Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Homestead





Here is a photo my parents sent from the Remington family homestead in Ohio. Here is the cabin where my ancestors lived after moving as pioneers from Rhode Island in 1813. My parents were involved with others in placing a new bronze plaque at the site last week. The plaque listed the family members who lived here long ago. A nice connection to another age.

My mom is standing on the right. That ramp is of course a recent modification.

Taking the Train


Once a month, I get together with a long-time friend of mine, Lorna, who now lives an hour and 10 minutes from here. She was one of two friends that made it to our wedding. Now she's a newlywed living in SoCal, so we get to see each other frequently. We've known each other since our early 20's.

I now take the train out to visit her. I really enjoy that. I like figuring it all out. There is a stop in the quaint town of Orange. I walk to Starbuck's, get a steamy latte, and enjoy the sights along the way. On the train, I get a chance to sit quietly and gaze out the window at the varied landscapes as the train rolls on. I watch the traffic on the highway that we run parallel to for part of the route. I like to sit in the upstairs section at a seat with a table, in case I need to get some work done. It is a great opportunity to people watch, too. Mostly I just read and think and enjoy the view.

The trains were so accessible when I lived in Illinois. We'd often hop on and take it into the city of Chicago for various occassions and events. Wish it was that easy out here. I do miss that and it makes me glad I have this little adventure each month.

Tomorrow is the day. A train trip out east...well, slightly. Clickety-clack. I'll be back by 5:00.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Biola Grad & American Idol 2007

Jeff Peabody, an '89 Biola Communications graduate, wrote the lyrics for the 2007 American Idol songwriting contest winning entry, "This Is My Now." [From Biola University web page]

Salmon Pictures

I went to the grocery store this afternoon for the solitary purpose of purchasing buns for our Hebrew National hot dogs. I did buy the buns. But more a far more important discovery is that Wild Sockeye Salmon from Alaska's Copper River was available. So, I grabbed a couple of fillets and headed home to start a fire on the Weber Grill. Yum, yum.

Salmon 2Salmon 4

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Oh yeah? Well, that's pretty much nothing compared to the time that me and my friend Joe went to China. That silly wall isn't that great, by the way...

wall

How Far South is Florida?

To amplify my comments on the previous post:

It's at least this far south. We visited Key West in February 2005 which has this marker--southernmost point in the continental US, only 90 miles from Cuba.

I'm thinking one of these ugly things is just what we need for our mockingbird. Let's see who is mocking whom!


This picture, taken on the same February 2005 trip is in the Everglades just west of Miami. The Everglades are very different from Miami, too.

Friday, May 25, 2007

mimus polyglottos

Why does mimus polyglottos want to keep me awake at night? A quick google search reveals that it is probably because he is lonely. Unmated male mockingbirds will often sing all night and all day. At night especially when there is a full moon or where it is well lighted.



Fortunately for this mockingbird, I'll (for now at least) take Atticus Finch's advice to Jem and Scout literally that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because it is innocent and is only singing for me.

Some interesting facts from various sources:

  • These birds are non-migrating--so it won't be moving on soon.
  • They learn more sounds/songs the older they get--maybe I can teach it something new. (Erica points out that sometimes it is singing the song of a car alarm.)
  • They are very territorial and will fight off hawks, cats and people--so I'm not going out there with any bad intentions very soon.
  • This is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas, all southern states.

Hush little baby, don't say a word,
Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don't sing,
Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Hairy Wild Guy


I uploaded Rob's picture of the "David" in the wild for all to see. Go brothers.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Although I've been to Kings Canyon with David four times now, this last trip was the most complete to date. At night, I slept under a ceiling of stars and the grinning quarter moon, and during the day on Tuesday, David and I hiked about 14-16 miles out to where Charlotte Creek meets Bubbs Creek. Along the way, I saw rattlesnakes...

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...a black bear that was brown in color...

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...and this hairy, savage creature!

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It was a pleasure to see some of the trail crew that I have previously met: Adam, Jack, and Agnes, as well as some other folks I met for the first time. The people at hole-in-the wall are always generous, and friendly, although not always out-going at first. I got to have dinner and conversation with some interesting people from all over the country, who are proud and happy to be doing what they do in the back country trail crew.

The always refreshing canyon will loiter in my thoughts for quite some time~

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Sunday, May 20, 2007

Tomorrow morning I'm going to drive up to Kings Canyon to meet David for a couple of days. I can always count on a sweet snack whenever I take a road trip. Mmmmm... peanut butter cookies! My room mate is the best!

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Oh yeah... we got robbed at Polly's tonight, no one was hurt. That's the second time I've been working at one of my detestable customer service jobs when a robbery took place. Neat!

Grand Prix in West LA (Culver City)

This morning, Cindi and I picked up Daniel and headed to West LA Community College for the big West L.A. College Grand Prix cycling race. We had a great time and went to breakfast afterward.

IMG_0016

You can click through to Flickr to see more pictures from this morning.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

What . . .

is this guy looking at?







What's so special about May 25?

Levi Conquers the New World


OK,that's old news that Levi won the GC in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California. What's new is that we got our 3-disc video set of the ToC and we saw Cindi on the side of the road in the Long Beach stage where we were volunteer course marshals. GO CINDI!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

For Mother's Day

‘Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.’–US author Elizabeth Stone

‘You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around—and why his parents will always wave back.’
–newspaper columnist William Tammeus

‘A young boy said to his mother, “How old were you when I was born?”
His mother replied, “23.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of time we missed spending together.”’
–anonymous

‘The most common fallacy among women is that simply having children makes one a mother—which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician.’
–US writer Sydney Harris

‘A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.’
–anonymous

‘A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.’
–Irish proverb

‘I’d like to be the ideal mother, but I’m too busy raising my kids.’
–comedian Phyllis Diller

‘A little girl was asked where her home was. She replied, “Where Mother is.”’
–Christian writer Keith L. Brooks

I got these from my friend Kevin's blog who works for Compassion International in Bangladesh.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Bike to Work Day is coming right up!

Thursday, May 17, 2007 is "Bike to Work Day" in Los Angeles. I think I will bike to work that day.

"Bike to Work Day is intended to encourage the cycling community to keep on riding, to educate motorists about cyclists rights to the road and to urge our leaders to support the cycling community with appropriate enforcement."
"Landis lawyer blasts testing lab"

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Timothy's Clavicle

If you have to be the first to see the x-ray, here it is. We should be able to make it slighty more clear.



The two bones in the middle of the image make the collar bone, and should be together, but they're about an inch off.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Hearing this week in Malibu

Floyd has a public hearing with USADA this week in Malibu at Pepperdine. The Wall Street Journal has an article in its public area here.

20 School Days Left

It's always a happy time when I realize summer vacation is on its way! Rob must be done by now, or maybe a week away from summer. Will he take summer classes? We will wait to hear. Beth is probably two weeks away from summer vacation...or summer school administration. And I'm done on June 8th with students. Wrap-up reports and stuff will last to the 15th, but it just feels better to be mostly finished with another year. And Daniel closes up the run for the finish. I'm sure his school ends mid-June, leaving behind his sophomore year to a summer of cycling. Audrey may be finished before or after Daniel, too, with a break before summer school. Is she teaching it this year? [This is the best I can do to get beyond "Since No One Is Blogging," or whatever that was.] And Doris will keep watching those Dodgers.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Since no one is blogging...

Cancelling one's Myspace® account is as easy as 1-2-3... 4...5! In all, after clicking on "cancel my account" in the account preferences screen...
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...I was asked again four more times to verify if I truly wanted to cancel my precious myspace account.
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In one step, I was asked to leave feedback in a text box describing my reasons for leaving myspace, to which I offered that myspace was once a unique, low-key medium of communication, and has now become a perverse venue for advertising and identity theft. (Not to mention the false, vague sense of belonging that comes from such immediate, yet impersonal interaction that myspace has blighted upon my generation).
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Then a confirmation email was sent to my email address, asking me to again confirm that I wished to delete my account, after which, I was informed that my account would be gone "within 48 hours." Jeepers!

I've registered to vote, signed up for and cancelled credit cards in far fewer steps, and it may indeed be easier to obtain "legal" resident status in this country than it is to do away with an existing myspace account. Speaking of which, there is a May Day rally with your name on it somewhere in your town!