interfaces

Random thoughts again

2012-01-10T10:54:00.005-06:00

Tony's BLT

OK, let's start this with a little reminder of an earlier post about the Tomato and BLT. Saturday after returning to Gas City from a great day of visiting, I watched an interesting show with "the girls". It was about wonderful and outlandish sandwiches. I was taken by the "Ultimate BLT" served at Tony's I-75 Restaurant in Birch Run, Michigan. As you look at the picture of Tony's BLT, you should notice that something seems to be missing (or covered).... Does look tasty!!! If it looks good to you, here's a blog that may interest you. http://baconation.blogspot.com/

Back to my visits on Saturday. For the first time since, I think last spring, I got to go visit with my sister. Sadly her husband was out of town to a Lion's Club meeting for the day, but we talked, laughed and ate the remains of her wonderful Beef, Barley, soup... mmm good. It does seem that as the years go by, we find ourselves agreeing on more issues and values. That sibling relationship is rich and valuable. There are many things that can come along in life to strain those relationships, but they are so valuable and worth preserving.

From there, I finally made connection with Art and Pat Windmiller. Art was the high school coach when we, the class of 1960 were in "junior high". I remember him most as the coach and in "study hall", although he also taught math.Our class has reconnected with them in the past few years and it is really great tht this reconnection has occurred. Don't remember if I have posted this before, but we have another connection in that their son Bob played baseball and basketball at the University of Illinois in the late 60's (while we were at the University of Georgia). I was met almost immediately with a cup of coffee and a tray full of local Heyerly's "rolls"... some fantastic "donuts". Couldn't find a website, but if find yourself south of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, it must be worth a stop. Here's a link: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/148/928222/restaurant/Fort-Wayne/Heyerly-Bakery-Ossian. Ossian is south on State Road 1. If you happen to know who Art and Pat Windmiller are, I advise you to look them up also. They aren't difficult to find and it is so worth your while to spend some time renewing that old relationship. We talked about folks we knew in Silver Lake, Basketball in Silver Lake, colleges and even the Pacers. (Pat's apparently a devout Pacer's fan, but they had the Illinois/ Nebraska game on the TV while we visited and she was pulling for Nebraska... What's up with that. There I was retired from the University of Illinois after 30 + years, and their own son played for the U of I and she was cheering for Nebraska.... Hmmmm. Oh well. "we" won. Funny thing is that the game was really in the background as we visited. When I started this paragraph I said that he was "the" coach.... Not the basketball coach, the football coach.... etc. You see there were 25 people who graduated from SLHS in 1960. In our class maybe 5 or 6 guys were involved in sports. I'm sure it was similar when Art was coaching there. Those few guys were the basketball, baseball, track, and cross country teams. Weren't enough to field a football or tennis team. I think I did this "big fish in a little pond" theory before, so won't go there again. The point is that for guys in multiple sports you didn't have the coaches fighting over them cause they were the same coach. Notice I said "guys"... sad to say that at that time sports were primarily a "guy thing"..
We talked a little about WW II which of course I only can relate to through movies, books and conversation with those who "were there". Reminded me of an interview I had just heard on WDWS radio. A local "Mahomet" man, Kevin Brooks, had collaborated on a book called Glider Infantryman about their experiences riding gliders behind enemy lines at Normandy. Wow. What little we know. Here's a link for that: http://www.amazon.com/Glider-Infantryman-Williams-Ford-University-Military/dp/1603444246. Art was one of the guys who "patched" up folks. I can imagine the anguish in working feverishly to save a life or a limb, nourished by cigaretttes and coffee and little sleep. OK. Not my story!!!

One new Doggie Door

Sunday I got to use my new "double saw" or "dual saw" http://www.dualsaw.com/ that the kids got me for Christmas to cut the hole to make a "doggie door" in our nephew's garage so their dog could sleep inside and poop outside. Took me longer that it probably should have, but although I forgot to take pictures before covering my handiwork with the plastic strips, I think it turned out pretty good. During the process, I was reminded of a sermon our family heard years ago at Center EUB church north of Silver Lake for a Christmas or New Year, or something. I need to take this opportunity to highlight again the significance of EUB. I grew up in the local Evangelical United Bretheren Church. Georgia grew up in the Methodist Church. In the year 1963, these 2 demoninations joined and became the United Methodist Church. Why is this significant? Because that was the year that Georgia and I became Mr. and Mrs. Kneller. How's that for a divine union? Back to the story. This older visiting minister gave a sermon. Not sure how it related to Christmas or New Year or Christianity as a matter of fact, but the message was "if you don't have what you want; use what you've got".... That simple little message has stayed with me for all those years. So how does it relate to the doggie door???? Although I have learned to bring tools when I come here, I never seem to have exactly the right tool for the situation. I did make do with what I had, but when it came to fastening the plastic (Stair Tread covers) to the frame I had built, I was at a loss. I had bought a box of screws to put the wood together, but didn't think about not having 4 hands to hold the plastic while I screwed the wooden frame over it. I looked through my tools and supplies and finally found a package of glazing points. Now if you don't know what they are, you'll have to look them up yourself. I needed something that would hold the plastic to the back of the wood until I could secure the whole assembly to the garage. I stuck one of the points in the plastic, pounded it down, then flattened it and "viola" or as I used to think it was; "walla".... It worked!!! I had what I needed!
I think that's enough rambling for now.

2012 is here. Let's exercise

2012-01-06T08:15:00.002-06:00

I know it is cliche, but thought I might as well start the year with a post. It is amazing the things you learn poking around. I was concerned that I wasn't getting the exercise I needed to keep up my knee rehab being away from home. Just before Christmas I stumbled onto a 5-speed light cruiser type bike at the "permanent" Flea Market on main street in Gas City, Indiana...Boy do they have stuff there. If I didn't already have way to many caps in my closets, I would have picked up some real unusual ones.Electric guitars and amps galore... Just lots of "stuff".... But I found this nice bike. The only problem I saw was that the shifter cable was frozen (rusted solid). So I walked it down the street about a block to the local "Do it Best" (Owens) hardware that I frequent when doing small projects here, thinking I would pick up a cable an replace it in Nan's garage with Moe wagging his joy with my presence in his lair. As I walked the bike into the store and told the guy... I'm so embarrassed that I don't know his name as often as I have been in there..... walked me to the back of the store where they actually have a bicycle repair shop. Since the weather wasn't all that nice at that time, I decided to have them replace the cable. You see, although our boys can disassemble and reassemble a bicycle in probably 15 minutes flat, I never got past the old big tired cruisers with coaster brakes. In late summer while I was trying to elevate my bike riding beyond our housing addition, I picked up a 10-speed for $15 via "Dealing with Jim Lewis" on our local Saturday morning radio. Everything seemed fine except the guy had turned those curved handlebars around. I couldn't ride it like that, so set out to turn them around. All the time I was beating on the handlebars to get one of the brake levers off to remove the bars, I knew..... I knew.... there was some simple way to loosen the lever and I knew.... I knew... where it was supposed to be. However I didn't have the patience or sense to compress the lever to expose the screw to loosen it.... So I finally got it off by breaking the band that held it in place.... So had to go to the hardware to get a new lever, which of course, ruined the integrity of the bike. I got it going with the bars correctly placed, but just never felt safe riding it, so kept looking for something more suitable to me. Now I'd found it, but was hesitant to dig into the repair process again, given my recent experience. When we came back, the weather wasn't really conducive to outdoor riding and Nan mentioned that there was a local exercise facility. That's the real subject to this post.
Nan told me where the facility was located, which was in a part of town I had never frequented in all the years I had come to Gas City. On the outside is an "Ironworks" sign. Inside, I found an open floor, most likely for the zumba, etc. with a rather messy counter on the right and a room packed with exercise and body building equipment on the left. There I found the owner Dave Turner. Meeting Dave is an experience in itself. Here is a guy who seems to enjoy life as he finds it and loves to tell his stories. In that little meeting, I found that the exercise facility was only a sideline (hobby) that came to him because he wanted to buy the building for his real business; Ebenezer's Personalized Embroidery. Part of the contract was that he had to keep the exercise business there for some set amount of time. That was about 30 years ago and the "gym" is the longest continually operating exercise facility in the country... And I didn't even know it was there. Dave mentioned that there had been a couple of national lifting and bodybuilding champions who trained there. So what is the embroidery business? Although I couldn't find a website, (Dave said he doesn't advertise either of his businesses) Manta had this: Ebenezer's Personalized Embroidery is a Health Club facility and is located at 109 E South D St in Gas City, IN. (765) 674-3360. After talking with Dave, I understand this strange description. His Embroidery business is primarily making and repairing company and school jackets, etc. I think his best advertisement is word of mouth..
Back to my purpose. I went to the equipment section to be sure they had what I needed. I found several stationary bicycles which were my primary target. There are also several elliptical stairstepper trainers. I remember this as that dratted machine Noelle introduced me to in my initial rehab back home. That sucker will give you a workout. Finding they had what I needed, I signed up for 10 sessions. I have since used 2 of them. While I was there both times, I was a little out of place in my jeans, Keens, and T-shirt with those buff young musclemen walking around in their gym shorts, athletic shoes and torn off sleeve muscle shirts. They were also huffing and puffing more than I as they hoisted those bars with large steel wheels on the ends. If I get to the treadmill at some point, I will also be walking while they jog and run as they cycle between lifting, pressing and jogging. I did get a reprieve last time, however because a couple of ladies came in to use the Stairstepper. The "guy" showed me how to program the bike for various courses. The first day, I did the level course and the second, I did the "rolling hills" course... Now that was interesting. I set the elliptical for a bit too long and that nearly wore me out. We how have a few days of nice weather, so I will probably be using the "real" bike, saving my "club" visits for more severe weather days. In riding the bike I discovered some other parts of town that I hadn't seen before. I think I have now seen the far northeast to the far southwest corners of the town. I think I have seen the 4 corners of Gas City now.

Ode to Andy Rooney

2011-12-04T11:17:00.002-06:00

At least I'll use him as an excuse. The joy of listening to that crotchity old man was in seeing, as my early morning radio host Dave Gentry says, "a blinding glimpse of the obvious". (http://www.wdws.com/) Though I can't claim as much time marinating in this society as he, I seem to have caught his disdain for the ridiculous things our society has migrated into. (Bad sentence structure, I know.) OK. -into which our society has migrated..... better? This post was actually stimulated by one of those phone calls we seem to get trapped in these days. Whether it is your cable or satellite company, telephone company, Sears, or whatever global group the everchanging mergers have forced on you, you too have gotten into the web of some one with a middle eastern or SE Asian accent sitting at his/her monitor checking boxes as they ask you inane questions. The role is called "troubleshooting". Some times it works and they can tell you what to do to fix your problem. I'm reminded of a time a couple of years ago when there was no question that our satillite dish needed adjustment to get our reception. I called, hoping to make my way quickly to have someone come out and adjust it. I explained to the person that we needed a technician to come out. (remember that)... He started with the questions as I walked through the steps he prescribed. Several times, I said, "this isn't going to work, I need a technician." He said he needed to complete his protocol because if we could fix it over the phone we could avoid that waste. I took a deep breath and dutifully followed along. After a good 20-30 minutes of this he came up with his conclusion, YOU NEED A TECHNICIAN.... I lost my normal friendly demeanor and said "No ____ Sherlock, could you send a technician out?" He did, the technician fixed the problem, and life went on.
Again as Dave Gentry often says, "I told you that so I could tell you this".

We have been at Georgia's sister's helping care for their mother. The first couple of days we were here, I had some time and she asked me about the wire from her house to her shed. Before she bought the place someone had strung an indoor wire which now had lost it's outer covering and was looking pretty scary. On the house it was hooked to a porceline insulator similar to the one pictured here. Along with that wire was another wire which was attached with a makeshift partial hook (also pictured here after it fell to the ground). Trust me this is going somewhere. Later we had a heavy wet snow and the next morning we noticed that the "other" wire was on the ground. Apparently the weight of the snow pulled enough on the wire to straighten the "hook" enough to cause it to release and fall to the ground. It didn't affect the function of anything in the house, but was lying on the ground and needed to be put back up. Aside from the power line this was the only wire we could find coming into the house to serve the telephone, the satillite, and the internet modem. So not knowing which, she started by calling "Bright House" her internet provider. She called and told the person that the modem worked, but the wire was down and needed to be put back up. I will make a long story short by saying that while her phone guru was asking her questions, I was pulling out the couch (the modem was behind the couch) first to tell him that yes some lights were working, then specifically which lights were working, then reading him the very small print number from the back of the modem. When he asked for the operating system of the computer, I went ballistic. In fact, at this point, I couldn't even think of what an operating system was. I asked for the phone and said, "look, the systems are working fine, we're old and don't know what the operating system is, but the wire is down and someone needs to come out and put the wire up; that's all". He said in his severely broken english, I'm just trying to do my job and diagnose your problem". This really set me off. I said, "Look, dammit! The problem is diagnosed, the systems work, the wire is lying on the ground and needs to be put up. Your diagnostic job is finished, just send us a technician.". I know nearly abusive!!!! The phone went silent. He didn't hang up, but there was no one there. I hope he didn't rip off his headset and go crying to the bathroom. However that episode was over. So a few days later, I was going near the Bright House office, so I stopped in and talked with Florence who apologized for our telephone woes and said a technician would be out the next day. I had explained that we didn't know who the wire belonged to and she said they could at least see if it was theirs and we could go from there if not. I nearly hugged her, walked out the door with my chest out and head held high. I had accomplished something. This morning Scott came by and checked it out. We had started with the wrong people. Their wire was buried and the wire in question was for the telephone. He explained that their wires were always round and the flat wire had to be telephone. I had learned something. I have to admit that my confusion came from past when TV antenna wires were flat. We called the telephone company and we think someone will be out in a day or 2 to put the wire back up. Maybe another problem solved. Oh, the telephone company person accepted the fact that the things were working and didn't feel the need to diagnose our problem.

So Andy, if you're looking down. though I would never consider myself as wise or witty as you, I do share your concern for the wonderful technical advances that make our life so much better. Here are the pictures to show that it is amazing that the wire didn't come down long ago. It will be interesting to see if the just stick it back up and rebend the wire or actually put a functional holder on it. Maybe I'll give an update after it happens.

Potpourri fall '11

2011-10-31T17:59:00.002-05:00

We'll start with my new found friend, the portable urinal. I moved back into our bedroom while my bride was out of town, but when she got back and she spotted the urinal hanging in a handy location on the headboard, it was gone. Oh well, form wins over function again. I think the phrase was something like, "either it goes, or I go"... You know the joke..... I'm gonna miss her!!! .... No, I chose her and am glad I did. I guess I can go back to the tension between the stress of a full bladder and the stress of getting out of bed in the middle of the night.

Next is sports. In a year when "my" StL Cardinals looked like they were going down the tube only to come through and become 2011 World Series Champions and the University of Illinois football team starts out like a house afire and is starting to faulter while I also had to witness the second lost match of the Illini volleyball team, the addage of "it ain't over til it's over" rings so true. I have to say that the NFL season is over for me already. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the Colts with Peyton. Seems like Mathus and Freeney can't even hold the opponent when they are on the field the whole game. Jake Cutler spending more time on his back than on his feet is also disheartening. This past Sunday, I didn't even watch any NFL... So we wait now for basketball.... Obviously not the NBA. The Illinois hoopsters start this week and could be interesting... We'll see.

Oh, my knee. There isn't really anything I try to do that I can't except kneel. It is still swollen and they say it will be til Christmas. Keeping up with the exercises and riding a lot of bicycle inside and out. I have a lot of hope for a pain free winter.

Another chapter of our lives seems to have come to an end. While I was taking time off to get my knee fixed, Oregon State University hired a board certified (ACVR) radiologist to work with Dr. Steiger. Good for them, sad for us. Our late winter trips to Corvallis had become quite special for us. Hopefully there will be some instance where they will need me again or we may just have to go for a "for fun" visit. We wish them success in building a great program.

As I write this, my bride is waiting for the gremlins to come to the door to dive into the basket of candy. I'll have to make this quick because it's time for their arrival to begin. Last year at this time she was in a wheelchair following her foot surgery.

One of my magazines had an article about using power tools to carve pumpkins. I thought it was something new, but when I went to research a bit, I found that people have been doing this for a while. I chose a safe and simple design and had at it. I have included pictures of the first one. I then duplicated it and we have 2 of them flanking our front door to greet the little ones. I won't get into why I used this design rather than a face other than, Halloween is not my favorite holiday and I didn't want to go "all out" in embracing the traditions.

That's what's on my mind at this time. Happy November.

Wraps or Burritos?

2011-09-05T20:59:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago a friend mentioned an eating establishment that was serving these great wraps. I launched into a sort of diatribe about how I really didn't like wraps. I don't like soft tacos and I like my panninis crispy. The statements were true, but narrow minded. I often pick up tortillas to make quesadillas and panninis. It is really fun to figure out what sort of things you can put between the crusts to create different flavors. So last week I was in a grocery (If you've been following, you know that I have recovered from surgery quite well, though there is much work to do yet.) .. I usually get corn tortillas, but there were only flour tortillas in front of me and for some reason, I picked up a package. This past week I didn't have the stuff that I thought I needed to make panninis or quesadillas, so I put together some slightly cooked zucchini, onions, sausage and Emeral's Essence, dressed it with fresh ripe tomatoes and wrapped them in a tortilla..... hmmm... I was eating a wrap!.. Today, I had some left over Panda Express and warmed it and wrapped it.... Not bad. Then LaBamba (www.labambaburritos.com) came to mind. I remembered that I do like their combination burrito and as I thought about it, I realized that we are again quibbling over words. So look at the picture above. Is it a seafood wrap or a fish burrito???? Ahah!!! You don't know, right???? Some of you will swear it's a seafood wrap and others are sure it's a fish burrito..... I think the only way to tell the difference is to look at the menu or the name of the eating establishment. You know that the wrap has become an eating craze especially at trendy places. While Taco Bell has been serving burritos (so to speak) for years, only in the past few years has anyone outside of California heard of a wrap..... right???? So there you have it; the lowly burrito is the trendy wrap by another name. And I, who refuses to be trendy, have been eating wraps for years without knowing it. So now you have my confession. My quick response that I didn't like wraps was probably my red neck showing. Go enjoy your wrap or burrito or whatever you (and your server) want to call it with my blessing. My only problem with either of them is keeping the juice that invariably comes out of them from dripping off my elbow onto the table. Bon Appitite (or whatever).

Oh, I got the image above from a Mexican restaurant site.

After this post went up, a friend from Colorado sent me a newsletter from "Tony's Market".
http://www.tonysmarket.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=5CB723477B4E43F88024DB82BE9E5BBF

Check it out; here's someone who sells both burritos and wraps. Can you imagine the confusion of their clients????

One of life's little pleasures.

2011-08-19T22:04:00.002-05:00

One of the common phrases I heard growing up came when I would fall down; trip over something, lose my balance, etc. etc. The phrase was, "come here, I'll pick you up." In my younger years, I might whine over some little incident and would be told, "I'll give you something to cry about.". Don't get me wrong, our parents weren't abusive, just would not tolerate whining over little things. Another phrase I remember that would come if there was a semi-serious injury; "that's gonna feel good when it quits hurtin". That one came from people who witnessed another's trauma as well as a response to one's own misfortune. When the news of my grand-daughter fainting while helping me out of bed got to family members, I got a card from an aunt who said, "We heard you had an 'out of bed experience' 'haha'" Little unpleasant incidents were often met with some form of humor to bridge the moment. A little closer to home, another instance came to mind. A few years ago. I had noticed this little pimple on my abdomen at my belt line. It was noticable because it was irritated by my belt. As time went on, I somehow forgot about it until it had become a rather painful abscess that gave me difficulty in walking. I finally yielded and called the MD for help. Our regular doctor was on vacation so I was seen by a female PA (physician's assistant). She was a rather matter of fact individual, pleasant, but not overly friendly. She came up with the same conclusion as my family veterinarian; it needed to be lanced. At this point this thing was very sensitive to the touch. She prepared the site as I laid back preparing myself for what was about to come. She punctured it, giving me a really, really sharp pain followed immediately by relief I hadn't felt in several days. I sat straight up and exclaimed, "You Bitch! Thank You".. She just looked at me and grinned, knowing she had done her job and my comment wasn't meant to be personal (except for the thank you). But there it was again. the pain/pleasure cycle born out in an instant.

Some time back, I posted my feelings about the total knee replacement. Now, a few weeks later, except for those excruciating times when I (or a physical therapist) forces the joint to either straighten or bend beyond that comfort zone, I am pretty much painl free. In fact, although it's hard to compare, I would say that overall my knee feels better than it did before the surgery. However, the knee isn't the issue for this post. Did you see the movie "Crazy Heart"? Remember how they helped paint the personality of the main character as he got out of his "boat" and poured this amber fluid from the milk jug in the parking lot? I think they accomplished their purpose as most people thought, "how gross".. The other day, somehow in our conversation, Georgia said something to the effect of, "do you have those times when you have to pee so bad, but you know it is going to hurt to get out of bed, so you lie there trying to decide whether to go or not?" I got this smile on my face which threw her for a bit of a loop. You may have heard that old saying, "a bean is a fruit, but a pea is a relief". Right???? Is my tapestry pattern starting to take shape? If you are alive enough to read this and aren't wearing a catheter, you know the great feeling when you relieve the pressure of a full bladder. So why was I smiling? I realized in that moment that I had nearly reached nirvana in that regard. A month ago, in my post op condition, after pulling my catheter, they supplied me with this cute little bottle which they called a urinal. Here I am, a month out from surgery, and one of my most prize possessions is that little plastic bottle. I only use it at night, but after lying in bed for a while, my knee starts to stiffen, so that the thought of getting out of bed during the night even sounds painful to me. But I have my little friend who helps me to relieve the pressure of a full bladder without risking the pain of getting out of bed. Now you can surely see why I was smiling. What more could one ask? Then I got to thinking about that movie. Here was our hero who was driving long distances, most likely imbibing diuretic fluids and not wanting to make pit stops. A logical solution was the empty milk jug. What a brilliant practice. I could however expect that there might be some tense moments while placing that jug and driving without spilling the elixer. Then I felt a bit foolish. We raised 3 boys, yet, in all those trips between Georgia and Indiana as well as between East Central Illinois and Northeastern Indiana, I don't ever remember employing this brilliant tool. We would look for acceptable places to go to the bathroom and when the crisis demanded, would often stop along the highway to let one of the boys "take care of business" .. always one at a time, right? Why did we never think of this???? There might have been the rare instance where an empty coke can was used, risking repeat circumcision, but we never made it a practice to have something in the car solely for the purpose of collecting urine when necessary. Well that was then and now is now. You can bet however that on future trips across the country, there will be one of these little beauties in the vehicle. Sorry ladies, I don't have a solution for you,. but thanks to Crazy Heart and Dr. Bane, my problem is solved. Just one of the little pleasures in life in which the accompanying pain can be avoided. Truly the "pause that refreshes".

Ode to the luscious "vine ripened" tomato

2011-08-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

My love affair with this glorious "fruit" started in childhood. I fondly remember those August and September mornings when I would stop by the tomatoes in the garden and grab a couple to eat on the way to the barn to do the milking. Of course, I would wipe them on my t-shirt before eating. Oh, what a way to start the day. It goes from there to the Kosciusko County, Indiana fair (first full week of August). I exhibited pigs every year that I was eligible, winning the prize of champion in showmanship (the art of exhibiting a pig before a judge). During those years in the 50's the Silver Lake Lions Club stand was (to me) the best place to eat during fair week. The fact that our parents were intimately involved in running the stand might have had something to do with it. Although the pies were delicious (mom made them for many years), my staple meal that week was the Hamburger Steak Dinner. That was a large pattie of "real" beef, hand cut french fries, slaw, I think, and one or 2 slices of great home grown tomatoes. I tried other meals, but couldn't top that.
With various attempts, in the meantime, I jump to our years on East Main Street where we had a long, narrow half acre lot providing space for a large garden. Because we had a large empty lot next door, many huge Burr Oak trees, and a railroad track along the back, we were pretty much over-run with squirrels and rabbits. Therefore, the things we could hope to harvest from the garden were limited. Basically it was tomatoes and squash. At one time, I had 78 tomato plants of different varieties and would fill our wheelbarrow with ripe tomatoes to sit in the front yard for anyone to take. We couldn't come close to using them all, but I just loved growing and harvesting them. One year, we made catsup in the kitchen. Although I think it was the best catsup I'd ever eaten, the mess was such that it was a one time occasion. During those Augusts and Septembers I think I ate fresh tomatoes in some form for every meal.It was during these years, however that my disdain for tomatoes found in grocery stores and "chain" eating establisments grew. I couldn't understand why even when I had gorgeous ripe tomatoes at home, if we went out to eat, we got those tasteless things called tomatoes. Yes there were times when I actually brought tomatoes from home to put on my salad so there could be some taste.
We move on to our move to a relatively new housing addition with a "lake" bordering the back of our property. After conquering the crabgrass in the lawn, my attention turned to having a "golf course" appearance since this was the first place in a while where grass could be grown in the lawn in a patch larger than maybe 20 by 20 feet. The gardening urge couldn't be held back and we started adding flower patches in our yard, being careful not to block the view of the "lake". I couldn't bring myself to growing vegetables here, I think because here we had no "back yard with the street in front and lake in back. For some reason, I had the idea that vegetables were grown in the "back yard". We did grow some tomatoes in pots on the deck. They were good, but still didn't live up to my memory. This year, I had enlarged the areas for some of the flower beds with the idea of spreading out several of the perennials that had become crowded. With my knee issue this summer, I never felt like digging up and moving plants. When at Prairie Gardens this spring, the planet aligned in my mind and I picked up about 15 tomato starts. This week the "early girl" tomatoes began to ripen. Yesterday I had my first toasted tomato/peanut butter sandwich (an acquired taste). Wow! Now I remember. Yes, yes, yes!!! Today Georgia asked what I wanted for lunch. Yup, had another one. still one of the best taste sensations I know. Hopefully I have chosen the varieties to supply tomatoes til frost. Although we have been to the "Whistlestop Cafe" in Juliette, Georgia for Fried Green Tomatoes, I'm not that much into that delicacy (it's good, but not "that good".) So I will be in gustatory bliss for the next couple of months.
Here is a little aside. If you live on this planet you are familiar with the BLT. This is typically a sandwich made with bread, slathered with mayo, lots of lettuce, some bacon, and make believe tomatoes. About a month ago, I had stopped by "Butches" produce where he typically offers good, garden style produce. I picked up a couple of tomatoes which were somewhere between those offered in the grocery and the "real" tomatoes described above. I had found some "platter bacon" in the freezer (wish I could remember where I got it.) I thought, "oh, how about a BLT".. Problem; no L. Being a bit prideful about my industriousness, I decided to substitute a slice of onion for the lettuce; a BOT sandwich. Actually I think I liked it better than the BLT. Oh, I need to take another small rabbit trail. A few years ago, Arbys came out with their "Market Fresh" sandwiches, including a BLT. One of the things Georgia and I have slowly removed from our diet is mayo. Not that we don't like it, but even "low fat" mayo is essentially fat. We have decided we could live without it, therefore often split one of these sandwiches without mayo. So in my BOT,, with the added flavor and bite of the onion, the mayo was really unnecessary. So the next day, near lunch time, I found a portion of an avocado in the fridge. Yup, then was born, the BAT. Different, but to me very tasty. So my analytical mind started to hone in on the reputation and essence of the BLT. First, I think we all think of the BLT as a tasty treat. Where does the taste come from. Bacon, of course, is the essence of taste. A BLT without bacon is truly missing something. Ripe tomatoes of course bring taste (But only if they are those described above.) Sadly, most BLT's are made with those artificial tomatoes, thus there is no tomato taste. Lettuce???? what is the purpose of the lettuce? If you offer someone a handful of bacon, most meat-eating people will grab for it unless they are in the throws of a food guilt trip or some other form of "dieting". I know there are those who don't like tomatoes, but I must maintain that these people have never had a real tomato. I will simply say that the "real" tomato brings it's own flavor without the guilt of the bacon. Oh, the lettuce. I maintain that if you are offered a handful of lettuce without bacon, tomato or mayo ( or something else with flavor), you will only eat the lettuce to make a point, or possibly for the vitamins and minerals. There is essentially no taste. The purpose of the lettuce is to dissuage the guilt feelings over the bacon (and mayo). In essence, the lettuce serves no real purpose in a BLT, so I encourage you to experiment. Try an equally healthy BOT (more healthy without the unnecessary mayo). Try a BAT. Here you pick up a little fat to replace the mayo. This is all I've tried, but I'm expecting you can get some great flavor from a BRT (Radish), BPT (sub a bell or possibly hot form of pepper), and what about a BET (bacon, egg, tomato). There really is no limit. In fact if you want to really indulge in flavor without care for the fat, simply slather a mess of mayo onto hot freshly toasted bread and add some candied bacon and vine ripened tomato. Oh, I'm slobbering already!..You will not miss the lettuce. I know that this will work because although introduced by one of the chain eating establishments (maybe Outback?) the grocery stores carry a tangy tomato bacon salad dressing. That can make even a bowl of lettuce tasty. Hopefully I've helped you understand that most Americans have never tasted a "real" tomato, but because we think it should be tasty, will order it, or pick it up in a grocery when we know we are going to be disappointed. If you can find a space in the sun, do yourself a favor and grow some tomatoes. I also encourage you to experiment with versions of the revered BLT. Enjoy!

Two weeks out, but not yet kickin!

2011-08-06T21:38:00.000-05:00

I see progress. When I first met Raymond, my range of motion was 19 to 75 and I couldn't lift my surgery leg off the pillow. Yesterday, Raymond gave me my "mission accomplished" paper with a range of 10 to 96 and lifting my leg in all kinds of contortions for the different exercises. I didn't tell you that when he came into the bedroom that I am now calling home, his eyes lit up when he saw the recumbent exercise bike I had gotten for Georgia. Well he couldn't leave me without getting me started on that. It was even a possibility when we started, but now he felt we had enough range to try it. He set it up and we gave it a shot. After the first revolution of the pedals, we both gave a little cheer (mine was spiked with a little groan). So with the other exercises that I am doing 3 times each day, we have added 3 minutes on the bicycle. I have to tell you that that is the longest 3 minute bicycle ride I've ever taken. Of course when it gets tolerable, we will in crease it.... That seems to be the way with these theraphy folks. If you're not in agony, let's go a little further. However, the one thing I have learned is that it is better to push yourself to get the result with your own stretches than to have the therapist do the stretching. That incentive kept me from having to endure Raymond's "rack" to achieve the 96 degrees of flexion.

That's not pain you see. It's accomplishment. Same dif.

So now I am finished with Raymond and "graduate" to outpatient therapy where we face another set of goals. I can't wait. Also got the staples out and was released by the home care nurse. The instability is still unusual and Dr. Bane has me wearing a knee immobilizer when I am up walking around (except for exercizes). With the immobilizer on, I did make a quick trip to the basement to show something to Blaine. He and Celina are our home healthcare team for today. Oh, another achievement; I am only using the pain meds for the exercises. My cycle: 1 pain med and muscle relaxer, start 1 hour on CPM at 1/2 hour take the other pain med. Then do the exercises including the bicycle. Then ice on the knee. Getting that in 3 times a day in addition to meals, clean-up , etc. pretty much fills the day. So it goes. I rode to the grocery with Georgia the other day (stayed in the car) .. Uh, it was too early for that. Not a fun time.

And Now for the Rest of the Story

2011-07-29T14:11:00.002-05:00

lateral radiograph post op

Lateral radiograph with overlay

AP radiograph post op

For those who read my previous blog post describing my surgery (March 19 (more information revealed)), I apologize, I have misled you. I pulled up a picture that seemed to fit with my MRI with the medial damage. However, my procedure was a Total Knee Replacement. I think these pictures will make more sense. I found a schematic and a couple of x-rays that better describe my reality.

continuous passive motion machine

I haven’t read everything posted about this surgery, but felt I had a handle on it. I had only heard 2 negative anecdotes and one of them included infection. (Pat’s story is a horror story.) Everyone agreed that if you do the physical therapy, you will be so happy you had the surgery. My surgeon, Dr. Robert Bane, has a fantastic reputation among former patients and healthcare workers. I, of course have extra confidence in him because his father is still practicing veterinary medicine in a near-by small community. I feel I know that he comes with more than good education and surgical skills.. At this point, my only disappointment has been the pain level. You probably know that they constantly ask you where your pain is on a scale of one to ten. . That is tough because it is perfectly clear to me that you cannot understand another person’s perception of pain. Therefore they try to establish a scale for you, using this system. I think I started with a slightly high number and relatively narrow window. I do know that I spent the first few days at “Barely tolerable. I went into this with the belief that I have a fairly high pain tolerance. I need to take you back a few years to sy sense of “toughness” developed. Growing up on the farm in a relatively unemotional family, I thought Ii was pretty tough although I didn’t remember my broken collar bone at 3-4 from falling out of the hay mow. I had had my share of smashed fingers from hammers, slipped wrenches and gate and cardoor pinches. I had had more than my share of “nad smashes” from icy wooden fences, sports and nasty cousins and friends who thought a nad punch was funny. On the negative side, I remember being knocked out by Elbert (Bud) Lewis in junior high when we boxed on the stage during noon gym playtime. That wasn’t necessary a toughness issue, but it did shake my physical confidence. I got to remind Bud about this last summer. He remembered more that we both ran the distances for the Silver Lake track team. Somewhere in my writing s, I have described the “tough Mitchells in our class. During “middle school” years there was Mitchell Manns (And his gorgeous sister Della) . Also from somewhere around that time through graduation was Mitchell Bradford. I may be misspeaking but it seems these guys would get into contests to see who could hold their arm over a burning lighter the longest. If they didn’t really do this, they were the type of guys who would.. I know they did fight a lot , and although I never got into fights , I was always glad to know they were my friends at the “Tippy” Hop and other similar youth rumble prone occasions.. This is specifically important here because Mitchell Bradford had total knee replacement this spring and is walking 18 holes several times a week, pain free. He admits that his pain tolerance is much higher than for most people.. Did I say that Mitch has always had one of the most tender and caring hearts I have known? So with Mitchell’s success as my goal, I do understand that my pain tolerance isn’t what I thought it was. I am so concerned that adhesions will form that I am being diligent with the exercises.. In the hospital, as I bore more weight on my operated leg, there was a little sideways motion. They felt it was because the nerve block hadn’t completely worn off yet. As we moved toward going home time , everyone seemed very happy. Oh, my diabetes control got a little messed up but seemed to be coming around. So, home we go.

This is a good place to mention that I didn’t really think we would need help at home. After the boys visited me in the hospital, they had a meeting a mobilized an army. WE ARE SOOOO THANKFUL. Thankful first that at this time within our family there is time available for people to be at our house helping out. Thankful also that it is within their hearts to do so.. At this point Bruno hasn’t been here, but the only people who have bumped into my leg inadvertently have been adults. The first problem was the evening we came home., I have mentioned that my diabetes control had gotten a little shaky. Well it seems that I was “not myself” Sunday evening. My blood glucose had dropped to 33… hmmmm.. We have been keeping track and have kept in in line sense. Monday went as expected except that my entire right leg got swollen and the knee was swelling more.. Through that we worked out the tasks of keeping my foot elevated when sitting up and keeping the knee above my heart when in bed. Oh, when I got out of bed, my left foot slipped off the covers and my right foot came to the floor “more quickly” than I had planned.. It gave me a bit of quick pain, but nothing of concern. The next morning, (Tuesday) it was Sophia, Ava, Georgia and I. The girls had really stepped up and had done so well. However, they had stayed up a little late, so when I needed to get up Tuesday Morning, we had to wake Sophia. She and Ava came in and we started the procedure. Sophia seemed a bit “out of it” but responded that she was “just tired” when asked how she was. We found out later that she had a headache and was dizzy, but thought she could “get through this, then could go rest. Again, I asked her if she was OK. She gave this little grimace, shook her head slightly “no” and fainted, falling on me, with both of us crashing to the floor. OMG!!! Foul language came pouring from me, Ava ran to get Georgia who thought we were having an earthquake. I couldn’t see Sophia because the end table we fell on was between us. Georgia came and untangled us from the table and Sophia was sitting on the floor against the chest of drawers, but “asleep”. She soon regained consciousness and Georgia and Ava got her something to drink and out of the scene. Georgia started calling for Greg and Jeff. I had gotten to a relatively comfortable position, lying on my sides. If fact, it felt quite good since I hadn’t laid on my side since Thursday morning.. The boys got here and lifted me back up and we were in business. When told about the incident, then next door neighbor made sure we had their cell numbers so we could call them should a similar incident occur again. ( We could have run over and pounded on the door, but that’s not where our mindset was. (It’s nice to know that you have neighbors available for such stuff..) Fortunately, we had a home care nurse scheduled for 8am (one of the reasons we were trying to get things moving. We also had a physical therapist schedule for early afternoon. They both agreed that it appeared that no damage had occurred in my knee. The nurse also examined Sophia and said she was “OK” Apparently she may be manifesting a syndrome that her mom and sisters went through. I think they are having her seen by a doctor, just to make sure.

From then on, everything has been good. Good night’s sleep with pain level nearly constant at 3 (that’s good for me.) Got back on the computer. The Continuous Passive Motion machine that I came to love in the hospital because it gave me the confidence that adhesions were not forming, was discontinued until Dr. Bane could see me on Friday and get an x-ray. They want to be sure there is no damage before allowing the machine to “force” my knee into motion. We are also to put off the stretching exercises, only using isometrics to strengthen muscles.. This morning, Mahala helped me with the early morning stuff and Sophia just woke up to come help me get out of bed. She came in and looked very much like she did on the fateful morning. I said, “Mahala, keep her away from me.” We all had a good laugh.

Here we are now early Friday afternoon., waiting for the Physical Therapist to come. It should be a very eventful meeting. Rod and Charlie took me to see Dr, Bane. Georgia stayed home and tried to rest. Her dental situation has gone from bad to worse. . She is in constant pain.. We did get hold of her dentist who is in Chicago and he started her on antibiotics for yet another root canal ablation.. (If you don’t know that word, get off your butt and look it up.) Dr. Bane was happy with the x-rays. He thinks the slightly extra laxity in my joint is due to the same problem we have been fighting with the exercises. The Therapist talks about a “guarding syndrome, where the muscles “refuse” to work as an effort to guard the limb. I do know that if I get my leg up in the air, I can hold it there, but I can’t initiate the move…. Really weird. Now that we know that there isn’t anything wrong with the joint, I expect Dr. Bane to turn the Physical Therapist loose to become a “Physical Terrorist”. I’m not afraid, however because he has been so gentle to this point. I need to read some on the guarding syndrome, but at least I don’t feel like such a wimp. All we have to do is to convince my muscles that it is OK to contract when asked to do so. Thanks to all for your prayers. As I said, we couldn’t be more blessed for the home care we are getting, both from the professionals and the family. It’s nice to know that where there is a need, the need will be met. I said yesterday that I felt about the way I expected to feel when I came home from the Hospital (4 days earlier). My intent for this post was to clear the air. I wanted people to know that it wasn’t a painless procedure. Either those who “witnessed” to me about this surgery just forgot those first few days, they are much tougher than I, or they just lied. When I think about it, nearly everyone started their description a few weeks after surgery. Now I know why. I can say that here a week after surgery I feel pretty good in all respects. I just can’t get this leg to do what I want. I’m sure Raymond will get things going. I’ll have to post again once I reach that place where people start bragging (in a good way) about the things they can do. So, Mitchell, make those trips around the course for me til I’m able to do something similar. I don’t golf (Right Terry???) but I am so ready to tend the garden, etc.. I’m sure the therapy folks will have something a little more vigorous for me.

How are we supposed to stay slim.... with all this good food?

2011-07-08T17:50:00.002-05:00

Warning, don't read this post and follow links if you haven't eaten in the past 2 hours. But if you are looking for some really tasty food, read on. Aside from the occasional breakfast at Sammy's or LePeep and a once in a while lunch at Lil Porgys, (http://lilporgysbbq.com/) when we are home, I think we eat in a fairly healthy manner. Of course those breakfasts and lunches only occur when the timing and route of my business takes me there. (It's amazing how those things just seem to work out). When we are on the Oregon or Florida coast we make it a point to eat as much fresh local fish as possible. Over the years I have migrated from the deep fried version to grilled and blackened cooking methods. That all sounds like it shouldn't be so difficult to shed this "apple" shape that I inherited. We just returned from our (every 2 year) week on the Florida coast. Did pretty well the first night by eating grilled fish at the River Grill. (http://rivergrille.net/), but on the way home we stopped at Rita's (http://ritasice.com/). That blew all the good decisions I had made earlier. The next night, I again made good decisions by eating ahia tuna at the North Turn (http://www.racingsnorthturn.com/index.php) at Ponce Inlet. Alas, the group had a hankerin for ice cream again. This time we stopped in at Hershey's ice cream (http://www.hersheyicecream.com/) another place I had never heard of. I really recommend the peanut butter cup if you like that sort of thing. Before we launched out for Disney, we ate one more meal out (I think).... I had seen the Bonefish Grill (http://www.bonefishgrill.com/) before and knew it was a chain of sorts. Some how, we passed up a couple of my favorites from the past, Since we never made it to the lighthouse at Ponce Inlet, we didn't eat at Down the Hatch (http://www.facebook.com/pages/DOWN-THE-HATCH/176321229346). It is a real boat dock restaurant with fishing boats coming in and out of the inlet and brown pelicans roosting on the dock posts. We had some really funny conversations about another great eating place, Barnacles (http://barnaclesonline.com/) . As it turned out, the Bonefish Grill was fantastic although maybe a little "spendy". I again made a good choice with fish tacos.... mmmmm good!. I think everyone in the group was again fully satisfied, until we walked out the door. That big ice cream cone flashed in someone's head and away we went again. this time south to "Cowlicks". For years we had driven past this place on the way to the North Turn or Ponce Inlet. Let me tell you that Cowlicks and Hershey's makes Baskin Robbins seem like the McDonalds of ice cream. Sorry, I couldn't find a site for this Cowlick's, but here something to help if you're in the area. (Oh, the black raspberry was absolutely wonderful.) (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/124/892119/restaurant/Cow-Licks-Homemade-Ice-Cream-Daytona-Beach) . Well, we ran out of eating times with the whole group, so after a couple of days at Disney and a last breakfast together before the kids left, we could now eat a bit more on the healthy side, right???? Well, we finally got clear on a couple of "new" place Georgia's sister recommended from her trip last spring. Friday night, we went another direction and took her advice to eat at a place in Port Orange. Genovese's, an Italian place, which also had a site in Ormond Beach, but supposedly the bread is better in Port Orange. (http://genovesesitaliancafe.com/) We asked what they were famous for. She said, "the pizza". We had seen the menu, so we ordered a "small" pizza as an appetizer and each ordered a pasta dish. It was all really tasty. The pizza dough seemed more "authentic" and Georgia who had had pizza in Italy said it tasted much the same. We had stuffed ourselves, so made it past the ice cream pangs although there was still a Coldstone located in Daytona. Now we had one more chance to eat in the area, so took Nan's other recommendation, back to Port Orange to Aunt Catfish's (http://auntcatfishontheriver.com/) . I don't know which of our fish places will be replaced, but for the next trip down, this place is surely on the schedule. Again, had a pretty healthy fresh fish meal and got out of town without the ice cream.

I have told you about the places we ate in the Daytona area, but would be remiss to leave out the trip down and back. We met up with the kids in Macon at the Hilton Garden Inn. I think they have one of the best breakfasts of the travel lodging chains. We ate our first meal out together near Jacksonville at Buffalo's Southwest Cafe (http://www.buffaloscafe.com/).... Not BWW. I really got off on the wrong foot. I don't even remember what I ate, but it was deep fried and tasty. Not a good way to kick off the trip, but then maybe that was why I made the good choices (for main event eating). Going home it was even worse. Our last meal out was in Nashville. If you read this post a couple of years ago, you will surely remember me saying that if you are in the Nashville area, don't miss the chance to eat at the Loveless Cafe. (http://lovelesscafe.com/) Well, we did and I still say the same thing. Their Blue Plate Special for the day was "Watermelon Ribs".. Never heard of it. I considered if for a while, wrestling with the pork chops (which Georgia got) and the ribs. Although I love good ripe watermelon, I don't like watermelon flavored stuff. In the process our waiter agreed that it was a gamble, but "well worth it"!. Finally, I went for it. IF YOU EVER GET A CHANCE TO EAT WATERMELON RIBS AT THE LOVELESS CAFE: DO IT!

I walked out of there stuffed because I ate all the ribs and greens and the really tasty baked beans. Georgia being a bit wiser, saved quite a bit of her pork chop and caramel sweet potato to carry home. We have this cool little electric cooler we got as a reward from our bank. So we got to take the food home.

That's the end of this eating saga. Now it's oatmeal for breakfast and grilled or stir fried, or steamed meals with lots of fresh summer veggies, right???? Actually it sounds good. I didn't yet tell you that we stopped in Georgia and got some "fresh from the tree" peaches and several different versions of pecans (http://www.werenuts.com/) Well, those peaches were so good and so ripe that we have to eat them up as soon as possible. So goes the battle!!!

MOLCAJETE

2011-06-18T08:40:00.002-05:00

Have you heard this word? Do you know what it means?
I first heard this word on a recent trip to Corvallis. Jan, a friend and faculty member at OSU (one of 4 OSU's I'm aware of, 2 of which have orange and black as school colors... Sorry, I got sidetracked already.).... Jan told us of a Mexican restaurant new to the area, Mexico Lindo which she recommended. She also said she really liked the Molcajete. I ordered it and enjoyed it. Recently, we ordered take out from our local Los Zarapas (There are at least 4 Mexican eating establishments in our small town.) While waiting, I saw Molcajete on their menu. I didn't get it then, a rather long explanation that I will spare you from at this point. That evening, our grand-daughter's Mexican husband was at our house, and Molcajete came to my mind, so I asked him what it was.. Here is where my confusion began. He had a problem thinking about it as a food, but said it was a grinding bowl, like a morter and pestle. Hmmm!!! This week it worked out for us to "eat in" at Los Zarapas and I ordered the Molcajete. I should tell you now that the Molcajete I had in Oregon looked like the typical US Mexican restaurant plate full of slop, but the sauce was very tasty. I say this because when my Molcajete arrived at the table at Los Zarapas, I was pleasantly surprised and all my confusion melted. No doubt, you have already looked at the picture. (cell phone version). Yes, the dish was prepared (at least cooked) in the Molcajete (it was hot). The sauce tasted nearly like that in Corvallis and was very good. I couldn't eat the whole thing. As I sat down to write this post, I thought I should look up Molcajete (Actually to be sure I was spelling it correctly.) There were ads for the bowl and pestle as well as listings for Molcajete recipes. At this point, it seems that if I use the word again, I will have to be sure to make it clear whether I am speaking of the grinding tool or another type of very tasty Mexican food. If I have sucked you into my curiosity zone, have fun. Oh, here is a link to a recipe for one version of Molcajete (the food).

http://www.food.com/recipe/Mexican-Style-Meat-and-Vegetable-Stew-Aztecas-Molcajete-114910

Molcajete from Los Zarapas

Indians

2011-04-30T11:58:00.003-05:00

Now that I have your attention!!! I grew up in the 50's as a young "cowboy" fighting imaginary "indians". As I grew older, I was able to travel out of the state and was intrigued with the dichotomy of people like the Sioux, Arapaho. Cherokee, Nez Perce, and the "dreaded" Apache. Such a noble people who find it difficult to fit into the modern American society. Some have done it very well, yet some struggle severely. We also call them "natives" and "aboriginals" although some people say they are actually descended from Eastern Asian travelers who came to this continent via the Aleutian chain where the northwestern part of this continent nearly touches Asia. I think there is a Sarah Palin quote (true or not); "I can see Russia from my house". How the descendants of Adam and Eve got here is not so important as the fact that these people lived in North America for several hundred or several thousand years with what appears to have been a very uncomplicated lifestyle. We know about them only for the few years between the arrival of Europeans on the eastern shores and the present day. Having made several trips into the western states during the past few years, we have been able to see more into that life. The Cherokee "trail of tears" is fairly well known. I wasn't aware of a similar event when Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce led his remaining people on an attempt to escape to Canada. (http://www2.gsu.edu/~eslmlm/chiefjoseph.html)
(http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/six/joseph.htm) They were intercepted only a few miles from the Canadian border after a valiant run. I'm sure there are descendants with similar qualities to Chief Joseph, Red Cloud, etc. functioning today. So where am I going with this???
Yesterday I was in the vehicle listening to WEFT when "my" blues program ended and as always, Antonia Gonzales of National Native News came on. (http://www.nativenews.net/ ) talking about the "Miss Indian World" competition that is being held this week in Albuquerque. (http://gatheringofnations.com/miss_indian_world/index.htm)That started the thoughts to swirl in my head. You see, I had understood that the original European explorers who thought the world was round planned to sail to India to trade for spices, etc. by going west. When they landed in the Carribbean Islands (don't know where that name came from), they thought they were in the "Indies" and later called these Islands the "West Indies" and the people "Indians"., So, now 500+ years later, I hear about a competition among these people calling it "Miss Indian World" among people from North America who are apparently calling themselves "Indians".. Hmmmm!!!! So what do people from India think about the "Miss Indian World" competition?? Are they eligible? Are there Sioux, Arapaho and Apache people who resent the use of this term for a competition among their people? Really, I'm not trying to stir up trouble, but if anyone can help me with the use of this term by those who were mistakenly called "Indians" by ignorant white folks, I would appreciate it. I know that a word that was commonly used by white folks about another race of people although now taboo to white folks is often used within that race quite commonly in recent years.
You probably know that the old TV program, "As the World Turns" is ending this year. That title, however cannot be retired. Although it is easy for me to consider myself as a speck in the sands of time, I have to also consider this whole group of people. When you look at biblical history maps, you see the different people groups who have inhabited those lands. It is my assumption that this land was also present at that time. Who were the first people to inhabit North America? Where did they come from. Where do the Sioux, Cherokee and Arapaho fit in this pattern. Were they the "Native Americans" as we often refer to them, or were they simply those who were here when the white men came to explore "new lands"? (Obviously, only new to white folks.) I need to stop now before I make myself crazy. Let me know what you think. Oh: I also must wonder what the Japanese think about the title given to the North American professional baseball championship playoff: the WORLD series. Hmmmm again.

Empathy with a hambone!

2011-03-21T11:18:00.001-05:00

Just like I find it interesting to play in other people's shops with my locum work, it is also fun to cook in other people's kitchens. Finding myself in that situation, I found a hambone in the freezer. Soooo.... what you see to the right is what we had for dinner. Before we dished it up, I decided to fish out the bone to make it easier. I noticed that it was in fact the "stifle" of the pig. For the non-medical (or non-veterinary) folks, the stifle is "knee".. Aha!. Now you see the relationship of this post. Although most of the cartilage had separated from the bone, I could recognize the meniscus. One of the menisci was intact and the other was pretty much cooked away... I'm guessing that is what my medial meniscus will look like to the surgeon. Oh well. With my surgeon doing 6 of these a week, and myriads of orthopedic surgeons in the world, I am certainly not alone. The great thing is that all in all, I am hearing some great things once folks make it through the massive physical therapy. In the meantime, I'll just do what I can. Maybe I won't be dissecting the next hambone I come across. Now if you want to see something interesting do a bing search for hambone images. What a wide range of images although most of them are dogs. However, my facebook friend (and pharmacist) has an English Bulldog pup named "Meatball". Idn't that great?

More information revealed

2011-03-19T09:29:00.002-05:00

In the February 1 "Yogi Berra" post, I mentioned that I had torn the meniscus in my knee. That was from a quick report from a nurse via phone message. Yesterday, I finally got to meet with the surgeon and see the MRI images. A very interesting meeting. First about the surgeon. I had heard that he was very good and worked with university and high school athletes and that he lives "just across the road" from our addition. After meeting him, I also found that his dad and several other relatives are veterinarians, some of whom I have taught. I don't think I told you that because of the pain and lack of time before leaving for Corvallis, I called to make an "emergency" appointment back in January. My regular doctor was booked, but I got in with a physician's assistant who seemed to know what she was talking about.... and scheduled the MRI. Well, her dad is also a veterinarian. I do remember speaking with both of these dads while working at the university.

So what did I learn yesterday? I went into the meeting thinking that there was a small tear in the cartilage which would need to be trimmed up a bit by arthroscopy and I would be "as good as new" in a few days. I got a surprise. This image is very much like that of my knee. The image on the left is "as is" and I have retouched the one on the right. The bright green triangle is the normal lateral meniscus. In these images, fluid is white. You can see that on the medial side fluid has replaced the medial meniscus. Adjacent to the place where the meniscus should be, you see a large white area in the bone. This is bone contusion or edema (fluid and inflamation) in the bone caused by irritation from bone on bone contact. This tells us that the medial meniscus is not just torn, but gone.. It has been destroyed and no longer provides the normal cushion. All options presented for therapy are temporary except a "knee replacement" surgery. I'm guessing that will only be on the medial side, like this image, but will know more at my next meeting. What I do know is that it will be a 3 day hospital stay and lots of physical therapy. They expect me to be "out of commission" for 4-6 weeks. Obviously with Georgia's other foot in the offing, it seems like our home will be a recovery ward for a while. He does surgery on Thursdays and does about 6 of these each Thursday. He is booked into July, so unless there is a cancellation, I will be pretty much "as is" until late July. Instead of being out of commission for a few days in April, I now expect to be down for several weeks this late summer. Yes, prayers are accepted. Thanks.

The battle is on!

2011-03-12T10:03:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I hobbled around the yard to check thing out. At this point this little yellow crochus is the only bloom. However, the daffodils and tulips are peeking their tendler little heads out of the muclh with the promise of a spring full of glorious blooms. Having had this promise in past seasons, I face it with a bit of apprehension. I am aware of 2 ways in which those blooms may be stolen from us. The first is similar to that faced each year by the Florida fruit growers; the freak freeze that comes just as the buds are about to open (or fruit ripen). Not sure I can do anything about that. I do have lots of mulch around and over them, which should help for a while. We'll just have to wait and see. I don't see myself putting floating row cover on and off as the weather people over-estimate the threat of freezing weather as they seem to love to do... Anything to create a sensation.

The second threat to bountiful blooms are those pesky wabbits. So far, I didn't see any nibbled buds. I know that the daffodils are safe because they don't like them. But... they seem to love the tulips and crochus. So I did my first "gardening" of the year by spraying "liquid fence" on everything. My first volley in this battle for the blooms. Last year, I won. Two years ago, I lost. So here we go with another season "on the brink".. (Sorry Bobby)

Life on the Road at 31 Degrees

2011-03-09T09:28:00.001-06:00

A cabin at the Lodge at Suttle Lake

Snow on the Roof of the Suttle Lake Lodge

Yes, it's me complaining again. I was going to name this post "Welcome Back Yogi".... If you read the earlier post when I was describing repeat patterns, you would understand. However after a couple of thousand miles of glancing down at the outside temperature guage on our dashboard to see 31, I decided to use this name. There's nothing inherantly wrong with 31 degrees, except when there is moisture involved and you are on the road. Here I slipped in a couple of pictures of the Snow at Suttle Lake Lodge that I left out of earlier posts, then starting in the Oregon Cascades where we first encountered 31 degrees and lower and ending in St. Joseph, Missouri where we seem to have left that number, there are images of the beauty of freezing rain and fog when you're not driving.

Out our window at Suttle Lake Lodge

Although we dealt with that off and on through the mountains, I had such a feeling of relief as we passed Laramie because that meant we weren't going to get stuck in the mountains by deep snow again. That was also when we realized that coming up out of Laramie, we were surrounded by pine and cedar trees. We hadn't seen that since the Cascades. All that space. Then we passed by Cheyenne and were commenting on the nearby clouds covering the rock formations. All of a sudden the temperature dropped and we were in those clouds. Time to back off the 75 mph. Again, it was beautiful, but not fun to drive in. Sorry; no pictures.

Georgia in the Cascade snow.

Seems that in North Platte, Nebraska, there was a meeting of 3 forces. The wet storm coming up from the south. The cold blast from the northwest. And us!. All across Nebraska (See the post about our trip out across Nebraska.) it was pretty much the same. The roads became clear after about 100 miles, but that ominous number 31 hung in there and the windshield was waffling between needing the wipers to needing the defroster. You felt like you could go ahead and drive on, but at 31 degrees, you knew there could be ice patches at any point. There were several cars and trucks along the road to attest to this fact. At Lincoln, we left the "old route" that we had used so often and thanks to Garmen and Mapquest, found a shorter route through Springfield, Illinois by dropping down to St. Joseph, Missouri and taking the divided 4 lane (non interstate) 36 across Missouri to Hannibal. Garmen showed me this coming home last summer, rather than going through St. Louis as I traveled from Denver on I-70. Although the temperature rose a little, we did experience a little of the only kind of precipitation we had missed to this point; hail. Not a lot, but just enough to know it was there, and raise our BP a bit. As we make the last leg of the trip home today, the temperature promised to be in the high 30's and low 40's. That will be such a relief, although it looks like another day of rain.. But in this case, wet rain, not freezing rain. Relief at last????

A native waiting to cross in Eastern Oregon

Beauty in central Nebraska

Another chapter closed

2011-03-06T12:10:00.000-06:00

Thursday afternoon, I finished my 4th class teaching in the radiology course at Oregon State University. Friday evening said goodbye to the clinic for the 6th time. This trip may not have been as exciting as the past. I ended up spending a lot of time on crutches to spare my bad knee and Georgia was sick most of the time. We did revisit the Lodge at Suttle Lake, Three Creeks Brewing company in Sisters, and Tidal Raves seafood grill in Depoe Bay. Got to order in that fabulous Cirello's pizza a couple of times and got lots of stuff at New Morning Bakery. Guess those things make us "regulars" in Corvallis. We didn't eat out as much as in the past, but there are a bunch of new places in "town".. And we were told about some that weren't so new. Dr. Gordon put us on to Mexico Lindo which was great Jason and Misty got us to go to Sam's City in Albany.. It was fantastic also. I'm afraid that our previous favorite oriental place (China Blue) has to take a back seat, except that we have to go to Albany to get it. When we first arrived, Dr. Kinsley started talking about Le Patissier http://www.lepatissier.net/ a French bakery.. Finally as Georgia was working on getting ready to leave, yesterday morning, I went down and picked up some pastries for the trip... It's an OMG place. He was so right. Apparently it isn't that new, but we hadn't heard of it before. I had never really cared for croissants, but now I see that I had never really had one. Those pop and serve Pillsbury things are a joke. So now Le Bistro will have to take a back seat also. It is right around the corner from the Market of Choice. That's about all of the new eating we did. Just didn't feel like doing more. Next time, we have a list of other new places that were suggested including the one where Iovino's used to be. Here is their website... looks good. http://delalmarestaurant.com/ Because of a family health issue we are now heading home as fast as we can. Not as fast as my trip last summer, but certainly quicker than we had intended. One of the things we had planned to see was the Oregon Painted Hills. Look it up. We must work that in to a future trip. For now, it's "hit the road Jack"... but hopefully we'll be back.

Three weeks down already

2011-02-26T11:37:00.000-06:00

It is hard to believe that we have completed 3 weeks working at Oregon State University. Although illness and aches and pains have made parts of the adventure a bit laborious, it has really gone quickly. These past few days have been a bit interesting to us. Here we are in the Willamette Valley with mountains and snow all around us. Yet, the cold and snow that hit the valley yesterday seem to have caused real chaos. Schools closed, wrecks on highways, and all that comes with really nasty weather. Yet, as best I can tell we had about 2 inches of beautiful fluffy snow. One of the pictures here that I took with my cell phone is the same spot in front of the vet school where I showed you the sprouting flowers 3 weeks ago (last post). Georgia will be posting some pictures she took out our apartment windows that morning. If not on her blog they will be on her facebook.

For me the main adventure was this morning as I walked out into 26 degree air for the first time since we got here. (Supposed to be in the teens tonight.)... I relived a morning in January when I went to the car to make my trek to the B and B in Gas City for breakfast... In that instance, the car door froze in the "open" position. This morning, it was frozen closed. I did get into the passenger side and started the car, thinking it would warm from the inside while I went back up to wait in the warm. Guess I didn't wait long enough because I still had to climb in over the console, bad knee and all. By the time I got to work, I could open it from the inside to get out. I wasn't looking forward to climbing back out over the console. Oh for those fantastic bench seats of the 50's and 60's. With the temp drop tonight I'm a bit apprehensive about this happening again tomorrow. Hopefully since it didn't rain or snow today, there won't be enough moisture there to freeze it shut. I do have some stuff to unfreeze, but it didn't work in Indiana, so I'm not too keen on that. nuf for now. skk

My Apology to Oregon

2011-02-13T19:15:00.000-06:00

Seems I jumped the gun last Sunday morning. Woke up in Pendleton, Oregon and it was raining. Well, by the time we got on the road the rain had stopped and we had sunshine nearly to Portland where we got a little drizzle. Arrived at our apartment in time to watch parts of the superbowl as we unpacked. Beautiful sunny weather in the 40's and 50's all week.

It was nice to be "back" at work with so many familiar people. The emerging flowers greeted me just outside the vet school and there were yellow crocuses blooming nearby. From our last visit here, I found that the o great horse Gatsby is still functioning although I don't have any details. Got to meet a new class of Oregon State vet students for my 9am lecture on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday and lab on Wednesday and Thursday. Got to get re-acquainted with senior students in the clinic along with other staff and faculty members. Aside from limping around and finally using the elevator to get up to class, it seemed like we had never left.
Although we had planned to go to the coast, Georgia was punky all week and did get out Friday, however we decided to give our bodies a rest and stay in and watch it rain. Even that is relaxing, although I did listen to the Illinois basketball teams get defeated by Purdue via online radio. Guess I couldn't get too upset since I do have Boilermaker roots. Sorry there aren't more pictures. Til later.

It's raining: it must be Oregon

2011-02-06T11:25:00.002-06:00

Although the weather reports called for rain from Twin Falls through the weekend, it was actually sunny and beautiful all day. We diverted from our "normal" route across the central Oregon Highway and stayed on I-84 which we will take into Portland, then a short jaunt down I-5 to Corvallis today. If you are in the area and haven't made that drive, we recommend it. The mountains around Baker City where nothing short of phenominal. http://www.bakercity.com/ In Georgia's words, it looks like a cross between Alaska and Glacier. You'll have to check her blog or facebook later for pictures we snapped as we buzzed along (now at 65 mph). Here is one from the web. Sorry, don't know why it is rotated...
This morning, we woke up in Oregon, as attested to by the rain outside. Supposed to be 60 in Corvallis today. Tomorrow, I start clinic duty and lecturing at Oregon State, as we settle into our familiar apartment in Washington Hall at the Corvallis Depot Suites. When we get settled in, maybe we will skype some family???? Frequency of posts on the blog will probably diminish as we settle in.

Out of the ice age

2011-02-05T11:24:00.001-06:00

Out our Rock Springs window

We think we must be responsible for Rock Springs, Wyoming gaining temperatures above 0. Although windy when I took Georgia to the Mustang Corrals before leaving town (she luuvved it)... it was in the 30's. Now as we leave Twin Falls, Idaho to go to Pendleton, Oregon it is supposed to be in the mid to upper 40's all weekend with rain. Yesterday, it felt like we were in a low ceiling cabin because of the cloud cover. The mountain grandeur was capped most of the way. One thing we didn't remember from the past was the "bad air" over Ogden, Utah. You could see the "smog" and the electronic road signs said, "poor air quality... drive carefully"... I kept waiting for a glob of mucous or something to plop on our windshield. Georgia drove from Western Wyoming. Here second time behind the wheel in over a year. We grabbed a nice sunset out our window at Rock Springs, but as we pulled into Twin Falls, I think we say the best sunset I can remember. Here are some attempts (though poor) at capturing it. Remember we were driving 75 mph at dusk, so be gentle with your photographic criticism. The kids got me these great tortilla chips for Christmas and we devoured them in the car. Looking at the bags, we see that they came from the gourmet isle at Target. Guess what is right around the corner from this Hampton???? yup... we hopefully will get to reload on the way out of town.

More from Rock Springs

2011-02-03T18:46:00.052-06:00

Since we are staying here today, I thought I'd nose around a bit.
1. Rock Springs Historical Museum (http://www.suite101.com/content/rock-springs-historical-museum-selfguided-tour-a89919)

They have turned the old city hall into a museum. What I learned there included quite a potpouri.

a. Rock Springs was started as a "Company Town" for Union Pacific Coal. You can pretty much picture these beginnings if you go through the words to "16 Ton" by Tennessee Earnie Ford or the country singer and sausage maker, Jimmie Dean. I'll throw some pictures up here, but they many not be in the order I intend. One is of the map of underground coal shafts that run under and around the city. There are several "tools of the trade" in the museum.

b. In the large walk in safe was a collection depicting the evolution of the typewriter with an interesting description of the now familiar "QWERTY" keyboard. The primary purpose was to keep the letters from catching on each other as a rapid typist hit the keys that made the little arms holding the letters slam against the ribbon to make an imprint on the paper. The thought was to separate letters that were most often typed in succession. Though I wasn't very accurate, I was pretty fast in typing and I remember often in typing class having to stop and untangle the letters. Wow, that took me back to Fanchion Frey's typing class.

c. Butch Cassidy spent time in this area and apparently got his name because he came here to work and since coal mining wasn't his thing, he got a job in a butcher shop in Rock Springs..... thus the name Butch. There was a plaque there giving about 20 names by which he answered. Supposedly people around here who knew him, really liked him. The kicker is that they really feel they have evidence that he didn't die in South America as was depicted in the movie. The other interesting thing I found there was a picture that included Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Teddy Roosevelt, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Judge Roy Bean, Bat Masterson, etc. How's that for a bunch of buddies?????

d. I also found an old x-ray machine very much like the one I convinced my first veterinary boss to buy for $200 (and I had to drive to Ohio to get it)... Nearly an antique at the time, but it did the job.

2. Wild Horses
Although Georgia saw a few in the wild on the ridge as we pulled into town last evening (an answer to one of her prayers and dreams), I went to the corrals where they hold those waiting for adoption. Seems that part of the management of the herd is to keep it to a specific size so they don't outgraze the "grass" and sagebrush. Some had clipped areas indicating some intervention. I got some pictures. You can probably figure out which one I would like to adopt. Feel free to leave comments with your guesses.

3. Dickey's Barbeque Pit (http://www.dickeys.com/default.aspx)
This is at the site where we found Popeye's Chicken in 2008, but in 2010 it was a Hawaiian Barbeque that didn't last. Dickeys apparently started in Texas. All I will say is, "if you like barbeque and you get a chance to try a Dickey's..... do it."

4. Rock Springs finest at work.
As I pulled into the Hampton, I found my way was blocked. The police had just stopped a couple of ladies in a large SUV and blocked them in (I guess to avoid escape).,.. but they blocked the parking lot to the Hampton... I had to chuckle at their voracity.

Thus ended my adventure... Oh, one police car left, then the other, leaving the ladies sitting in the parking lot.... I was nosy, but not that nosy, so I came inside, not knowing their fate.

Rock Springs, Wyoming: where else?

2011-02-03T11:33:00.000-06:00

For anyone who may have followed this blog, you have seen Rock Springs, Wyoming surface several times. Our first encounter was to ask the local Hampton Inn to make us reservations in Twin Falls, Idaho on our first trip out after being stranded in Laramie. Our second was on our way back in April when we broke down 40 miles east of here and Kathy a manager here found us a reliable tow (Bob)... etc. We stayed here 3 days over the weekend while repairs were made. Then last summer, we were here and took the "Wild Horse Loop" on White Mountain, but only saw lots of "road apples" but no horse flesh. As I mentioned in my last post, we decided to extend yesterday to get to Rock Springs because we didn't want to chance catching snow as we crossed over the continental divide. Now we sit in a very comfortable room and have decided that after the long drive (for us), only estimated 15 hours of driving, and warming temperatures promised, we would break it down into 3 five hour days (about our speed) and stay here another day. Georgia is feeling really punky and the rest should make the remainder of the trip more bearable. Yesterday the driving was a mixed bag. Although very cold outside, it was cozy in our vehicle. The sun was shining all day long. Only a skiff of blowing snow. However, when we reached Rawlins, we hit about 50 miles of ice. It seems the traffic had recently packed down the snow before the road crews got there and with the sub zero temperature the road was pretty much glazed. That slowed us down and made for some tense times, especially as the sun got low and glared off the ice. Got a beautiful silhouette of the mountains with the sun setting behind them, however. The first sign that things were looking up came when we got to our room to find the familiar tractor greeting us. Picture isn't as good, but I think you can get the point.

This morning, I got to renew acquaintance with Kathy as we traced back to our first meeting when she "saved our bacon"... Plan for Twin Falls, Idaho for Friday night, then somewhere in Oregon Saturday night and Sunday night in Corvallis. Debating on the second leg of the trip. We have always taken the Central Oregon Highway (20), but I really don't want to do that again. The choices are to play it safe and take I-84 to Portland along the Columbia Gorge. That is all interstate.... safe but maybe less scenic... The other choice is to take 26 across the Malheur National Forest. We have never done that and it appears promising, but will take a little longer. I'm thinking I will check the ranger station as we enter Oregon. Last summer the lady there suggested that route was more scenic than Highway 20, but for some reason I wasn't ready for more adventure (I guess we had used it up chasing after wild horses).. From everything I can figure, it should be safe for us this trip, but I will ask them before deciding.... decisions, decisions. For now it's a "chill day". That decision is a couple of days off.

That was Easy!!!! NOT!!!!

2011-02-01T21:07:00.000-06:00

After checking weather reports and highway 80 webcams from Omaha to Rock Springs, Wyoming, it seemed the next leg of the trip would be a piece of cake. Looking out our window at the guy snowblowing the parking lot and sidewalks at the Hampton Inn in Omaha it looked like a good day to stay over for another night. The flags were rippling violently, there was horizontal snow and visibility was nil. However, when I last checked, the highway camera a few miles out of town showed pretty clear sledding (a word which now seems like a pun). We'll make it shorter by saying that the description outside our window was pretty much true for the next 160 miles. Georgia was pretty nervous. We drove at 45 to 55 most of the way. Although fewer in number, there were again several vehicles lying in various positions by the roadside. The most interesting was the semi-truck that was in the shape of a pretzel. Georgia was pretty nervous. By the time we got near North Platte where we had stayed previously, we decided we had enjoyed about as much of this as we could stand, so pulled in for the night. It seemed as though we might have a positive sign. If you are a conesour of Hampton Inn, you know that they have these homey little pictures throughout the inn. Georgia said that "Mahala would like this" as she looked at the picture of a tractor by our door. However, I noticed that it was not just "a tractor", but it was "the tractor". The Farmall "M" International Harvester made by McCormick-Deering. The main tractor I grew up on. The tractor whose bellowing straight pipe drowned out my wailing as Elvis, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, Conway Twitty (Only Make Believe) and even the Righteous Brothers. It was also that tractor that carried me back and forth across the fields as I contemplated my future. I digress.....

Well. Now what? Either my navigation skills have wained or the weather witch is out to hassle me. I think I will give it one more shot. We have another decision to make. We can make tomorrow another short day and stop over in another familiar Hampton Inn in Laramie, then cross over Elk Mountain on Thursday, or we can go on over tomorrow.... A tough one. Going on over makes it a bit long for us, but the last time I looked, (this morning) Wednesday is supposed to be sunny in that area, but cloudy on Thursday. I get nervous when it calls for cloudy at that altitude because it could bring snow which could then hold us up for a few days in Laramie like on our first trip. I really didn't enjoy rushing from Laramie to Corvallis as on our first trip out.... Guess you'll have to check back to see what decision we make and how it turns out. In the meantime we pray that the midwest storm spares our loved ones. At the moment I'm listening to the Illini basketball team playing Penn State (ahead at halftime)... Maybe next year Nebraska TV will carry the Big 10 Network, but for now, I have to settle for the radio. (online).... I am convinced that online radio is one of the best things since... radio, when it works.

Yogi Berra, welcome to our life

2011-02-01T10:17:00.001-06:00

We started this blog on our first trip to Corvallis, Oregon in January 2008. On that trip, we got stuck in Laramie for 3 days because the pass at Elk Mountain was closed just as we got there. We rushed across the central Oregon Highway, mostly in the dark and arrived in Sisters, Oregon amidst the most beautiful and forboding snowfall we had ever seen. Georgia was all "oohhs and aahhs" and I was white knuckled because I was scheduled to give an exam at Oregon State on the next morning. What an adventure! What made it so special was that the local folks in Wyoming and in Oregon said they hadn't had a winter like this in years.
This year with the promise of tolerable weather and troublesome flights, we decided to drive again. The difference for us is that Georgia is recovering from foot surgery and I just found out that I tore my medial meniscus (knee), so we are a bit more gimpy than we were. Our first day put us at the same Hampton Inn in Coralville, Iowa that we had stayed in on the first trip. We knew a great storm was heading toward the midwest, but accourding to reports and my calculations, we were supposed to skate across I-80 north of the storm as it traveled east across Kansas and Missouri. This is where Yogi joined us. We spent a little over 5 hours on the second day driving in freezing rain. Keeping the windshield clear was difficult and there were vehicles along the road in all kinds of positions including on their tops. Yes, Yogi; it's Deja Vu, all over again!. While the weather was decent we saw a sign to Brooklyn, Iowa, "a community of flags"... We decided we had time so drove off the interstate 2 miles to find this delightlful little farm community. Not exciting, but worth the diversion. Even an old style Standard Oil station. Here's the link, http://www.brooklyniowa.com/
When we got to Omaha, it got nasty enough that we assigned Garmin the task of finding us a place to stop. Found a nice 3-year-old Hampton Inn to crash for the night. The other difference with this trip is that we finally got set up for skype. Got to visit with Rod's family and Greg's family, then Jeff called, so we had some nice family visits to help us settle in. Although it's snowing here in Omaha, I've checked the webcams on I-80 all the way to Rock Springs, Wyoming and it looks good for the present with promise of sunshine the next 2 days. So we will get back on the road, but not hurry. As best I can tell, once we get going the weather should let up. Another little wrinkle was that I was watching the ambient temperature and it was pretty much 23-25 degrees across Iowa, then all of a sudden, here in Omaha, it dropped to 11, then 10... That must be where we "crossed the line". I'm thinking it will be too cold today to stick on the windshield. Since there are nearly 450 miles across Nebraska on I-80, I doubt we will make it out of Nebraska today unless the roads are more clear than I suspect. We have heard that this is the "storm of the century"..... Thanks again, Yogi!!!

So this is Christmas; Mahomet Kneller style

2010-12-28T13:52:00.001-06:00

Since my last post, Georgia and I have been holed up at home while her foot heals from surgery. We had to be a bit creative with Christmas gifts this year since running from store to store just wouldn't do. For the most part, it worked out pretty well. Last Christmas we added 2 "Mexicans" to the family. Gerardo and his son with Brianna, Bruno. This year, Aaron joined us from Ethiopia and Rod, Jacqueline and Celina just returned from China with Charlie. Last year, Bruno was only 14 months old, so this year, with 3 new little guys running around (Bruno and Aaron at 2 and Charlie at 3), we were looking forward to the excitement being turned up a notch. It was great!!! My facebook friends can see more pictures of the occasion, but here are a few. Hope you enjoy. Oh, the Christmas ornaments I made for the "grandkids" were penguins. I hated to resort to that because I'm old enough that penguins just aren't symbols of Christmas, but my originality was limited this year. We actually found the "pattern" for the penguins on the back of the exam room door at Christie Clinic on Windsor when we had our last visit with Georgia's podiatrist. Cell phones with cameras can be wonderful at times. Also I made stepstools for the 3 little guys and "train tables" with bins to store toys. We were blessed with a really white Christmas. In fact, we celebrated on Dec. 24 and it snowed pretty much all afternoon and evening at our house.

Let's call it September Song

2010-09-24T18:25:00.000-05:00

Several different things to talk about, but none large enough to stand alone. Just a potpourri of notions.
I'll start with the most important. Georgia is now 2 weeks out from her foot surgery. Not a fun time, but hopefully it will lead to her ability to walk without the pain she has dealt with for the last year.. and more. The good thing is that I am retired, so as I have told her, she is my job right now. Monday we see the surgeon who I think will remove the cast and remove skin staples and we will see what happens from here. One "little" thing that happened is really hers to tell, but I'm not sure when she will be able to do it, so I'll jump in here and tell the tale. She had considerable consternation before the surgery but during prayer and bible reading, she felt that she had a promise that Jesus would be with her. On the way in to surgery, while the anesthesiologist was establishing a venous line, her vein collapsed and he ended up needing to "dig for it"... Ouch!. Speaking of anesthesiologists, my sister sent this link to something posted by a fellow blogspot user who happens to be an MD radiologist. We'll call it the singing anesthesiologists... Don't miss it. Here's the link.
http://nottotallyrad.blogspot.com/2009/11/waking-up-is-hard-to-do.html

Back to Georgia's story. We got through the surgery and got home and on the couch with the aid of a wheel chair. A day or 2 later, I had noticed that the inside of her forearm was bruised from the attempted catheterization, but some where during that time, Georgia said, "look at this. What do you see?"... I'm going to give you the picture now, but wait til later to tell you what we saw on her arm. Whatcha think????

OK, on to the second subject. One of my favorite plants is Sweet Autumn Clematis. You can filter back through my posts to see how we got our original start from a neighbor rather than boring you with it again. It is another neet story, I think. It is a flower that makes you wait all summer for blooms, but when they come, they are glorious. The name is true to form. It doesn't bloom until fall and smells so sweet. Bees and butterflys love it. I'm posting pictures here of what we have come to. I had put the first one on the mailbox. I'm sure the mail lady dreads the fall at our house because she has to reach into this haven for bees to put our mail in the box. From that one, last year, one grew up on the little garden bench in the rose garden, then this year, I left one grow on the porch railing. In some of these pictures you can see all 3 of them in their glory. So early in September, they were covered with sweet white blossoms. Today, I went out and took some more pictures showing the second and I think just as beautiful phase. Each blossom is replaced by these silvery, thready things that catch the light and give a new but equally interesting appearance. While you're looking at the clematis, you can also see our pitiful lawn. Most of the lawns in our neighborhood look like this. Can you see in the later picture that maybe there is a little more green? I think most, if not all of the lawn is dormant rather than dead, but as was stated on "Coffee with the Plant Experts" last Saturday morning on WDWS, "The only way to tell the difference is with water.".. We are in for a few days of rain, so we will soon see if it's time to enlarge flower gardens or mow grass.

The 3rd subject is an addition to my education. I really have trouble believing that I didn't know this, and I'll be you were way ahead of me on this one, but I'm going to tell you what I learned this week. Yesterday was the "first day of fall".. the autumnal equinox. For years I have known that here in Illinois, in the spring, the sun starts coming up 1 minute earlier and sets 1 minute later until the "longest day" on June 21 when it then rises 1 minute later and sets 1 minute earlier until December 21, the "shortest day". I also knew that March 21 (my birthday) was the "first day of spring" and September 21 (not this year) the "first day of fall"... I knew that the term "equinox" and vernal equinox was in there somewhere. Not until now did I really understand that my birthday is the vernal equinox and we just experienced the autumn equinox... Because of my profession, I assumed that the term equinox had something to do with horses in greek mythology.... Not so McGee! Equinox is related to EQUAL, Oh! Yes, the vernal equinox and the autumn equinox are the 2 days of the year in which the daylight and dark hours are EQUAL... Boy can I sound smart when I have learned something new. It only took me 68 years to learn this one. Yes, Judy, I'm 68! and proud of it. But not so proud of the fact that this important fact about my birthday has evaded me for so many years. Now I know why I tend to be so "even keeled"... nuf sed. Oh... on Georgia's bruise, do you see our Savior standing there with his hands out???? We do! And now that we think we are through the worst part of the surgery, the image is fading from her arm. And why not, it is written in her mind and heart.

A Week in Appalachia

2010-09-09T18:47:00.001-05:00

Have been too busy lately to get this post up in a timely manner, but felt the experience was significant enough to go ahead and put it together for my many followers (heehee?)
Mid August we attended the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Radiology (ACVR). It was a must, to keep my certification current. There were so many facets to the trip that I'm sure I'll leave out something significant, but I'll go with what I remember. Because we can't travel fast and far, we broke up the 11 hour drive to the meeting in Asheville, NC by stopping in Berea, Kentucky. In many of our trips since 1969 from Georgia and Florida to Indiana and Illinois (and back) I remember seeing signs to Berea and it always struck a note. I knew that it had something to do with Bible scholars, then later a Christian bookstore came to Champaign, Il named the Berean Bookstore.. I also knew that was some kind of special college there. As I prepared for this trip, I stumbled onto the "Boone Tavern" which is a historic hotel in Berea.. Finding that they were advertising the first annual Celtic Arts Festival in Berea for the weekend after the ACVR meeting, I booked a room there for the return trip. More of that later.

View of Grove Park Spa from our window

View of Sunset Grill from our room at Grove Park Inn

As I have been attending the ACVR meetings only every 3 years for some time (the minimal requirement). I was looking forward to renewing relationships with collegues from around the country and World. I saw Dr. Graham Allen from Austrailia and Dr. Chris Lamb from the British Isles along with a lot of people I had worked with in the past and a bunch of people I had helped train in Radiology. The highlight for me, however was to get to have breakfast with Dr. Bob Lewis. Although many veterinary radiologists have influenced my technical skills, Dr. Lewis has probably had more influence on me than any other person aside from my own mom and dad. Dr. Lewis was one of the pioneers in Veterinary Radiology who with 10 or 12 other people formed the "Educators in Veterinary Radiologic Science" (EVRS) and later the ACVR. I have the dubious distinction of being the last secretary of the EVRS before it was disbanned in leau of the emerging ACVR. However his influence was more than that. When we started in vet school, I thought it was to care for hogs and cattle and a few horses. I didn't even know they x-rayed animals. During the last 3 years of vet school, I worked for Dr. Lewis as a work study student while attending school. In addition, Georgia and I sat for he and Mary Lu's children, Mona and Paula. I found I really enjoyed being a "shadow chaser", probably a lot due to his apparent peace and confidence coupled with a reality based approach in this diagnostic specialty. He, like me was from a small Indiana town (Mitchell; where the school bus factory functioned until 1995. It is also the birthplace of Gus Grissom.) Back to Bob Lewis; When we graduated from vet school, we looked at some radiology training positions, but decided to join a general practice in Parker City, Indiana (See previous post "How do you hug a house")... It wasn't going as we expected and Dr. Lewis told us about a radiology training position opening at the University of Georgia. We took the position and believe it or not, a year later, guess who joined the radiology faculty at the University of Georgia to help oversee my training!!!! Yup. None other than Dr. Robert E. Lewis. I think he came to Georgia to finish the job in my development. I could go on and on. I could not have found a better mentor if I had sent out a notice and combed through hundreds of applications. I have included a picture of myself, Dr. Lewis, and Dr. Bob Badertscher at the meeting. Dr. Badertscher was the 3rd and last ACVR diplomate Dr. Lewis and I trained together after I joined the UGA faculty and before I left for the University of Illinois. Not only are we influenced by those who "train" us, but by those we "train". (Thanks to both BOBS.) Renewing old friendships was great. The material from the meeting was great, but the place where the meeting was held is a story in itself. You probably know about the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. Not far from the Biltmore is the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa.. Another "historic hotel". http://www.groveparkinn.com/Leisure/ This place was built by "Dr". EW Grove a pharmacist and St. Louis entrepreneur who made his millions in the 1890s peddling an elixir called Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic. My, My, My.. This ain't Motel 6. They have images of hundreds of "famous" people who have been there including 8 presidents from Bush to Obama (Barry played basketball there in April). Roosevelts, Harding Coolidge. etc. I have included a few pictues, but can't capture the enormity and grandeur of this place overlooking tier after tier of blue ridge mountains. It's a little "spendy", but definitely worth a look for a holiday. While there we took a trolley bus (grayline) tour of Asheville. Matt, our guide and driver grew up on Asheville so gave us a real "homer" view of this very interesting city. That trip was topped of by the accelerator of the bus sticking and we had to abandon it and take another bus to finish the tour.

Badertscher, Lewis, Kneller (not really brothers by blood)

Although we had been there before, we planned to do an abbreviated tour of the Biltmore on Friday before leaving Asheville. However, let's just say.. "that didn't work out", and we headed back to Berea. We pulled up to the Boone Tavern just before dark. http://www.boonetavernhotel.com/ Another cool place. As I was checking us in, Georgia saw the end of the first session of the Celtic Arts Festival which was next door (I knew that).. and a guy in a kilt with a bagpipe lead a procession into campus (Berea College) http://www.berea.edu/ They were gone by the time I came out. The next morning after breakfast, I came out the back of the hotel to find a group of players under a small tent playing Celtic music... song after song after song. It was neet as players would join in as they came and others would leave when they needed to, but the music continued without a hitch. The hotel was a story in itself, but I'll let you get that fromt their site. The Celtic Festival is another story. it was primarily the work of a few people who invited a number of players from all over (I am aware of Kansas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. Some from very nearby. Basically sessions were roughly planned. They played under tha small tent the most, then when it rained, went into the small cafe run by one of the organizers, (see video), in the campus amphitheater (we didn't get there), and in the Berea Center for the Arts. http://www.berea-center-arts.com/ more videos. This was a hot little loft which was perfect for the genre. (more videos). The harpist also played in a church service Sunday morning, but we didn't make that... To make it perfect, as we were leaving, a group of them were playing on the porch of the Boone Tavern Hotel. Although it was really difficult to tear ourselves away, home was ahead and darkness was a promising adversary. Again, I have tried to capture a bit of the spirit of the Festival, but doubt I can do it justice. For a "boy" who remembers the Herrons of Whitely and Noble County, Indiana sitting in a circle after Sunday dinner (noon meal to country folks) playing these instruments this was a short trip to music heaven. The point of the Festival was to bring the music from "the old country" to the center of appalachian music (bluegrass). Scottish and Irish people settle appalachia and brought the music with them. Over time, mountain and bluegrass versions of the music developed. I mentioned Scottish people. An instrument that I believe was developed in appalachia is the dulcimer. If you've heard one, it has the droning background similar to a bagpipe. This brings us to another great aside in Berea. Just around the corner from the Boone Tavern is Warren May's Dulcimer and Furniture shop. http://www.warrenamay.com/ Warren started building dulcimers and furniture years ago. You are welcomed into his shop where he is putting finishing touches on his handmade dulcimers... As he talkes with you he can't help walking over to the counter and picking up a dulcimer and playing a tune, maybe singing a bit as he tells a story. Another great experience, just to visit. Then to make it even more special, last Sunday, I was flipping channels and came across the Woodright's shop, a PBS show I used to watch a lot. He was doing a thing on Berea College and although I didn't think to record it, he spent time in Warren's shop giving the world the same experience we had enjoyed the previous week, there in Berea. To take it furter, there was a special on another channel called "the Heart and Soul of America".. If you can find it, I really recommend viewing it... Again, I was too late to record it, but during a segment on appalachia, there he was again; a cameo of Warren May in his shop. This of course made our experience even more special. Leaving Warren and continuing with instruments, the Celtic players brought fiddles, banjos, mandolins, guitars, accordions, concertinas, a couple of bodhrans, tin whistles, flutes, Irish bagpipes, a harp and a couple of instruments that had previously escaped my observation. I thought they were some kind of lute, but after exposing my ignorance was told they were bouzoukis, kind of an overgown mandolin. Great mellow sound. I later found that there are Irish Bouzoukis, Greek Bouzoukis, and some others. On the porch Sunday afternoon, some of the players were discussing the similarity of Celtic music and some Scandanavian folk music. During that conversation, I discovered how similar Celtic music was to one of my personal favorites; Zydeco. Same instruments, same rapid fire melody. Check the Zydeco site in my "sites to watch" if you don't know Zydeco. Oh, the young man (Alex) in the flowered shirt and floppy hair plays 7 instruments... much like one of our gandsons. Notice in the first video that you can see us in the mirror.

Celtic players under the tent behind the cafe in Berea

"Concert" in Berea Center for the Arts (Note program)

Impromptu session of porch of Boone Tavern

This was a familiar sight to me. Very much like was seen around our family during the late 80's and can be seen on Briarcliff in Springfield, IL today.

I can't leave this post without a bit more on Berea College. Built on biblical principles with no particular demoninational bent, the theme of the college is Learning, Work, Service. "You bring the brains, we'll bring the rest". The target students are those who can't afford education, but have the drive to succeed. Basically tuition is apparently paid by gifts of alumni and friends of the college. They will find you a job (and you must work) to help pay for your housing and books. There is apparently a maximum family income level for admission. What a concept. Lift poor students out of poverty, educate them and let them pay for the education of others out of their plenty. Every student we met was a joy to encounter. Oh, did I say that the weekend we were there was also student move in weekend??? Lots of cars and pick-ups clogging the streets for one weekend. But we survived. If we ever find a time when we don't "need" to be somewhere, we think a 5 hour trip to Berea will be refreshing. Having now been to the west coast several times in the past few years, we find that there is some great stuff in the more nearby area. Mayby not as grand as the Rockies, the Cascades or the Pacific ocean, but altogether as gorgeous and fulfilling to encounter. Check these videos. The last video is part of a dance demonstration at the Center for the Arts. I include it here as a tribute to one of our "locum friends" from Oregon State; Carol Colton who we lost tragically last year. One of her passions was "Contra Dancing". Which I had never heard of. When she talked about it, her Irish eyes would just sparkle. I checked it out and found that it was very much like "square dancing" which I grew up on in Indiana. I'm pretty sure this is more of what she was into than the form of square dancing I was familiar with. It did look like fun.

How do you hug a house?

2010-08-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

If you've been following us, you know that since early June we have not spent more than 2 days at home. Although we have enjoyed the places we've been and the people we interfaced with, it really is good to be home (if only for a short time again). For the first time, while unloading the explorer, I kept getting this feeling of doing the "Snoopie Dance".. you know what I mean? I just had that giggly feeling of "Boy, it's good to be home". The flowers needed deadheaded, weeds needed pulled, the grass definitely needed water (sorry gonna have to wait for rain). The swee autumn clematis in the front and the crepe myrtle in the back were threatening to bury the house... and since we arrived it has been too hot (for me) to spend significant time in the yard..... However, all in all.... It sure is good to be home. Do you get the idea??? I'm glad to be home. Speaking of homes. Sunday as we returned from Indiana, we needed to go to the Muncie (Indiana) Mall. When we got finished there, I said, "Hey, we are really close and don't have a deadline. What do you think about swinging over to Parker City?" Parker City, Indiana is a "new item" in this blog. That is where we went for my first job out of vet school at Purdue. A classic country veterinary practice where we ran up and down the country roads from farm to farm treating cattle, hogs, sheep and horses while operating a small dog and cat practice from the "base" during noon hours and evenings. This was a bittersweet time of our lives. I was working 13.5 of 14 days, so Georgia and one-year-old Rodney had to entertain themselves. I have 2 pictures in my mind from there. I would run in sometime arround noon for a quick bite to eat to find Rod sitting in his high chair with a mouth full of banana and a piece of banana in each hand. Of course Georgia was in the kitchen with him. The other image I have is Georgia pulling Rod's little red Radio Flyer through the picket fence gate with Rod "pushing" from the back. They would walk down to the track to watch the trains go by. As we drove by the practice building, we recognized it, but it had grown. Apparently since we were there it had become a large day care center, a site for several businesses and now a real estate office. We talked with one of the present owners and found that each time the place changed hands, the new owners built on more. We also went into town and found the house we lived in on Howard Street. We snapped a couple of pictures. The unique thing about this house was that it was 2 houses connected in the back by a large room. The significance of this is that the owner, an elderly widow, lived in the other part of the house and was apparently quite lonely. She had a very sad story about losing her son when he was just about Rod's age, so she had an affinity to him also. The problem is that we had to learn to keep our door to the connecting room locked because she would just walk in and wander around "our" house calling out because she wanted to visit. Of course this put Georgia in a tough situation because she didn't want the lady just walking in, yet didn't want to be "mean" and shut her out. As time went on, we decided it was a must. Besides caring for a one-year-old in a strange town, essentially by herself, Georgia had another duty.... Inside her, since about February, another person was developing.. Greg was born while we lived there... In fact, only a few weeks before we left that practice to begin radiology training at the University of Georgia. So here are some pictures of the house that we were glad to see, but not ready to hug. Days we were glad to put behind us, although we are sure they played some significant part in our development.

Leaving Corvallis

2010-08-03T20:07:00.001-05:00

This season of blogging has been pretty disjointed, therefore I'm not sure what life experiences are chronicled here. I decided that some of the recent experiences might warrant description. If you've been reading along, you know that I spent the last week working in Corvallis as a "bachelor" because I put Georgia on the plane for Indy to be picked up by her sister. Seems that as much as we try to plan ahead, some plans just interfere with each other. Georgia, therefore had to do one of her least favorite things all by herself. Fortunately, and most likely guided by the power of prayer from lots of people, the trip went pretty well. To top it off, I'll steal a little thunder and tell y'all about her welcome to Indiana. Her sister and mom were waiting in the Indy airport for her. The young man who was assigned to help her navigate the airport (some value in using a travel agent)... was fantastic. Then they stopped at a Texas Roadhouse (Have I told you that Texas Roadhouse originated in Indiana????) (Squirrel!!!) You have to have seen "UP" for that to make sense. Back to the trip home from the airport... Georgia wanted to treat them to dinner since we were in Oregon for her mom's 91st birthday. As they entered, a gentleman opened the door for them and "fawned" all over them. They enjoyed their meal and the waiter came to box up the remains. He said, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Georgia said, "Let's start with the good news".. He said, "someone who just left has paid for all your meals".. Apparently that gentleman comes there often and enjoys "blessing" unsuspecting strangers... How bout that???? Oh, the bad news; "I have to work for 4 more hours, have a nice evening". So with Georgia safe on the ground in Indiana, and me in Corvallis with not much to do in the evening, I went up to Mary's Peak... (See recent post.) Less than an hour after work I was at the highest elevation in the Oregon coastal mountain range. That was Monday nite. Tuesday thru Thursday nite, I packed, cleaned a bit and listened to the Cardinals via the computer (My link to life at home.) Jumping ahead to this weekend, I am bummed that the Cardinals traded Ryan Ludwick http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/lee_jenkins/08/03/dodgers.padres/

Filbert trees along McKenzie Highway

(Squirrel!!!) Thursday nite, I had eaten all the leftovers and washed all the dishes, so decided to eat out. I remembered that Jack from work had mentioned Murphy's in Southtown Corvallis, as a "fun place".. Well, I found it, just as I was about to head into the grass (grown for seed) fields south of town. There was a big banner advertising their barbeque. http://www.murphysrestaurantlounge.com/ . It was early, just after work, so not many foks were there. I went in and said, "I want some of what I'm smellin'". The guy at the bar pointed me to their Barbecue menu. I ordered the Triple thing (don't remember the name, but it was a pile of pulled pork, 2 slices of smoked turkey breast, 2 ribs, some fantastic beans and slaw).. (I passed on the fries). Got it to go, cause I could see that if I were to eat it there, I might not get "home" for a while. Again, MMM mm good. If we get to do another stint in Corvallis, you can bet we'll be eating some from Murphy's.. Thanks Jack.. That left me one more day. I got up about 5:30 Friday morning, stripped the bed, took a shower and put the sheets and last towel in the washer, then dryer, then put the last 2 bags in the car and headed to Sharon's Cafe for breakfast. Some of the folks from work thought they might make it, but I ate my last breakfast in Corvallis alone... No worries, I enjoyed the meal and headed back to put the dry sheets on the bed, turn in my keys to Dave with another goodbye and off to work. Finished up the work with the 2 surgery residents, got the cases of the day dictated and pretty well had things wrapped up to leave right on time for the trip across the Cascade range to get "as far as I could" down the road.. I had said goodby to Jack as he left and was finishing up with Becki. I headed out the door with my famous blue "Bubba Keg" in my right hand and my Western Digital portable drive (containing everything I know) in my left. Planned to stop and say goodbye to Jason on my way out. We were met at the door by one of my new friends, Dr. Bailey, a new medicine resident (who came from Michigan State where she worked with one of my former students who just finished her imaging residency at MSU)... (squirrel again) There was this 19 year old cat who had just had a CT (done by Jason). Dr. Bailey was running to see if they could get us to do a "quick" ultrasound of the kidneys as one last attempt to find a specific surgical problem before finalizing their plan for this cat. Of course the owners were "in the house" anxious for the most info we could get. Well, Jack who does most of the ultrasound there had left a little earlier as there were no more ultrasounds scheduled, leaving me and Becki (and Becki doesn't do ultrasound.) My first response was, "hey. I'm outta here.".. Becki did her best to protect me, I think because she has indicated earlier that my planned trip across McKenzie Pass was worth the extra 20 minutes mapquest said it would take me. For a moment, I had the feeling, you know... "the plans of mice and men ..... are usually about equal".... Finally, realizing that I was about to cause a new friend a very tough encounter with the owners of the cat and the fact that her senior clinician was an old dear friend with whom I had worked very closely at Illinois when she was a medicine resident, I succumbed and Becki and I fired up the ultrasound machine and HIS/RIS system which had just been shut down for the weekend... (Remind you of anything Jason???) Did the study, saved the images and off I went for McKenzie pass. I e-mailed my report to the returning radiologist at OSU from home Monday. Another reason the McKenzie route was enticing to me is that I had made the twisty turney trip up route 20 enough times than I didn't really want to do that this last time. By dropping down to Eugene (Springfield) and taking the McKenzie Highway on one of my favorite drives along the McKenzie river, it dropped me onto the "Old McKenzie Highway (242) which promised to deposit me in Sisters for one last bowl of that fabuous gazpacho at the Three Creeks Brewery where we started this adventure in central Oregon 3 weeks previously. Again. if you've been one of the 4 followers of this blog, you may remember a couple of years ago when I was describing the McKenzie Highway, you might remember me discovering these strange trees which turned out to be a major Oregon crop... Filberts (known to we midwesterners as Hazelnuts).. As you can see by this weekends motion pictures, those same trees that looked so barren and strange are now plush with green. I'm sure the nuts were in there somewhere. I drove past another of our favorite stopovers along the river, "Eagle Rock Lodge", where the Dershams pick up goose poop to create a fantastic wedding site many times through the summer. Oops, another squirrel. In description of our last weekend together in Oregon, we talked about the Lodge at Suttle Lake. When we arrived Saturday evening, a wedding had just finished and they were having the reception in the lawn along the lake.. Got pictures, but don't think I posted them. Hmmm..

Roughly where the snowplow stopped.

Now to turn from the McKenzie Highway onto 242.. Again, let me take you back. In February of 08, which was apparently a season of unusually heavy snow, we attempted this trip. You can see in that post where the snow plow turned back and there was nothing but a tree flanked snow drift in the road. I think I have taken a picture from near that site which was on past Camp Limberlost, heading to higher elevations. And you Hoosiers thought Limberlost was in Indiana, right? http://www.genestrattonporter.net/
I found (and had been warned) that I was not escaping twisty turney roads, just substituted some for others. Our Garmin knew just where we were and mapped out hairpin after hairpin as me and the trusty red Explorer ascended. Dang, another squirrel moment. I may be repeating this, but it's easier to risk that and plow on than to go out an check, then come back to posting. I had hit something over the past weekend and after dropping Georgia off and heading to Corvallis, I noticed a faint shimmy in the front end. Because I couldn't go very far into the airport with Georgia due to security stuff, I got away a little early, so decided I had time to see about getting the shimmy fixed. I dread shopping for auto repair in a strange town, but just like 2 years ago in Rock Springs, Wyoming, we were directed to good and trustworthy people. There are those times when you think God doesn't care or want to bother with your piddly issues, then other times, you can see Him right beside you. This was one of those times. I had shopped at a little at a Napa store on 9th street during the past couple of years, so thought that was a good place to start. I asked where they took their autos... The lady at the counter recommended D & B at Van Buren and Second street. http://www.dandbbearservice.com/Corvallis-auto-repairs.html
I made my way there to meet another Jack at the counter. Turns out that this Jack and his family keep sheep and hogs, etc. and he loves the Oregon State Veterinary School.... YES! (visualize arm pump). We struck up a conversation and of course he presented a pig problem which was strange, but very reminiscent of my first 4-H barrow "Star" ... circa 1952.. He couldn't get me in til Wednesday.. I arranged for Jennifer, one of the surgery residents I was working with to pick me up and drop me off.... Busted strut... I think it would have gone out anyway and I prefer the flatlands of the Willamette Valley as a place for that to happen compared with wheeling around the turns ascending to McKenzie pass or in the eastern Oregon mountains with no one around, or south western Wyoming, where I could see us (me and my machine) hurtling off some mountain curve. I left Corvallis with a pretty secure feeling that I was being cared for... Thanks to y'all for your prayers.

(McKenzie Pass) Finally I broke out of the gorgeous forest into what had only been described to me. The Lava Fields. I can only try to describe this. There were piles of craggy deep red rock interspersed with twisted dead tree trunks. Assuming some of these trees were trapped and killed in lava flow, I can only guess how long they had been there.... I'm thinking around the time of Noah!. I tried to get pictures, but the sun was sinking behind Mount Washington (the one with the spike on top... you should have other pictures of it from the Santiam Highway (20) from previous posts. ) I was in too much of a hurry to set up my camera on a stand to get good still images, so had to settle for som motion, etc. Sorry. There were people up on the Dee Wright observatory. with a box cameral on a stand taking long exposures of the 2 visible sisters. Would love to see that picture when they get it back from the lab. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Oregon/HighCascades/dee_wright_observatory.html

The guide at Dee Wright (in motion)

I still remember Becki nearly giggling when she told someone Friday afternoon that I was going to "Dee Wright"... I get the idea she likes it up there.. I tried to take some pictures, but if you're interested, I suggest you follow the link and look at their pictures. I'll just give you enough to show that I was there. As I'm basking in the glory of this beauty and awesome sight, I'm wishing Georgia could be here to share this with me. Maybe we can make it work... Obviously it will need to be a summer trip... We already experienced attempting this in the winter. Apparently this road is closed most winters. The sun going down was both a blessing and a curse. There wasn't enough light for some of the pictures I wanted to capture, but then you have to admit that the colors were gorgeous. See "Clouds" post. The good thing is that the bad driving part of the McKenzie Highway is west of the summit. It was really a "piece of cake" going down the east side to Sisters. I passed the connection of 242 to 20 in Sisters where we had stopped the weekend before to take pictures of middle and south sister. I checked the clock and Three Creeks Brewery was still open, so I headed that way already tasting that gazpacho. Walked in the door and told the hostess that I was here for a bowl of gazpacho....... not on this night.. seems they sometimes have it..... not on this night...... I settled for a cup of Oregon clam chowder (not a bad second) and a barbecue sandwich. Not Lil Porgy's or Murphy's, but pretty good. Finished that and decided to push on to Bend.. I had actually sort of planned to go to Burns, but spent too much time admiring the scenery at the Dee Wright observatory for that. Garmin found me a Day's Inn on my route. Of course, the guy at the desk grew up in Martinsville, Indiana... There are Hoosiers everywhere. Spent a good, but short night. The same guy was mannng the ship in the morning and actually had breakfast ready at 5:30 although they advertise 6am , so I ate, grabbed a couple of bananas for the road and headed out into the sunrise with the Garmin pointed to Rock Springs, Wyoming. The lady on the Garmin promised that I would be there before dark... Sounds good, lets go.

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South and Middle Sister

I have found that I have sort of a "love/hate" feeling about Highway 20 (the central Oregon Highway) from Bend to Ontario, Oregon. There are lots of things to see, yet it is pretty much a desolate drive. However, compared to our first encounter it's a garden center now. We came through in early Feb 08, or was it January??? (OK, it was either January 27 or Feb 3) Growing dusk through snow covered forbidding land. The only people we saw were trying to right a camper than had gone out of control and was lying on it's side almost into the basin. The emergency people had arrived. We had to make Corvallis because I had to lecture on Monday. Now we find that there is actually a stream running along part of the road and several places where they irrigate and grow real crops. So here I am feeling pretty much like a mover and shaker, making my way along this high desert road when I start seeing these people all dressed alike, spread over maybe 15 miles coming from somewhere east of me.,... on bicycles. OMG, just the thought of pumping my old single speed Schwinn (used to belong to Georgia's dad) up those long grades made my knees burn. Why not just go over and beat your head against those big rocks. I could see that some of the people "in the back" who I encountered long after seeing the leaders, might have had the same thoughts running through their heads. Hopefully they knew what I knew... Burns was miles to the west, then another 100 to Bend. Wonder what their destination might have been..

I know the pictures are fuzzy, but I had to include something that intrigued me from our first trip out. I probably posted some back then, but, what the heck. Most likely because of the plethora (love that word) of rocks and the difficulty in sinking stable posts here, They make corner and end posts for their fences from piles of rocks enclosed in fences, much like the way decorative rocks are displayed in landscaping yards in the midwest. I think that is really good adaptation and use of resources. Sorry the pictures are motiony, but I think you can get the idea.
As I came near Ontario, the irrigation became more obvious. This is where we had seen the fields of potatoes and onions. As you can see by the signs, these people take their onion farming seriously. I tried to capture the onion irrigation system. They run little tubes down each row. I think there was also a lot of swiss chard or similar lettuce. I remember on the first trip west that I was fascinated by the number of "dog and pup" trucks in the west. Maybe I missed it, but until this trip I wasn't aware that they have now increased that. I don't know what they call it, but there were several instances of units where there were 3 pieces tied together for a short "train".

Fast forward across Idaho and Utah. Again, gorgeous, be we've "been there, done that".. Don't believe I'm saying that about such beautiful landscape. With 75 mph speed limits and not "too much" roadwork, I made pretty good time. I can see those folks who settled Ogden, Utah saying, "We've arrived in paradise. Why go any further?".

I got to Rock Springs and although we seem to have a tie to this place and I really thought about staying there so I could get an early morning shot at seeing the wild horses (See post "Wyoming to Oregon" or something like that... or maybe the one before it.) I decided it was really too early to stop and the only difficulty ahead might be going up around Elk Mountain just outside Laramie... I check with the Garmin Lady and she said we could make it to Laramie by 10 pm. I swear I heard her say, "Just do it!" ... Sorry, couldn't resist... I know that's old, but then so am I.I didn't count on 30 miles of roadwork causing lane closures just before Laramie. It wasn't like that on "our side" going out. That added to the weariness when I pulled into Laramie, only to be added to the fact that rooms were getting filled up. I ended up at, may I say, a dump. a HOJO. I was directed there by the guy at Super 8 who was booked. Let's just say it wasn't the Hampton. Did I mention that mapquest said I had just traveled 1000 miles from Bend to Laramie. I got in and out of there in time to see the sunrise over Laramie. See if you can find it in the "Clouds" post.

But we have to take another side trip here. This trail starts back when I attended the 50th reunion of the Silver Lake High Class of 1960... "To make the best better"... Marilyn, our class glue sent some things I put together to her class list which included one classmate who couldn't make it. Judy and her husband Art live just south of Denver and when she recieved some of the stuff Marilyn sent, Judy contacted me and we started catching up on each other's lives via e-mail. I had considered stopping by, but wasn't sure how the timing would work out. My major objective of this drive was to get to Indiana asap so I could help Georgia with her mission. If I could work it out and not jeopardise my arrival time in Indiana, I thought it would be great to see them after a number of years. Judy's folks ran the B&K in Silver Lake where my sister and Georgia had worked during the late 50's and early 60's... You know, sock hops, duck tails, poodle skirts, and root beer stands. I think I remember that there had been a Fats Domino sighting at that root beer stand.. If you don't know who that is, google him... I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill, Blue Monday, etc. (OK, I didn't warn you did I..... Squirrel!!!! I consulted Maquest and considered my options. I really didn't want to go back through Nebraska and Iowa again. It would be Sunday so the Gothenberg, Nebraska museum would again be closed, so I couldn't get any more info from there about Georgia's mom and dad's stint there in 1940. The last time we drove this route, we also didn't want a return trip through Nebraska and Iowa, so we dropped down through Ft. Collins where I stopped and visited with a radiologist.. (My old friend Dick was off, so we didn't get to see him.) We then stayed in the Denver Area and we have the picture of Georgia coming out of a Starbucks with her lime green mug full of hot chocolate... Did I mention that we were also met with the beginning of a snowstorm that gave us white knuckles til well into Kansas.. I distinctly remember not knowing if we would be stuck in Hays. That was April 2008. Being the first day of August, I though it would be safe and I would rather go that way than back along 80.. I inquired of the Shiotas and found that they were only about 30 minutes south of I-70 and they would be available for me to stop by. Garmin took me within a couple of blocks of their house and left me, so I had to call for Judy to direct me on down the street where she was in front of the house. They treated me to a fantastic breakfast at a beautiful club, we visited and stopped by their store (For Every Season) in Lone Tree, then back to their house to look at a few family pictures and get back on the road. The visit was too short, but I'm glad it worked out to catch up a little. The magic of e-mail has helped fill in gaps and I'm sure it will continue. Hopefully I will be able to take Georgia back to visit them, their beautiful setting, and their store that is like something Georgia would seek out to shop in. Although the visit was too short, it also costed me a little. When I got back on the road Lady Garmin said it would be 1:30 am when I got to Springfield, Illinois (where our oldest lives with his family. Hmmm, did I just set back my arrival in Indiana another day??? I had lots of time and miles to comtemplate the issue.

I had to include this picture from an eastern Colorado rest stop. At many of the rest stops there are "pet areas". Well only in the western states would you see a horse staked out while the people took a breather from driving. Pushing on across Kansas where I saw lots of fields of sunflowers... It is the sunflower state you know. I passed Manhattan where Kansas State vet school is planted, then on past Lawrence where our old basketball coach Bll Self hangs his hat to Kansas City. I have noticed that on every trip, there are more and more wind farms. I mused about the ingenuity of using the wind to bring water to livestock, filling "tanks", wether they be round or oblong steel tanks or something akin to a pond in the midwest. Although I saw several, I only captured one and that one with motion at that. So here is the still used salvation for livestock and the "offspring" now turning wind energy to electricity.

At this point I was sure Garmin had led me astray. I saw no way I could make it across Missouri to St. Louis, then up through Illinois to Springfield by 1:30 am on that day. I had resigned myself to an extra day on the road when Garmin directed me, not on to I-70, but north on I-35. Oh, boy, here I am. It's dark and I don't know whether to over-ride Garmin and follow my past experience or blindly follow... I was wishing I had used my past method of printing out directions from mapquest so I could see where I was going rather than only getting the next turn from Garmin. Well, I decided to follow Garmin... Again, thank you folks who were praying. I said I should take US 36 east after driving 45 miles north. I turned onto US 36 to find that I was on a 4 lane divided highway (VFW memorial) and 250 miles from Springfield via I-72 from Hannibal. Wow!. I didn't have to go through dreaded St. Louis in the dark and I was a lot closer to Springfield than I thought. If there was a downer it was that there was no place to stay over before Hannibal which was only 100 miles from Springfield. I called Rod and asked that they leave the door unlocked and I could come in and crash and see them in the morning. He agreed and I was now committed. Hey, after driving clear across the country, a measly 100 miles was nothing.

Got up about 6:30 Monday morning, got to say hi to and hug our grandkids and kids as well as wave to Jacque's bible study group before heading to home. Stopped by the post office to collect mail that had not been forwarded to Corvallis, then on home. Our neighbor Jan who had been keeping our tomatoes and flowers alive was home working in her flowers. We visited a bit, then I started war against my beloved sweet autumn clematis that will be fantastic this fall, but right now is trying to cover everything near. This Friday is yard waste pick-up day, so I piled it out front along with a bunch of spent hollyhocks and some weeds. Contacted our youngest and his daughter about mowing the lawn... It did pretty much survive the drought of a couple of weeks ago. Got to give them a hug. Having gotten a "home" shower, I was back on the road and pulled up to the house in Gas City about 5:30 Monday. This morning I had a great breakfast at the B&B in Gas City, still my favorite place in America for breakfast.

Clouds

2010-08-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

"Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, and feather canyons everywhere"... As Joni Mitchell starts her epic description of struggle with her view of life. Since last Friday after work at Oregon State University, I spent over 2200 miles of road time along (more on that in another post to come) Although I enjoyed the scenery at 75 mph, I have to say that I did have moments when I was looking for something to help pass the miles.. Then I discovered right there in front of me an everchanging canvas of beauty. Seeing sunrises and sunsets, with temperature variations from 47 Saturday morning in Bend to 105 Sunday afternoon in western Kansas, and elevations from 500 to over 5000 feet and back again, there was lots of variety provided. Since I was driving, some of the pictures may be "motiony", but if I had stopped every time I saw another gorgeous sight, I would still be in Oregon, rather than Indiana today. Hopefully the order will be near that of the trip, but I'm not promising anything. We start going over McKenzie Pass southwest of Sisters Oregon. If you've forgotten, Sisters in named as such because you can view the "3 Sisters" mountains from there. I went over McKenzie Pass near sundown, so got things like Mount Washington in sunset, and middle and south sister from a different viewpoint. I'll give more details about the trip later. The last picture was Monday morning driving from home to Indiana. Here we go. Hope you enjoy! Remember; if you click on the images, they get big, then you hit the back button to return here.

Actually this is the last picture in Indiana.

Wow that went fast

2010-07-29T00:18:00.000-05:00

I write this during the last week of this stint. Last weekend, we went to one of our favorite places, the Lodge at Suttle Lake, where we have been a few times before, but again the first time during summer. As we approach the lake we are reminded by the massive forest fire that occured here in 2003, burning whole mountains full of trees, including the former lodge. The dead, burned out trees are much more obvious during the summer with the contrasting greenery which is missing during the winter. Thesc charred giants, slowly discintigrate while their little seedlings strive to replace them in covering this glorious scenery with evergreen. Our former pictures of Suttle Lake were made with ice on the lake. These early morning pics give us that "clear as glass" reflection image. The water that runs in the creek away from the lake is crystal clear. Check out this "petunia wagon" near Leavitt's Western Wear in Sisters. After browsing a little in Sisters and snapping a few more pics of the 3 Sisters (mountains) we asked our new Garmin to guide us to Portland so Georgia could catch the plane to Indy Monday morning before I went back to the last week of work. (Feeling much better, but a bit lonely). We were a little surprised when Garmin took us, not up I-5, but through berry country via Oregon City, a delightful "side" trip. The only bummer was that we didn't have any way to handle berrys so we didn't stop, though we were really tempted. Somewhere on the trip, we hit something and I noticed the car shimmied a bit around 60 while driving back to Corvallis. Think I found a trustworthy auto shop. They have our car and have diagnosed a blown strut. I'll let you know later how that works out. One of the "summer" things we didn't get to do was visit "Mary's Peak", a nearby mountain in the coastal range that is the highest point on the coastal range. I decided that since I was going home alone anyway, and the sky was clear, I should trek up there Monday nite. Including filling up with gas, it only took me about an hour to reach the peak after work. Wow. Although it was fantastic, by the time I got up there there were clouds forming over some of the things I wanted to see. Supposedly you can actually see the coast (about 40 miles away), several of the cascade peaks (100 miles) and Mount Hood east of Portland and even Mount Adams and some other peaks in the state of Washington. The most recognizable peak I saw was Mout Jefferson, near Sisters. However the clouds covered it before I coud get a picture. I tried to capture the grandure, but don't think I came close. As I was leaving, people were gathering to watch the sunset... I wasn't up to driving down the twisty-turney in the dark, so came on down. Hard to believe that majestic view is so close to Corvallis.

First week for this trip

2010-07-28T23:15:00.000-05:00

Our 5th trip to Corvallis and our first one in July. I was only here about 2 days when I started with upper respiratory signs. Actually it lasted for about 2 weeks with 3 sleepless nights due to coughing. Since this county boasts as being the "Grass Seed Capitol of the World" and we have seen mountains of grass seed in piles, fields of gold in various stages from standing crops replete with seeds to fresh cut, to windrows to fields full of bails of various shapes and sizes, I had assumed that I had succumbed to the scourge of the northwest; allergy... As I look back, I think I picked up someone's summer bug on the way out. That aside, when we came here last June, we got a glimpse of Oregon in bloom. Here in July we see more of the glory. Roadsides filled with Foxgloves and Sweet Peas and all kinds of yellow and white daisy types. I have seen more nasturtiums on the coast than I've ever seen. And we have seen beautiful flowers that are completely foreign to us.. but the crowning glory, I think are the butterfly bushes that are 15 to 20 feet tall and blue hydrangias that are nearly azure, rather than the pale blue we sometimes see in the midwest. Our first weekend was spent on the coast. We returned to the Ocean House B&B in Newport for the overnight. Got to walk a bit at Lost Creek Beach where people were playing and walking and building sandcastles. Georgia found some black rocks.... lots of black rocks. We ate at "Nana's Irish Pub" in Newport, run by an Irish mother and daughter.... cool place, good food. http://nanasirishpub.com/

Sunday we headed north to Depoe Bay, Boiler Bay, and Lincoln City. (Whale sighting country).. Georgia who loves mistery stories, found an article in a local rag about this local author (Ronald P. Lovell ) a retired Oregon State University faculty member who was signing books in Lincoln City. To make a long story shorter, we found a recommended Bob's Beach Books and bought a couple of Lovell's books then made our way to Captain Dan's Pirate Pastry shop in Lincoln City where we found Mr. Lovell and a friend sitting at a table with several copies of his new book... Georgia got her books signed and her picture taken with the author. On the way back, she got some pictures of people flying kites along the ocean beach.. After stopping at Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay for a late lunch, we made it back before dark, ready for the second week.

July 2010 Wyoming to Corvallis

2010-07-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

This post picks up were we left you in Gothenberg, Nebraska. We did make it to Rock Springs. Got a good night's sleep, then decided we had time to take the "Pilot Butte Wild Horse Loop". http://www.wyomingtourism.org/overview/Wild-Horses-Loop-Tour-/30913

Although the locals, all the pubs, etc. promised exciting experiences with "the most likely place in America to see wild horses".... the further we went, the more we got, "if you don't encounter wild horses, you still can take in the natural beauty"... It is worth the trip, just to see the terrain from that viewpoint, looking down across the valley onto Rock Springs and Green River, WY... and so much more. We saw lots of "road apples", some rather fresh. Antelope, mucho sagebrush, lots of really nice wild flowers, but the horses must have been elsewhere this day. There were a few other folks on the same hunt, including a family from Michigan who even called the agency number and got no help. You can see their vehicle in one of the pictures traveling the gravel roads that spider-web out from Sweetwater County road 53. Some of the places require 4-wheel drive, and some required more than we felt we had, but we did make it up the trail about halfway up Pilot Butte which is an impressive landmark that guided early travelers (thus Pilot). You can see from some of the pictures on the markers along the road that we are where horses have been... hence the poop piles. We could have gone back to Rock Springs to see some that they have penned up so you can really see a wild horse if you miss the free running ones.... as Georgia says,"I can see penned up horses anytime I want." As we made our way into Utah we were taken with the green mountains. It reminded us of pictures we have seen of Ireland.. We spent the next night in Twin Falls, Idaho where we had stopped in January 08, but this time there was a new Hilton Garden Inn... Nice place! From there our destination was Oregon. We had planned to go to Burns, Oregon which would have divided our remaining driving time in half, but there was some kind of festival there and no rooms. So we tried Bend, another 2 hours west... Two large festivals there including a music festival.... no rooms. We discussed it and decided to try for Sisters.. If you have read our past posts, you should see Sisters, Oregon several times. One of our "favs".. We called Five Pine Lodge to find out that there was a Quilt Festival for that day. http://www.sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org/ but she suggested that the Best Western Ponderosa might have a room. Oh oh... We have been staying in places where we felt safe from surprises... But in our experience, with Best Western, you don't really know what you will get... We didn't want to go down the west side of the Cascades in the dark.... been there, done that... Called the Best Western and got a really nice suite for the night.. upper level and all. So we wondered and worried about what we would run into. When we left Interstate 84 in Ontario, Oregon and headed across the "Central Oregon Highway" (which by the way goes from Ontario to Newport (on the coast)), we knew we were facing lots of "nothing".. When we came across in January 08, it was snowy and bleak, and getting dark fast. This time much of it was green since they do a lot of irrigation on the east and west sides of the expanse. We saw our first fields of potatoes (yes in Oregon, not Idaho).. Lavender, Onions, and lots of alfalfa. It was 120 miles of "nothing" to Burns, then 90 miles more of the same to Bend.. Then all of a sudden, we were in the Cascades. Got into Sisters and stopped to eat at the Three Creek Brewery... See previous posts... we'd been there before.. I got a fantastic sausage sandwich and the best cup of gazpacho soup I had ever had... If Chess Adams reads this.... his was good, but this was just fantastic. After eating, we got to the Ponderosa Lodge and it was just great. http://www.bestwesternsisters.com/tour.htm Since the lodge borders a national forest, on the way to breakfast this morning, I saw some birds I had never seen before that make a really strange sound. The staff identified them as "Pinyon Jays".. http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/80/_/Pinyon_Jay.aspx Today, we finished the trip and set up housekeeping at 800 SW Washington in Corvallis. I get to see what the OSU vet students assigned to Radiology remember from my teaching in winter quarter of 09.. and feel like a contributor to education again for a short time. Next weekend, we hopt to hit the coast and say hello to the Pacific Ocean.... Whales???? who knows. Hopefully they haven't heard from the White Mountain Wild Horse heard that we are coming!

reposting of first posts

2010-07-08T10:20:00.002-05:00

Here is the text from when this blog began. I did recover a few of the pictures, but not too clear. I had thought I needed to keep the volume down, so had removed the early ones... I find that isn't true, so here they are again.. But without all the pictures.
Interfaces archive

January 26, 2008
Continuous Learning

Maybe old dogs can learn new tricks, as long as the tricks are simple. So, here is yet another adventure into the unknown. I happen to be one of those people who know just enough about computers to be dangerous. Through the years, I have gotten fairly proficient at Adobe Photoshop, knowing that I have just scratched the surface of that great (and expensive) program. My latest effort was to try to help a student understand the radiographic diagnosis of canine hip dysplasia... I took the original radiograph, cut out the femoral heads, and moved them to where they should be.... coloring diagnostic differences. Watcha think??? Steve Martin, move over.

January 30 Interfaces explained

These images may not be right where they belong, but hopefully they will help convey the concepts. So, it's early in the morning. (Well it was when I started this.) I've had my shower and a great Hampton Inn breakfast. After braving a 50 degree drop in temperature and ungodly wind while driving to this place, we were whipped when we arrived. Weather looks promising today, including snow maybe all day long. That thought brought joy to the heart of my bride of 44 years… Her dream is to get snowed in, just like we did at home in northern Indiana as kids. Another long story for another time. Anyway, she isn't quite ready to brave the day yet, so I thought I would take the time to explain the name of this site; interfaces. In my work trying to help veterinary students understand radiographs (x-rays to you non-medical folk), there are now several thousand veterinarians who have had the concept of interfaces beat into their heads by yours truly… How's that for a sentence?

All body parts fall into opacity categories based on their ability to stop x-rays. The more "dense" things like bones stop more rays (opaque to rays = radio-opaque), leaving a white area on the film to represent the bone, while less "dense" things which are less radio-opaque are represented by more dark grey or black areas of the film. In radiology (the study of x-ray) there are 5 different opacity categories;

Gas (in the lungs, stomach, and intestine… ie. Impending farts)

Fat (we all know where that is)
Soft tissue and fluid This is muscle, organs such as kidneys, heart, and liver as well as fluids such as blood and urine.

Bone

Metal (such as bone plates or screws)

Looking at the first image, notice the marbling (fat) in the steak. Why would we think that the top radiograph was taken in the summer or the south? (See the fish-hook?)

Now if all of these things were the same opacity, we would not be able to see anything on a radiograph. However it is the INTERFACE between these things of different opacity that allows us to see that they are actually there. In the very thin dog or cat, for instance, you cannot see the edges of the liver or kidneys because there is no interface as all of these soft tissue structures are lying against each other. Most dogs and cats (especially today) have deposited enough fat in their abdomen (belly) that there is fat surrounding nearly all organs. It is this fat/soft tissue interface that allows us to see these organs.
This last radiograph is of a young bulldog who loved to chew on things. You can see the gas in the stomach and bowels. You can barely make out the kidneys as there is just enough fat around them to provide interfaces for their visualization. If you look in her gas filled stomach, you can see a "GI Joe" running toward you. He is made of plastic which in this case is somewhere between soft tissue and mineral opacity interafacing with the gas. There you go with your first lesson in radiographic interpretation. You can see that without opacity interfaces, medical x-rays would be impossible to interpret. We depend on them… And interfaces between people are inevitable. Let's try to keep them as positive as we can. I hope some people get some benefit from this, my feeble attempt to interface with you. Skk

January 31,2008 Two Ply Toilet Paper

This morning I recieved yet another lesson from the most basic source. I got the opportunity to load a new roll of toilet paper in our "home" on the road. Somehow I got it started "between" the 2 plys and I wasted quite a bit before I got it on track. Surely you've faced this dilemma. If not, perhaps you've been rushing through wrapping a present and all of a sudden, the Scotch tape tears obliquely and you lose the end. As you scratch and swear, you're throwing away tape because you can't find the beginning... My experience with the toilet paper reminded me that to some of you whom I have invited to share this interface space, as well as those of you that unsuspectingly stumbled to this place, I have placed you between the plys, and you have not idea where I'm coming from, or going.
After Over 30 years of teaching veterinary radiology in veterinary colleges, I have recently retired. During that time, there were 2 parts of my work that "turned me on". First is the "I got it" expression of students to whom I am attempting to impart understanding of this exciting subject of veterinary radiology. The second most favorite part of my work has been the thrill of the hunt. A radiologist gets to do the discovery work in figuring out what is ailing a patient, while the primary clinician "gets" to manage the case. When I retired, 2 things spurred me to get into the "locum" business. First, I feel I still have something to offer, and second, we want to travel (even outside the USA) and that will take money...
Now I have to take you through another hoop. I am a second generation veterinary radiologist. The pioneers who taught me were the first veterinarians to specialize, creating the first specialty group in the American Veterinary Medical Association, the ACVR. http://www.acvr.org/

During the early portion of my career, veterinary specialists were all in the veterinary colleges, just as many of my collegues are today. About 20 years ago, veterinary specialists, including radiologists began leaving the "hallowed halls" and setting up private specialty practices. These have fluorished doing 2 thing. First they offer specialty veterinary medicine to clients all over the nation (in fact world) in locations far from veterinary colleges. The second affect was that at present veterinary colleges are having considerable difficulty attracting veterinary specialists because private practice is more lucrative and to those who are not driven by the bent to teach or do research, there are fewer "headaches". This is the situation that places me where I am now. At my retirement, I offered myself to veterinary colleges to fill in doing locums *there's that word again. Time for another side trip.
Locum Tenens (shortened to locum) is temporary employment for physicians (and veterinarians?) It's usually a temporary position where you're filling until the position can be filled permanently. However at many veterinary colleges, these positions are filled by a parade of people like myself who are able to move about. So far since June, I have had the opportunity to work at some very neet places, like Purdue University, the University of Illinois and Michigan State University.
Now my bride and I (A term I borrowed from the great veterinary radiologist "Tim" O'Brien) are heading to Oregon State University where we will spend 6 weeks in a locum in addition to finishing a basic radiology course to their students which I started (by remote, web based learning) One fupaw I may have committed is that the first time these students see me in person, I will be administering their first test.... poor planning on my part; hopefully they will get over it.
While we are gone our great neighbors and our children will be watching and somewhat occupying our home.
There, do you feel like you are back at the correct starting place on the roll?

As I started this, I realized that I was at a serious crossroads in which I was about to counter one of my life commandments. I explained the need to bring you up to speed so that you weren't starting in the middle of the movie. However, to some of you, I have broken my "no repeat" rule. There are few movies or TV shows that I can tolerate watching again. A few that slip through for me are "a Christmas Story", "Blazing Saddles", and "Young Frankenstein". Those I can handle. Oh Yes, also "The Villian" ( http://www.imbd.com/title/tt0080097/.
So those of you who already knew all of this are now saying, "why didn't you put that in the beginning so I wouldn't have to read through all of that to find out something I already knew. Hey, I'm just learning. I will share one little experience. Here on the western side of CST, it doesn't get daylight until after 7:30 am on January 31.
For another perspective on our travels, see: http://georgia-wintersong.blogspot.com/

January 31, 2008 Plans interrupted produce blessings
After the long drive yesterday, we got a bit of a late start today. Everything was clicking along just great. We had reservations in Rock Springs, Wyoming, which would have put us ahead of our goal and deep into the mountains. We could take our time and not worry about getting a room, etc.. Then we stopped to fill up and grab a bite on the west side of Laramie... Although we had been listening to traffic radio, we were't prepared to hear that I-80 was closed.. So finding there was a Hampton Inn in Laramie, we called, reserved a room and asked them to cancel our reservation in Rock Springs. I'll let Georgia fill in the details, but we were directed to Grand Avenue Pizza in Laramie.... Wow! was that good. Now we're settling in hoping to get a good start tomorrow (Friday). Here are some pics captured from the web to let you know what we almost got into. That's it.. no wit, just the facts, skk aarrgghh!!! I'm tired of fighting placement of these pics, Sorry, they're going to have to stay as they are

February

attempt at reposting early post second group

2010-07-08T10:17:00.001-05:00

Interfaces (Blog of Steve Kneller) archive 2
Sorry some pictures didn't copy

A trip on the Brink
In my last post, I was light-heartedly relating our tale of being stuck in Laramie, with the promise of catching up today. All of the locals we spoke to said, "Oh yes, it will be open tomorrow. Hmmm. It's tomorrow. Check out the pics. First you can see Laramie in the bottom right corner of the map. Arlington is indicated about half way between Laramie and Rawlings. Next look at the road closings in the second picture, then the camera of about a half our ago shows why.

The plan is to hold our room until about 1pm. By that time, if the roads don't open, we wouldn't make it across before night,,, probably; so we would stay the nite, hoping to move on tomorrow (Sat) More later, hopefully from somewhere else. We really enjoyed experiencing Laramie; but we're ready to move on.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008the saga continues

Not much else to do right now. While waiting to see what was going to happen, we balanced the checkbook using our online banker and now my bride is taking a nap.. I think the stress is overbearing. Several of you have mentioned that you were praying for us. I guess we have you to thank for being stuck here, right? Well, if that's true, it's most likely a good thing. We wouldn't want to be in a mountain pile-up. I thought the images from the cameras on the wyroad.info site were interesting. when I saw this first one after being advised to "stay over, I thought, "well doesn't look bad to me" Then someone explained that just to the right of the green sign should be an exit ramp which seems to contain about an 8 foot drift. That settled my jets for a while (I hate making wrong decisions, especially when their big ones.) So we stayed, yadda yadda like I explained earlier. This morning while again trying to make decisions, the same camera was displaying this second image. Well this got my attention. Notice that the road is now white and "thick". The drifts from the ramp area seem to be coming out into the road. and those trucks are snowplows. I get the idea that the middle one is actually a snowblower. The problem is that this picture was up for several hours. I kept checking back to see if I had made the correct decision (at least I thought I had the power to make the decision???) Then finally about 3pm, the closing page made a sudden change to this, so I went back to see how things looked at the original site. Wow! the road is clear and there is a truck going through the closed road. Well, even if this section was good enough to get through, we still had to go west from Rawlins... Not good. Maybe tomorrow.

We're off and running

You can imaging my joy when I checked in with my recent favorite web site last nite to see That there were no roads closed and I could see the nite traffic passing through the nasty part. Then again this morning I can see traffic moving through.. As you can see in the morning photo, there is traffic moving through our "favorite" site, but wait,,,, I was again mis-informed. The exit appears to be just to the left of the green sign, not to the right... From previous photos, you could not have proven it by me.

So, for us it's an early start on the road to see if we can get over before the next promised winter storm hits this place. Hasta La Vista til later. skk

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2008

1600 down; 500 to go
We did get out of Dodge, I mean Laramie.
To prove it, see the photo on the right. That is the same sign I have shown you the last few days indicating one of the nasty spots between Laramie and Rock Springs. Well, we snapped this picture as we wizzed by at 75 mph (yes we've had the blessing of speed limit of 75 for a while.) I'm told that will end when we reach Oregon. You see, I don't speed, because I believe angels are so pure and honest that they wouldn't go faster than the speed limit... and I don't want to outrun my angels.

Finally we get some real scenery. I'll let Georgia show you the bulk of it or I might put it on my netfiles. We had forgotten just how awesome it is across the Rockies. Here is just a taste. As beautiful as it was in western Wyoming, Utah going up I-84 was even more breath-taking.
We ended up stopping at the Hampton Inn in Rock Springs (where we were supposed to stay Thursday nite.) Angelina, the manager on duty went out of her way to help us. Not only did she make and confirm our reservations for tonite (I'll tell you where later... patience, Gertrude.) but she reprinted our directions to Corvallis, which we misplaced and sent us away with snacks for the road. Although we have noticed that Hampton Inn people are "problem solvers" (You have a problem, let us help you solve it.) She was above and beyond. She even helped us with the "how far can we stand to travel today vs how far do we need to go. It was supposedly 14 hours to Corvallis, so we decided to drive 5 of that today, leaving hopefully 9 for Sunday. She set us up for the Hampton in Twin Falls, Idaho.. we have never been to Idaho before.. Wow, another nice place, except that as it grew dark, although we had enjoyed the snow since Iowa, we hit the first "problem" snow. It got so we had difficulty seeing the lines in the road and we had to reduce speed to about 30 mph. We got nervous until a semi went around us and cleared the road until the snow stopped. This nite shot of the snow at the Idaho rest stop gives you some idea.

So we made it to Twin Falls, Idaho and hope to arrive at Corvallis somewhere around 6pm Sunday. Of course the superbowl will be essentially over and we will have missed nearly all of the new commercials. However, assuming we arrive alive, we won't have missed that much. The good plays will be played on ESPN for a week and the new commercials will also play over, and over, and over, and... This last shot was one of my attempts to be artsy-fartsy. I wanted to show the mountains ahead of us as well as those behind us (in the rearview mirror). The result was less than stellar. But at 75 mph in the mountains... did I say I wanted to arrive alive>>>??? nuf sed for today.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2008Whew!

It's Monday nite about 6pm in southwest Oregon. We made the trek from Twin Falls, Idaho to Corvallis, Oregon Sunday, pulling in about midnight. We drug into bed and I "jumped up" to get to "work" this morning. A real eventful day; gave 2 hourly exams (written and practical) got introduced to lots of nice people and procedures. Didn't even have time to get my computer out til I got home. On one of our blogs, we will post pictures of the Snake River Canyon near where Evil Kneivel (sp) tried his jump in 1974.. an awesome sight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Falls,_Idaho
We drove across miles and miles of Southwest Oregon ranchland and more beautiful "hills". Then we hit the Cascades at Bend, Oregon and saw more snow than we have ever seen before. Interesting thing is that the locals say this is more snow than they have ever had. Snow loving Georgia has done it again. Gotta settle in. Thanks to all for your prayers, it was a rather harrowing ending, but we are here. Since we went through about the most beautiful part of the trip in the dark, we will definately need to make a weekend trip back the 100 or so miles to see. It all started at a little town called "Sisters".. http://www.el.com/to/sisters/ I also see from maps that there is a "Brothers"... will have to see what that's all about some time. OK, back to 2010.

Gothenburg revisited

2010-07-08T09:37:00.001-05:00

We are making another trip west, following the same route as we did when we first birthed this blog. Because of my naivity, I thought my blog had too much stuff on it, so I removed the first few posts. As time permits, I will repost those early ones as new posts for anyone who really wants to follow this from the beginning. (maybe 2 people???) On our first trip, we were traveling I-80 at the end of January, so the scenery was pretty stark. This time it is GREEN. Seeing horses and cattle grazing is a beautiful sight. So why did I choose Gothenburg as the starting point of this trip? We spent our first night in Des Moines and honestly, for us there wasn't much to "write home about". so far. Gothenburg hold interest for 2 reasons. It was where the first Pony Express station was built and part of it still stands. We have pictures. The most interesting note about the Pony Express is that as much notariety as is given to the Pony Express, it only ran for 18 months. Some presidents have served for 4 years and we don't know as much about them as we do the Pony Express. Here is the URL for Gothenburg's history site. http://www.ci.gothenburg.ne.us/

The other reason Gothenburg sparked our interest is that Georgia's mom got her first teaching job in a one-room country school (12 grades) in Gothenburg. At the Pony Express station, we saw a museum across the street which we thought might have been the school, but we met one of the museum "committee" who was mowing the grass and found that it had been a "Plymouth meeting house" for a religeous group that settled here and built the meeting house. However, this guy (Dick Larson) was so nice that he gave us the e-mail address (oh, the museum was closed for the day) and name of the historian, so hopefully we can get some more information on that. He did say that at that time (1940) there were several country schools in the area, so we don't know if the building still stands or not. He took me inside to get some information, so I got to look around a bit. We'll see where that takes us.

We "bunked" in North Platte last night in the same Hampton Inn we stayed in on our first trip. Right next to "Fort Cody".. We find it interesting that there is all this Buffalo Bill stuff here, yet, a post from last fall shows us in the midst of Cody stuff in Cody, Wyoming. I did fine out that Buffalo Bill Cody established a reputation of Western hospitality when he used his Scouts Rest Ranch here near North Platte as headquarters for his famous Wild West Show. . Guess he got around. Tonight we hope to land in Rock Springs, Wyoming. That Hampton Inn holds a special place for us because we stayed there over a weekend coming home from our first trip out because a transfer case went out on our explorer and we had to be towed back to Rock Springs and wait for it to get fixed on Monday and Tuesday. The people there were wonderful to us. Today we begin our "suaree" in the Rockie Mountains. To us plains dwellers, this sounds exciting.

Another session for memories

2010-07-02T16:09:00.004-05:00

This post is primarily for my family. If you're out there and I don't have your e-mail address, please send it to me... if you don't mind. Several people in my dad's family meet at the junction of Indiana state roads 9 & 14 the first Friday of the month for lunch. Today it worked out for me to attend. What a joy for me as I hadn't seen some of these folks since at least 1988. My dad's sister Edna (Curly) and husband Duane were there along with my cousin Becky and husband Roger, cousin Donalyn, her brother Lon and his daughter Kadie. Lon and Kadie apparently make the July meeting each year on their annual trip back from Texas. It was also good to see my sister and Gary again...wow twice this summer. Apparently my cousin Monica (not the one from Oklahoma) and cousin Pam often attend, but were unable to make it this time. Another small, roadside eating establishment with good food, but the food was secondary to the rich conversation. As uncle Duane said to summarize the gathering, "most of what was said was probably true"... We recalled much from 50's and 60's including the outlandish stunts that were pulled. It is a wonder some of us made it through those years. For my kids and grandkids, if I ever stop tweaking my "Peppermint, Potatoes, and Pigs" recall of my childhood, you will get to read many of these stories. Having not made any family reunions since 1988, renewing these few family ties is precious to me. Have fun figuring out who is who. Of course, family members can get answers via e-mail. Just ask. Remember; the pictures get bigger if you click on them..

Next wave of blooms

2010-06-18T23:53:00.000-05:00

In a previous post, I showed you the first wave of blooms in our yard. It has now been spring for a few more weeks and new and different flowers are gracing us with their shining faces. That is part of the fun of perennial flower gardening, trying to set it up so that there is never a time when something isn't blooming. It's a challenge, but fulfilling. Of course adding a patch of zinnias helps mix in some color. You'll see here that the zinnia patch is photographed first as it is just budding, then this week as it started blooming. You'll see the front porch without, then with the Boston ferns that give it such a breezy appearance. The next challenge will be to keep them alive when these torrential rains stop and it gets hot and dry. That sounds like a fairy tail as I listen to the thunder crashing for yet another night. I hope you enjoy these flowers half as much as we do. Remember with blogspot, if you click on the pictures, they get larger. Blaine's poor copper arch is now completely shrouded in wisteria vines, which I have to keep trimming back to keep them off the satellilite dish. Oh, in some of the pictures, the wegalia is still in the pots... oops!

A weekend of remembrance.

2010-06-14T13:06:00.006-05:00

Let's see, last Friday, I spent much of the day tying up loose ends because I was determined, (with the blessing of my loving wife) to make it to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Silver Lake, Indiana High School class of 1960.. The day kept filling and I kept chugging along, dodging rain showers as I went. Having been to Indiana the past 2 weekends, she wasn't up to the trip and we decided she would be able to make it home alone while I was gone. The kids and their wives checked on her by phone. Speaking of the kids; I was "boxed in" on the other end of the weekend because the "middle management" team of the Steve and Georgia Kneller family planned a family get together at our house for Sunday evening. So here we go. I hit the road with WDWS news/talk radio escorting me to near Attica, Indiana where I switched to a CD I threw in named "A rough guide to Zydeco"... which played through twice before I pulled onto Bouse Drive on the west side of Silver lake. The trip from home itself started the memory gusher as I hadn't traveled that route for many years. I arrived at the Friday evening gathering after everyone had eaten, but the joy of seeing all of those old friends replaced any thoughts of food. I took lots of pictures and I had a "first" with this camera.... I found out Saturday that I must have deleted all of the Friday night pictures. So I'm waiting for pictures other people took to enhance the experience. I hadn't seen many of these people for 50 years, but it really seemed like "yesterday". I have decided in this post to not name names to protect.. whatever. So those who know or have known us, will have to match the pictures with names on your own, or ask me by e-mail just who is who. I am convinced that over the years, I have changed in appearance more than any of my classmates. Most are just a slightly wrinkled version of the kid I knew way back then.

To give me a chance to visit I asked my sister if I could "bunk" at their house. Not only did she heartily agree with my request, but Saturday morning she fixed my "favorite" breakfast. (You may have to go back through some of my recent posts to find out what that was.) Her husband was overjoyed.... apparently that great breakfast isn't often made there..... which is a good thing because none of us should be eating that breakfast very often... but MMMMMM good (like Campbell's soup????) After breakfast and great conversation, I headed back to Kosciusko county. I somehow let my classmates talk me into joining in on the Golf Outing at Rozella Ford course just south of Warsaw. Even the driving trips to and from my sister's house afforded additional memories as I traveled through Whitely and East Kosciusko county on a couple of different routes showing me many things that have changed and some that have stayed the same since I drove those routes years ago. I think there were 10 classmates and spouses attempting to play golf and 1 "rider" divided into 2 teams. They introduced me to a wonderful concoction of rules which saves golfers from being frustrated with us duffers when playing together. I think it was called "best ball"; where the whole team shoots from the spot of the best shot. We found that just like back in high school, none of us were really outstanding, but as a group, we were pretty darn good. It wasn't brought up this weekend, but I think our class motto was; "to make the best better". This weekend, that was so obvious as the support of these people for one another just shined, lifting each other up moment after moment. There were hilarious moments along with those sad and thoughtful times. The "other team" had finished 9 holes and our team 7 when one of the common rainstorms of the weekend came across the course. We "hightailed it" to the clubhouse where we had a late lunch. One of our beloved classmates living in California was not able to make it to Silver Lake this weekend, but believe it or not, while sitting there in the clubhouse, one of us recognized his "baby" brother sitting across the room. She went to acknowledge him and brought him to our table for introductions. What a treat. Then it was time to calculate scores and see which team had played the most stellar golf... If I understand it correctly, we ended up with a tie score which brought another problem. Some of the ladies had put together winner and loser prizes for the outing, so someone had to be declared winners... We flipped a coin and the prizes were handed out accordingly. After that we dispersed to prepare for the Alumni Banquet. I ended up making a surprise visit to one of my cousins living locally where we had a great visit before I used their shower and changed clothes for the banquet.

The banquet; If you attended a small school and have not attended an alumni banquet for several years, get ready.... I was not prepared. I walked in and seeing a table of people considerably older than myself, leaned over and said, "I felt like an old guy til I saw you folks"... Probably not the best way to put it, but it really was meant as a compliment!!! Really!!!... I have to believe I was being guided a bit because the lady to whom I addressed that comment turned out to be our next door neighbor when we moved to Silver Lake in what 1945??? Margaret would have been near graduation from High School at that time (I forgot to check the sign on their table to see what year they graduated.) Yes, I have mentioned a name.... on purpose because the next name is so important and should not be overlooked. She directed me to her husband Denny Conley... My mom's family played nearly every string instrument made and mom loved music. she was involved in some kind of musical performance from her teen years to her death. During the early 60's we had "Hootenannies" made up primarily of local talent. We developed a little group and Denny taught me to play the stand up bass and tenor banjo as part of many evenings of "jammin". At the time I had sort of graduated from the Ukulele to the guitar, but we needed a bass. Denny was one of those people who could play anything.... and play it well. I credit him to what little I was able to pass on to my children and they on to theirs. His legacy grows and grows... even without his knowledge. Back to the banquet.. So I said, "are you still playing"... He affirmed that he gives Ukulele, guitar and bass lessons both in Florida in the winter and Indiana in the summer. . . He's 89 and going strong! WOW! That was just the beginning. Although as probably typical, most of the people who put me in awe were older than I. Each time I would put a name with a face, another group of memories would come racing through. Actually I was emotionally exhausted (in a good way) before I left. To add to the emotional effort, Marilyn who I think has done the most to hold our class together and asked us earlier if we wanted to write something about the meaning of classmates who had become deceased. I wrote something about each one and Marilyn graciously asked me then if I would read it at the banquet... I was honored and thought, "I've been talking in front of groups for the past 40 years, so that should be fine".. The time came and as I moved to the mike I had to walk past the still living father of the first man on my list.... Simply stated, Marilyn had to read that one and a few more because I got so choked up that I couldn't speak.... What a surprise to me. I know I have gotten more "tender" over the years, but my oh my... I felt like a blubbering idiot!.. We got through it. Got our pins for participation in band, chorus, baseball and softball, helped clean up a little and headed out for an "after party" at a local classmates (actually 2 classmates who were married) house. Had more fun wrestling with memories, taking pictures, talking and laughing at ourselves. I didn't break out my camera Saturday night.... sorry. That went on til fairly late and I headed back to my sister's house. Wouldn't you know it, as I was driving into Silver Lake from the north, where I had driven hundreds of times before, I was not paying attention. I turned east onto 14 and saw red and blue flashing lights in my mirror. Pulled off to find that I had apparently been speeding as I came into town. It shocked me because I wasn't in a hurry but was just not paying attention to signage. Fortunately, the officer (Nothing like Lee Moyer) only gave me a warning).. and I was on my way. I got there late and went directly to bed.

Sunday morning I went to church with my sister and her husband, then changed clothes and headed back to Silver Lake for one last segment of our get together. Since this was my first trip along this route in the daylight I took a couple of old shortcuts, one bypassing South Whitley and coming into Collamer the "back way" along the Eel River which was always one of my favorite little jaunts. Just before you cross the bridge, there is a small man made water fall from a dam of some sorts. Because of the rain, there was really not much of a waterfall. I passed by a barn still standing where some of us had played basketball as teenagers which reminded me of all the barn lofts we in which we used to play basketball. I arrived at the eating establishment just north of Silver Lake at the former sight of the "Igloo" a "dairy queen" sort of place. There is a similar family run shop in Linden, Indiana.... really good. But the Igloo is gone, replaced by Homestead's Backyard Grille. Really tasty food and good service. Since I was not pushing the clock to get home, I was the first one there. Because I am also a fast eater, which I attribute to the fact that over my life, most of my meals have been consumed "on the run" I was also the first to leave. Different classmates were able to attend different segments of the weekend, but it was great to be able to see those who made it as often as I did. Could have stayed a week, but then my life is no longer in Silver Lake.. That little town is still to me "a great place to be from"... but I can see that also it is a great place to live. I passed up the one last planned gathering and headed west. On the way home I discovered a field of peppermint just west of Parr, Indiana. I had to get out and walk through it. Another flood of memories from the early years when we raised peppermint on the farm. We spent our summers crawling up and down those rows of peppermint pulling weeds and swatting bugs and deer flies. This field was what we called "meadow mint" which was no longer in rows.

I arrive at home in yet another rainstorm just in time to help my wife get some stuff together. While we were working on it, we heard the melodic tones of our children arriving for the final "celebration" of the weekend. After they all went home we sat and talked a little bit about the events of the weekend. Georgia related how glad she was that I was able to go for the gatherings, how Silver Lake had given her great times, great friends, and great memories and that she remembered how the people in the class of 1960 were so nice and accepting of her. In her words, "in Silver Lake, the whole town and the whole school was one big family". After basking a bit more in those rich times, I drug off to the bedroom for a night of physical and mental recovery. Today is another day! Yesterday may be gone, but the memories are sweet to savor!

Tractors I grew up on

2010-05-19T17:41:00.002-05:00

I stumbled onto some pictures we took a couple of years ago when we were at the Pennfield ag show. While we were there, I found tractors that I grew up on. During WWII while my dad was working for his father-in-law, he bought a new McCormick Deering Farmall "H". I think I remember the story correctly that it was in storage or something until we moved to the farm in Silver Lake. He and mom started farming there with that tractor, but when I started driving tractor, that was too big. The first tractor I remember driving was a Farmall "B" which could only be used for light work. Although it was just a small tractor, I still remember grabbing onto the steering wheel to hold myself up to reach the clutch and brake. In time I grew into the "H", but soon there was need for more power as other equipment got larger. When dad brought home the Farmall "M", I thought we had arrived. I really thought "Emmy" was strong. I loved to drive her with her straight pipe exhaust glowing in the dark at night as we pushed to get ground prepared in the spring. As the need for power grew, the faithful "H" was traded for a really modern tractor, a Farmall 350 "TA" (which was new technology at the time). At that time, my mind got a little fuzzy because I was not as involved with the farming, but dad got one more Farmall, a 460, I think. Then he got into Fords. Still my favorite was "Emmy". Today that would be considered a small tractor, but 50 years ago she was pretty special. Thanks for indulging the memories of this old man. As my wife often says, "you can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy".....

Just the Beginning

2010-05-18T18:11:00.002-05:00

For the past 3 years, we have traveled to some really great places and tried to share them as we went. In those travels, we have picked up lots of friends. Once in a while I try to help them to see that there is life here in Illinois and it "ain't so shabby". This morning I was looking out our bathroom window onto the fountain and flowers beginning to emerge in our yard. Thought that although our yard is just beginning to bloom, I would share the view with y'all. If I think about it at the right time, I'll try to follow up during more of the blooming stages. I was able to rescue the tulips from the rabbits, but didn't take pictures; just enjoyed the beauty. We did get some April pictures made and they are mixed among the May ones. See if you can tell which is which. For instance the copper arch Blaine and I made is covered with the 2 year old crepe myrtle, so you really can't see it in May, but in an April pic of the weeping cherry, you can see the "naked" arch in the background.. If you go back a couple of summers, you can see it totally when not covered in vines. I hope you enjoy the pics and can imagine when the buds that are just forming start to explode. Check out the reflection in the window under the vine covered arch.

Gary's in Lebanon

2010-03-28T08:32:00.003-05:00

Just a quicky about BBQ. We rolled into Lebanon, MO, where we have now stopped over 3 times in our 2 trips to Oklahoma State University. It has rained off and on all day. Saw one short and wide rainbow, trees starting to bud and fruit trees starting to bloom with daffodils popping up. A great patch of forsythia in bloom reminded us that after what, 12 or 13 years? We still don't have any forsythia in our bloom collection at home. We were getting more hungry, the closer we got to Lebanon, but I wasn't concerned because I remembered going to the Olive Garden for take out when we were here before and knew just where there was a nest of eating establishments nearby... Georgia was sceptical about my memory. As we approached Lebanon, she could see my anxiety grow, and she was correct. In the past 3 years, we have stayed in so many places that I apparently got Lebanon, MO mixed up with something else. We checked in and ask about eating places. Just across the street (and up a little) was Gary's Catfish and BBQ. http ://www.dowdscatfishandbbq.com OMG was it good? It reminds us of Hickory River Smokehouse in Urbana, IL, http://www.hickoryriver.com/ but better and with a lot more choices. In fact it was difficult to make a decision, but they had that covered with different combo dinners. Everything we had was just awesome. I ate more than I should, but just couldn't decide what to leave on my plate. They have 3 barbeque sauces; mild, spicy, and fire but the fire wasn't as hot as hot at Lil Porgy's in Urbana and Champaign. http://www.lilporgysbbq.com By the way these links are worth clicking on, just to hear their songs. I think for BBQ flavor, I still prefer Lil Porgy's, but Gary has so many choices of good stuff and the sides were also plentiful. The fried Okra rivaled the Seaboat in Champaign, http://www.theseaboat.com but I think Seaboat's is slightly more flavorful. Gary's baked beans however are probably the best we've tasted, except for Georgia's. So if you're traveling east/west through Missouri and bypass Branson as we did on this trip, you will probably miss the Missouri eating place we have heard so much about; Lamberts in Ozark (and Sikeston). http://www.throwedrolls.com Give Gary Dowd's Catfish and BBQ a try. You won't regret it.

WORDS

2010-03-27T09:14:00.005-05:00

Get ready for an old man's rant on today's society. Sorry, no pictures, but I believe you'll find the read worthwhile. Although I don't subscribe to everything Rush Limbaugh spouts, he does make one statement that I use nearly every day; "Words have meanings"! If you have read much of my blog you will probably catch yourself saying, "why is he using that $1000 word"? You are about to find out. Most of the time it's because I believe it is the best word to describe the situation, but there are times when I purposely use a "big" word that I expect many of my readers will not know. I have been an educator since 1969 and don't expect that I will give that up while here on earth. It's not that I think I am so smart, but it is my belief that we all need to help each other and if I can help others interface better, easier, and more effectively, I believe I have in some small part contributed to the "betterment" of society. The beauty of this mode of communication is that I assume folks who read my blog have access to the internet. I hope to foster some kind of hunger for the meanings of words. What do I do when I don't know how to spell a word (and recognize that I don't know how to spell it)? I look it up and Google saves my butt. The same goes for meanings. I trust I don't have to warn you than wikipedia isn't all that reliable. So please, if you run across a word here or elsewhere that you don't understand, look it up. This all came to mind when I used the word "ubiquitous" to describe Canadian geese in my last post. Those suckers are everywhere. You may remember the folks at Eagle Rock Lodge on the McKenzie River in Oregon who often host weddings on their property along that beautiful river... but before a wedding they have to go on "goose poop patrol" to clean up after these winged rats who have chosen that spot for congregating. The urban "lakes" that have sprung up in housing editions all over the country also seem to be favorite "dumping grounds" for Canadian geese. (or is it Canada geese?) For some reason that word (ubiquitous) stuck in my mind overnight as this post started to "gel".

Let me give you an example from my work with veterinary students this week. There was a bad radiograph (x-ray to non-medical people). As we discussed why it was bad and what was done to correct it, I was told that the tube wasn't lined up with the bucky. Sensing some anxiety in using the word bucky, I (of course) had to ask, "what is a bucky?" After a few misguesses, (is that a word?) we came up with the fact that it was a name given to the tray that the cassette (which holds the film or digital capture plate). So the cassette holds the thing that captures the image produced by the x-rays coming from the x-ray tube and it was put in the "bucky tray". This brings us to the acknowledgement that a radiograph is either made with a bucky or tabletop. Then comes the question, "why?".. They figured out that when you put the cassette in the bucky there is a thing in the table called a grid. I'll shorten this by saying that a grid is a device interposed between the patient and the cassette to absorb radiation produced in the body of the patient when the x-ray exposure occurs. This point leads me to clarify something else for non-medical people. Have you ever wondered why, when you get x-rayed, that you are the only person in the room or that everyone but you is wearing protective aprons and other equipment? Does that scare you that these people don't want anything to do with the x-rays, but there you are in all your glory, like a shrimp on the barby??? Not to fear. First, remember that this is a rare thing in your life and these people go through this maybe 50 -70 times each day for all of their worklife. You should also know that they aren't protecting themselves from the x-rays that are being "shot" at you to make the image. Those are "strong" x-rays, most of which pass on through with no problem. However some of those x-rays are absorbed by your body and produce more, weaker x-rays. These are the dangerous ones because they are not strong enough to penetrate through, but are absorbed. Did I get off the track? Not really. Not only are those weak x-rays dangerous to workers who do it every day, but they also make the image "cloudy" and difficult to read because they "fog" the image. So the grid was developed to prevent this radiation from reaching the film or digital plate. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/grid If you did click on this link, you will see the word "bucky" as part of the name of the Potter-Bucky diaphragm. We're getting closer. Here's the story. In the "dark ages of radiology", the grid was introduced to reduce the effect of scatter radiation on a radiograph, but the "grid lines" were large enough that they covered some structures and introduced their own problem with radiographic interpretation. Dr. Potter and Dr. Bucky figured out that if the grid was moving during the exposure, it would still absorb the scatter radiation, but the grid lines wouldn't be seen. They developed the Potter-Bucky diaphragm which was mounted just above the cassette tray (So it really isn't a bucky tray, now is it?) The device would essentially shake the grid back and forth during the exposure. If you have a radiograph made in which you are lying on the table, you may feel a mild vibration instantaneously before and during the exposure. That isn't the sound and feeling of the x-rays frying your inards, it's just the bucky moving to get rid of the grid lines which are there to absorb the scatter radiation being produced. Did you catch the slip from the Potter-Bucky diaphragm to the bucky?? As typical in our society, we're too lazy to give Dr. Potter his due. I don't know why our predecessors chose to keep bucky and drop Potter. I guess it might sound a little strange to say you are taking a potter shot rather than a bucky shot????? Oh, when there is less that 10 cm of tissue being exposed, there isn't enough scatter produced to need a grid, so those images, like people hands and cat bodies are often radiographed "table top" where the cassette is on the table directly under the body part.

Now don't you feel better? Because this group of vet students (and I think I could make this story fit about any veterinary or medical school in the country) didn't understand the rich heritage of the word "bucky".. now you do, right? If you don't understand, please look it up. This may be a long way around to make my point, but the word bucky is only one small word used in our society daily where the meaning is meaningless. I have to say that when I asked "what is a bucky?", most said "I don't know", but the faces of many said "and I don't care". Here is my plea; Please care about the words you use and know what they mean before you use them. Challenge each other to communicate better by doing this. Your life will be so much richer, your conversations will be so much more meaningful as you pay attention to the words being used and have the guts to stop the speaker when you don't understand what they are saying. Otherwise you are wasting time for both of you. We tend to not want people to think we are "dumb", so we shrink from clear communication. The only way you will get out of that mode is to increase your vocabulary. And it's so easy. Don't blame it on your grade-school english teacher, some of the people I know who are the most effective communicators never made it past the 6th grade in school, but made a point of looking up words they didn't know. Nothing can stop you from knowing the meanings of words if you take the initiative. The answers are literally at your fingertips. One of the "new" words that I detest in the medical world, which has made it's way into society at large is "worsened".... damn it, it has become more severe. I hear it daily when working and last week heard in on a news cast. So if you hear me say "worser", you know that is my quiet protest against "worsened". I am stopping myself from launching an attack on the unnecessary "new" words that really don't mean anything. I will close with the revelation that another of my pet peeves is irregardless. I found out from Dr. Bahr, that the origin of that "word" was Al Capp's cartoon Lil Abner, which I devoured as a child. Take that Mr. President! If I've confused you, look up irregardless and the real word regardless! Oh well one picture of the effect of fog on seeing clearly. This is a scene from Lake Shelbyville, IL on a foggy and a clear morning. If you want to see the power of words go to: http://www.theworddoctors.com

The next day and more

2010-03-26T15:15:00.017-05:00

We woke up in our "cowgirl room with lots of birds chirping outside. There were several goldfinches and of course the ubiquitous Canadian geese. I am beginning to believe these are the most populous birds in America. We took a couple of pictures at the Stardust in, then headed out on our adventure. Our second day of our second visit to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge and Medicine Park, Oklahoma was sunny but windy. On the last trip here, I breezed by the "holy city of the Wichitas", but this time because the road up Mount Scott was closed and Georgia was with me, we took a closer look at this place. http/www.theholycitylawton.com It is a life-size replica of various sites in Jerusalem at the time. This came about because the terrain here is pretty much like Israel. This is the site of America's longest running passion play. Apparently Teddy Roosevelt gave a grant to start it, but they have had to fund themselves through donations, etc. since. The amazing thing to me is that this Christian Icon still exists in a Federal facility. Surely prayers for protection are at work here. The passion play will be presented this coming weekend and Easter weekend. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea, but go to the website I listed above to experience more. Dr. Bahr, my host at this OSU made me aware of a holy land in the Orlando, FL area also. Their site is: http/www.holyland-orlando.com I didn't know this place existed. Maybe on one of the trips to the condo in Florida, we can check this out too. Back to our Our Oklahoma experience. We took a few more longhorn pics, visited "town", but didn't go into any stores because it was so windy. These people apparently resurrected the town from the dead (no pun on Easter and the Holy City) Here's their site: http://www.medicine-park.com/ Then we headed "home" to get ready for another week. Wednesday evening, I drove down to Edmond (about an hour from Stillwater) to visit my cousin Monica Rosencrans, her husband Richard and their 2 boys. (2 girls are away at college). Had a great visit, I think. Georgia was unable to make the trip, which wa a bit of a bummer. We have now finished another locum and learned a little more about central Oklahoma. I had mentioned my good breakfast experience at "Shortcakes" last Saturday. Today, I hit the jackpot.. I found "Mom's Place" a little diner on the outskirts of town. I knew when I drove up and saw all the pickup trucks in front of the place that I had hit gold. I walked in and found it was a little less formal than the Lantern in Silver Lake, Indiana or the B&B in Gas City, Indiana, Sammy's in Champaign, Illinois, or Sharon's Cafe in Corvallis, Oregon, but the food was on par (except that just like Shortcakes, their potatoes were hash browns). There were a few guys sitting at the counter and some scattered around at small tables. There was no empty table, but there was a large table near the center occupied by a gentleman a bit older than myself. I asked if he minded if I sat at the table and he welcomed me. He introduced himself as Morton, then after I ordered, asked if I was passing through and I told him why we were in Stillwater, etc. Then he told me that he was originally from the Chicago area, was an MD (pulmonary medicine) who was retired and cared for his double amputee wife. I never got a clear answer as to how he got to central Oklahoma, but he was more than ready to inform me of his present passion which is global warming. He also claimed that he was probably the only socialist in the room. The intersting thing was that he wasn't Gorophillic or a T Boone Pickens follower. He felt those folks were only into it for the power and money. His whole take on global warming is that we simply need to cut the release of energy in the form of heat as much as we can, without making it a political issue to be carrion for the politicians to feast on. I'm guessing he would have laid it all out in detail, but I had to get to work. He left me his card and several of his websites. I'll post them here, but remember that I haven't looked at them yet. If it elightens you, let me know... if not, I guess I can remove them if necessary... let me know. http://www.globalresearch.ca/ http://axisoflogic.com/ http://oklahoma%20citizen.org/ This started my last day at work for this trip. Georgia got to see her local stylist at La Ritz. The highlight of my last work day was John (one of the radiology technologists) who made his second batch of home made ice cream on subsequent "food Fridays". This time he promised Strawberry; and he delivered. He also is allowing me to "publish" his recipe. Catch this for simple. 2liter bottle of Strawberry "soda", a can of condensed milk and strawberries... So can you figure out how he makes orange pineapple??? Yup. 2liters of orange drink, a can of condensed milk and crushed pinapple. You can take it from there to make whatever flavor you like. It's kind of sherbetty, but delicious. I said my goodbyes again to some really fun people to work with and we head for home again. Today, we saw several spring trees in bloom, wondering if the our tulips at home are peaking through beckoning those pesky wabbits. I have to say that if our tulips are destroyed this year, some bunnies are going to regret it.

Revisit within a revisit

2010-03-21T08:38:00.015-05:00

First, I'll explain the title. From the last post, you know that we are back at Oklahoma State. (OOPS, the Cowboys bit it against Georgia Tech but at least the were in the "Big Dance". ) You also know that Georgia couldn't make the trip to Medicine Park last weekend. In deciding what to do this weekend, we decided to "come back" so we could see and experience the things I did last weekend together. And I can never get enough of Texas Longhorn Cattle. I think I am more impressed with them than with Bison, having see so many of them on former trips; and honestly, they all look alike and I haven't seen to longhorns that look the same. So that's the explanation, but we need to go back a couple of days to begin.

Most if not all folks who read my dribble know that this day is a commemoration of the day my mom and dad added their little boy to the throng of earth dwellers. Somehow the OSU students on Radiology this block got wind of that. Friday being a "food day", they brought in goodies to munch on including this cake that Jen, one of the students (actually one of the 2 Jens on the rotation) made. If you understand my profession the cake makes perfect sense. Talent and ingenuity!!!. Oh, for the "uninformed" it's an x-ray of a dog's chest.

We had to debate Saturday morning about out trip because of the freak storm that had come into the area overnight. Here is the first glimpse out the window at our car. And these little birds were flitting around as if to say, "What the heck happened?".

I had been such a good boy with my breakfast since coming here that I decided to give myself an early birthday present and see if I could find my "standard" breakfast. I found "Ronnie Eats" See Ronnie's site in my blogs to watch. Ronnie said to try this little diner. It apparently is a favorite for people who like to eat breakfast in the wee hours of the morning before going to bed (or in leau of). Except for the fact that the only potatoes they have are hash browns, it would have been the perfect breakfast, challenging for a place in my top 3 breakfast places... I'm still debating, but for now it should receive honorable mention. Did get the onions in the potatoes. Another place you wouln't feel to sure about when driving by, but when I pulled up, the lot was full of cars, which is always a good sign. It was GOOD!

We got on the road and saw lots of people facing the wrong way on the highway with krinkled bumpers, etc. The road was a bit scary, but nothing we hadn't seen before. If you drive carefully and stay away from other cars, you can drive in most any weather; right? Although a little late, we got to the Stardust Inn in Medicine Park to check in, then made a trip through the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. Saw more and different longhorns and only one Bison. Went to the Black-tailed Prairie Dog town, but those little guys must have been hunkered down in their burrows because of the weather. You can see the snow on the backs of some of the cattle. We'll go back today before leaving and spend more time in the great visitor's center. We revisited the Master's Kitchen and each had wonderful meals (and an a ridiculously low price). Got to meet the chef. I think his name is Toby. Apparently he came here to retire and do what he loves to do; create great meals and sell them at prices people can afford. He is reported to have been the head chef at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Believe me, the food was comparable. Although we like to try new things and places, when you find something really good, you want to go back. (But I did have a different meal (Beef Stroganoff instead of the Steak Del Monico. Georgia had fantastic spagetti. Oh, then the apple walnut cake with cream cheese frosting which we split. We stepped out of the restaurant to a gorgeous sunset, then we made a quick trip through Medicine Park which was beautiful with the lights shining on the stream (I think it is Medicine Creek). So far it was worth the trip back again for Georgia to oohh and aahh ov the things I thought she would like. This morning, she couldn't make it to breakfast, but I did. When I got there, Clark was photographing a red-tailed hawk in a tree by the water. You need to see his gallery of birds on their website. http://www.stardustinn.com/ Met a lady from California who grew up in the plains of Washington State who was there with her daughter from near Redding, CA. While we ate and talked, the goldfinches where fluttering about all over the "back" yard in the trees. Saw an osprey that they apparently see often. Today, we'll spend some more time in the refuge, check out the shops downtown (No I didn't do that when here without Georgia.... hmm.) and head back to Stillwater. Today the sun is shining in Medicine Park without a cloud in the sky. Another beautiful day! (Right Aidan?) (To others: I think this is the first song I remember Aidan singing.)

Another great place I've never heard of.

2010-03-14T08:19:00.012-05:00

This weekend we planned to go to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge on the suggestion of my cousin Monica who lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. It's only about two and a half hours from Stillwater. Georgia woke up in severe pain, but urged me to go ahead and keep our reservations at the Stardust Inn in Medicine Park (and bring back pictures) My facebook friends can see more pictures there, but here are a few. On the way, the LPM factor (livestock per mile) mentioned in the last post was still high. Also I was reminded about something that I had forgotten in my last post. Roadkill is a given when you travel the interstate highways. I was struck on this trip however in that there is a significant difference in the species in the southwest Missouri and central Oklahoma flattened delicacies. Here's a hint: http://s0.ilike.com/play#Loudon+Wainwright+III:Dead+Skunk:146609:s1569142.8166541.3708942.0.1.75%2Cstd_79bd1a31f4b2c7dfd717c298be731c4f

Yup, lots of them. I had forgotten the detailed directions that we received when we made our reservations, but went on a bit of memory. Unfortunately that was in bits and pieces. As it turned out, I came within about a quarter mile of driving directly to it, then decided I was pursuing a loss leader and turned around.. After driving into and out of town and asking 2 different people, I looked across the water and recognized it. I asked the lady who had taken me to the wrong side of the water how to get over there.. She told me and It was a piece of cake from there. I stumbled onto this couple as they were leaving the senior center. Medicine Park was "reborn" about 14 years ago. Cool little place. Once I got my room key, I headed off for the refuge and saw more Longhorn cattle than I had ever seen along with several Bison and lots of Black Tailed Prairie Dogs. There are supposedly Elk at the refuge, but I didn't see any. I asked Peggy, the innkeeper where to eat dinner. One of the places she mentioned was the Master's Kitchen, a little hole in the wall place.... Not much to look at, but the food was yummy. I had Taco Soup and Delmonico Steak. This morning after a great breakfast with 3 couples who were staying at the Inn, I went up Mount Scott. I didn't expect mountains here; guess I'm not as good at geography as I thought. When I got up there, I found there are lots of lakes around the mountain. The mountain is in the refuge. Another unexpected, but great adventure.

Another Revisit

2010-03-11T21:02:00.007-06:00

Oklahoma State University got an emotional rollercoaster this week as the Cowboys triumphed over rival Oklahoma in the Big 12 tourney, then failed miserably against Kansas State tonight. I write this the day before the Illini face the Wisconsin Badgers for the 3rd time in the Big 10 tourney. Why the interest in the OSU Cowboys? Cause for right now, I am a visiting faculty member in Stillwater. When we last visited here, I titled that post "a little less west" (November, 2009). Between then and now, we were at the other Orange and Black OSU; the home of the Oregon State Beavers, which was by the map more west than here, so I titled the Oklahoma post "a little less west". Thinking about it, The degree of west can be geographic or cultural. Thinking about it culturally, I can't really call Oklahoma " less west". While driving here, between Springfield, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma we saw more cattle and horses per mile than we did on 2 round trips via 4 different interstates from Illinois to Oregon and Washington. Beyond that, and the fact that the sports teams here are the Cowboys and Cowgirls, I am struck more this time that we really are among real "cowboys and cowgirls". I must make it clear that these are terms of endearment to us. We both still would like to think of our selves as a cowboy and cowgirl, but the best we can do is wear the boots and dress up our Explorer in "Cowgirl Up" stuff. As I went to work I was greeted by the guy in the first picture who is the State Bird of Illinois (and 6 other states). He was singing his heart out after the storm that passed through last night. When I last blogged about visiting Oklahoma State, I posted pictures of the Radiology Staff at the Veterinary College, but John, one of the technologists was off the day I took my camera, so here he is, acting like he is working... hmmm. While I had my camera at work, I took a picture of the workstation where I have spent most of my time this week when not working with students. Here is a little quiz for my family. What 2 items in this picture tell you that I actually have been working at this station???? I'm expecting Blaine to do the best on this quiz, but the challenge is on for all of you. It was fortunate that I had my camera with me today. When I walked in, I saw that my Host, Dr. Bob Bahr was wearing a similar shirt to me. Check this out, 2 guys who have made a career from looking at white images on black background are wearing black shirts with white markings. So here we are not as far west geographically, but truly in the heart of the west where rodeo is as common as standardbred racing in Illinois.

Yet another bubble busted!

2010-02-28T09:37:00.002-06:00

This morning on the early Sunday morning radio program "Standard Time", I heard Bob Hope's "Thanks for the Memories". On this show she plays standard tunes, mostly from the 30's to the 60's. If you listen to the show consistently you find that she plays the same songs a lot. She has played this song before, but for some reason all the stimuli in my life were aligned for me to actually listen to the words this time. This song was apparently introduced in a 1938 movie called, "The Big Broadcast of 1938" and written for that movie by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger. As most anyone over 50 would know, it became Bob Hope's theme song for the rest of his life including the myriad of USO shows he did for the troops. (http://www.byjoy.com/BobHope.html). As the USO's and Bob Hope's TV show evolved, the lyrics to the song evolved to include events and societal change over the years, so the original lyrics were difficult to decipher. In addition, Frank Sinatra recorded his own version, then more recently a group called "Fall Out Boy" wrote and recorded a "rock" version using the title. The title, however is also confusing. You can find the Bob Hope version listed as "Thanks for the Memories" and "Thanks for the Memory".. Sorry, at this point, I don't really care which is correct. I can grammatically make both work. So what busted bubble am I talking about? I have always thought of the song as I believe Bob Hope used it through most of his life; a fond rememberance of times past which developed into endearment.... period. This morning, as I really listened to the original version, sadness grew as the insensitive, melancholic nature of this song unfolded. Yes, Bob and his costar Shirley Ross were thanking each other for the past memories, but it was as they were divorcing after a short marriage. The real message was "Oh well, it's over, but it was fun.... thanks! Good bye!" When you have been growing a loving relationship with the same person since 1959 including over 46 years of marriage, 3 sons, 9 grandchildren, and yes, a great grandson, you don't just say, "thanks, it was fun, good bye".. Although we came from different "worlds" we started our relationship including "the whole family" so we knew we could each exist in each other's world before we started to carve out our own path as a couple in this world. With God's help, we learned to cherish each other and try to change for each other and to accept each other where we each could not change. In the words of Tim McGraw, "a heart don't forget something like that". As we grow older, both of our bodies have changed in shape and the ability to endure, but when we look at each other, I think we still see those teenagers who cruised the root beer stands and got sunburned at the Indiana Dunes. I see how the years have etched a new kind of beauty in her and she calls this fat, short, bald man "hot".. Wow, what a stretch on her part. We can get down when we see that those days are past and won't be again for us, but the good memories bring a twinkle to our eyes and a childish grin to our faces. As we watch our grandkids doing and thinking a lot like we did, we are also thankful that we are able to watch them do it. My problem is that while Bob Hope's song used to start me going back through these files in my mind, chuckling as I go, I can no longer get this pleasure from that song. We didn't make these memories together to cast them aside and go on to another life with another person. I expect that when I hear this song in the future, I will begin to pray for folks who are in the battle for the survival of their relationship. I will have to find a different song to trigger the happy memories of the past, because this one just won't do.. As I look over this post, maybe I should rename it, "a love note to Georgia".. hmmm. You see, that bubble hasn't been busted. It continues to grow as we face new and different challenges together.

Venumb

2010-02-23T07:19:00.002-06:00

This morning I was sitting in the B&B for breakfast. There were only 4 other people there at that time; Butch and an older gentleman I hadn't seen before and 2 other guys in their 60's. After I ordered my "usual" (actually Debbie pretty much had it down and I hadn't seen her since early last summer), the 2 other guys left. Then Debbie said to Butch, "we should have asked them about that word". As a person who likes words and their meanings in this day when words seem to be flung around without thought, I was intrigued. Soon after, another couple came in and the gentleman with Butch picked up the bathroom (outside) key and went out the door. Meanwhile Debbie and Butch are discussing "the word". She says, "it begins with V. I couldn't find it with the dictionary, here you look for it". I got my breakfast and the gentleman returned from the "outhouse", laid the key on the counter and said, "I got the word. It's venumb". Now I am really curious. They discussed it a bit, then satisfied in their quest, dropped it. Now I'm in trouble. I can't just sit there wondering. So the first thing I did as I got up to settle my check was to tell the gentleman that I was glad to know that I wasn't the only one who does my best thinking in the bathroom. After that, I went to the counter to pay and had to ask Debbie, "What was the question?".. She said, "what question". I said, "the word y'all were looking for". She said, "Oh, it was a word scramble puzzle". I dropped it, paid, and left. After filling the tank with gasoline for the trip to Indy, I hooked up my computer and went googling for venumb. I guess I"m not awake enough to handle the results. I got all kinds of hits, but they seemed to be in all directions. Is it a video game, something from Avitar, someone's screen name, a warcraft tool or what. Although I probably won't get it done, now I want to find the puzzle to see the context, cause I would never have thought it was a word. ... and I still don't know what it means.

Weekend in Heaven, Week of Rain, and a Day from Hell

2010-02-14T11:49:00.000-06:00

Having only 2 weekends to explore in Oregon for this trip, we spent one in the Sisters, Redmond area (See Oregon High Desert post), we of course had to spend last weekend on the coast. Rather than trying to see "something new" we did a "spa date" at the Whale Cove Inn and spent much of the time watching the waves crashing. On facebook, I am posting more wave crashing pics than anyone could want. Seems the Pacific was more demonstrative than in the past. Although it rained on Saturday, Sunday it was sunny and in the high 50's, with heavenly views all around us. As usual, I don't think the pictures really capture it and the repetative thunder of crashing waves certainly add to the ambiance. That was the weekend in Heaven. Being in Oregon during the "rainy season" has become natural for us on this our 3rd January/February visit to help teach the basic radiology course. The new thing this time is that there is actually an "on staff'" radiologist at Oregon State. Dr. Susanne Stieger is a "European boarded" radiologist who joined the faculty last July. We really enjoyed Susanne and her family and I enjoyed working with her. Back to the rain. I think this week, we saw more rain than we had in the past. A couple of days I was glad that although I had walked to work, Georgia picked me up after work because of the rain. This week was busier than usual as I wrapped up my part of teaching in the course as well as my interaction with senior students on radiology rotation in the clinic. These were the students I taught in the basic course on our first trip to Oregon plus a couple of Caribbean students. Friday night, we got packed up, took a couple of bags to FedEx to ship home, then off to Portland for a quick overnight near the airport. We got settled in and I went out to fill the Camry with gas. The directions the desk clerk gave me were good and I drove straight to the nearest gas station. However, on the way back, I apparently missed a turn. If you look at the location of the Portland airport (PDX), you will see that it lies along the Columbia river. I ended up on what is apparently a very scenic drive in the daylight, but at night, it is simply a long road with no turn offs that runs between the river and the airport. I'll have to check it out sometime in the daylight. I finally got back to the room where we watched a little of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. A little aside here.... We have DirecTV at home. While watching the Colts lose the Superbowl last Sunday evening on the tiny TV in our apartment I saw the DirecTV add saying that we can progrom our DVR to record from a computer or cell phone. I checked it out and gave it a shot. I set it up to record the Ceremony at home.. So once we got home last night, we checked and by golly it worked. What a deal. So you can bet that while we are in Oklahoma during the Big 10 tourney, I will be setting up to record the Illini games. Back to our Day from Hell starting at the Portland Airport. With an 8am flight and the warning to be at the airport 2 hours ahead of departure, we got a 4am wake-up to assure our on-time arrival. In the past, this 2 hour warning has been unnecessary, but this time we used every part of it. When we got to the airport at 6 am, the counter was jammed with people from the 6am flight that was cancelled. We should have known that this was not a Portland problem, but a national problem. We had heard that Hawaii was the only state without snow and that air travel was messed up, but had no idea, really. We printed our boarding passes and just as we were at the counter to check a couple of bags, the line somehow shifted and a group taking supplies to Sierra Leone Africa was in front of us. We watched them tag probably 30-40 containers of supplies. Because of their mission, we couldn't get to concerned about our plight. Because of Georgia's back and foot ills, we decided this trip to ask for wheelchair assistance in airports on this trip. With all the confusion that part got dropped, but we got some help and a small lady in her late 50's was our "pusher". Remember, I'm carrying 2 computers and a bag stuffed with my CPAP and Georgia's nebulizer. Having wheelchair assistance was our salvation at PDX. Not only could we move at a quicker pace, but these people take you through the "fast lane", so we had help with the Security Check, etc. This also happened in Chicago and Dallas on the way out. We made it onto the plane in time and took our deep breaths for the 3+ hour trip to Dallas. Now for the rest of the story. We got off the plane, found the flight to Champaign on the big board and no gate number. The young man who met us with a wheelchair inquired and found it was to be at B3. He took us to one of those electric transporters and we got on. That cart took us for a ride (we came into gate C28) and to an elevator. The driver took us up the elevator where another cart met us. He had new information that our gate was not B13. After dropping some other folks off, he took us to B13. Since we had plenty of time (we arrived at 1pm and were to fly out at 7:10) we wanted to get a meal, so I asked the driver where the nearest eating place was. He said, "TGI Friday's" is back at B11, do you want me to drop you off there?" We thought that was a good idea. Had a great meal, then made our way back to Gate 13. I inquired to be sure we were at the correct gate... good thing I did. Now it was Gate 27. We started hoofing it and I found a wheelchair to help us get to that gate. After a while, there was an announcement that there was a gate change to B23. We wheeled to that gate to find Dr. Fred Troutt. Dr. Troutt was an intern at Purdue while I was in vet school there, was a faculty member at UGA while we were there training for radiology, then in the 90's became the U of I clinical department head (my boss). Here we were in Dallas and there he is. Also at that gate was a former Illinois vet student. They had been at a meeting in Las Vegas. Another couple who used to work in Mahomet was returning from Maui. We went through several time changes as our gate was being used by other "intra-Texas" flights. Then came the "coupe de gras". Gate change to B27 because our plane which was being repaired was abandoned and another plane was brought in, but one of those "intra-Texas" planes was at "our" gate. Having given up the wheelchair at that point, we slowly made our way back to that gate. By the time we got on the plane, all I wanted to do was sit there and wait til we landed in Champaign. The joy of this flight was the flight attendant Kelly who had been through the same confusion as the rest of us. She had a refreshing, no-nonsense approach with a "real person" demeanor. Finally we landed at cold CMI. It was the coldest we had seen since January 18. The warmth of Greg, Mel, and Ava who met us with our car soon melted our moods. Aidan was away at a retreat. Ohh! Our own bed really felt great.

Oregon High Desert

2010-02-01T21:34:00.000-06:00

This weekend, we did get away. Drove into the Cascades to stay at a favorite place, The Lodge at Suttle Lake, near Sisters. We were planning to sight see Sunday. As we drove on Saturday afternoon, it rained and rained. We drove through rain and fog and clouds and more rain. I was getting concerned that we would not get to see much because of the weather. We stopped and checked in, then drove the 10 miles or so on into Sisters. During the entire day we couldn't see much. We couldn't see the 3 sisters mountains, 3 fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson or much of anything. Before we left, the tripcheck.com road camera showed the road through the Santiam pass to be full of snow. Becki, bless her heart, loaned us her tire chains (which is a legal matter in the mountains), but by the time we got to the pass, the road was clear. Speaking of Becki, she has become our travel consultant. She sent us to Crater Lake and down the Aufderheide scenic byway. Jason sent us to Astoria. Let's roll back to last week. We were trying to decide what to do this weekend and on one of the radiology computers the screen saver is a collection of beautiful places from around the world. This picture of Smith Rock State Park in Oregon came up. (www.oregonstateparks.org/park_51.php) I had heard of it but knew nothing about it. I turned to Becki and said, "where's this" She said, it's up near Sisters..... See we had been to Sisters several times and across to Bend a couple of times, but never strayed from the "beaten path" ..... much..ha ha. We discussed and found that it was a favorite place for rock climbers. Jack, the ultrasound guy is a rock climber. I checked it out to see if we could see worthwhile sights without hiking or backpacking into the wilderness.... cause we are NOT there. Jack and Becki assured me that we could see some neet stuff. We woke up Sunday morning to clear skys and sunshine. We drove back into Sisters, then the 20 miles to Redmond and another 9 through the small town of Terrebonne, following the signs to Smith Rock State Park. I should tell you that since we started the locums, this is the first trip we have taken without my trusty (most of the time) Mapquest printouts. It worked out great (til we were almost home.... later on that. We stopped in the Terrebonne Assembly of God Church to take an overview of Smith Rock.... Wow. I also found out that Smith Rock is a WORLDWIDE favorite rock climbing destination. We spent the afternoon taking in the different looks of Smith Rock and met several neet people. A retired Coast Guard guy who was in Astoria when the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 occured (google it.... quite a deal). ..... and his wife had visited the Lincoln Library in Springfield (IL). A local guy who was hiking back from a walk along the Crooked River at the base of Smith Rock was born in Champaign-Urbana while his dad was stationed at Chanute AFB. How's this for the influence of a mother. This guy was born and raised in America to an american dad and an English mother..... He had an English accent. You would have thought he was from the British Isles. Well, Becki did it again. Along with info she gave us on Smith Rock, she included lunch at the Terrebonne Depot.. Another gustatory delight. (http://www.terrebonnedepot.com/) Georgia had a great pizza (part.... we had the rest for lunch Monday). I had the South of Central Oregon Buffalo Burger... good... very good. And although I'm trying to stay away from French Fries.... these were GREAT! As a little extra "while you're there" Becki threw in info on the Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint. (www.oregonstateparks.org/park_50.php) It was just north of Terrebonne on 97. At this spot, the Crooked River had cut a 300 foot deep canyon. I'm not sure the pictures do it justice... as usual. There we found that Peter Skene Ogden was a guide to early explorers and Ogden, Utah was named after him. Another WOW! It was then time to head back "home. we decided that since it was close to 5pm, we didn't want to go back down highway 20 which is notoriously twisty and turney.... Not a good thing for old folks in the dark. So we went down the way we had used when we came to Corvallis the first time in February 2008. We took route 22 via Detroit Lake. This road was much easier to drive, especially in the dark although it was quite a bit longer. I had found that I could cut 30 miles from the trip by turning off onto 226 at Lyons going directly to Albany rather than going up to Salem and back south. All was going well. We went through Detroit, stopped at the same rest stop that we hit on our first trip. We went through Mill City, then found the turn off to 226 at Lyons. We were essentially home free. as we drove I was looking for Scio, the next little town when a familiar sign appeared.... Mills City.... uh oh! Somehow we had missed a turn and had doubled back to Mills City. Hmmmmm!!! So we retraced our path to Lyons. About this time Georgia was in need of a Diet Coke fix. She remembered the little Corner Market that we saw just as we turned off 22. As we pulled over to the store which was right along the road, she saw a sign saying that 226 turned right just after the store. It had been hidden by the store's big bright white lit up sign. If we hadn't stopped at the store, I'm sure we would have bypassed it again heading back to Mills City and into our own "Ground Hog Day" experience. Even a diet coke craving can have it's redeeming qualities. After we made the turn, we were in good shape and got into Albany. We drove past "our" Walgreens" and from there on were on a familiar path. Another great sight-seeing experience under our belts, we were ready to rest up for another week..... well, the music awards did keep some of us up a while. Coming back we got to see all the mountains that we missed on Sat.., so, ALL IS WELL AND THE TRIP A COMPLETE SUCCESS!!!