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M and I got up at 4:30 AM on Sunday morning to get ready and
drive for about an hour to a rural high school about an hour
northwest of the city where a charity bike ride was happening.
After some iffy weather predictions all week, a cold front had
blown through overnight, so it was in the high 50s, but clear
and windy out. The event was well organized, and we unloaded our
bicycles, got checked in, got our free t-shirts and participant
numbers to pin on, and waited for the sun to come up. With
hundreds of participants, you could start whenever you were
ready, so we headed off at around 7:30. The route took us on
farm to market roads through an eclectic mix of lovely pastoral
landscapes, ostentatious country estates, and junked up mobile
homes. Well stocked rest stops were conveniently located in the
little towns every 10 to 15 miles. After about 40 miles, I began
having trouble with cramping thigh muscles and knee pain from an
old backpacking injury, but it was endurable, and we didn't have
to flag down the sag van that would occasionally pass by. We
finally crossed the finish line after 63 miles at around 2:00
PM. Both of us were very tired and sore, but felt good about
having made it the whole way. I drove the hour back to the
apartment, and M drove the 3 hours back to the house, where we
separately crashed until an early bedtime. After a couple of
days to recuperate, we're talking about doing this again
sometime. |
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M and I were in the city four weekends ago, so we were able to
attend the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony downtown in
Jones Hall. Any serious classical music fan will make an effort
to see this, since it takes some real effort to produce
properly, what with the large choir and opera-quality vocal
quartet required for the final movement. The Ninth is
particularly fitting when there is a reason to celebrate the
triumph of civilized man. (Two of the most famous live
performances have followed long periods of darkness - the first
Bayreuth Festival following World War II in 1951 at Richard Wagner's Festspielhaus, and at the Brandenburg Gate after the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989.) Sure enough, the place was completely
packed. Lots of fine clothes and fancy people were all around.
We weren't too shabby ourselves. The warm up piece was a
contemporary composition commemorating the fallen in the 9/11
attack five years ago. I'm afraid it was hopelessly outclassed
by the Beethoven which followed. It was magnificent, and the
standing ovation went on and on.
Yesterday, we had a very full day, starting with an early bike
ride, followed by a visit to the bike store to get some real
riding shorts for our planned 65 mile ride next weekend. Next we
drove downtown for a big arts festival, where there were some
really interesting artists, though we didn't buy anything. After
coming back by way of the apartment to get a tarp and a blanket,
we drove over to the Woodlands Pavilion for the annual old timers rock
festival put on by a local classic rock radio station. This
year, lawn seats were < $10, so there were a lot of people on the
lawn when we got there. The last two bands to perform, Kansas
and Heart, both sounded very good. The guy who plays violin for
Kansas is just as good live as he has always been in the studio. Ditto for
the Wilson sisters with Heart. Their voices have held up just
fine, and they belted out their old hits with feeling. They also
did covers of songs from Tom Petty (You Wreck Me), the Who (Love
Reign O'er Me) and Led Zeppelin (Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop)
that were awesome. A couple of guys walking near us after the
show were still talking about how their versions might even be
better than the originals. I have to agree - these girls can
rock out with the best of them. And definitely better than
Zeppelin ever was live. Our cheap tickets were a good
investment.
Hopefully the weather will be good next weekend, since we've
paid our money to do a charity bike ride northwest of the city.
Maybe it won't be too intimidating being passed by the young
folks on their high-dollar ultra-lightweight machines. Our
goal is to not finish last :) |
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 Our
week-long vacation will be over in just a few hours, but it was
nice while it lasted. The two oldest kids flew in a week ago
Saturday, and I picked them up at the airport in the early
evening for the three-hour drive home. We spent several days at
the lake, skiing, fishing, and riding in the boats and several
days just relaxing at the house, so the pace was a bit slower
than our last vacation. And a lot less expensive.
The past several summers have been unusually dry, so the water
levels in all the lakes in the area are low. M and I went on a
little picture-taking expedition in the flat-bottom through a
small channel in the swamp that is normally passable for small
boats, but we had to get out paddles and pole our way through
the shallow parts. Just as we made it through to deeper water,
the outboard motor developed a problem, so we had to pole
 back
the way we had come instead of finishing the loop I like to
take. Alas, no pictures of birds as I had hoped. We did find a
nifty spider back at the lake house though, and son threw it a
grasshopper as it stood waiting like a statue on its web. In
just a few seconds, the spider wrapped it up and injected it to
kill it. Next day, that food was gone and the spider was waiting
for another meal, so we obliged again. And of course there were
more common creatures like squirrels and turtles to watch. Son
spent some time toying with a snake that had slithered into a
hollow under a cypress tree root. Although it was tempted by the
worm on a fish hook in front of its face, it managed to avoid
getting hooked but got the worm anyway. This time the snake won.
I bought an A/D converter for making copies of our VHS-C
videotapes from 1988-1994 to DVDs. That should keep me busy for
a little while. I digitized seven 20-minute tapes this afternoon
while it was raining (no drought in the big H). Home videos are
mostly boring, especially to everyone who isn't in them, but
when they're of your children, they are very special and worth
watching now and then. I had forgot that youngest daughter had
trouble with "r"s when she was little and talked like Elmer Fudd
on Bugs Bunny. She speaks perfectly now. And we had enough snow
in 1988 to ride a sled down the hill behind the house, over and
over.
The camcorder conked out after six years of limited use, so
that's when the tapes end. I've noticed that I could buy a much
better digital camcorder now for about half what the old analog
one cost. But I'll probably wait for grandkids. The kids tell me
it could be a while. |
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Now that all the credit card and bank statements have come in, I
was curious to see how a world traveler could get the best deal
on exchanging money from one currency to another. On our recent
little sojourn, we used three different methods. Of course you
can get on the internet and find the current "exchange rate" for
any pair of currencies anytime, and for most every one (except
China) it changes continuously just like the stock market.
The most obvious way to exchange money is to take cold hard cash
in dollars and find a place in the other country that will
exchange these for Euros, or Kunas (Croatia), or Yen, or whatever. In European
countries, particularly in touristy areas, there are little
money changing boutiques all over the place. They are as
ubiquitous there as nail salons are in strip malls in the U.S.
(On the other hand, there aren't any nail salons on European
streets - hmmm?) The money changers all have a display with two
columns of red LED numbers that can change as the rates
fluctuate. One column is for how many units of a foreign
currency they require to purchase one unit of the local
currency. The other column is how much of the foreign
currency they will give you back in exchange for one unit of the
local currency. On our recent travels, it was common to
pay $1.39 for one euro, but if you immediately wanted to sell
that euro back to get dollars, you would only get $1.18.
The difference is how they make their "commission". It's a
sweet deal for them; they take 15% right off the top. We used
this method in several different places, since it was very
convenient.
I had read that using an ATM was a good way to get a better
exchange rate, in spite of having to pay the transaction fee, so
we did this in Messina and Florence. It turns out that the
conversion was better ($1.3289 = one euro), but the ATM fee was
$3 per transaction. So to make the ATM method pay off, you
need to do the maximum allowed transaction, usually 200 or 300
euros.
And then there is what ought to be the simplest method, which is
just using your credit card to buy things, like the TV
advertisements encourage you to do. The conversion for this
method was even better; $1.28 = one euro. But then they add a 3%
up charge, so it is more like $1.32 per euro. This still looked
like the best deal, until the credit card statement came. It
turns out that they add a finance charge from the day you made
the foreign purchase at whatever their outrageous interest rate
is. This blows the whole savings away and then some!
Conclusion: however you exchange money, you lose!
Bon voyage! |
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We landed in Houston around 22:30 Friday, after almost 24 hours
of traveling homeward. The latest extreme security precautions
had just been implemented worldwide, so we endured the
inevitable delays in tired, but good spirits along with our
fellow travelers. In Rome, we were told that we could have
carry-on baggage after all, so long as there were no liquids in
it. We must have been requested to show our passports at least a
dozen times at different points. In Paris, where we
changed planes, every passenger was individually wanded and
frisked, and our carry-ons were hand searched as we entered the
gangway to board a bus, which then took us to our plane parked
on the apron across from the terminal. The boarding operation
took over two hours. My mom has had both knees replaced with
artificial joints, so she had to be hand wanded at every metal
detector, and there are lots of those. After awhile, it all just
became part of the routine, and everyone kept their passport in
their hand, ready to open for anyone wanting to have a look. The
jet lag coming home from Europe sees to always be worse than it
is when traveling in the other direction. I'm still a little
muddle-headed today, but tomorrow I should be ready for my
return to work.
The trip was just grand. I think it is safe to say that it
"exceeded expectations" for all of us. A very brief recap:
Sunday, July 30 - We arrived in Fiumicino (near Rome) around
13:00 after leaving Houston on Saturday at 16:00, and changing
planes in Paris. Air France had nice planes and good food. Each
seat had its own little entertainment monitor on the seatback in
front, with selections of movies, games, tracking maps and data
for the flight, etc. The controller for the games was a Nintendo
style remote that conveniently detached from the seat arm. After
landing, we caught a shuttle bus to Civitavecchia, the seaport
that serves Rome about 50 km up the Italian coast. Everything
went very smoothly, and we were settled in on the cruise ship
with our luggage in our rooms around dinnertime. While we slept,
our floating hotel and entertainment complex sailed
(figuratively) for Naples.
Monday, July 31 - We booked what would be our only guided tours
of the trip to see the Herculaneum ruins in the morning, and
Pompeii in the afternoon.
The tours, which include bus transport
and radio headsets and a live guide were a bit pricey, but it
seemed like the best way to go. Each time, the bus stopped at a
cameo jewelry factory before arriving at the ruins so we could
have a potty break and contribute some Euros to the local
economy. Hand carved cameos are a classic regional art/craft
form.
The morning guide was pretty good, but on the afternoon visit to Pompeii, the constant yapping of
the guide while we were all standing somewhere in the shade
wasting precious time became so annoying, we finally went off on
our own.
The
guide was very determined that we all absorb her knowledge of
the history
of the place, but we already know the history.
 We
came to explore! After the tours, we boarded the ship and were
enjoying a casual dinner as the ship sailed out of Naples Bay, with the
graceful slopes of Mount Vesuvius dominating the skyline - easily one of
the most beautiful and recognizable profiles in the world.
Tuesday, August 1 - Our first day at sea, sailing around the toe
of the boot of Italy, through the Straits of Messina, and into
the Adriatic sea, which separates Italy from the Balkan
countries that once made up Yugoslavia. Lots of laying about in
the sun for us, with live music, food and drink always
available, while those who preferred shade found indoor
activities to their liking.
 Wednesday, August 2 -
We docked at Dubrovnik, Croatia. A shuttle bus transported us
from the ship to the ancient walled city for a nominal charge,
and we spent the day walking along the streets paved with marble
and all the way around the 1.25 miles of 30 ft high ramparts.
None of us had any idea that it would be such a beautiful and
amazing place. This being our only stop outside the European
Union, we had to change dollars into Kunas to buy souvenirs and
have lunch at one of the ubiquitous sidewalk cafes.
 Thursday,
August 3 - We arrived at the entrance to Venice in the early
afternoon. The captain slowed the engines to a crawl, and we
meandered into the city as the sound system on the big sun deck
blasted Pavarotti singing Italian opera standards. In a voyage
of superlatives, this was truly a lump-in-the-throat experience.
The people onshore and in the water-taxis returned our waves as
virtually everyone on the ship stood at the starboard rail to
take in the magnificent spectacle.
 Venice
is a walking and boating town, so we used the main local public
transportation, the vaporetta (water buses), to get around. We
had our first rain of the trip while looking around in St.
Mark's Square, but there was plenty of cover under the arcade
that encircles the square, with hundreds of shops to look for
souvenirs. We walked through the narrow alleyways, stopping for
dinner in a small restaurant off the beaten path, where we had
pasta and wine, of course. The ship stayed in port overnight,
and many passengers partook of the Venice nightlife, but we
returned to the ship at sundown.
 Friday
August 4 - We made our way to Piazza San Marco once again by
vaporetta, and we got in line to go inside the cathedral. The
entry rules forbade shorts and tank tops, and we were prepared
for that, but
M was carrying a backpack, and they were on the list as well, so
three of us went in to marvel at the inside, which was as ornate
as the outside. When we exited, we took the backpack and snuck M
back in the exit to do the tour in reverse. Next up was a visit
to an outlet for glass made on the Venetian island of Murano we
had spotted the day before.
A glass blower was in residence to
demonstrate the art to the tourists, and we watched him make a
vase and a horse figurine. He was amazingly fast, as master
artisans always are. As we walked around the showrooms, I knew I had
found M's birthday present, one day early. With many glass
colors and designs to choose from, we ended up with a red
baroque style decanter and set of glasses with 24k gold decorations
on a mirrored glass tray. My guidebook had warned that real
Venetian glass is outrageously priced, and they were correct.
But it will become an heirloom for us to enjoy and the kids to
fight over when we're gone. Sometimes, when I spend a lot of
money, I feel a little sick, but not on this day - real art is
worth the price. They will be shipping the set to us within a
couple of months. With
financial restraint now completely abandoned, we made our way
out to the main canal again and engaged a gondolier for a tour
of the city. He was a pleasant fellow, and between our
rudimentary Italian and his rudimentary English, we communicated
surprisingly well.
 He didn't sing much, but he did teach us
about the more famous buildings we passed. After the ride, we
strolled a bit, then rested at a sidewalk cafe with a cappuccino
on the main promenade, before returning to the ship to set sail
at 5 PM. As the ship made its way once more through the city on
its way to the sea, we, along with most of the passengers,
donned Carnival masks we had purchased in Venice for a big deck party.
Saturday, August 5 - Our second full day at sea was spent much
like the previous, with lots of time in the sun.
 Sunday,
August 6 - We arrived in Messina, Sicily at 7AM. Having been
less than enthused with the group tour to Pompeii a few days
before, we opted to just wing it and go ashore to see what there
was to do on our own. Just outside the port gate, a local man
came up to me to offer to drive us from Messina to Taormina and
back for a set price, with "panoramas" included for free. At first, we said no,
but he persisted. So, for €120, we hired him and his car
for the day. In a mixture of Italian and a little English he
explained that he had 8 children and 5 grandchildren; thus he
needed the extra income. How could we refuse such an offer?
 So
the four of us piled into his little red fiat, and away we went.
When he got on the autostrada, the little car was able to do up
to 85 mph as we went over bridges and through tunnels. Messina
was mostly quiet, this being a Sunday, but the old seaside town
of Taormina, perched up on the cliffs, was open for business.
The little town dates back to the height of Greek power, so it
features narrow stone paved pedestrian streets and alleyways
like the other old towns. Judging from the languages used,
people from all over Europe seem to want to come here. Our
erstwhile guide dropped us off at the archway entrance to the
old town, and we agreed to meet him back at the same
 spot at undici quindici (11:15). After strolling about for a couple of
hours, we met our driver for the trip back to Messina, just as
agreed. We
paid our driver, found a cafe on the main piazza, and had a
local beer, then set off walking around Messina. It was a nicer
town than the cruise director had led us to believe, but he was
trying to sell motor coach tours. It would have been nice to go
see Mount Etna, but alas, it was too far away. When the ship
sailed out of the
 straits, the captain took us very close to the
volcano island of Stromboli, and once more, all the passengers
got up on deck to see if the volcano would give us a show. Just
as we were right beside the volcano, it suddenly shot up a red
spray, and the ship erupted in cheers and applause. The loud
rumbling sound reached us after just a second or so. What a way
to cap off our day!
Monday, August 7 - Our third and final full day at sea. More
relaxing in the sun.
 Tuesday,
August 8 - We were prepared for our day in Barcelona, since a
coworker who had spent some time here prepared a one-page guide
and map for
me - "Barcelona in 12 hours". The taxis were lined up waiting
when we got off the ship, and we asked a driver to take us to
the Temple de la Sagrada Familia. We arrived before opening
time, which allowed us to walk around the outside before the
throngs of tourists began to arrive by the busload. Like the
great cathedrals of old, this best known work of the Spanish
architect Antoni Gaudi has been under construction for over 100
years - since the
1890s. Although
it retains
 some of the basic forms of the traditional gothic
cathedral, it is stylistically all Gaudi - a work of artistic
genius. We finally were allowed in, and though the interior is
not far along, it is worth seeing. As a bonus, the basement is a museum
of Gaudi's concepts and models. When we left the cathedral (it
is not actually a church sanctioned building, but it is clearly
a spiritual place), we caught a taxi to Parc Güell,
another creation of Gaudi.
 This
immense park was the estate of a rich patron of the architect,
and he allowed Gaudi to build a house here, which is now a
museum of his life and design interests. Another brief taxi ride
took us to the Placa del Catalunya, a large traditional European
plaza, complete with fountains and pigeons. From here we began
our walk down the
 Las Ramblas, a broad, tree-lined pedestrian
mall bordered by shops and cafes of all sorts, which continues all the way
to the statue of Christopher Columbus at the harbor. Along the
way, mimes of every description are doing their best to amaze
passersby in exchange for a few coins in their cup. Some stand
like statues, and some are available as posing partners for
picture takers. Somewhere along the way, we found a small eatery
that featured fresh baguette sandwiches and a selection of
bottled or canned drinks - not as romantic as a sidewalk cafe,
but the price was right, so we stopped for lunch. One more taxi
ride from the Columbus monument took us back to the ship,
leaving so many other parts of the city and surrounding areas to
explore another time.
 Wednesday,
August 9 - The ship anchored out in the harbor of Cannes, as
they have no deepwater facilities, and we all had to wait our
turn to board tenders which carried us to land. The South of
France, the French Riviera, the Côte
d' Azur, or whatever you prefer to call it, was teeming with
vacationers, some sunning on the long wide beach which rings the
harbor, some shopping in the backstreets, and some
window-shopping in the designer boutiques which front the
Boulevard de la Croisette. The five star hotels form a
continuous backdrop. The only things we bought were some fresh
French bread (€.80 each) from a baked goods
market and canned drinks from a beachside food stand for lunch.
 We
walked for a long way, resting now and then on chairs or benches
in the frequent little parks and green spaces. We had been
cautioned that topless and nude sunbathers of all ages and
shapes would be on the beaches, and so they were, but there
were other interesting things as well, like some amazing, huge
sand carvings. As you might expect in such an area, there were
some very exotic cars and fancy yachts for the jet setters that
frequent the place.
 Thursday,
August 10 - Livorno was the only port that truly had little to
see within walking distance. It is a working class town, hosting
a large NATO base full of young solders (and all that comes with
that), but we struck a deal with a taxi driver to spend the
entire day driving us to Pisa and Florence, waiting while we
toured each place on foot, for a fixed price of €320. This would
be our most expensive excursion, but it was half the price of
taking the group tour by bus to cover the same territory. We
arrived in Pisa before the tour buses, so we walked around
without having to fight the throngs that would show up later.
When we had seen everything and bought a few souvenirs from the
ever-present street vendors nearby, we got back in our private
taxi to continue on to Florence.
 Our
driver, who had no trouble navigating the backstreets in Pisa,
became lost and confused in Florence, so we drove in circles
through a sea of newer apartment buildings for what seemed like
forever. Nervous but undeterred, the driver stopped several
times to lean out the window and ask directions of a local, and
we finally crossed the Arno River and drove through an archway
into the Piazza della Repubblica.
 It
didn't take long to figure out that there was way too much to
see in a few hours, so I bought a map and tour guide, and we
started walking. Florence is where the Renaissance flowered
after a thousand years of stagnation in Europe, in large part
due to the influence of the dominant Medici family, which
nurtured arts and architecture, and tempered the influence of
the conservative church Inquisitors who were determined to
prevent any progress in the rest of the world. Where many
historical cities have a handful of noteworthy buildings to see,
this city overflows with intricately carved massive wooden
doors, palaces, churches, statues, and monuments.
 We
had a pizza and beer lunch at a sidewalk cafe, which included
much needed access to their restroom. We soon made our way to
the cathedral, an enormous and intricately decorated building.
Entry to the cathedral took only a few minutes wait in line, and
the rules were more relaxed than in Venice. Inside, it looked
even more immense than outside, and there was much more
uninterrupted open space inside than most gothic cathedrals.
Last stop was a copy of Michelangelo's statue of David in the
Piazza della Signoria - the original is in a museum that was not
within easy walking distance. Afterward, we met our driver in
the Piazza della Reppublica where we left him and began the long
drive back to the port.
Friday August 11 - Our day began at 5:00
AM, as all the passengers had to be off the ship and headed to
Fiumicino by 8:30 AM. Our long journey home had just begun. Even
the anticipated security delays couldn't dampen our good spirits
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On my weekly trip to Sam's a few weeks back, I was looking in
the book section when I saw a "language immersion" course for
Italian. Eight CDs for only $10, so I picked it up. M and I have
been listening and speaking along with the lessons on our trips
back and forth between the house and the apartment each week, in
preparation for our upcoming trip to Italy and neighboring
countries. I may be able to understand a few common phrases, I
can count (useful for haggling on price for something), but I'll
probably have to say "Non parlo Italiano" if asked. Even if our
grammar is awful, maybe the natives will appreciate the attempt
to speak their language.
We went to see the
Body Worlds 3 exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science on
one of our city weekends. The "plastination" techniques for
preserving animal tissues allow all parts of the body to be seen
as they are when living, either all together, as body "systems",
or as individual organs. Most people who have seen it have been
similarly impressed. Well worth seeing if the exhibit comes to a
city near you. We followed the museum visit with a free concert
by the Houston Symphony in the outdoor theater in Hermann Park.
We had a nice little cookout at the lake on the Sunday before
July 4th with several of M's work friends and my parents.
It was a very lovely day, with all the traditional favorites,
burgers, beer, watermelon, and a place to jump in the water to
cool off. We were stopped by the game warden, as sometimes
happens, while taking part of the gang on a boat ride. We had
everything we were supposed to, except the required throw
cushion flotation device had been left in the other boat. But M
managed to distract them by standing up and leaning over to show
them the registration, and their attention was successfully
diverted. At least she claimed credit for this tactical
maneuver. Anyhow, they let us be on our way with no further
mention.
On Monday, the 3rd, M and I took the annual ride 20 miles up the
Big Cypress bayou on the jet ski to have lunch at Auntie
Skinners. Everything in these parts is pretty much frozen in
time. Which is good as it turns out.
I had to drive back to the city on the 4th, and there was a
street festival in the square next to my apartment complex. I
walked over before dark, just in time to catch the fireworks
show. It wouldn't be right to miss seeing fireworks on the 4th.
M was down this past weekend, so we had a full Saturday, with an
early bike ride, cooling off in the pool, lunch, shopping, more
cooling off in the pool and meeting some apartment neighbors for
the first time. Houston is such a diverse place; sitting on one
side of us there in the pool was a shy programmer from Taiwan,
and on the other was a young mother and daughter from some
Eastern European country - perhaps Russia or Ukraine (I'll ask
eventually). There was a lot of beer being consumed, so
things were lively. A thunderstorm blew up, so we
retreated to the apartment and got spiffed up to go out to eat
before driving downtown to the Hobby Center to see the traveling
Broadway musical "The Lion King." I'm not usually a big fan of
musicals, but it was very nicely done. Very late to bed for us.
Since we do so much bike riding, I've been investigating an
organized ride that occurs every April, the Houston-Austin BP MS
150. It is actually a 180 mile ride over two days, with an
overnight at LaGrange, raising millions of dollars for helping
people with MS. This is the largest group ride in the country
according to the website. There are smaller warm-up rides in the
area throughout the year, so we'll be looking into doing a
couple of those in the fall and winter.
I just bought plane tickets to fly the two California kids in
for the week of labor day. They can both take the time off, and
we don't get to see them often enough. And rather than the two
of us fly out there, we can have the whole family together for
some fun and relax time.
My project to digitize all of our archives of negatives and
color slides is finally complete. Over 10,000 images chronicle
our family history from my childhood to the present. I put the
Nikon scanner up for sale on e-bay and will be shipping it out
to the new owner, who lives in northern California, on Monday.
My net cost to do all that work was only $150, plus many, many
hours of evenings at the computer, when nothing good was on the
tube anyway. I'll have to find another project now...
Just four more days of work and we're off to the sunny
Mediterranean for two weeks of cruising.
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I picked up son at the airport when he came home for the first
time in a year and a half the week before Memorial Day.
He was only here for a few days, stopping in Austin on his way
back to California to help youngest daughter move to a new
apartment.
 I had a nine-day stretch off from work the week of Memorial day,
and only had to use up three vacation days to do it. Most of the
time was spent at the lake building a section of deck between
the boathouse and the wall to anchor the floating dock. M
was able to help on the weekends, but we did take a few more
breaks to relax on those days. The lounge chair in the
picture is in the shade most of the day - a nice spot to sit and
read, waving at the people in the boats as they go by. Now
we've covered the waterfront with much-needed new construction.
Our upstream neighbors have replaced all of their decking as
well, and since their house is higher up the hill and they're
not getting any younger, they built an elevator to get down to the water,
and perhaps more importantly, back up the hill afterward. You can tell when a stranger comes by in a
boat since they instinctively point and stare. It's really a
pretty nifty thing to see.
 We
spent last weekend in and around the city. On Saturday, we
headed for the beach pretty early, planning to leave before the
sun got too intense. But it was just so pleasant, we didn't
leave until mid afternoon. I spent most of the time under the
umbrella, but my white skin turned a nice shade of red anyway.
Maybe the sunscreen washed off in the water.
The seagulls made good subjects for trying out different
shooting modes on my new camera. The umbrella's secondary
purpose is protection from flying bird droppings. With a 2 GB
memory chip, I can take 580 pictures before it gets full, and
the battery is supposed to be good for 2500 pictures, so I
should be set for any vacation in the future.
After we got back to the apartment and cleaned up, we did some
shopping and cooked a nice steak for dinner. On Sunday morning,
we took our usual 15 mile ride on the trails through the woods.
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For the past couple of months, I've been trying to accomplish
something that should be really easy, but only just this evening
have I finally felt any hope of success. The task was to get new
cell phones while keeping our family plan but reducing the
number of users from three to two (youngest daughter is on her
own new plan in her home area code).
We started gathering information by stopping by a store for our
carrier, where we were told we could only get discounted prices
if we were new customers. Never mind that we've been paying them
every month for mostly unused minutes. Undeterred, I found their
web site and established a username in order to make changes
there, where the phone prices were much better, and there would
be no store overhead or hassle. Wrong. The website told me that
because our plan was "old" (old is a relative term in this
business - a year is a loooong time), I would have to call
customer service. And so I did. After about 10 menu steps
and 30 minutes of waiting, I reached a human - in fact a very
nice woman in California somewhere, who fixed me up with
everything as we talked, a process which took about an hour.
Two new phones, at no cost, and with no shipping charges, and
our plan set for two lines, with 450 anytime rollover minutes
(more than we'll ever use in a month). I told M that we were all
set.
Two weeks pass, and we have received no phones. I called
customer service again, wading through the 10 menus and the 30
minute wait, to see if we should expect delivery soon. It
seems the previous person had been successful in modifying our
plan, but a "hold" had been placed on the phone order. "And what
does this mean to me," said I? The voice said that the new
equipment order with all the freebies would have required
manager approval, and none would be forthcoming. We could,
however, pay a hefty price per phone and several additional
charges, and they would put in an order, or we could try the
website again, which should now work for us.
Back to the website. I can select a phone which is free after
rebates and get it into my "shopping cart", but there is no exit
to pay or check out when I go to view my cart, even though the
phone is in the cart. Most peculiar.
Back on the phone to customer service. Two times through the 10
step menu, 30 minutes on hold, etc. and the guy on their end
can't figure out how to get it to work in 45 minutes. He says
our plan, which has just been in service for less than a month,
is already out of date, and in order to get new phones, we'll
have to quit this plan and sign up for a new one with 700
minutes for an extra $20 a month. He was nice about it in a
strange sort of way, which helped me resist the urge to ask him
if anyone in that company had a clue about anything. I finally
told him I needed to get back to working and would figure out
what to do next.
After work, I drove to the cell phone company store just across
the way from the apartment (a different store from the
first one) to see if they had any ideas. Alas, they would
have to charge me their prices for phones, which were in the $50
to $75 range, since they weren't allowed to match the web
prices. I told the store clerk that I really didn't want to do
that. He paused for a second, then pulled out a slip of
paper and wrote something on it. "Call this number, and
they'll fix you up," he said. "You don't understand," I
protested, "I've been on the phone to customer service three
times already." "Ah, but this isn't customer service -
this is a direct number to where all they do is upgrades." I
left with the slip of paper with the magic number.
I was more than a little skeptical, but I called when I got
home. I almost fainted when a human answered. I began explaining
my situation, wondering if the guy at the store had just been
trying to get rid of me, but lo and behold, it appeared I had in
fact reached the fabled land of cell phone fulfillment. A very
pleasant and unhurried man, much like the first woman I had
spoken with, assured me that he could help me and would match
the web prices for the phones of my choice. As we worked on
specifics, I asked several times if there was a catch, or some
hidden fees, but he assured me that the new phones would be sent
out via FedEx, and should arrive in two days. No hidden
charges. Our monthly plan would stay the same. And I
should have a great day. I'll know if I had a great day by the
end of the week.
Maybe there is a tooth fairy. |
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A two month gap since my last post - time to catch up.
My balcony garden has been producing enough tomatoes that I can
eat what I want and even give a few away to work friends. BLT
sandwiches are my favorite lunch right now. I solved the problem
of plants drying out on 3-day weekends when I'm away by putting
big tubs under each planter. since it takes a gallon of
water per plant per day, I fill the tub with the appropriate
amount, and it soaks up as needed. One end of the balcony
looks like a jungle.
Youngest daughter and M drove in from different directions
Friday evening so we could all go to a college graduation
celebration for one of daughter's long time friends at a beach
house out on the island on Saturday, provided by his parents. It
was a beautiful day, and in between eating, we had two long
group walks along the surf. Lots of other people were out
enjoying the day just like us, sunning, swimming, sailing, or
kite surfing. M and I left for the apartment around 8 PM, and
when we got here, I slept like a rock. This morning, we went out
bike riding for a couple of hours as usual.
We've made all the reservations and paid the money for what
should be a great summer vacation. M and I will be going, along
with my parents, on a 12-day Mediterranean cruise for the first
two weeks of August. We'll all fly from Houston to Paris, then
on to Rome to board the ship. The ports of call include Naples
(where we used to live), Venice, Dubrovnik, Messina, Barcelona,
Cannes, and Livorno/Florence. With all the kids out of college,
we're a little better positioned to do nice vacations. Besides,
M and I didn't do anything special to celebrate our 25th
anniversary since I had been out of work for nine months and money was
tight. My parents didn't do anything big for their 50th a
few years back, so this should make up for it on both counts.
I've even ordered a new digital camera so we can record our
adventure for posterity. |
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Last Saturday, M and I went to see the
Cirque du Soleil troupe that was in town doing a show called
"Delirium" at the Toyota Center, the big basketball / hockey
arena downtown. I've been wanting to see one of their shows for
awhile, but we missed them the last time they came through, with
a different show under a tent. There have been some features on
television about the creators of these shows, and it is a pretty
amazing story about how a guy from Canada transformed the idea
of the circus into a showcase for all sorts of performers,
choreographed with modern dance, music, and very elaborate sets
and costumes. They keep rolling out completely new shows that
travel all over the world, so audiences keep coming back. There
are several permanent shows in some of the big Las Vegas
casinos, all different. The tickets were not cheap, and I got a
parking ticket (my fault for misreading the sign). Since it was
pretty abstract, and all the music was created for the shows,
some people in the audience were probably wondering what they
had got themselves into, but I liked the show. Maybe we can
catch one of the Las Vegas shows sometime - an excuse to take a
little vacation.
I volunteered to work with a crew from my company on a Habitat
for Humanity house in a nearby town all day tomorrow, though it
is threatening rain. We're supposed to put up roof trusses,
decking, and tarpaper. I tend to be a bit cynical about
charities sometimes, but Habitat is the real deal. I really like
their policy of making the future owner of the house work
alongside the volunteers - something they call sweat equity. It
is my favorite kind of charity - helping those who are willing
to put out some effort to help themselves.
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After three weekends of cold, rainy "wintry" weather, spring is
here in the city. The berry vines, tomatoes, and azaleas are
blooming, and the trees are leafing out. I put two more tomato
plants out in pots on the balcony, just in case the ones from
last year die of old age. (Hey, you never know!)
Those weekends with no bike riding exercise made me gain a few
pounds, so we made up for it this weekend. I've been noticing
that my blood pressure is sometimes a little high when I donate
blood or get it checked for some other reason. (The dentist even
checked it a few weeks ago - I guess he didn't want me dying on
him in the chair as he was drilling.) So, I found a new doctor,
and she is having me try a low dose beta blocker. Getting older
is a real nuisance, but the alternative isn't so good. I quit my
last doctor because she had a TV with continuous drug
commercials blaring in her waiting room, and it was just too
irritating. Both times I waited for an appointment there, pill
pushers would come in with their suitcases of samples to give
her to try out on her unsuspecting patients. What a
racket...
I've only seen three of the movies nominated for Academy Awards
tonight.
I went to see Brokeback Mountain to find out what the fuss was
about, and although I can imagine that a scene or two would
cause a bad reaction among any homophobes in the audience, I
liked the movie. The plight of the cowboys in love is very
nicely woven throughout the script, in such a way that only the
most intransigent ideologue could fail to feel compassion for
both the men and their wives. And of course the larger theme of
the tragedy of forbidden love under any circumstance is
timeless.
I went to see Transamerica back on one of those rainy weekends
in February at the only theater that was showing it here in the
city, the Angelika downtown in the theater district where artsy
stuff is hip. Films that deal with this subject often suffer
from too much cliché, and too low a budget. But I think Boys
Don't Cry validated the genre after Hillary Swank won an Oscar
for her role in it. Landing Felicity Huffman to play the lead in
Transamerica gave it a big boost, but I was actually surprised
at how much I enjoyed the movie. She played her role with class,
capturing the poignancy and heart that I've seen in many of my
friends in similar circumstances. And, as a bonus, there are a
number of scenes that are laugh-out-load funny. Five theaters
here are showing it now. I recommend it.
And the last film, which I saw several months ago, is Crash.
The action keeps jumping around to different people, which is a
bit confusing for awhile, but if you stay with it, everything
ties together to make a point about the bigotry that we all have
within us, regardless of race, status, etc. I recommend this one
to anyone who hasn't seen it as well. It's out on video.
We'll see how the awards go this evening. |
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This winter weather is getting old, even if it only arrived a
week ago in these parts. I mean, two cold weekends in a row!
(Spoiled, I am.) I've mostly huddled inside, alternately at the
computer or watching snatches of the olympic games on the tube.
This time around, the games have seemed a bit dull, though I'm
not quite sure why. Perhaps it is the failure of some of the
media-anointed "stars" to live up the hype, or it may be that
knowing the outcome in advance, because of the broadcast delay,
removes the excitement. I suppose one could avoid seeing the
outcomes in advance, but you would pretty much have to avoid the
internet, newspapers, and any television news. I'm not going to
do that, and I doubt many others would.
There have been some highlights for me though, and oddly, they
aren't really about medal counts.
I had long ago started yawning at the sports commentators'
yapping about the "bad boy" image of US alpine skier Bode
Miller, and it doesn't make a lot of difference to me if he wins
a medal. When you watch the whole gang of skiers, the best in
the world, schuss down the mountain in succession, with times
that are less than a second apart, it feels a little ho-hum,
even for those of us who have experienced snow skiing firsthand,
and know how amazingly talented they are. But in Bode's
traditional go-for-broke approach to the Super-G, he smacked a
gate with his face, which would have pretty much wiped out
anyone else. He ended up with one ski turned backward, but
through sheer force of will and determination, he kept moving at
60 mph or so until he could get the other ski turned around.
This may be the most amazing skiing recovery I've ever seen. It
was much more impressive than someone winning a medal by 0.15
seconds.
The snowboarders have been refreshing, as much because they come
across as just kids having fun, some grooving to their i-pods
during competition in contrast to the athletes who dominate the
other sports, but only after many years of near masochistic
training regimens. One who missed a gold medal by showboating a
bit on the last jump seemed to pretty much take it in stride; I
mean if you aren't having fun, why do it?
And then there was the unusual appearance of an American whose
skin color didn't blend in with the ice and snow, snatching a
gold medal in speed skating. If you've ever been to a ski
resort, you can't help but notice that people of color are very
few and far between, but I wondered what he must have felt like
to be identified in the press as "a black," like this
overshadowed everything else about him. I remember back when
Tiger Woods burst onto the golf scene and became a phenomenon,
and there was a similar tendency, to use his skin color as a
noun, like this was the most important thing about him. In
Woods' case, it didn't seem to matter that he was of mixed
ethnicity, with a Thai mother; to the media, he was "a black."
Sports reporters must be taught to focus on any uniqueness in
order to get attention, but I keep thinking that some day,
they'll take a hint from Martin Luther King and identify an
athlete not by the color of his/her skin, but by the talent they
put on display.
It's still cold out this morning, so I think I'll curl up and
see if I can find some curling to watch...
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 The tomato plants I set out in pots on the balcony last April
didn't bear much fruit in July. By the time the plants started
blooming, the night time temperature was too warm, consistently
above 70F. For some reason, I kept watering the plants, even
though they wilted badly every time I would be away for several
days in a row. I almost pulled them up a couple of times,
thinking they must surely be dead.
The plants survived into the fall, and I thought I might coax
them into bearing a fall crop. I pruned a lot of the old growth,
and there was a little new growth and a few blooms. In
December I harvested two moderately sized tomatoes. Then
in January, I fertilized the plants and did a little more
pruning, and they fairly exploded with new growth.
Encouraged, we repotted the plants into large square planters to
give the roots some more soil for holding water on weekends when
I'm not in town. Now,
they're blooming like mad, and the blooms are turning into
little tomatoes. I had to bring the big pots in last
weekend when we had a cold front and a rare dip below freezing
overnight.
Unless I have some unforeseen crop failure (always possible in
the farming business), it looks like sometime in May I'll have a bumper crop
of new tomatoes on last year's plants. Who woulda thunkit?
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It seems I've been a slacker for a couple of months here at the
old web site; no updates or commentaries. Most of the idle time
I might have spent writing has been spent scanning 35mm film,
slides and negatives, instead. I've passed 5000 images, with
most of the slides and about half the negatives now digitized
for posterity. Having put all that effort into it, I installed a
DVD burner in my computer to make backups, since it would take
way too many CDs to do the job. I've been very pleased with the
quality from the Nikon 5000 ED film scanner, and it has been fun
to journey back in time to refresh all those memories of good
times.
So, time to catch up. Youngest daughter graduated from college
in December, and most of the family and several friends were
able to make the trip to yell for her when she walked across the
stage. The administrators have thrown in the towel on trying to
keep people quiet and dignified like they used to. She's already
working there in Austin, so M and I are now saving a lot for
retirement.
Since the California kids couldn't come home for Christmas, the
three of us in Texas flew out to Reno and drove to Lake Tahoe to
meet the other two and a friend of oldest daughter's the second week of January. In spite
of a few glitches, like trying to find the rental house, we
managed to have a nice week of skiing. Nobody got hurt, there
was plenty of snow, and the casinos didn't take much of our
money.
Last weekend M and I planted a couple of hundred bulbs, lilies and gladiolas, down at the lake to add some
color to the new retaining wall. Our upstream neighbors must
have got the fix-up bug from us, since they were having their
old retaining walls replaced as well. The downstream
neighbors did all their work a couple of years back, so the
neighborhood is starting to look halfway presentable.
We were both in the city this weekend, and the weather was nice
- highs in the 70s have been the pattern most of the winter, so
we got out for some bike riding both days. Lots of other people
had the same idea, whether they were golfing, running, or just
sitting out.
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