Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Summer Solstice

Disambiguation is Here

Longest day of the year eve…?

The sun is scheduled (as if we arranged it) to be at its northernmost transit in the sky at 05:45 Greenwich mean time on June 21. Here in south central Illinois, local time is 5 hours earlier than Greenwich time so the disambiguation occurs at 12:45 AM here in Illinois or 45 minutes after midnight. I am curious; was today the longest day or will tomorrow be the longest day?

I returned from Missoula, Montana this past Thursday.

Missoula Montana is at 3,200 feet elevation, and is flat as a pancake...not one hill in the town. However snow capped mountains surround it and you can be up on a mountain overlooking the city (population 83,000) within 20 minutes. It is an old, well laid out town that is bisected throughout with bike trails. It has a nice river walk and kayaking on the river is a favorite past time, as is all the outdoors stuff.
The downtown is clean and the architecture is, well, eclectic. The University of Monatana is located in Missoula. There are not nearly as many dogs as I saw in Edmonds, WA.

My host, Jennifer Keith of First Student, was an excellent host who loves to show off her town. She is also well traveled including many post Katrina trips to New Orleans.

Jennifer and her husnband, Dean, treated me and another traveler to an excellent steak dinner at the Lolo Creek Steakhouse on Lewis and Clark Rd in Lolo , Montana. The cooking was done on a large open pit, wood-burning grill. We were surrounded by stuffed wildlife including grizzlies (University of Montana mascot), badgers, elk, and moutain lions.

After the meal, Jennifer and Dean introduced me to geo-caching. They led me to the first hidden object ( which I found with the first clue under a metal sign for the steakhouse) , and then I was on my own. They were impressed about how quickly I figured out the clues for four sections of walking.

At home, the temperature at Lambert was 20 degrees higher than in Missoula. The house interior temp wa 87 due to an air conditioner being on the fritz. I did not sleep well that night. The following day, I got a tech out to diagnose the problem. Not a cheap fix; needs a new a/c unit.

Knowing this will take a while, I bought and installed a small a/c in the bedroom window. It was comfortable except for another passing storm that dumped a ½ inch of rain on an alresdy soggy back yard. We received 4 ½ inches of rain over the last week. Not adding the two inches the previous week. It has been a very wet Spring. Which, as I mentioned earlier, will end in abour four hours.

I mowed the lawns early, but it was still a chore being hotter by the minute. Can't use the riding mower since it would tear up mud.

That’s about it from Home Alone

Love to family and friends and you Dads, have a great day.
Papa

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Sure Didn't Look Like Kansas







Well, here we are, Home Alone again.

We felt so sad as the plane sped away from our middle child and her small family. Savannah made the trip back to Seattle with us. She had visited here for about three weeks. We will miss her

The week was full of things to do. The house the Millers live in is situated on a hillside with a grand view of Puget Sound. The air cleared enough at times that we could see some of the snow capped Olympic Mountains. We mad a trip to Hurricane Ridge on Mt. Olympus. Unfortunately, as Traci drove through clouds, the clouds were rising. When we topped the ridge, we got a glimpse of the snow-capped peaks, and then the clouds closed them off.

There were several snow fields remaining from the winter and as we tramped through them. We couldn’t resist having snow ball fights…in June! Lots of deer wandering around munching the new spring buds. Some came as close as 20 feet.

We should have gone up the ridge before we had lunch, but that too turned out good. We happened on a burger joint (with the help of Carmen, the English speaking GPS device) that was clean with great burgers and hotdogs. The grandma loved the hotdog. Said it was to die for.

All the day trips tend to be a little long. Several involved the use of the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. The ride is smooth and just a half hour long. As we were hurrying back to the car, a boat hitch left in the bumper of a pickup truck snagged me. I went down, taking Sophie with me. She was unhurt, but I took a large piece pf skin off the side of my hand. It was bloody and painful. I couldn’t believe how people can leave those things, unused, on the hitch.

We visited the Seattle Aquarium, a nice place along the waterfront.

After the visit, we took a two and a half hour tour of Puget Sound. The tour included locking through the locks separating the lake and the Sound. The lake is fresh water; the Sound is salt and is affected by the tides, thus the purpose of the locks.

An interesting feature along the Lake was the number of houses actually built and floating on the lake. We saw the house where Tom Hanks lived as the character in Sleepless in Seattle.

On Sunday, Jim, Shane and I went to a Seattle Mariners game. Nice stadium and Jim had gotten very good seats in the second deck.

The weather was good, so we spent an afternoon on the beach at low tide. The kids love to explore what the departing water leaves behind. We saw many jellyfish, starfish, sea anemones, and buried crabs. The kids love it and we also enjoyed the experience.

Another side Trip was touring a Navy destroyer, USS Turner Joy, which is on permanent display in Bremerton Washington. It is maintained in excellent condition and most areas of the ship are accessible to visitors.

The mothball fleet used to be there in Bremerton but all that is left are three decommissioned attack carriers, They have outlived their service time and will be eventually be disposed of by the wreckers and salvage people or, perhaps as was done with USS Oriskany, be sunk for artificial reefs and scuba touring.

This was a wonderful trip but too short.

I leave for Missoula, Montana tomorrow for some training. Unfortunately, my sister Kathy and some family got into St. Louis tonight. They will leave next Wednesday so I won’t get to visit with them.

Darn.

That’s all from Home Alone