Ok, it was Joel's birthday last week, and we got together at Joel and Dawn's last weekend for a party for him. Had Joel's famous BBQ wings, chili, potato salad, beer, cosmos, and lots of other stuff -- and the German's Chocolate Cake for the big finale.
I brought a football, and Jeff, Joel, and I spent quite a bit of time in the back yard tossing it around and acting silly. Like we used to when we were kids, except the subjects of the silliness were updated and Joel and I tried cigars and had 'em hanging out of our mouths for a while throwing and catching the football. Felt quite manly ;-)
Betty showed up with her neice Sally -- who tolerated the adult silliness rather well. Tom showed up later and we all got to talk about Mom and Dad's new news... which is....
They're moving.
Wierd. This relatively wealthy guy who goes to their church bought two farms in Osage County. He wants Mom and Dad to go live on one of them in a pre-furnished earth contact home, so dad can oversee the farms. Later, this guy will build a house on the other farm and move out there. There's something about an old church out there on one of the properties, and some talk the possibility of an independent priest..... sounds odd to me. Mom & Dad's place is paid off. I'm not sure what the draw is for Dad. Although that particular part of Missouri is very pretty -- Mom and Dad's place doesn't suck, either. And its theirs.
It'll cut the distance between our place and "theirs" by about 1/2.
We got the killer fiber-optic jack-o-lanterns out... and last night hung out with Ryan and Kristie. The fed us jambalaya, we brought over leftover cake and veggies. We're headed to Eureka Springs in a couple of weeks with them for a 4 day weekend. That'll be fun.
Let's see, Kevin's getting his car fixed this week. Brian's looking for a second job to make ends meet.
Fall is here, the leaves are turning, and it's pretty pretty. Hopefully Eureka Springs will be a little later turning the leaves than here and we'll see some pretty colors when we're down there.
Monday, October 18, 2004
Monday, October 11, 2004
Weekend edition
And a week later...
Nice weekend. The weather's been beautiful. Hung out with the neighbors for a while Friday evening, then went in and watched the debate. Played the guitar....
Saturday I ran errands, then we had a big neighborhood powow with the chiminea, beer, even cigars -- the Cardinal baseball game (which we lost 4-0 -- but we won yesterday so that's ok) and the Tigers football game.... the one that didn't start until 9:00pm!!!!! TV. Anyway, the Tigers started slowly, but a late second-quarter interception that gave the ball to the Missouri offense inside the 10 for the third time apparently embarrassed the offense into actually scoring a touchdown this time... and that seemed to spark them on to victory. Their first Big 12 road victory since 2002 sometime. Aggies, it was that time. Baylor this time.
The chiminea fire was amazing -- a mass of pink-hot coals and massive amount of flames, lots of blue ones. I had to back my chair away from the fire.
Vicki did LOTS of laundry the whole weekend.
Sunday was pretty laid back. Read the paper, played guitar a bit. Went to lunch at Huer's with the Williams'. Later I got the mineral deposits off of the showerhead and kitchen faucet and ran a couple more errands. Just one of those nice fall days.
Nice weekend. The weather's been beautiful. Hung out with the neighbors for a while Friday evening, then went in and watched the debate. Played the guitar....
Saturday I ran errands, then we had a big neighborhood powow with the chiminea, beer, even cigars -- the Cardinal baseball game (which we lost 4-0 -- but we won yesterday so that's ok) and the Tigers football game.... the one that didn't start until 9:00pm!!!!! TV. Anyway, the Tigers started slowly, but a late second-quarter interception that gave the ball to the Missouri offense inside the 10 for the third time apparently embarrassed the offense into actually scoring a touchdown this time... and that seemed to spark them on to victory. Their first Big 12 road victory since 2002 sometime. Aggies, it was that time. Baylor this time.
The chiminea fire was amazing -- a mass of pink-hot coals and massive amount of flames, lots of blue ones. I had to back my chair away from the fire.
Vicki did LOTS of laundry the whole weekend.
Sunday was pretty laid back. Read the paper, played guitar a bit. Went to lunch at Huer's with the Williams'. Later I got the mineral deposits off of the showerhead and kitchen faucet and ran a couple more errands. Just one of those nice fall days.
Monday, October 04, 2004
Hitchin' a ride
Got to work, pulled into the parking lot -- looked at the bills to be mailed. I was halfway out of the car. Got back in to go to the post . As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I heard what sounded like my antenna hitting something. I kinda glanced around... no, couldn't have hit anything... went to the post office and mailed the letters (had to stuff them in, the mailbox was very full). Got back to the parking lot, and I was looking around for... my coffee. Not there. Got out of the car, and there it was, resting against the antenna on top of the car.
Had a very nice weekend with the Groves. We went to CJ's for hot wings on Saturday, then up to the MKT trail by Rocheport and went through it -- kids love stuff like that, and some of us are still kids inside. Cassie & Q had fun making echo noises. Q is such a little boy. He does everything with such bravado, yelling "Echo" so loud you could hardly hear the echo. We went up over the top of the tunnel on a very steep trail as well.
Mark and I sat by the chiminea on the deck and got the brisket going for sunday (18 hour smoke!) Had a pipe or two and talked about whatever. You know how it goes. Got a few chances to play together on the guitar and mando.
Sunday we made the traditional Snoopy Waffles (no overnight trip to Aunt Vicki & Uncle Phil's could be complete without them) and had the smoked brisket for a noon dinner.
Got my bike out after they left yesterday afternoon. Kristie wanted to go for a ride. She managed to talk Ryan into it, and I wanted to go. So I aired up my tires on my bike that hasn't been ridden in years -- and took off with them. At the bottom of the hill in 7 Oaks I heard what sounded like a gunshot. My front tire blew out. So they went on, Vicki came and got me. I went home and replaced the inner tube and struck out again. Ryan and Kristie were just pulling into the neighborhood as I was pulling out. I made the trip down the relatively new trail starting at the Hinkson Creek recreation area and wound through some pretty country... fields and woods. Several places in the woods I was riding through a tunnel of trees covering the trail -- which was obviously an old dirt driveway or service road in the past in many places. Two ruts with white gravel in them. There are several iron framed wood-planked bridges down there -- you cross Hinkson Creek about 5 times. Go under Rock Quarry Road and end up over by old 63. Nice ride.
I'm definitely out of cardiovascular shape, though. The hill back up out of 7 Oaks is by no means an easy one, but four or five years ago I would've powered right out up it without stopping.
Ok, well -- that's all for today.
Had a very nice weekend with the Groves. We went to CJ's for hot wings on Saturday, then up to the MKT trail by Rocheport and went through it -- kids love stuff like that, and some of us are still kids inside. Cassie & Q had fun making echo noises. Q is such a little boy. He does everything with such bravado, yelling "Echo" so loud you could hardly hear the echo. We went up over the top of the tunnel on a very steep trail as well.
Mark and I sat by the chiminea on the deck and got the brisket going for sunday (18 hour smoke!) Had a pipe or two and talked about whatever. You know how it goes. Got a few chances to play together on the guitar and mando.
Sunday we made the traditional Snoopy Waffles (no overnight trip to Aunt Vicki & Uncle Phil's could be complete without them) and had the smoked brisket for a noon dinner.
Got my bike out after they left yesterday afternoon. Kristie wanted to go for a ride. She managed to talk Ryan into it, and I wanted to go. So I aired up my tires on my bike that hasn't been ridden in years -- and took off with them. At the bottom of the hill in 7 Oaks I heard what sounded like a gunshot. My front tire blew out. So they went on, Vicki came and got me. I went home and replaced the inner tube and struck out again. Ryan and Kristie were just pulling into the neighborhood as I was pulling out. I made the trip down the relatively new trail starting at the Hinkson Creek recreation area and wound through some pretty country... fields and woods. Several places in the woods I was riding through a tunnel of trees covering the trail -- which was obviously an old dirt driveway or service road in the past in many places. Two ruts with white gravel in them. There are several iron framed wood-planked bridges down there -- you cross Hinkson Creek about 5 times. Go under Rock Quarry Road and end up over by old 63. Nice ride.
I'm definitely out of cardiovascular shape, though. The hill back up out of 7 Oaks is by no means an easy one, but four or five years ago I would've powered right out up it without stopping.
Ok, well -- that's all for today.
Monday, September 27, 2004
Long Promised Lute Project Pictures
When I first got it opened, the extent of the damage to the neck block was aparent. And here you can see the mailing labels someone had used to help repair it many years ago. Also notice I had damaged the top getting the neck out before I realized that I could take the whole top off and how. I cut with the grain, so that I could stain it and minimize the visual impact.
Here we see the original patch job on the broken ribs. The wood filler was up against the paper on the inside. Next is the "back of the front".
Heat Damage here from my first attempt at melting the glue holding the neck in. I figured I'd have to re-finish the back anyway, but this damage to the finish cinched it. Also, notice that one of the tuning pegs has a key missing.
After the paper came out, the broken ribs were loose and of course the wood filler fell out.
Here's the very small dovetail joint of the neck. I drilled pilot holes for screws to hold it in while I tested the action for the neck-reset. I figured that later the screws would help out with the tension, but I hide glued it (as I did everything else except for the two broken ribs) back in in the end.
Here are the re-enforcement ribs I put in -- I've seen them in other lutes. It just helps with the structure and helps keep the ribs sturdier and harder to push and break. I hide glued them in. Note the dowell above... I thought I might need it to stiffen the body to help the action, but when I tested putting it back together near the end, the fixed ribs and the support the braced top gave the body, I decided it wasn't needed and left it out. And the next picture (top right) is to illustrate that I did, in fact, make a new key for the peg and used JB Weld to glue it on. Worked great.
The end product (except that I need to make and replace the decorative wooden frets missing on the body below where the neck attaches. It'll be prettier.
And finally, here's where that hole was.
Hide glue, by the way. Mix 1 part unflavored gealatin with 3 parts water, heat to about 150 degrees. They say over 160 will weaken the glue. And you do get a LITTLE time to work with it, but once you put a piece in, don't pull it back out. You can move it some for about a minute, but make sure you've got it where you want it. It will gel and the death grip will set in. If you have any doubts about the strength, don't.
Don't believe me? Test it on a couple of pieces of scrap wood first. In 10 or 12 hours, you will be quite re-assured.
Here we see the original patch job on the broken ribs. The wood filler was up against the paper on the inside. Next is the "back of the front".
Heat Damage here from my first attempt at melting the glue holding the neck in. I figured I'd have to re-finish the back anyway, but this damage to the finish cinched it. Also, notice that one of the tuning pegs has a key missing.
After the paper came out, the broken ribs were loose and of course the wood filler fell out.
Here's the very small dovetail joint of the neck. I drilled pilot holes for screws to hold it in while I tested the action for the neck-reset. I figured that later the screws would help out with the tension, but I hide glued it (as I did everything else except for the two broken ribs) back in in the end.
Here are the re-enforcement ribs I put in -- I've seen them in other lutes. It just helps with the structure and helps keep the ribs sturdier and harder to push and break. I hide glued them in. Note the dowell above... I thought I might need it to stiffen the body to help the action, but when I tested putting it back together near the end, the fixed ribs and the support the braced top gave the body, I decided it wasn't needed and left it out. And the next picture (top right) is to illustrate that I did, in fact, make a new key for the peg and used JB Weld to glue it on. Worked great.
The end product (except that I need to make and replace the decorative wooden frets missing on the body below where the neck attaches. It'll be prettier.
And finally, here's where that hole was.
Hide glue, by the way. Mix 1 part unflavored gealatin with 3 parts water, heat to about 150 degrees. They say over 160 will weaken the glue. And you do get a LITTLE time to work with it, but once you put a piece in, don't pull it back out. You can move it some for about a minute, but make sure you've got it where you want it. It will gel and the death grip will set in. If you have any doubts about the strength, don't.
Don't believe me? Test it on a couple of pieces of scrap wood first. In 10 or 12 hours, you will be quite re-assured.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
The minstrels of the dawn
Well, we're back from KC. We did a whirlwind trip -- to Oktoberfest on the riverfront, where the oom-pah band played and the beer poured... we had bratwurst and mostly walked around and soaked it up. Did a little dancing to the headliner band, whose claim to fame was that they could do anything as a polka... although they didn't do much polka stuff. Matter of fact, it seemed that their real claim to fame was being able to do any song in any style they chose -- so we got the "Hang On Sloopy" salsa or something like that -- it was fun. We left, went home and went to the Renfest the next day, where the lute debued (more below).
The lute plays pretty well. The action could be a little beter, but when all is said and done, I did a pretty good job especially for a first time. I can do a few things to improve the action. If I'm not careful there can be a little buzzing on the fourth fret. But the JB Weld is holding the tuning peg key on quite well, and it keeps in tune better than I expected. Nylon strings stretch anyway.
Mark and Q and I went in costume, and the ladies went mundane. We split up, ladies/gents, and wandered off where Mark introduced me to Madame Red and the Vanilla Virgin, both quite lovely and friendly ladies. They seemed to have a certain... "feel" for me. Almost as if I had known them. ;-)
We strolled and played. Q wasn't feeling himself -- a little sick. It wasn't until about 3 in the afternoon that he perked up. A lot of people were very interested in the lute. I got a lot of questions about it -- most of the women wanted to hear me play something for them, and most of the men were quite curious about where I got it, what it was, and how it sounded.
I stopped and bought a CD from Matty Striker -- I've seen her and various others playing together on what appears to be a semi-permanent stage at the Renfest over the past few years. I've never had much of a chance to stand and listen to more than two or three songs, but I loved the music when I heard it. Turns out she also has a nice voice, and she's a striking woman with her streaked hair and garb. The CD (Lulle Me Beyond Thee) I bought is very good.
All in all it was a pretty nice day. I just love the atmosphere at the Faire, and it's fun to contribute to it with the garb and the music and all.
The lute plays pretty well. The action could be a little beter, but when all is said and done, I did a pretty good job especially for a first time. I can do a few things to improve the action. If I'm not careful there can be a little buzzing on the fourth fret. But the JB Weld is holding the tuning peg key on quite well, and it keeps in tune better than I expected. Nylon strings stretch anyway.
Mark and Q and I went in costume, and the ladies went mundane. We split up, ladies/gents, and wandered off where Mark introduced me to Madame Red and the Vanilla Virgin, both quite lovely and friendly ladies. They seemed to have a certain... "feel" for me. Almost as if I had known them. ;-)
We strolled and played. Q wasn't feeling himself -- a little sick. It wasn't until about 3 in the afternoon that he perked up. A lot of people were very interested in the lute. I got a lot of questions about it -- most of the women wanted to hear me play something for them, and most of the men were quite curious about where I got it, what it was, and how it sounded.
I stopped and bought a CD from Matty Striker -- I've seen her and various others playing together on what appears to be a semi-permanent stage at the Renfest over the past few years. I've never had much of a chance to stand and listen to more than two or three songs, but I loved the music when I heard it. Turns out she also has a nice voice, and she's a striking woman with her streaked hair and garb. The CD (Lulle Me Beyond Thee) I bought is very good.
All in all it was a pretty nice day. I just love the atmosphere at the Faire, and it's fun to contribute to it with the garb and the music and all.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
More on the Lute
Sorry, but that's the major thing goin' on.
I polyeurethaned the back after staining it... then last night I glued the neck and top on. To hold the top down while drying, I used duct tape.
Unfortunately, it peeled polyeurethane in a couple of spots from the back. So much for my excellent finish I had going. But it's a minor setback.
I glued the trim on this morning.... it hangs over a little. I think fixing the body of the lute changed the shape slightly, to a more elongated shape. So the trim overhangs a little. I'll have to do something to keep it from being snagged from behind and ripped off.
I ended up using wood glue to glue the trim on, even though its mostly plastic. Thin plastic strip, thin strip of black paper, thin strip of plastic, then the larger piece of black moulding.
Now that I'm done I realize I had a chance to make the lute look REALLY cool by staining every other rib in alternating colors. Oh well. It's closer to original this way.
So I can put strings on tonight and test it out!
Going to the Renfest Saturday after the KC Oktoberfest Friday night. So it'll get a test drive Saturday.
I polyeurethaned the back after staining it... then last night I glued the neck and top on. To hold the top down while drying, I used duct tape.
Unfortunately, it peeled polyeurethane in a couple of spots from the back. So much for my excellent finish I had going. But it's a minor setback.
I glued the trim on this morning.... it hangs over a little. I think fixing the body of the lute changed the shape slightly, to a more elongated shape. So the trim overhangs a little. I'll have to do something to keep it from being snagged from behind and ripped off.
I ended up using wood glue to glue the trim on, even though its mostly plastic. Thin plastic strip, thin strip of black paper, thin strip of plastic, then the larger piece of black moulding.
Now that I'm done I realize I had a chance to make the lute look REALLY cool by staining every other rib in alternating colors. Oh well. It's closer to original this way.
So I can put strings on tonight and test it out!
Going to the Renfest Saturday after the KC Oktoberfest Friday night. So it'll get a test drive Saturday.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
The lute
Well, the lute body is glued, and the stability strips are glued in. I epoxied the broken ribs back into one piece apiece (there were two), put a veneer strip on the inside behind the holes, and filled the holes with wood filler and any cracks that weren't full to the top. Sanded it all down. Used a black permanent marker to re-mark where I was missing the thin veneer strips between the ribs.
Started the staining process last night. I liked the color of the mahogany gel stain better than the liquid stain. Unfortunately I think it has wax in it and the wood didn't take it like it probably would have the liquid ... at least that's what I'm theorizing. The gel stain says put multiple coats (8-10 hours apart) on it to get it darker. I want it darker. I've put two coats on it so far. It's not taking it evenly. I'm plowing ahead though... it may contribute to the "old" look of the instrument since I'm NOT going to refinish the neck and the top.
It's looking pretty good. I put strings on and tightened it before I started sanding down and the neck did not budge, the action is okay. I think it will be playable.
So stay tuned (no pun intended).
We're cell phoned now. That's all I'm gonna say for now. I don't want the number getting out. We did NOT do what I wanted to do and get rid of our land line. So that's now $91 a month just on phone alone all totaled. But... convenience, right?
Kevin got an apartment. He'll be moving in this weekend. So... tomorrow should be the last day I have to deal with Mia. A sweet dog, to be sure. But I don't want a dog. Too much trouble. And my house is starting to faintly smell like one.
He also got a new job with MBS. Doesn't pay much more, but he'll get benefits and more opportunity. And away from MediCredit -- where he's basically being abused.
My elbow tendon attachment is acting up again. It's hurting to work it out (arm day and back and shoulder day weren't kind to it). I'm starting back on ibuprofen and ice.
Going to the Mizzou/Ball State game this weekend with the neighbors. Hope we don't suck as much as we did last week.
Started the staining process last night. I liked the color of the mahogany gel stain better than the liquid stain. Unfortunately I think it has wax in it and the wood didn't take it like it probably would have the liquid ... at least that's what I'm theorizing. The gel stain says put multiple coats (8-10 hours apart) on it to get it darker. I want it darker. I've put two coats on it so far. It's not taking it evenly. I'm plowing ahead though... it may contribute to the "old" look of the instrument since I'm NOT going to refinish the neck and the top.
It's looking pretty good. I put strings on and tightened it before I started sanding down and the neck did not budge, the action is okay. I think it will be playable.
So stay tuned (no pun intended).
We're cell phoned now. That's all I'm gonna say for now. I don't want the number getting out. We did NOT do what I wanted to do and get rid of our land line. So that's now $91 a month just on phone alone all totaled. But... convenience, right?
Kevin got an apartment. He'll be moving in this weekend. So... tomorrow should be the last day I have to deal with Mia. A sweet dog, to be sure. But I don't want a dog. Too much trouble. And my house is starting to faintly smell like one.
He also got a new job with MBS. Doesn't pay much more, but he'll get benefits and more opportunity. And away from MediCredit -- where he's basically being abused.
My elbow tendon attachment is acting up again. It's hurting to work it out (arm day and back and shoulder day weren't kind to it). I'm starting back on ibuprofen and ice.
Going to the Mizzou/Ball State game this weekend with the neighbors. Hope we don't suck as much as we did last week.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
In the scuffle I found my beer
Well how do you like that?
Got an email from a guy named Steve who was doing a search for something else and stumbled across my blog. He read about "Too Far Away From My Beer" and he knows who did it.
It was an obscure punk band from Florida called "The Bobs" (not "Iso and the Bobs - Bobs", this was a different "Bobs"). It'd be tough to find the album, "White Gazebo" but wouldn't it be fun?
Somehow I feel a little closer to my beer now.
Got an email from a guy named Steve who was doing a search for something else and stumbled across my blog. He read about "Too Far Away From My Beer" and he knows who did it.
It was an obscure punk band from Florida called "The Bobs" (not "Iso and the Bobs - Bobs", this was a different "Bobs"). It'd be tough to find the album, "White Gazebo" but wouldn't it be fun?
Somehow I feel a little closer to my beer now.
The Irish Washer Girl
Irishfest was fun. It was a nice day -- a little warm -- but that's only relative to THIS summer. It was held at Crown Center in KC. Crown Center even surprised the Irish Fest folks by dying all of the fountains green for the occasion -- which looked really neat.
Crown Center donated the grounds for the weekend, Boulevard donated all the beer -- and I'm sure lots of other places donated stuff.
The location and atmosphere were great. Music was streaming from various stages, and people were out in force. Cami was soaking it up -- in her element. It was a laid-back, mill-around kind of day. There were several little shopping tents -- but I wasn't in the mood to buy anything. I had beer and limeade and water and listened to the music.
Bobby bought a very nice pennywhistle which he's decided he's just going to learn how to play. He's never played an instrument before, he was just fascinated by the machining of the solid aluminum piece.
The highlight of my day I think was the fountains that spurt up out of the ground (they didn't dye these green) and all the kids playing in them. I even ran through them a couple of times to cool off.
There were kids running with wild abandon in their underwear, a couple of twins dancing with each other -- but one little girl... maybe 10 years old or a little younger caught my eye as she was totally absorbed in the experience, literally dancing in the water unselfconscious and surprisingly (and charmingly) graceful. I snapped some pictures -- I didn't get the one I wanted, but I got a couple of ok pictures out of it. The one I wanted was her kicking water up out of the puddles on the ground in the middle of her dance.
With her dark hair and red dress and bare feet and body language, she was a beautiful little girl with a feminine child's innocence that just made your heart want to sing along with her dance.
I also got the most fun shot of Nathanial, turned here to make it look like he's Spider Man.
Vicki had a migraine and couldn't enjoy a beer, but the meat pies were good and she had a strawberry scone and liked the music.
Mark and I played some songs at home and Bobby was trying to learn to read music and play in the background. He's going to learn "The Irish Washerwoman" first.
Wandered around the Park on Monday, helped Cassie catch bugs for a bit, and played a few more songs in the park before the party had to break up and travel on home.
When we got home we watched "The Butterfly Effect" with Kevin and Adrianne. It was an interesting movie. Certainly not an uplifting one.
Crown Center donated the grounds for the weekend, Boulevard donated all the beer -- and I'm sure lots of other places donated stuff.
The location and atmosphere were great. Music was streaming from various stages, and people were out in force. Cami was soaking it up -- in her element. It was a laid-back, mill-around kind of day. There were several little shopping tents -- but I wasn't in the mood to buy anything. I had beer and limeade and water and listened to the music.
Bobby bought a very nice pennywhistle which he's decided he's just going to learn how to play. He's never played an instrument before, he was just fascinated by the machining of the solid aluminum piece.
The highlight of my day I think was the fountains that spurt up out of the ground (they didn't dye these green) and all the kids playing in them. I even ran through them a couple of times to cool off.
There were kids running with wild abandon in their underwear, a couple of twins dancing with each other -- but one little girl... maybe 10 years old or a little younger caught my eye as she was totally absorbed in the experience, literally dancing in the water unselfconscious and surprisingly (and charmingly) graceful. I snapped some pictures -- I didn't get the one I wanted, but I got a couple of ok pictures out of it. The one I wanted was her kicking water up out of the puddles on the ground in the middle of her dance.
With her dark hair and red dress and bare feet and body language, she was a beautiful little girl with a feminine child's innocence that just made your heart want to sing along with her dance.
I also got the most fun shot of Nathanial, turned here to make it look like he's Spider Man.
Vicki had a migraine and couldn't enjoy a beer, but the meat pies were good and she had a strawberry scone and liked the music.
Mark and I played some songs at home and Bobby was trying to learn to read music and play in the background. He's going to learn "The Irish Washerwoman" first.
Wandered around the Park on Monday, helped Cassie catch bugs for a bit, and played a few more songs in the park before the party had to break up and travel on home.
When we got home we watched "The Butterfly Effect" with Kevin and Adrianne. It was an interesting movie. Certainly not an uplifting one.
Monday, August 30, 2004
If you get it wrong you'll get it right next time
Ah, the lute project. I may have mentioned a week or so ago that I got the neck off the lute. I had to split the top along the grain in the area where the neck connects to the body to get it out. Most of it will be broken up by the darkwood, decorative frets that will go over that area when it's all done. So -- while not ideal, it isn't too much damage for someone who's never done this before and had no idea how the neck actually attached to the body before he started.
This weekend, I got the gumption to put it back on. I fitted, adjusted, etc; glue-free, for practice. Decided how best to do it, and mixed up a batch of Knox gelatin hide-glue and went for it.
It didn't turn out ideal, partly because with the top not completely off I couldn't see well how I was setting it inside, and partly because I was quite timid about working the glue at all after putting it in.
I could see as it hardened that there was a decent chance I would never be able to string it. The action would be too low on strings 5 and 6, maybe 4.
So I decided I had to take it off and re-set it. I got the pressure cooker and steam hose going again and started to steam it off. In the process, I snapped the block the neck glues to where it was cracked.
Actually that's not such a bad thing. In the end it means it'll be a better, more thorough repair job. It means my glue job on the crack wouldn't have held anyway. It also means that my glue job on the neck itself was very strong. It means that now the best thing to do would be to remove the entire top so I could screw the block together in addition to gluing. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite sure how to proceed.
I started by trying to steam the top off near the bass of the instrument. But I wasn't getting far. Then I noticed the trim around the edge of the top started coming off up by the neck. Frankly, I hadn't noticed it was a piece of trim separate from the rest of the top. I used my thumbnail to separate it and was able to remove it pretty easily.
There was a second piece of trim which I removed in a similar manner. Now I could see the joint between the top and the body. With the help of a knife and my homemade steamer, I managed to remove the top completely. Re-glued and screwed the neck block. And now I have access to the entire inside of the body. Including the questionable repair job that had been done by the person who tried to repair it 40 years or so ago with wettable postal tape and stickers.
Sunday I removed all that. I bent some wood to replace that support with some ribs. Now I'm pondering how to repair the hole(s) in the body down by the bottom end.
I have some wood to try it, but Ron says since I'm not going for a complete historical involved rebuild, why not just use wood-epoxy to replace the material where the hole is? It's stainable... what the hey.
Had a decent time with the neighbors across the street yesterday's lovely evening. Ryan, Daryl and I tossed the football around while Mia chased the ball, and occasionally got to it first and slobbered on it. Once she actually got it by the laces and was trotting around proudly with it. The women were laughing hysterically. We flat wore Mia out, which is a good thing. She was running after it like her life depended on it at first -- by the time we were done, she was trotting between us long after the ball was caught... we were nice and waited for her. Kristy brought her out a nice big drink of water and she was still and quiet for about 30 minutes. Which is unusual for her. She was panting so hard she had to break her drinks up into short ones so she could still get enough air.
Then came in and watched Star Wars Episode II, which we hadn't seen yet. Much better than Episode I.
This weekend, I got the gumption to put it back on. I fitted, adjusted, etc; glue-free, for practice. Decided how best to do it, and mixed up a batch of Knox gelatin hide-glue and went for it.
It didn't turn out ideal, partly because with the top not completely off I couldn't see well how I was setting it inside, and partly because I was quite timid about working the glue at all after putting it in.
I could see as it hardened that there was a decent chance I would never be able to string it. The action would be too low on strings 5 and 6, maybe 4.
So I decided I had to take it off and re-set it. I got the pressure cooker and steam hose going again and started to steam it off. In the process, I snapped the block the neck glues to where it was cracked.
Actually that's not such a bad thing. In the end it means it'll be a better, more thorough repair job. It means my glue job on the crack wouldn't have held anyway. It also means that my glue job on the neck itself was very strong. It means that now the best thing to do would be to remove the entire top so I could screw the block together in addition to gluing. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite sure how to proceed.
I started by trying to steam the top off near the bass of the instrument. But I wasn't getting far. Then I noticed the trim around the edge of the top started coming off up by the neck. Frankly, I hadn't noticed it was a piece of trim separate from the rest of the top. I used my thumbnail to separate it and was able to remove it pretty easily.
There was a second piece of trim which I removed in a similar manner. Now I could see the joint between the top and the body. With the help of a knife and my homemade steamer, I managed to remove the top completely. Re-glued and screwed the neck block. And now I have access to the entire inside of the body. Including the questionable repair job that had been done by the person who tried to repair it 40 years or so ago with wettable postal tape and stickers.
Sunday I removed all that. I bent some wood to replace that support with some ribs. Now I'm pondering how to repair the hole(s) in the body down by the bottom end.
I have some wood to try it, but Ron says since I'm not going for a complete historical involved rebuild, why not just use wood-epoxy to replace the material where the hole is? It's stainable... what the hey.
Had a decent time with the neighbors across the street yesterday's lovely evening. Ryan, Daryl and I tossed the football around while Mia chased the ball, and occasionally got to it first and slobbered on it. Once she actually got it by the laces and was trotting around proudly with it. The women were laughing hysterically. We flat wore Mia out, which is a good thing. She was running after it like her life depended on it at first -- by the time we were done, she was trotting between us long after the ball was caught... we were nice and waited for her. Kristy brought her out a nice big drink of water and she was still and quiet for about 30 minutes. Which is unusual for her. She was panting so hard she had to break her drinks up into short ones so she could still get enough air.
Then came in and watched Star Wars Episode II, which we hadn't seen yet. Much better than Episode I.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see
moderation seems to be the key
Well - haven't said much lately, have I?
Since my last posting, we have been to the State Fair -- milled around a bit, soaked in the sights, sounds, and smells. Had the requisite
Brian and Carrie showed up later. We had Carrie's cell phone so we could meet somehwere. They showed up around 7:00. Carrie wanted to go straight to the petting zoo, and we did. By the time we were done there, Vickster and I were tired and went home.
Also bought a new washing machine (oh, the excitement). It was delivered Tuesday. Yesterday, Vicki's cousin Jim (Paul's brother) and his wife Barbara stopped in Columbia on a cross-country RV trip and came to dinner. Brian and Kevin came over with their respective women. They brought food to contribute! I think this is a first. Well, they're both out of school now.
It was funny, the night before I went to HyVee to pick up some stuff for dinner, and as I walked in the door I heard "PHIL!!!" from behind me... Brian and Carrie had just pulled up in Brian's truck. Later I ran into them in the store and was talking to them, when here come Kevin and Adriane. Nobody told me it was family reunion night at HyVee.
Anyway, we had a very good time with Jim and Carol. They are a nice couple. They're both retired from the music department at UNLV. And they live in the Nevada mountains 40 miles outside of Las Vegas. (thankyouverymuuuuuch)
It's hot and humid. I think we should get a pass from hot and humid weather for the rest of the summer since we haven't been acclimated to it this late in the year. It's just not fair. But, it's supposed to cool off again for the weekend (Whooo-Hooo!!!!!!!).
We'll be heading to the K.C. Irish Fest over Labor Day weekend. Cami's the art director for it this year, and we haven't seen them or the kids since June. We won't be seeing much of Cami, but Bobby and GiGi are coming up from Dallas as well as another of Cami's Dallas friends. I'll bring the guitar. Play some with Muerco. We'll BBQ. We'll feign Irishness (technically I have like 1/16 Irish in me, I think). So I guess Kevin will have to take care of Mia. Ha.
Well - haven't said much lately, have I?
Since my last posting, we have been to the State Fair -- milled around a bit, soaked in the sights, sounds, and smells. Had the requisite
- corn dog
- funnel cake
- cotton candy
Brian and Carrie showed up later. We had Carrie's cell phone so we could meet somehwere. They showed up around 7:00. Carrie wanted to go straight to the petting zoo, and we did. By the time we were done there, Vickster and I were tired and went home.
Also bought a new washing machine (oh, the excitement). It was delivered Tuesday. Yesterday, Vicki's cousin Jim (Paul's brother) and his wife Barbara stopped in Columbia on a cross-country RV trip and came to dinner. Brian and Kevin came over with their respective women. They brought food to contribute! I think this is a first. Well, they're both out of school now.
It was funny, the night before I went to HyVee to pick up some stuff for dinner, and as I walked in the door I heard "PHIL!!!" from behind me... Brian and Carrie had just pulled up in Brian's truck. Later I ran into them in the store and was talking to them, when here come Kevin and Adriane. Nobody told me it was family reunion night at HyVee.
Anyway, we had a very good time with Jim and Carol. They are a nice couple. They're both retired from the music department at UNLV. And they live in the Nevada mountains 40 miles outside of Las Vegas. (thankyouverymuuuuuch)
It's hot and humid. I think we should get a pass from hot and humid weather for the rest of the summer since we haven't been acclimated to it this late in the year. It's just not fair. But, it's supposed to cool off again for the weekend (Whooo-Hooo!!!!!!!).
We'll be heading to the K.C. Irish Fest over Labor Day weekend. Cami's the art director for it this year, and we haven't seen them or the kids since June. We won't be seeing much of Cami, but Bobby and GiGi are coming up from Dallas as well as another of Cami's Dallas friends. I'll bring the guitar. Play some with Muerco. We'll BBQ. We'll feign Irishness (technically I have like 1/16 Irish in me, I think). So I guess Kevin will have to take care of Mia. Ha.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Ooooh, That Smell....
A smell has been building in our bathroom for the past several days. It's not pretty. To me, it smelled like wet towels. Vicki was convinced it was sewer gas. I couldn't be sure it wasn's sewer gas, so we theorized that perhaps the wax toilet seal had been broken.
I had never pulled a toilet. I imagined it would be a very messy, stinky operation. The lid to the tank had been broken since shortly after we moved in, and that toilet clogged easily -- so I thought "if I'm going to have to go through pulling the messy stinky toilet to replace the ring, I'm going to replace the toilet, too".
The toilet we got downstairs during the remodel was a resonably priced toilet, I liked its height, and it flushed very well. So I went to Lowe's and found it. The last one in stock. Bought it. I then (I know, not the right order) did some research on toilets and I found that it was a decent middle-of-the-road toilet (American Standard Plebe, if you are interested). I pulled the toilet, and to my surprise -- it didn't smell at all.
Which, of course, was a relief and also slightly distressing since this operation was triggered with the idea of eliminating the smell.
Daryl came over to help, and as we lowered the new bowl over the bolts, we noticed A BLOODY HOLE IN THE PORCELAIN!!!! Right in the drain part of it. Forklift damage. So we took it back. Since I was pretty sure that was the last one, I brought my research with me this time. There was a Kohler, about the same price, about the same rating. But it was significantly shorter than the Plebe. Plus... I always liked cousin Linda's elongated bowl. For $26 more, they had one with an elongated bowl. Still short, though. For another $22, they had a 17.5" tall one with an elongated bowl. Daryl was singing the praises of his long, tall toilet, and I gave in to peer pressure. Bought it, took it home, installed it. It didn't come with floor bolts. Or a seat. So another $20 later....
Of course, it didn't fix the smell (but it works great). We've sniffed all over the bathroom. Can't find the source. There's a little of it in the guest bedroom closet just on the other side of the bathroom. So I'd figured "dead animal in the wall". Or under the tub. But last night, I stuck my nose up by the exhaust fan, and I was pretty sure it smelled stronger. Mice in the attic. One crawls into the fan, can't get out, and dies. Good theory.
So I went up and sweated and got coated with blown insulation, took the fan apart. No mouse. And it doesn't really smell in the attic either.
So I don't know. I believe there's a dead animal somewhere, and unfortunately we're just going to have to let it dry out. The smell has gotten worse. But from what I've read unless I want to start tearing things apart, that's really the only option. It could be days, or even weeks.
But this, too, shall pass.
I had never pulled a toilet. I imagined it would be a very messy, stinky operation. The lid to the tank had been broken since shortly after we moved in, and that toilet clogged easily -- so I thought "if I'm going to have to go through pulling the messy stinky toilet to replace the ring, I'm going to replace the toilet, too".
The toilet we got downstairs during the remodel was a resonably priced toilet, I liked its height, and it flushed very well. So I went to Lowe's and found it. The last one in stock. Bought it. I then (I know, not the right order) did some research on toilets and I found that it was a decent middle-of-the-road toilet (American Standard Plebe, if you are interested). I pulled the toilet, and to my surprise -- it didn't smell at all.
Which, of course, was a relief and also slightly distressing since this operation was triggered with the idea of eliminating the smell.
Daryl came over to help, and as we lowered the new bowl over the bolts, we noticed A BLOODY HOLE IN THE PORCELAIN!!!! Right in the drain part of it. Forklift damage. So we took it back. Since I was pretty sure that was the last one, I brought my research with me this time. There was a Kohler, about the same price, about the same rating. But it was significantly shorter than the Plebe. Plus... I always liked cousin Linda's elongated bowl. For $26 more, they had one with an elongated bowl. Still short, though. For another $22, they had a 17.5" tall one with an elongated bowl. Daryl was singing the praises of his long, tall toilet, and I gave in to peer pressure. Bought it, took it home, installed it. It didn't come with floor bolts. Or a seat. So another $20 later....
Of course, it didn't fix the smell (but it works great). We've sniffed all over the bathroom. Can't find the source. There's a little of it in the guest bedroom closet just on the other side of the bathroom. So I'd figured "dead animal in the wall". Or under the tub. But last night, I stuck my nose up by the exhaust fan, and I was pretty sure it smelled stronger. Mice in the attic. One crawls into the fan, can't get out, and dies. Good theory.
So I went up and sweated and got coated with blown insulation, took the fan apart. No mouse. And it doesn't really smell in the attic either.
So I don't know. I believe there's a dead animal somewhere, and unfortunately we're just going to have to let it dry out. The smell has gotten worse. But from what I've read unless I want to start tearing things apart, that's really the only option. It could be days, or even weeks.
But this, too, shall pass.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Theo
Theo passed away on friday.
He was a very fluffy kitty with an awesome purr. Never bit a soul. A gentle giant.
Theo 1990-2004
We think he may have had a stroke. We can't be sure. We do know that he wasn't feeling too well since he started taking the antibiotics for his foot.
Five years of giving him insulin, morning and night. Nah. I don't regret it. We were sad to see him go.
He had a sugar crash Saturday which we'd nursed him out of. He's been slow the last couple of years but was making it up and down the stairs ok. He'd been yowling randomly more and more, especially at night. I'd often wondered when it would be time to put him down. I didn't know if he was in pain. Or maybe mostly blind. But as long as he seemed to be getting around.... He was relatively old. And diabetic.
Well, he was yowling rather strangely (we'd never heard it that high pitched before) on Thursday night about midnight. I got up. He was showing signs of a sugar crash. Couldn't get up. I gave him some corn syrup (as is the routine for sugar crashes) and took him downstairs to the food bowl. He started purring and eating. So I figured "cool, he's ok now". That's how he came out of it Saturday. But in the morning, he was stretched out on the floor, body temperature way down, eyes stuck opened, hardly breathing. I tried the sugar crash routine again, but... nothing. I figured he'd be dead in a couple of hours, so I stayed with him until 9:00am. He was obviously in a coma. I put him in a box with some towels, covered him up, and set him in the sun. I thought maybe if he was still conscious at all his last memories should be of warm sunshine.
At noon he was still alive, but his whole right side was stiff. I didn't figure he'd make it until evening.
Vicki got home at 4 and he was waking up some, trying to walk -- but his right side was paralyzed. He wasn't blinking. We couldn't stand it and took him in to be put down. He died about 5:00pm. No more suffering for Theo.
He was a very fluffy kitty with an awesome purr. Never bit a soul. A gentle giant.
Theo 1990-2004
We think he may have had a stroke. We can't be sure. We do know that he wasn't feeling too well since he started taking the antibiotics for his foot.
Five years of giving him insulin, morning and night. Nah. I don't regret it. We were sad to see him go.
He had a sugar crash Saturday which we'd nursed him out of. He's been slow the last couple of years but was making it up and down the stairs ok. He'd been yowling randomly more and more, especially at night. I'd often wondered when it would be time to put him down. I didn't know if he was in pain. Or maybe mostly blind. But as long as he seemed to be getting around.... He was relatively old. And diabetic.
Well, he was yowling rather strangely (we'd never heard it that high pitched before) on Thursday night about midnight. I got up. He was showing signs of a sugar crash. Couldn't get up. I gave him some corn syrup (as is the routine for sugar crashes) and took him downstairs to the food bowl. He started purring and eating. So I figured "cool, he's ok now". That's how he came out of it Saturday. But in the morning, he was stretched out on the floor, body temperature way down, eyes stuck opened, hardly breathing. I tried the sugar crash routine again, but... nothing. I figured he'd be dead in a couple of hours, so I stayed with him until 9:00am. He was obviously in a coma. I put him in a box with some towels, covered him up, and set him in the sun. I thought maybe if he was still conscious at all his last memories should be of warm sunshine.
At noon he was still alive, but his whole right side was stiff. I didn't figure he'd make it until evening.
Vicki got home at 4 and he was waking up some, trying to walk -- but his right side was paralyzed. He wasn't blinking. We couldn't stand it and took him in to be put down. He died about 5:00pm. No more suffering for Theo.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Sock it to me
Did I mention Carrie cleaning out Theo's paws a couple of weekends ago? That one toe that lost a claw a LONG time ago has never healed. It would scab over --- well more of a mixture of scab and cat litter. We took him in in January to have it looked at. We got some antibiotics (amoxycillin) but apparently it didn't help.
The toe was very swollen when Carrie cleaned it -- and had a big gaping wound in the front. We wrapped it and put triple-antibiotic on it (not in that order ;-) ) for a few days and I took him to the vet Monday afternoon.
Didn't get my regular doctor. This one gave me antibiotics and ear drops (says he has a yeast infection in his ears). But she also wanted me to do all $ort$ of thing$ -- I agreed to the glucose test, but she wanted a full blood workup and for me to leave the bandages off and use a special kitty litter that was dust free -- she was basically being a cat hypocondriac. Look, he's old, and he's already costing me $80 a month more than a non-diabetic cat would. If he's got something else, he's goin' down anyway. So, $150 later....
She said I couldn't use bandages unless I changed them twice a day. Well, I was changing them once a day and that was a pain.
But Vicki came up with an idea... why not use baby socks?
Why not indeed. I can change them twice a day, and tape it to his leg with athletic tape. And we can wash them. They'll keep blood off the floor and be way better than having him plant the foot in ANY kind of litter... plus it'll allow the wound to breathe somewhat.
Well, it's been a smashing success. The wound is dry and scabbing over. Staying clean. The socks we got were little premie socks. He gets white ones in the morning and grey ones in the evening so we can tell immediately if it's been changed by looking.
Pretty cool. Easy, and effective. Must tell more vets about this.
Had a couple of warm days, and a front has come through and we're having late September weather in early August... High yesterday was 76. 74 today. Forecast of 72 tomorrow. This is wonderful.
The toe was very swollen when Carrie cleaned it -- and had a big gaping wound in the front. We wrapped it and put triple-antibiotic on it (not in that order ;-) ) for a few days and I took him to the vet Monday afternoon.
Didn't get my regular doctor. This one gave me antibiotics and ear drops (says he has a yeast infection in his ears). But she also wanted me to do all $ort$ of thing$ -- I agreed to the glucose test, but she wanted a full blood workup and for me to leave the bandages off and use a special kitty litter that was dust free -- she was basically being a cat hypocondriac. Look, he's old, and he's already costing me $80 a month more than a non-diabetic cat would. If he's got something else, he's goin' down anyway. So, $150 later....
She said I couldn't use bandages unless I changed them twice a day. Well, I was changing them once a day and that was a pain.
But Vicki came up with an idea... why not use baby socks?
Why not indeed. I can change them twice a day, and tape it to his leg with athletic tape. And we can wash them. They'll keep blood off the floor and be way better than having him plant the foot in ANY kind of litter... plus it'll allow the wound to breathe somewhat.
Well, it's been a smashing success. The wound is dry and scabbing over. Staying clean. The socks we got were little premie socks. He gets white ones in the morning and grey ones in the evening so we can tell immediately if it's been changed by looking.
Pretty cool. Easy, and effective. Must tell more vets about this.
Had a couple of warm days, and a front has come through and we're having late September weather in early August... High yesterday was 76. 74 today. Forecast of 72 tomorrow. This is wonderful.
Monday, August 09, 2004
The Weather Is Here
I can't freakin' believe this weather. Just had the coolest July on record since 1950. And the long-range forecast is for a cool August, too. Well, it's hot somewhere else, I'm sure.
Beautiful weekend. Saturday I was itching to just "Do" outside. I ran some errands, got our bicycles out and re-aired the tires, got Vicki a new seat... and in the evening I drove out to Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area with my camera and walked maybe 1/4-1/2 mile down the MKT trail and took some shots around sunset. Here's my favorite one:
Anyway, I had no idea that there was that much public access down there off the trail. Nope, Star School Road goes right back into the thick of it, and there are several roads deep into the heart of it, and there are several side-roads. Need to go down there MUCH more often.
Need to get the bike carrier down and head out there with Vicki more often. Good exercice, beautiful scenery.
Well, back to work.
Beautiful weekend. Saturday I was itching to just "Do" outside. I ran some errands, got our bicycles out and re-aired the tires, got Vicki a new seat... and in the evening I drove out to Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area with my camera and walked maybe 1/4-1/2 mile down the MKT trail and took some shots around sunset. Here's my favorite one:
Anyway, I had no idea that there was that much public access down there off the trail. Nope, Star School Road goes right back into the thick of it, and there are several roads deep into the heart of it, and there are several side-roads. Need to go down there MUCH more often.
Need to get the bike carrier down and head out there with Vicki more often. Good exercice, beautiful scenery.
Well, back to work.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Oh man.... y'all're in trouble now
I can put pictures in here. Mwaaahahahahaha! (see previous post)
Really kind of a dull week. Nothing much to report. Carrie's been in town off and on, going back to IU to take tests for her biochem class. Brian's workin' up a storm. Kevin's taken a few jobs working with Brian and applying for others. He's getting some interviews. His car still hasn't sold.
I put my song (Reality Shows) out for the Brad Fitch, the TropiCowboy out in Colorado to see if he likes it. I even recorded myself doing it -- but only special friends get to hear that. My recording is not really fit for public consumption. Maybe the song will see the light of day under Brad or someone else, who knows? Sarah sure likes him. She thought it might be up his alley. I was poking around on his site and reading some of his lyrics and listening to sound clips. I'd bet we'd get along pretty well.
I'm planning on building a little "roof" for the porch off the basement under the deck so that water from the deck runs off and doesn't end up dripping on you when you're underneath. It'll be nicer when it rains, or when someone is spraying the deck above or watering. That'll be about $150 or so. But... I paid for the couch this month, so things could be tight.
We're NOT going on the float trip this weekend with Sam and Connie. It sounds like fun, but we've just been doing so much lately we'd like a weekend to just chill. They probably think we hate them ;-) . We don't.
Lee showed me a Dsus4sus2 today... all you do is slide an open "C" up two frets. It gets used in "It Ain't Me, Babe" -- a Dylan song I first heard by The Turtles. Still having trouble with the barred "F". Although I showed the young lady who has class before me how to do the "melody" F. Maybe I shouldn't have... teach her my bad habits ;-) Ok, they're not BAD habits, but it gives her (us) a way to play an "F" that's easier. This might keep one from practicing the "F" that I've only been working on for... what, a year and a half? It's coming along.
[insert lick from "School" by Supertramp here]
I'm also trying to learn "There She Goes" by the La's. Chords and words. The chords are easy. Actually so are the words, I just started last night. And with my continuing embarassment singing in front of family... I have to have the house to myself to really go after it. And that's not happenin' much these days.
Really kind of a dull week. Nothing much to report. Carrie's been in town off and on, going back to IU to take tests for her biochem class. Brian's workin' up a storm. Kevin's taken a few jobs working with Brian and applying for others. He's getting some interviews. His car still hasn't sold.
I put my song (Reality Shows) out for the Brad Fitch, the TropiCowboy out in Colorado to see if he likes it. I even recorded myself doing it -- but only special friends get to hear that. My recording is not really fit for public consumption. Maybe the song will see the light of day under Brad or someone else, who knows? Sarah sure likes him. She thought it might be up his alley. I was poking around on his site and reading some of his lyrics and listening to sound clips. I'd bet we'd get along pretty well.
I'm planning on building a little "roof" for the porch off the basement under the deck so that water from the deck runs off and doesn't end up dripping on you when you're underneath. It'll be nicer when it rains, or when someone is spraying the deck above or watering. That'll be about $150 or so. But... I paid for the couch this month, so things could be tight.
We're NOT going on the float trip this weekend with Sam and Connie. It sounds like fun, but we've just been doing so much lately we'd like a weekend to just chill. They probably think we hate them ;-) . We don't.
Lee showed me a Dsus4sus2 today... all you do is slide an open "C" up two frets. It gets used in "It Ain't Me, Babe" -- a Dylan song I first heard by The Turtles. Still having trouble with the barred "F". Although I showed the young lady who has class before me how to do the "melody" F. Maybe I shouldn't have... teach her my bad habits ;-) Ok, they're not BAD habits, but it gives her (us) a way to play an "F" that's easier. This might keep one from practicing the "F" that I've only been working on for... what, a year and a half? It's coming along.
[insert lick from "School" by Supertramp here]
I'm also trying to learn "There She Goes" by the La's. Chords and words. The chords are easy. Actually so are the words, I just started last night. And with my continuing embarassment singing in front of family... I have to have the house to myself to really go after it. And that's not happenin' much these days.
Monday, August 02, 2004
The wildwood weed
A little footnote on the unfriendly neighbors moving out.
I noticed lots of buckets sitting out with their trash. Didn't think much of it, but this morning I went out to move my car so Vicki could get out and I noticed a tube coming out of the side of one of them.
Ryan and I do hydroponics during the wintertime (I even have some watercress going outside this summer, and he has bell peppers going outside his house) -- so that's what popped to mind first, but then I thought "nah, they aren't the type". I remembered his reef tank, and thought it was probably an outside filter system.
Ryan was leaving for work at the time, and he came across and looked at the side of one of one of the buckets and it read "Hydroponics". Then we noticed the specialized growing containers to stick down in the buckets. Definitely hydro.
We often speculated on why these boys drove $40,000 sports cars on their proclaimed "ticket broker" buisiness, and why there were always a lot of different people coming all the time. Figured they were just partiers and had a lot of friends. Well....
They were growin' somethin' and I don't think it was tomatoes ;-)
I noticed lots of buckets sitting out with their trash. Didn't think much of it, but this morning I went out to move my car so Vicki could get out and I noticed a tube coming out of the side of one of them.
Ryan and I do hydroponics during the wintertime (I even have some watercress going outside this summer, and he has bell peppers going outside his house) -- so that's what popped to mind first, but then I thought "nah, they aren't the type". I remembered his reef tank, and thought it was probably an outside filter system.
Ryan was leaving for work at the time, and he came across and looked at the side of one of one of the buckets and it read "Hydroponics". Then we noticed the specialized growing containers to stick down in the buckets. Definitely hydro.
We often speculated on why these boys drove $40,000 sports cars on their proclaimed "ticket broker" buisiness, and why there were always a lot of different people coming all the time. Figured they were just partiers and had a lot of friends. Well....
They were growin' somethin' and I don't think it was tomatoes ;-)
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Take me home
Another succesful round-trip to Fort Wayne to drop mom off. We stayed a couple of days. Vicki & Ev (mom) were looking at throws for the chair in the living room and suddenly stumbled across... well, inspiration for, a new bedspread and curtains in Mom's bedroom.
We ended up returning the original bedspread at SteinMart -- we found one that worked much better at Linens and Things.
I ended up getting 6 shirts for $50 at JC Penny -- they were getting rid of their summer stock at 70% off. So that was cool.
Mom's petunia didn't make it sitting in the bucket in the sink. Too much water. I expected yellowing leaves, but they were dead and dried even though the roots were soaked. Too soaked. I got some more purple ones and made a new hanging basket for her. I couldn've gotten her prettier red ones (a much fuller plant) had I been aware that purple was not that important. I think I got the last purple petunias in town.
Also picked up Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon Summer 1956" for $5 after reading the back of it. It sounded hilarious. It was. I read it.
It also turns out we had a copy of it at home we'd bought used somewhere and I'd never picked it up. Mark will love it. It's another coming-of-age story, this time it's a 14 year old toady-looking geeky boy who has a minor crush on his older cousin. Unpopular son in a family of Sanctified Brethren, struggling with the guilt and fascination of his discovery of sexuality, pride in his talents, etc.
The back reads like this:
Having been a 14 year old boy myself and a relatively religous upbringing, a mercilessly teased geek who was never popular with the girls... this book struck home pretty well. It's good to be able too look back and laugh. Hard. The way he meanders between fantasy and reality reminds me all too much of what it was like to be 14. (This book was about as funny as "Kick Me" by Paul Feig - equally a little too close to the truth behind my young teenage years). This man is a torch bearer for a lost art - the art of storytelling.
I got a dashboard hula girl and stuck her in the back window of my car with my University of Magraritaville window sticker. It'll go well with the Buffett and Beach Boys you'll often hear in my car.
Cheaply put together. The skirt was held on by hot glue. Which, in the sun, released its hold. At least she had bikini bottoms on. I sewed the skirt on at the waist. She won't be droppin' that again.
The college boys next door moved out today. Hope we get some friendlier neighbors.
I'm smoking some chicken on the Big Green Egg... ought to be ready soon.
We ended up returning the original bedspread at SteinMart -- we found one that worked much better at Linens and Things.
I ended up getting 6 shirts for $50 at JC Penny -- they were getting rid of their summer stock at 70% off. So that was cool.
Mom's petunia didn't make it sitting in the bucket in the sink. Too much water. I expected yellowing leaves, but they were dead and dried even though the roots were soaked. Too soaked. I got some more purple ones and made a new hanging basket for her. I couldn've gotten her prettier red ones (a much fuller plant) had I been aware that purple was not that important. I think I got the last purple petunias in town.
Also picked up Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon Summer 1956" for $5 after reading the back of it. It sounded hilarious. It was. I read it.
It also turns out we had a copy of it at home we'd bought used somewhere and I'd never picked it up. Mark will love it. It's another coming-of-age story, this time it's a 14 year old toady-looking geeky boy who has a minor crush on his older cousin. Unpopular son in a family of Sanctified Brethren, struggling with the guilt and fascination of his discovery of sexuality, pride in his talents, etc.
The back reads like this:
I am stunned. I had no idea. God. A TYPEWRITER. The enormity of this gift is truly staggering; it's as if he gave me the keys to a new car. I promise myself that I will never think snotty things about Uncle Sugar's hair and his balloon butt ever again. I have lusted for a typewriter for so long. Grandpa is looking out the window of heaven, and Jesus is standing beside him. Grandpa says, "Jesus, why did you give an Underwood typewriter to a boy who thinks dirty thoughts all the time?" Jesus says, "Well, we'll see what he does with it."
Having been a 14 year old boy myself and a relatively religous upbringing, a mercilessly teased geek who was never popular with the girls... this book struck home pretty well. It's good to be able too look back and laugh. Hard. The way he meanders between fantasy and reality reminds me all too much of what it was like to be 14. (This book was about as funny as "Kick Me" by Paul Feig - equally a little too close to the truth behind my young teenage years). This man is a torch bearer for a lost art - the art of storytelling.
I got a dashboard hula girl and stuck her in the back window of my car with my University of Magraritaville window sticker. It'll go well with the Buffett and Beach Boys you'll often hear in my car.
Cheaply put together. The skirt was held on by hot glue. Which, in the sun, released its hold. At least she had bikini bottoms on. I sewed the skirt on at the waist. She won't be droppin' that again.
The college boys next door moved out today. Hope we get some friendlier neighbors.
I'm smoking some chicken on the Big Green Egg... ought to be ready soon.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Reunited (and it feels so good)
Had a nice weekend with Vicki's cousin Paul and his wife Barbara.
It was a full house. With the boys home, Kevin's dog, Carrie visiting with her dog, and our two cats and Paul and Barbara, our house was practically bursting at the seams.
We wanted to take them to Rocheport to the winery on Saturday, but it rained (a needed rain, but ill timed for that) all day long. So we did the driving tour of the MU campus, and took them downtown. We ate at Village Wine and Cheese. At the end of the afternoon we went to the Candy Factory, and back home to visit and rest up before going out to dinner at Sophia's.
Paul got out his camera just before 5:00pm, and I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen mine since... lunch. I must've left it on the back of the chair.
I called the restaurant, but they said they hadn't seen anything. So I decided to go. Paul came with me. We retraced our path downtown, once again going to the restaurant, and once again they couldn't find it, nor could we. But the shift had changed, and I hoped that perhaps someone on the lunch shift had found it and put it somewhere where they weren't looking. Still, it was looking pretty bleak.
Had a nice dinner at Sophia's with everyone (except the pets) that Paul graciously treated us to - then went home and went to bed.
Sunday was a nicer day, but they had to leave about 1:30. Brian and Carrie wanted to go to the Boone County Fair, but it had pretty much closed down. I talked with the neighbors, modified our bird feeder to keep squirrels, racoons, and sparrows from wasting food (I put some hardware cloth over the opening where they can get to the food and drilled some holes to wire it in.) Birds can peck through the hardware cloth. The sparrows had been raking seeds out of the feeder with their beaks and claws, and squirrels and raccoons were getting in contorted positions to grab hands full of them and scatter what they couldn't get in their mouths.
Also helped Kevin get his headliner back in his car, and McGyver-ed one of the map-light lenses back into place by drilling out the rivet that held the clip and using a screw instead.
Went back to Village Wine and Cheese today at noon and asked one more time. They looked under the counters again.... then said "let me go back and check with the bags".
And brought it back to me.
Waves of joy ;-)
It was a full house. With the boys home, Kevin's dog, Carrie visiting with her dog, and our two cats and Paul and Barbara, our house was practically bursting at the seams.
We wanted to take them to Rocheport to the winery on Saturday, but it rained (a needed rain, but ill timed for that) all day long. So we did the driving tour of the MU campus, and took them downtown. We ate at Village Wine and Cheese. At the end of the afternoon we went to the Candy Factory, and back home to visit and rest up before going out to dinner at Sophia's.
Paul got out his camera just before 5:00pm, and I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen mine since... lunch. I must've left it on the back of the chair.
I called the restaurant, but they said they hadn't seen anything. So I decided to go. Paul came with me. We retraced our path downtown, once again going to the restaurant, and once again they couldn't find it, nor could we. But the shift had changed, and I hoped that perhaps someone on the lunch shift had found it and put it somewhere where they weren't looking. Still, it was looking pretty bleak.
Had a nice dinner at Sophia's with everyone (except the pets) that Paul graciously treated us to - then went home and went to bed.
Sunday was a nicer day, but they had to leave about 1:30. Brian and Carrie wanted to go to the Boone County Fair, but it had pretty much closed down. I talked with the neighbors, modified our bird feeder to keep squirrels, racoons, and sparrows from wasting food (I put some hardware cloth over the opening where they can get to the food and drilled some holes to wire it in.) Birds can peck through the hardware cloth. The sparrows had been raking seeds out of the feeder with their beaks and claws, and squirrels and raccoons were getting in contorted positions to grab hands full of them and scatter what they couldn't get in their mouths.
Also helped Kevin get his headliner back in his car, and McGyver-ed one of the map-light lenses back into place by drilling out the rivet that held the clip and using a screw instead.
Went back to Village Wine and Cheese today at noon and asked one more time. They looked under the counters again.... then said "let me go back and check with the bags".
And brought it back to me.
Waves of joy ;-)
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Not Much
Went to Fort Wayne Monday, back on Tuesday. A pretty uneventful drive.
Got some Martha Stewart Plaster Pink paint at the KMart in Fort Wayne -- ours closed, and the paint we tried to match at Lowes didn't quite match well enough for touchup work.
It worked fine.
Also went out and got some wine for the weekend. A Norton, A Cab, a Merlot, and a Cab-Merlot. The Norton's the only one I've had before, it was the pricey one. The other three were less expensive but well reviewed.
It's a hot, hot, humid day. Relief should arrive for the weekend.
Got some Martha Stewart Plaster Pink paint at the KMart in Fort Wayne -- ours closed, and the paint we tried to match at Lowes didn't quite match well enough for touchup work.
It worked fine.
Also went out and got some wine for the weekend. A Norton, A Cab, a Merlot, and a Cab-Merlot. The Norton's the only one I've had before, it was the pricey one. The other three were less expensive but well reviewed.
It's a hot, hot, humid day. Relief should arrive for the weekend.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Cool, Clear, .... WATER!
Ok, the water timer is programmed and functioning. Every day, 5 minutes at noon, and 5 minutes at 5:15. So -- got that, folks? The auto-watering system is hooked up and running. [insert fireworks here]
We're ready for company ;-)
Ryan and Kristy had us over for bbq with Ryan's parents last night. The weather was great. Vicki and I had been working all day on the house. Had a very nice time. Today we got up and put the house back together. I power washed the lower deck and took care of the garden and some other yardwork. Bart's acting up again. Vicki got new rugs for the bathroom upstairs. The temptation, I guess, plus the stress from the dog and the Rug Doctor -- he peed on the danged rugs. We washed them in Orange Mr. Clean -- cats are supposed to be turned off by citrus.
Speaking of Mr. Clean... that's what I used in the Rug Doctor. 3/4 cup to 3.5 gallons. I wouldn't reccomend it on your new carpet, but ours is not new, and I'd read that its much cheaper and possibly cleans better than the rug doctor soap... and it doesn't foam. It worked great. Don't sue me if it ruins your carpet, I'm just telling you we're pleased with the results.
Alex, Myla, and their daughter took off for Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. They are from the Ukraine. They're in for a treat. I sent him off with my zip drive to dump pictures from his new 6 megapixel camera.
Anyway -- I'll be back Tuesday PM with Mom.
(*poof*)
- The chairs are re-covered
- The carpet is cleaned
- Paint is re-touched
- Garden is weeded, goat manure dumped
- anti-fungal applied to tomatoes
- stuff in the yard trimmed
- battery replaced in the thermometer center
- things are dusted
- floors are mopped
We're ready for company ;-)
Ryan and Kristy had us over for bbq with Ryan's parents last night. The weather was great. Vicki and I had been working all day on the house. Had a very nice time. Today we got up and put the house back together. I power washed the lower deck and took care of the garden and some other yardwork. Bart's acting up again. Vicki got new rugs for the bathroom upstairs. The temptation, I guess, plus the stress from the dog and the Rug Doctor -- he peed on the danged rugs. We washed them in Orange Mr. Clean -- cats are supposed to be turned off by citrus.
Speaking of Mr. Clean... that's what I used in the Rug Doctor. 3/4 cup to 3.5 gallons. I wouldn't reccomend it on your new carpet, but ours is not new, and I'd read that its much cheaper and possibly cleans better than the rug doctor soap... and it doesn't foam. It worked great. Don't sue me if it ruins your carpet, I'm just telling you we're pleased with the results.
Alex, Myla, and their daughter took off for Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. They are from the Ukraine. They're in for a treat. I sent him off with my zip drive to dump pictures from his new 6 megapixel camera.
Anyway -- I'll be back Tuesday PM with Mom.
(*poof*)
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Ya did-it-cha-did-it-cha-did-it-cha-di-di-di-did-it!
Da chairs be done, arm covers and all. I think I mentioned they're not quite as nice as my last job, but pretty good, and clean, and the arm covers will help keep them that way.
Organize That Space is coming in the morning to put up the shelves at 7:30. I got some blight powder for the tomatoes (hopefully I'm not too late). So things are shaping up. Vicki's sewing some green pillow covers for some old pillows to put on the new couch (that aren't currently green). The new couch, by the way, is a kind of brick red color.
Mia's been real whiney. I've mentioned before, there are reasons I don't have a dog, and she's reminding me of every g*$ d#!*$ of them. However, something kind of sweet was going on the other night. Mia was basically grooming Theo, who needs it because he doesn't clean his paws anymore. He even had a bloody paw that she was cleaning. And he just layed there and let her do it. She was being quite gentle. Motherly instincts, I guess.
No workout tonight. I am still REALLY sore from leg day on Monday. Ryan decided that we had 2 days in a row of using our arms and we needed a break before next chest day, so he fed me two Boulevard Dedication Ales (very good -- an experiment to come up with something for the opening of their new brewery um... soon?) I love them, but they do pack a punch. Whoo! When they do open it all lovers of GOOD ale need to try this. It's not official yet, I got some of the experimental ones .... friend of a friend kind of thing. The first batch I tried wasn't as good, but this is superb.
Today's Courtney's 16th birthday, so Happy Birthday, Courtney!
Anyway, that's all for now.
(*poof*)
Organize That Space is coming in the morning to put up the shelves at 7:30. I got some blight powder for the tomatoes (hopefully I'm not too late). So things are shaping up. Vicki's sewing some green pillow covers for some old pillows to put on the new couch (that aren't currently green). The new couch, by the way, is a kind of brick red color.
Mia's been real whiney. I've mentioned before, there are reasons I don't have a dog, and she's reminding me of every g*$ d#!*$ of them. However, something kind of sweet was going on the other night. Mia was basically grooming Theo, who needs it because he doesn't clean his paws anymore. He even had a bloody paw that she was cleaning. And he just layed there and let her do it. She was being quite gentle. Motherly instincts, I guess.
No workout tonight. I am still REALLY sore from leg day on Monday. Ryan decided that we had 2 days in a row of using our arms and we needed a break before next chest day, so he fed me two Boulevard Dedication Ales (very good -- an experiment to come up with something for the opening of their new brewery um... soon?) I love them, but they do pack a punch. Whoo! When they do open it all lovers of GOOD ale need to try this. It's not official yet, I got some of the experimental ones .... friend of a friend kind of thing. The first batch I tried wasn't as good, but this is superb.
Today's Courtney's 16th birthday, so Happy Birthday, Courtney!
Anyway, that's all for now.
(*poof*)
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
See, a related song doesn't ALWAYS pop into my head
The living room chairs are coming along. If we really want to, we can finish tonight. All the pieces are cut out and sewn except for three arm covers. I made one last night and it was pretty easy. So all we have to do is make those and take apart the other chair and staple it on and re-assemble it. And Scotchguard it.
The hydroponic watercress was wiped out this week by a massive colony of aphids. Very fat aphids, I might add. Oh well, time to scrap that project for now.
Kev & Bri are headed to Idaho today with Ken to see their new neice or nephew -- should be born while they are there. So that's exciting.
I've been playing with "Death of an Unpopular Poet" and "He Went to Paris" on the guitar. My cough is going away VERY slowly... but I can tell it's getting better.
The hydroponic watercress was wiped out this week by a massive colony of aphids. Very fat aphids, I might add. Oh well, time to scrap that project for now.
Kev & Bri are headed to Idaho today with Ken to see their new neice or nephew -- should be born while they are there. So that's exciting.
I've been playing with "Death of an Unpopular Poet" and "He Went to Paris" on the guitar. My cough is going away VERY slowly... but I can tell it's getting better.
Monday, July 12, 2004
Cover me
We started work on the great chair re-covering process. I'd forgotten a few things about making seams lie flat around corners, so we had a little trouble. I think I've got it now, but we spent 6 or so hours on Saturday and a few hours yesterday on them. One chair is covered (except for the new seat cushion) and all the pieces are cut and sewn for the second chair. This material is canvas, a bit thicker than what we used last time -- so it's not as forgiving when you need to fudge a little. So, make the seat cushions and some arm covers to protect the arms from dirt, and I think we'll be doin' fine.
Woke up this mornin' to the sound of thunder (how far off I sat and wondered .... started hummin' a song from 1962....)
Ain't it funny how the night moves? Anyway, it really wasn't fair. A nice, slow moving, rumbly thunderstorm should NOT move through when it's time to get up. They make me want to sleep, sleep, sleep... the sound is so soothing. Like a big cat purring or something. I don't know. But, I had to get up anyway.
We went out to dinner with Tom and Betty for Tom's 45th. Betty took all of us to The Melting Pot, a fondue place in Chesterfield. Very good, lots of fun. Not cheap. But good. We had a great time laughing and cutting up and shooting the bull.
Listening to Radio Margaritaville (high speed or low speed) If you're a Parrothead and you just like music (wide spectrum) -- I mean everything from Dean Martin to Merle Haggard; Jerry Jeff Walker to Peter Tosh, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Beatles ... and of course, a heapin' helpin' of Jimmy himself. It's an entertaining station.
Vicki and I went to farmer's market on Saturday and bought a bunch of fruit and veggies. I bought a hanging strawflower basket for the front (very pretty) and a hanging ever-bearing strawberry basket to round out the back deck.
And the auto-watering system still isn't programmed. Priorities, you know. It's been raining a lot so that's helped.
a-bee-a-bee-a-bee-a-bee-a that's all, folks!
Woke up this mornin' to the sound of thunder (how far off I sat and wondered .... started hummin' a song from 1962....)
Ain't it funny how the night moves? Anyway, it really wasn't fair. A nice, slow moving, rumbly thunderstorm should NOT move through when it's time to get up. They make me want to sleep, sleep, sleep... the sound is so soothing. Like a big cat purring or something. I don't know. But, I had to get up anyway.
We went out to dinner with Tom and Betty for Tom's 45th. Betty took all of us to The Melting Pot, a fondue place in Chesterfield. Very good, lots of fun. Not cheap. But good. We had a great time laughing and cutting up and shooting the bull.
Listening to Radio Margaritaville (high speed or low speed) If you're a Parrothead and you just like music (wide spectrum) -- I mean everything from Dean Martin to Merle Haggard; Jerry Jeff Walker to Peter Tosh, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Beatles ... and of course, a heapin' helpin' of Jimmy himself. It's an entertaining station.
Vicki and I went to farmer's market on Saturday and bought a bunch of fruit and veggies. I bought a hanging strawflower basket for the front (very pretty) and a hanging ever-bearing strawberry basket to round out the back deck.
And the auto-watering system still isn't programmed. Priorities, you know. It's been raining a lot so that's helped.
a-bee-a-bee-a-bee-a-bee-a that's all, folks!
Thursday, July 08, 2004
What he lacked in ambition, he made up in intuition
Plowing straight ahead come what may
Ah, lots to do, but little ambition. Motivation is coming with the time crunch, though.
The automatic watering system is halfway hooked up, but not adjusted yet. Something's up with the timer. Don't think I have it programmed right.
I bought the material for the livingroom chairs. Zippers, too. Need staples for the staple gun. Touched up the paint on the kitchen cabinets. So anyway, the 2004 upholstery project will get underway pretty quickly here. It has to.
I re-arranged the bedroom closet last night to get rid of that old bedside table/cabinet that was in there and to fit my guitar case(s) in there. That was long on my list of things to do.
The tomatoes are showing signs of blight. I should just give up. Ok, how many times am I going to say that before I actually DO?
Brian's really getting in to Buffett. He has a bunch on his Ipod now. He's heard me play Buffett for half of his life, but now he's actually listening to it and apparently he likes what he hears. "He just makes sense", he says. Yup.
I'm learning "Death of an Unpopular Poet". Well, my version, in G. He plays it in G, but up higher on the neck, and uses a Bm and F#m in there somewhere... but pretty much I'm using GCD and I think Em and Am from time to time. It works.
But, it's time to go to see Lee.
(*poof*)
Ah, lots to do, but little ambition. Motivation is coming with the time crunch, though.
The automatic watering system is halfway hooked up, but not adjusted yet. Something's up with the timer. Don't think I have it programmed right.
I bought the material for the livingroom chairs. Zippers, too. Need staples for the staple gun. Touched up the paint on the kitchen cabinets. So anyway, the 2004 upholstery project will get underway pretty quickly here. It has to.
I re-arranged the bedroom closet last night to get rid of that old bedside table/cabinet that was in there and to fit my guitar case(s) in there. That was long on my list of things to do.
The tomatoes are showing signs of blight. I should just give up. Ok, how many times am I going to say that before I actually DO?
Brian's really getting in to Buffett. He has a bunch on his Ipod now. He's heard me play Buffett for half of his life, but now he's actually listening to it and apparently he likes what he hears. "He just makes sense", he says. Yup.
I'm learning "Death of an Unpopular Poet". Well, my version, in G. He plays it in G, but up higher on the neck, and uses a Bm and F#m in there somewhere... but pretty much I'm using GCD and I think Em and Am from time to time. It works.
But, it's time to go to see Lee.
(*poof*)
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Carry on my wayward friend
Sarah and family are probably halfway across Kansas by now, heading to Summit County, CO. I can smell the air and see the trees and rocks. And the snow on the divide.
Meanwhile, back here in Missouri, it's July 1, and that means hot and humid. It's been a decent May/June, actually. We have had a lot of unseasonably pleasant weather. So I shouldn't complain much.
It looks like Brian's endeavor with his dad is going along pretty well so far. Kev could probably use a second job to get him over the hump until he finds a more suitable job that pays more and he gets rid of his car. But, it's a holiday weekend, and time to do a little celebrating. I think Amber Korn of Army Reunion fame is coming into town to visit. Plus it's Connie's dad's birthday this Sunday and Vicki and Connie are putting together a party at the VA for him.
But there's also lots to do around the house. What an exciting day it will be in the blog when I can report that the auto-watering system is hooked up. But that day is not today. I think the veggie garden is starting to suffer a bit because of it, too. The screen door on the deck works now. Vicki's meeting some people about shelves at the bottom of the stairs tonight after work (get some estimates).
Carpet needs cleaning. My closet needs cleaning, too. No, not in the moronic self-absorbed Eminem sense. In the "I have too much junk and not enough room to store my stuff" sense... like guitar cases, for instance. Also need to trim the hedges out front and plant my creeping phlox. And I need to rewire the digital audio feed from the sattelite receiver to my stereo in the living room.
Hmmm, well. I've run out of steam. So.... later.
Meanwhile, back here in Missouri, it's July 1, and that means hot and humid. It's been a decent May/June, actually. We have had a lot of unseasonably pleasant weather. So I shouldn't complain much.
It looks like Brian's endeavor with his dad is going along pretty well so far. Kev could probably use a second job to get him over the hump until he finds a more suitable job that pays more and he gets rid of his car. But, it's a holiday weekend, and time to do a little celebrating. I think Amber Korn of Army Reunion fame is coming into town to visit. Plus it's Connie's dad's birthday this Sunday and Vicki and Connie are putting together a party at the VA for him.
But there's also lots to do around the house. What an exciting day it will be in the blog when I can report that the auto-watering system is hooked up. But that day is not today. I think the veggie garden is starting to suffer a bit because of it, too. The screen door on the deck works now. Vicki's meeting some people about shelves at the bottom of the stairs tonight after work (get some estimates).
Carpet needs cleaning. My closet needs cleaning, too. No, not in the moronic self-absorbed Eminem sense. In the "I have too much junk and not enough room to store my stuff" sense... like guitar cases, for instance. Also need to trim the hedges out front and plant my creeping phlox. And I need to rewire the digital audio feed from the sattelite receiver to my stereo in the living room.
Hmmm, well. I've run out of steam. So.... later.
Monday, June 28, 2004
Slicker than silk pajamas on a snake
I don't often talk about politics on this forum, but the early "official" handover of power in Iraq today qualifies as a slick move. Hala is all smiles. As I mentioned in my more political blog before, actual Iraqis are much more hopeful and positive about their country's future than the press would have you believe -- mostly because the press doesn't believe it. God forbid they put a positive spin on a story. It might be mistaken for a pro-American stance, which of course must be avoided at all costs because THAT would be BIASED.
Ok, enough of that.
Went out to Mom and Dad's Saturday for a little Father's day thing. We went out to do some stuff for Dad and visit. Walked the fenceline to see where goats might be getting out. Well, there's a zillion places where they might be getting out, but one real likely place. A 100' stretch of fence along the back where it's just barbed-wire and not hogwire. It's only 100 feet, but a goat's only about 16" wide, as I told Dad. Apparently they've been getting out of one pasture and back in to the next, and making their way up to the house and damaging the yard plants. Well, fixing the fence is going to be a much more than 1 day job. So (Jeff, Joel and I) mucked out a couple of goat stalls and just visited.
With this cold (I got used from Vicki for a real good price) that was plenty of work - I was dog-tired and went home and went straight to bed at 9:00.
Sunday I put away CD's and re-organized their filing system to allow more space in each drawer. Then I headed out to Lowe's to replace the sliding screen door. I could just buy new wheels for the existing one, or a whole new door. When I saw the design of the adjustable parts on the new doors, I opted for the new door. But when I got it home, I noted that the screen was slopily installed (it wasn't tucked in behind the gasket in many places so there were big gaps around the edges) and on top of that, apparently my screen doors need to be about 80.75" instead of 80.25"... which is all the bigger this puppy would expand. I think the best solution unfortunately will be to install a new top runner. I'm pretty disgusted with paying $35 for a cheap screen door that I'd be ashamed to put on the shelf of MY hardware store. I think it must've been put together at 4:59 PM on a Friday by some worker who had a date with a beer. There was about zero pride in that person's workmanship.
Didn't get my auto-watering system hooked up... Again. Kevin switched the doors on the beer fridge in the garage. That was cool. Just volunteered to do it and got right to it. He and Vicki spent saturday re-arranging stuff in the garage to fit Kevin's other car (the one he needs to sell pronto) in the garage.
Last week Sarah, an old college friend (ok, she's not old, really but you know what I mean) contacted me out of the blue by finding my hotmail address. It's been great catching up with her. She's probably 8 miles from Mark and Cami out there in KC. And it turns out she & her family have been out to Summit County, CO and Jackson Hole recently, too. Get me talkin' about mountains.... so we've been emailing back and forth. Sounds like she's doing fine, which is always good to know. Sarah was a part of my college "family" way back when. For a couple of years there weren't many breakfasts or dinners that our motley clan of four didn't have together. In an odd way, she was kind of like a sister now that I think about it. And a good one she was. I probably didn't appreciate her like I should have because I was too lost in the mad crush I had on her roommate. Ah, nothing like time to give you perspective.
Last thursday Lee threw the big change I've been kind of dreading at me... two different finger patterns in the same song. Of course, ultimately, it'll be good for me. Plus, get this... in the midst of all of these folk songs, I'm learning "Wipeout". Ha! So I'm back to where I was when I was 18 with the Stingrays at the high-school talent show. Only back then, I played bass... barely. It was one of two songs I knew. Seriously, though, I've come a long way with Lee, and I can see myself going to him for quite some time to come -- maybe as long as he ends up teaching. I've gotten away from playing songs all the way through. Working on a lot of basics. But I need to get back to it because ultimately, that's what I enjoy.
Well, off to see the Lizard.
(*poof*)
Ok, enough of that.
Went out to Mom and Dad's Saturday for a little Father's day thing. We went out to do some stuff for Dad and visit. Walked the fenceline to see where goats might be getting out. Well, there's a zillion places where they might be getting out, but one real likely place. A 100' stretch of fence along the back where it's just barbed-wire and not hogwire. It's only 100 feet, but a goat's only about 16" wide, as I told Dad. Apparently they've been getting out of one pasture and back in to the next, and making their way up to the house and damaging the yard plants. Well, fixing the fence is going to be a much more than 1 day job. So (Jeff, Joel and I) mucked out a couple of goat stalls and just visited.
With this cold (I got used from Vicki for a real good price) that was plenty of work - I was dog-tired and went home and went straight to bed at 9:00.
Sunday I put away CD's and re-organized their filing system to allow more space in each drawer. Then I headed out to Lowe's to replace the sliding screen door. I could just buy new wheels for the existing one, or a whole new door. When I saw the design of the adjustable parts on the new doors, I opted for the new door. But when I got it home, I noted that the screen was slopily installed (it wasn't tucked in behind the gasket in many places so there were big gaps around the edges) and on top of that, apparently my screen doors need to be about 80.75" instead of 80.25"... which is all the bigger this puppy would expand. I think the best solution unfortunately will be to install a new top runner. I'm pretty disgusted with paying $35 for a cheap screen door that I'd be ashamed to put on the shelf of MY hardware store. I think it must've been put together at 4:59 PM on a Friday by some worker who had a date with a beer. There was about zero pride in that person's workmanship.
Didn't get my auto-watering system hooked up... Again. Kevin switched the doors on the beer fridge in the garage. That was cool. Just volunteered to do it and got right to it. He and Vicki spent saturday re-arranging stuff in the garage to fit Kevin's other car (the one he needs to sell pronto) in the garage.
Last week Sarah, an old college friend (ok, she's not old, really but you know what I mean) contacted me out of the blue by finding my hotmail address. It's been great catching up with her. She's probably 8 miles from Mark and Cami out there in KC. And it turns out she & her family have been out to Summit County, CO and Jackson Hole recently, too. Get me talkin' about mountains.... so we've been emailing back and forth. Sounds like she's doing fine, which is always good to know. Sarah was a part of my college "family" way back when. For a couple of years there weren't many breakfasts or dinners that our motley clan of four didn't have together. In an odd way, she was kind of like a sister now that I think about it. And a good one she was. I probably didn't appreciate her like I should have because I was too lost in the mad crush I had on her roommate. Ah, nothing like time to give you perspective.
Last thursday Lee threw the big change I've been kind of dreading at me... two different finger patterns in the same song. Of course, ultimately, it'll be good for me. Plus, get this... in the midst of all of these folk songs, I'm learning "Wipeout". Ha! So I'm back to where I was when I was 18 with the Stingrays at the high-school talent show. Only back then, I played bass... barely. It was one of two songs I knew. Seriously, though, I've come a long way with Lee, and I can see myself going to him for quite some time to come -- maybe as long as he ends up teaching. I've gotten away from playing songs all the way through. Working on a lot of basics. But I need to get back to it because ultimately, that's what I enjoy.
Well, off to see the Lizard.
(*poof*)
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Down around a bend in the water
We went floating with Ryan and Kristie and friends this past weekend. It's an annual thing. Kristie grew up floating with Family and friends from around the Springfield area. Ryan loves to float. Kristie actually says that Ryan's sort of hijacked her summer float trip to be more of a river party than a float trip. But they do another in the fall (that we went on last year) which is smaller, and, well.... "floatier".
We had a good time camping. My tent pops up in a flash. Gonna have to work on the whole "camp coffee" thing, though. That little percolator -- not too happy with it.
We drove down to Alley Spring Friday afternoon, popped the tent up, stayed up talking. Well, I did. Vicki felt a little under the weather and turned in early. Frankly, feeling the way she did, I was surprised she came. She was a real trouper. Anyway, we helped Ryan and Kristie's friends set up their tents ast they showed up from Springfield, Kansas City, and St. Louis ... into the night.
Why do people go out to a nice campground and turn their bleedin' music up? I go out there to hear the crickets and whiporwills and peep frogs, not the latest hip-hop or post-metal grind. Anyway, the rangers come around around 10:00 to enforce the quiet hours.
We got in the water at 10:00am, floated in short spurts, stopped to play in the water.... got on fun-noodles and floated through chutes in the stream. And in general had a nice, relaxing, fun float. Lots of people brought their dogs. Dogs love float trips. Lots of stuff to keep their attention.
Saturday night a guy camping behind us was playing guitar. I had thought about bringing my backpacker, but you don't want to appear to be some sort of grandstander with people you don't know, so I decided against it. This guy made me wish I had... although in hindsight I probably would have sat and played with him and ignored the group I was with.... so ... maybe better I hadn't. Truth be told, I think it would've gone over pretty well had I played it in the background around the campfire that night. But the pressure! ;-)
We stopped at Round Spring on the way back on Sunday. Had a leisurly drive. Haven't done much since we got home. We have a lot to do to prepare for company in July. Things around the house to fix, clean, get rid of, build. I have to build that bookshelf downstairs. Move the beer-fridge door to open the other way, touch up the paint on the cabinets. Vicki would like the livingroom chairs re-covered. So would I, but I don't know that that'll get done. I did it 12 years ago. It took a while. Plus, we can't even find the material I want.
Also have to get the auto-watering system up and running on the deck.
Brian and Kevin (did I mention this before?) are both living with us this summer. Kev's trying to get back on his feet after his troubles, and Brian just graduated from IU and is working for his dad this summer. Kevin has a new girlfriend that seems pretty nice. Hope to see more of her.
Me, I'm just pluggin' along. Vicki's reading her books, I'm practicing guitar and making half-hearted attempts at getting things done around the house. I try to get at least one thing done per night.
I'm off to Mom & Dad's this weekend to do stuff for Dad (with Jeff & Joel)... sort of our Fathers Day thing. Do some chores he hasn't been able to get to.
Oh... I was going to mention Guy and Carol Lynn & family just got back from Scotland. Carol's been looking very forward to this trip for a long time. We've been sharing pictures (mine from Jackson, hers from Scotland). Very pretty country (both places). Sounds and looks like a very good time was had by all.
We had a good time camping. My tent pops up in a flash. Gonna have to work on the whole "camp coffee" thing, though. That little percolator -- not too happy with it.
We drove down to Alley Spring Friday afternoon, popped the tent up, stayed up talking. Well, I did. Vicki felt a little under the weather and turned in early. Frankly, feeling the way she did, I was surprised she came. She was a real trouper. Anyway, we helped Ryan and Kristie's friends set up their tents ast they showed up from Springfield, Kansas City, and St. Louis ... into the night.
Why do people go out to a nice campground and turn their bleedin' music up? I go out there to hear the crickets and whiporwills and peep frogs, not the latest hip-hop or post-metal grind. Anyway, the rangers come around around 10:00 to enforce the quiet hours.
We got in the water at 10:00am, floated in short spurts, stopped to play in the water.... got on fun-noodles and floated through chutes in the stream. And in general had a nice, relaxing, fun float. Lots of people brought their dogs. Dogs love float trips. Lots of stuff to keep their attention.
Saturday night a guy camping behind us was playing guitar. I had thought about bringing my backpacker, but you don't want to appear to be some sort of grandstander with people you don't know, so I decided against it. This guy made me wish I had... although in hindsight I probably would have sat and played with him and ignored the group I was with.... so ... maybe better I hadn't. Truth be told, I think it would've gone over pretty well had I played it in the background around the campfire that night. But the pressure! ;-)
We stopped at Round Spring on the way back on Sunday. Had a leisurly drive. Haven't done much since we got home. We have a lot to do to prepare for company in July. Things around the house to fix, clean, get rid of, build. I have to build that bookshelf downstairs. Move the beer-fridge door to open the other way, touch up the paint on the cabinets. Vicki would like the livingroom chairs re-covered. So would I, but I don't know that that'll get done. I did it 12 years ago. It took a while. Plus, we can't even find the material I want.
Also have to get the auto-watering system up and running on the deck.
Brian and Kevin (did I mention this before?) are both living with us this summer. Kev's trying to get back on his feet after his troubles, and Brian just graduated from IU and is working for his dad this summer. Kevin has a new girlfriend that seems pretty nice. Hope to see more of her.
Me, I'm just pluggin' along. Vicki's reading her books, I'm practicing guitar and making half-hearted attempts at getting things done around the house. I try to get at least one thing done per night.
I'm off to Mom & Dad's this weekend to do stuff for Dad (with Jeff & Joel)... sort of our Fathers Day thing. Do some chores he hasn't been able to get to.
Oh... I was going to mention Guy and Carol Lynn & family just got back from Scotland. Carol's been looking very forward to this trip for a long time. We've been sharing pictures (mine from Jackson, hers from Scotland). Very pretty country (both places). Sounds and looks like a very good time was had by all.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Happy Anniversary Baby
Ok, so it wasn't our anniversary... Mark & Cami have been hitched 10 years now. Well... pretty close. Cami had a surprise party planned, and invited Bobby and Gina up from Texas. Long story short... it got moved up a week. Several KC friends came by Malloy's Irish pub friday night to do some well-wishing. It was a good time.
We took the kids for the weekend. Stayed overnight at their house. Came back Sunday early afternoon. We didn't really do a lot. Cassie went to the grocery store with me. There were baths and bed. Nathanial was coughing terribly. Poor guy. I fixed up pillows so he could sleep with his upper body on a slant so the stuff could drain from his sinuses and not get stuck in his chest. As long as he was like that he didn't cough much... but they don't call their kids Kung Fu sleepers for nothing. He slid down several times, and went back to serious coughing. I'd get up and re-adjust him. At one point, since it was too soon to give him more cough suppressant, I gave him the more placebo-esque eccenacia stuff that they like.
He didn't sleep well, but ended up sleeping most of the morning. As a matter of fact I got him up by carrying him to the living room. Figured his sick body needed something to eat. Of course, it was the traditional Snoopy Waffles.
Went to see Shreck II after lunch. Very funny for kids and adults alike. We talked about going to the park when we got back to the car, but Q was already fading fast, excited as he was about the prospect of the park. So we decided to go home and do a nap and early dinner and then go.
The nap went on and on -- I started reading The Ghost of Windy Hill to Cassie... but then I took her to Rock Bridge park and let her play nature girl for a while, slogging through the shallows in her flip flops, looking at waterbugs, minnows, etc.
We went to the Rock Bridge itself a little later, and looked at the waterfall. It was getting pretty dark under the bridge, so it was a little spooky ;-) So then we went out and looked for fossils and other neat rocks in the stream. Cassie caught a toad for a little bit, and then let him go and watched him hop away. She said she "will always remember that toad". Wonder if she will? Good for me if she does.
Got home, did the baths, read the rest of The Ghost and then went to bed. Q had a much better night.
Cassie wanted to listen to the sounds of the crickets and frogs outside to go to sleep to, but we'd turned the air conditioning on. So I got out my "Frog Chorus" CD and played that on repeat for her.
It was so pleasant I left it on the following morning. We had breakfast and read "How Fletcher Was Hatched" and "Eric and the Little Canal Boat". An episode of Scooby Doo later, we packed up their bags and we took off down the road. Q had had one final tussle with the curtains. Apparently Aunt Vicki warned him away from them all weekend as he tried to hang on them. Well, this time he wasn't being watched and he bent the supports and the rod -- and had an "oh sh*t" look on his face. Four-year-olds. They're fixable. I got pretty stern with him and Mr. Defiant Four Year Old came out for the trip to Concordia.
Cami appeared fresh and pretty in a pink sundress and as happy to see the kids as they were to see her. We probably looked like a couple of divorcees exchanging kids, as is often done at that McDonalds (it's halfway between here and KC). I definitely felt appreciated as she gave us a very nice card and plant and thanked us profusely for what I'm sure was a much-too-short weekend. We certainly weren't expecting a gift for a gift, but I suppose it speaks to the appreciation of "time off".
And that's the weekend, pretty much.
They're off for a real Anniversary Trip this weekend with the kids to some cabins in their favorite spot.
We took the kids for the weekend. Stayed overnight at their house. Came back Sunday early afternoon. We didn't really do a lot. Cassie went to the grocery store with me. There were baths and bed. Nathanial was coughing terribly. Poor guy. I fixed up pillows so he could sleep with his upper body on a slant so the stuff could drain from his sinuses and not get stuck in his chest. As long as he was like that he didn't cough much... but they don't call their kids Kung Fu sleepers for nothing. He slid down several times, and went back to serious coughing. I'd get up and re-adjust him. At one point, since it was too soon to give him more cough suppressant, I gave him the more placebo-esque eccenacia stuff that they like.
He didn't sleep well, but ended up sleeping most of the morning. As a matter of fact I got him up by carrying him to the living room. Figured his sick body needed something to eat. Of course, it was the traditional Snoopy Waffles.
Went to see Shreck II after lunch. Very funny for kids and adults alike. We talked about going to the park when we got back to the car, but Q was already fading fast, excited as he was about the prospect of the park. So we decided to go home and do a nap and early dinner and then go.
The nap went on and on -- I started reading The Ghost of Windy Hill to Cassie... but then I took her to Rock Bridge park and let her play nature girl for a while, slogging through the shallows in her flip flops, looking at waterbugs, minnows, etc.
We went to the Rock Bridge itself a little later, and looked at the waterfall. It was getting pretty dark under the bridge, so it was a little spooky ;-) So then we went out and looked for fossils and other neat rocks in the stream. Cassie caught a toad for a little bit, and then let him go and watched him hop away. She said she "will always remember that toad". Wonder if she will? Good for me if she does.
Got home, did the baths, read the rest of The Ghost and then went to bed. Q had a much better night.
Cassie wanted to listen to the sounds of the crickets and frogs outside to go to sleep to, but we'd turned the air conditioning on. So I got out my "Frog Chorus" CD and played that on repeat for her.
It was so pleasant I left it on the following morning. We had breakfast and read "How Fletcher Was Hatched" and "Eric and the Little Canal Boat". An episode of Scooby Doo later, we packed up their bags and we took off down the road. Q had had one final tussle with the curtains. Apparently Aunt Vicki warned him away from them all weekend as he tried to hang on them. Well, this time he wasn't being watched and he bent the supports and the rod -- and had an "oh sh*t" look on his face. Four-year-olds. They're fixable. I got pretty stern with him and Mr. Defiant Four Year Old came out for the trip to Concordia.
Cami appeared fresh and pretty in a pink sundress and as happy to see the kids as they were to see her. We probably looked like a couple of divorcees exchanging kids, as is often done at that McDonalds (it's halfway between here and KC). I definitely felt appreciated as she gave us a very nice card and plant and thanked us profusely for what I'm sure was a much-too-short weekend. We certainly weren't expecting a gift for a gift, but I suppose it speaks to the appreciation of "time off".
And that's the weekend, pretty much.
They're off for a real Anniversary Trip this weekend with the kids to some cabins in their favorite spot.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Hey, it's good to be back home again
...Not
All in all not a bad vacation.
Friday, May 21
We went to St. Louis Friday night since we had to be at the airport at 5:00 am for our 6:30 flight. In my last minute packing I decided to bring my leather fedora I bought in San Diego. I kind of wished I had it last year in Colorado for its sun shading properties. Little did I know what a good decision that was to be this time around.
Sat, May 22
Got to the airport, and my bag was 13 lbs overweight. They said transfer 13 lbs to the other one and I'd be ok. I removed my backpack, a pair of hiking shoes, and my "power supply" bag (that alone was 10 lbs) and used my backpack for carry-on, stuffing the shoes in Vicki's bag.
Got through security ok. They took a pair of manacuring scissors from Vicki -- they were in her makeup pouch which she did not check. I've said it before and I'll say it again... any passengers/pilot who allows their airplane to be hijacked with a pair of manacuring scissors deserves to be hijacked. That trick worked once. It won't work again. You can mail them to yourself, but for the price of a pair of scissors, it's a wash. They sniffed my camera bag and backpack because of the batteries and power supplies I had in them. But we passed.
Connie couldn't find her cell phone. We figured it was probably in the car back at the hotel. She called and had her phone forwareded to Sam's.
Jetted to Denver, prop-planed to Jackson, and we were in town a little after noon local time.
Checked in to the Grand Victorain B&B, and went downtown for a bit where I bought a geology book on the area. Late afternoon we went for a drive on Moose-Wilson road to look for wildlife and get a gander at the mountains. They were beautiful as advertised. Went in to a bar in Moose called Dornan's with the most spectacular view of the range, and right at sunset Sam and I decided to drive out to one of the turnouts and take some mountain shots.
The forecast for the week was showing a promising Mon, Tue, Wed, and maybe Fri. Sunday looked rainy and Sam said that made it a good day to do yellowstone because it wasn't about big scenery, but features and wildlife.
Sun, May 24
Well, now the forecast for Yellowstone calls for about 38 degrees and snow. Oh well. Plow ahead. The Yellowstone Plateau is consistently one of the coolest places in the nation temperature-wise. About 1,200 feet above Jackson, it's often about 8-10 degrees cooler.
We stopped a couple of places along the way for some photos of us by the Grand Teton National Park sign, and some shots of the mountains and an abandoned cabin.
Our guidebook said to be sure to check out Moose Falls in Yellowstone -- that it was often overlooked. It's about a mile past the south entrance. We drove right by it. There was a lot of road construction in and around Yellowstone. Craig pass was closed due to last night's snow and a possibility of 4" today, so the main geyser basins were out. Dang. I really wanted to see those. But Lewis Canyon was pretty and the Lewis River had a nice falls on it we stopped at. The weather was going through changes about every 5 minutes. Sometimes less. Rain. Sleet. Sun. Rain and sleet. Snow. Rain and Snow. Rain and sleet... and Sun... all at the same time. And so on pretty much all day. Connie had a lot of fun trying to keep track of it all in the log book.
Connie is a huge bear fan. One can not overestimate how badly Connie wanted to see bears. She has one around her neck. She has a very nice photograph of one by Tom Mangelsen framed on her wall at home. Not a triffling thing.
Stopped at West Thumb and Sam pointed out my first hot spring. Cool. Steam rising from a big pit in the ground. Unreal! At the parking lot there was the whole West Thumb thermal basin where there were several hot springs, mud pots, and maybe a geyser or two. Several steam vents as well. While walking the basin and taking pictures, it decided to get serious about the snow. Not quite whiteout, but pretty heavy. I had about 1/2" on my fleece jacket in no time. It looked cool, though, with snow falling through steam rising out of the ground, and little pools of boiling water on top of the ground, boiling for no apparent reason. And occasionally, a good whiff of sulpher.
Got back in the car and went around West Thumb to Bridge Bay... there was "stoppage". That means one or more cars stopped at the side of the road with people out of their cars, looking off-road, intently.
Connie hopped out and asked what they saw... "A Bear!!!!!" she said at the top of her whispering lungs, eyes like CD's and hands out like "OH MY GOD!!!!". Kid in a candy store.
A man in the woods said it was a brown bear and three cubs. I set up camera not caring what kind of bear it was with three cubs and took some shots from about 100 yards off. The bear noticed all the people and led her cubs back into the woods. We got into the car to drive off. I looked at the pictures I got, and we all agreed that it was a Grizzly. Connie and Sam were sure of it before, but in the excitement I really hadn't had much time to look at what I was seeing. Down the road maybe another 150 yards Vicki looked out the window and there she was, maybe 30 feet from the car, coming towards the road. She boogied it on back into the woods with her cubs. We got out of the car to see where she went, and through the trees I could see her down by the lake again, maybe 150 yards off.
I saw her heading back west and decided I could get ahead of her and get a few shots maybe from in the woods while she walked along the lake. I went into the woods maybe 20 yards and hid behind a tree and used it to steady the camera. She started walking towards the road again, directly toward me. I got one shot from maybe 80 yards - she hadn't noticed me, and slowly backed out of the woods motioning for the woman behind me to do the same. I wanted to let her cross the road.
More people showed up from down the road, though, and she turned and took them back into the trees by the lake. We decided she was agitated enough and felt sorry for her, so we left, happy with the shots we got. She wasn't confrontational yet, but I think she was getting a little concerned for her babies and wanted to get them out of the area.
We drove on and soon came upon a herd of buffalo in a field. Lots of calves. One of them was playing rather vigorously, getting a drink from it's mom and then running around her in circles about 6 or 7 times and stopping for another drink and repeating the process. Snow was falling. I got a nice shot of a lone buffalo in front of a tree in the snow.
We pressed on to this "hill of fire" where there were many thermal features. Basically every kind there is. Vicki and I walked the path through them leaving Sam and Connie in the car. It was raining, snowing, and sleeting. It was cold. On our way back a man pointed behind us. Maybe 20 feet behind us was a pair of buffalo who had popped over the hill ... obviously after we passed, and were headed perpendicular to our path and back some, quite unconcerned with our presence. We went back to the car.
Stopped and ate at Canyon Junction in a pretty good snowstorm and talked to a pretty Polish girl who was our waitress. It was her second summer there. That would be so fun to do for a young, single person. Most of the people we met were not from Wyoming, and a good many were from out of the country. That included Jackson Hole as well, not just Yellowstone. I read that Wyoming's population is kept stable by tourism. People come, fall in love with it, and stay about as fast as natives get fed up with it and leave. But, as they say, the Billionaires are driving the Millionaires out in the Jackson Hole area, at least.
I really am trying to keep this brief. We did see some elk as well. We went down the canyon from "Inspiration Point" (not to be confused with the one at the head of Cascade Canyon in Grand Teton) and also hiked down to the head of the lower falls and back up. Very pretty. Nice hike. We had some snow, but it got more and more sunny as the next hour or so passed.
Looked for more wildlife on the way home. Stopped and looked at this huge pool of churning, boiling water, but everyone was tired and I was the only one looking anymore, so I hopped in and we drove back to Jackson (a good 120 miles from where we were at the time). We passed Moose Falls without remembering it was there on the way out. It was 9:00pm by the time we got into Jackson. Many restaurants weren't seating anymore, and a recomended one was nixed when it was noted that the chili was $14 (which became a long-standing joke for the rest of the trip).
So, we ate at Wendy's and went home exhausted.
Monday, May 25
Originally we were going to do the big Cascade Canyon hike on Tuesday, but today's forecast now says that Wednesday has the best chance of being a decent day. So we putzed around town in the morning -- however, nice an afternoon as it was, we headed out to Grand Teton and did a 5 mile loop around Taggart and Bradley lakes. Very pretty hike, nice afternoon for it. Good warm-up for the Cascade Canyon hike, I thought.
On the way back down we ran into a tall, slim, blue-eyed, dark-haired cowboy on a horse... maybe 35-40 years old. The women fluttered a bit. He was a good lookin' guy, I must admit. For a (hetero) guy to notice that, they have to be.
We went to Dornan's for more Margaritas & beer and more of that spectacular view. The sun set. We ate dinner there. Went home. ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz
Tuesday, May 26
The girls are sleepy, so Sam and I head out to Moultan Barn to take some morning pictures. We never got a clear shot of the Tetons behind it, but took some nice photos. Another photographer came along and Sam talked to him for quite a while while I went down to the end of the road to photograph another barn. I loved the sagebrush-dotted high plains field with birds and ground squirrels. The signs that tell you to beware of the buffalo seem out of place... not a bison in sight. Or an Elk, or any mamal larger than... a ground squirrel.
We head back for a "putz around town day". Sam and Connie go to art galleries. Vicki and I look for more comfortable hiking shoes. Both of us got sore feet yesterday. My hiking shoes are really too small (should be "wides" but aren't) and Vicki's shoes are a touch too small. I wore my Eccos at Taggart lake, but the soles are soft and don't offer much protection against rocks. There are a lot of rocks in the mountains. Heck, they're practically MADE of them ;-)
We meet for lunch at the Merry Piglets, a Mexican restaurant we probably went to 4 times.
Vicki found a nice pair of hiking shoes at a second hand shop for $6 and a nice jacket for another $6. I bought her a packable quick-dry rain hat at Eddie Bauer. Sam and Connie are looking at expensive art ... we're hitting the second hand shops. We laugh at ourselves. Vicki heads back to the room, and I go back downtown resigned to buying a good pair of hiking boots at full price. I find a good pair at a place much like our local "Alpine Shop" and go back. Dinner at the Merry Piglets.
Cascade Canyon tomorrow. It's supposed to clear overnight, and cloud up again during the day, with isolated thunderstorms possible in the afternoon. I decide to get up early (5:00am) to catch Moultan Barn at sunrise since it's supposed to be so nice.
Wednesday, May 27
Yawn! How many chances in my life will I get to do this. Very few. I get myself up. Dress. Sneak out with my camera so as not to wake Vicki. The sky had a few clouds. After getting past the two big Buttes that hide the mountains from Jackson, I see lots of clouds on and behind the mountains. Shoot. To the east, there is sunlight, but no sun yet. Drove out Antelope Flats road, and parked the car across the road from a very old willow tree and wait for sunrise. I noted after some cloud watching that about the time the sun came up over the Wind Rivers, the clouds will have blown off the Tetons. My luck was changing.
However, just about the time that happened, an overcast layer blew across the sun and I never got my morning gold light.
I took what I could, and enjoyed the solitude of the nice cold morning in such a pretty setting, and went back to the B&B.
After breakfast, we headed out. The plan was to catch the Jenny Lake Ferry early in the morning, hike all day, and take it back in the late afternoon. However.... during the off season the earliest it leaves is 10:00 am... and the latest it comes back is 4:00 pm. Our 8 hour hike is now a 5.5 hour hike.
And it's raining.
We take the back route to see more animals, and miss the 10:00 ferry. On top of that, due to the weather they're only leaving on the hour, not on the half hour, so our 5.5 hour hike is now a 4.5 hour hike. And somehow it doesn't hit me that that means hike in + hike out.
But, we make the best of it, ferrying across at 11:00 and starting our hike near 11:15. It's a 420 foot climb to Inspiration Point, past beautiful cascades and falls in the rain and snow and sleet. Jenny Lake is close to 6,800 feet. I'm sure the ceiling is about 8,000 feet today. But it made it more of an adventure. At one point the trail narrows to about a 6 foot wide notch cut in the side of the granite stone going up to Inspiration Point. It's neat watching clouds form as the air moves up the mountainside. Hidden falls is beautiful as advertised. And after about an hour of hiking and stopping and enjoying and picture taking, we reach Inspiration Point, about 1 mile into the trail.
I'm sure Inspiration Point is much more inspiring on a clear day. You can see Jenny Lake, I'm sure you can probably pick out Bradley and Taggart from there as well, and you can probably see all the way across the snake River Valley and Jackson Hole to the Wind River Mountains. And behind you, Mts Teewinot and Owen and The Grand Teton itself. But not today. You get a wind-whipped and rainy Jenny Lake and a cloud-shrouded atmosphere -- an interesting sight in itself, but the 25 mph wind blowing cold water in your face on a 38 degree morning makes you say "well, wonder what the canyon looks like?" and turn quickly into the trees toward it.
At 7,200 feet, the clouds are maybe 800 feet over our heads. After about another hour and 15 minutes of hiking Sam notes that half our time is burned and we'd better eat and head back. I can't believe it's been so short. By the landmarks I see, we made it about a mile up (to Inspiration Point) and about 2, maybe 2.5 miles into the canyon... At 1:30 pm, we head back.
As you might expect, going down takes much less time than going up, although the canyon itself is rather flat. Well, we weren't stopping as much since we'd seen a lot of this stuff on the way up. We were ahead for a while, then Sam & Connie passed us and we lost track of them. Worried that they may be down at the bottom trying to make the 3:00 ferry, we don't tarry much and get to the boat dock at 2:55pm. They come around the bend about 5 minutes later. They were worried that WE wanted to catch the 3:00 ferry. I don't think either couple meant to get down that fast. So, we all caught the 3:00 ferry making it a 3:45 hike. About half of what I had expected before several situations conspired against it. Coulda spent more time up by Hidden Falls. Sam & Connie said they found a spot where you could actually see the whole thing without trees in front of it. Hmmmm. Next time, I guess. Reminds me of my first attempt at Sniktau.
Well, what better way to cap the day than to go to Dornan's. And Vicki's cowboy was there, to boot. You can't see the Mountains, but it's a nice place anyway, with the high plains & willows and Snake River winding just outside.
Later, off to the Blue Lion for dinner. Three of us had the Elk, Sam had the pork chop, I think. It was very good.
Thursday, May 28
Another rainy day in the forecast, but a little warmer. We decide to head up to Yellowstone again.
There's lots of road construction. As we round the turn from Lizard Creek north of Jackson Lake, there are two cars stopped on the right side of the road, and an upside-down truck in the ditch, hissing, and wheels still spinning on the left. Sam stops the car, realizes it must've just happened, and gets out to see if anyone's hurt. I'm fumbling around my seatbelt and door lock, kind of in semi-shock... I've never come upon an accident like this where help wasn't already there. Sam hollers at the vehichle, and just as I get across the road a young man comes spurting out from the other side. He's in shock, but alert. Connie calls 911, and a government truck pulls up behind us and gets on the radio. The man was a mechanic, basically driving a mobile garage to help work on the road construction vehichles. His tire had caught the side of the road and he lost control, went into the ditch and the vehicle flipped. Good thing nobody was on the passenger side. They wouldn't have made it. It was crushed. But he had a banged head and a cut ear and would probably be all right -- just needed to be checked for concussion. We talked to him to make sure he stayed awake until a paramedic arrived and more help was on the way, and pressed on to Yellowstone.
In all the excitement, we forgot once again about Moose Falls. However, this time, Craig Pass was open. You cross the continental divide three times between the south entrance and the main geyser basin. Anything above 8000 feet has snow, and a bunch of Yellowstone is 8000 feet or above. It's actually a relatively flat area, due to the geology of the region (how it was formed)... Anyway, we don't spend much time stopping this time because we want to get all the way up north to Mammoth before turning around. However, we get to the Old Faithful geyser basin and stop there about 35 minutes before the next scheduled eruption. Vicki and I take the time to walk around the other thermal features in the area in a hurried tour and get back to the seating area about 5 minutes before "time".
It throws off a few 3-4 foot mini eruptions, and dies down each time. It's a little "late", and we see a geyser about a mile off erupting, which is fun. A few minutes later, Old Faithful can't hold herself anymore and the real eruption begins. I got a 16 second movie of it on my digital camera plus a few snapshots. I just wanted to see a geyser erupt first hand. Very cool. But we must press on. We headed up towards Madison Junction and Firehole Canyon Drive, and stop to enjoy some cascades along the way. A very tame chipmunk whom people have obviously fed for a long time comes up to check to see if we have any food, right up to Vicki's and Connie's hands. Cute little guy. Very healthy. Bright color, fat, sleek. The volcanic stone in the canyon walls looks neat -- I try to imagine the pyroclastic flows that violently formed them a very long time ago, and then the river slowly cutting a canyon through it.
It was a much nicer day than the first trip we made. We wound up to Mammoth Springs. Upon seing no elk there and with a rainshower moving in, people are ready to head back. But I want to at least go look at the big mineral formation for a little bit. No sooner do I get to the wooden path than the sky opens up and dumps a torrential downpour on me.
Let me just say something about my hat. I bought the leather fedora in San Diego a few years ago. I like it. I wear it a lot in the winter. It keeps my head warm and dry. I've treated it to be waterproof. Vicki's not particularly fond of it and I don't think she was too excited about my bringing it. But boy am I glad I did. With this weather I'd've been soaked and cold without it all week. Any such trip I take from now on it's coming with me. This is obviously why people wore hats so much back in the day.
At any rate, on the way back Connie mostly slept, we looked for wildlife, but we were basically hoofing it back. We did finally remember to stop at Moose Falls on the way out of the park. It's less than 100 yards off the road. Very pretty.
I think we ate at the Merry Piglets again.
Friday, May 28
Another day of putzing around town. Didn't really do much. Had coffee at the 89 diner that morning, and Vicki and I and Sam and Connie split up for the morning again. Ate at the Bunnery. Good chili. $4.25, not $14.00. But it didn't have venison in it. ;-) It rained off and on, with sunshine at times, I think. We went back up Wilson-Moose road to look for wildlife again, and went to Dornan's for a while, then back in to town for dinner.
Saturday, May 29
We packed the night before, so we had time to go downtown for "Wild West Days", the kickoff of the Jackson Hole summer tourist season. There was a parade, and dispite the weather forecast of an inch of slushy snow, it was cool and partly cloudy at 10:00 am, and we watched representatives of various organizations from an older ladies dance club to an indian tribe to the ... saddled floozies or something along those lines (old west barmaids on horses), to highland scotts, and yes, the Forest Service itself. And guess who works for the forest service? Vicki's cowboy. I tried to get a good shot of him, but the only one where he was facing me he was blinking and his front teeth were sticking out. So he looked less than dapper. I told Vicki I did that on purpose, and she jokingly agreed that I had. We got some coffee at a streetside stand and headed for the airport.
We sat in the airport bar looking out at the clouds and snowshowers that had moved in right after the parade was over. When we went to board the plane, I wondered if my boots would trigger the alarm, and I mentioned that and waved them through. One of the guards said "actually, we can't have you do that, sir"... not terribly sure why, but oh well. But somehow I couldn't walk through without it beeping. So they wanded me, looking me over for guns, knives, explosives, needles, thumbtacks... "turn the plane around, buddy, or this guy gets it with a thumbtack! -- I mean it, man, right in the forehead! I'll use this 'kick me' sign, so help me!" I'd forgotten to take my watch off.
We boarded the plane. The pilot said we could listen to the conversation between the planes and the control tower on channel 9 of the airplane "radio", so I did. A driving sleet storm ensued. However, that's not why we couldn't take off. A ground stop in Denver due to severe thunderstorms. 1 hour. The stewardesses started a movie, but we could only get it in Spanish on our side of the plane. I read and listened to the tower conversations. Eventually, we did leave. They switched our flight for us in the air so that we got a different one to St. Louis, a mere 35 minutes after landing in Denver. We flew between thunderstorms in eastern Kansas on the way back. Landed in St. Louis at 9:30, went to the hotel, got the car (and Connie's phone) and went to Denny's to hopefully meet Sam's son Chad. However, the young whippersnappers were disorganized and partying and couldn't make it. So after the two hour drive home and another half hour from Sam & Connie's, it was probably 1:45 am before we got to the house. The neighbors took very good care of the cats -- Bart wasn't mad at us like he can be. He was glad to see us. We went to bed exhausted.
Wow... you made it to the end. Of course, there was much more, but that's the highlights. Now you know.
By the way, the pictures are at http://leithp1.home.mchsi.com/jackson .... there's three pages of thumbnails, so beware!
Later....
All in all not a bad vacation.
Friday, May 21
We went to St. Louis Friday night since we had to be at the airport at 5:00 am for our 6:30 flight. In my last minute packing I decided to bring my leather fedora I bought in San Diego. I kind of wished I had it last year in Colorado for its sun shading properties. Little did I know what a good decision that was to be this time around.
Sat, May 22
Got to the airport, and my bag was 13 lbs overweight. They said transfer 13 lbs to the other one and I'd be ok. I removed my backpack, a pair of hiking shoes, and my "power supply" bag (that alone was 10 lbs) and used my backpack for carry-on, stuffing the shoes in Vicki's bag.
Got through security ok. They took a pair of manacuring scissors from Vicki -- they were in her makeup pouch which she did not check. I've said it before and I'll say it again... any passengers/pilot who allows their airplane to be hijacked with a pair of manacuring scissors deserves to be hijacked. That trick worked once. It won't work again. You can mail them to yourself, but for the price of a pair of scissors, it's a wash. They sniffed my camera bag and backpack because of the batteries and power supplies I had in them. But we passed.
Connie couldn't find her cell phone. We figured it was probably in the car back at the hotel. She called and had her phone forwareded to Sam's.
Jetted to Denver, prop-planed to Jackson, and we were in town a little after noon local time.
Checked in to the Grand Victorain B&B, and went downtown for a bit where I bought a geology book on the area. Late afternoon we went for a drive on Moose-Wilson road to look for wildlife and get a gander at the mountains. They were beautiful as advertised. Went in to a bar in Moose called Dornan's with the most spectacular view of the range, and right at sunset Sam and I decided to drive out to one of the turnouts and take some mountain shots.
The forecast for the week was showing a promising Mon, Tue, Wed, and maybe Fri. Sunday looked rainy and Sam said that made it a good day to do yellowstone because it wasn't about big scenery, but features and wildlife.
Sun, May 24
Well, now the forecast for Yellowstone calls for about 38 degrees and snow. Oh well. Plow ahead. The Yellowstone Plateau is consistently one of the coolest places in the nation temperature-wise. About 1,200 feet above Jackson, it's often about 8-10 degrees cooler.
We stopped a couple of places along the way for some photos of us by the Grand Teton National Park sign, and some shots of the mountains and an abandoned cabin.
Our guidebook said to be sure to check out Moose Falls in Yellowstone -- that it was often overlooked. It's about a mile past the south entrance. We drove right by it. There was a lot of road construction in and around Yellowstone. Craig pass was closed due to last night's snow and a possibility of 4" today, so the main geyser basins were out. Dang. I really wanted to see those. But Lewis Canyon was pretty and the Lewis River had a nice falls on it we stopped at. The weather was going through changes about every 5 minutes. Sometimes less. Rain. Sleet. Sun. Rain and sleet. Snow. Rain and Snow. Rain and sleet... and Sun... all at the same time. And so on pretty much all day. Connie had a lot of fun trying to keep track of it all in the log book.
Connie is a huge bear fan. One can not overestimate how badly Connie wanted to see bears. She has one around her neck. She has a very nice photograph of one by Tom Mangelsen framed on her wall at home. Not a triffling thing.
Stopped at West Thumb and Sam pointed out my first hot spring. Cool. Steam rising from a big pit in the ground. Unreal! At the parking lot there was the whole West Thumb thermal basin where there were several hot springs, mud pots, and maybe a geyser or two. Several steam vents as well. While walking the basin and taking pictures, it decided to get serious about the snow. Not quite whiteout, but pretty heavy. I had about 1/2" on my fleece jacket in no time. It looked cool, though, with snow falling through steam rising out of the ground, and little pools of boiling water on top of the ground, boiling for no apparent reason. And occasionally, a good whiff of sulpher.
Got back in the car and went around West Thumb to Bridge Bay... there was "stoppage". That means one or more cars stopped at the side of the road with people out of their cars, looking off-road, intently.
Connie hopped out and asked what they saw... "A Bear!!!!!" she said at the top of her whispering lungs, eyes like CD's and hands out like "OH MY GOD!!!!". Kid in a candy store.
A man in the woods said it was a brown bear and three cubs. I set up camera not caring what kind of bear it was with three cubs and took some shots from about 100 yards off. The bear noticed all the people and led her cubs back into the woods. We got into the car to drive off. I looked at the pictures I got, and we all agreed that it was a Grizzly. Connie and Sam were sure of it before, but in the excitement I really hadn't had much time to look at what I was seeing. Down the road maybe another 150 yards Vicki looked out the window and there she was, maybe 30 feet from the car, coming towards the road. She boogied it on back into the woods with her cubs. We got out of the car to see where she went, and through the trees I could see her down by the lake again, maybe 150 yards off.
I saw her heading back west and decided I could get ahead of her and get a few shots maybe from in the woods while she walked along the lake. I went into the woods maybe 20 yards and hid behind a tree and used it to steady the camera. She started walking towards the road again, directly toward me. I got one shot from maybe 80 yards - she hadn't noticed me, and slowly backed out of the woods motioning for the woman behind me to do the same. I wanted to let her cross the road.
More people showed up from down the road, though, and she turned and took them back into the trees by the lake. We decided she was agitated enough and felt sorry for her, so we left, happy with the shots we got. She wasn't confrontational yet, but I think she was getting a little concerned for her babies and wanted to get them out of the area.
We drove on and soon came upon a herd of buffalo in a field. Lots of calves. One of them was playing rather vigorously, getting a drink from it's mom and then running around her in circles about 6 or 7 times and stopping for another drink and repeating the process. Snow was falling. I got a nice shot of a lone buffalo in front of a tree in the snow.
We pressed on to this "hill of fire" where there were many thermal features. Basically every kind there is. Vicki and I walked the path through them leaving Sam and Connie in the car. It was raining, snowing, and sleeting. It was cold. On our way back a man pointed behind us. Maybe 20 feet behind us was a pair of buffalo who had popped over the hill ... obviously after we passed, and were headed perpendicular to our path and back some, quite unconcerned with our presence. We went back to the car.
Stopped and ate at Canyon Junction in a pretty good snowstorm and talked to a pretty Polish girl who was our waitress. It was her second summer there. That would be so fun to do for a young, single person. Most of the people we met were not from Wyoming, and a good many were from out of the country. That included Jackson Hole as well, not just Yellowstone. I read that Wyoming's population is kept stable by tourism. People come, fall in love with it, and stay about as fast as natives get fed up with it and leave. But, as they say, the Billionaires are driving the Millionaires out in the Jackson Hole area, at least.
I really am trying to keep this brief. We did see some elk as well. We went down the canyon from "Inspiration Point" (not to be confused with the one at the head of Cascade Canyon in Grand Teton) and also hiked down to the head of the lower falls and back up. Very pretty. Nice hike. We had some snow, but it got more and more sunny as the next hour or so passed.
Looked for more wildlife on the way home. Stopped and looked at this huge pool of churning, boiling water, but everyone was tired and I was the only one looking anymore, so I hopped in and we drove back to Jackson (a good 120 miles from where we were at the time). We passed Moose Falls without remembering it was there on the way out. It was 9:00pm by the time we got into Jackson. Many restaurants weren't seating anymore, and a recomended one was nixed when it was noted that the chili was $14 (which became a long-standing joke for the rest of the trip).
So, we ate at Wendy's and went home exhausted.
Monday, May 25
Originally we were going to do the big Cascade Canyon hike on Tuesday, but today's forecast now says that Wednesday has the best chance of being a decent day. So we putzed around town in the morning -- however, nice an afternoon as it was, we headed out to Grand Teton and did a 5 mile loop around Taggart and Bradley lakes. Very pretty hike, nice afternoon for it. Good warm-up for the Cascade Canyon hike, I thought.
On the way back down we ran into a tall, slim, blue-eyed, dark-haired cowboy on a horse... maybe 35-40 years old. The women fluttered a bit. He was a good lookin' guy, I must admit. For a (hetero) guy to notice that, they have to be.
We went to Dornan's for more Margaritas & beer and more of that spectacular view. The sun set. We ate dinner there. Went home. ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz
Tuesday, May 26
The girls are sleepy, so Sam and I head out to Moultan Barn to take some morning pictures. We never got a clear shot of the Tetons behind it, but took some nice photos. Another photographer came along and Sam talked to him for quite a while while I went down to the end of the road to photograph another barn. I loved the sagebrush-dotted high plains field with birds and ground squirrels. The signs that tell you to beware of the buffalo seem out of place... not a bison in sight. Or an Elk, or any mamal larger than... a ground squirrel.
We head back for a "putz around town day". Sam and Connie go to art galleries. Vicki and I look for more comfortable hiking shoes. Both of us got sore feet yesterday. My hiking shoes are really too small (should be "wides" but aren't) and Vicki's shoes are a touch too small. I wore my Eccos at Taggart lake, but the soles are soft and don't offer much protection against rocks. There are a lot of rocks in the mountains. Heck, they're practically MADE of them ;-)
We meet for lunch at the Merry Piglets, a Mexican restaurant we probably went to 4 times.
Vicki found a nice pair of hiking shoes at a second hand shop for $6 and a nice jacket for another $6. I bought her a packable quick-dry rain hat at Eddie Bauer. Sam and Connie are looking at expensive art ... we're hitting the second hand shops. We laugh at ourselves. Vicki heads back to the room, and I go back downtown resigned to buying a good pair of hiking boots at full price. I find a good pair at a place much like our local "Alpine Shop" and go back. Dinner at the Merry Piglets.
Cascade Canyon tomorrow. It's supposed to clear overnight, and cloud up again during the day, with isolated thunderstorms possible in the afternoon. I decide to get up early (5:00am) to catch Moultan Barn at sunrise since it's supposed to be so nice.
Wednesday, May 27
Yawn! How many chances in my life will I get to do this. Very few. I get myself up. Dress. Sneak out with my camera so as not to wake Vicki. The sky had a few clouds. After getting past the two big Buttes that hide the mountains from Jackson, I see lots of clouds on and behind the mountains. Shoot. To the east, there is sunlight, but no sun yet. Drove out Antelope Flats road, and parked the car across the road from a very old willow tree and wait for sunrise. I noted after some cloud watching that about the time the sun came up over the Wind Rivers, the clouds will have blown off the Tetons. My luck was changing.
However, just about the time that happened, an overcast layer blew across the sun and I never got my morning gold light.
I took what I could, and enjoyed the solitude of the nice cold morning in such a pretty setting, and went back to the B&B.
After breakfast, we headed out. The plan was to catch the Jenny Lake Ferry early in the morning, hike all day, and take it back in the late afternoon. However.... during the off season the earliest it leaves is 10:00 am... and the latest it comes back is 4:00 pm. Our 8 hour hike is now a 5.5 hour hike.
And it's raining.
We take the back route to see more animals, and miss the 10:00 ferry. On top of that, due to the weather they're only leaving on the hour, not on the half hour, so our 5.5 hour hike is now a 4.5 hour hike. And somehow it doesn't hit me that that means hike in + hike out.
But, we make the best of it, ferrying across at 11:00 and starting our hike near 11:15. It's a 420 foot climb to Inspiration Point, past beautiful cascades and falls in the rain and snow and sleet. Jenny Lake is close to 6,800 feet. I'm sure the ceiling is about 8,000 feet today. But it made it more of an adventure. At one point the trail narrows to about a 6 foot wide notch cut in the side of the granite stone going up to Inspiration Point. It's neat watching clouds form as the air moves up the mountainside. Hidden falls is beautiful as advertised. And after about an hour of hiking and stopping and enjoying and picture taking, we reach Inspiration Point, about 1 mile into the trail.
I'm sure Inspiration Point is much more inspiring on a clear day. You can see Jenny Lake, I'm sure you can probably pick out Bradley and Taggart from there as well, and you can probably see all the way across the snake River Valley and Jackson Hole to the Wind River Mountains. And behind you, Mts Teewinot and Owen and The Grand Teton itself. But not today. You get a wind-whipped and rainy Jenny Lake and a cloud-shrouded atmosphere -- an interesting sight in itself, but the 25 mph wind blowing cold water in your face on a 38 degree morning makes you say "well, wonder what the canyon looks like?" and turn quickly into the trees toward it.
At 7,200 feet, the clouds are maybe 800 feet over our heads. After about another hour and 15 minutes of hiking Sam notes that half our time is burned and we'd better eat and head back. I can't believe it's been so short. By the landmarks I see, we made it about a mile up (to Inspiration Point) and about 2, maybe 2.5 miles into the canyon... At 1:30 pm, we head back.
As you might expect, going down takes much less time than going up, although the canyon itself is rather flat. Well, we weren't stopping as much since we'd seen a lot of this stuff on the way up. We were ahead for a while, then Sam & Connie passed us and we lost track of them. Worried that they may be down at the bottom trying to make the 3:00 ferry, we don't tarry much and get to the boat dock at 2:55pm. They come around the bend about 5 minutes later. They were worried that WE wanted to catch the 3:00 ferry. I don't think either couple meant to get down that fast. So, we all caught the 3:00 ferry making it a 3:45 hike. About half of what I had expected before several situations conspired against it. Coulda spent more time up by Hidden Falls. Sam & Connie said they found a spot where you could actually see the whole thing without trees in front of it. Hmmmm. Next time, I guess. Reminds me of my first attempt at Sniktau.
Well, what better way to cap the day than to go to Dornan's. And Vicki's cowboy was there, to boot. You can't see the Mountains, but it's a nice place anyway, with the high plains & willows and Snake River winding just outside.
Later, off to the Blue Lion for dinner. Three of us had the Elk, Sam had the pork chop, I think. It was very good.
Thursday, May 28
Another rainy day in the forecast, but a little warmer. We decide to head up to Yellowstone again.
There's lots of road construction. As we round the turn from Lizard Creek north of Jackson Lake, there are two cars stopped on the right side of the road, and an upside-down truck in the ditch, hissing, and wheels still spinning on the left. Sam stops the car, realizes it must've just happened, and gets out to see if anyone's hurt. I'm fumbling around my seatbelt and door lock, kind of in semi-shock... I've never come upon an accident like this where help wasn't already there. Sam hollers at the vehichle, and just as I get across the road a young man comes spurting out from the other side. He's in shock, but alert. Connie calls 911, and a government truck pulls up behind us and gets on the radio. The man was a mechanic, basically driving a mobile garage to help work on the road construction vehichles. His tire had caught the side of the road and he lost control, went into the ditch and the vehicle flipped. Good thing nobody was on the passenger side. They wouldn't have made it. It was crushed. But he had a banged head and a cut ear and would probably be all right -- just needed to be checked for concussion. We talked to him to make sure he stayed awake until a paramedic arrived and more help was on the way, and pressed on to Yellowstone.
In all the excitement, we forgot once again about Moose Falls. However, this time, Craig Pass was open. You cross the continental divide three times between the south entrance and the main geyser basin. Anything above 8000 feet has snow, and a bunch of Yellowstone is 8000 feet or above. It's actually a relatively flat area, due to the geology of the region (how it was formed)... Anyway, we don't spend much time stopping this time because we want to get all the way up north to Mammoth before turning around. However, we get to the Old Faithful geyser basin and stop there about 35 minutes before the next scheduled eruption. Vicki and I take the time to walk around the other thermal features in the area in a hurried tour and get back to the seating area about 5 minutes before "time".
It throws off a few 3-4 foot mini eruptions, and dies down each time. It's a little "late", and we see a geyser about a mile off erupting, which is fun. A few minutes later, Old Faithful can't hold herself anymore and the real eruption begins. I got a 16 second movie of it on my digital camera plus a few snapshots. I just wanted to see a geyser erupt first hand. Very cool. But we must press on. We headed up towards Madison Junction and Firehole Canyon Drive, and stop to enjoy some cascades along the way. A very tame chipmunk whom people have obviously fed for a long time comes up to check to see if we have any food, right up to Vicki's and Connie's hands. Cute little guy. Very healthy. Bright color, fat, sleek. The volcanic stone in the canyon walls looks neat -- I try to imagine the pyroclastic flows that violently formed them a very long time ago, and then the river slowly cutting a canyon through it.
It was a much nicer day than the first trip we made. We wound up to Mammoth Springs. Upon seing no elk there and with a rainshower moving in, people are ready to head back. But I want to at least go look at the big mineral formation for a little bit. No sooner do I get to the wooden path than the sky opens up and dumps a torrential downpour on me.
Let me just say something about my hat. I bought the leather fedora in San Diego a few years ago. I like it. I wear it a lot in the winter. It keeps my head warm and dry. I've treated it to be waterproof. Vicki's not particularly fond of it and I don't think she was too excited about my bringing it. But boy am I glad I did. With this weather I'd've been soaked and cold without it all week. Any such trip I take from now on it's coming with me. This is obviously why people wore hats so much back in the day.
At any rate, on the way back Connie mostly slept, we looked for wildlife, but we were basically hoofing it back. We did finally remember to stop at Moose Falls on the way out of the park. It's less than 100 yards off the road. Very pretty.
I think we ate at the Merry Piglets again.
Friday, May 28
Another day of putzing around town. Didn't really do much. Had coffee at the 89 diner that morning, and Vicki and I and Sam and Connie split up for the morning again. Ate at the Bunnery. Good chili. $4.25, not $14.00. But it didn't have venison in it. ;-) It rained off and on, with sunshine at times, I think. We went back up Wilson-Moose road to look for wildlife again, and went to Dornan's for a while, then back in to town for dinner.
Saturday, May 29
We packed the night before, so we had time to go downtown for "Wild West Days", the kickoff of the Jackson Hole summer tourist season. There was a parade, and dispite the weather forecast of an inch of slushy snow, it was cool and partly cloudy at 10:00 am, and we watched representatives of various organizations from an older ladies dance club to an indian tribe to the ... saddled floozies or something along those lines (old west barmaids on horses), to highland scotts, and yes, the Forest Service itself. And guess who works for the forest service? Vicki's cowboy. I tried to get a good shot of him, but the only one where he was facing me he was blinking and his front teeth were sticking out. So he looked less than dapper. I told Vicki I did that on purpose, and she jokingly agreed that I had. We got some coffee at a streetside stand and headed for the airport.
We sat in the airport bar looking out at the clouds and snowshowers that had moved in right after the parade was over. When we went to board the plane, I wondered if my boots would trigger the alarm, and I mentioned that and waved them through. One of the guards said "actually, we can't have you do that, sir"... not terribly sure why, but oh well. But somehow I couldn't walk through without it beeping. So they wanded me, looking me over for guns, knives, explosives, needles, thumbtacks... "turn the plane around, buddy, or this guy gets it with a thumbtack! -- I mean it, man, right in the forehead! I'll use this 'kick me' sign, so help me!" I'd forgotten to take my watch off.
We boarded the plane. The pilot said we could listen to the conversation between the planes and the control tower on channel 9 of the airplane "radio", so I did. A driving sleet storm ensued. However, that's not why we couldn't take off. A ground stop in Denver due to severe thunderstorms. 1 hour. The stewardesses started a movie, but we could only get it in Spanish on our side of the plane. I read and listened to the tower conversations. Eventually, we did leave. They switched our flight for us in the air so that we got a different one to St. Louis, a mere 35 minutes after landing in Denver. We flew between thunderstorms in eastern Kansas on the way back. Landed in St. Louis at 9:30, went to the hotel, got the car (and Connie's phone) and went to Denny's to hopefully meet Sam's son Chad. However, the young whippersnappers were disorganized and partying and couldn't make it. So after the two hour drive home and another half hour from Sam & Connie's, it was probably 1:45 am before we got to the house. The neighbors took very good care of the cats -- Bart wasn't mad at us like he can be. He was glad to see us. We went to bed exhausted.
Wow... you made it to the end. Of course, there was much more, but that's the highlights. Now you know.
By the way, the pictures are at http://leithp1.home.mchsi.com/jackson .... there's three pages of thumbnails, so beware!
Later....
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
It's not getting what you want, it's wanting what you've got
Gotta keep remembering that as I look at the forecast for Jackson, WY next week. Yesterday, it didn't look so good for much of next week. Accu-weather looks a little brighter today. It IS next week, though, so I need to remember that things will probably be different. I'll just have to love the weather we get.
Starting to pack -- sizing up what I can take in the luggage I'm willing to lug. Looks like if I want to bring the tripod... and I think I do... I need to take the medium suitcase. We were hoping to get by with two smalls, but I think it'll be the small and the medium.
I'm planning on taking the video camera (thanks, Joe) mainly for Yellowstone. A picture of steam rising out of the ground ain't the same as video with sound.
Getting the deck squared away. Need to get the autowatering system up and running for the summer. I planted some veggies in the garden over the weekend. The watercress hydroponic pot is slow to start -- hope it takes off while we're gone.
I also figured out why the Big Green Egg wasn't working so well the last couple of times we used it. I had used those parafin/sawdust firestarters in it the last few times I lit it... well apparently a lot of that wax melted and clogged the bottom draft area with a crunchy mixture of charred wax and ash. Cleaned it out, and it's back to its old terrific self again.
Looks like the yahoos next door are moving out. I hope we get a more stable set of neighbors, but proably shouldn't hold my breath. Responsible adults would be nice. The management company running the place don't seem to care who they rent it out to. It's the only rental on the block. The rest of us owners are stable, working or retired adults. Got home yesterday and there was a blacksnake in their house. I went next door and helped capture it and released it in the woods behind our house. It was about 3 feet long. No idea how it got in, or more amazingly, managed to get up on their hockey table.
That house is a mess inside. There was a note on the door from the management company saying that they were going to show the house today. Bet they'll be pissed when they see the condition.
Had dinner with Sam and Patty & friends last night at Murry's -- Kristen graduated. She's turned in to a pretty young lady. Going to ... oh, some college in Atlanta for Grad School. Patty's looking great. She has a short hair cut that looks really good on her. You always see Patty and Kathy in dresses. They look so nice in them. John got his hair cut! Wow! He's probably 56 years old now. I guess fatherhood gets us all eventually ;-) Sam was quiet... we mostly listened to John. We should really get down to Arizona sometime and visit them.
Brian got a letter from one of his economics professors praising him and telling him what a joy it was students like him in her class. Wow. I never got anything like that. Impressive.
Gotta go!
Starting to pack -- sizing up what I can take in the luggage I'm willing to lug. Looks like if I want to bring the tripod... and I think I do... I need to take the medium suitcase. We were hoping to get by with two smalls, but I think it'll be the small and the medium.
I'm planning on taking the video camera (thanks, Joe) mainly for Yellowstone. A picture of steam rising out of the ground ain't the same as video with sound.
Getting the deck squared away. Need to get the autowatering system up and running for the summer. I planted some veggies in the garden over the weekend. The watercress hydroponic pot is slow to start -- hope it takes off while we're gone.
I also figured out why the Big Green Egg wasn't working so well the last couple of times we used it. I had used those parafin/sawdust firestarters in it the last few times I lit it... well apparently a lot of that wax melted and clogged the bottom draft area with a crunchy mixture of charred wax and ash. Cleaned it out, and it's back to its old terrific self again.
Looks like the yahoos next door are moving out. I hope we get a more stable set of neighbors, but proably shouldn't hold my breath. Responsible adults would be nice. The management company running the place don't seem to care who they rent it out to. It's the only rental on the block. The rest of us owners are stable, working or retired adults. Got home yesterday and there was a blacksnake in their house. I went next door and helped capture it and released it in the woods behind our house. It was about 3 feet long. No idea how it got in, or more amazingly, managed to get up on their hockey table.
That house is a mess inside. There was a note on the door from the management company saying that they were going to show the house today. Bet they'll be pissed when they see the condition.
Had dinner with Sam and Patty & friends last night at Murry's -- Kristen graduated. She's turned in to a pretty young lady. Going to ... oh, some college in Atlanta for Grad School. Patty's looking great. She has a short hair cut that looks really good on her. You always see Patty and Kathy in dresses. They look so nice in them. John got his hair cut! Wow! He's probably 56 years old now. I guess fatherhood gets us all eventually ;-) Sam was quiet... we mostly listened to John. We should really get down to Arizona sometime and visit them.
Brian got a letter from one of his economics professors praising him and telling him what a joy it was students like him in her class. Wow. I never got anything like that. Impressive.
Gotta go!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Congratulations....
We're back from the graduation/mother's day/mother's birhtday weekend. Other than the purposes (celebration, seeing family, helping out around Mom's house -- all fine and good, but if you know what I'm talking about there's no need to explain, and if you don't no amount of explaining would be enough) -- so... other than that, it was a pretty uneventful trip ... oh, except for there's now something drastically wrong with the front end of Vicki's car. It got worse on the way home. Some vibration. Didn't affect the steering, but it was noisy and you could feel it in the car.
The litterbox got too full while we were gone and Bart took to the bottom of the stairs, so I had that to deal with -- bleah.
Brian's back with an old girlfriend, Carrie. She was graduating, too, although she has to take 3 more hours this summer. She spent a Christmas with us a few years ago. We liked her, too. She's had a bit of a rough go in life, but has stood up to it well. Heh... taking on Brian... and she actually knows what she's getting into. ;-) That says something. Brian says this is different. Hey, it's the first time he's ever gone "back" to someone. I suppose there's something to that.
Kevin apparently has a new girlfriend, too -- haven't met her. Adrianne. She's got like a year and a half left -- triple major in Photojournalism, History... and something else. He was over last night. Brian came back yesterday sometime and did some work for his dad. He came over about 2 hours after we got home, and Kev came to join him. Kev seemed pretty happy when Adrianne called. Twitterpated. Yup.
Well, the problem on Vicki's car is a wheel bearing. No surprise there. So that brings the grand total over about the past 6 weeks on the car to $800. Oh well. Cheaper than a new car.
10 days to Jackson, WY. I've been pouring through my books I got. Even got a topo map of Yellowstone in Fort Wayne. Now if I just had a Teton one... Got some socks for hiking. Last major hiking trip I took (Chicago Creek valley with Vicki) I got some sore spots on my feet. These are thick, breathe, and are moisture-wicking. Right then.
Well, I'm off.
*poof*
The litterbox got too full while we were gone and Bart took to the bottom of the stairs, so I had that to deal with -- bleah.
Brian's back with an old girlfriend, Carrie. She was graduating, too, although she has to take 3 more hours this summer. She spent a Christmas with us a few years ago. We liked her, too. She's had a bit of a rough go in life, but has stood up to it well. Heh... taking on Brian... and she actually knows what she's getting into. ;-) That says something. Brian says this is different. Hey, it's the first time he's ever gone "back" to someone. I suppose there's something to that.
Kevin apparently has a new girlfriend, too -- haven't met her. Adrianne. She's got like a year and a half left -- triple major in Photojournalism, History... and something else. He was over last night. Brian came back yesterday sometime and did some work for his dad. He came over about 2 hours after we got home, and Kev came to join him. Kev seemed pretty happy when Adrianne called. Twitterpated. Yup.
Well, the problem on Vicki's car is a wheel bearing. No surprise there. So that brings the grand total over about the past 6 weeks on the car to $800. Oh well. Cheaper than a new car.
10 days to Jackson, WY. I've been pouring through my books I got. Even got a topo map of Yellowstone in Fort Wayne. Now if I just had a Teton one... Got some socks for hiking. Last major hiking trip I took (Chicago Creek valley with Vicki) I got some sore spots on my feet. These are thick, breathe, and are moisture-wicking. Right then.
Well, I'm off.
*poof*
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