Gifts from Travels.

In some families, it is a tradition to buy gifts for those left at home when on business trips, particularly children.  I know that when my father would travel away on conferences, he would bring small gifts back from places he visited.

I recall when I was young, my father brought this sign back from New Orleans.  I don't believe I was a big fan of pirates at the time, but I thought it was cool and had it in my room while I was growing up. 

A few years ago, I stumbled across this gift again.  Coincidentally, the owner of the company I currently work for was into pirates, so I brought it in and put it on his office door.  He has since passed away, but Pirate Alley is still used to test products he was involved with. 

I don't think my father would mind. 

Back to School

Long ago, I left home for college.  It was 700+ miles away, and I had a car, so my Mom and I got in the car and started driving.  We drove for awhile and stopped the night at a motel somewhere along the way.  I do remember that instead of going with me all the way to Blacksburg, she flew back to Milwaukee from Charleston, WV, about 100 miles short. 

I made the remaining portion of the trip without incident, and at some point during my freshman year, my family visited to see how I was doing.  And as part of that visit, my mother bought me the laundry bag that you see on the left.   If you look very closely, you can see the remnants of Virginia Tech on the bag.  Apparently mothers can look at their son's dorm rooms and quickly identify something they need. 

The drawstring doesn't work very well anymore, but the bag is still sturdy and still holding dirty laundry upon occasion, mostly when we are traveling. 

William Walters - 1932-2013

My father passed away on September 8th, 2013.  He was a wise and generous man.  Here are some of the things he taught me.

• It’s all just Physics. 
• Treat your wife special. 
•  Eat Supper with your family.
•  Toys can be found in empty barrels.
•  Don’t be afraid to create the tool you need.
• Boys need dens. 
• If it’s not Physics, it must be theology.
•  Be bold.  You can always paint over it.
• Just because you saw the wrong end off, doesn’t mean you can’t use it somewhere else.
• Don’t shy away from something because it’s complicated.
•  There’s no shame in going back to a job you love. 
• Money doesn’t grow on trees…
• However, don’t be afraid to spend money on important things.
• Take time to rest.
•  Spend good time with Family.
•  Pay attention.
•  Give thanks for your daily bread.
•  Old sleds are better.
• Try to win, but don’t let losing bother you.
• It’s all relative. 
• Music doesn’t need words.

This was supposed to be published on September 9th, but apparently there was an issue between the keyboard and the chair. 

Favorite Pictures: Daughters on Sea Lion Statue

In 2003, we traveled down to Arcata, California for summer vacation.  We spent much of the time driving along the coast in Oregon and Northern California.  Along the way, we stopped at Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon.  We saw this statue, Stellar Sea Lion Family, and decided we needed to have a family picture as well.  

Check off another box on the Man List.

This is a carburetor.  Specifically, the carburetor on a 5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine on a wood chipper.  It is another check mark in the Man List.  The Man List is a list of things all men should do before they pass away.  Different from a Bucket List, for not everything on a Man List is pleasant (changing dirty diapers, for instance). 

The story starts this spring when I finally called a lumberjack out to trim some branches that were growing on my roof.  After he was done, I had 6 foot piles of branches on each side of the house. 

I decided that I would rent a chipper to make some mulch but when I looked into it, they were like $400 per day for the really big ones, and they didn't rent out little ones.  For that price, I could buy a new one.  But the last thing I need is another thing in the garage, so I figured I'd pick one up on Craigslist and sell it when I was done.  Sure enough, I found one for $120 just south of me so I went and picked it up.

The chipper had been sitting in the gentelman's shed for about 5 years and it didn't have any gas in it so I couldn't test it out.  Sure enough, it didn't run when I got it home, so I figured I'd use YouTube to rebuild the carburetor and see if that did it.

After two trips to the auto parts store, two deliveries from Amazon, three weekends and a visit from an engineer friend from church, it finally chugged to life.  And it stayed running.  Two more weekends later, I had smaller piles of mulch and a bunch of limbs to cut up for firewood.  As a bonus, I sold it to a friend at work for what I paid for it. 

Without the help of YouTube, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this one. It makes me wonder, though, how many people watch YouTube and get in over their heads?   

Mount Rainier GeoTour

Mount Rainier from White River Valley
at Sunset

In a nice marketing move, the Visit Rainier organization leveraged the 100th anniversary of Mt. Rainier National Park by creating a series of 100 geocaches in and mostly around the park.  The caches were released in groups of 25 about every 6 months, and were placed so that you would have to travel around the mountain for each of the groups. 
We began this last year, and were a couple of short for Series 1 before the snows came.  Series 2 came in the fall of 2015, and we were busy and couldn't get to any.  Series 3 came right before we went camping over the weekend of July 4th, so we decided to get as many as we could. 

We obtained 42 of them the weekend of the 4th, I got another half-dozen a couple of weekends later, and last weekend, we got back to the Sunrise side of the park and polished off the last ones.  A little hiking, a little camping, a little sightseeing.  We went up to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort to see the Perseid meteor shower, but after an hour without a trace, we gave up.  It was still nice to see the stars outside of the city lights. 

Fruit so good I can remember eating it.

There are three times in my life that I remember where I have had fruit that was so good, I can remember exactly where I had it.  It was that good. 

Strawberries from Central Valley:  One summer during her college years, Corinne got a summer job for a company in Los Angeles.  We had an extra car at that point, so I told her she could take it down to LA for the summer and sell it afterwards.  Of course, we needed to make a road trip, so I decided to take the weekend and drive down there with her. 

On the way to Sequoia National Park, we were driving along a local road and came across a stand selling fresh strawberries.  We purchased a pint and had them when we got to the park.  The fruit was ripe, red throughout, juicy and melt in your mouth delicious.  Afterwards, we decided that we made a mistake in not buying more. 

Peaches in Georgia:  A few years later, we decided to get a condo in northern Georgia.  We were between my niece's wedding and when Valerie had to return to college, so we decided to vacation in the southeast. 

One day during our excursions, we found a peach orchard that was selling peaches.  We tasted one and decided to get a large bag to last for the week.  I can't remember how long they lasted, but they didn't last us the week.  Between 4 of us, I'm sure they were gone within a couple of days.  The fruit was ripe, juicy, sweet but not too sweet, and that perfect consistency that it melted in our mouths. 

Pineapple in Fiji:  This past winter, we used some money my mother gave us and took the whole family to Fiji for Christmas.  The trip was long, but everyone managed to make it from five cities on two continents. 

The first day we were there, Christmas Eve, Gail and Valerie went to a local market and got some produce.  Part of what they bought were some pineapple.   They were a bit smaller than we normally get in the US, so they bought some more.  Again, the pineapple was ripe, juicy, sweeter than we can get in the US, not as stringy, and perfect for snacking, daiquiris, and cooking.  We went back to get more, and I believe that had twenty pineapple before we left, and not a one was disappointing. 

America the Beautiful Pass

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Wallace Stegner, novelist, environmentalist and historian, once said "National parks are the best idea we ever had.  Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."  I agree.  

Every year, we manage to visit at least one National Park, and when we go, we make sure to get an America the Beautiful pass.  It allows access to all the parks and any national fee site.  We may not get full value from the pass, but the money goes to a good cause.  When I retire, I'd love to devote some of my time volunteering in the parks.  

When I hear of certain individuals who "take over" national lands and demand that it be "given back to the people", I am puzzled.  As a US citizen, I own 59 National Parks, 82 National Monuments, 19 National Reserves, 50 National Historic Parks and a huge number of other public areas.  If they aren't being run the way I like, I vote.  

Buy one today.  

Disclosure:  I am not compensated in any way for any sales from the National Parks.  

Camper

When we were in St. Louis, we frequently went camping with our friends from church, Dan and Donna.  Their daughter, Rachel, was about the same age as our oldest two and they all loved to have little sleepouts in their camper. 

A few years later, Dan called us up and asked us if we wanted to buy the camper.  We agreed, and we then began dragging the kids around the country in the camper.  It went with us to Yellowstone, Glacier, Utah, Oregon, California, and many places between.  The most notable was 15-days straight when we were moving from Iowa to Washington (via the Grand Canyon). 

Now it's primarily used once or maybe twice a year.  It makes a great shelf in the garage.  This year, I had 4 days off around the 4th of July holiday, so we went camping near Mount Rainier. Deanne was able to come, and Maria and Chris came up from Oregon to visit for a bit.  It's showing its age, and there are fewer parts than there used to be, but we still enjoy getting out in the "wild". 

Hiking - Goat Lake

As a technology professional, I end up staring at screens much more that I should.  That may account for my desire to get outside when I can.  One of my favorite ways to get outside is to go on a hike.  Living in the Northwest lends itself to many spectacular hikes within a couple of hours of the house. 

On Father's Day this year, I decided we'd go on a hike to Goat Lake.  It was recommended by one of my coworkers who enjoyed it the week before.  So, I made everyone get up early, and we hit the trail. 

The trail follows Elliot Creek about 5 miles to the lake.  Along the way, the trail divided, so we went up to the lake by the creek and back down by way of the old logging road.  

We were doing fine until we were within half a mile of the lake.  We missed a switchback and ended up on a non-maintained, overgrown trail heading toward the falls.  After wandering around for a half an hour or so, we decided it was time for lunch.  We headed out to the little rocky island at the base of the falls and had our lunch.  The dog never really got relaxed, but it was a very cool place to be.

Goat Lake

After we got our energy back up, we doubled back, found our wayward trail, and made it up to the lake.  There were a couple of dozen others up there, some camping, some sleeping, some just enjoying the view like us. 

After the dog got his swim in, and we found a geocache, we headed back down.  The trail along the road was easier, but in the end, it was about 2 miles too long.  We got back to the car nice and tired and picked up some KFC on the way home. 

All in all, a good day. 

Jackson Senior-Staff Basketball Game

For the past 19 years, the Jackson High School staff have challenged the Seniors to a basketball game.  They use the proceeds of the admission to fund staff scholarships each year.  It is very well attended, in part because some person had a great idea and used it as the first chance to pass out yearbooks.

The students love the chance to beat the staff, and the staff love the fact that "It gives Seniors the feeling of what it is like to lose to out-of-shape, over-the-hill, completely un-athletic 40-year olds."

The staff had a 12-6 record going into the game, with last year's game being won by the students on a three point buzzer beater.  This year, the staff was down by 1 going into the last three minutes when the students put their A team on the court.  The staff held the students scoreless and sank the clutch free throw to put it away 93-91.

Gail's contribution was 3 minutes at the beginning of the 4th quarter, running around after one of the Seniors that go to our church.  She did touch the ball once this year, and was called for travelling.

New Parent Advice: Read to your kid

Goodnight to the old lady whispering "hush"

Today, we are visiting our sorta-granddaughter.  One of our exchange students stayed in the country, got her degree, found a nice Russian immigrant to marry, and settled down.  Since she is the closest of our "kids", we get to see them more than our own progeny.  Sophia was born on Friday, and we finally get to go see her tonight. 

We are going to bring her a couple of traditional English language books since both her parents are natural Russian speakers.  Then, we will sit down and read to her. 

As our children were growing up, we read to them constantly.  They would crawl up on our laps, relax and listen to the stories.  And we collected stories. 

The public library once put a hold on Gail's card because she had the maximum number of books checked out (60).  Valerie came home crying one day because her teacher had given the students homework of counting all the books in the house.  I taught her about estimation that day, for the total we came up was north of 1000.  The girls were reading Harry Potter books in second grade. 

All of my children are eloquent, and all still read.  I firmly believe that reading to them stretched their mind, as well as formed the parent-child bond both physically and mentally.  So, put down the phone, remote, video game controller or dirty dishes, and read to your kid.  You both will feel better. 

Whitewater Rafting

Payette River - 2004

The middle squares of my t-shirt quilt are from whitewater rafting companies.  I first went rafting the week before final exams my senior year in college on the Lower Gauley River in West Virginia.  The remnants of a hurricane came through the week before and the water was running high.  I figured if I was going to die, I might as well do it before I had to take my finals.   It was a blast, and after that, I was hooked.

On our honeymoon, we had been going for a week straight when we got to Moab, Utah and we were beat.  We decided to spend a day and floated down the Colorado (which is actually pretty tame there).

When my daughters got older, I introduced the oldest two to rafting in the middle fork of the Flathead River in Montana.  A couple of years later, the whole family rafted down the Arkansas river in Colorado.  Gail spent the entire trip hanging onto the 8-year old Deanne, who would have fallen out multiple times otherwise.  We rafted the Payette River in Idaho, the Nooksack in Washington, but the most adventurous was a midnight raft trip down the Manatuska River in Alaska in July.  We had dry suits for that one, since the river begins from a glacier.

For our 30th Anniversary, we had a float trip down the Merced River in Yosemite, and a few years later, we channeled our inner Burt Reynolds by rafting the Chattooga River in Georgia, the filming site of Deliverance.

The white t-shirt on the quilt says it all. 

 It was once believed that the Earth was flat.  

And if you went too far you'd fall off the edge. 

  Cool! 

Bob's T-Shirt Quilt

During the last round of t-shirt quilt making, Gail took a bunch of my old t-shirts and made me a quilt.  The quilt tells a bit of my story, from my favorite football teams to churches I've attended, to places I've lived and worked and other interests.

Each of these squares has a story or a memory that makes it special.  You can see National Parks on here, maps, ice cream, minor league baseball, old tuba shirts from college, NPR programs and mementos of trips I've taken.

The oldest shirt dated from 1975 (grey shirt on the left edge).  That's the year my sister went off to college at St. Olaf and bought me a handful of t-shirts for Christmas.  There's a map of Milwaukee from the 70's, an Immanuel Lutheran Chapel shirt from the 80's, Richmond Rooster's shirt from the 90's, Bethany Lutheran shirt from 2000, and a Yellowstone shirt from the 10's.

40 years of my life, keeping me warm.

Trinity Lutheran College

Over the past three years, I have had the privilege of teaching at Trinity Lutheran College in Everett.  A family friend sat on the board of directors and referred me to the college when they were looking for someone to teach a Business Information Systems course.

The college was never very large, and unfortunately, it became obvious that the enrollment numbers could not support the institution.  The last graduating class was matriculated on May 8th, 2016.

The class project was to design, produce and sell a t-shirt of their own choice.  The students put up the money and were able to keep the profits.  There were many good designs for the t-shirts, from a 12th Man, WoT Clan, Euro design, Psychology, local clubs and the last year, a farewell Trinity shirt.  The objective was to teach the students something about logistics, project planning, information gathering, finance, and sales.  Most students learned that they ran out of time and had to do too much at the end, not much different from real life.

I enjoyed teaching the class and I'm sorry to see the college close.  God has his plans for the faculty, staff and students, even if we don't know what they are as of yet. 

Students like black

New Parent Advice: Let the kid explore

Hey dog, I won!

Between my daughter who is due in September, and one of our Exchange Students who was due a week ago, it may be time to start doling out random advice for new parents.

Today's advice:  Let the kid explore.

They sell those door/drawer locks for kitchen cabinets and drawers to prevent toddlers (and others) from getting into them.  Don't buy them.  Put the unbreakable stuff in the bottom cabinets and let the kids explore.  Keep the knives and glassware up high, of course, but let the kids empty out the cabinets.

It lets them see how things work.  It allows you the opportunity to teach them about putting things away, and just as important, it keeps them busy.  And it works all over the house. 

So you have to wash a few more things.  So the house looks a bit cluttered.  So the child's inner drummer will come out when they find out that metal pans make a lot of noise.  Just rinse off the pan before you use it.  Don't try to control what the kid should be doing, let them explore.

We acquired this plaque when the kids were young.  Truer words were never spoken.

Punk'd by the Pastor

We were running late to church one Sunday and we arrived right as service was about to start.  When we got there, the usher handed us a bulletin like he usually does.  Pastor Scott was standing at the door, and he quickly asked us for the bulletins and gave us two others.  We didn't think twice about it, but we should have.  We figured we were running low or he needed the inserts or something. 

Earlier in the week, I mentioned to Pastor Scott that I had an annoyance with a traditional offering prayer because it went straight from scattering grains of wheat to collecting them, totally skipping over the whole sprouting and growing thing.  He obviously listened, since he updated the wording slightly for the Offertory Prayer. 

 We didn't realize it until we started to read along with the version that he had printed in our bulletin. 

We soon realized why he had special bulletins printed for just us and that he had to figure out how we would get them and no one else. 

Well played, Pastor Scott.  

Maps

Keeping Nat'l Geographic in business

When Google first came out with Google Maps, I think my productivity went down by an order of magnitude.  For some reason, I am fascinated by maps.   Road maps, Topo maps, Satellite views, Street maps, it's all the same.  I can get lost in tracing roads, "discovering" places that are close to other places I've been, or more recently, seeing what something looks like from space. 

While we were in Virginia last weekend for  my Nephew's wedding we stopped by Shenandoah National Park for a visit.  We came down Skyline drive from the north, but unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy.  The view from the road was a solid white cloud.

While we were there, I picked up one of my favorite souvenirs, a trail map of the park.  Never did get to use it, and will probably never use it for a trail, but its kind of like an obsession.  So, I brought it home and stored it in the box with the other maps I've bought but seldom used. 

Deanne

I like the woody taste.

Deanne was born a few months shy of three years after Valerie. With the experience with Valerie's labor, we didn't know what to expect.  Luckily, this one was more like the first two. 

Contractions started in the afternoon on a Wednesday during Advent.  A friend from church had just died, and I needed to practice singing Amazing Grace at her funeral.  The organist and I planned on meeting before church and going through it.  The contractions weren't too bad yet, so Gail said to go ahead and we would head to the hospital after practice.

So, we dropped the kids off at a neighbors and headed to church.  As I practice, the contractions started getting harder.  It was a bit disconcerning to the members coming for service to see Gail in the office in labor.  I never really lived that one down.

After we practiced, we headed off to the hospital and voila, another girl.  I was actually thankful it was a girl, since raising a boy with three older sisters would probably permanently scar him.

That evening, I went to the neighbors to pick up the older girls and I found that they had been throwing up all evening.  I sat with Valerie on my lap, something which brought out the jealousy in Corinne.  I still hear about that from Corinne when the subject comes up.

While we were pregnant, one of Gail's friends wrote us a letter indicating that all of our kids (to date) had names that started with a roman numeral, and asked us if we were going to continue the trend.  Once we were aware of the pattern, we had to continue it.  Xanthippe and Imogene were ruled out, so we settled on Deanne.   Something her Oma still has trouble pronouncing. 

Valerie

Valerie followed Corinne by two and a half years just about to the day.  With the third, we thought we had figured out this giving birth thing.  The others went quickly enough that I was wondering if she was going to be born in the back seat.

During baby classes, they tell you to pack a bag to keep yourself occupied in the delivery room in case it was a long labor.  We skipped that step.  We probably shouldn't have.  This labor started with Gail's water breaking, not so much the contractions.  The morning dragged on, still no contractions.  Finally, the doctor told us to head to the hospital. 

In the afternoon, they decided that it needed to induce labor, so they gave Gail Pitosin to speed things up.  By the time that kicked in, Gail was in serious pain but it was too late for a epidural.  (Gail likes to point out that I got annoyed because labor started right in the middle of a movie.)  Shortly after midnight, Valerie grudgingly came into the world. 

Three for three on the girl front.  Once again, our friend Jeff drew a beautiful drawing for the birth announcement.

Corinne

Corinne was born about a year and a half after Maria in the same hospital, fittingly, on Labor Day.  Labor started again in the early morning hours, but given the experience with Maria, Gail wanted to "make sure" it was time.

When we got to the emergency room to admit Gail, they calmly took her away in a wheelchair to prepare her for delivery.  A short while later, a nurse came running from the back to me and said "You'd better get up here, you're wife's having a baby."  About 90 minutes later, Corinne was born.

All of our children were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Chapel in St. Louis in a very special baptism gown.  It was the same gown that I got baptized in as well as my father.  The gown was worn by all of our children and about a hundred other relatives.  It's become a tradition to find out who's got the gown when the next relative is born.  There is a list that goes with the gown of all the people baptized in the gown. 

Our friend Jeff drew a nice picture that we used for her birth announcement.*

* For those of you who may be reading this in the future, those were actual pieces of paper that we would mail to friends and family announcing the birth.  Mail as in paper and stamps.   How quaint.  

Maria

Practicing for the chorus line?

Maria was born about 2 1/2 years after we got married.  We went through all the newly pregnant parent stuff, like baby classes, buying a house, outfitting the baby's room and buying a station wagon.  We had a couple of ultrasounds, but we decided we didn't want to know the gender of our child.

Maria's labor was a somewhat interrupted.  Gail woke up early in the morning with contractions, so we went to the hospital where they strapped a baby monitor on her and made her lay on her back.  So, the contractions went away and a few hours later, we found ourselves at home.  We had a regularly scheduled OB/GYN appointment at 1 in the afternoon, so when the contractions started again later in the morning, Gail just suffered through them and went to our doctor's appointment.

Luckily, the hospital was right next to the doctor's office, because when we got there, he told us to get in the wheelchair and head over to the hospital.  By then, labor was well underway, and a few hours later, we had our oldest daughter.

I first heard the name Maria from the musical West Side Story.  Gail liked it as well, but thought it should be pronounced Mar-eye-a.  I guess I won that one.

Life comes full circle, with Maria and her husband Chris now expecting our first Granddaughter in September.  (They decided to find out sooner.)

Happy Mother's Day

joie de vivre

In the summer of 1990, We vacationed at our cottage in central Wisconsin.  At the same time, Gail's cousin was summering at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo.  It's a pretty cool place if you've never been there.   

We were in the stands watching the trapeze artists perform and you could just see my Mom looking on with envy.  Then the emcee started his call for volunteers.  "Does anyone want to try the trapeze?"

I reached over to raise her hand.  I'm not certain if I got her hand up first or she got her hand up first, but when the emcee saw this lady in her mid-fifties volunteer, he jumped on it.

Spry as a kitten, she climbed the ladder and stood there while they strapped the safety belt on her.  When they were ready to go, she calmly stepped off into the air and started to swing.

The crowd was delighted.  There she was, swinging back and forth in the air.  The emcee was trying to talk to her to tell her what to do, but she was in her own world.  She swung back and forth being the star of the circus.  Finally, when she got tired, she called out that she was ready to get down.  They lowered her to the net in a round of thunderous applause.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. 

Circus Memories

One of Gail's cousins ran off and joined the circus.  Really!

Sorry Roy, the elephants always wanted to be in front

Both Gail and I have a horde of cousins, and one of her cousins, Roy, joined the circus when he was young.  He found out he was good with animals, so started training them.  He gradually worked his way up to training elephants.

Being in the circus, he was always traveling around the country, so every couple of years the circus would come to town and we would visit Roy.  And of course, when we went to the circus, Roy treated us like royalty, including the obligatory elephant ride. There's nothing like a good circus to bring out a smile in a kid.

I was reminded of this recently when Ringling Brothers retired their elephants due to pressure by animal rights activists.  I can't say I agree or disagree with them, but I do remember that Roy loved his elephants.  He treated them with respect and cared for them as best he could.  I remember he got mad at one of the handlers when he thought they were treating his elephants poorly.

He's retired now from his circus life and living happily with his family, but I'll always remember his hospitality when the circus came to town. Thanks, Roy. 

Patio Furniture / Corporate Culture

Still has silly string stains, Teresa

Every year when the weather gets nice and I get out the patio furniture, I think about corporate culture. 

It starts in Cedar Rapids, when Norand, the company I was working for, was doing some remodeling.  We had an old storage room that we wanted to make into a small conference room.  We got it cleaned out, painted up, and then Leslie in facilities told me how much office furniture cost.  I didn't have the $1xxx that was needed to buy a table and some chairs, so we got creative.   I went to the local store and for less than $200, I bought a patio set (complete with umbrella) for our conference room.  Naturally, we called it the patio. 

After the company was purchased by Intermec, I was part of the team that needed to combine the two IT departments into one.  Eventually, the company moved me to Everett, Washington to take over the IT Operations.  A part of the attempt to change corporate culture in Everett, I bought a patio set and brought it into the office.  We set it up in the middle of the cube farm and it gathered dust for five years. 

When I left Intermec, I brought it home with me.  (The company never paid for it, so it was still technically mine.)  It gets well used on the back deck.  We eat supper outside on the nice days and I remind myself that there are always missed opportunities in life. 

VT T-Shirt Quilt

Before the baby boomers came along, t-shirts were white and you wore them underneath other shirts.  By the time we were kids in the 70's, t-shirts became much more:  art, personal expression, souvenir.  It seemed a shame to turn them into rags as they wore out or got too small. 

Not certain who's idea it was, but quite some time ago, Gail started making t-shirts into quilts.  Nothing fancy, just cut out the interesting bits of the shirt, sew them together, and use them as a casual throw.   So we started saving shirts instead of turning them into rags. 

Last summer, Gail started going into the 5 boxes of t-shirts, pruning them out, and making them into memories.  There were enough of them, she started making them into different themes.  This quilt documents some of our experiences at Tech, from band trips to Memphis in 1979, the Peach Bowl in 1981, Marching Virginians' Anniversaries, and other fond memories from when we were young. 

Graduation

"You know nothing, Jon Snow."

I graduated from Virginia Tech with Bachelors of Science in Computer Science in 1982.  My journey there from Wisconsin was unexpected to me.

When I graduated from High School, my father was the Vice Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  He made it clear to me that the selection of where to go to college was up to me, but his position did have an influence on where I looked.  He had an unspoken perception of UWM compared to other universities in the state.  Not wanting to offend him in any way, I decided to go to college out of state. 

My father and I made a visit to Virginia Tech, and a few things stood out to me.  First, the setting was wonderful.  Blacksburg is located in the mountains, the campus was very open and architectually consistent, and they had all the programs that I was thinking about majoring in.  But what really sold me was the band director.

One of our visits was with the director of the marching band.  Dr. Heath had come to Tech from Purdue, so he could give us a perspective about how the school and region differed from the midwest.  During our discussion, the door opened, and a red warthog stuck its head into the room.  The student who was wearing the razorback helmet on his head didn't realize we were in there and turned as red as the helmet as soon as he saw Dr. Heath had guests.  We all shared a laugh, and it occurred to me that this is the kind of place that I would enjoy. 

I have no regrets. 

Marching Virginians

Many of my fond memories of college revolve around the marching band; the Marching Virginians.  Nowadays, they like being called the Spirit of Tech because Virginians sounds too much like ....

The band started in 1974 and it took a few years for it to become successful.  I had some influence into that success.  In  1979, the band director, James Sochinski, arranged "We Will Rock You" by Queen and the Tuba section started playing around with a dance.  He saw that and the following year, he arranged the Hokie Pokie and presented the Subculture (i.e., tuba players) with a challenge.  Could we dance the Hokie Pokie?

Well, we got together as a section and did a bit of choreography.  When we broke into the chorus line for the first time during a halftime show, we got the crowd's attention.  The routine has changed little over the past few years, and it has become the signature song for the band, and to a certain extent, the university.

Every so often, they have an alumni weekend where old MV's are asked to return.  The photograph above is from practice at the 30th anniversary in 2004.  I'm the one after the gap in the line.  I learned that dancing with a tuba 20+ years after graduation is not as easy as it was. 

Just to give you an idea, the 2009 version of the alumni band is shown in the attached video.  It's a bit jittery.  The Hokie Pokie starts at about 3 minutes in.  The chorus line is about a minute later.

Their official web site goes into more detail about the history of the band. 

20th Anniversary

When we got married in 1984, our honeymoon consisted of driving Gail's car from California where she worked to St. Louis where we were going to live.  We started the honeymoon in San Francisco, staying at the Chancellor Hotel on Union Square.  We did the normal tourist stuff, and after a couple of days, we got in the car and started driving across America.  (stories for future posts)

20 years later, we were living in Seattle and I wanted to do something special for our Anniversary.  We planned on taking a camping trip that weekend to celebrate.  At least, that's what she thought.

Unbeknownst to her, I had gotten a couple of tickets to San Francisco and reservations at the same hotel we honeymooned at, and left this letter on the bed in the morning. 

I’m sorry to break it to you, but we will not be going camping this weekend like we planned.  It was all a ruse to keep you from scheduling anything else.  What we are doing is still a surprise, but I’ll fill you in on some of the details. 

• The kids aren’t coming,
• We’ll be heading to the airport in the afternoon,
• We’ll be returning on Sunday afternoon. 

Susie will be staying with the kids, and she’ll be coming around 1pm to get the briefing.  What I’d like for you to do is the following:

• Pack a suitcase with clothes for a temperate climate.  You’ll need 4 outfits, three casual, and one a little dressier. 
• Pack a camera, jacket, and a day bag (purse, fanny pack, or whatever you wish) and whatever else you think you may need for a weekend away,
• Call Jackie and tell her that she won’t be dog sitting after all,
• Call the neighbors and tell them we won’t be golfing with them,
• Call the Airline and tell them that Susie will be dropping off Deanne,
• Sign the attached form,
• Think of what instructions to tell Susie when she get to our house. 

I’ll be home about the same time as Susie, so if there are other things we have to go over, we can do it then. 

Happy Anniversary  

Needless to say, we had a good weekend.  Even got artwork to furnish the house, but again, that's another story.  

The Love of My Life

On a hot, muggy day in June of 1984, I committed my life to this wonderful woman.  We met in college in the marching band but didn't start dating until senior year.  After we graduated, I moved to St. Louis, Missouri and she moved to Arcata, California, and we started a 2 year long-distance relationship. 

Back in those days, that was not as easy as it is today.  We wrote letters to each other and only were able to talk to each other once per week for an hour or so.  Long distance bills averaged about $100 per month, so talking more often was not feasible. 

I proposed to her on Christmas Eve, 1983, and I have to admit it was the best thing I've done in my life.  I loved this woman back then, and I continue to love her today.  I can't imagine what my life would have turned into if I didn't marry her. 

Thank you, Gail, for saying yes. 

Christmas Candle

After our children grew up and went to college, we began to host exchange students attending a local community college.  Some stayed all year, and some only a few months.

During 2014 and 2015, the college had an agreement with a high school in Herning, Denmark where an entire class would come over to study in America for two months.  In 2015, Camilla came to stay with us.

Tall and blond, like most Danish girls I've met, she was very outgoing, not wasting her opportunity to see America.  Her mother worked at a Christmas store in Denmark, so Camilla brought us tradition Danish Christmas Candle.  It says, God Jul (Happy Christmas) in Danish and has numbers along the side.  As she explained, you were supposed to burn the candle each night until you get to the day, counting down until Christmas.  (As you can see, we weren't very consistent burning our candle.)

Camilla was only with us from October 2nd through December 2nd so she was not around for Christmas that year.  Since it was her favorite time of the year, we broke out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree right after Thanksgiving.  Camilla, Ai, and Beryl, our three students for the year, enjoyed opening up the Christmas decorations and putting them up on the tree.

When Gail and I actually travel to Europe together, we will have to stop by Herning and look up Camilla and Nadja.  Too bad the school decided to go to San Francisco in 2016. 

Daughters

One of my favorite images also dates from our summer vacation in 2001 and includes a photo of my daughters.  They are hiding behind a tree we found while hiking or camping, and I liked the juxtaposition of the knarled trunk and the faces of the girls.

When we were pregnant with the youngest, I was often asked if I wanted a boy.  My response was always that I hoped it would be another girl, since I had two older sisters growing up.  I couldn't imagine growing up as a boy with three older sisters.

The oldest, Maria, is now married and is expecting in September.  At their ultrasound, they found out that they were expecting a girl.  Carrying in the family tradition, I guess.

Looking forward to spoiling another generation. 

Coins

NPS Quarters - 2010 through 2015

Some of the images I want to share are mementos that I have collected over the years.  Some of them I will be disposing of, but some of them are just things I'm collecting (for now).

One of the mementos that I have been collecting are proof sets of the National Park Service quarters.  I loved what the US Mint did with the State quarters, and one of my daughters has the proof sets of those quarters.  When the Park Service quarters came out, I decided that I would like to get them.

I'm not a coin collector, by nature, but I thought these were cool.

I also learned that it's really hard to take pictures of shiny things.