Weather at RMBL, Gothic Colorado 12/27/08

So far, there is even more snow there than the record breaking snow depths of last year!

The day after Christmas plus one

Judd's Falls by Martha Cowley










Ariel was here Monday and Tuesday, as discussed earlier.
On Wednesday evening Carl, Martha, Ariel and Vernon came
for Christmas Eve dinner and to open presents. It was
fun and we had a delightful dinner even if I do say so
myself. How can you miss with prime rib?

The next day Viki, Ed, Liza and Keegan came and we had
the leftover beef, enough for everyone to have a slice and
I had also a boneless ham which Robert helped me slice
with my meat slicer. I love the meat slicer, but don't
get to use it very often. It doesn't work for anything
with bones in it and most of the meat I cook has bones.

On Friday, a day of rest. I don't think I did much of
anything productive.

I am reading "Interred with their Bones" by Jennifer Lee
Carrell. It's a murder mystery set in modern day, but
trying to discover who wrote Shakespeare's works. Along
a mysterious path we plod, with murder wherever
we go. It's one of those that is hard to put down,
but it is pretty gruesome, too.



I've been cataloging the photographs that Martha took
while we were in Gothic and en route to there. She
entered one of her photographs at a photographic contest
that Motorola ran and it came in second. She gave it
to us, beautifully framed and ready to hang. I have
replaced the "Boy with the Torn Hat" with the new
picture. It is quite stunning.

Ariel's been visiting

Ariel and I have been busy; cookies yesterday,
glass wax on the windows. Today Miss Piggy
was born. This little piggy was designed and
executed, with encouragement, needle threading
and knot tying by Grammy.

HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY............

A trip to the VA

Tuesday we went to the VA for Robert's 4-month check-up.
His white count has spiked at 136,000 and his creatinine
count is high. We don't know what the latter means or
what is causing it. His prostate has grown quite a bit, too
and so none of that is good. Fortunately, he feels good and
that counts more than all the tests.

As usual, we went to the VA in the morning, leaving here
about 9:30 AM so Robert could get the labs done before
he would see the doctor at 1:30 PM. After the blood-
draw we went to the Denver Museum of Science and
spent a delightful hour in the Dinosaur exhibit. It was
very well done for both adults and kids. We enjoyed the
videos showing how the research is done to determine
how the bones go together. One particular exhibit was
showing a computer animation on the locomotion of the
dinosaurs showing that the T-Rex could not have run
very fast. He was too big. We didn't finish the exhibit
because we ran out of time. It leaves the museum
January 4th.

The rest of the week has been a quiet one at home. I have
joined Facebook and have spent a bit of time on that
learning what is there and contacting others who are on it.
Most of the grandchildren are on it and they answer messages
sent that way. It is fun.

I have been contacted by Jared Polis' staff and will meet
with Andy mid-January to work out what I'll be doing. Andy's
e-mail said he didn't know what their volunteer program
would look like, but let's get together mid-January and
design a program. I'm looking forward to being involved. I
got really burned out with my volunteer job at the Carnegie.
This is much more my cup of tea, I think. I certainly
support all of the issues that Jared has outlined to date so
I should have no conflicts there.

Robert had a tooth pulled yesterday, a back molar. He seems
to be doing well so far. He is taking ibuprofen for the
anti-inflamatory attributes more than for pain.

Winter is here

Pine Sikins (a NA finch) at the kitchen feeder














Junco at the repaired feeder just outside the
kitchen window


We have snow on the ground, but today the sun is shining and
it feels quite balmy outside. I have laundry on the line. But,
winter is certainly upon us and we are glad for the moisture!

Last Saturday the Mosburgs came for dinner. They are
such an interesting couple that being with them is always
fun and informative.

Both Robert and I had dentist appointments this week. That's
always fun. Robert has a scheduled extraction sometime this
coming week. I had mine cleaned which meant, this time, an
hour and a half while she used a device which sounds just
like a drill to clean the tartar from my gums, yuk. I was
exhausted by the time she finished. I never have cavities,
but make up for it with gum disease.

Wednesday evening I hosted the
Salina Literary and Roasted Sweet
Potato Society. We discussed "The
History of Love" by Nicole Krauss.
It is a very convoluted book which
took a bit of concentration to figure
out what was going on. But, the book
was beautifully written and "emotionally
wrenching and intellectually rigorous"
according to 'New York. I happily
recommend it.



Thursday I had a hair appointment so Robert filled the Prius
with recycle stuff and took it to recycle while I was having
my hair done. The timing was perfect. He returned just as
I was finishing. We then went to McGucken's which is always
a fun place to wonder through.

In between all of this I have been organizing my photographs
and writing Christmas cards. The last few years we have
not been very vigorous about this and gradually we have
lost track of some of our friends. This year I am determined
to check on everybody.

Robert fixed my kitchen bird feeder. The one with the copper
roof and copper tray and I have hung it up, finally. Also
two others. It took the birds a few days to discover they
were back, but now the yard is full of birds again. It
makes it such a happy-sounding place. It helps, also,
as I hike into nowhere on my treadmill.

Jack Wenrich, my friend in Rochester whom I've known since I
was 12 and he, 18 has been moved to a nursing home. Jeanne,
his wife died last year and I had known her since I was 5.
She was about as close as one could be. She and Jack moved
into a retirement home because of Jack's health. We all thought
Jeanne, like her mother and grandmother would live to be 100.
It was not to be. She died quite suddenly at 84, leaving a very
lonely Jack. His health continues to decline and now he has been
moved into a nursing home. I talked with him this morning and
he sounded pretty upbeat, all things considered. At least his sense
of humor is still very much in tact!

Finally, some snow (moisture)!!

The early part of the week it was really windy and
the latter part, until today, was cold and snowy.
We received about 4 inches of snow on Thursday; Boulder
received 7.5 inches.

Thursday, my neighbor Julie and I went to town at 7:15 AM
so she could have an MRI and hopefully, a final clean bill
of health for her breast cancer. The roads were terrible.
They were covered with ice with snow on top, but not enough
snow to avoid being really slick. It was snowing so hard
that although the sander had been by at 6:30 by 7:15 there
was no sign of sand. But, it all worked out OK. We had
no problems and fortunately no one slid into us!

I joined Facebook this week so that I could see Allison's
pictures from their trip to the San Rafael Reef Thanksgiving
week. It looks like they had a great time although
Thanksgiving day appears to have been foggy and rainy.






I finished reading David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter."
This is a non-fiction account of the Korean War; what
happened before, during and after. As I read I wondered
why it took Truman so long to fire MacArthur, but I
suppose because Truman was so unpopular at that time he
didn't dare do it. MacArthur was the darlin' of the
country. He also was egotistical to the nth degree,
very dramatic and at times a darn poor General. He
was determined to send the troops north to the Yalu
river despite the terrible weather. It was winter and
the troops only had summer gear! The Chinese entered
the war, but MacArthur denied that. He was determined
to get to Manchuria and he wanted to take on the
Chinese. It's a fascinating book. The inter-woven
politics between Truman/MacArthur, Mao/Stalin, and
poor Kim, thinking he was in charge.




Currently, I am reading "Look Me in the Eye" by
John Elder Robison with an introduction by his
younger brother, Arthur Burroughs who wrote
"Running with Scissors." Robison has Asberger's
form of Autism, but he has learned how to cope
with it and in his book he explains how very difficult
it is to look someone in the eye because his mind is so
easily distracted. He has to stare at something
very neutral, not someones eyes, in order to keep
focused. He turns out to be a savant as far as
electronics goes and clearly he writes well. He
never graduated from high school, but took the GED
and got 96%, but he didn't get his certificate
because that would have cost $25.00 and he refused
to pay that. It is another very interesting book
and very funny, poignant and informative, too.

Connie and DIA

The day after Thanksgiving these days is a big
shopping day. When Robert and I were growing
up during the depression our families did not
go shopping the day after Thanksgiving we
went for "a ride in the country." So...that's
what Robert and I did yesterday. We wanted to
deliver Ariel's jacket to her so decided to
make a "ride" out of it. We went to many of
the places Robert remembered from 1953 when he
moved to the area. We visited the farm where
he had a research site set up and we drove
through the Air Park subdivision he helped
set up. It was designed for pilots. Each
site had a house and a hanger and access
directly to the runway. At some point Robert
decided he enjoyed living in Salina too much
to want to move just so he could walk to his
plane so he sold his interests in the area.
It has filled out well and looks very nice.
There are also several sub-divisions near by
so the whole area is now "suburbia" instead of
"country."

Connie called this morning at 7:30 AM to say
she was at DIA putting Mera's friends on their
flight to Sacramento and her flight back to
Wichita didn't leave until 1:30 PM. I had a
bite of breakfast and then headed for DIA.

We had a good time talking. We'd been together
pretty recently, but since then Meara had her
16th birthday party and her three friends
from Folsom had come to spend the week with
her. Meara had school Monday and Tuesday so
the girls went to school with her. They
did the actually birthday celebration on
Friday..and it had gone off very well. And
now the girls were headed home; Sunday Alan
returns to school and then Meara will be
lonely again. She is really homesick for
her brother and her friends.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We are headed for the Cowleys' for Thanksgiving














Turkeys by Ariel and Ann

dinner today. We'll pick up Vernon on our way.
Yesterday I made three pies and today I'll fix
the 1950s candied sweet potato dish, complete
with marshmallows as well as fresh organic
green beans to add to the dinner. Carl is
fixing rack of lamb!

Yesterday, instead of coming for a birthday
dinner Viki suggested they come and help
Robert get wood off our mountain. I had
planned to make the pies and Ariel was
still with us so I stayed behind and Ariel
went with them. She was excited because
Keegan was there and after the summer of
2007 when she and Keegan were both up
here a few days a week, she had really
missed seeing him. I was a little concerned
because I knew that she would have NO brain
as long as Keegan was around, but figured
she'd be OK. Liza and Viki were there as
well as Robert, but I knew Robert would be
too preoccupied with cutting down trees to
pay any attention to Ariel.

I had the mince pie in the oven and was
half way through making the pumpkin filling
when Viki showed up with Ariel in tow. Ariel
had gotten in the way of a falling tree. She
was not seriously hurt, but very frightened
and very traumatized. I did the necessary
doctoring of a very badly scratched should
and wrapped her up in a down comforter and
just held her until she finally stopped
shaking and then called her parents. Neither
were available so I left messages at work, home
and cell for each of them and then Ariel and
I headed to Erie. By the time we got to
Boulder the Tylenol had kicked in and she
was talking and smiling and quite herself
again, but I was still happy to be taking
her home.

Carl called just as we got into the canyon and
said they were at Costco and would be along
home shortly. They arrived within minutes of
our arrival. By then it seemed much to do
about nothing, but I was beat. I stayed for
a few minutes, had a half a sandwich and a
root beer and then came home.

Robert met me at the barn. He clearly was
very upset and worried and obviously felt
terrible. I told him that I should have
gone with them because I knew that Ariel
wouldn't have a brain as long as Keegan
was around. He laughed at that.

I finished the two pumpkin pies after I
got home.

Hantavirus...NOT

I initially tried to post this on the 21st...but it
wouldn't post. The week referenced is Nov 16 - 22nd.

This past week was a busy one, lots of social interaction.

I had coffee with Jo on Monday and lunch with Suzanne on
Tuesday. The Ochs came for dinner on Wednesday. Robert
went to his Cosmology group Thursday evening. Vernon
came up on Monday to bring me 20# of soy beans and
later he came me a huge sack of lemons that his frined,
Danny, brought from Arizona.

I made Andean stew with two cups of the soy beans.

On Friday I felt terrible. I thought my arthritis had
suddenly hit me really hard. During the night I was
awakened by a vicious headache and fever and knew it
wasn't arthritis. What I was afraid of was that I
had Hantavirus from cleaning out the garden shed
two weeks earlier. Either that or I had the flu.

I called my doctor's office and the on-call doctor
told me to go to urgent care, so we did. I saw
Dr. Watts who was very nice and verified with a
nose smear that I did not have flu. He clearly
knew very little about Hantavirus; I had read all
the information the CDC put out so knew more than
he, none of it good. He allowed as how he didn't
know what I had, but there was nothing he could do.
I should take Naproxen and Tylenol for the pain and
hope for the best. He wished me luck as he left
the room. I NEVER had a doctor wish me luck before.
Needless to say I was not reassured. However, on
Sunday I was light headed and very lethargic, but
the fever was gone. Today I feel fine. So, TG,
I don't have Hantavirus; just some weird thing that
was virulent, but short-lived.

I canceled taking Ariel today, but hope to have her
tomorrow. We have turkeys to build out of pine cones.
And Robert found a site with new games on-line.

The fire in Montecito

The fire in/near Santa Barbara and Montecito has us
concerned for Alyssum who is in the hills near there and for
our friends who live in Montecito. As of this writing
(11:15 AM MST, 11-14-08 the fire is not where they are.
Robert got the Santa Barbara fire department map and with
Mapquest we found Alyssum. At this time she is well to the
west of the fire and Bud's home is somewhat south and east
of the fire. The fire is still not under control so we'll
be watching and waiting to be sure they are all OK.

The rest of the news of this week is pretty insignifigant in
comparison.

Ariel was here for the day on Tuesday, Veterans' day. We
stayed inside most of the day. She asked if we could bake
cookies so, of course we could and did. We made butterscotch
and chocolate chip cookies using half of each kind. The cookies
came out well and Ariel did all the measuring and mixing except
for the last bit of stiriing in the chips. The dough was very
stiff which made the mixing quite difficult. We ended up spending a
couple of hours at the east Boulder Rec Center where she
played and swam. She met a boy and his father whom she
followed around for much of that time, sliding and just
having a good time in the water. The father, realizing he
had a good thing going with Ariel happily looking after the
boy who was a couple of years younger than she, left the
water after the first hour. When Carl came to pick her
up he was spotted by the father and it turned out he works
with Carl at Info-crossing.

Last night Robert and I went to the Dairy Center (the olds
Watts/Hardy dairy building which has been refurbished as
a theater and art center. The play was "Fat Pig" which
has been running off-Broadway for a long time. The locals
did a good job. It was fun and funny dispite the fact that
making fun of a fat person also made me very uncomfortable.

Yesterday was windy and followed by a snow fall of about an
inch. We wish it were more! The sun is out now and the
snow rapidly melting. Hopefully, it will help our well
produce more.

The week that was!

What a week it has been.

Monday, the anticipation was so great that I
had a difficult time concentrating on anything.
I took Julie to have a colonoscopy early Monday
morning. That diverted me for a while.

I worked at our precinct polling station in the
afternoon. It was pretty quiet because so many
had voted early. In the evening Robert and I
watched the returns and finally the good news
came through and John McCain acknowledged his
defeat. Obama's speech had me in tears, of
joy, relief and just all around emotion. It
had seemed so unlikely that he could actually
win, but that he should. I suppose it was
our Caucus that had convinced me that we
needed him. Having 80 people show up for a
caucus that usually had fewer than 10!

Now with the unemployment up to 6.5% and the
DOW having lost 10% in two days it is clear
that we are in a recession. I've felt we
were for some time, but the powers that be
have refused to admit that.

Thursday noon Patrick Hanford showed up for
lunch and to spend the night. He has just
returned from Iraq where he was the head of
the division that was training Iraqis to
become pilots. He had quite a bit of inter
action with Iraqis and said that many of
the troops were voting for Obama because they
were tired of seeing the Iraqi government
doing nothing, just letting the US spend
our resources while being cozened by the
Iraq. We had some good discussions and I
learned quite a bit about that part of the
world.

In the evening Viki, Keegan and Ed came for
dinner. That was fun, too. We had more
discussions and it was also a celebration
for all the work Viki had done as well as
I toward getting Obama elected.

Today Robert and I did a little more mundane
activity. We cleaned out the garden shed
which has been accumulating "junk" for more
than 20 years. It had gotten to the point
where we couldn't find anything and really
had no idea of what was in there. Most of
what was in there is now headed for the
dump. I'm keeping all the clay and ceramic
pots. There were three metal garbage
cans which we can put to use for storage.
I probably don't need all the clay pots, but
perhaps Viki or Martha will find them of use.

YAHOO!!! and I don't mean the website.

I spent yesterday afternoon at our precinct polling place as
a watcher. It was very quiet because so many people (>70%)
had voted early.

We watched the Returns last night and I admit I wept during
Obama's acceptance speech. I can breath again. I feel like
I have been running a marathon, but we won! All three of
"my" guys won; a first for me. I have saved my yard signs.
I'll use Jared's in two years, Obama's in 4 and Udall's in 6.

I know it'll be a long haul for Obama. He can't fix the mess
we are in overnight, but I do feel that he'll be able to start
the process, at least. I watch with anticipation as he chooses
his Cabinet. Where will Hillary go, Cabinet, Supreme Court,
when/if he gets a chance to choose a new justice? Time will
tell.

In the meantime, I'm happy. I'm putting away my lists and
notebooks. My office is a disaster of piles of lists and markers.

Two more days!

Only two more days and I'm going nuts! Boulder
is doing well with getting out the vote. 70% of
registered Democrats have already voted! That's
awesome!

This week has not been a momentous one. I have
kept up with the Polling and calling.

I Wednesday I was headed for a routine check-up
with my Rheumatologist at 8 AM. I started the
Prius and the control panel did not light up.
This happened once before and I drove with it
that way, but it is disconcerting. I got
Robert to take it to the Toyota Dealer while
I took the Saturn and went for my appointment.
I later met him at the dealer's. They did the
3000 mile check-up, but couldn't figure out
what had gone wrong with the car since it
had straightened itself out by the time Robert
got the car to them. We left it overnight
hoping that in the morning when it had sat
a while it would act up again. It didn't.
We have it home and every time we start it
we wonder...It's hard to fix something that
is so erratic.

Friday evening we went to Murphy's Grill
with the NCAR bunch for a Halloween Jazz
fest. Dave Fulker who, at one time, was
my boss is the lead of the group. He
was playing the fluegelhorn. The group
was fun although we were sitting only
a couple of feet away from them, so a bit
too loud.

During a break Harriet Barker who used to
be Harriet Hunter back when I worked at
HAO came by to say hello. She, too, has
retired now. I think she is quite a bit
younger than I. She started out as
Walt Robert's assistant and has had quite
a career at NCAR. She went all the way
up to the top, almost, in administration.
She was Harriet Crowe for a while and now
after retirement she has taken her original
name back. She commented she was too
non-maiden to say she'd taken back her
maiden name. We hope to see her again and
I think we will. She just sold her house
on Shannahan Ridge after dropping the price
$250,000.00. It was on the market for
two years. She's bought a condo at the
corner of 17th and Walnut which is being
built.

She is headed off for Santa Barbara to
visit her son's ex and her granddaughter.
The son's ex is John Edwards ex-mistress.
She says it is a drag because wherever
she goes so goes the Secret Service!
That seems strange. Who would bother
an ex-mistress?

Yesterday we went to Longmont for a
Landlord Symposium put on by the
Longmont Housing Authority. The first
speaker went way over her time and
was a very poor speaker. The next one
was some what better and the third
was the best. She was discussing
Civil Rights Issues and gave us a quiz
which asked what we would do in certain
situations. It was very interesting.
Clearly, each case is and has it's own
problems. They were real cases and she
said that each had finally been decided
by a judge and so she told us what the
judge had decided. Some of the ideas
these landlords came up with were better
than the solutions the judges came up
with though.

After our meeting which went from 8:30 -
11:00 and one speaker had cancelled, we
drove by the Shavano house. I'd hired
a crew to clean the brush and trim the
front hedge. Sadly, the front hedge
is an evergreen (juniper-like) and had
been left too long. It was almost
blocking the sidewalk so we felt it had
to be trimmed, but it looks awful. I
think if it doesn't green up in the
next year we'll have it taken out.

I spent the morning going through
Health Insurance Policies on-line. What
a chore. Open season is from 11/10-12/10
and our Blue Cross/Blue Shield has
gone up and the benefits gone down so
I decided to see what other options
were available. We get BCBS through
the Federal Retirement program and
they pay 2/3 of the monthly rate. I
think we'll switch because I found
one that is available to us through
the Feds and the monthly cost is lower
and everything else looks better, too.
I've checked to make sure that all our
doctors and hospital, etc are in the
network. The one I have picked is the
National Letter Carriers Asso. with
Cigna and we are eligible. We've had
BCBS forever and it has always seemed
easier to just leave it, but this
year I decided to check. The prices
just seemed unreasonable and they
are getting fussier about covering
prescriptions, too. I'll have my fingers
crossed to see what the catch is.

100,000 in Denver to greet Obama

Wow, the picture on the front page of the paper
today shows the crowd in Denver to hear Obama.
It was fantastic, at least 100,000 people were
there. Some sitting on the steps of the Capital
building using binoculars to see him. The rally
was in Civic center park and the area of the
park was filled and all the way to the capital
was filled tightly with people.

I will be relieved when the voting is over and
Obama has won. How much he'll be able to do is
the question. The country is in such a mess!

Bob Gray came a week ago Saturday for dinner, but
arrived about 3:30 PM to help Robert move batteries.
They moved about 50 batteries up to the solar hut.
These were the batteries we brought back from Gothic.
Robert had already moved about 10 of them. They
are all up in the solar hut now, ready for experiments.

I have been calling people in our precinct whom have yet
to vote. I get a new list every day so that I know
who has/has not voted. But, I think people are getting
tired of all the phone calls they are getting. Moveon
is calling our area as are the Obama volunteers. It is
too much. I'm stalling on the phoning at this time.

Tuesday evening Gretchen and Allison and I went to a
Poll Checker class. It was a disaster. The guy
running it was hopeless. He started talking and had
barely gotten started when he began accepting questions
instead of saying, I'll take questions later if
you still have questions after I've finished. After
an hour of this with some questions being asked more
than 2 times, I asked the other two if they were ready
to leave and we left. By the time I got the car to
drive back to the front of the hotel to pick up
Gretchen, the exodus had begun. Gretchen had recent
knee surgery so it was a real effort for her to go
to that meeting and then have it be so worthless was
a shame. She said she used to be a Republican and
they at least knew how to run a meeting.

Wednesday I went to book club in the evening. It
was at Shannah's and the book was "The Literary
and Potato Peel Pie Society." Sue Berkenbush had
lent me a copy and I liked it so much I passed it
on to Julie and she recommended it as a book club
selection. We had a lengthy discussion of the book
and have named our book club "The Literary and
Sweet Potato Slices Society." Or some such. Shannah
served sweet potato slices that had been covered
with a little olive oil and salt and then baked.
They were really good.

Robyn arrived in time for dinner on Thursday. She
had her van full, but not as full as when she went
to Gothic since she left a lot of things in Gothic
for next year. It was fun to have her here and
we had dinner and catch-up time.

On Friday Robyn and Robert removed a couple of
trees that were near the fish pond, shading it
and their roots were invading the pond. It
makes a subtle difference over there. It is
quite a bit brighter. They put some of the
evergreen boughs in the pool for the fish to
hide under as we have done in the past.

In the evening Carl, Martha and Ariel came for
dinner. Robyn grilled the steaks for me on the
charcoal grill. They are soooo good that way.
I usually do them in the broiler in the oven because
it is hard to manage the grill outside on the
porch and do the inside stuff, too. It was
a fun evening. We've all become easier together
because of the trip to Gothic, I think.

Saturday Robert and Viki went on a geology field
trip to Golden, Central City, Crescent Village
(in Coal Creek Canyon) and perhaps other places
as well. Robert, clearly, had a great time.
He was full of descriptions and stories when he
got home.

Robyn and I went shopping. We didn't have much
luck except in the shoe department. We went to
Clark's shoes and she was able to find 4 pairs of
shoes (size 12) that fit and look great. This
store was a find because they also carry the
small sizes that Robert has difficulty finding.
She found a jacket she liked at Cold Water
Creek, but the largest it came in was 18 and
she clearly needed a 20. Cold Water doesn't
even carry 20 on-line. And the jacket wasn't
available on-line anyway. But that was
disappointing. She did find three fancy t-shirt
sort of tops that she liked though. We went
in all the women's stores looking for jeans in
tall (34+length), but they all said to buy
them on-line. I was amazed at the short-sightedness
of these stores. If they tell you to go on-line
and they aren't willing to help, then why not
go on-line for everything. They'll lose the
impulse buying totally.

Sunday we moved the dry wood from the stack by
the barn to the woodshed to make room to
stack this year's wood. It is too green to
burn this winter, but will be ready for next
winter.

In the evening the Salina kids plus the Wall
Street kids plus some Gold Hill kids (25) all
together came for "trick or treat." They
were all in very special costumes. The first
one on my list was Andre and when he received
his treat he said, "thank you." I told him
are good that made me feel when he said
thank you and that he was very welcome. That
started the trend. All the kids, older than
3, said thank you. Robert and Robyn were
sitting on the couch when they arrived and the
kids all gathered around them. It looked
like they were waiting for a story to be
told by either Robert or Robyn. It was sweet.

And so this morning Robyn had to leave. She
is anxious to get home to Idaho. She has been
gone six months...but, there is a possibility
that she'll be back in January to attend the
RMBL board meeting.

Finally, this week Robert and I decided that
we had traveled enough. That and the financial
debacle that is taking place made us decide
not to go to Portland, OR for Thanksgiving
week. It would have been fun to see everyone,
but it's a long way and we're really not ready
to hit the road any time soon, as it turns out.

17 days to go

The weather most of this week has been gorgeous.
Today it is actually hot!

I have my Precinct Captain hat on now. The County
Clerk's office has been doing a great job of updating
the voter register as they issue mail-in ballots and
as they receive them. I, so far, have been calling
people whose ballots were mailed on October 3 and who
have not yet voted, reminding them to get their
ballots in and that as soon as that happens the
phone calls should cease! Our precinct profile
is interesting, I think. We have 338 registered
Democrats, 49 Republicans and 291 unaffiliated. Robert
is 1 of 6 in his age group and I am 1 of 29. The
largest group are the 51-60 year group. There are
194 of them and 149 of the 41- 50 year group.

I'm working on the unaffiliated for the most part.
Not only urging them to vote, but urging them to
vote for Obama, Udall and Polis. I also give them
reasons, if they are interested and answer questions
about the ballot initiatives. We have a dozen
issues to become Constitutional Amendments and 2 of
them are very deceptive. One, defines "person" as
existing at the moment of conception! You can
imagine the many ramifications that would have. If
you do something that might possibly harm a fetus,
perhaps you don't even know you are pregnant, bu
the fetus is harmed...you may be prosecuted! There
are 300 places in our Constitution where "person"
is used. The other bad one purports to be an
Amendment that would protect equal rights, but the
wording is such that many programs for minorities
would be in jeopardy as well as any hiring practice
that might be perceived as affirming one race over
others. In each case the wording makes them sound
innocuous.

Last Sunday evening we went to Gordon Gamm's home for
a discussion of two movies he showed. One was on
Constitutional reform by two law professors that I found
very interesting; the other was an Islamic Terrorist
who was being interviewed from jail. He was so over
the top that it was hard to pay attention. The
discussion was fun and the food, as usual delightful.

Wednesday we took the truck up the Church Road to
the junction and parked it and hiked up the road.
We were checking to see if the sign, "Anyone proceeding
past this sign agrees to being video taped." It's
still there. The County has said they would take it
down. They also would take down the sign on the gate
at the top, near Sunshine Canyon that says, Private
Road, No Trespassing. It is not a private road. It
is an un-maintained County road. Anyway, we had a
lovely walk in the woods despite the barking of the
dogs in the "rescue" kennel.

After our walk Robert took down three trees and sawed
them into 8 foot lengths. I threw brush and helped
him load the logs into the truck. It feels good to
be getting our own wood. This is next winter's wood.
It is much too green for this winter. While we were
up there one of our neighbors cam by and Robert suggested
that if needed wood he could help us sometime and
he could have half the wood. He though that was a
great idea so tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll
go back up to get another load.

Thursday evening Robert went to his Cosmology Book
Club. He seems to enjoy that and I gather they
have great discussions.

Last night we went to a concert at the schoolhouse.
The Little Church in the Pines is still being
renovated. The group was "Finders and Youngbert."
They are bluegrass musicians and really good. It
was an enjoyable concert. It's really a treat to
be able to just walk up the road and go to a first
class bluegrass concert. There were about 40
people there so it wasn't a sell-out crowd, but it
was a very lively one.

This morning a young woman came up to have Robert
escort her to the Salina Cemetery. There have
been problems with the owner of the property such
that people are afraid to go up there, but he has
given Robert permission to go and to bring friends
and/or relatives. Pam's memorial stone and ashes
are in that cemetery. Dina is putting together a
files to be posted on-line at interment.com. One
file per cemetery. She's trying to do all the
cemeteries in Boulder County. Each file will contain
photographs and all the information she can gather
of the people interred there.


Later today, Bob Gray is coming to help Robert move the
60 batteries we brought back from Gothic up to the
Solar Hut. Actually, Robert has already moved 10,
I believe. Bob has promised his wonderful chocolate
cake and I have promised dinner.

Home for one week

We've been home a week and most
of the week we have had glorious
weather. The last two days have
been drippy and overcast, but
not enough water to do any good.

The week has been one of catching
up on cleaning, mail, friends, etc.

The politicking has been on hold
for two months and I shall be
getting back at it this coming
week. Udall is having a tight
race against is Republican
opponent who has been running ads
that contradict many of Udall's
known stance on issues. It is
very frustrating to watch ads
that you know are false. That
happened in the primaries with
Jared's opponent, too, but Jared
won. I'm hoping Udall will, too.

The financial crisis is on all of
our minds, I'm sure. We are
fortunate because our retirement
is not in the stock market but
what little we do have has tanked.
As has everything else. I'm
afraid that the election won't
stop the down-slide, but hopefully,
Obama will have plans in place
so that as soon as he takes office
he and presumably a Democratic
controlled Congress will be able
to put some measures in that will
help. At least they will be
working to end the war and the
financial drain that has.

We are already planning our next
trip. Having spent time on the
eastern seaboard we figure it is
only right that we spend some
time on the western coast, as
well. We are planning a trip
to Corvallis and Portland for
the last week of November. More
about that when our plans are
formulated a bit more.

Home from Wichita

Connie's house, from the pond, with kitchen windows showing








The deck and pool (covered for the winter)









High water mark on lamp and gray foliage and it even came over the fence








The deck of Connie's house taken from the lower part of the yard








Connie and Lea










The pond in Connie's "yard."









We were packed up and about to load the car
when the phone rang last Tuesday. It was Connie.
We were to go to Wichita to stay with Meara while
Connie and Greg went to Chicago. Greg had a
meeting there and Connie was going to meet him
there so that they might have a mini-vacation
and celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
The phone call was to inform us that because of
the financial crisis going on Greg would not be
able to leave for Chicago. His firm, the Farm
Credit Bank required him to remain in Wichita.
Connie suggested we now had the choice, to come
now, as planned, or to wait and come at a later
date. I said we would call her back after we made
a decision. We decided to go; everything was set
for us to go and we might not feel like going later
this fall and I was anxious to see Connie and her
new home.

We left the next morning at 6:30 AM. It is an easy
drive to do in a day, as it turned out and we had a
good book so the miles flew by. We arrived at 4:30 PM.
We had stopped for a picnic and a couple of other stops
to get out and walk, but mostly we just drove. Gas in
Kansas was cheaper than in Colorado, $3.39 and it Wichita
it went down to 3.07 while we were there.

The financial debacle was much on all of our minds. Greg
anxious it be passed and I anxious they be more thoughtful
about it than to just ram something through as they had
the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, more of the latter seems
to be the case. I have not read the bill, but from I gather
there is very little in the way of oversight and certainly
very little, if anything, for the folks who have lost their
jobs and/or homes!

Connie and Greg have a magnificent new home. The yard and
deck, in particular are spectacular. The pictures don't
really do them justice. The pictures I took inside did
not turn out very well so have included none of them here.

Connie has two beautiful collies and a sheltie puppy. They
keep her busy, particularly the puppy whom she must take
out often and the puppy is too little to leave outside by
herself. She can fit between the iron fence rails.

On Thursday, we walked the yard and admired the house and
Robert did his computer thing and Connie and I talked.
On Friday Robert, Connie and I went to the zoo. That was
fun. Wichita has a very nice zoo and Connie is considering
volunteering as a docent when she gets some of the major
repairs and restorations done around the house. One of
the interesting things about the zoo was that they had
statues for a few reptiles, a tortoise, a "gigantic" frog
and a viper. In each instance they didn't point out that
the figures hiding in the brush were fakes, but when you
read about the viper you realized there was no way they
would let such a lethal snake loose and that it wouldn't
just be quietly sitting there by the side of the path.

Each of the areas allowed the animals a modicum of space
outside and inside. The gorilla's didn't seem very happy,
in fact one of them was pacing by the window (we were inside,
he was outside) and appeared to be collecting stones.
I assumed he was going to throw them at the us, but he did not,
instead, he took a mighty leap and landed all fours against
the window which made a huge whomp and scared the beejeebers
out of everyone. If he could laugh, I expect he would have.
In any case he then left the scene and propped his behind
against the door where his food was to be delivered within
the hour.

On Friday evening we went to Ted's for dinner. This is a
"Montana Grill" owned by Ted Turner. The food was good;
Connie, Robert and I had crab cakes which were
really great! Greg had prime rib and Meara had a Caesar Salad.

Yesterday, we had breakfast with Connie at 7:30 AM and
left for home about 8:30 AM. The trip home went well.
We avoided the interstate both going and coming, pretty much.
The book we are listening to is "All the King's Men" by
Robert Penn Warren. It was first published in the 1940s
and I read it at that time, but I have long since forgotten
most of it except the general story which is a fictional
biography of Huey Long. Robert Penn Warren writes beautifully
which makes it even more enjoyable listening. He was the first
Poet Laureate of Oregon, I think in 1956.

Home from Gothic, CO

Common Camp Robber or Grey Jay













The golden valley, Gothic, Colorado













Tecalli (Pumpkin)













McCloed cabin
















Martha and Ariel playing cards in Tecalli












On Thursday, last, Robert and I showed up at Carl's
and Martha's in Erie at about 9:30 AM. We had all
the jerry cans we owned and filled them all. Robert
had made boxes to hold the batteries we were to
bring home with us, so some of the water cans went
in the boxes. We also had a cooler and two plastic
tubs, with covers, which contained all the food for
our share of the long weekend.

Carl was just finishing loading his station wagon
when we arrived. Ariel was brimming with excitement.
The trip over was uneventful, but filled with lovely
views of the gold aspen and green evergreens. We
drove over Kenosha Pass and later over Cottonwood
pass, both were very busy with traffic. Hard to
believe, especially on Cottonwood pass that there
would be so very many people out driving around in
the mountains on a Thursday in September!

We arrived in Gothic about dinner time. Robyn
showed up very soon thereafter to show us to
our respective accommodations.

She had arranged for us to stay in two cabins. The
Cowleys were going to stay in McCloed (pictured) and
Robert and I were to stay in Tecalli, also known as
Pumpkin because of it's orange color and green roof.
McCloed had electricity, but no heat other than a
wood stove and/or fireplace. It is a very old log
cabin and quite romantic, if you are into old timey
things. Ariel clearly wasn't. She told Robert that
if he thought it was so great why didn't he stay in
it? Tecalli had heat and electricity, was modern
with complete kitchen and large windows which were
truly picture windows. A view from each was lovely.
Neither cabin had running water because the pipes
had been drained for winter.

We all spent the next half hour or so moving in
and getting acquainted with the two cabins. Carl
then fixed dinner for all of us. He had brought
lasagna which was heated up and served along with
a Caesar salad and cake for dessert. He and
Martha have a new book, Dr. Cake, which has
lovely ways of doctoring up cake mixes to make
them truly your own. They had brought two of
those.

The next morning I was on duty for breakfast and
making breakfast when the Cowleys showed up and
Martha was having a bad time with her asthma. It
turned out that getting the wood stove in McCloed
going took more practice than was anticipated and such
as it was, the cabin was perpetually filled with
wood smoke. Robert and I were happy to share
Tecalli with them, so they moved there stuff over
after breakfast and stashed their stuff in the
unusable bathroom. They tried sleeping on the
futon in the living room that night, but with
the multiple trips to the outhouse that we made
they were wakened every time and decided they'd
share the bedroom Ariel had commandeered. That
worked out much better.

What a fabulous time we had. The weather was perfect,
mostly sunny an occasional thunder shower in the afternoon.
The aspen where in their full glorious gold.

On Friday, after the Cowleys moved over to Tecalli we
had a quiet day of short walks and reading and in
Robert's case catching up on a month's worth of e-mails.

On Saturday Robyn led the group up to the Mexican Cut, after
Carl drove all of us over Scofield pass. I struggled, too
much cruising and not enough exercising had me in pretty
poor shape for mountain hiking. They were all patient and
kept the pace at a snail's pace so I could keep up, huffing
and puffing. We finally made it to the flat area which was
our destination. We were at about 11,000 feet and at the
site of several ponds. These ponds were our destination
because they are filled with Tiger Salamanders.
These guys have three phases. One, where they live in the
water completely, another where they grow feet and move on
to the land. These are the two phases most of us are
familiar with, but these guys have a third phase and that is
the cannibalistic phase where they attack their brethren and
eat them.

I was too tired to continue on to the ponds so missed seeing
the salamanders. Carl and Martha got good pictures of
them though, so I at least have a feel for what they looked
like and how big they were. Ariel helped in the picture
taking by poking at them to get them to move out of the
mud where they could be photographed.

I felt I really needed to rest in order to make the trip
back down the mountain and Robert stayed with me. I did get
a nice picture of a grey jay, which I thought was a Clark's
Nutcracker, but when I saw the actual picture again, realized
it was neither big enough nor white enough now did it have
the correct bill to be a Clark's Nutcracker.

We had a late lunch and a quiet afternoon accompanied by
loud thunder blasts.

On Sunday Robyn led another hike to the beaver ponds. I
opted to take a short walk near the cabin and when Ariel
heard that she announced she'd stay with Grammy. That
wasn't quite what I had in mind, but she and I had a good
time exploring Gothic while the rest explored the beaver
ponds. It turns out the beavers have been very busy
making a series of terraced ponds. I gathered the whole
array was quite impressive.

Robyn had a party to attend Sunday afternoon, so we had
a late dinner such that she could join us after her
party, which she did.

Monday morning Robyn had a meeting in Crested Butte at
8:30 AM so she came over while we were getting breakfast
so we could say our good byes.

After breakfast we all packed up and after everything was
out of the cabin we cleaned up and put everything back
to where it was when we arrived. No one was really ready
to leave, even Ariel protested that she wasn't ready
to go home yet.

We left in convoy for home about 10 AM, stopping for lunch
in Buena Vista. There were several areas of construction
along our route which was on CO91 through Leadville. At
one of these sites Robert turned off the engine of the
truck and when he tried to turn it on again the starter
just wouldn't do anything. I radioed Carl that as soon
as he had a chance for him to back up so that we could
back up. The rest of the cars pulled around and went
on their way. Robert was able to get the truck started
again by backing up and jump-staring the truck with the
reverse gear. We did not stop after that, just kept on
driving until we were almost to Boulder. We stopped
and left the engine running while we said our goodbyes
and collected hugs from the Cowleys. We made it home
safely, with the truck facing down the hill ready for
a rolling start.

Robert has unloaded some of the batteries, the initial
reason for this trip and we have unloaded all the rest
of the stuff and started repacking. We leave in the
morning for Wichita to visit Connie and stay with
Meara while Connie and Greg have a mini vacation and
celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

Between trips

Sunday evening Carl, Martha and Ariel came for
supper. Robert latched on to Carl immediately
to ask his advice about our dead laptop. Carl
was able to restore the system for us, but was
dragged away after dinner before he could get
all the network connections made.

While the two geeks were geeking, Martha and I
made lists and plans for the 4 days we'll be
spending in Gothic, Colorado with Robyn.

Yesterday was another catch-up day, paying bills
updating the check register and making the final
lists for our trip. Not exciting, but needed
doing.

I also traded a couple of e-mails with Jared Polis,
our Democratic contender for the 2nd Congressional
district, our district.

Today, I went to get my hair cut. It has been
awhile and was getting pretty hard to deal with.
My hair is so limp and fine that as soon as it
gets any length to it, well..it just lies there.

While in town I shopped for the groceries to
take with us. The food boxes are now packed and
the cold and frozen stuff will go in on Thursday.
In the meantime Robert has built a couple of boxes
into the bed of the pick-up to hold the batteries
we'll be bringing back from RMBL.

Robyn has called a couple of times to answer
questions and to say she has turned the heat on
in the cabin that has heat and will start a
fire in the fireplace in the other cabin so
that the chill will be off of it when we arrive.
Wow, a heated cabin. That's more than we have
at home. The temperatures there are ranging
from the 30s to the 60s. Gothic is at 10 or
11 thousand feet. We are only at 7000 and our
temperature range is 40s to the 70s (except today
it didn't make it to 70).We are hoping to avoid
turning on the heat until we get back from Gothic,
but that is playing it kind of risky. We could
get really cold weather any day now.

My hair dresser brought up the question of what is
happening to the economy. She admitted she hadn't
removed all her savings from the bank, but most of
it. Not the CDs. It is scary. I'm hoping the
FDIC will come through, if necessary. But how
can they if this 700 billion bail out goes forward
and Galveston is crying for help as is New Orleans
from the recent hurricanes.

Chautauqua

We spent most of the day, from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM
at Chautauqua. Climate and Energy Action Heroes was
the title of the conference. The morning session
was a panel discussion and the panelists included
Jim Kuntsler who wrote "The Long Emergency," Patti
Limerick a CU professor and head of the group
called "The American West," Gary Hart, former
Senator and presidential candidate, Hank Brown
who is the current President of CU and former
State Senator. The moderator was Richard Brenne.
Richard is a very energetic young man who has
become involved in convening all sorts of panels
and conferences and discussions on climate, energy
and sustainability of our lives and culture.

Kuntsler started out with his statement which, true
to his book was very depressing. He harps on Peak
Oil and how our technology won't solve the problems
we are facing and this time he added comments about
the stupidity of the American people and the Nazi
Palin. Patti added her concerns about the issues,
but suggested being totally pessimistic was counter
productive. Getting people to act was not likely to
happen if you tell them what they must do and that
they are stupid if they don't. She sighted examples
of her teaching philosophy of leading rather than
cudgeling. Gary Hart told of his frustration since
the 1970s of legislation not being passed to raise
the gas tax, among other things. And then it was
Hank Brown's turn and he immediately attacked Kuntsler
on his political hate language and how counter productive
that was and how that kind of language has gotten
us into the mess we are currently in because our
politics has become so polarized that if the Dems
want something the Republicans automatically say no and
vice versa. That calling Palin a Nazi was the height
of irresponsibility. Then Patti jumped in and
seconded everything Brown said and added more. It
was pretty hot and heavy for a few minutes and the
moderator was having no success in turning it around
when one of the other panelists whose credentials I
missed jumped in and radically changed the subject.

The only new thing I heard and I was grateful for
was that there should be a new definition of GDP and
that should include, instead of profit, the new
business model should be innovation,
sustainability, and social responsibility.

After the morning session we had lunch which was
a Texado barbecue catered by Daddy Bruce barbecue
stand and hosted by the Chautauqua residents from
Texas. It was good food and we sat with a young
couple and their two children who had moved to
Boulder a year and a half a go, from Virginia. They
love Boulder and I was reminded of my past when we
first moved to Boulder although the young man is
employed and she is a stay at home mom until the
kids, ages 3 and 5 are both in school. We told
them about our recent trip to DC and they knew
exactly where our motel was and the metro station
we used. He grew up in that area.

The after sessions were three panels, the first was
about Climate Change. It was really scary because
the climate is changing so much faster than any of
the earlier predictions, even since Gore's movie.

The second session was on Energy...and that was
pretty ho hum. I didn't hear anything new in
that discussion.

The third was on Agriculture and looking at the
panelists we decided to leave because we have
heard them all before.

It was a good day overall. We sat with the Mosburgs
which is always fun. They are leaving next week to
camp on Echo (I think that is the name) Island which
is in the Great Salt Lake. Their daughter and her
husband are joining them there and they, Earl and
Shirley Mosburg will be celebrating their 50th
wedding anniversary.

crab apple jelly

Yesterday I made crab apple jelly. The total came
to 18 pints of jelly. That should get us through
a year or two.

In the evening Robert went to his Cosmology book
club. Vernon showed up about 8 PM to return
the books he had and to pick up some more. We
are his lending library. We had fun discussing
his adventures on his new off-road motorcycle
down in the Dove Creek area and I regaled him
with tales of out 5700 mile trip for the last
month.

Today I started making lists and assembling things
for the trip to Gothic. We'll have a cabin to
stay in, but it'll not have any water nor water=
related facilities. Carl and Martha are coming
Sunday night so we can plan menus and such.

Robert and I went to town to get tires for the
truck. We took two cars so he wouldn't have to
sit indefinitely waiting for the tires to be
mounted on the truck. We did some grocery
shopping and picked up a few things for the
Gothic trip.

This evening Viki called. We're both taking
the same judge-training class on Oct. 9th. I'll
pick her up at Boulder High. And now to brag
a little. Keegan is playing in the Boulder
Philharmonic Ochestra on Sept. 24th. He is a
freshman music major at CU. There are 3
harpist. Keegan, a woman who is a junior
at CU and another woman who is in the
graduate school. Keegan and the graduate
student are playing in he ochestra. Keegan, is
not actually playing a "solo" but, will be
playing at one time in the concert when no
one else is playing. Not bad for a freshman.
He does play beautifully.

I am so glad he is doing his music thing. I
wish he were at Eastman or Julliard though.

Tomorrow we spend the day at Chautauqua. More
about that after the fact.

Home, at last

We made it home yesterday afternoon. We opted out
of going to Wichita to visit Connie since we'll be
going there in two weeks anyway. The dire warnings
of floods in Arkansas had dissuaded us from going
through Arkansas and Oklahoma so we were going the
same old route from NC to Boulder and would have
gone south at KC on the turnpike to Connie's. Once
our nose was pointed home, we decided to just keep
going.

Unloading the car was our first priority after we got
here and we accomplished that. And I got the mail
sorted out. A month of mail requires a lot of sorting.
Most of the catalogs I have just put in the recycle.

Everything looks fine, except for the fish pond.
A bear seems to fancy our fish pond, but the fish
are on to him so they disappear much too fast for
them to get caught by the clumsy bear. However,
the bear did sink our decorative grass pot and
plant and knocked the papyrus off the table so
that it was laying on its side in the pond. Russell
discovered it and he and Vernon managed to right
the pot although it was still sort of smashed
against the side of the pond.

Robert managed to grab the grass pot
with the rake and pull it up where I could grab
it and haul it on to the ground. We then
replaced it back on the table in the pond. The
papyrus had many, many new plants coming from
the ends that had been lying in the pool so I
have planted them in another pot. These I shall
take in for the winter. The big plant is now
sitting on the bottom of the pool and still has
almost three feet of plant above the water. I shall
leave it out over the winter. I expect the winter
will be too much for it, but perhaps the roots
system will survive. The temperature at the bottom
never gets to freezing. We'll see. It is much
too big to take into the house. I have no
where to put such a huge plant! In any case
I'll have a dozen or more new plants for next year.

The small vegetable garden I had doesn't look
great. I have two cucumbers, but they are
very small and spherical?!? I have one hot
pepper and lots of blossoms. The tomatoes look
OK, but are pretty much done for the season, I
think. I probably won't try veggies next year.
They are a bother and with our water problems
just not worth it. I'll plant flowers and if
we don't have water for them, so be it. I
won't feel I've lost much.

I had planned on unpacking today, but discovered
the crab apples are ripe and are ripe enough so
I decided I better pick them today. Our old tree
by the front gate had none, but the tree growing
by the creek is overloaded with apples. The
problem, of course, is getting to them. I managed
to get almost a full bucket and when Robert discovered
what I was doing he joined in. I shall make jelly
first thing tomorrow morning. I have enough apples
for at least two batches and maybe a third.

I have managed to get everything out of the car and
shall have everything upstairs by the end of the day.

Salina, KS

Wow! Finally, we have an internet connection.

Our trip from DC to NC went well. We spent several
days with Robert's sister and husband as guests
in an apartment in their retirement complex...God's
Waiting Room. Every time we spend any time in one
of these places we thank our lucky stars that we
don't live there.

Patricia and Thomas don't have an internet connection
and the computer room at the complex was locked up
tight all the time we were there. Everything is
run by volunteers and if there is no volunteer
to monitor the computers then they are locked up.
More and more we kept calling the people who lived
there the inmates because it did seem much like a
fancy prison.

Yesterday we drove from Durham to Puducah, KY and
missed the floods, rain, etc from Ike, but not the
power outage problems. Our motel had power, but
Comcast was out of business so we had no TV which
we can do without, but no internet either. Yikes!

We should get home tomorrow if all goes well. It'll
be good to get home.

We had planned to stop at Connie's, but since we
couldn't go through Arkansas because of floods
we decided to skip that visit. We'll be there
in a couple of weeks anyway.

Arlington, VA

We left Pittsford yesterday morning after breakfast.
It seemed like a longer drive than it actually turned
out to be. We arrived here about 4 PM. Robert was
gung ho to go drive around the Mall, but I just wanted
to get out of the car and had NO desire to get back
in. We discovered we could check our e-mail so did
that and I read. I'm reading a delightful book that
Sue Berkenbush lent me. It's title is The Guernsey
Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It takes
place just after WWII and consists of a series of
letters between a young journalist and the members
of the society. I am enjoying it very much.

Shortly after 6 we walked a few blocks to an
Italian Restaurant that Robert found with the
help of our GPS. We walked over to it and
had a wonderful dinner. Robert had the usual
Lasagna and I had a Penne, chicken, goat cheese
and spinach dish which was excellent. We
shared an apple, walnut, cheese and spring
greens salad..and couldn't eat all of it.
We came back to the motel and stashed
food enough for tonight and then some in
our frig here. WE will either microwave
it and eat here or walk out again to another
place. We have no table to eat at in our
room. We have one easy chair and one
desk chair..we'll see how we feel.

We plan to drive around the mall after
dark so we can see the Lincoln Memorial, et al
with lights.

This morning I discovered the motel offers
a shuttle service to the metro. We used
that. It was great because we knew we'd
be doing plenty of walking when we got
to the mall. The metro is fast and easy
to figure out although every time we
stopped to read instructions someone
came over to help us. I guess our age
makes us appear totally helpless, but
I always smiled and said I was always
happy for help, just in case.

Our first stop after we got off the train
was to walk to the WWII memorial. It is
grand and magnificent, but I guess I feel
I'd rather see such a thing honoring
peace instead of war.

It turns out Robert had not heard of the
Roosevelt Memorial so was taken by surprise
when I said the main reason I wanted to
come to Washington was to see that. It
is on the edge of the Tidal basin and
another walk from WWII. I guess we
walked a good 3 or 4 miles altogether
today.

Anyway, the tribute to FDR is great. At
first I was shocked because the first
thing we saw was a bronze statue of
FDR in his wheelchair. He had fought
so hard to cover up his disability
that I felt he would have been shamed
to see the statue. But there is
another and larger one with his little
dog, Fala which made me feel better.
There is also a bronze of Eleanor which
looked as though she could just walk
right up and greet you. All through
the memorial our quotes of FDR and
they made me nostalgic for what our
country was and devastated over what
it has become. We have surrendered
so much that the WWII was fought to
protect it makes me weep at one moment
and make me know I must fight even
harder to get Obama, Udall and Polis
elected.

We spent a long time at the memorial
and I really hated to leave. Pictures
will come later, after we get home.

We walked back past the war memorials
of which we have too many!! Had a
hot dog at a hot dog stand, R had
an ice cream. Then we walked more
back to the metro. When we got
off the metro I called the motel
and the shuttle came, in less
than ten minutes to pick us up. It
is a lovely service. And saved
us another 6 blocks of walking.

Pittsford, NY

We drove from Oswego to Rochester and arrived at Jack
Wenrich's apartment at the appointed hour of noon.
Judy was there, too. We chatted for a little while and
then drove to Olive's by the Canal for lunch. It is a
Greek Restaurant and was quite good. Jack and I
had Guiness as an old custom. We had a very
pleasant lunch and it was especially nice to
spend some time with Judy and hear about the
wedding. Chris had told me something about
it, but Judy told me more. It sounds like a
great time.

After lunch we spent some time at Jack's until
about 3 PM. I knew he was tired so we left.
After we left Judy called to ask if I had lost
my sun glasses which I had just been looking
for. We returned for them in time to run
into Jeff who had come to pick up Judy. Judy
had expressed interest in coming to Boulder so
I extended to Jeff, also, the invitation. I hope
they do come.

After we left Jack we drove about 5 miles to
Mendon Ponds which is a county park. I
hadn't been there in about 60 years, but it
hasn't changed a bit. We walked about a
mile through the woods. It was great to have
a chance to get out and walk. I have been
very stiff because of sitting in the car so
much.

After our walk we sat in the car reading
waiting to hear from the Owens. They
were returning from the Adirondaks so it
was not clear when they would show up.
Ann called about 5 to say they were about
an hour a way and then would stop at
Wegmans to pick up something to
put on the grill for dinner and would be
home about 6:30 PM.

We showed up at 6:30 and they were unloading
their car.

We had a lovely dinner though I was too tired and
also drank too much wine. I did sleep well though
for the first time in three nights.

This morning we all slept in. They were tired, too.
After breakfast we went over to the canal and
walked a long the canal for a couple of miles. It
was great to get another walk in. My joints feel
great for the first time in weeks. We decided
to skip lunch and have ice cream cones. We
had had ice cream at the same place yesterday
with Jack and Judy. A great place with huge
scoops of home made ice cream..

We returned to their house and all was quiet.
Ann, as it turned out had laid down just for
a minute and slept until 5 when we were
supposed to leave for dinner because she
had to go to her Recorder session at 7.

We went to JoJos for dinner. Robert and I
had a Louisiana gumbo which was great, but
we could only eat about half. We all came
home with much food. They'll eat for
a couple of days on the leftovers.

We head for Washington, DC tomorrow.

Oswego, NY

We arrived in Oswego late yesterday afternoon after
a very long, slow drive from Lenox. We stayed off
the NY through way which is the only fast road.

On our way into Oswego we stopped in Mineto.
I took pictures, but haven't downloaded them
yet. The building we lived in is still there, the
one on the west is gone and the one to the
east is waiting demolition. The mill and
pond are gone. I couldn't ge into the back
of the buildings, where we entered because
it was a jungle.

More later...

Lenox, MA

We drove across Massachusetts on route 9 which is another
winding New England road. It was a very pleasant drive.
We arrived at Elske's in Lenox about 2 PM.

The rest of the day was spent primarily with Robert
and Elske talking cosmology and astronomy while I
read my book club book. The conversation continued
in the evening, but it wasn't all about science. We
did discuss a few cultural and political issues in
which, I of course joined in. Elske is a very interesting
person so it is always fun to hear her take on issues.

Today we went to a National Trust house which was quite
near. We had our membership card, amazingly enough, so
we did not have to pay the entrance fee.

The house is the Brookwood house and it was the home and
studio of Daniel Brook French who was did magnificent
sculptures. We took the tour of the house and studio.
It turns out he, as a young man, entered what has become
MIT and promptly flunked out and decided to become a
farmer. Along the way he got interested in sculpting so
his wealthy father asked him what he needed to do to learn
more about his new chosen field. He went off to school and
later Europe and became a fabulous sculptor. He not only
did the Minute Man sculpture in Concord, Mass and even
more impressive the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. We
saw his drawings and models and we learned about light.
He had a great studio with sky lights and north light and
a railroad track such that he could push his sculptures
outside and it was also on a turn table so he could
view the sculptures in all sorts of situations, rain, shine
night, day, sunshine, etc. BUT no one warned him of the
reflecting pool at the site of the memorial. When he
discovered that and saw what the light shining on the
pool did to poor Lincoln he was devastated. That is
why there are lights inside the memorial always
shining on the statue. We saw photos of the statue
with and without the lights and with just the
reflection from the pool Lincoln looks terrible! It
was an interesting tour. Actually, you have to take
the tour to get into the house and studio.

After our tour we took a walk through the woods and
a modern sculpture garden.

It is an off and on rainy day, but we lucked out
because there was no rain while we were there.

We're going out to dinner tonight.

Thanks for the e-mail...and I shall answer each
individually.

Still in Auburn

Today we drove to Leicester where Robert lived his first 20 years
except during the war years and the hospital following.

We stopped in to visit the library. Robert has an old history
of Leicester which is in excellent condition. He asked if they
would like it. The librarian in charge of the town history
was delighted. They have a couple of copies, but they are
not in good condition. She said that sometimes people have
even torn pages out of them. Now they are kept under
lock and may only be used in the library.

Robert's house looks the same as it did 20 years ago when I
first saw it and much the same as when he grew up in it. In
fact the town has changed, but that area of town has not.

We went from Leicester to Worcester to visit WPI where
Robert did his undergraduate work. We toured the
campus where there are many new, since Robert was there,
buildings. Many old ones have been refurbished.

We listened to Ms Palin last night and I guess if McCain
should win we'll all be hoping McCain's health is still
good.

Auburn, MA

We reluctantly left the Farm this morning. Before we left
Sue and I did our usual gabbing. We packed up and
the 4 of us took a walk to the area that Dick has
been clearing to make a picnic area. They have sold
the development rights to the farm acreage and in order
to satisfy the IRS they need to do something more to
make it an asset to the community. It is a lovely
spot with huge shag bark hickory trees and it overlooks
the Merrimack river except that the hickories are blocking
most of the view. The leaves will be gone in another
month and then the view will reappear.

After we left the Farm we headed for New Hampshire and
Ed's (Viki's Ed Hall) house. It took a while to get
there because of the winding New England roads, but we
finally zeroed in on it with the help of Ms Garmin and
a neighbor. The neighbor has promised to e-mail us
pictures of NH. I think he'd like us to e-mail pictures
of Boulder. He went to CU as an undergrad.

We'll be here at the Comfort Inn for a couple of days.
At Walt Kopesky's suggestion we picked up a coupon
book so got our room for $79.00 instead of $98.

Peabody/Essex Museum

We left about 10:00 this morning for Salem and the
Peabody Museum, Robert, Sue and I.

What a wonderful museum the Peabody is! We had
a wonderful time. Most of our time was spent
in a special exhibit which also cost extra. An
antique house, lived in for many, many generations
in China until the mid to late 20th century was taken
apart in China and put back together inside the
museum. All the tiles, the painted decorations
on the outside walls were there. The courtyard
even had bamboo growing so that when you looked
out a window you saw bamboo. The family had
been quite wealthy and had done quite well until
the Cultural Revolution. At that time, I believe
the house was abandoned.

There were many rooms, all furnished, but sparsely
and as Robert kept pointing out there were no chairs.
They took their food outside to eat, the early on
folks, but the later folks were shown in pictures
eating around a common table from common dishes.

The next hall was set up in 1799, to begin with.
This is an old museum! It contained many figure-
heads from ships. They were truly magnificent.
Each one was described at some length on a touch
screen computer where you pointed at the picture
you wanted described and you got a description.
If you pointed again (pointed, meaning touched)
the picture was enlarged. It was quite an
elegant way to label the various items.

The last hall we entered or spent any time in
was a Polar exhibit. This had gorgeous pictures
of both polar regions included a webcam series
from the north pole.

And finally, I'd really like to hear from you,
any of you who read this. It gets lonesome not
getting feed back.

I have heard from Martha, describing their bike
for diabetes bike ride. Carl rode 100 miles and
she rode 100 kilometers and next year she thinks
she'll go for the 100 miles. They were riding
for diabetes and both made their goals and the
whole group raised lots and lots of money!

I love you all...but miss hearing from you.