Graduation Day

Leave it to the wisdom of a six year old to ground a person that is in need of frequent re-grounding. Last Saturday afternoon we had just returned home after lunch with friends and I assumed my normal position on the family room couch for a much deserved nap. The dog was barking at the back door, six feet from my position of repose, and I called for my littlest Angel, who was in the west wing of Casa de Salmon, to come to my assistance. She huffed to the back door, let the dogs in, and as she stormed past declared, “It may be your special day Dad, but it’s not all about you!” Did I mention that she is only six?

Several years ago I had reached a crossroads in my life. My wife and I had married in February 2002 and soon thereafter we left Alaska when I accepted a short lived job with USA Today in Michigan. Eight months later and severely pregnant we were loading up a truck and moving a second time to Minnesota. Once again I found that I had landed another terrible job in the rapidly dying newspaper industry and a year later I was at a loss as to what to do next. I was torn between finding another newspaper or doing something new which would require some retooling.

I always regretted not going to college but it was not something I remember being stressed in our house as a kid. Instead I elected to enter the Army right after high school. In Uncle Sam’s infinite wisdom I was offered an opportunity to go to West Point shortly after entering basic training. What were they thinking, were they that desperate for officers? I was seventeen, had escaped the grip of high school by the skin of my teeth, and in my current position as grunt trainee was not sure that the military was a career path I was particularly enamored with. In my infinite ignorance I declined. Eventually I served my time, found a trade, dabbled in a few classes at the local community college, but by and large just got on with life until the events described above.

I’m sure that anyone that has contemplated a midlife transition has at some point found himself filled with doubts and fears, I was no different. Fortunately I had unwittingly married an Angel and she suggested that we pack up and return to Iowa where I could attend school full time while she would support us. Little did I realize what “support” would mean.

It would mean her working overtime while I studied and worked part time at near minimum wage. It would mean that she would work miracles with the checkbook so I could spend a week at Oshkosh. It would mean giving moral support, prodding, and the occasional beating to this recalcitrant non-traditional student to keep me focused on the goal that had been set. Essentially it would mean that her Angel like qualities would be tested to their limits.

We finally graduated Saturday and I say we because without the help of my two Angels this dream would not have been realized. Commencement was indeed a special day and the degree an accomplishment that I will always cherish but as my little Angel pointed out, it was certainly not all about me.

Winter Fun

Every kid should experience the snow fort.

Life at the Salmon Shack

As you have probably noticed there has been an sudden increase in blogging output this last week. Last month it became painfully apparent that I was seriously overloaded and woefully ill prepared for midterms so I made a conscious decision to drop blogging (and a poli-sci course). Then the other morning the woman that lets me live with her came home with a bit of an attitude. This wasnt the normal 8-AM grizzly bear attitude that she has after a 12 hour night shift. No this seemed to be genuine concern about something.

"Whats wrong?" I asked as my hand slowly slid reflexively down to the pepper spray on my belt just in case.

"I don't know if I can live in a place with him as president" she said nodding toward Obama on the morning news channel.

"I know how you feel." I replied compassionately.

"YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING!" She snarled like a Kodiak Brown on freshly shot Sitka blacktail.

"You know I've been stocking up on beans, bullets, and beers for the next Great Depression. What else you want me to do?"

"GET ON THAT BLOG OF YOURS AND LET PEOPLE KNOW!"

I tried to reason with her but if you have ever found yourself between a sow and her cubs you can imagine how effective that is. "You know the three people that regularly read my blog already know all this stuff. It's like preaching to the choir dear."

"I don't care just do it!"

So there are my marching orders. In a week we will know how effective I have been. In the mean time keep your fingers crossed and your hand on the pepper spray you may need it. Excuse me I got me some bloggin to do.

The Loss of a Friend

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways. I to die and you to live. Which is better God only knows." Socrates

When the news came about his death emotions ran the gamut, shock, anger, guilt, and sadness. I took a job in Minnesota a few years ago and I was warned about Mike. Ornery SOB they all said. You'll have your hands full with that one they warned. With a hard gruff biker persona he let it be known that he wasn't about to take any crap from anyone, especially some outsider that blew into town expecting to change to his world. He was everything they promised and more, fortunately.
A funny thing happened over the course of that next year. There grew, I think, a mutual respect and when it became clear that my time with the company was coming to an end he stood beside me when it was obvious that no one else who would.

I always tell people when they are unsure about leaving a job because they "will miss the people" that in a couple months you probably won't hear from any of your co-workers but in this case I did. He called and stopped by over the next few months just to be sure we were making out all right. We had dinner the night before we left town but even after we moved away we still managed to keep in touch. Most of the time it was just to say to hello or talk about the weather.

He called a couple weeks ago to let me know he bought a new bike and had started going to the VA. I called to see how he fared when the company laid off some staff and we spoke again last Saturday when he said he may get a wild hair and come down to see us. He didn't show. I just didn't know. There is a certain futility in trying to rationalize the irrational, to make sense of the senseless, to understand the ununderstandable. So we are left lamenting the loss of a friend that will be sorely missed, and wondering what if...

Orwell

If there is a more influential or often quoted writer of the 20th century than George Orwell I can’t say who it might be. His most famous work, “1984” of course led to the term Orwellian to describe the decline of western civilization into the dystopia world of Oceania. Both ends of the political spectrum often quote Orwell’s work to highlight the transgressions real or imagined of the other. In fact I recently stumbled across a C-Span panel discussion featuring George Soros clutching a copy of “1984” to prove his point that the Bush administration is Big Brother incarnate. You could argue that Orwell’s world was the result of “Ingsoc” ,English Socialism, which seems closer to the ideology of Mr. Soros.

Orwell also produced a body of work beyond “1984” during his career, insightful commentary on the turbulent 20th century. "Animal Farm" is of course the most prominent but his other works are also historically relevent. In "Why I Write" (1946) he noted that his goal was, “ to make political writing into an art”, this is particularly evident in his essays. Here are exerpts from a few personal favorites.

On Jews:

When you go through the Jewish quarters you gather some idea of what the medieval ghettoes were probably like. Under their Moorish rulers the Jews were only allowed to own land in certain restricted areas, and after centuries of this kind of treatment they have ceased to bother about overcrowding. Many of the streets are a good deal less than six feet wide, the houses are completely windowless, and sore-eyed children cluster everywhere in unbelievable numbers, like clouds of flies. Down the centre of the street there is generally running a little river of urine.

In the bazaar huge families of Jews, all dressed in the long black robe and little black skull-cap, are working in dark fly-infested booths that look like caves. A carpenter sits cross-legged at a prehistoric lathe, turning chair-legs at lightning speed. He works the lathe with a bow in his right hand and guides the chisel with his left foot, and thanks to a lifetime of sitting in this position his left leg is warped out of shape. At his side his grandson, aged six, is already starting on the simpler parts of the job.

I was just passing the coppersmiths’ booths when somebody noticed that I was lighting a cigarette. Instantly, from the dark holes all round, there was a frenzied rush of Jews, many of them old grandfathers with flowing grey beards, all clamouring for a cigarette. Even a blind man somewhere at the back of one of the booths heard a rumour of cigarettes and came crawling out, groping in the air with his hand. In about a minute I had used up the whole packet. None of these people, I suppose, works less than twelve hours a day, and every one of them looks on a cigarette as a more or less impossible luxury.

As the Jews live in self-contained communities they follow the same trades as the Arabs, except for agriculture. Fruit-sellers, potters, silversmiths, blacksmiths, butchers, leather-workers, tailors, water-carriers, beggars, porters—whichever way you look you see nothing but Jews. As a matter of fact there are thirteen thousand of them, all living in the space of a few acres. A good job Hitler isn’t here. Perhaps he is on his way, however. You hear the usual dark rumours about the Jews, not only from the Arabs but from the poorer Europeans.

“Yes, MON VIEUX, they took my job away from me and gave it to a Jew. The Jews! They’re the real rulers of this country, you know. They’ve got all the money. They control the banks, finance—everything.”

“But,” I said, “isn’t it a fact that the average Jew is a labourer working for about a penny an hour?”

“Ah, that’s only for show! They’re all money-lenders really. They’re cunning, the Jews.” (Marrakech, 1939)

On Atrocities:

I have little direct evidence about the atrocities in the Spanish civil war. I know that some were committed by the Republicans, and far more (they are still continuing) by the Fascists. But what impressed me then, and has impressed me ever since, is that atrocities are believed in or disbelieved in solely on grounds of political predilection. Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence. Recently I drew up a table of atrocities during the period between 1918 and the present; there was never a year when atrocities were not occurring somewhere or other, and there was hardly a single case when the Left and the Right believed in the same stories simultaneously. And stranger yet, at any moment the situation can suddenly reverse itself and yesterday’s proved-to-the-hilt atrocity story can become a ridiculous lie, merely because the political landscape has changed. (Looking Back on the Spanish War 1942)

On Facism:

It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.

Yet underneath all this mess there does lie a kind of buried meaning. To begin with, it is clear that there are very great differences, some of them easy to point out and not easy to explain away, between the régimes called Fascist and those called democratic. Secondly, if ‘Fascist’ means ‘in sympathy with Hitler’, some of the accusations I have listed above are obviously very much more justified than others. Thirdly, even the people who recklessly fling the word ‘Fascist’ in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come. (What is Fascism? 1944)

What brought this subject to mind was that this week the “Orwell Prize” is releasing entries from Orwell’s personal diary on a daily basis which should over the long term prove to be an interesting insight into one of histories most prodigious writers. I can only imagine that he would have made a hell of a blogger.

The Fragility of Life

I opened my last post by saying it had been a hectic couples of weeks here on the banks of the Cedar. To add to the misery we also had a medical crisis strike our new brother in law Steve.

It seems that Steve had been battling acid reflex and hernia for some time and it was decided that he would undergo laproscopic surgery to correct the problem. This is normally no big deal for most people but for Steve it turned into major surgery and a weeks stay in the hospital. A few days after being released Steve was rushed to the hospital with internal bleeding and underwent hours of emergency surgery and after being infused with 100 units of blood his survival was in doubt. After a few hours in ICU he was scanned again in hopes of finding the source of the bleeding and then it was back into surgery where the doctors eventually removed his stomach in hopes of saving his life. At one point the doctors told Lisa that they were now working outside of the medical books as they try to figure out how to close his wound and wean him from a ventilator. He is still not out of the woods and as they work to battle infections he will surely spend the next several months in the hospital. Our prayers are with Steve and Lisa.

If anyone should find themselves in a similar position and they want to keep friends and family appraised of the condition of a loved one there is a web service out there that operates somewhat like a blog that lets you post updates about a patients condition and allows friends the opportunity to send messages of support. The web site is called Caringbridge and has been an important connection between family and friends during this ordeal.

Views from the Garden

Top: Clamatis. Lower: Columbine

Prayers for Parkersburg

Our hearts and prayers go out to those in the town of Parkersburg that were affected by this week ends tornado.

Photos Here (Thanks Rick)

Decoration Day 2008

We walked among the crosses

Where our fallen soldiers lay.

And listened to the bugle

As TAPS began to play.

The Chaplin led a prayer

We stood with heads bowed low.

And I thought of fallen comrades

I had known so long ago.

They came from every city

Across this fertile land.

That we might live in freedom.

They lie here 'neath the sand.

I felt a little guilty

My sacrifice was small.

I only lost a little time

But these men lost their all.

Now the services are over.

For this Memorial Day.

To the names upon these crosses

I just want to say,

Thanks for what you've given

No one could ask for more.

May you rest with God in heaven

From now through evermore.

C.W. Johnson

Trapped like a rat

Yesterday I found myself coupled to the face of the back overhead garage door. “Coupled?” you ask. Yes, there is no auto opener on our back garage and once it is in open mode closing it demonstrates several of Newton’s laws of inertia and mass. It takes considerable force to transition the mass of the door from its resting position. To accomplish that, the general procedure is to grasp the ¾ inch gap between the first and second panel and forcefully pull in a downward motion. Once the door is in motion its weight and the force applied ensures a smooth decent to the closed position.

However, as anyone familiar with overhead door mechanics knows, the gap is a fleeting apparition as the panels make their trek to the full and upright position. With dexterity, a normal person can adjust hand position before that gap disappears encapsulating the tips of aforementioned fingers. As I realized that the critical gapage was fast encasing said fingertips the speed and weight of the door was at first surprising. “What the…” I said moments before the painful realization that I was trapped like a mouse in a trap.
As time and space seemed to slow like a scene out of “The Matirx” my mind, in a split second of lucidity, pondered a way to extricate myself from the situation. If anyone should find themselves in such a similar position I offer the following procedure. Step A: Yell “god damn” at the top of your lungs. This has two purposes. It alerts a loved one that you are in need of assistance in the event that Step B is unsuccessful and it also alerts the adrenal gland to supply a sufficient injection of hormone to yank free the set of digits of your dominate hand. Step B: With that parital victory you will momentarily regain your composure long enough to slow the motion of the descending door. Step C: With your one free hand and one foot (foot choice is optional here) you can reverse the direction of travel a sufficient distance to retrieve your now purple appendages. Step D. Install a frigging handle on the door before you smash your fingers.

This has been a public service announcement from the CR Salmon. “Enduring life’s pains, so you don’t have to.”

I'm Back.

*You ever notice that bloggers that don't post for a while always start off with that Terminator line?

.

*It is hard to believe that a month has passed since I last posted something here. It became evident when I struggled through the second round of exams that I had let my performance slip a tad and some adjustments were needed. I.e. there is a positive correlation between reading and test scores. So for my regular readers I know you are wondering “Whats up?”

.

*My application at the College of Education was rejected. Of course they don’t tell you why but I can’t help but believe that being a non-traditional student (code for old fart, (O.F.) wasnt a factor. Throughout the whole process I was met with the same question of “Are you a graduate student?” “No… undergrad I reply,” immediately followed by the raised eyebrow of skepticism and a look of what the hell are you doing here? So the path to a diploma required a change of direction and not having a big window to complete this dream (O.F. remember… could drop dead at any moment) I will pursue a poli-sci minor and worry about the teacher certification later.

Not being entirely familiar about the workings of the university system I had another minor setback that needed addressed. When I was accepted to the U. I inquired about the foreign language requirement and was told by admissions that because I was an OF that requirement would be waived. Woohoo cut the OF some slack. Come to find out the University admissions requirement was waved but the College of Liberal Arts would never think of waiving their graduation requirement no matter how friking OF you are. “College of Liberal Arts” the name should have been a tip off. I worked my way up the food chain seeking some sort of relief but as I pled my case to one dimwitted academic after another I was sure I was the convict in "The Shawshank Redemption" asking the warden to reopen his case. The last advisor stared at me dumbfounded and just couldn't comprehend the time restraints that an OF is working under or why I didn't need this aggravation. All involved were every bit "Obtuse" as the warden. So we now move on to plan C. or D if forget now. I refused to learn Spanish on philosophical grounds so I will spend the summer taking ASL back at my old Alma mater, Tall Corn College and Technical Institute then take two more semesters of it at the U.

.

*Enough about me…..

*We lost Aunt Toni to cancer on April 8Th. As anyone who has ever dealt with what she called “a terrible disease with treatments as terrible as the cancer itself” knows it is wrenching to watch someone as bright, funny, unselfish and caring as Tony struggle toward the end. She will truly be missed by us all.

*As the previous post noted Arwen turned five on Tuesday and is ready to graduate preschool and move on to kindergarten. It is hard not to be proud, as her mom always points out she is such a mini-me… For those of you that that are shaking your heads out of sympathy for her, cut that out! She has been blessed with her moms brains and signing talent and my Carsonesque sense of humor.

*Finals week is winding down, the honey do list is growing beyond any realistic possibility of completion, and plans have been laid to attend Oshkosh in July. So it’s time to roll out the camper, fill the mini fridge and let the summer begin.

Happy Birthday Arwen Grace!

The big 5.0! My how you have grown...

Love Dad

Happy Anniversary Baby

I want to take this opportunity to dedicate this song to my sweetheart on the occasion of our 6th Anniversary. OOOOO I Love YOU.

Back to School Week

*Sorry to say that Christmas break is over and Spring Semester started yesterday. I am looking forward to this term though because unlike last semester when I endured four history courses I have a little variety in this new schedule. One American History Pre 1800 and Educational Psych. Plus two Poli Sci courses, (Foreign Policy and Political Behavior) I hope I can keep my mouth shut in discussion and not be ostracized for my less than liberal views. That doesn't really happen does it?

*Caution, Crass Self-Congratulations Ahead!....

Last semester was the first at the big school after receiving an associates degree from Tall Corn College and Technical Institute. I was sure that I was drowning the first two months at Iowa, (isn't educational water boarding illegal?) Things gradually began to click and I ended the Semester with a 3.52 gpa and a spot on the deans list. Woohoo!

This Old Shack

Just before Christmas I was informed that I had won a thousand dollars in merchandise at a local home improvement outlet. Visions of new power tools danced in my head but of course a saner head prevailed and I found myself loading a grand worth of laminate flooring and all the fixins into the truck for our dining room and den.

I have to admit, everything I know about construction has been gleaned by a lifetime of Saturday mornings hanging out with Norm Abram. I have over the years accumulated enough equipment to tackle most any project and have done everything from finishing the basement in our Anchorage home to remoldeling the kitchen in the current Salmon Shack. These projects always have a way of growing beyond original expectations. "How bout fresh paint, how bout new trim, how bout a crown molding, how bout.....". So for the past week I have been doing my best to keep this little project on schedule and I have to say that thanks to Norm the room is looking great.

The Christmas Story

According to Luke:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."
So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Winter Fun in the Flatlands

The gods (or God for my monotheists friends) were evidently angry here in eastern Iowa this week. Last Sunday I had just finished writing a term paper for American History and was working on a 15 page paper on World War I aviation for my history colloquium when my six month old laptop had a stroke. At first horrified, I sprang into action to revive the dying patient, but to no avail. Stunned and amazed I then went through all five of the steps of grieving.
Monday I grabbed the bull by the horns and spent the day at the PC reconstructing the History paper that was due on Tuesday. That gave me three days to do the same with the WWI paper. No Sweat!!!!
But nooooo! An Iowa ice storm rolled through town and Tuesday morning the Salmon Shack went dark when the local electrical grid also stoked out. Being without electricity is normally no big deal. We have back up heat, I had plenty of beer in the house, and I made a tent in the den for my daughter to have a camping adventure. I once spent two years in an Alaska cabin with wood heat, no plumbing, and no TV so living pimitivley is not a problem, but by day two things began to get a little desperate. Fifty percent of my grade relied on this one paper! Oh the humanity!!!
On Wednesday the lady that lets me live with her called me down off the roof where I had stamped out "HELP US !" in the snow, and gave me a couple good face slaps. "Get a grip you idiot and take down that "Where's FEMA?" sign in the front yard!" she yelled.
I went out to my old Alma Mater, Tall Corn College and Technical Institute, and spent the afternoon in their computer lab to begin reconstruction process on the term paper.
By Wednesday night the lights were back on and tragedy was averted. The paper was turned in on time on Friday, the "Geeks" gave the laptop hard drive an upgrade and salvaged a semesters worth of work. But most importantly, a new snowfall covered up the "help us" sign on the roof.

Some catching up to do.

Busy Busy Busy.... I was able to get the last of the windows replaced before the weather turned frosty. The fire wood project turned into a family affair as most of the wood I was able to scrounge this summer was too long to fit the splitter. While I ran the saw to shorten them up the wife ( bless her heart) loaded logs into the splitter and our daughter ran the power handle. A good time was had by all.
Lucky Find....The woman that lets me live with her got it in her head that the next project on my list would be to remove the 1970's carpet in the bedrooms and install laminate flooring. Knowing the best way to get a job done around here is to do it herself she pulled back the carpet in one of the rooms and low and behold the bedrooms of this shack have hardwood floors. Except for the fact that the last carpet installer had a party with the hammer tacker in our daughters room, which required a couple hours on hands and knees pulling staples, the floors are in great shape. Another job well done.
Continuing Education....Made it through mid terms with flying colors and with the exception of one American History paper that earned an 83, I have aced the first half of the semester. The remainder of the term will be focused on two research papers and a couple book reviews. Piece of cake between now and finals.
A conspiracy of objectivity....I wrote a few weeks ago that the liberal indoctrination in college you hear so much about has been surprisingly absent here at the U, but since I wrote that I have decided that it not that it doesn't exist but instead it flows just below the surface and occasionally, subtly, bubbles to the top. "Is there any comparison between the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 and the Patriot Act" Our TA asks with a slight grin. When no one offered to bite on her obvious hook she tried to move on. Not being able to leave it lie I thrust my hand in the air in an Arnold Horshack moment and asked if she thought there was a parallel... Since she brought it up. "I can't answer that, that's it for today" she replied dejectedly. LOL
In the World Civ discussion we were to discuss the psychology of a historical figure. The first name suggested by the TA was George Bush with the same little grin of the last TA. Again no one would bite.
It's VJ Day you moron !!!!! In what has to be the latest in politically correct historical revisionism the Professor in my World Civ lecture said "World War II ended in two stages VE day Victory in Europe and VA day" VA I says what the hell is VA? Evidently reading my mind she then added "Victory in Asia" HUH??? Who the hell ever called it VA day? Even a Google search doesn't turn up a VA day although an equally insidious VP day shows up in Wikipedia (Victory in the Pacific). Lets try to keep a little historical accuracy in how the people of the times interpreted the events whenever the evidence is clear and leave the PC crap out of it.
She also went on to state that the Russians were the victors in Europe and the US was the victor in the Pacific. Although I would argue that is hardly accurate at least it is debatable.
Editorial morons.... I just want to thank the editorial decision makers at the Cedar River Rag for taking the opportunity to run an anti war, bush bashing polemic on Veterans Day! I have already reduced my subscription to week ends only and that's just a heartbeat away from severing the final tie to the newspaper bidness.

Just keeping the head above water.

It has been a busy few weeks here at the Salmon shack. Classes at the "U" began just about a month ago and I have been working in overdrive ever since. A quick update...
It took about a week to realize that we ain't at Tall Corn College anymore Toto. The workload the first four weeks was a little daunting. This may be somewhat Darwinian but I think they have a plan to kill off the weakest and I do have to say that class sizes were suddenly smaller this week.
In between cramming several hundred pages of material a week into this mushy head, attending lectures,and commuting down I-380 t0 Libsburg I have had to fit in the rest of this thing called life.
After two winters here at the Salmon shack we decided to replace the windows before the Iowa snow flies this year. That little project is about half done. Come to think of it, its progress has quickly reached the same completion level as the other six projects in the pipeline, but I don't think the woman that lets me live here will allow this one to slide.
One week end was spent making a couple minor repairs to the camper and getting it cleaned and winterized for its long winter nap. And lastly, four days were spent in Madison, Wisconsin for my sister in law's "I Do's".
Just a word about the wedding. The procession began with the minister, victim and his entourage entering the sanctuary followed of course by the brides crew. Next down the aisle was the flower girl who was adorable and performed her duties to perfection. ( OK it was my daughter so I can be a little doting.) Fast forward... Standing hand in hand before the minister the guests were expecting the wedding to precede when suddenly two screens dropped from the ceiling of the sanctuary and there Eric Idol in his role in "The Princess Bride" regaled the audience with "Marriage...." I think everyone was at first was a bit stunned, then the laughter began and all tensions ebbed from the event. Fantastic and Congratulation Steve and Lisa.
Mid terms are in a couple weeks and its all down hill from there. Then all I have to do is get the rest of the windows installed, the firewood cut, and ..........

Pepper Jack Update

As I mentioned previously, we are now the owners of a deaf Jack Russel Terrier. As you can see from the picture Pepper has settled in and made herself right at home. She is a lovable little pup, constantly under foot and has started to show some of the intelligence of the Jack Russel. We hung a bell on the back door and in a matter of days she was ringing it with regularity to go outside. I would say we are having a 90% success rate in the house breaking department. She is very tolerant of our daughter (unless chewing up every toy that is left at her level is some display of passive aggresive behavior) and she is submissive to our big dog. So far so good.