that I should write or call. My own thinking is that more time would have been needed to really know, but experience tells me she would have been another Dyanna.......great company, attractive, and fun.........but no special magic.

Since unhiding my profile on Match, I have gotten lots of email from them encouraging me to become a paid member. I get told about how someone looked at my profile and was checking me out. Well, just because someone was looking at your profile doesn't mean that they're really interested. I've checked out plenty of profiles myself. Some of them just flat out remind me of an April Wine song......"looks good from far.....but it's far from good".

Anyway, with Debbie, I'm taking no further action. Now that this is a closed chapter, I'm making it public here.

Maybe it's time to see if this one chick up in Phoenix who's on eHarmony is interested.

* * * * * * *

I am really wishing that I had bought more gold when it was $300 an ounce. As the present administration is continuing the work of the previous administration in destroying the dollar, gold is reaching for record highs these days. It's in the mid 1100s right now.

Is it really going to reach $2000 an ounce?

I'm thinking of buying two ounces, and selling one of those ounces in case it does reach $2K.

Then again, it might be wiser to hold on to it. In trying to determine what the money supply is by reading the Fed's website, they have three different definitions.....as if they really don't want you to know how much money is out there.

But no matter which set of numbers you look at, with the multitrillion dollar debt and deficits in front of us, they'll just print more even if the dollar goes the way of the Italian lira.

I'll never forget handing over 4000 lira to buy a soda when I was in Rome in 1995. I'll have to check, but I think a century ago there was a 20 lira coin that contained 0.1867 ounces of gold.

* * * * * * *

Last night I checked out the remake of "The Prisoner" on the AMC channel. I've long been a fan of the original series that Patrick McGoohan starred in. This remake? Well, I was only able to last twenty minutes.

The original series is just fine. It shouldn't be messed with.

* * * * * * *

Time now for some supper.