And one more project checked off!

With Georgia away helping her mother through eye surgery, I used the time to finish a project I started last fall. I have written a description of the project, but before we go to admiring the handiwork of man, here are a few shots at "natural" beauty that was eviden in the dew this morning. You won't see it if you don't click on the image and enlarge it.

The known history of this piece is as follows:
This "Hoosier Cabinet" belonged to the mother of Georgia (Walser) Gray, who passed it on to Georgia who passed it on to her daughter Beatrice Elizabeth (Gray) McPherson. Beatrice passed it on to her youngest daughter Nanette K. (McPherson) Wilkins. After moving to a smaller house, Nanette had stored it in her garage. The ladies who maintained it through those years, painted it; first white, then tan, then yellow, light teal and dark teal. During 2009, it was taken to the garage of Steve and Georgia (McPherson) Kneller with the goal of restoring it to functional form again. Georgia is the oldest daughter of Beatrice and Paul McPherson.

During it’s “yellow years”, the cabinet was on the carport turned recreation room of Paul and Beatrice. There is a set of 3 holes in a triangle in each side where Paul (Mac) had mounted a pencil sharpener. Although the cabinet is oak, 2 of the shelves and a partition are of pine plywood, apparently replaced at some point. Since it was painted, the type of wood wasn’t important. I (Steve) left it rather than replace the pine because I felt it represented the service this piece provided during those years. The back however was irretrievable and only a portion of the tambour (rolltop) was still present, so I replaced these parts with new oak wood. I decided to use clear paste wax for the finish, trusting it was most likely very close to the original finish. There is a hole in one of the metal drawers, the lid for the breadbox is missing, and the flour sifter is missing. I would love to be around when in another few generations, someone discovers this description glued to the bottom of the wide shallow drawer and fills in the blanks and decides whether to give it life again or end it’s service to family life. This piece is special to me because I grew up with one very similar which was painted white. The upper portion was last seen mounted above the sink in the “back room”.

Parting shots of the Palouse!

It was good to be there, but oh so good to be home. Although we can't complain about the beds, showers, cars, etc. in Pullman, It really felt good to lie in our own bed, shower in our own shower, drive a "real" vehicle, and putter in our yard. Along with things I learned from the people at WSU, this area called the Palouse was a complete mystery to me. Different from any place we've visited yet, awesome in appearance; and now I know where lentils come from. Although I didn't confirm it with locals, I believe the green/yellow fields are lentil fields not ready for harvest, and the brown fields are lentils ready for harvest. We left Friday night to stay in Spokane. As we were leaving we got to see the bronze Cougar in front of the WSU football stadium and some of the beginning festivities of the World Lentil Festival (http://www.lentilfest.com/ ) which was held this weekend in Pullman. We missed that, but we should make the Urbana, Illinois Sweetcorn Festival this coming weekend where Greg will be Bono for an hour on stage. We took the advice of Dr. Mattoon (yes Illinois people; Mattoon), and took Washington state road 27 from Pullman. This road was smaller and more winding, but took us through "the heart" of the Palouse, through the town of Palouse, Washington. Since it quit raining, harvest was in full gear. Here are some pictures of harvest including the grain truck we got to follow for a while. We got a kick out of the lone eating place in the little town of Spangle, Washington. It appeared to be in the middle of a wheat field and the name was so appropriate for the time. Also, some of the farm homes in the middle of the wheatfields, appeared to be a bit opulent while others were quite modest.

I've created a monster

So, here I am filling in at Washington State University, getting to know the people and relating the past. Somehow this blog comes up and we get to the pics of the Oregon State imaging folks.. (See "homeward bound again"; June 22) Oh, oh!... So now we need pics of Washington State folks. We didn't catch everyone, like Dr. Russ Tucker whom I am replacing, Dr. Greg Roberts who was off doing something else at the time, Josh the MRI tech and I think one more of the techs. But here you go with another great imaging crew There is Vicki and Cindy flanking me, then Vicki on the phone with Sonya (who was off doing a CT when the other pic was made) and I. The 2 residents, Dr. Dana Neelis and Dr. Chris McKay) with me looking at some images (then mugging for the camera). You'll see a fleeting glance of Dr. McKay whizzing by me on his bicycle to work Friday morning further down the page. The "senior" resident is off studying for board exams. We did catch my host Dr. John Mattoon doing his thing with the ultrasound machine. Seems from these pictures that he is the only one working. Oh, there is a picture of the "nerve center" of imaging with Vicki at a computer. (Or is she sleeping?) Great layout here because you can be working on virtually anything and know what is going on in the rest of the section. So now I have to apologize to the folks at Purdue, Michigan State, and Tennessee, because I didn't showcase them. Somehow I think they will live with it.

Also since I "took you with me" on my walk to work in Corvallis, I though I would try to give you an idea of the somewhat more taxing trek to work from The Holiday Inn to Vet Med here in Pullman. In the picture with the Holiday Inn sign in the lower right corner, we are looking down the street the opposite way, to get an appreciation of the proximity of the wheat fields. Then we turn "uphill" on my path. John has been meeting me at the corner of the Holiday Inn and we walked together most days. Picture this lowlander at over 2000 feet elevation walking uphill talking most of the time (right John??) I'm doing my best to hide the huffing and puffing that seems to develop before we arrive at work. But Drs. Nelson and Attia back in Illinois should be smiling. As you look at the pictures you can see the tall residence halls against the skyline. That is where we take a right turn and head up into campus. This picture is taken when we are about half-way from the Holiday Inn to that corner. There are 3 crosswalks over the road before we finally arrive at Bustad Hall, named after the very colorful former dean of the Washington State Veterinary College. As with most university buildings the budget must include a certain percentage for artwork. I hear the WSU people calling this one the "X's and O's". The one at the Veterinary College at the University of Illinois is titled "Growing in Illinois" . I have also heard it called "a Vomiting Brontisaurus"... If you get by there, take a look and see what you think. I might have a picture at home that I can post when I get there. In addition to the "commissioned art", here at Washington State, there are some other bronze pieces. (Remember the service dog at the University of Tennessee?). I guess the mule speaks for itself. The other one titled, "The Caring Call", is cool also. Especially when I see on the plaque the name of Dr. Borje Gustafsson, a former department head at the University of Illinois who introduced Mary Haney (A former storeroom clerk at the U of I) to GLOG at department Christmas parties... It didn't take much glog to make Mary a happy camper. Hopefully this post will allow me to return Monday for my second week of work without harassment from the natives.

And amber waves of grain

Another locum; in the west. This time at Washington State University, the home of the Cougars, in Pullman Washington; 8 miles from Moscow, Idaho. I've been trying to get a handle on the terrain in this area since we started talking about coming here. Although several people mentioned the wheat, soybeans and field peas that are grown in this area, I was still tainted by a former faculty member from WSU who I had tried to recruit several years ago whose response was; "Why should I leave WSU when I can go bear hunting with my bow after work". Now this guy might be known to stretch the truth a bit in fun, but that image was stuck in my mind. Our first brush with displacement occurred when we recognized Lake Michigan out the plane window just after we took off from O'Hare. We assumed it was Chicago, but then the pilot announced that it was Milwaukee (See first photo). As we flew over the northern part of the country including the Dakotas and Montana, we noticed that the cornfields started changing to more and more of the yellow squares and circles that were wheat fields. The further west we went, the larger they got. Then we recognized the cascade mountains that had become so familiar to us on our trips to Oregon. All of a sudden Georgia noticed a mountain peak poking through the clouds. She commented that it looked like (our beloved) Mount Hood. Then another and another. We asked about them and the pilot responded that his device for remembering was RASH; Ranier, Adams, St.Helens. And Mount Baker was some where in there. So we tried to relate this with the view leaving Portland where we saw Mount Hood, and the 3 sisters. Then we came into Seattle and got a handle on all the water in and around the city that is bordered by mountains. Looks like a pretty neet place. We left Seattle on a smaller plane to fly to Spokane. On this flight we got to see the ever increasingly large wheat, etc. fields ready for harvest. We began to see the beauty of the "amber waves of grain". Regarding wheat fields, I had Kansas and the Dakota's in mind, but that is primarily flat land. As we drove the 70+ miles from Spokane south to Pullman, we got some real up close views of these beautiful hills of amber interspersed with fields already harvested and readied for replanting. I have to wonder how they run those large machines up and down those hillsides. You can see our present ride, the red Chevy Cobalt with a wheatfield background. Now we are in Pullman where we can look out one window and see a beautiful WSU situated on a hilltop and out another to see a wheatfield at the edge of town. I had my first day at work. Great people to work with. Nice setup for interaction and case management. I enjoyed it. Oh, I discussed walking to work with my host. He says, " I live very near where you are staying, how about I walk by and we go to work together." So we had an invigorating half hour walk to work this morning. Not to far, but pretty much up hill. Tonight after a hard day of work, we got to walk downhill. One day down and 9 more workdays to go for this trip. We have already identified more local sights to see than we will be able to work in this next weekend. One interesting fact! As we discussed coming here, the term "the Palouse" came up. I also knew that the noble Nez Perce indians lived in this area and that they had developed the great Appaloosa Horse. So as a person who is constantly trying to tie things together, I asked this morning if there was a connection between the name Palouse and the Appaloosa horse.... Yes, that is where the name comes from. Obvously there is need for further study to unearth the richness of this piece of history.

My turn to vent

My love affair with Sears has taken a hit. All of my adult life, I had leaned toward the "mom, flag, and apple pie" idea that Sears Craftsman tools mean solid, reliable reasonable tools with a replacement guarantee. If you come in my garage, you will see the big red Craftsman label all over the place. I am showing my age since the name "Craftsman" doesn't mean what it used to mean. (Get over it stevie). Now to my second lament. Growing up in a small farming community, I miss the idea that you walk down the street and you know pretty much everyone. You walk into any store and they call you by name and ask about your family, your dog or your pig. You could walk into the Summe (or Jagger) hardware with a need and they would help you figure out how to get it done. I have gone to the same Sears since 1975 and no one has ever called me by name. (My goodness old man; get with the times.) That's not my real issue. The real issue here is people who sell you things used to "partner with you" to solve your problem with the least bother and expense possible. We can only blame ourselves because we opted for Lowes, Walmart, etc. for a cheaper price; forcing businesses with personality out of the market. Sears is no longer Sears (even). My distaste for advertising has seen me make the statement that they should have shot the first person who hung out a shingle. I have a similar distaste for "management" Just like our country, our markets have been "ruined" by management. The name of the game is "protect the company" even at the cost of sending the customer to another store. Maybe my story will illustrate my point.
On our trips to Gas City, I have gotten into the habit of throwing tools into the Explorer "just in case". Today, I got a project in which I needed a jig saw. I looked through the tools I had brought and found that, yes, I had brought the new battery powered jig saw. In fact, I had brought along an additional 19.2 Craftsman battery. But alas, both batteries were dead. You see We only had a few days at home since the end of May because of back to back Oregon and Florida trips. You need to see refer to a previous post (Monday, July 28, 2008
freedom from the gasoline engine to get a grip on my desire to return to the plug in power tool. So back to the current problem. After contemplating my plight, I remembered visiting the Sears store in Marion to get wedding gifts in May. Ahah!. I can call Sears, ask them how much they would "charge" me to bring my Craftsman batteries in and have them charge them for me... Brilliant, right. Wrong corporate breath. After going through 3 people, we came to a manager who stated that although they have the appropriate chargers, they couldn't allow customers to use them... but they could sell me one.... (no s... sherlock) ( I wasn't asking to use it, just to pay Sears to charge my batteries.) I am more than confident that the Sears of old would have accomodated me and most likely at no charge. After giving him a few choice words (shocking myself as well as my wife) I reconsidered my situation. How about renting a jig saw? Here is where the story changes to support the "small town helping hand way of doing business". I found online a number for a "rentacenter" in Marion. They don't rent hand tools, but referred me to "aa rental" also in Marion. They don't rent jigsaws, but "being a helpful person" said, "the only place I can think of in Grant County is Owens Hardware (Do it Yourself) in Gas City." This is the hardware store right here in Gas City where I have become a familiar face over the past few years as I ran back and forth to get the right tool, part, or supply to finish different projects. Although we don't call each other by name, they have always been helpful, offering suggestions to best accomplish my goal at the least expense. Eureka! (also a neet town in California).. I called them and "yes" they have a jigsaw for rent. Right here in Gas City. Costed me $8 to rent a DeWalt saw which worked great (Craftsman beware). So another full circle. The "down home" service that I was hoping to get from my old friend Sears, was provided by the local hardware store. For how long??? Living in the small town of Mahomet, I do my best to support the local businesses to keep them with us as long as possible. I get the same "helping hand" service I just described. I will be anxious to check with my local Sears to see if the service I requested here is a Store wide issue or "manager dependent"... Us old dogs die hard (not like my jigsaw batteries). Sorry kids; no pictures.