Janie’s Journey (Part 10)

Once again, I have been derelict in keeping this blog up to date. Mostly, this is about Janie’s progress after having broken her ankle. The good news is that there is a lot of progress! In my last report, she had been able to transition from a splint to a boot. Not only was it more comfortable-at least marginally-but it allowed her pressure sore to be cared for by her visiting nurse. As that began to happen, the sore began to heal much more quickly and became less of a concern. The nurse and I each change the dressing once a week. It has gone from the size of a 50-cent piece to smaller than a pencil eraser. 

After switching over to the boot, Janie had another appointment with the doctor a few weeks later, and the x-rays showed much improvement in the bone healing too. At an earlier appointment, we had been told that it might be 12-16 weeks before she could put weight on the leg. This time, she was told she could put weight on in another week, around September 15. She was instructed to start standing, using the boot as long as she could tolerate the pain. As it turned out, she did not have any pain in the ankle although understandably, her legs are quite weak. Since the last appointment, with the help of her physical and occupational therapists, she has been able to practice standing to build up her strength. She has also been able to pivot in order to transfer to her wheelchair. Although we are not at the point where we will transfer her with just my help, that is a big step toward mobility. She has an appointment next week and she’s hoping that she can lose the boot and go back to her shoes. Keep your fingers crossed!

I have managed to keep pretty busy over this time, although I have managed to get some time to “play” radio. The last time I reported on “collecting countries” I had 44 countries. Now I’m up to 58 including Cook Islands, the Azores, Finland, Cayman Islands, Northern Ireland and China.

Leslie’s Graduation; Janie’s Journey (Part 9)

Time for an update. On July 16, we were proud to help Leslie celebrate earning her master’s degree and watching her walk in her graduation ceremony at Safeco field.

After the early morning ceremony, we had a small party for her at our clubhouse. It was a long day, especially for Janie—sitting in a wheelchair for that long is pretty tiring. Many of you were aware of Leslie’s pursuit of both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and we are very proud of her accomplishments. Jess was also a major support to her behind the scenes.

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Unfortunately, on the evening of the graduation, Janie’s knee buckled on her, and she wound up collapsing on her ankle. We called the fire department to assist getting her onto the couch, and we thought it was at least a bad sprain. By morning, we began to realize it was more than a sprain. Since she can’t stand on one leg alone, we called the fire department again, and she went by ambulance to the ER. There an ankle fracture was confirmed, and the orthopedic specialist informed her that she would have to be non-weight bearing for at least 6-8 weeks. We’ve since learned that it would likely be even longer. She could not go home because she cannot stand on the other leg alone.

Janie was in the hospital nearly a week while we made arrangements for home health caregivers, and equipment that would allow us to move her around at home. As soon as we knew that her leg was fractured, we knew that the recommendation would be for her to go to a rehab center, and we knew that we would do anything to avoid that choice. She has been in 3 different rehab centers with previous fractures and the experience has not been good in any of them. In some cases, the staff tried to move her in ways that were specifically contrary to her post surgery instructions and could have caused further damage. Add to those experiences the risk of Covid, Norovirus, etc., and we were pretty set against another trip to “Shady Pines,” in spite of medical advice. I have already been doing caregiving duties since Janie became unable to walk. It’s not the same level of caregiving as someone who cares for a loved one with dementia. Janie is well able to help out with her mind and her web browsing abilities. Still, we didn’t really know what to expect in adding the mobility limitations to the mix. We arranged for a Hoyer lift—not a fun way to travel (she says it reminds her of medieval instruments of torture)—and arranged for “Visiting Angels” to assist me part time. 

We already had house cleaners who come once a week, dog walkers for some of the walks and we shop online. We are doubly fortunate that Leslie lives close by. She cooks for us at least twice a week and helps out with lots of other things. As it turned out two weeks was enough for the extra caregivers. By then, we had routines down, I had enough practice driving the lift and we had Home Health checking in on Janie. We were ready to go it alone, and it has worked pretty well. We are talking to our cleaners about coming a little extra, just to take the load off.

Janie was to go see the surgeon’s Physician’s Assistant after a couple of weeks to check her progress. That was another “adventure.” We arranged for a cabulance—a specialized vehicle that you can roll a wheelchair into. The trip to the doctor was OK, but the trip home was traumatic. During the ride, Janie started slipping down in her wheelchair, so that when we arrived home, we couldn’t safely get her out of the cabulance without the risk of her falling completely out of the chair. Once again, the fire department to the rescue! They helped us reposition her so that she could be moved safely. After that trip, we made modifications to ensure that it didn’t happen again.

At the appointment, the x-rays looked good. The bones were healing, but Janie had developed a pressure sore on her heel from the splint. This became more of a concern than the fracture, and we wound up making 3 more follow-up visits (3 more cabulance round trips) to various clinics. At first, it looked like the wound was getting worse, but at the last visit, it was improving, and they were able to switch her from a splint to a boot which can be removed to care for the wound properly. That’s where we are now. No more doctor visits are scheduled for the time being. The visiting nurse will be bringing a special wound care person and then the nurse and I will be doing wound care.  Janie and I are both very satisfied with our decision to bring her home.

 

Collecting Contacts by Radio

For those of my friends who are not Ham radio operators, I’m beginning with a short explanation about the parts of the hobby that I’m involved with. The amateur radio hobby has a huge number of possibilities. Some hams are involved primarily in emergency communications. Some like to get on the radio to just chat with others involved in the hobby. Others are contesters—they participate in contests to complete as many contacts as possible within a specified time. “DX chasers” are interested in collecting contacts with distant or difficult to reach operators. Others are adventurers who travel great, and sometimes treacherous distances to set up temporary stations and allow the dx chasers to make a contact with a rare location. Some hams don’t care much about being on the radio but like to build or design radio gear.

For me, I am involved in emergency preparedness activities. Although I was a ham in high school, I let my license lapse and it was emergency preparedness that got me back into it 50 years later. I do like to chat on the radio, but I find that I don’t have a lot of time to do it. (By the way, hams who chat on the radio—like most other hobbyists—talk about the hobby, not the issues of the day.) I also like to “chase dx.” With the right gear, I have made contacts all over the world. However, while most non-hams think of the radio hobby as involving voice communications, much of it is digital communication, similar to texting. You may think that is boring but think of it as similar to coin or stamp collecting, or beanie babies for that matter. One of the advantages of this type of operating is that it can be done in short sessions, which fits my situation well. Voice communications can take quite a bit of time to search for others, figure out if they can hear you, and possibly butt into an existing conversation.

I enjoy being able to get a rare location that I’ve never contacted before and adding it to my list of scores, in the same way a stamp collector might be excited about finding a stamp from a country they’ve never had. I may run into the other room and tell Janie “I’ve just made contact with Lithuania!” She is excited for me, although she doesn’t really understand the excitement of not having a conversation. Leslie also listens to my reports, since we see each other every day.

Now, you too can share my excitement! Now that you understand what I’m doing, I can report my more exciting contacts, and you can congratulate me on getting my latest stamp, coin or beanie baby! (You don’t really need to respond.) To date I have made contacts in all 50 states, most Canadian provinces, and 44 countries on continents except Antarctica. In my most recent session, I made contacts with Australia, New Zealand, Japan Brazil, Ecuador and Hungary.

Jim Bayle 2/7/1950 – 9/27/2021

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I have posted items about people who I love but who are no longer with us. Jim is Janie’s younger brother.  They were close in age — only 13 months apart. Unfortunately, Jim was a Covid casualty. 

I don’t need to repeat his obituary. You can see it here. But I have known Jim nearly as long as I’ve known Janie. He was actually still in high school when I met him. One of my special memories was during the Viet Nam war. I was a pacifist. He had joined the Navy. It was a very polarized time for those opposed to the war and those who felt a duty join up. Jim was one of the people who wrote a letter to the Draft Board for me in support of my application for conscientious objector status. 

Over the years, we spent a lot of time with Jim and Paulette, whenever we went to Yakima. We often stayed with them during our visits, and especially at the time of the Yakima Fair. Jim was interested in my ballooning activities and he and I (and Uncle Bob) took our first rides in a powered parachute together. He later bought one and we and a great experience in Palouse flying the balloon and parachute together. (I’ve posted it before, but here is a link to Uncle Bob’s video of the event.) Jim and his family were horse people. I knew nothing about horses, but it was fascinating to experience their involvement. 

Jim was a gentle soul. Yet he had a couple of curious incidents. Once, when we were at his property in Selah, he was frustrated by his neighbors chickens who kept wandering into his field. He got out a pellet gun, intending to scare off one of the birds. He fired once into the dirt in front of the chicken, but the chicken fell over, apparently from a ricochet. Jim stood there for a minute, rather surprised and then simply said “Oops!” 

Jim had a long career as a firefighter, but he had to work very hard to become a permanent member of the department. He was very modest about his contributions, but every once in awhile, we got a glimpse into what it must be like to crawl into a pitch black building, with fire a few feet away, in search of possible victims who might not even be there. Based on my association with Jim, I never begrudged the fact that firefighters have blocks of time off and blocks of boredom in the station, because they are willing to go into the building to be sure everyone else gets out. 

 

Ham Radio and Woodworking

This is another one of those posts that are a couple of years overdue. Nevertheless, I’m going to try to let people know what I’ve been up to for the last couple of years. It’s a long post with some detours, but it’s been a long time since I posted about my projects. If you’re interested in what I’ve been up to in general, read this main post. If you aren’t interested in the details of my ham radio hobby or woodworking, skip the detours. The projects are more or less interrelated, though, and involve both my radio hobby and woodworking–and they seemed to drag on forever! 
 
After I started with amateur radio, I needed a place to put the radios and work on the hobby. My main desk is usually piled up with crap, and it didn’t need any more crap. As a stop-gap, I brought in a small computer desk that used to be my mom’s, but I intended to build a desk with drawers for extra storage. The desk project went through several design changes and was completely different from my original concept. It also took waaay longer than I expected. The full story of the desk odyssey is here. Here are the original design and the final product:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Meanwhile, I decided to get into another part of the radio hobby. Ham radio is actually a very broad set of hobbies. Some people refer it as “the hobby of a thousand hobbies.” The activity I started out with is called VHF/UHF (Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency). This is a generally short-range form of communication used for local emergency response work as well as social communications between local hams. Another major part of the hobby is HF (High Frequency), which is done with different (more expensive) equipment on different frequency bands. This’s often what people think of when they think of hams communicating across the world, and that’s the goal. I decided to get into this more advanced part of the hobby and that meant buying more gear. So, (while trying to get the desk done) I needed to research the kind of radio gear I would need for HF work. There were a lot of considerations in the decisions on equipment. I won’t bore you with all of them, but if you’re interested, check out my Radio Considerations page.
 
The next project was to create a rack for the gear that would fit on my desk and also into a case that would allow me both to take it on a plane while traveling or transport it to a location where I can operate portably. Also, we had decided to go on a cruise of New England and Canada, and I wanted to try to communicate from the ship. (I did not wind up taking the radio on the cruise, and I haven’t done any portable work.) The rack was a challenge, too. Here are the details.
 
Finally, I finished the desk and it held together. I got the rack together and mounted the electronics in it. It fit in the case and on the desk. I was able to set up a “stealth” HF antenna.
 
It still took me quite awhile before I operated much on HF, but I finally made my first contact–a ham in Portland, OR. I had some learning to do and I needed some help from other hams before I was able to make any contacts, but a ham radio license is also called a “license to learn,” so that’s what I did! Just to complicate things further, I stated working on interfacing my radio gear with my computer. There are several ways to do it, and it involves a lot of internet research and trial and error, so I can spend as much time and money as I have on this hobby! In the 3 years since I got my license, I’ve learned that I will always need that license to learn, because the more I learn, the more interesting challenges present themselves.
 
I started this post a couple of years ago. Life got in the way and it was so long with the detours, I couldn’t figure out how to organize it. Every time I returned to my draft, things had changed. Since I started it, I gave up on woodworking, first because of the commute time and later because the owner of the house where my shop was (Leslie’s former house) wanted to sell it. I had no place to set up a shop near me, and it was too hard to be away from Janie for long, so I decided to focus on radio. I was fortunate though to be able to store some of the more important power tools at my sister-in-law’s garage, so I can actually still do some woodworking, but I don’t see any major projects in the future.
 
So, here we go. Hopefully this post will unclog the pipeline!
 
 

Before and After

My last haircut was in December 2019. I usually only get a haircut every 2 or 3 months, so when Covid hit, I hadn’t gotten another one yet. First, everything was shut down, but as businesses were allowed to reopen, I decided that a haircut was not an essential activity. Besides, I thought it would be fun to grow my hair long enough to have a pony tail. Having grown of age in the late 60’s and 70’s, I thought it would be cool, but jobs and other life events discouraged me. Even though my hair was long, I never got that far.

So, I haven’t had a haircut in 16 months. I thought it would be fun, but by the end, it was just irritating. Still, I decided to wait until I had been fully vaccinated, and that is now complete. So here are two “before” pictures and one “after” picture. What a load off my mind!

Calamities, Part II

The last time I had a chance to post was in July, just after a series of mishaps and failures of electronics and electrical devices. Now, my next chance to report seems like Deja vu.

A couple of weeks ago, our washer crapped out. We had already been told when we inquired about replacing another part that it was too old to be worth the cost of repairing it, so we decided to replace it. The washer and dryer stack to fit in out closet, so we had to replace the dryer, too. Next, one of my hearing aids intermittently stopped working. Yup, it’s too old to be cost effective to repair! Hearing aids are very expensive, but luckily I had just changed insurance plans, and my new one covered about 2/3 of the cost. Next, our oven stopped heating properly. I thought the broiler element had burned out, and that I could repair it myself (nope). Finally, a shelf system that I was using to store our emergency water supply crashed to the floor, flooding our spare bedroom carpet. Would you call that a series of unfortunate events?

It turns out that the broiler element was not the problem with my stove. There were four possible problems. I replaced the most likely culprit, the broiler element ($100), and it still didn’t work. I was able to test a fuse and the temperature sensor, and determined that they were okay. The last possibility was the control circuit board. It costs nearly $400. The stove was the same age as the washer and dryer, so I was not going to pay $400 to fix it. The good news is I did not pay $150 for a diagnosis to determine that I need a new stove. Nope, a new stove with modern improvements, and why not replace the countertop microwave with a matching over-the-stove microwave, also with modern conveniences?

Although the washer and dryer work don’t hold as much as the old ones, they are great and are much quieter. I’ve gotten the new hearing aids, and I’m happy that they are rechargeable, rather than needing new batteries every few days. They also have some modern, convenient features.

The water mitigation company told me that my homeowners insurance probably would not pay for the cleanup. I decided to put in a claim anyway, and fortunately Pemco covered it–the bill was $4,000! (Of course that incident happened at night on a weekend.) We had already decided to replace the carpet in that bedroom and the master bedroom with laminate flooring, so I had the remediation company rip out the carpet. The new flooring will not be covered by insurance.

The new stove has arrived. I like it a lot, although I haven’t gotten to try out all of its features yet. It looks like it will be great for baking bread, and I’ll try that out soon. But the installer could not install the microwave because it needs an outlet above the stove. The range hood is hard wired. So next on the list is an electrician to install the outlet and then call the installers back for the microwave.

The flooring installation is scheduled for April. We wanted to wait until our Covid vaccinations had fully taken effect. It will be a major, all-day job, so we will vacate the house and stay at a hotel. Hopefully, this will be the end of our major replacements for now.

There is only one appliance left to fail–the refrigerator.

The Mysterious Failure of Our Electronics and Electrical Devices

A couple of weeks ago, the electronics and electrical devices in our house began to fail. We already had a couple of lights that were blinking. Our dishwasher failed for the umpteenth time and a couple of days later all of the light bulbs in our kitchen track light system failed at the same time. Around the same time I accidentally knocked over one of my computer’s and damaged the hard drive. Yesterday I moved too quickly with my ham radio headphones and pulled them off my head making it so one side no longer works. A keyboard and mouse on another computer stopped working. Then another light bulb burned out in the kitchen. And, a light in our laundry area stopped working. Yesterday after I replaced a bulb in our bathroom light fixture the entire fixture fell off the wall, and the glass shattered. (It turns out that the fixture was screwed only into the drywall with no anchors, and it’s a miracle that it didn’t fall during the last 11 years!)

I wonder what caused all these failures within the span of less than a month? There were reasonable explanations for most of them, including my clumsiness. The lights that burned out in the kitchen were all installed at the same time, so maybe it makes sense that they all burned out at the same time, but it seems odd to me. The battery died on the wireless switch in the laundry area, but it was a couple of years old.

While I hated replacing a 5-year old dishwasher (not cheap either), I was glad to be rid of it. Thankfully, we bought the extended warranty, because it had been repaired at least 7 or 8 times in the time we had it. We had to go several weeks without a dishwasher, but Janie came up with a good use for a dead dishwasher-it makes a good drying rack when you are hand-washing the dishes. Today, our new dishwasher was installed. Hooray! Let’s hope it does better than the last one! You can bet we got the extended warranty though!

Angus

As I said earlier, I would write more about Leslie’s dog, Angus. She really lucked out! He is a great addition to our extended family! Although she did her best due diligence, he came sight unseen from a shelter and foster home in the LA area. She knew he got along with the other dogs in the shelter, but it was essential that he and our dog, Finnegan get along.

Angus arrived a couple of weeks ago, having just been neutered and after a car trip from LA. Although he was rightly traumatized, he took to Leslie right away. He likes to be close–very close–to her!

He was listed as a chihuahua or chihuahua mix, but we think he might be part Italian greyhound. He has very long legs for his body and reminds us in many ways of my late greyhound, Callie.

As for Finnegan, they got along from the beginning!

Finnegan does pester Angus to play a lot, but Angus is patient, and the more they are together the more normal their relationship gets.

Also, Finnegan, Angus, Leslie and I walk together 4 times a day. Since Leslie is with us a lot, Angus has warmed to us as well and is comfortable taking a nap with us. At the beginning, he had some separation anxiety if Leslie would leave, but he quickly got over it and he has spent plenty of time with us dog sitting.

Angus with Janie and I

Computer Woes

It used to be that I liked digging into a computer, setting it up, and learning about software. Those days are long gone! Now, those activities are a pain. So, I was not happy when I accidentally kicked over one of my computers and it stopped working. Fortunately, the computer was one that I use primarily to operate my ham radio equipment, and it didn’t have important data or precious photos on it. Also, I had gotten it refurbished from a school program for $65.

When I told Janie about it, she told me I should get a new computer, but since I am no longer dazzled by the latest and greatest (that’s reserved for radio gear), I didn’t want to spend $400 on a cheap computer. Instead, a new hard drive would work, and it would not be any more of a hassle than setting up a brand new computer. So I ordered the hard drive from (where else?) Amazon, it came a couple of days later and I snapped it in. At first, I didn’t think it was working, but I figured that out and now I am doing the drudgery of reinstalling Windows and all my old programs on the new drive. This time I put the computer where my big feet can’t reach it!

Corona Virus

This short post is just to let our friends know that we are doing OK during this time of Shelter in Place. Not all of our friends use Facebook, and we don’t post there often anyway. Because of Janie’s physical limitations, we are not galavanting around much anyway, so Shelter in Place has not affected us that much. The major impact is the shutting down of those places that we used to visit, such as meetings, restaurants and the doctors, and our contact with our granddaughters. However, we’ve adapted as many others have to the use of video conferencing. In some cases it has actually increased my participation in activities because I can participate from home without leaving Janie.

Leslie has been affected more than Janie and I–her part time job shut down and she has spent more time helping us. She does the vast majority of our shopping so that we can minimize our exposure to other people. Leslie has also added a new member to our family, Angus the dog! More on Angus in a later post. This one is getting too long.

The Phoenix Rises

It has been a long time since I posted to this blog! The reason is writers’ block. I started a rather involved description of what I had been up to in the last couple of years, and I still can’t figure out how to finish it. I will get back to it eventually for those of you who may be interested in my past activities. I have a backlog of other activities to report on, but for now, I am going to try to post a series of more frequent, shorter posts.

A Short PSA on Aging Eyes

This post is mainly for my older friends. Younger people don’t have to worry about it yet. The point is to let you know that you should not assume that any unusual vision problems are the most dire possibility.

During the last month, I have experienced a kind of blurriness in my vision. The best way I can describe it is like when you look into a light. After the initial blind spot fades, you’re left with a residual spot in your vision for a few minutes. It was also like I had a smudge in the middle of both lenses of my glasses. I spent about a month worrying that it might be the beginning of macular degeneration, retinal detachment or cateracts. It is a result of aging eyes, but the condition is not that serious.

It turns out that I have a condition known as Vitreomacular Traction Syndrome. After visaiting my regular optometrist, I had to see a retina specialist to confirm it.

Your eye is filled with a substance called vitreous gel, surrounded by the vitreous cortex. In younger eyes, the cortex is attached to the retina, but as we age, the vitreous gel contracts and the cortex begins to separate from the retina. This is normal and does not affect our vision significantly. In cases such as mine, the cortex may be stubborn about separating and it can pull on the retina at the macula, causing the distortion in vision.

Although more serious complications can occur, the first thing to do is wait and see whether the separation process completes on its own. I will go back in a month for another exam, and meanwhile, I may have put up with the distortion. If it doesn’t resolve on its own, the doctor told me that there are several ways this condition can be treated, including the possibility of surgery, but for now, I just wait.

 

 

 

Claire Gallaher 5/11/1921 – 11/6/2018

This post is 2 years late. As I’ve mentioned before, my updates have not been very regular for quite some time. Mom would have been 100 years old this year.

My mom was one of my best friends. She was special to many people and very close to all her sons and daughters-in-law, but besides that, we had a lot of common interests. Details of her interesting life are described in the reprint of her obituary below, but in particular, she and I shared a common interest in computers, ballooning, classical music and opera, and theater. She used to like to recall the story of our trip to an out-of-town balloon rally that was 8 hours away. We talked to much about computers that we were hoarse by the time we got there. My son, Jason was also with us. He was about 10, and he was also fascinated by computers (and he was very bright). At one point during the trip he piped up “Will you two give me a chance to talk?!” That was also the trip that we forgot to watch the gas gauge and ran out of gas. We wound up hitchhiking together into a nearby town to get enough gas to get to a gas station!

Mom was also one of my most loyal balloon crew members. She was the one who got my family into the sport when my Aunt Luana took it up and Mom began crewing for her. At times (in her 80’s) when she felt she couldn’t contribute much, she was still there at 5 AM and she did always find a task that she could do.

Her purchase of the first personal computer in the family made it possible for me to learn about them. She and I used to attend computer user group meetings together, and even when she needed me to help her with a problem that was beyond her, she always tried to solve it herself before calling me. Then she would stand or sit looking over my shoulder to see what I was doing.

For those of you who have not read it, or did not know her personally, here is her obituary:

Claire Donovan was born in Boston, MA to Joseph and Lillian Cronin Donovan. After completing business school, the Chief Clerk in the Boston FBI office, a family friend, urged her to apply and she joined the FBI steno pool in 1941. On Valentine’s Day 1943 she met newly-arrived Special Agent Lester Gallaher when he asked her to prepare the onerous transfer expense report. Although she declined, (“No, I don’t do expense reports”), they were married later that year. Following a transfer to the New York Field Office they travelled in 1945 to Palouse, WA where she met Les’ parents and extended family for the first time. This included a memorable visit with Les’ great-grandmother who had travelled west on the Oregon Trail as an infant. When asked by Les’ father Oliver when they might expect a grandchild, she answered, “In about nine months”, and Edward was born the following March. Richard, Robert, and Gerald arrived in succession, all born in August or September. Dad always said, “We never could get past that first cold snap of the winter.” After two cross-country road trips to Palouse, Les received a transfer to Seattle in 1957 and they set out on a one-way trip west.

Between New York and Seattle, Claire raised four boys, who in turn raised several hamsters, four dogs, numerous cats, tropical fish, nineteen rats, a rabbit, a pet crow, garter snakes, and lampreys; a cantankerous monkey had a relatively short stay. In addition to the many Cub Scout, Boy Scout, sports, and theater activities, the boys enjoyed considerable freedom while growing up (within the limits of an FBI-agent father and Irish Catholic mother).

Retirement years were active and varied. Claire and Les travelled extensively, including two months on a freighter trip to Asia, a trip through the Panama Canal, several Elderhostel trips to Europe, and an extended genealogy expedition throughout the US. Both were active in FBI alumni associations until Les’ death in 1985. Claire was a co-founder and officer of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of FBI Alumni and remained active for many years.

Claire was a computer pioneer, obtaining an Atari computer and taking a BASIC programming class in 1980 at 60. When close friend and relative Luana Sever began hot-air ballooning at 61, 59 year-old Claire became her first crew member. Son Rich later became a pilot and Claire served as crew chief until she was 87, organizing the rest of the crew, driving the chase vehicle, and staying in contact via CB radio.

Her extended family includes sons Ed, Rich, Bob and Jerry; wives and partners Janet, Janie, Linda, and Cynthia; grandchildren Deborah, Gary, Leslie, Jess, Jesse, Noel, Ian, and Amelia; great-grandchildren Zachary, Emma, Sarah, Alonzo, and Dominic; great-great grandson Blake; and nineteen nieces and nephews. She felt the loss of siblings Joseph Donovan, MD, Eleanor Donovan Barrett, Marion Donovan Barrett, and Robert Donovan, grandson Jason, and daughter-in-law Susan.

Claire was soft-spoken and congenial with everyone she met, with a beautiful smile. She had an easy and intuitive sense of who she was, knowing where her boundaries began and where they ended. She was so nice when she said “No” to family, friends (or salespeople) that it sometimes took several iterations for the answer to soak in. She was a confidential listener to friends and family, offering help when she could but never intruding or solving other people’s problems for them (e.g. FBI expense reports). Everyone believed they were the ‘favorite’ son, daughter-in-law, or grandchild, despite suspecting that everyone else felt the same way. We strive with limited success follow her seemingly effortless example.

Puppy Power!

Yes! It’s true, we just got a new puppy! I had a hard time believing it when Janie suggested that we get a dog. I’ve always been a big dog person, but a big dog is not practical in our condo. So we started looking at small breeds and settled on the Havanese. We know several people who have them and they are smart and cute!

My next idea was that we get a rescue dog. I thought we could avoid housebreaking and take a dog out of a shelter. We soon realized that the only adult Havanese available are special needs dogs. As much as I would love to provide for a dog like that, it is just not practical with Janie’s challenges. So we settled on a puppy.

Before we even decided on a specific dog, Janie and Sarah came up with the name, Finnegan. That’s a boy’s name, but I have always had female dogs, so I was hoping for a female. Strike 3 for me! Here is a picture of the dog we found on the web:

How could we resist?! He had a sister, but she was not as cute. We actually went to Tacoma to meet the dogs and the boy took to Janie right away. The girl was a more nervous dog. So no big dog, no rescue and no female.

We had to wait several weeks until Finnegan was old enough to come home with us, but he has arrived and I couldn’t be happier! He is smart and mellow and funny. Leslie picked him up on the way home from work and brought him home Friday. Emma and Sarah came over to stay for the weekend, and everyone has been getting to know him.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here they are:

Janie’s Journey (Part 8)

Another year, another broken bone!  This is number 8 in 6 years. Each time Janie has been laid up, she has lost a little bit of her mobility. I thought it was just because she couldn’t be active, but it turns out she has another problem called Ataxia. Basically this is a neurological condition that affects coordination and balance. It probably explains many of the falls she’s had over the years, but it was only recently diagnosed. We still don’t know the cause and we don’t know the prognosis. In the past 6 months, her ability to walk has diminished considerably.  She also sprained her knee a couple of months ago, and has not been able to get around by herself at all since then.

Once she had the diagnosis, she decided to restart physical therapy. Previous PT had been specific to rehab the various fractures that she’d had, but this phyiscal therapy is more generalized to address the coordination as well as recovery from the knee sprain and strengthening from the years of inactivity. She was improving, too! She was beginning to do some walking with a walker and working toward less dependence on the wheelchair, although she didn’t go very far. 

Unfortunately, while using the walker at home, she lost her balance and fell. We had allowed a lapse in safety precautions, so that the wheelchair and the walker were between me and her. (I should have been behind her.) When she fell backwards, she caught herself with her wrist and actually bent the titanium plate that was there from her first surgery in 2012.

The good news, if there is any, is that the plate probably prevented a more serious fracture like the one she had in 2016. She had surgery on June 15 and she is doing well, although still in some pain. She is determined to restart physical therapy and will probably do so next week.

We’re getting used to how to accommodate her needs and limitations. We’ve also had great help both from Leslie, and from Janie’s sister Katie.

Once again, we will appreciate all your good thoughts!

Marconi Coast Station KPH

On Sunday, I went to San Francisco to visit Jess. I was also interested in visiting a unique radio site, the Coast Station KPH (formerly KSM) station at Point Reyes, in Marin County. My brother-in-law, Jim told me about it because he had been there on a trip with his motorcycle gang. Jess and I enjoy road trips together and Point Reyes is a pretty area a couple of hours north of San Francisco. We had been to Point Reyes as a family a couple of years ago, but at that time, I wasn’t a ham radio operator. I still would have been interested if I had known about it at the time.

Although the station is normally open only on Saturdays, one web site I checked said it was also open on Sunday. I thought it would be a good idea to check, so I contacted them. I heard back promptly from the Founding Member and Chief Operator, Richard Dillman, W6AWO, who lives nearby. He let me know that the site is not open on Sundays, but he was willing to meet us there to give us a tour. Because of my tight schedule, Jess met me at the airport and we headed directly to Point Reyes.

Richard was waiting for us there and he had fired up most of the gear.

 

 

 

 

When we walked in, a teletype was running, and I could hear Morse code in the background from a couple of the radios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The call sign of the radio station is KPH, which was the call sign of San Francisco’s first radio station. The history of the station and this site is very interesting and goes right back to Marconi, the inventor of the radio. The station provided commercial point-to-point overseas communications, as well as ship-to-shore communications. Rather than try to explain it myself, I’m linking the website of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association (<-click), which gives a short history of Marconi, the site and the station. Although the site is Point Reyes National Seashore property, it is maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers, the Maritime Radio Historical Society, and their website  goes into much more detail with lots of photos. (If you get that far, look at the photos as a slide show, because they have captions with more detailed descriptions.)  For my history buff friends and my radio buff friends, I really urge you to explore the MRHS site. MHRS also created several videos which are on YouTube.

This is a closer shot of the main operating position. Besides the Coast Radio station, the installation includes an amateur radio station, K6KPH.

 

 

 

There are several operating positions at the site. Here is another one, shown next to a carousel holding outgoing messages waiting to be sent.

 

 

This is a paper tape keyer which sends Morse code punched into the tape by another machine. Here, they’re sending an endless loop identifying the station and letting ships and other stations know that they are waiting to receive contacts.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Here is a closeup of the punched tape. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a “Klienschmidt” machine used to punch the paper tapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rare vintage teletype terminal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bank of newer automated teletype machines.

 

 

 

 

Richard took us into the “Treasure Room,” where the real vintage and more fragile equipment is stored. Here are some examples.

 

 

And the Crown Jewel

 

Before we left, Richard gave me QSO (contact) cards for all the station ID’s, KPH, KFS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and K6KFS.

 

 

 

 

 

I made a donation to support the MRHS, and got my own mug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside, we could view the antenna field. The frequencies used by the Maritime service were very low, so the wavelengths and the antennas have to be very long!

 

Here is a view of the art deco building at sunset, as we left.

If you will be in the San Francisco area, it is definitely worth the drive to Point Reyes National Seashore for the scenery alone, but if you are interested in radio, make sure you schedule your trip during the Saturday operating hours of KPH!

Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Detectors

A couple of months ago, the fire alarm in our building went off, but we slept through it! I acknowledge that we’re hard of hearing, but we have an alarm siren right outside our bedroom. I was so surprised to find out that there had been an alarm that I suspected that something was wrong with the alarm and we had it tested. Nope! We slept through it! I’ve thought of several ideas keep it from happening again, including buying or building a device to shake our bed or flash our lights.

I also was aware that it was time to replace the one smoke detector I had in my hallway. Did you know that smoke detectors are supposed to be replaced every 7 or 8 years, depending on the manufacturer? I found that out when I replaced ours shortly after we moved in—I wanted an integrated smoke and carbon monoxide detector. (We’re on the 1st floor right above the garage.) It had reached the end of its life this year.

I began doing some research on smoke/carbon monoxide detectors, and learned that instead of one unit in the hallway, we are supposed to have one in each bedroom in addition to the one in the hall. I also learned that some smoke detectors can communicate with each other wirelessly, so I decided to find units that are compatible with each other.

I decided on these: First Alert SA521CN Interconnected Hardwire Wireless Smoke Alarm with Battery Backup for the hallway, and the First Alert SCO501CN-3ST Battery Operated Combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Voice Location for each bedroom.

 

 

They are LOUD! When you set one off, they all go off together. I don’t think we will be sleeping through this noise! I may still try to figure out how to build an Arduino device that will flash our lights when it picks up the sound of the alarm, but that would be for the challenge rather than to ensure we’ll wake up.

If you have not checked the expiration date on your smoke detector recently, now might be a good time to do it. Also, even if you are “grandfathered” in the fire code for the number of smoke alarms you need, it might be a good idea to consider adding them in each bedroom.

Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween! On Saturday, we had our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza. This was one of the best years yet, since we extended it over two days (and were less exhausted), and because both Janie and Kathryn joined in. In recent years, Kathryn has not always been home from school, and Leslie and I sometimes helped Emma and Sarah with their pumpkins rather than doing our own.

Emma and Sarah got out of school early on Friday, so I picked them up and we were the advance team to pick out the pumpkins. We accomplished that in short order. That night, we cleaned out all the pumpkins.  

Emma is allergic to pumpkin meat, and Kathryn was not arriving until later, so we cleaned theirs for them. Janie tried a new technique for crispier roasted pumkin seeds, so she and Emma cleaned and boiled them that night for roasting the next day.

The next morning, Kathryn joined us and we did the actual carving. Janie roasted Italian savory and cinnamon-sugar pumpkin seeds. The girls no longer need our help, so they picked their own designs and carved them. This year, we produced 6 pumpkins!

 

The aftermath.

 

 

 

 

 

In the video (click on “video”), Sarah’s Tinkerbell is on the left. Next is Kathryn’s “Ron Burgandy” from Anchorman. Leslie had a more traditional Jack-o-Lantern. Janie experimented with the melted-crayon creation, and I exeperimented with an Arduino-controlled monster. On the right is Emma’s Moon and Stars creation.

The Arduino.

Later, we went out to dinner and came home to watch The Great Pumpkin. Another successful year!

 

Janie created this lighted tree as a fall decoration. Don’t tell the HOA, but we put it out in the hallway for Halloween!

 

They Say That Backing Up Is Ha-ard To Do!

It is ironic that my last post was about backing up multiple ways. Since I made that post, my network hard drive failed for good, I had previously discovered that a program that was supposed to inform me when a backup job failed wasn’t notifying me that it was unable to connect with the network drive, and CrashPlan announced that they were getting out of the consumer backup business. That perfect storm means that I have to completely reestablish a new backup plan.

I could continue with CrashPlan on a small business subscription, but it would be much more expensive for all our computers. There are services similar to CrashPlan, but they don’t necessarily do everything CrashPlan did. There are also other programs than my rather outdated stand-alone program that has stopped sending me emails.

After researching the problem, I decided that the best solution for me was a new network drive and Acronis True Image 2018, which also allows for backing up to the cloud. This will enable me to back  up all of our computers on the network and send copies to the cloud. So far, the program is sending me confirmation emails, too. At the moment, I am using a trial version, but I’m pretty sure I will pay the $120 per year cost for all the computers.

One of the problems with setting up a new backup scheme is that the process of doing a full backup can be very time consuming. Once everything is set up to operate automatically, it won’t be a problem, but it can take nearly a month to back up a big hard drive when you are sending it to the cloud. Also, some of our computers are getting old and are slow, so that adds to the time. Multiply that by 4 computers, and it is a pain. At least I will have network backups of all the computers while the cloud backup is going on, and CrashPlan will work for a couple more months so I have the data I have previously backed up.

I could be doing something more fun with my time, like building tiny computers or woodworking, but this is a necessary precaution.

Belt and Suspenders

If you or someone in your household don’t back up your computers, you will eventually become one of those people who say “My computer crashed and I lost all my files–and precious family pictures. I am paranoid about computer backups. Not that I am that good at it, but I’ve tried to build redundancy into my backup system because I have had drive failures when I thought I had a backup. For that reason, I use a service called CrashPlan, which is free for a single users, and reasonably priced for a family plan. You don’t need to remember to back up (for the most part)–it backs up automatically in the background whenever the computer is on. I said for the most part, because you need to leave the computer on and connected to the internet for long enough periods that the backup can be completed.

For me, CrashPlan isn’t enough. What if the internet is down? What if CrashPlan were to go out of business? There are many reasons that any single backup point could fail. I have a sort of complicated set up. Because I am paranoid, I not only back up to CrashPlan, but I have two external drives connected to my network. I have two because my first drive ran out of room, so I got a newer, larger drive a couple of years ago. I still use the older drive to store photos and videos because the hard drive of my main computer no longer has room. 

My second external drive is used to store backups of my web site. These files are too large to store on my computer or my original external drive. I also back up my desktop computer to that drive. That drive is in turn backed up to CrashPlan, so there is some redundancy.

I recently discovered that my larger external drive was not working. I haven’t figured out why. Fortunately, by desktop computer is backed up on CrashPlan, and my web pages are also backed up by by web host. This is why I’m paranoid about backups, and why I think it is essential to have two independent backup systems. Also, backups should be automatic. Otherwise, you will forget to do them, or you will be busy at the time you should be doing them. Backing up my website files is not automatic for me, and I hadn’t backed them up since February. I don’t know how long my external drive has not been working, because I hadn’t checked since I downloaded my website files in February. Fortunately, I have the web sites backed up on line, and my web host backs them up separately.

I got my drive working again, and I backed up my website files again. I also made myself a calendar reminder to it monthly. Since then, my backup drive has stopped at least once more without warning. I got it restarted, but I can’t rely on it without checking periodically. I also discovered that the the program I use to back up (in addition to CrashPlan), which is supposed to send me an email when a backup fails, is not sending me the warning emails. That would have alerted me that the backup drive was not working. 

Wonder why I am paranoid about backups? What would happen if your hard drive failed tomorrow?

My New “Toy” – Ardu-who-no?

Having explained this to a couple of people recently, I realized that what is very familiar to me may be totally foreign to some of my circle. So, if you’ve never heard of them, I will describe what an Arduino is as well as some related devices.

An Arduino is a type of microcontroller. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but think of a microcontroller as a chip that acts as the brains of many smart electronic devices. Probably some of the more familiar devices would be robots, such as our Roomba vacuuming robot, or a device that works with a remote control. Lots of things have microcontrollers in them. The Arduino and similar devices are hobbyists’ versions of these devices. You can use them to make automatic controls—such as something to water your plants—or build robots.

The Raspberry Pi and similar devices are different. They are called single-board computers. They are literally $35-50 computers, smaller than a deck of cards. They can also be used by hobbyists to build things. While there is some overlap, they usually are appropriate for different applications. That’s all I am going to explain.

One thing these devices have in common is that they work with computer programs, and I have always been interested in computer programming. I have done a little of it over the years, having written a program to calculate child support, created pretty complex macros for Excel spreadsheets and other kinds of fairly simple programs. I will never make it as a Programmer, but programming for me is like crossword puzzles for a lot of people.

The new “toy” I got was an Arduino Starter Kit. It comes with the microcontroller on a circuit board and all sorts of parts to do things like measuring temperature and light, light blinking, making sounds, and a bunch of other things. The kit came with a book of instructions for designing the circuits and writing the programs that control them. Unfortunately, I will have to learn a new programming language in order work this stuff, but that’s part of the point of the kit. While I am spending more time at home helping Janie out, she is indulging yet another geeky whim of mine by encouraging me to get the kit.

I heard a guy on a podcast say recently that it is better to learn this stuff with a project in mind or a problem to solve. In general, I would agree, but I’m still at the stage where I don’t know what I don’t know. So, going through the exercises in this kit will give me an idea about what projects I might want to do. After I get deeper into the Arduino, I’ll move on to the Raspberry Pi, and see what it can do. (When I told Leslie that I was interested in the Raspberry Pi, she asked in all seriousness “You’re going to make a raspberry pie?” Sorry, Leslie, that will come later.) My interest in these devices was rekindled after getting involved in ham radio, because I learned that there were several applications that could be used in that hobby. As I learn about their capabilities, I can decide what problems I want to solve it radio or one of my other hobbies.

Update on Janie – A Good Report!

Janie’s latest visit to the orthopedist was today, and the results were very encouraging! Two weeks ago, the doctor did not feel that she had healed enough to start physical therapy. This time, as he showed us the x-rays he pointed out quite a bit of new bone growth since the last time.

The doctor now wants her to stop using her sling most of the time and let her arm move more freely. He also gave instructions to start “mild” physical therapy.

Janie has also needed less pain medication in the last week, and has made good progress in getting around by herself. (Her multiple fractures over the last few years have impacted her balance and stamina so that even though she broke her shoulder this time, her mobility was also affected.) She had previous experience doing tasks one-handed, and now she has started doing things for herself again.

We have been planning to take Emma, Sarah and Leslie to Universal Studios this summer and the trip is coming up in a couple of weeks. We were a little concerned about whether Janie could handle it, even with accommodations, but now we are much more confident that we can have a good trip.

More Geeky Stuff

Although I haven’t had much time to play lately, I have been doing more with the new ham radio hobby. First, I had been studying to upgrade my license from “Technician” to “General,” which gives me more extensive privileges on the radio. It won’t have much practical effect for now, but I’m glad I got it done.

I’ve had a couple of opportunities to go to the workshop, and I went to a ham radio group picnic. While at the shop I started on some homemade ham antennas.

The picnic was to include an “antenna party” where we could get help from more experienced hams in building our own antennas. I wanted to get a head start, because I knew I needed to have some of the parts ready in advance.

This is kind of a unique antenna, since it does not include a physical connection between the radio and the antenna. The walkie talkie clips on to a bracket on the antenna, and those rods (elements) are supposed to enhance the signal. I don’t have high hopes for it, and I haven’t had time to test it, but it was in interesting experiment.

The second antenna does have a wire connection to the radio. I haven’t had a chance to test this one either. It isn’t pretty, but it’s more likely to work. Both are intended to be more or less portable.

Update on Janie – Mixed Progress

As I reported a few weeks ago, Janie broke her shoulder. It has now been 4 weeks since the injury and she is making progress. The reason I called it “mixed progress” is that on the one hand we have gotten in the groove for giving her the help she needs and she is steadily able to do more and more for herself, but on the other hand, this type of fracture is painful during healing. Janie’s sister Katie has come over twice from Selah to stay with us for several days at a time, and Leslie has also been here several times. We both appreciate their help immensely. Besides sharing the care responsibilities, it gave me a couple opportunities to do something fun away from the house (don’t tell Janie). We have been eating pretty well. Although we’ve had offers of food, it was easier to plan our own meals, with Janie finding recipes on the web and me cooking them. A couple of days ago, Leslie, Emma and Sarah joined us for a delicious slow cooker pork loin and another day we had a kind of ceviche-shrimp cocktail hybrid.

As I mentioned before, they don’t put a cast or splint on her kind of fracture—just a sling. Her arm can move and it hurts when she does. She’s also been through several sets of x-rays, which require her to get in awkward positions, and an excruciating ultrasound exam checking for blood clots. It’s clear that she is getting better though. At the beginning, she couldn’t stand for her arm to be touched. Now she can be touched and she can move it around, although it is still painful.

I am proud of how Janie has kept working on making progress in getting around and doing things for herself—she has kept a positive attitude and is also very conscious of how this whole process affects me. We’ll keep on working on the healing. Meanwhile, if you don’t hear much from us, it’s because that’s pretty much what’s going on in our lives right now.

Janie’s Journey (Part 7)

Well, I think I jinxed her. Just last month I was commenting that Janie had gone a whole year with no broken bones. One month later–you guessed it–she fell and broke her shoulder. Actually, the doctor said people don’t break their shoulders, they break the upper arm near the shoulder or they break one of several other bones that make up the shoulder. In Janie’s case, she broke the humerus–the arm bone–just below the ball joint. Needless to say, this is a discouraging development and a setback to regaining the activities she’d like to be able to do.  This is number 7 in 5 years.

The good news, if there is any, is that she has seen the orthopedic doctor and he recommended against surgery. He said that when the bone is in a reasonably good position, the results of surgery have not improved the results. So she will avoid having a wound to heal, anesthesia, etc. In fact, she is only using a sling. They can’t splint or cast the break. Healing will take a while and she is in pain, but she is in reasonably good spirits under the circumstances.

We are still getting organized to accommodate her needs and limitations. We are incredibly thankful that Leslie was with us over the weekend when the break happened. Emma and Sarah were also with us, and helped out as well. Since Leslie had to return to work, I called Janie’s sister, Katie, who dropped what she was doing to come over and stay for a few days. Jess even offered to come up from San Francisco, but I think we will be OK once we get back in the swing of managing the injury.

Meanwhile, we will appreciate all your good thoughts!

International Space Station

I haven’t posted to this blog for a while, because I’ve been busy with nothing new and exciting. But for the last few nights, I’ve been watching the International Space Station (ISS) fly overhead and it is exciting to watch! Last night was the best of all–not only did I see the ISS, but I could see a supply ship following it. With the clear skies, the view was spectacular!

My interest in watching the ISS came from a ham radio friend (LW, K7LWA) who has been posting sighting information on a blog recently. He has gotten a bunch of us who hang out on the air interested in watching for it.

I got to share the experience with my sister-in-law, Katie, who was visiting for the night. We went out to the condo parking lot and watched the first pass shortly after 10 PM, and we spotted the Dragon Supply Ship following the ISS. That was an unexpected bonus. I had read in the paper in the morning about the launch of the supply ship, but I wasn’t expecting to see it. As the bright ISS passed overhead, we noticed a dimmer light following behind. At first we thought it was a star, and then realized it was moving, so we thought it was a plane. Finally, I recalled the launch of the supply ship and realized that’s probably what it was. While we were watching a carload of neighbors happened to pull into the parking lot, so I pointed it out to them, much to their amazement and delight.

After the sighting, I came back in and got back on the radio, which was buzzing with excitement and speculation about seeing the trailing satellite. We all concluded that it was the Dragon. With another pass to occur near midnight, several of us planned to stay up to see if the follower was closer than on the previous pass. Katie and I went out to look again, but unfortunately, this pass was lower in the sky and the ISS disappeared into the earth’s shadow partway into the pass, before we could try to spot the Dragon.

There is another pass tonight, which should be quite visible at around 11:01 PM, Seattle time. This pass is lower in the sky than the first pass last night, but it sill should be very bright. An even better pass occurs on Tuesday might at 10:09 PM, nearly straight overhead.

By tonight’s pass, the Dragon will have already docked, so it won’t be visible. However, I read that in order to dock the Dragon, they have to undock a previous supply ship, so I suppose it’s possible that it will be visible. I’ll be watching for it!

For more information, here is a web link to the schedule. Heavens Above.  If you click on the date on any line, you can see a sky map showing the path of the ISS, and where it will disappear. Tomorrow night will be well worth viewing the ISS. It will be the brightest it’s been since May 27, and since it will pass almost directly overhead, it will be visible for a longer time.

If you are in an area other than Seattle, you can click on “Seattle” in the box in the upper right corner of the page and change the location.

It’s a Good Day for Ham (Amateur) Radio in the Gallaher House!

Not only did I get my antenna moved to a higher location, but my new radio arrived today! I haven’t even set up the radio yet, but the change in the antenna has made a world of difference!

 

This is the old antenna installation. It consists of a specially cut set of wires inside a 5′ PVC pipe. There is nothing wrong with the antenna itself, but I live on the first floor of a condo that is at about sea level. With antennas, higher is better. Although it is attached to an additional length of PVC and mounted on a fence, it is not high enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To add to my problems, I have this big old trash compactor next to my antenna installation. I don’t know if it caused any problems itself, but I doubt that it helps, and t suspect that it’s electrical connection may be causing some of my problems.

To make matters worse, communications on the frequencies I use are made using “repeaters,” (sort of analogous to cell towers). The repeater I am most interested in using is on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and there is a very high hill between me and the repeater.  Another problem, not quite pinned down is loud noise coming from some electrical source near me. The static made it almost impossible for me to hear others who were using the repeater. I hoped that raising the antenna would reduce the noise problem.
This is a shot taken nearly straight up into the tree I wanted to put the antenna in. Since I live in a condo, I needed the HOA board’s cooperation to install the antenna. Even my original antenna setup was a violation of the rules,  I painted the antenna to match the color of our siding and it was very unobtrusive, so no one complained. The HOA board was cautious about letting me put an antenna in a tree. This is partly because I am on the board, and they didn’t want it to appear that there was favoritism. They wanted to be sure that the installation wouldn’t cause any damage or be unsightly. They asked for comments from the community on Facebokk, and the comments were either favorable or indifferent. My pitch to the community centered around the emergency preparedness benefits. I am involved in a local ham radio emergency group and I am learning as much as I can about how ham operators help in times of emergency. The installation was finally approved.

The next obstacle is that the tree I thought would be best for the installation turned out to be too close to the building. It was damaging the roof and had to be taken down. (The tree in the above picture is a different tree.) That led to a big project to inspect the entire grounds and to have a tree service do a major tree pruning, trimming and removal of some trees. The good news was that they would need a bucket truck to do some of the work, and they could install an pulley in a tree so that I could haul the antenna into the tree. The bad news was that I had to wait until the work got scheduled. All in all, I’ve been waiting to get this done since February for this project to get done. Today was the day!

Down came the old antenna. This is what it looks like, attached to an additonal section of PVC. I planned to replace the antenna PVC with a new piece painted to better blend with the tree. I don’t need the additional piece any more.

This is what it looks like outside of the pipe. A pretty simple looking piece of wire, engineered by professer at UC Santa Cruz and built by his students to raise funds.

This morning, the cavalry arrived!

Jason from the tree service headed up to the top of “my” tree. As a balloonist, I wished that I could go up in the bucket truck with him, but no such luck!

“My” tree is the one on the left. The one to the right of the windows is the one that had to come down. This is the 3rd floor unit. I’m on the first floor.

Here is Jason installing a pulley and some paracord near the top of the tree. The bottom of the antenna is about even with the eaves, so most of the antenna is above the roof line.

This is the new antenna before being raised. The new PVC is painted brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the new antenna is the tree. The coax wire is more visible than the antenna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from about 25 feet away. Would you notice the antenna if you weren’t looking for it? (Notice, the tree ion the right is now gone.

As soon as the antenna was up, I tested it. No noise and a clear signal to the repeater!  OMG! It’s wonderful! I haven’t even tried out the new, more powerful radio yet. I’m still using a handheld radio connected to this outside antenna. The new radio will have other benefits, and I will use the handheld for portable and emergency work. It should even work with the new radio to allow me to relay from my deck to the repeater, while I enjoy the nice weather we’ll be having someday.

Now that I can stop worrying about whether I can connect with other hams, it’s time to start studying for a license upgrade!

Driving (with) Miss Janie

More progress! Since Janie’s last couple of broken bones, she has not driven. In fact, we loaned her car to Leslie for many months because we thought it was a waste of a good car (and lease mileage we’d paid for) to have the car sit unused.

We’ve had the car back for a month, but Janie felt she be for comfortable driving after a couple of practice sessions. The weather has been so crappy during days when we had time to drive that we just got around to it. We went over to a large church parking lot, and it didn’t take her long to get the feel of being behind the wheel again. After about 1/2 hour, she drove to Katie’s house nearby to show Emma and Sarah her progress, and then she drove us home. Good job, Janie!

Of course, I reminded her that parking lots are the most dangerous places to drive!

More Ham Radio

I have discovered that amateur radio is an adventure in itself. I’ve continued my quest to get an antenna set up, and I’m working on a pitch to the HOA to allow me some latitude in the placement. Ham radio, like practicing law, has a very broad spectrum of activities one can choose from. In law, you can practice Family Law, Corporate Acquisitions and Mergers, Intellectual Property, Personal Injury, Estate Planning or many other paths, all of which are very different, but still have things in common. In ham radio, you can pursue emergency preparedness, use of the radio on hiking or other adventures, travel centered around radio contacts, or just making friends on the air. One group of enthusiasts does Summits On The Air, hiking to peaks where they set up a portable station and try to make contacts with “chasers” from there. Another group does Islands On The Air, and last year during the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary, they set up National Parks On The Air, attempting to broadcast from every national park. Contacts were made from all but about 30 national parks and monuments in the U.S. during the year.

Some people really don’t even talk on the radio much—they are more interested in building and designing things and getting them to work. This won’t come as a surprise, but I am particularly interested in learning about the use of computers with radios, and even in that, there are many avenues. I am also very interested in getting involved in community emergency preparedness. All of these things involve a radio, but they are very different facets of the hobby. I’m just a beginner, so I have a long way to go to even start looking at more esoteric aspects of the hobby, but there are many podcasts, YouTube videos and publications to help. This hobby is one of the things that has been keeping me busy in retirement.

I recently made contact on the air and by email with my local emergency management group, so I will be following up on that in the near future.

Bellingham

About a month ago, Roger and I went to Bellingham for an exhibition of National Geographic’s 50 Greatest Photos. (I got distracted before finishing this post.) The photos were amazing to see, and each included an explanation of how the shot came to be. Very interesting! I wish I could show them here,but they are copyrighted. Try this link to get an idea.

It was a clear and cold morning when we left, so we stopped at Starbucks first. From Carillon Point, the view of the Olympics was spectacular. My lens couldn’t really do it justice, but I got the duck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roger had a longer lens, and his photo was beatiful! Click here for Roger’s photo from Facebook

We also visited the Spark Museum of Radio and Electricity. It is jammed full of antique electrical equipment, phonographs, radios, TV’s and had a ham radio section.

I was delighted to see among the relics a short-wave radio receiver just like one I built from a kit when I was in Jr. high school.

 

 

 

They also had a surplus aircraft transmitter like the one I converted for use with my first ham license when I was in high school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way home, we happened to see a bunch of swans, so we pulled off for a couple of shots.

The Brothers Four

Last weekend, my three brothers and I got together for a nearly annual overnight gathering. We have been doing this since 1999. My brothers and I are close, and our age spread is about 7 ½ years from oldest to youngest. The first year, we got together at a restaurant, but we realized after three hours of nonstop talking that we were monopolizing a table. The next year, and for most of the rest of the years, we rented a large motel room, took the leftovers from my Mom’s annual Christmas open house, and purchased a quantity of Guinness.

We even had special beer glasses made, which we haul out once a year. The inscription is “B IV” with each of our names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some years, we held the gathering at my condo, and paid for a motel for Janie to have a night away. Although she was gracious about it, it is quite of an imposition, so it only continued a few years. My brothers also smoked cigars (outside) although by then, I was a recovering nicotine addict and I didn’t join in. A few years ago, we invited our cousin Bill to participate and it became the Brothers Four + One. Bill lives in the Phoenix area, so he is not always able to participate, but he falls in the middle of our ages, and we have a close relationship with him, too. We even bestowed a custom beer glass on him. We have managed to develop a pattern with Brother Jerry bringing homemade bread and other snacks, Brother Ed providing the Guinness, Brother Bob making an amazing mushroom soup, and me bringing the fixings for Farmers Breakfast.

There are years in which at least some of the brothers stayed up all night arguing politics or philosophy, sometimes heatedly. (But we still love each other afterwards.) Some of the years we’ve had serious discussions about our Mom’s health and how best to ensure her well-being.

This year, Brother Ed was house sitting with a very friendly Burmese Mountain dog named Siegfried. He (the dog) was quite the attention seeker! This is not Siegfried, but you get the idea.

 

We ruled out discussing politics. We don’t all see eye to eye, and we were all tired of the constant exposure on Facebook. We had plenty to talk about and had a great time. Some years, we have played poker or watched a movie, but this year, we never even got around to those activities.

Woodworking – The New Mantel

I am pretty well finished with our new mantel. It’s kind of embarrassing that it’s taken more than a year to cut, sand and finish two boards. (My friend Stitch Billings installed a zero-clearance fireplace and built a complete fireplace enclosure and mantel in a week or two, and he has 4 little kids hanging around!) I have some excuses: My shop is 20 miles away; I needed a power tool that I had to borrow from a tool library and they were either checked out much of the time or not functioning correctly; Janie had some injuries during that time and we had summer travel and the holidays. In addition, before I even got started, I taught myself how to use Google Sketchup (learning how to use Sketchup was part of the adventure) and developed a more elaborate design. Eventually I was able to visualize a much simpler design. In the end, I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

 

 

 

 

The top piece is clamped to the old mantle and glued with liquid nails.

The face piece is ready to go. Janie helped me pick out this wood, although it was for another project. When I decided not to do the other project, she suggested that we use if for a mantel. I didn’t know when I got this wood (poplar) that it can be very hard to finish. Due to the variations in hardness, it can turn out blotchy. I used some sealer before applying the finish, and it also may have helped that I was using a clear finish instead of stain.

 My first attempt to attach the face with liquid nails and held in place with just tape did not work. I had to remove it and reinstall it with the liquid nails and some brads.

 The final result

Orchids

I am by no means competent with flowers, but I have found over the last few years, that if you leave them alone and don’t overwater them, they tend to do OK. I have 3 orchids that sit in an east-facing window. All I do is put one ice cube in each pot once a week. Occasionally they bloom for me.

This one has a bunch of buds and another looks like it is developing a new bud stem.

Ham Radio

Warning! The may be of interest only to geeks.

During December, with everything else going on, I attended a two-Saturday class to prepare for my amateur (ham) radio license. At the end of the class, we could take the test, and I passed to get my Technician Class license. I was briefly KI7JJK, but I changed it to K7RCH. This is the entry level, but it gives me quite a few privileges. In the old days, the entry level was the Novice Class, and I actually held this license about 50 years ago when I was in high school. At that time, all levels of licenses except Technician required morse code. I was able to pass the Novice code test, but the Novice license was only good for 1 year and I never got my speed up enough to pass the next level, so the license lapsed. (Although the Technician license did  not require code even then, it was aimed at experimenters and was much more limited it its usefulness than it is now.)

I originally decided to pursue the ham license for emergency preparedness purposes. Obviously, radio is no longer needed in most circumstances for long-distance communications. However, my community of Kenmore has a horrible record for power outages. When the power goes out, the computer is worthless, the internet is inaccessable and cell phone communications follow soon after. (Even if I have plenty of backup batteries, the cell tower backup batteries fail after a few hours.) While attending an emergency preparedness seminar a few months back, I learned that basic ham radios are no longer very expensive and could be a way of communicating when cell phones are not available. Given Janie’s experiences of the last few years, I do not want to be without a means of communication. Besides, they keep predicting that “The Big One” will happen sooner or later, and ham operators have been a key part of emergency communications for more 100 years. Since I had once had a ham license, and I am a certified geek, I thought “Why not?”

After passing the test, I needed to get set up. This has proven to be more challenging than I expected, although the technical challenge is part of the appeal to me. Jess got me a handheld ham radio for Christmas. Janie got me a Ham Radio for Dummies book, and I have gotten other books as well.

I realized that I really couldn’t reach anyone from my condo with the low-power transmitter and stock antenna. So now I am on a quest for improving my signal. This can be challenging in a condo or any apartment building or community with restrictive covenants, because there are limits on putting up antennas. I have gone from getting a bigger portable antenna, to hanging a full size antenna in my den, to placing a “stealth” antenna outside. Can you see the antenna in either of these pictures?

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I could get a more powerful radio, but the antenna is actually as important, and I think it’s better to use my low power to confirm that I’m improving my signal before going to a more powerful radio. I’m still working on all that. Fortunately, hams are incredibly generous in offering to help newbies, and I plan to go to some get-togethers and get advice from more experienced hams.

In studying for my license and reading up on ham radio in general, I learned that the hobby has evolved in the last 50 years. First, the bands available to the Technician Class license are in more general use, so it is easier to communicate with people. Secondly, there is a great deal of crossover between computers and ham radio now. Ham radio can be used over the internet for long distance communications that would not be available with the radio alone. For example, I might get a radio link to an area that still has power and then piggy back onto the internet to get the signal to another part of the country. It is even possible to call someone with a telephone at the other end using a radio at my end. Also, computers can be used to control radios, improve the readability of transmissions and replace expensive test gear. I’m very interested in learning about these new technologies.

Although I got into ham radio this time for emergency purposes, I am excited about pursuing it as (yet another) hobby. It relates to computers, but it also has similarities to woodworking in that hams like to build things. (Hams actually developed the technology that led to cell phones.)

 

Fern Hollow

We squeezed in the trip to Canada before Christmas, and arrived home on Christmas Eve. We were going to Katie’s for Christmas morning, but we did the cooking. Janie had prepared us ahead of time by being sure to get the groceries we’d need, and we had a great time sharing brunch with Katie, Jeff and the granddaughters.

The trip to Canada was also with Jess and Leslie. It was beautiful place! We all agreed that Fern Hollow was the best AirBnB we’ve stayed at. It was too bad that we didn’t have more time, but we had gone to see Dina Martina on Wednesday, the night Jess arrived, we left Thursday morning for B.C., and had to be back by Saturday evening.

Jess image4aThis is a picture Jess took with his phone at a little cove in a nearby Provincial park that we explored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8944aHere are some photos I took from the ferry on the way up and on the way home.

 

 

 

 

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Leavenworth

Back from Long Beach, I had a couple of weeks to get ready for Christmas. That meant cards and letters, decorations, tree and gift shopping. We did most of our shopping on line this year and I sure liked it better than mall mashing! Janie and I did take one quasi-shopping trip to Leavenworth. I had found an online deal for a bus tour to Leavenworth. We walked through the shops there, trying to be sure that Janie didn’t fall on the icy sidewalks and we had a great day together. I did not bring the camera because I wanted to concentrate on enjoying the time with Janie. This photo is from the web.

Image may contain: sky, tree, night and outdoor

Credit: Facebook Christmas Lighting Festival Leavenworth WA

Bird Nerds in Long Beach

A couple of days after we got back from Allyn, Roger and I headed down to the Long Beach Penninsula to try to get some lighthouse pictures during stormy weather.

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The North Head Light was closed, and it is being restored. Unfortunately, it looks kind of sad now. I don’t know if that’s because paint has been stripped, or if it has just deteriorated a lot since the last time I saw it. Nevertheless, it is still photogenic.

 

IMG_8776aI happened to catch a pretty good late-day view from the lighthouse grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

We met another friend of Roger’s down there. We stayed in a cheap motel in Ilwaco. and hung out for a couple of days. IMG_8851a

The addition of Roger B (my other friend Roger) was fortuitous, because his is knowledgeable about birds, and we saw some unusual ones. This (and the next photo) is a Red Naped Phalarope, which Roger B. said is unusual for that area.

 

 

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This was a photo expedition, so while wandering around, we looked for photo opportunities. This is a view of the Ilwaco harbor from a nearby hill.

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IMG_8913aWe also spent time at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.This is a view of Cape Disappointment Light from the Interpretive Center.

 

 

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Our visit to the Interpretive Center led to an encounter with a Barred Owl. This guy was very cooperative, sitting in a tree about 30 feet from us, and just watching.

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8941aI’m definitely saving some of these shots for next Halloween!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanksgiving

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at daughter-in-law Katie’s. Leslie did most of the cooking, including the turkey and as usual she did an amazing job. Janie was able to contribute as well, as she is getting more and more stamina and more mobile. I pitched in with some pie crusts for the apple and pumpkin pies.

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to an AirBnB in Allyn, Mason County. Jess was here from San Francisco and he and Leslie joined us on the trip. This was a first-time stay at this AirBnB and we liked it a lot. It had a great view of the water and since our goal on these trips is to watch movies, watch the rain and just chill, we had a great time.

IMG_8740aHere is another picture of a heron. (My brother thinks it’s a cormorant.) I seem to go places where the herons hang out. If you look closely, you can see that it was raining pretty hard.

Snow Geese

The trip to Fir Island just before Thanksgiving was to try to photograph snow geese. After reaching the area, we drove all around and enjoyed the scenery, but we sure didn’t see many geese. There were a few in the distance that weren’t photo worthy, so we went to La Conner for coffee and took some photos of the herons that hang around.

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Roger got some good scenery photos as well, but he can post them himself. Just as we were about to head home, Roger saw a large flock of geese off to one side of the road. We pulled off and got some pretty good shots.

IMG_8714aIMG_8718a IMG_8715aThen, on the way home, we saw some pretty dramatic clouds.

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What’s New?

It’s been a while since I posted to this blog—it’s been a busy season! It seems like I’ve been working more lately and then came the holidays and several trips, so I haven’t had much time to write. Now things are calming down, I have some updates.

I’ve taken six short trips recently, photo trips to Fir Island and to Long Beach with my friend Roger, to at a vacation home on the beach in Mason County after Thanksgiving, to Leavenworth for the tree lighting, to Canada—Madeira Park—about 60 miles and a ferry ride north of Vancouver, BC and recently to Bellingham for a photo exhibition and a Radio and Electricity Museum. In between those trips, I was working a couple of days a week and getting ready for Christmas. I also made a couple of trips to the workshop in there somewhere. I also took a 2-Saturday course to get my ham radio license, and passed the test. (I am now K7RCH.) I’ll post about my activities in a series of shorter posts.

2016 Pumpkins and Party

A great weekend leading up to Halloween! We started with picking up Emma and Sarah from their early school release. Leslie joined us after work, and we went pumpkin hunting and the local fruit stand. We decided to wait until Saturday morning for the artistic work. The girls are old enough now to pick out their own designs and carve their own pumpkins. I didn’t get a pumpkin but instead served as advisor, helping with some of the more difficult parts like muscling the top out and fetching supplies.

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Here are the girls working intently on their pumpkins.

 

 

 

 

20161029_131946Meanwhile in the kitchen, Janie is harvesting the seeds for roasting, Sweet and Spicy and Salt and Pepper varieties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And here are the final results.

During the past couple of weeks, we arranged with niece Jennifer DeSanto to get together with their family for a pre-Halloween get-together. Katie had asked me quite a while ago to make a giant Jenga game for her family, so I wanted to finally get it done before our get-together. 20161029_184307

Everyone seemed to enjoy the game a lot and they were able reach the sky with the tower!

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We had a great evening!

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The girls went home after the party, but Leslie stayed overnight again and went to walk the greyhounds with me in the morning.

2016-10-30-groupThey set a record with 15 walkers this morning!

(If you are thinking about getting a dog, talk to me about greyhounds.)

Marjorie Bourne 6/1/1923 – 10/20/2016

marjorie-richard-bourneLast week, my aunt Marjorie passed away. Some of my earliest memories are from visiting the farm in Palouse on our trips out west from New York. Margorie had 4 girls close in ages to my brothers and I so we always had a great time. Richard and Marjorie moved to a different property after we were grown, but it was still a great place to visit. The new place is where we used to take the balloon, launching from the back yard and flying over the beautiful Palouse wheat fields. Marjorie and Richard were so hospitable!

For a full description of Marjorie’s life, here is her obituary.

Graduation Day!

Image result for picture of high fiveJanie made another visit to the hand doctor today, and he was really pleased with her progress. He was surprised at how well and how quickly her bones had healed, particularly the scaphoid bone, which often has difficulty healing. He was also very pleased with her motion and flexibility which is a direct result of her diligence in exercising her hand from the beginninng. The doctor told her she “gradulated” today and does not need to come back to see him any more. He also said she did not need any supplement physical therapy–just return to her normal activities. Way to go Janie! I am really proud of you! Image result for bursting heart

Janie Update

I’ve been busy this week so I didn’t have time to report on Janie’s progress, but she went to the hand doctor last week and the leg doctor this week. Both were very happy with the progress of her healing. He still wants her to wear it outside for another few weeks, the hand doctor told her to stop wearing her wrist splint in the house, and she can take it off to drive starting next week. He thought it was unlikely that she would need to go through physical therapy since she had done such a good job exercising her wrist on her own.

The leg doctor told her he’d like to see her again “in two or three years” to see how things were going, but she is healing fine.

Good job, Janie!

(Since she doesn’t need to wear the splint, Janie has been able to do much more around the house, including cooking. It helps free up my time, as well as making her feel less dependent.)

I’ll Fly Away

_693749 (Medium)Janie wanted to get me something unique for my birthday this year, and boy did she! I have always wanted to try skydiving but didn’t have the money when I was younger (not to mention I had a family), and by the time I had the money, I was too heavy. Having recently lost a little weight, I qualified for the wind tunnel version of skydiving at iFly near Southcenter, and Janie gave me the experience for my birthday. It’s more fun to do this kind of experience with someone else, but given Janie’s history of broken bones, we all agreed that it would be best for her to skip it. Luckily, Leslie was game so we headed down to the iFly Center, took our short instructional course and then we each got two flights in the chamber.

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We even got videos of the experience!

https://youtu.be/UunwYuVSP_4

 

https://youtu.be/V4OZcBg_EzY

 

 

More Serendipity

After leaving Yellowstone, we just needed to get back to Kalispell for our flight home. This would be a 2-day trip, so we decided to stay in Three Forks. We wanted to take back roads and stay off the freeways, as much as possible. We stayed in an older hotel with a very friendly desk clerk. We were in the mood for seafood. (Yes, we were in cattle country, but we had been eating red meat all week.) We wound up going to the Sacajawea  Hotel in beautiful downtown Three Forks. It was outstanding! I had Walleye for the first time and it was delicious. This was really a top notch restaurant in a town with a population of less than 2000 people. I asked the waitrress how they did it, and she said they got people from Butte and Bozeman, and that this historic hotel was a destination for weddings. What a find!

The next morning we headed for Kalispell and the end of our trip. Montana is a great place to visit and a great place for Jess and I to spend quality time together.

Yellowstone

We figured we could enter the park one day and drive around until we got tired, then stay in one of the outlying towns at whichever entrance we were close to. We didn’t know whether we would have a place to stay, but we decided to leave it open until later in the day and take our chances.  The plan worked out great. Although all of the lodges in the park were full, and most of the hotels in West Yellowstone were also booked, we found a decent place for the night and did not have to sleep in the car. The next day, we would spend most of the day in the park until it was time to head north again to go back to Kalispell.

If you have not been to Yellowstone, you should go! Allow at least two days in the park–more if possible. Stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns on the way. The scenery changes between Butte and Yellowstone were worth it just for the drive, but the park is something out of this world!

IMG_8366a (Medium)I couldn’t go through Yellowstone without thinking of my Uncle Bob, who was obsessed with geology. He and I went there about 15 years ago and it was a great trip. That time, we camped in the park in September–and it was cold! The park is between 6000 and 8000 feet above sea level. Jess and I appreciated our comfy room!

Our first stop, Mammoth Hot Springs.

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An upside-down popcorn ceiling.

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Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

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The Lower Falls

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Hot Springs, Geysers and Fumeroles in the Norris Geyser Basin

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Fumerole

https://youtu.be/QwL_kMvn6wI

We got caught in the beginning of a downpour here, and I was afraid for my camera. Fortunately, Jess had a jacket on so he could protect it and it didn’t suffer the same fate as in Munich last year! We headed for West Yellowstone to find a motel. It wasn’t bad, but they were all expensive at the peak of tourist season.

IMG_8373a (Medium)We stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin on Yellowstone Lake. This part of the lake was formed by a volcanic explosion 150,000 years ago. I got a chance to get pretty close to this grazing elk (with a zoom lens).

 

 

 

 

 

Here is video of a cauldron of mud.

https://youtu.be/OVzL_pPHqBg

The lake is 45 degrees, but there are several steam vents near the shore.

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Some other geothermal features in the West Thumb Basin

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IMG_8469a (Medium)Jess caught a photo of this pretty good sized elk while I was driving.

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In Hayden Valley bison are plentiful but these were close to the road.

 

 

 

 

IMG_8486 (Medium)On our way out of the park, we stopped at Tower Falls.

The Black Hole

OK, it really wasn’t a black hole, but that seemed like a good title for this post. Our next adventure was to the Lewis and Clark Caverns, near Three Forks, and in between Butte and Bozeman. Actually, at one point, the guide turned off the lights and it was really black! This was one of the best stops on the trip. I have included a lot of pictures here, but not so much commentary. You can find out all about the cavern on the Lewis and Clark Cavern website.

The path to the entrance is about 3/4 mile and well paved, but it seemed steep to me! (I was by far the oldest one on our tour, so maybe it was just me.)  From the entrance to the cave you can see the path we came up. Once at the entrance, the tour involves descending about 500 steps down and about 100 steps up in the cavern. That gives you an idea that getting to the entrance is equivalent to walking up a 19-story building. It is also about 5300 feet above sea level, and that alone has an affect on us sea-level dwellers.

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Also, from the entrance there is a great view of the valley below. This is where Lewis and Clark traveled. The caverns are named for them, but they actually passed by them unaware of them.

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The tour is about 2 hours long, and involves descending the stairs and squeezing through a few places. My big camera (and my big gut) made it a little more difficult, so a point-and-shoot camera would be better. The tour was fascinating! Our guide was good, but she is an elementary school teacher and at times sounded like one. (Can anyone tell me how bats navigate in the dark?)

We did have bats with us, and we were asked to be careful not to blind them with flashes and to be quiet around them. There weren’t many, but it was neat to watch them flying around us. They are not scary and didn’t fly too close.

It was a little difficult on a moving tour to get good shots in poor light, but the formations can speak for themselves.

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This formation is named “Santa Claus” for obvious reasons!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed in Butte that night, and found a pretty good pizza place with incredibly cheap pizza and beer. We didn’t think we’d be able to make it to Yellowstone on this trip, but when we were in Butte, we realized that we could do it if we left a little earlier and drove a little longer than usual. So I guess we did actually have a plan for the next morning.

Swan Lake

I wanted to  try to visit the canoe shop,so we headed South along the east side of Flathead Lake toward Swan Lake and the Swan Valley. We didn’t know where we would stay, how far we would get, or what we would find when we got there. As it turned out, we did make it to the canoe shop. Greg’s son Steve was there and graciously showed us around. The canoes were beautiful! Each one takes about a month to build.

IMG_8161a (Medium)These are old-fashioned, pedal powered scroll saws. From the sawdust on them, I assume they are still in use.

 

 

 

Here are some of the canoes. All of the designs are inlayed wood.IMG_8164a (Medium) IMG_8169a (Medium)IMG_8167a (Medium)

Steve recommended a bed and breakfast, the Laughing Horse Lodge. There were other possibilities down the road, but we decided to say here. It was a great serendipitous experience.

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First, the signs were inviting. This one didn’t say anything about real estate agents, but I figured that Jess was with me and so could probably fall under the lawyer category.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Next the registration process–there was no one around! A white board on the front porch instructed us to look for the rooms that did not have peoples’ names next to them, and check them out. The unoccupied rooms were unlocked. Once we picked a room, we were to write our name next to it and that was our check-in.

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IMG_8177a (Medium)As we walked to the back, we were greeted by a carved crow (always a good sign in my opinion).

 

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Here is a look at the row of rooms behind the main building. It’s hard to describe the friendly environment with the friendly hostess, the animals, including birds, and the garden sitting area, where we enjoyed the warm evening drinking wine.

IMG_8181a (Medium)Shortly after we arrived, Kathleen arrived with her 3 golden retrievers. Oh boy! Dogs! Extremely friendly big dogs! Later on, we met Juliet, the 3-legged cat, also very friendly.

 

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Before breakfast, I sat outside watching the multitude of birds at the feeder.

 

 

 

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Breakfast was huckleberry cheese blintzes. Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8201a (Medium)And why wouldn’t there be a parrot in the dining room at a place like this? Hate to leave this place, but we are on to another adventure.

Whitefish

It was a fun feeling to have no plans for the day. Whitefish is a recreation town. Just outside is Big Mountain and the Whitefish Ski Resort. It also lies along the beautiful Whitefish Lake for boating and fishing. There are also several other lakes nearby.

IMG_8157a (Medium)We decided to head for the mountain and take the ski lift to the top for a view of the mountains. Looking at the slopes on the way up, I was surprised how steep they were! I couldn’t walk down them, much less ski (if I could ski)!

Here are some views from the top.

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Again, from the top, you can see Whitefish Lake and another not far away.

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After taking in the view, we decided to take a back road around the lake before heading south. The map looked like we could take the road all the way to the highway, but we ran into a long dead end. No problem! We had no schedule, so we just turned around and headed back.

Next stop? Not sure!

“No words can describe the grandeur and majesty of these mountains, and even photographs seem hopelessly to dwarf and belittle the most impressive peaks.”

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On day two of the road trip we headed to Glacier National Park. Of course I had forgotten my lifetime senior National Park pass at home, but I was able to buy another one at the gate, so I still saved $20. This one is wallet-sized, so I can keep it with me.

The one thing about Glacier National Park, like many other national parks is that it can’t be captured in words or even in photos. I can offer glimpses but they do not capture the expansive beauty. The quote by naturalist George Bird Grinnell displayed on the wall of the visitor center at Logan Pass that I used as the title of this post says it best.

The National Park Service does a good job of making it convenient to leave your car behind. They have a good free shuttle service set up with hop-on, hop-off service. (Similar to the shuttles I used in Zion and Grand Canyon.) We left our car at the Apgar Visitor Center and took the shuttle on the Going-To-The-Sun Road (I love that name). While waiting for the shuttle, I noticed a couple who just looked interesting to me. IMG_8046 (Custom)

I struck up a conversation with Ann and Greg Morley which continued on the shuttle. Greg builds custom cedar canoes in a little town to the south, Swan Lake. He had previously worked for the State of Oregon and years ago they decided to do something different. So they moved back to Montana and started the canoe business. As a wanna-be word worker, I was interested in seeing the operation, and hoped we could go that direction when we headed south. (Spoiler alert: we did visit there.) Besides the beauty of this park and the beauty of the state as a whole, the same can be said about the people we came in contact with. Everywhere people were friendly and helpful, and you can tell that they love living in Montana.

IMG_8060a (Custom)Our first stop was at Lake MacDonald. This is where we got our first real view of the scenery.

 

 

 

We ate lunch at the historic lodge, built from big trees (with the bark still on them) and with its massive fireplace.

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IMG_8083a (Custom)We hopped off again at Avalanche Creek, where we took a short, easy hike on the Trail of the Cedars, passing this beautiful scene at Avalanche Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we headed to Logan Pass, the highest point in the park, on the continental divide. The drive had spectacular views, but we were glad that we had chosen not to drive. The road was steep, winding and narrow. It would have been impossible for one of us to both drive and watch the scenery.

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IMG_8122a (Custom)Once at the top, we took a hike. It went straight up hill. (Janie and Leslie: It was like the path up to Dun Aengus in Ireland, except this path was dry and had wooden steps instead of slippery stones.)

 

 

 

 

 

The view was fantastic from the top of the world. We were at the Continental Divide, the dividing line where streams flow East or West.

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We headed back down in the late afternoon, still with no firm destination or room reservation, but we settled on Whitefish, a recreation-oriented town that is a skiing destination in winter and fishing, boating, biking and hiking destination in summer.

IMG_8130a (Custom)We got a room at the Stumptown Inn, tired looking on the outside, but nice on the inside.

Montana Road Trip!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jess and I are going on a week long road trip.  He mentioned a couple of months ago that he’s interested in seeing “Big Sky Country.”  I’ve never been to Glacier National Park so we thought that would be a good place to start.  From there we will have an adventure-in-driving and go where the road takes us.  Jess and I had a great time driving together on our road trip in Germany last year and I’m looking forward to this one.

We started Sunday, getting up too early to fly to Kalispell. There we rented a car for the trip. We had the afternoon to kill and we found a really interesting mansion to tour.

IMG_8038a Charles Conrad was one of those rags-to-riches tycoons, who eventually decided to build a mansion in Kalispell. The history of the mansion is given on the Conrad Mansion Museum web site. I wasn’t able to take many photos, but here is one I took before I was told not to.

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As wanna-be woodworker, I was fascinated to see the woodwork in the house. Our tour guide explained that they did not have to touch it when the house was restored. It was finished with varnish and 7 hand-rubbed coats of beeswax, and it still looks as good now as it did 121 years ago!

And a couple that I copied from the museum web site:

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Although the mansion stood unoccupied and neglected for many years, it is amazing that most of the artifacts in the museum are original to the mansion and the Conrad family. That’s one reason that the mansion is so interesting. It might be explained by the fact that Alicia Conrad, the daughter who eventually owned the mansion and gifted to the city, lived on the grounds in a trailer and had become a hoarder. I speculate that the good artifacts were probably buried among the trash in the house and rediscovered when it was restored.

Conrad-Cat-Sweetie-PieSweetie Pie the cat is the only permanent resident of the mansion. You can see her story and more photos at The Conrad Cat.

For Geeks Only

This post is probably only of interest to geeks, both music and computer.

As those in my family can attest, I am not an Apple guy. (I like to eat them though.) Still, a few years ago when I moved to a condo and no longer had room for my CD collection and stereo, I got an older iPod and transferred all of my music to it.  I had to use iTunes to sync it with my PC.  (A lot of people complain about iTunes, but I actually don’t think it’s that bad.) I have more than 5000 tracks in iTunes, and I painstakingly categorized my music to set up playlists for them.  As I started using a smart phone that had enough memory, I transferred my music from the iPod to my phone so that I only had one device to carry.  The problem is that since I use an android phone (and earlier a Windows phone) I had no way to sync my playlists between my phone’s music player and iTunes.  It would be extremely cumbersome to have to set up the playlists in my music players.

Apple Music LogoUnfortunately, there is no iTunes for the android phone.  Recently though, Apple came out with an Apple Music app for android.  I decided to subscribe to Apple Music, but once again, my playlists did not sync between iTunes on the PC and Apple Music on the phone.  I started exploring on Google to find ways to accomplish the syncing.  I finally found a suggestion to install iCloud on the PC and sync iTunes to the iCloud.  (Note: Apple and Microsoft are not much different from each other—they both force you deeper into their ecosystems.) Supposedly, this would allow Apple Music to pick up the playlists from iTunes.  I installed iCloud, but I discovered that I cannot access iCloud without first registering it on an Apple device.  I’m going to all this trouble because I don’t have any Apple devices!

Checking again with Google, I discovered that there is a beta version of iCloud that works with the PC and does not require registration through an Apple device.  I was able to set up iCloud on the PC so that I could sync iTunes from the PC to iCloud.  I checked Apple Music on my phone but I still did not see my playlists.  I reinstalled Apple Music and there they were!  I now have access to my playlists.  I don’t know if it was a coincidence that they appeared after I reinstalled Apple Music, or whether it just took a while for the syncing to be accomplished.

Lucky Jess!  As I mentioned, we’re going on a road trip next week.  He will have access to listen to all of my Irish and Celtic music!

Encouraging News!

Today, Janie went back to the wrist surgeon for x-rays and follow up, and he was very encouraged! He said that her bones were healing much faster than he expected, including the scaphoid bone, which can be difficult to heal. In addition, her ability to move her hand, close her fist etc. was well ahead of what he expected. He attributed it to her diligence in exercising the hand and fingers. Although she will continue to wear the splint for another month, the doctor told her to leave it off most of the time. She will wear it when moving around where she could fall, but she can do light activities and keep it off while sitting. I am very proud of her diligence and compliance to help speed up the healing.  Jess and I are having out for a week-long road trip beginning Sunday, and this makes me much more confident that Janie can get along without my being here.

The Kenmore Mural and 0.1 K Fun Stumble

1 IMG_8002a (Mobile)I had fun a couple of weeks ago photographing the 0.1 K Fun Stumble benefit for the Kenmore Mural Project. I planned to go and participate in support of the project, but I brought my camera and it turned out that they did not have anyone set up to take pictures. The camera gave me a perfect excuse to avoid doing anything too strenuous, while still getting to participate.

This is a panoramic photo of the mural itself, located on a 188′ long side wall of St. Vincent de Paul just off Bothell Way. (I’m not sure how to display it. If it were 5″ tall, it would have to be 5-1/2 feet long. Click on the photo to see a larger version.) For scale look for the two people up on ladders near the left side of the picture.Kenmore Mural Panorama (small)

The Stumble was an obstacle course set up at the local 192 Brewery and Lake Trail Taphouse to raise money for part of the costs. In talking with the artists, I learned that the project was funded with community donations matched by the City of Kenmore.

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These are the artists, Staci and Gaul, but the painting has been done by them and by many, many volunteers.

 

 

 

 

Participants got a T-shirt and a coupon for a sample-size beer for their donation to the mural.

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10 IMG_7938a (Mobile)The first obstacle is deceptively easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 IMG_7962a (Mobile)But then comes the Limbo Bar! This guy had to use his hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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But she did it with a beer! (Or maybe because of the beer?)

 

 

 

 

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He didn’t do it at all but got a ground’s eye view of the bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few more of the obstacles. (Crossfit was one of the sponsors and set up the course.)

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Daddy’s Donuts sponsored the mid-course rest stop. (I managed to resist this obstacle.)

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Pelicans

Last stop of vacation. It was a long drive from Enterprise to Yakima, and we were really tired, but the hotel had a good bar and bistro, so we didn’t have to go out again for dinner. Sarah had steamed clams, I had mini tacos, but I can’t remember what the others had.

IMG_7935aIn the morning I looked out of our balcony to see what looked like swans in the river. With my telephoto, I realized they were pelicans.

Day 3 in the Wallowas

Having had our fill of the water, we wanted to explore Joseph a little more. The area around the State Park at the South end of the lake has a lot of family activities. I’m kind of glad we didn’t stay there because it’s crowded. Our B & B in Enterprise was quiet and spacious, not teeming with other tourists.

IMG_7921a (Mobile)Since Joseph is not far from Enterprise, it was easy to get to the activities when we wanted to. This day, we planned to do some window shopping in town. We also found a laundromat so we could do a wash while we shopped. Janie got a book at the local museum, so she could read in the car while we did some of the things she couldn’t handle.

The girls and Cool Aunt Leslie started with the go kart track. Janie and I watched from the car. I was kind of surprised that they went fast enough to drift around some of the turns. Fearless Emma came in first.

IMG_7866a (Mobile)Next, we decided to take a tram up to the top of Mt. Howard, which was pretty spectacular. The ride made some of us nervous although it didn’t bother me. (All those years of ballooning?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a view from the tram as we ascended.

 

 

 

 

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We were greeted by many Columbian ground squirrels, begging for food, when we arrived at the top. They weren’t shy and were happy to pose for photos.

 

 

 

We decided to take a “short” hike to one of several viewpoints on the mountain. The one we chose was supposedly 1/8-mile-long, but it turned out we took the wrong trail and went on the 1/2 mile hike. That’s not a very long hike, but Leslie had worn sandals, so it was a little more difficult. Still, it was a fun hike to an amazing viewpoint.

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The top of the mountain is about 4,000 feet higher than the lake and the lake is higher than the valley that you can see beyond.

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This area was populated by very bold chipmunks, which would run right up your arm if you were holding food!

 

 

 

IMG_7914a (Mobile)After returning to the tram base, I took the actual short hike to the summit. I’m not very good at selfie’s, especially with a DSLR, but I tried to get a view of myself with the mountains in the background.

 

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By the time we got back to earth, Janie had waited 2 hours for us. Given the hot weather, it wasn’t particularly pleasant, but she was patient. She was even willing to wait in the car again as we played miniature golf at a different course–this turned out to be the best maintained and most fun course I’ve ever played at. At least this time, we were able to park so that Janie could watch us. Finally, we headed back to Joseph for a little shopping, and headed back to the B & B for another afternoon and evening of naps and games.

These are pastoral some shots I took that evening.

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The Big Paddle Boat Pickle

Day Two of vacation in the Wallowa Valley, Oregon. The girls had quite the adventure! I was lucky enough to get some good pictures of the debacle. We have deemed this the Big Paddle Boat Pickle of 2016.

After an elegant breakfast, we decided to go to Joseph for the day. Joseph is the more tourist-oriented town. We looked around at a few shops, and then headed for the state park which has a lot of activities available. The girls wanted to rent a paddle boat (pedal boat). Janie and I would stay on shore and relax.

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The girls took off with Leslie and Emma pedaling and Sarah sitting in the back. IMG_7793

 

 

 

 

 

A short way from the marina there was a log and buoy boom. They paddled out around it so they were outside of the protected marina. At that point they decided to rest and chat.

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About 5 minutes later they looked up and realized they had been blown quite away out from the boom. They started pedaling back toward shore, but the more they peddled, the further out they drifted.

 

When exhaustion set in, they tried switching positions, which only resulted in unbalancing the boat, causing the back to fill with water. They didn’t realize that this in turn raised the paddle partly out of the water reducing their power.

For quite a while it was not obvious from shore that they were having trouble. Being responsible for the girls, Leslie began to get quite concerned. She began waving. I thought she was letting us know they were having fun, but Janie began to sense something was wrong. When Leslie took off her bright orange life jacket and started waving it, I started paying attention to Janie’s concerns. I went down on the dock and asked some people who were getting ready to head out in a boat to check on them.

IMG_7800Meanwhile, Leslie had gotten the attention of some nearby boaters, and Janie got the attention of one of the attendants, who got ready to head out to tow them in. The boaters stayed with the girls until the attendant arrived. In the end they came in safe and sound although the boat was half full of water.

They were relieved but wet, exhausted and embarrassed. No one was interested in paddle boating for the rest of the trip.

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After the Big Paddle Boat Pickle, we went for a round of miniature golf at a pretty dilapidated course. We were sunburned and tired and ready for lunch, so we ate at a very good brew pub.

 

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Rested and fed, we also stopped by Chief Joseph’s monument.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By then, it was late in the day and we and decided to pick up some sandwiches to bring back to the house for dinner. We took naps and spent the evening playing Cranium. We were all ready to retire early by the end of the game.

Vacation

On vacation! Janie, Leslie, Emma, Sarah and I left yesterday for Northeast Oregon, to the Lake Wallowa area to be exact. The main towns are Enterprise and Joseph. I went ballooning there many years ago and I remember it as a beautiful area with fun activities. It is also historic–the burial place of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce is here.

Our first stop was the town of Pendleton, where I had previously learned that there is an underground city. The underground was supposedly built by the Chinese railroad workers because they were not allowed out after dark. Reportedly they could be bullied and even shot with impunity if found out after dark. There may be some question about the authenticity of that story, but there was little question that they did live underground and there were laws in Oregon prohibiting blacks from being outside after dark, so the story isn’t much of a stretch. We took a tour in which we saw representations of various periods including the Chinese, speakeasies that went underground during prohibition, and legitimate businesses that used the underground for various purposes. The tour also included the history of the lively prostitution trade that continued up to the 1960’s.

 

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This is a gaming table in a Chinese part of the tour.

 

 

 

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Here are the kinds of accommodations the Chinese workers had.

 

 

 

 

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This is a jail in the Chinese part of the underground.

 

 

 

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Of course, the underground is a perfect place for drinking and gambling.

 

 

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There were legitimate businesses, too (not necessarily in the same time periods). Hop Sing’s laundry operated for many years,

 

 

 

and Empire Meats took advantage of the cool temperatures.

 

 

 

 

IMG_7751 (Mobile)Part of the tour included the “Cozy Rooms” boarding house. There were some legitimate boarders, but also Working Girls. Pendleton was the “Entertainment Capital of Eastern Oregon” for many years.

 

We stayed in the town of Hermiston nearby and had a great steak, crab and lobster dinner. I usually avoid seafood so far from the sea, but both the lobster and the crab were very good. Next day, we got off to a leisurely start and headed for Enterprise. We stopped in La Grande for lunch and had both really good pizza and really good service in a local place.

We were all kind of dragging by the time we got to Enterprise. We were expecting our first night to be a little difficult because of stairs and Janie’s physical limitations. Fortunately, another guest cancelled and made a downstairs suite available. Otherwise it would have been very difficult indeed.

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Our room would have been up 15 very steep steps. It’s still challenging, but Janie is a trooper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_7771 (Mobile)We were excited to see a herd of bison right outside our back door that evening. It is also mating season, so there are a few tussles going on between the bulls.

More Progress

  • Last week, Janie saw the doctor again and her cast was removed. Instead, she got this sexy new custom fit splint. She had a choice of black or beige for the splint, so she decided to go with black and get the bright pink Velcro. She can take the splint off to shower or to put lotion on her arm and can even just take a break from it if she is not moving around. It’s also much lighter then the cast. 

The best news was that the doctor was extremely  pleased with the progress of her healing and said that her compliance with his instructions probably contributed by not stressing the bones. She has begun some physical therapy for her hand, and she has a little more use of her hand than she did with the cast. I see her able to do more every day.

Janie also went to another doctor this week, who started her on medication to strengthen her bones and hopefully reduce the risk of breaks in the future.

My First Beer

And by that, I don’t mean of course the first beer I’ve had to drink! I had a great time yesterday with daughter-in-law Katie.  She invited me to go make beer at a “You Brew It” brewery.  How could I turn her down?  Its beer, and the name of the place is Gallagher’s.

Neither of us had ever brewed beer before.  I don’t want to diminish what experienced beer brewers can do, but at Gallagher’s, it was easy.  They had 54 recipes to choose from and a variety of beers to taste.  We chose a honey wheat beer to make.  They had all the ingredients, showed us what to do and encouraged us along the way.

Milling the GrainHere I’m milling the grains to crack them so that they will release their flavor when put in the water. Our recipe used two kinds of grain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding the Malt

Katie is pouring in some of the malt (sort of like molasses). We had three kinds of malt.

 

 

 

 

Stirring the Wort aWe added a couple of kinds of hops and some Irish moss (that’s right) and then stirred it all up well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a couple of hours of mixing and cooking and tasting a flight of beers (mostly the latter), they transferred the mix into a keg for fermenting.  We go back in two weeks to bottle it. I can’t wait!

Why I Did What I Did

Recently, a former colleague sent me an email about a young man I had been involved with during my time on the bench. It made my day (week, month)! More about the email later . . .

When I was working and people asked me what I did, I would usually explain during some part of the conversation that the duty I liked best was working on Child Abuse and Neglect cases (generally referred to as “Dependency”). This surprised most people not familiar with the court, but I would explain that this was the one type of case in which I could actually watch people heal with some resources provided by the State.

I used to preface the initial hearing in these cases by telling parents that the point of the process was not to tear families apart, but to enable them to go forward in a healthy way that is good for the children. The best outcome was always if families could be “fixed” and children could go back to their parents. This was nearly always what children wanted, no matter how bad their parents were. Many times, the transformations were miraculous.

As you can imagine, not all cases wound up the way we hoped. Sometimes parents never could recover and the families were permanently torn apart. Although we hoped to see families reunited, we also kept in mind that adults made choices for themselves. In the chambers of my courtroom, we had large poster boards with pictures of children who had come through the system. They were there to remind us that our court was all about the children. In the cases that did not wind up reunifying, we hoped that we could help the children move on to a more positive life. Sometimes that was with a new, adoptive family or with relatives. Unfortunately, some children remain in foster care for the remainder of their childhood.

I don’t have space to go into all of the negative consequences for children who spend their formative years in foster care, even with the best of foster parents, but there are many. These kids enter adulthood way behind in opportunities for success, so when we get to see a success, it’s exciting! That brings me to the email. Here is what my colleague said:

I had a hearing the other day with a young man named D___.  He will be 21 in August.  After our conversation at his hearing, I asked him if I could have his permission to share this update with you, and he said yes, he would love that and he really hoped I would let you know how he is doing, because he’s wondered how you are from time to time over the years and wanted to be able to let you know how he was doing, but didn’t know how to do that.

He came into the system in 2010 because of physical abuse by his mother, who also was a drug addict.  His father lived out of state.  He was placed back with him mom briefly when she seemed to be doing better, but she then passed away, from what I understand was a drug overdose.  While his father wanted him to be placed with him out of state, his adult sister here in WA stepped up and asked for placement, which you granted.

D___ told me that he’d last been in court right after his mother died, and that the commissioner on the bench was so kind to him, and so concerned about him, and was also very emotional because – as he understood it – the commissioner had also suffered losses in his life and empathized with him.  D____ said that he always remembered that commissioner and wanted to come back to court to see him, but that it was too hard to come back here with his mother gone because coming to court was a reminder that his mom wasn’t coming back.

D____ is graduating with his AA degree and is leaving at the end of August, right after his 21st birthday, on a full ride to California State – Fullerton, to play Division 1 college basketball.  He told me all about how he was careful in his choice of schools as he wants to have as much exposure as possible to have the best chances to be seen by the NBA, while also being able to take classes that he’s interested in.  He’s also excited to live where the weather will be so much nicer year-round.  He said that at the beginning of his case he was angry, and angry CPS and the court got involved in his life, but that he thinks that it was probably the best thing that happened and that he’s grateful that Extended Foster Care helped him support himself so he could get to the opportunity to go play ball at a Division 1 school.  He said he didn’t think he would’ve found that opportunity otherwise.

He is a charming, smart, warm young man and I hope you are really proud of the work you did, given impression that you made on him.  It was so nice to be able to meet him and hear what he had to say about his experiences.

Commissioner Jennie Laird

Maybe we heard about successes too infrequently, but when we do, it makes it all worth it!

How Not to Save Your Valuable Files

crashThis may be interesting only to those of you who believe in backing up your files. I am obsessed with it, but I have never found the ideal solution.

I have over 32,000 photos and short video clips. I have two automatic backup systems on my desktop. One is a local program, ShadowProtect, which periodically and automatically creates an image of my computer on an external hard drive (for the technically minded, this is a NAS). The other is CrashPlan, which automatically backs up my files to the cloud.

The other day, I had the brilliant idea to move my photos and videos to an external hard drive to make room on my desktop’s hard drive. Step one, all I copied the files to the hard drive (NAS-different from the one opn which I store my backups). Step two, I verified that the pictures were actually there. Step three, after confirming that the files had been moved successfully, I deleted all the files from my desktop. Voila! More space!

Here is the problem. Neither one of my back up systems backs up network drives like my two external hard drives. The problem with the external drives in my den is that if we had a fire or theft, those drives could be inaccessible. Backing my data up to the cloud meant that I could still get my files back. I just moved 32,000 files to a device that is not backed up at all! All that had to happen was for that one drive to fail, and I would have lost everything! As a stop gap measure, I am copying the photos and videos to my second external hard drive. That solves the problem of a single drive failure, but not the problem that I don’t have an off-site backup. There are work arounds for getting CrashPlan to back up a network drive, but that will take some additional work, and in the meantime, I didn’t want to risk a drive failure.

By the way, if you don’t back up now, there are versions of CrashPlan that are free and better versions that are inexpensive. All work automatically in the background. There is no excuse not to back up. If you have a laptop, you are especially at risk for losing all your valuable information.

Follow up: The work around for backing up a network drive using CrashPlan is somewhat arcane, difficult to set up the first time, unless you are an experienced geek. I got it to work with some instructions I found on a web forum. I am not sure how reliable it is, so I will have to monitor it. If you have lots of photos or other precious date filling up your hard drive, I recommend getting a second internal drive, which CrashPlan can handle easily.

Sarah’s Castle Update

Sarahs Castle GradeSarah got the grade for her castle project, and she got more than the maximum points. Note that she got extra credit for creativity, and in spite of my help on the project, the creativity part was all her with a few ideas from Janie.

Update on Janie

I’ve been meaning to post an update on Janie for a while. She is doing well–bones appear to be healing OK. She got a new cast a couple of weeks ago. This one is a hard cast once the post-surgery swelling reduced. The hard cast had to be replaced once because swelling continued to go down. In a couple more weeks, she may get a removeable cast, which will allow her some relief from the cast and allow her to wash without having to cover up her arm. She continues to figure out ways to manage with her limitations, She especially wants to help me around the house so that everything is not on me. She’s been able to help a little with cooking, putting away dishes, putting on laundry and folding clothes.

Successful Surgery

Janie’s hand surgery went well today. The doctor was very pleased. I had been a little confused about the extent of the fractures because it seemed as though at one point when he first saw her, he said she had 8 fractures, and at another point he seemed to say that she had 4. It turns out that she had about 10 fractures in 4 places. He said everything moved back into place nicely and is held together with a plate, screws and wires.

2016-05-20 Wrist X-ray (1)

The “Before” x-ray is not very clear, but you can clearly see that the top of the large arm bone is shifted over by about 40%. There are several fractures in the top piece. The other fractures are more difficult to see.

2016-05-25 Wrist X-ray (1)

The “After”  x-ray shows all the screws and the plate installed to keep everything in place.

Janie came out of the anesthesia nicely. Of course she was in pain and has meds for the pain, so she’ll be pretty wiped out for the next few days. Gradually, she can switch to less powerful meds and begin doing more. The pain should be considerably reduced now that the bones are stabillized. She will be in a cast for up to 3 months. The main concern is the scaphoid bone–a small bone in her hand (uppper right in the “After” x-ray). It broke into 3 pieces that are now held together with a screw. The doctor said this is one of the most difficult bones to heal, and that’s why she’ll have to be in the cast for so long. However, after about 2 weeks, she will be switched to a smaller cast that allows her more movement in the elbow, and after about 6 weeks, she’ll get a cast that can be removed temporarily for showering, etc. She won’t be able to do too much physical therapy until the cast comes off, so she’ll still have some rehabilitation to go after the first 3 months.

Thank you all for the expressions of support we’ve gotten, both in blog comments and on Facebook. We are very thankful that she didn’t do more serious damage, and that the surgery went well.

Janie’s Journey

On Friday, May 19, Janie fell again and broke her wrist. We were taking a granddaughter for ice cream at Dairy Queen and she fell in the parking lot. We didn’t even make it in for the ice cream!

It’s frustrating for both of us! She has been improving since she was non-weight bearing for 3 months after she broke her leg in September. It has taken a long time to regain her strength and stamina, but she has been working on it. I think she was still a little unsteady, having switched from a walker back to a cane, and just hit an uneven spot on a walkway. She lost her balance and fell backwards. When she falls, she breaks. The good news is that she did not break any lower extremities and she broke her left wrist (she’s right-handed).

Two of the doctors she saw described the break in layman’s terms as “You really did a number on your wrist!” She broke it in 4 places, including a small bone in the hand that apparently can be hard to heal without surgery. Even with that, she will be in a cast for up to 3 months. (She may get a removable cast part way into that time.)

Jess will be here visiting for the next week, so I expect that he’ll help make the hardest period easier. Of course, Leslie is a great help, too. She already came up last Friday to help out. We appreciate your good thoughts and prayers if you are so inclined, and we’ll keep you posted on her progress.

Coronation Day

Coronation Day came and I was able to get a picture of Katie and Sarah the Archer.

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And here are Janie and Sarah during a prayer ceremony.

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These are many (but not all) of the castles built by Sarah’s classmates.

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Sarah’s Castle

I haven’t been too diligent about updating my blog recently. Partly it’s because I’ve been busy—working a few days, walking greyhounds at a local shelter for exercise, and miscellaneous other things. One of my activities was building a castle with our youngest granddaughter, Sarah.

Each year, the girls’ school has a formal “Coronation” ceremony for 6th graders that is similar to Catholic Confirmation. The students dress up in medieval costumes and are dedicated to Christ.

2014-05-23 Katie-EmmaSarah’s hasn’t taken place yet, but here is Emma 2 years ago. Janie and I contributed Sarah’s dress (as we had for Emma), and Janie altered it to fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with the Coronation, they have a program integrated with the 6th grade history classes. While they are studying medieval history, they also build a castle in a traditional design. In the process, they learn the parts of a traditional castle, and create a model. I helped Sarah build the castle. It was a big project! Sarah is imaginative and meticulous, so she had some very creative design ideas. Unfortunately, I did not think to start taking pictures of the process until reminded by my friend Roger. I was able to capture part of the process before we finished the project though.

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IMG_7655Here is the partially constructed castle, with the front wall and gatehouse not yet in place. The castle is not yet attached to the base. The gatehouse roof and the battlements for the two front towers have not been installed. The grid-looking thing is the portcullis, You can also see the moat that Sarah designed.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a closeup of one of the towers with the battlements added. Sarah came up with the idea carving the moat out of the foam board base. After the moat was carved out, she painted the entire base with a textured brown paint to look like soil,Then she filled the moat with a clear blue glue she had found to create the appearance of water.  The towers are styrofoam painted with a textured grey paint to give the appearance of stone. She also added some of the gravel around the edge of the moat.

 

 

 

The styrofoam towers didn’t need any extra texture, but since Sarah used corregated cardboard for the walls, she wanted to add texture to them. Janie spotted some tiny grey gravel at the craft store and Sarah decided to use Modge Podge to add it to the walls. Here are two shots of the nearly finished castle showing how the texture of the walls blended with the towers.

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The roofs of the rear towers and the gatehouse have been added with flags, A drawbridge is in place and the portcullis has been mounted in the gatehouse door.

 

IMG_7694Inside the bailey (courtyard) Sarah has added grass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Also inside the bailey, she added some shrubs. The grass and shrubs were made of 2 kinds of moss that she found at the craft store.

 

 

 

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The flags on top of the castle are tiny, but she managed to put the Gallaher coat of arms on them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the finished castle! The final touch was adding trees and shrubs around the outside. I was very proud of Sarah for her imagination and dedication. Although I helped, primarily with measuring and hot gluing, she did the design work, searched out the supplies with us at the craft store, drew and cut out the pieces and did the painting.IMG_7704

 

 

Chickadees

This is something of an experiment. If it works, the post will automatically show up on Facebook. I have to try it to see if it will work.

For those who have followed this blog, you may have seen that I made a “hummingbird” house a couple of months ago. Then I found out that this isn’t the kind of house that hummingbirds use. I decided to leave it in place to see if anyone else was interested. Last week, Janie noticed that some chickadees were checking it out, but the hole was too small. It looked like they were trying to enlarge it. After they had tried for a few days, I took the house down from the tree. I could see where they had been working on the the hole, but they hadn’t made a lot of progress.

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I took the house to the shop and enlarged the hole. I still wasn’t sure if it was large enough, but today the chickadees were back. At least they are interested!

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We’ll see what happens. If this birdhouse doesn’t work out in the next week or two, it may be too late for this season, but I will definitely get something for them for next season.

I am also participating in a 7-day Nature Photo Challenge. This is Day 4, and my potential new tenant is my entry. I was nominated by my cousin Susan Sever, and for this day, I nominate Noel Aguilar to accept the challenge. Post a nature photo every day for 7 days and nominate another person each day to take the challenge.

What Has 64 Feet and Way Too Much Energy?

Well! I am on a trip to Washington D.C. with 32 pretty well-behaved 8th graders, and I thought I would have time to post pictures every day, but our tour guide is a tyrant!

We arrived Monday afternoon after a cross-country flight and got on a bus for a 2-hour bus trip to Williamsburg. We had a short dinner break along the way and then in Williamsburg we attended a great African-American music presentation. We finally got to our hotel about 10 pm. Even though it was only 7 pm Seattle time, it had been a long day! The next morning, we got up at 5:45. ate breakfast and were on the bus by 7:15. This time, we went until about 9:30 pm. Mind you, almost the entire day was walking. Today we started out at the same time and ended about the same time, after walking a total of about 13 miles as measured by one of the parents’ Fitbit. So no,  I have not had time to go through all the photos, but I  will give you this one of Emma and two friends at the Jamestown fort.

Emma and friends in Jamestown armor

Emma and friends in Jamestown armor

More Progress!

Another step forward, although technically, it is not a step. Janie has been cleared to drive whenever she felt comfortable with it, but she wanted to be able to get to the car by herself and be independent enough to not have to worry about getting a walker in and out of the car. She is there now and we took our first drive with her at the wheel.

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Kenmore Herons, More Birds and Things

I had a chance to go take pictures today. I wanted to get some shots of the Kenmore Herons while they were nesting.

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Then I went to Log Boom Park in Kenmore for some more shots. Some rowers were out practicing.

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And a few cormorants (I think) were having a look.

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I think these guys were getting ready to settle down for the night.

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A seaplane landed while I was there. I saw a couple of eagles flying around, too, but they were too far away for a good shot.

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Giant Steps

It’s been quite a while since I posted an update on Janie’s progress, and she has been steadily improving. About a month ago, she began outpatient physical therapy, even though she was dealing with very painful Achilles tendonitis. Nevertheless, she pushed on. She has increased her stamina and her ability to do things like work in the kitchen, and we’ve gone out to restaurants and a play. The milestones haven’t been quite as dramatic as some of the earlier ones–until now. Yesterday at physical therapy I witnessed a big step, figuratively and literally. Today, she went “Beast Mode” again, and I get to share it with you.

https://youtu.be/_ja_zKNwDOk

Hummingbird House

A quick project in the shop. I hope it is inviting to one of the local hummingbirds. I think I can reach a tree near my deck with a pole or broom.

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In response to a question from Chuck Michener, here is another photo showing the size.  That’s a package of tissue for scale. I can’t show you the inside because the top is screwed on with square-drive screws and I don’t have the right screwdriver at home. This birdhouse is made from a 4×4 with the corners cut off, and hollowed out with a Forstner bit, so except for the top, it is one solid block.

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I had to come up with a birdhouse installation tool to get the birdhouse in the tree.

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And it worked!

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New Posts

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to this blog–I seriously overestimated the amount of time I would have to work on photo editing and posting. But Janie is doing much better. At a recent visit with her surgeon, she learned that he was really pleased with her healing progress, and in fact said that her bones were fully healed. Now, she just needs to continue gaining strength and stamina. The rehab is long and at times painful, but she continues to work hard to make steady progress. I’m really impressed with her determination. Her immediate goal has been to get to the point that she can do most things for herself, and she is almost there.

She still needs a walker for now, but she can now do most of the activities she previously needed help with.  That is beginning to free me up, so that I have been able to take a couple of breaks from home, without worrying about how she is getting along and catch up on the blog.

In catching up, I decided to separate my post into separate topics, so I am posting this one which will show up first, but the rest of them are in reverse order, so you can start with The Drone and scroll up.

Back in the Shop

 

20160123_155640Yesterday, I went to the workshop for the first time since October. I am still working on getting organized and doing shop projects, so today I cut some planks to raise some things up off the floor (which sometimes gets wet) and I made a wall mount to hang my router table off the floor. I also installed a cabinet that had been given to me to use for storing my small power tools.

 

 

Eagle Hunting

Last week, I went to the Skagit River to photograph eagles. I didn’t really get any good shots of the eagles, but I got some other shots I liked.

IMG_6671aHere’s one of a heron hunkered down against the rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_6684aThese young seagulls are fighting for the prime location at the fish hatchery. IMG_6680a

 

 

 

 

 

If you really want to see an eagle, here is the best I could do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Point Reyes

Just after New Years, we went to California to visit Jess, and combined it with a getaway to the Point Reyes National Seashore area in Marin County. We stayed in a cozy cabin and enjoyed the time together, although this was a very challenging trip for Janie.  This was the first long trip, and negotiating the airports, rental cars, etc. was not fun.  It didn’t help that I forgot her walker at the car rental office and didn’t discover it until we were 2 hours away. Luckily, we were able to borrow one for the weekend from a local senior center. When we got to the cabin, we also discovered that the “accessable” cabin was at the bottom of 10 steps and we had to take her down  backwards in the wheelchair.

IMG_6513aOnce we got settled, we had a good time with each other, watching the fire. We enjoy these quiet getaways, playing games, cooking, eating and spending time together.  We also binge-watched most of Making a Murderer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the days, I took off with Leslie for a couple of hours to look for photo opportunities. With her driving the winding roads, I could focus on finding places to stop.

IMG_6564aWe set out to find what we thought was a shipwreck. It turned out to be a derelict fishing boat, but it was an interesting subject.

 

 

Of more interest, when I turned my head, I watched a pelican hunting for food.  Here is a series of shots showing the hunt:

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We next stopped to photograph this unusual house(?) built over the water.

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As a bonus, we got some close-ups of several vultures.

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Although we went to the end of the road for the Point Reyes Lighthouse, it was closed on the day we were there. (We knew that in advance.) Still, there was a pretty view of the Pacific.

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On the way back, we made one more stop to capture this hawk and a coyote.

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The drive back to the city from the cabin was beautiful–but very winding! I was glad Leslie was driving, and she decided to drive at her own speed and let any impatient drivers pass her.

The Drone

P1060913aI got a toy drone for Christmas. Nothing fancy and no camera to spy on the neighbors, but I thought it made sense to start with a toy to learn how to fly it so if I break it, it won’t be too much of a loss.  It actually came with a couple of extra propellers–which tells me that crashes are expected. I’ve crashed it plenty, but so far it is still in one piece.  I decided to fly it in the hallway of my building (when most of my neighbors are at work) so that it can’t get away from me. However, it means that I can crash it into the walls more easily.

Emma and Sarah were here one day and they decided to try to take pictures of it flying. P1060915aEmma managed to capture it taking off and Sarah captured a clip on her iPhone.

https://youtu.be/qCPonYXamGU

Hummingbirds

I’ve seen many great hummingbird pictures and videos done by others, but in spite of their frequent visits to our deck, decent pictures have eluded me. Patience finally paid off, and I got my best photos so far and some short videos that I’ve stitched together.

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https://youtu.be/xsj1k86NJYQ

Pumpkin Carving 2015

Every year, Leslie and I take Emma and Sarah to get pumpkins and we carve them together. Janie often goes with us, but not this year. She was OK being alone for a short while when we did our pumpkin hunting at the local Yakima Fruit Market.

IMG_6340 (Small)The girls are old enough to do most of the carving themselves. Emma’s was a simple design, so she did it all herself. I consulted with her a little, but not much.

 

 

 

IMG_6342 (Small)Leslie worked a little more with Sarah, but Sarah still did most of it on her own.

 

 

 

 

Here are the final results!

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After the pumpkin carving, we had a good dinner of slow cooker ham, homemade pea soup, honey-glazed carrots and potatoes au gratin.

We missed having granddaughter Kathryn with us this year, since she is away at college. I hope she carves a pumpkin and sends us a picture, though.

Update:

Kathryn did carve a pumpkin and sent me a picture. Thanks Kathryn!

Kathryns

 

Life Happens

As most of you know by now, our trip to Australia and New Zealand scheduled for September 28 had to be postponed. Janie had a fall and did some serious damage to her hip and leg 5 days before the trip. She had surgery on September 25 and spent a total of 25 days in the hospital and rehab. She came home Monday! We expect the next several months to be challenging but we are both committed to making progress as quickly as possible.

Our first day home was challenging to begin with because we had to get used to doing things differently from at the skilled nursing center. You don’t realize how complicated simple tasks can be or how much difference an inch or two in furniture height can make until you have to negotiate getting in and out of a wheelchair. And I’m not even the one who has to do it! We also didn’t have all the right equipment at first. It’s amazing how many miscommunications occurred between health care providers along the way. We’ve found already that we are improving quickly in our transfer techniques with practice, and Janie has started home physical and occupational therapy. Her attitude remains upbeat and eager to work, in spite of how much it takes out of her.

Leslie has been a great help, and considering that she is working full time and lives 20 miles away, she is going above and beyond! Our nephew, Pete, has also been quite helpful, and we’ve had offers of help from many others, so thank you all.

We expect that our excursions will be very limited for a while. At this point, Janie has not practiced getting in and out of a car, and she’ll need to build up her strength in order to do it. She’ll need a great deal of help around the house, so thankfully, I am retired and available. As a result, we will not be traveling and I will probably not be doing much in the way of woodworking or taking pictures.

IMG_6329bI did have a chance to make a step platform for her based on one they had at the rehab facility, so I am able to include one picture with this post!

 

I don’t mind staying home—we feel closer to each other when we have to help each other out. Also, I have lots of things at home that I never seem to get around to, including editing and posting pictures from several past trips. So I am looking forward to using the time to catch up on those things. You will probably see several posts from me in the near future with new pictures from old trips.

Workshop Progress

wpid-m8_20150915_160915.jpegI haven’t posted much lately because I haven’t had anything much of interest to post.  I have been continuing to work on building a work bench, and as it is with many projects, the last 10 percent of the detail work takes a loonnng time!

It seems as though I’ve been working on this bench forever. I made some wooden jaws for the vise, and I had to remove the vise to install them, then reinstall it. Then I drilled 15 “dog holes” in the top and two more on the vise jaw. (Drilling that many holes in 1-1/2″ thick maple is time-consuming and eats up drill bits!) The dog holes accept bench dogs–the pegs you can see in the picture–that are used to clamp wood to the bench top for working. I still need to put some finish into the holes to protect the top from absorbing moisture.

Uncle Bob’s “Magnum Opus”

In 2003, I made one of several trips with my balloon to Palouse, Washington to fly from my aunt and uncle’s (Richard and Marjorie Bourne’s) farm and over the harvested wheat fields. This was always a beautiful experience, with many cousins and other relatives turning out for the experience. But that year was unique. Not only did my brother-in-law, Jim, bring his powered parachute along, my uncle, Bob Donovan, created a video of the event with music. He used to call this his “magnum opus.” Sadly, as he was making the video, he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and no one knew it. He was able to finish the video, but it was the last thing he was able to do on the computer. The result was special and will give you pretty good idea of balloon flight from start to finish .

A couple of years ago, one of my cousins suggested that I post the video on my blog. At the time, it was more difficult to do that, but changes in YouTube have made it easier, so technology now allows me to share this video of the sport I loved, with the people I love and made by my uncle, whom I miss.

https://youtu.be/eUIhDT58Org

(Note: the video is 34 minutes long, so you may want to view it when you have the time.)

 

Sand Dollars

While walking the beach at Harstine Island last week, I saw many sand dollars. I have never seen so many unbroken! The ones I have found in the past have always been broken, and I have heard (but I can’t confirm) that they are eaten by starfish. We happen to have a starfish crisis right now–they are dying off in huge numbers. I wondered if that is why there are so many intact shells on the beach.

Usually, sand dollars are white, but I came across some purple ones. While examining this one more closely, it appeared to be moving–almost like it was breathing–and I realized it must be alive. I don’t think I have ever seen this before, especially not the hypnotiic motion. (Forgive me for the quality of video. I have not practiced much doing video with my DSLR.)

https://youtu.be/YdhZrnQl6qY

Beaches

Last weekend, Janie and I had to clear out of our condo because they were resurfacing the hallways, so we took the opportunity to go to Long Beach for a couple of days. I didn’t get around to posting any photos, so here are a few.

IMG_6107 (Custom)This was the view from the deck of our condo.

 

 

 

 

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An evening visitor (from the deck of the condo).

 

 

 

 

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Cape Disappointment Light

 

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Troller heading out

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Sunset on the beachIMG_6193 (Custom)

This weekend, Jess is in town to celebrate his 40th birthday and 2nd adoption anniversary, so we decided to get away for a couple of day to a beach house on Harstine Island in South Puget Sound.

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Here is a photo from our deck taken in the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is the same view in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very relaxing!

A Functional Workbench

I finally finished the work bench, at least so that it’s functional. I still have a couple of tweaks to do, but I can use it even without the tweaks.

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In response to an earlier comment, these are the wheels for the bench. The front wheel is in the raised position, out of the way so that the leg of the bench rests on the floor. When the wheel is lowered as on the rear leg, the bench is lifted 3/4″ off the floor so that the bench can be easily moved.

 

 

 

Before I turned the bench right-side-up, I installed a woodworkers vise that I acquired from a friend of my landlord, Heather.

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Here are a couple of pictures of the finished bench. The last step before flipping it right-side-up was to add the lower shelf. I had to have Leslie’s help to set in on the floor because it weighs about 150-200 pounds with the laminiated top, cast iron vise and particle board lower shelf. The wheels in both these photos are in the lowered position so that the bench can roll. One of my objectives in building the bench was to be able to roll it behind my table saw to use as an outfeed table–a table that catches large pieces of wood as they come off the saw.

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Now the bench is done, I was able to move the sawhorse “workbench” out of the way and straighten out the shop so that it’s more functional.

DSCN0147 (Small)Leslie was actually the first one to make use of the bench. She has been waiting until it was done to start on a project of her own to restore a craftsman style sideboard she picked up off the web (shown behind the bench in the previous photo).Here she is working on the doors.

 

I still  have work to do to set up the shop, but I have my drill press on a temporary table so that it’s usable, and I have a band saw and sander on long-term loan from Heather’s dad. I’m still working on modifying my miter saw table to fit my new used miter saw.

Progress Finally!

I have not posted much since my return from Germany, but I have been busy.  Mostly, I’ve been working in my workshop, or more accurately, working on my workshop. I have been building a new work bench, since the one in the old shop was built in.  Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten most of what meager woodworking skill I ever had, and I have made many mistakes.  Since it’s just a work bench, it doesn’t have to be pretty. On the other hand, many of my mistakes have caused do-overs, which has really slowed things down. Another diversion that slowed things down was that I was able to get a good deal on some used power tools, including a much better miter saw and a drill press (for those of you who know what those things are.) I saved a lot of money, but still had to spend quite a bit to get everything.  I sure appreciate Janie’s support of this hobby and her encouragement whenever I came home after another series of mistakes.

A couple of days ago, I approached the end of Phase I, but didn’t quite make it before I ran out of time and energy.  Today I reached that milestone. I was able to “dry fit” the base together so that I could see what it would look like.

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Next, I had to take the whole thing apart to put a coat of finish on the parts.

IMG_6095 (Small)I’m heading on a little trip with Janie and our granddaughters, but when I get back, I can reassemble the bench and move on to Phase II, installing the top, a lower shelf, a woodworker’s vise and wheels.

George Gallaher 3/24/1920 – 7/6/2015

George Gallaher Navy 4x6Another of the Greatest Generation has left us. My Uncle George served during World War II in the South Pacific. Although I wasn’t as close to him as some of my Western-Washington relatives, hewas one of the most pleasant people I have ever known, and he will be missed.  Here is a link to a  very well-written memorial: George Gallaher.

 

 

More Bread

I have written about making bread before (6/20/14 and 1/10/15), but the recipies I was using made several loaves at a time. I wanted to try scaling the recipe to make just one loaf, either because I wouldn’t be using it soon enough, or because I want to try a specialty loaf. I made the basic recipe, and it worked out fine. If you want to try it and don’t have a big 6-quart container, a large mixing bowl will work.  Here are the proportions;

1 c. (8 oz.) Water
2 c. (10.6 oz.) Flour
3 gr. Yeast
8 gr. Salt

You might want to cut back on the water by about an ounce-I thought my dough came out a little on the loose side, so the loaf spread out more than I would have liked. You could also use a small bread pan, especially if you don’t have a pizza stone.

Headed Home

We had an early flight on Thursday, the beginning of a 25-hour odyssey for me and an 19-hour odyssey for Jess. This kind of travel is never fun, but a couple of good things happened. First, I decided to give my camera another try and it had dried out enough to work again. Whew!

Secondly, I met an interesting guy on the plane. Brendan Tang is a Vancouver BC ceramic artist. He told me about his creative process, and shared pictures of his work with me. I liked it a lot. He also gave me permission to post copies of his pieces from his web site, so here are a couple of examples:

I like the way he mixes traditional Ming-style decoration with complately wild colors and shapes. I also like the way he makes parts look like they are draped material. Brendan’s web site is: Brendantang.com, but I also found photos at this site: Yatzer.com.

I said goodbye to Jess in Vancouver. He was flying to San Francisco and I was taking the train to Seattle. It was a great two weeks together! Parts of it were challenging, but we held up and held each other up. I’ve never had the opportunity to spend this much time one-on-one with Jess. We had some good philosophical talks as well as just plain having fun together. This is not a trip that Janie would have enjoyed, so it was nice having Jess as a travelling partner.

IMG_5964a (Small)I had some time to kill while waiting for the train, so I took a little detour to take a picture of one of my favorite buildings, the Vancouver Main Library, which evokes the Roman Colosseum.

 

 

I should have known better, but I was really hungry, so I ate a microwaved hamburger on the train. Ew! I didn’t get sick, but it was a good thing I had a beer to wash it down.

Next trip: Australia and New Zealand!

Berlin Again

Our trip from Munich back to Berlin went smoothly. No close calls at the station, no surprise transfers to a bus. The 1st class seats were the nicest of our 3 trips, except that the train was very hot. The trip took about 6 hours. I enjoyed watching the countryside, the villages and the cities go by. The landscape changed from hilly to flat as we headed north.

DSCN0098a (Small)Our AirBnB host, Albert, was very friendly and very helpful. His flat was by far the nicest one we stayed in and they neighborhood it was in was far nicer and more convenient. Albert’s place was modern, roomy and immaculate. He had coffee available and eggs, milk, juice, butter and bread in the fridge. I wish we could have stayed there during our first Berlin leg—it would have changed our initial impression of the city.

It didn’t hurt that the weather was cooler and less muggy, though. Albert took the time to walk us to the corner to show us the way to is favorite restaurants. The flat was in or on the edge of a gay neighborhood, Nollendorfplatz that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century.

11279145395_234214825a_o (Small)The local train station had a dome lit in neon rainbow colors. We weren’t sure whether it was an intentional landmark like the giant rainbow flag in the Castro of San Francisco, but it looked pretty neat. (I looked it up later and learned that it was intentional.) I copied this photo from the web (under an open copyright) because I could not get a clear picture with my point-and-shoot camera.

 

 

 

The place we went to dinner was in an area that was very busy with people out enjoying themselves.

We only would have one full day in Berlin this time, so we decided to take a hop-on-hop-off tour. We ran into Albert at the bus stop, so he showed us where to go to get the tour. It was a pleasant way to see the city, and it’s another thing I wish we had done during the first stop in Berlin. I think done of the most interesting things I learned was many of the historic sites that we saw were destroyed in the War, and the ones we were seeing were actually replicas. There were a lot of replicas, but it gave us a chance to see what pre-war Germany looked like.

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Presidential Palace

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Reichstag Building

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Fredrich the Great

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Munich

Our next destination was Munich. For this leg, we decided to take the Autobahn route, although we traveled through quite a bit of backroads before we reached it. Munich was not that far away, so we arrived fairly early and decided to go to the Altstadt, Marionplatz. It was Sunday, and there was a huge street fair going on there, so parking was difficult.

IMG_5941aWe eventually found a spot and walked through the crowds. It was nice out, but warm. After walking about ¼ mile, we found a restaurant for lunch, but I realized that I’d forgotten my camera, so I wanted to go back to the car for it. That later turned out to be a mistake!

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we walked around some more and listened to the music. There was some colorful ethnic dancing on a stage but it was difficult to get close enough for good pictures.

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IMG_5944aWe went into the City Hall, which was interesting architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around a little more because we were killing time until it was time to meet our AirBnB host. Suddenly we got caught in a downpour! We were still about ¼ mile from the car, and we had no hats or jackets. My camera was getting wet and the only way I could protect it was to put it under my t-shirt. It didn’t help. By the time we got to the car, we were completely soaked through and the camera got wet anyway. We headed to our AirBnB and met Rodrigo. He quickly showed us the flat and left us alone so that we could change out of our wet clothes. I checked my camera and it was not working, so I took the lens off and the battery out and hoped that it would dry out. No such luck. By the time we left Munich 2 days later, it was still not working. I was able to recover the photos from the memory card, and I have a spare point-and-shoot camera, but I would have to wait until I get home to find out how bad the damage to the DLSR camera is.

DSCN0093aOur flat was probably the most eclectic of the places we stayed. Rodrigo is an artist, and the flat was filled with artworks from floor to ceiling.

 

 

 

 

While in Munich, we were able to do some sightseeing. On Monday, we went to the Nymphenburg Palace, a huge extravagant palace, originally built by Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria, and extended by his heirs. There would be no way for me to capture the grandeur of this place (even if my good camera were working), so I am including a photo from the web. That small cube in the middle is the original large palace, and the rest of the buildings and grounds dwarf it!

Nymphenburg Palace

Again, this was really interesting because it had been lived in, and there were many exhibits of furniture and art that were used by the Bavarian royalty. It is still used as a home by Franz, Duke of Bavaria, the head of the Bavarian royal family.

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One of the more interesting exhibits was the Marstallmuseum that had many carriages and horse-drawn sleds used by the Emperor.

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DSCN0088aThere was also an extensive collection of porcelain.

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, it was raining quite hard when we were there, so we couldn’t enjoy a walk through the extensive gardens.

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On Tuesday, before catching our train to Berlin, we went to the Bavarian National Museum. It was a good way to pass some time, but I wish they had had more English-language translations. Nevertheless, the artifacts were interesting. I had left the spare camera in our locker at the train station, so all I have to show of that visit is a couple of poor phone photos.

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Eisenburg—Alps and Castles

After leaving Hohenzollern late in the afternoon, we decided to change our schedule, cancel our leg to Salzburg, Austria, and add a day in Eisenburg. We are so glad we did! By the time we reached Eisenburg, it was 7 PM. There is no way we could we could have gone to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We knew from the experience at Hohenzollern that the two castles would take at least several hours the next day, and we would have at least  a 3-hour to drive to Salzburg afterwards. The next day we would have a similar drive from Salzburg to Munich. As it turned out, it took us all day to go to the castles and we were exhausted afterwards. I can’t imagine taking that 3-hour drive! Even if we had, we would not have had time to see much in Salzburg before we needed to head out for Munich.

Eisenberg is a tiny village in Southeast Bavaria. It looks quite new, and it has a golf course, so I suspect that it’s pretty much a recreation-oriented development. It is near Innsbruck, so there would be skiing in the winter. Two towns closer to the castles were obviously heavily tourist-oriented. This was also farming area with a number of older villages nearby. The surrounding landscape was probably hay fields, but when we got there, it looked like acres and acres of mown lawn. Our flat was modern and very comfortable—the top floor of the host’s home. It was roomy enough to sleep about 6 people. It had a great view of the Alps from our back deck. Our hostess was very nice and even did some laundry for us!

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On Saturday, we went to see the castles. It really is a kind of Disney experience, starting with the line for tickets. The line snaked around until you went through a door, where you expected the ticket office to be. Instead, there was another line snaking around to another door. This led to the room where the ticket windows were, but before getting to the ticket counter, you have another line to snake through!

IMG_5888a (Small)There are two castles in close proximity. Hohenschwangau is the earlier castle built by Maximillian II and the childhood home of “Mad” King Ludwig II.

Ludwig also lived there as an adult while he had Neuschwanstein built.

IMG_5938a (Small)Neuschwanstein is the famous castle used by Disney as the model for Sleeping Beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can only see the insides on guided tours, which are tightly scheduled with time-stamped tickets. Miss your time and you are out of luck! Our tour of Hohenschwangau came first. We had plenty of time to eat and walk around. It was a very touristy area with many small shops selling cheap souvenirs and also some more expensive shops for the shoppers.

Eventually, we walked up a steep hill and stairs to the castle. It wasn’t far, so I felt like I could make it if I took my time. We had time to take some photos outside before the tour.

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The tour was very interesting. As Jess commented, it was actually more interesting than the more lavish Neuschwanstein, because people actually lived there as they did at Hohenzollern. As I mentioned earlier, Hohenzollern is still occupied part-time by the Prussion royal family. I didn’t realize until later that Hohenschwangau is still owned by the Bavarian royal family and is still occasionally used by them. Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of King Maximilian.

Of course we couldn’t take pictures inside, so I bought a booklet with pictures of both castles that I scanned. Notice the vibrance of the colors, particularly of the paintings painted on the the walls. These are the original colors from the 1800’s and have not faded. Our tour guide explained that a coating applied at the time the paintings were done has protected them all this time.

5 photos scanned from booklet purchased at the castles.

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For more interior photos of Hohenschwangau click here:

Hohenschwangau Interior 

Here is another view of Hohenschwangau taken from from Neuschwanstein.

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We took a shuttle to Neuschwanstein because it is quite a bit farther. Even with that, it’s about ½ mile down a steep hill to a place below the castle, and then a short steep walk uphill to the castle entrance. There were hundreds of people there, but with the timed tours, the whole thing work pretty well. Inside the castle, the tour included many stairs that would make it very difficult for anyone with mobility challenges. The tour was interesting and it is amazing how the royalty could be so lavishly self-indulgent. Neuschwanstein was built by “Mad” King Ludwig II. Although he stayed there at times during its construction, he never really lived there. In fact, he died before it was finished. Again, we couldn’t take photos inside, but here are some photos from the booklet I bought.

4 photos scanned from booklet purchased at the castles.

Neuschwanstein (scanned)-4a (Small) Neuschwanstein (scanned)-3a (Small) Neuschwanstein (scanned)-2a (Small) Neuschwanstein (scanned)-1 (Small)For more interior photos of Neuschwanstein click here:

Neuschwanstein Interior

IMG_5933aFor some reason, they did let us take photos of the castle kitchen. Probably because it is restored rather than original.

 

 

 

 

We walked down from this castle and it was a long, steep walk. By then, we were very tired and it was hot. We considered taking a horse carriage, but it looked like the wait would be too long. (We passed several that were on their way up but by then it was too late.) By the time we got down, we were exhausted, but we had survived!

IMG_5935a (Small)Neuschwanstein is very photogenic, so here is one more photo I took on the walk down.

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner at a restaurant in nearby Füssen, we went home and collapsed. Jess slept all night, but I got up a few hours later to work on the blog. While I worked, a thunderstorm came up—the most incredible thunder storm I have ever seen! The thunder was a continuous roll for about 20-30 minutes, and the lightening was constant and bright enough to completely light up the yard behind our flat as well as light up the Alps on an otherwise black night. I could actually continue to hear the thunder in the distance much longer than that but it was not as loud as the storm moved away.

https://youtu.be/Rn1aoIj180I