Adventures of a Seattle Dad

Transportation Options

2012-02-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

Like most people, I drive my own vehicle to work every day. I regularly explore alternatives to this because it feels like I am being inefficient or wasteful. I drive alone in a V8 powered, Ford F-150 pickup. Yes, I am that guy. The guy that all of the activists and politicians and electric car makers have their sites set on. I am in the target demographic, too. My round trip commute is under 20 miles, I am middle income, I usually buy new cars instead of used (not counting old fire trucks and Country Squires), and I like technology.

For the record, I do think that global warming is real, however I also believe in capitalism. I want to save money on commuting, and I like being kind to the planet. A good alternative commuting strategy should decrease my commuting costs, not increase them, and it should not reduce the amount of time that I have with my family because the alternative commuting option is slow.

Let's break down my options. My truck averages around 13 mpg in my normal, weekly use which includes short freeway bursts and in-town driving. Yes, that is terrible, but I actually do use my truck for carrying things, towing things, and driving Scouts to remote mountain trails, so I can't just swap it for something smaller. My commute involves dropping off my son for school, but for the sake of this exercise, I am going to start my calculations from the transit plaza that I pass after I drop him off.

On my way to work each day I pass right by a transit plaza that has a shiny new parking garage. There is a bus that leaves from the plaza and, for reasons understood only by bus route planners, it goes *almost* to my office. I say almost because it gets a couple of blocks away, and then turns off of the main road onto a side street. With the walking time from the nearest stop included, Google Maps estimates my bus commute at 41 minutes to cover the 8.5 miles from the transit plaza to my office. It estimates the same distance in my truck as taking only 15 minutes. The price of the bus ticket is $2.25 each way, so I start to save money if gas prices are more than $3.44 per gallon. Today, gasoline prices are $3.63 at the station next to the transit plaza, so all of that works out to a grand total of 25 cents in savings per day in exchange for only spending an extra 52 minutes per day commuting.

There are other benefits to riding the bus, of course. It wasn't raining today, so I got to walk outside on a nice day, and I did answer some work emails with my smart phone. Still, 25 cents a day is not a huge savings. What really baffles me, however, is that the parking garage at the transit plaza has a lot of reserved parking spots for electric cars and compact cars. If I had an electric car or a compact car, it would make zero sense to ride the bus unless I had a huge commute because it would be much cheaper and faster to just drive - the exception being if I had to pay for parking at my job. However, bus routes being what they are, you never want to ride the bus if you have a huge commute. My bus takes 41 minutes to go 8.5 miles, and that is with no bus change. If you add a bus change in there then it is easy to get bus trips that are an hour and a half, one-way.

OK, so the bus makes almost no sense for me. How about a commuter car? I ran the numbers for that option, too, and I took into account driving my truck less, and assumed a commuter car with a city mileage rating of 30 mpg. There are not too many vehicles that get real world, city mileage of 30 mpg or more, and most of those are dreadful, but let's assume that I can find one that doesn't make me lose my will to live. I average around 15,000 miles per year in my truck and I assumed that I would replace 12,000 of those miles with a commuter car. That might be on the high side, but I am trying to use the best numbers. Figuring in the cost of additional insurance and licensing, I might be able to save $1500 per year if I had a commuter car. Maybe. Best case. The cheapest, smallest, plainest, dullest new car available would have payments that add up to more than $1500. Banks don't like to make loans on really cheap, used cars, either, unless the loan is for a short period of time, so the payments would once again be more than $1500 per year. I could buy a really cheap car for cash, but most cars that are that cheap get mileage that is as bad or worse than my truck, or they have a huge amount of miles on them and the repair bills would kill any savings that I might get.

If I had an electric car, I could save another $1200 or so, but the cheapest electric car is a Nissan Leaf and that is $31,000. The monthly payments on an electric car would be much more than the gas savings I would get from not driving my truck. My personal conspiracy theory - based on no evidence whatsoever - is that car makers are using electric cars as an excuse to jack up prices because each one of them is just about double the cost of an equivalent, gas powered car.

I could ride my bike to work except that there are a lot of big hills, and it is frequently dark and or raining. Yes, I know some people do it and I have a name for them: Crazy. Seattle traffic and weather and terrain is just not bike friendly for normal commuters.

After all of this, I can only conclude that the best way for me to get to my workplace is to drive my V8 powered pickup. Your results may vary, but before you invest in an alternative method of commuting, I suggest that you look at the numbers very carefully.

Dig Those Crazy Threads

2012-01-14T00:03:00.001-08:00

Here we have my grandfather, grandmother, father, and uncle. My uncle was born in 1942, so I am guessing that this was taken in the late 40's or early 50's. I love my grandad's and father's suits, and check out those ties.

Who's Mom Is This

2012-01-13T22:58:00.001-08:00

My sister has been sending me care packages of old family photos and documents, and some of them have been a real eye opener. This series of photos, in particular, is amazing and presents several questions.

This is a contact sheet - a real one, not some modern reproduction, of photos of my mother. Contacts sheets were made by placing several negatives on a piece of photo paper and then exposing them all to light. I used to make these with 35mm film and what you get are tiny pictures because the negatives are small - except these are enormous. I don't know what kind of camera made such large exposures. A Brownie? Some medium format camera?

The really big question is, where did this girl go? This girl is happy, smiling, and posing for the camera. In my lifetime, my mother never allowed anyone to take her photo. She would get extremely angry if anyone did, but then again, she was angry most of the time. The only photo that my Dad had of my Mom was her high school senior photo.

My mom is still alive, but she had a stroke in the late 90's and can't really communicate any more. She never did speech therapy because she thought that it was stupid, but it hardly matters because they probably couldn't have gotten the story of these photos out of her at Gitmo. It's too bad. I would like to have known this happy young woman.

Honeymoon Cruise in the Mediterranean

2011-08-31T19:31:00.001-07:00

In July 2010, Amber and I got married in Wyoming. Since we both had fully furnished houses, we didn't want to register for more "stuff." Instead, we decided to register for a honeymoon. Neither of us had ever been to Europe before, so we looked at various options. In the end, we decided to play it safe and go with a cruise so that the travel, lodging, and food would be all set. We looked at all of the cruise lines and went with Disney because they had a great rating in the industry. We knew that Disney is all about "exiting through the gift shop," but we also knew that they bend over backwards to make everything perfect. We thought that "perfect" sounded like a good plan for a honeymoon, so we booked an 11 night, Mediterranean cruise.

We flew out of Seattle on Friday, July 8th. Our extremely kind neighbor, Mr. Campbell, got up at 5:30 in the morning to drop us off at the airport for our 7:00 AM flight. Everything was easy at Seatac and we caught our plane to JFK Airport in New York. At JFK there was a light drizzle and this was blamed for a huge traffic back-up on the runway. The result was that we taxied for take-off for 2 hours. For once, people in Seattle could laugh at other people for not being able to deal with weather. When the wheels finally lifted off of the runway, I started clapping and everyone else joined in. There was more clapping in Barcelona when the plane landed. The flight over was easy. They served food and free beer and wine and had TV's for each seat. After so many short, domestic flights where one receives nothing, it was quite shocking. Since it was an overnight flight, most people just slept.

Disney had a person to meet passengers as we got off of the plane. They guided us through customs, and then met us in the terminal, took our bags, and got us to a bus that took us to the ship. It was morning on the 9th in Barcelona and we got to the cruise terminal just about half an hour before they were ready for us to board. Disney must have counted on JFK being late.

Disney had instructed us to bring a carry-on with whatever we needed for the first day because they said that our bags might not be delivered until the evening. Actually, we boarded the ship, had some lunch, found our room, and our bags were delivered almost immediately. We met the steward that was going to be taking care of us for the next 11 nights, slept, took part in the emergency drill, slept some more, went to dinner, and then slept some more.

I have never been on another cruise, so I don't know how this compares, but on the Disney ship there were three restaurants for dinner. The seating is assigned, and your head server, server, and assistant server move with you every night as you rotate through the three restaurants. On the first night they find out about any allergies and then bend over backwards to make sure that everything is how you like it.

There is also a fancier restaurant named Palo on the top deck, 125 feet above the water, right at the stern of the boat. You can make reservations there for a small charge, so we did that on the night of our wedding anniversary on the 10th. The food and service were excellent, and they made us a "happy anniversary" plate out of chocolate.

The 10th was a day at sea, so we had intended to take advantage of several cool activities on the ship and then go to Palo for dinner in the evening. We were still so jet lagged, however, that we ate breakfast and then went back to room for a "nap." We woke up 5 minutes before our dinner reservation! Amber and I rallied and got up there only 5 minutes late. I think the "at sea" day was Disney assuming that people from the States would be wiped out after traveling over night the day before.

On July 11th we pulled into port in Malta. The rail of the ship was lined with passengers as we pulled in because, from the sea, the whole port looks like a medieval fort. It sort of is, really, because Knights of Malta fortified the port to protect it from the invaders.

On Malta we visited stone temples that were older than Stonehenge.

We also saw cathedrals built by the Knights of Malta.

We visited the walled city of Mdina which only has 300 residents - and where all of the buildings are owned by nobility from 29 families. This is the causeway over the moat.

This stained glass window is in a church in Mdina.

I also captured this image of a side street in Mdina. This is a really small car, but you see how the owner has to park it. As it turns out, this is pretty typical in the places that we visited.

The ship traveled at night, so the next morning we woke up in Palermo on the island of Sicily. When we left the port on the bus and entered traffic, all of the tourists gasped. Our bus was trying to turn right onto a narrow road and there must have been 20 to 25 scooters, and 2 or 3 cars, left of center and coming right at us. The tour guide stopped and said not to worry, that this was perfectly normal, and that scooter drivers were crazy. Sure enough, the scooters parted like water as we passed right through the crowd without slowing. If you are familiar with The Knight Bus from the Harry Potter series then you will understand what bus rides in Sicily and Italy are like. I am fairly certain that we defied the laws of physics on several occasions, making impossible corners, driving with one side of the bus on the sidewalk, etc. There are almost no traffic lights, and certainly no enforcement. There also doesn't seem to be any off-street parking, and there are about 3 times too many cars on the road as there should be. Everywhere you go - and I mean everywhere - from major roads to pedestrian-only streets, there are hundreds of scooters. Somehow, it all works. We never saw an accident.

Many churches have amazing, bronze doors. The panels tell a story from the bible.

This is just an out of the way church on a side street. When these churches were being built, wealthy families and other groups would try to one-up their neighbors by having the most beautiful church.

The next morning we woke up in Naples, Italy. This picture is of Sorento. There is one road to Sorento, and it was built 200 years ago. It is narrow, twisty, and hangs off the side of a cliff, but the views are amazing. Once again, I was glad not to be driving. In the photo you will see little red things by the water. Those are all beach umbrellas.

The city of Sorento was very pretty. They specialize in wood carving and lemon liquor, but probably not at the same time.

Later that same day we went to Pompeii. This is one of the places where I would like to return and spend more time. It is a lot larger than I imagined that it would be.

This is the original port at Pompeii. The eruption that buried the town in 79 AD also moved the coast line 7 miles away.

There are a lot of things to see at Pompeii. From Roman baths to villas, streets of shops, the forum, etc., but the most poignant were the casts of the people that were buried by the ash.

I thought that the funniest thing at Pompeii was the bakery because we had pizza out of an oven exactly like this in Palermo, and we saw more in other restaurants.

The following morning brought us to Rome. This is one time when we were really glad that we were on a tour because the line just to buy tickets for the Colosseum was 2 hours long. That was a fascinating place. Some of the best parts of the day were unscripted moments, like when a couple of tourists were driving a Volvo wagon right through the huge crowd of people in the clearly, pedestrian-only area outside the gate to the Colosseum. The Italian police started shouting at the tourists, who shouted back. A lot of hand waving and more shouting later, and the Volvo was headed back to the road and the Italian police officers were just shaking their heads. If someone did that in the US I am pretty sure that someone would have been tazered, at a minimum. Amber spotted a young woman on a scooter that typified "necessity is the mother of invention." She was driving along in traffic while wearing a nice, summer dress, a backpack on her back, another on her front, a bag on the foot rest of the scooter, where her dog was also sitting quietly with its head hanging over her arm.

I also spotted a little, tiny, delivery truck. I have to apologize to Amber because I was having just as much fun spotting different cars that we don't have in the States as I was enjoying Italy.

We also visited the Trevi Fountain which is fed by a 2000 year old aqueduct. Our guide gave us each 3 pennies to toss in which is supposed to ensure that we will return one day.

Later that same day we went to the Vatican Museum. This is another place where we could have spent a lot more time. It turns out that the Catholic Church has been collecting Greek and Roman pieces of art and stashing them away for safe keeping for 2000 years. The Vatican Museum is more of a museum about Rome and Italy than just the Vatican. There are a lot of amazing pieces in there.

This gigantic, Roman bronze is a pinecone and pre-dates Christianity. I saw 2 exact copies of this, but about 12 inches high, on the front porch of a house by Alexander's school. I wonder if they know...

You know that old fashioned bath tub in granny's house? Well here is a Roman one - carved out of one piece of stone.

This is just a big room full of marble animals collected from ancient Rome.

A cement dome - from Roman times. How long did the Kingdome last?

This is just a decorative bowl from a Roman Villa - made out of one piece of stone. You might note the size of the people walking behind it.

This a pretty rare bronze statue of Hercules. Most bronzes like this were melted down by various invaders one of the many times that Rome was sacked.

This is the ceiling of one gallery in the Vatican Museum. They were all embellished in some way.

We made our way through the Cistine Chapel - where they don't allow photography - and then over to St Peter's which is the largest Catholic Church in the world. Even though there were a lot of people in there, it didn't feel crowded because it is on a gigantic scale.

The next day was a day at sea, and the day after that we arrived in Florence. These are the fabled "Gates of Paradise" - or rather, exact copies since the originals are gold and are in a museum. Anyway, amazing.

The Gates of Paradise are on the building next to this church which is the third largest Catholic church. To get an idea of the scale, see if you can spot the people on the balcony railing.

There is a medieval keep in the center of Florence and it is still used as the town hall.

The Ponte Vecchio bridge is lined with gold merchants and has been standing over the Arno river since the 12th century. The legend goes that, in WWII, when the Germans were retreating and blowing up all of the bridges behind them, that they spared this one because they couldn't face destroying it.

We had an amazing lunch in Florence, and then headed over to Pisa. Our tour guide was from Florence and, apparently, Florence and Pisa have hated each other since the 14th century when they were city states and fighting over control of the local wine. Anyway, she called this the "biggest architectural mistake in Italy" and did not hide her feelings about Pisa. I have to say, however, that Amber and I liked Florence better, too.

As we left Florence, and Italian waters, the Disney ship had a deck party with fireworks and the longest buffet line I have ever seen. The ship was, literally, about a thousand feet long, and they had tables of food all long the port side of the 9th deck by the pools.

After Italy we arrived at French owned Corsica. This was a beautiful island and we only took a half day tour so we had time to just wander around the old part of the city. In the picture, above, you will see two hills with watch towers on them. Corsica used to have a big problem with pirates so they built these towers all the way around the island. If an attack started, they would light a signal fire on top of the tower, and then they next tower would light there's, and so one - exactly like we saw in Lord of the Rings.

The last stop was supposed to be in the South of France, but the sea was too rough there to get us safely ashore. The Disney crew came up with a new stop at the Spanish island of Majorca, where they had never been, and completely re-planned everyone's schedule overnight. There were 2500 guests and a thousand crew. We had a day at sea and when we arrived at Majorca it could not have been better. We were not even supposed to go there, but it turned out to be our favorite stop. We were kind of tired of bus tours at this point, so we just went ashore with our friends from our regular dinner table on the ship and had an excellent day of wandering old streets, eating at a fantastic, sidewalk cafe, and stopping in some cool shops.

The next day it was back to Barcelona and Disney had us back to our plane just as seamlessly as they had done when we arrived. Amber and I can't begin to thank everyone enough for their generous gifts towards the cruise. It was a trip of a lifetime, for sure.

New Crown - Old West Style

2011-08-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

I just came from the Dentist where they installed a crown on one of my molars that never did form correctly. When they did all of the preparation work 2 weeks ago, they numbed me so much that I couldn't feel half of my face for hours afterwards. Today, however, sissy time was over. They didn't give me so much as an aspirin.

As they scraped away the temporary cement of the temporary crown and then proceeded to jam the permanent crown into place, pry it off, jam it on, pry it off, jam it on, and pry it off again and again and again, I attempted to let them know that they were hurting me. A lot. Through all of the flinching, bleeding, and me saying, "Ow!" they did finally say, "Sorry we are hurting you, but most patients prefer to do this without any anesthetic." Several questions came to mind when the dentist said this, but top of the list was, "Do you get punched in the face a lot?" I didn't ask that since she was smashing down on the crown - again - but it was close.

10 Years in Tukwila

2011-08-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

This Fall will make 10 years that I have lived in this house in Tukwila. I got to thinking about it, and this is the longest that I have lived anywhere.

I grew up in Kansas, but we moved from one city to another when I was nine. When I was 18 I moved to college and never went back. When I moved to the Seattle area it was one suburb after another. First Redmond, then Kirkland, then another place in Kirkland, then Bellevue, then Redmond again, and then back to Kirkland. All of that was in the first 10 years.

In the Fall of 2001 I bought this house in Tukwila. At the time, I never gave much thought to how long I would live here. We just wanted a house so we could raise our son and be closer to his extended family. Then all of a sudden, it seems, 10 years have passed and this house is the most permanent place that I have ever lived.

My son is 11 now, and I need to get a nursery ready because next Spring there will be a new baby. We have no plans to move any time soon, either. We like the location and we have great neighbors. I like my house, too. It isn't fancy, and it has it's little foibles, but with our little family it sure is home. Who would have guessed?

My "New!" Map, or A Good Graphic Can Work For A Long Time

2011-08-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

The other day, my son and I were preparing for him to go on a backpacking weekend with his Boy Scout Troop. My job was to drive up to the trail head on Sunday and retrieve a truckload of Scouts and their gear. This was going to be one of those occasions where the GPS in the truck was not going to cut it as the place where we were meeting did not have a particular name or address. We needed an actual (don't faint) map. You may remember them. They used to print them on paper and the user had to determine where he or she was on the map, and which way is North. No turn-by-turn, no traffic alerts - nada. I know. What's next? Cave paintings? Anyway, a regular, muggle map would not do, because they don't show trails. I needed a contour map that shows elevations, water, trails, etc. No problem. I used to be a Scout myself, so I try to always Be Prepared. I have a whole books of contour maps for the entire state!

I easily located my book of maps, despite how long it had been since I had needed to use it (that should have been a warning sign). When we tried to locate the trail, I was unhappy with the resolution of the details. I have USGS maps and satellite photos on my iPad, but still it was difficult to tell where I needed to go, exactly. Finally, it occurred to me to check how old my book of maps was. Printed on the front cover of the book, in red, in a large, friendly font, is the word, "New!" I honestly cannot remember when I bought that book. It must have been a long time ago, but it still says, "New!" so it must be good, right? I flipped open the cover and found the Copyright page. The book is the 4th edition from 1998. Oh. We popped down to the book store and there was the new one - the tenth edition. There is only one problem. The "new" one doesn't say "New!" on it, so I had the weird sensation of throwing away my "New!" map that was much older than my new map. My son is still making fun of me, but I did locate the trail head with my so-called new map and bring the Scouts home. I still think that it should say, "New!" on it.

Dutch Oven Apple Crisp - A n00b's Guide

2011-07-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

As my son has advanced in Scouting, I have continued to take classes and learn new things, too. One thing that is taught at every level of Scouting is Dutch Oven cooking. They take on an almost mythic proportion. A grizzled instructor will take out a 30lb, cast iron pot, start some charcoal, and pretty soon you have an amazing dinner. The people who really know how to use them can cook just about anything. At first it seems a bit over the top because it does take a bit of effort and you need a lot of gadgets, but I can tell you that good, hot food out of a Dutch Oven really can make a camping trip something special. Also, all men like gadgets and cooking with fire, so really it is a win-win.

I have helped people cook, and I have done a little of my own cooking in a Dutch Oven, and I have reached the conclusion that the recipe writers all have some kind of conspiracy going. It is quite possible that I am just a n00b, but their cooking times are all off by about half, and it is my opinion that it is because they don't use enough charcoal. For example, the recipe below is taken from the book that came with my Dutch Oven, and it says that, if I use a certain number of pieces of charcoal, then it will add up to 350 degrees. I am going to call shenanigans on that because, when I tried it, the water from the apples never boiled. I am no Iron Chef (boo - terrible pun), but when I went to school I seem to remember someone telling me that water boiled at 212 degrees, and I seem to remember someone else telling me that 212 < 350, so I would expect the water to boil. Maybe the water had sugar in it which raised it's boiling point? Well, pbbth! The oatmeal never cooked so we need more heat. So there. Anyway, what does it matter? Have you ever been camping in a downpour with a bunch of starving, cold Scouts who keep asking every 10 seconds if dinner is ready? I can assure you - time matters. With this in mind, here is my modified recipe for Dutch Oven Apple Crisp with an improved ingredients list (better taste) and the correct cooking instructions.

Dutch Oven Apple Crisp

The ingredients can be prepared in advance in 2 different, 1 gallon zip-lock bags. Put each mixture into its own bag, zip shut, and then squish around to mix. It is probably a good idea to keep them cool if it will be a while before they are used.

Essential Preparation Equipment:

Norpro Apple Master. You can make this recipe without an Apple Master. Then again, you can take your clothes down to the river and wash them with a washboard, but I don't think that is going to happen. Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you become obsessed with peeling apples after using one.

Apple Mixture:

10 cups Granny Smith apples (about 8 large apples, or 10 smaller ones), peeled and sliced.
1/4 cup lemon juice (1 big lemon)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cranberry raisins (Craisins)

Topping Mixture:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups oats
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups butter, melted
1 T cinnamon
1 T nutmeg

Baking Equipment:

8 quart, cast iron Dutch Oven
Lid Lifter
Lid Stand
Gloves
Scrub Brush
Charcoal Tongs
Charcoal Starter
Charcoal
Newspaper
Matches or Equivalent
Big Spoon, heat resistant, plastic or other non-scratching
Bucket of Water
Pam Baking Spray
Paper Towels
Big Tub in which to carry all of above
A Watch

Baking:

Set up your cooking area somewhere where it is OK to have a fire, and have your bucket of water handy.
Use the Newspaper and the Charcoal Starter to get the Charcoal started. Everyone will tell you that this only takes 20 to 30 min. This is Scout time. In actual Earth time it is at least 45 minutes. When the charcoal at the top of the Charcoal Starter Chimney start to turn gray, then dump out the charcoal so the hottest ones will be on top. While you are waiting for the Charcoal, you can move on to the next 3 steps....
Grease Dutch Oven with Pam (do not spray near the fire...)
Spread apple mixture in the bottom of the Dutch Oven
Spread the topping mixture evenly on top of the apple mixture.
Cover and bake with 16 coals under the oven and 24 on the lid for 30 min. Give the lid a quarter turn every 10 min. (Yes, that is a lot of charcoal, but it will actually cook the food correctly and really be done in 30 min.)
After baking, remove the Dutch Oven from the heat and remove the charcoals from the lid. Be careful about this so you don't dump ashes into your apple crisp when you remove the lid. Let the Dutch Oven sit covered with the lid (with no charcoal on it) for 20 min so the apple crisp will set up and not be watery. It will also be nice and warm after 20 min as opposed to lava hot.
If you are an insane person and are camping in arctic conditions, you will probably need to adjust the times in this recipe - or just stay home where it is warm.

The apple crisp is good alone, or with vanilla ice cream on top. This recipe supposedly serves 8 to 10, but it really serves 15 to 20, depending on the people, the availability of ice cream, and how big their dinner was.

Prep time: 30 min if you have a Norpro Apple Master. If you have Scouts doing the prep, allow *a lot* of time.

Charcoal prep: 45 min if you have a Weber Charcoal Starter Chimney

Cooking: 50 min (30 baking + 20 resting)

Tod's Steak Recipe

2011-05-24T13:47:00.001-07:00

I have received a few requests for my steak recipe, but it is more of a method that I have learned and developed over a lifetime, than just a recipe. If you do this correctly, you won't ever order steak in a steakhouse again.

I learned to grill when I was growing up in Kansas. Out there, if you can reach the grill, you are old enough to start learning. The first part of this process I learned from my father - a notorious cheapskate of humble upbringings. He was part of that generation that was born during The Great Depression and raised during the food rationing of WWII. He really took those lessons to heart and would scour the grocery ads every week in a search for the absolute cheapest cuts of meat. We had steak every Sunday, and despite it being only one cut above shoe leather, it was always amazing. His process is really simple, but takes patience and practice to perfect.

Here is the easy part - Ingredients:

- steaks (the cut doesn't matter, but thicker steaks take longer)
- garlic powder (he used to use garlic salt, but it is easy to mess up and have too much salt)
- onion salt
- black pepper

My additional ingredients:

- Worcestershire sauce
- Cabernet Sauvignon (don't cheap out - buy a kind that you would be willing to drink. If you buy your wine in a box, stop reading now and go to McDonalds)

Equipment:

- BBQ (gas or charcoal are fine, but *not* the kind by Mr. Foreman - any kind of fire is OK)
- Water bottle, squirt gun, or any other device for shooting water
- Tenderizing mallet (mine is stainless steel, heavy, and has 2 sides - one with big spikes, and one with small)
- cutting board or surface where it is OK to smack things with a mallet and make a mess
- casserole dish big enough to hold your steaks one layer deep
- measuring cup
- flipper device for your steaks when grilling
- knife or optional meat thermometer

Step 1 - Tenderizing:

One of the reasons that my Dad could make 99 cent steaks taste like a million bucks is that he beat the living day lights out of them.

- Lay the steaks out on a big cutting board, preferably one that is large enough so you can lay all of the steaks out next to each other so this won't take forever. Tip: do not put the cutting board on a stove with a glass cook surface.
- Liberally shake onion salt, garlic powder, and black pepper onto the top of the steaks. Go crazy. It is hard to use too much.
- Starting with the coarse side of the tenderizing mallet (big spikes), whack the living daylights out of those stakes. Don't make them mush, but do give them a good beating.
- Flip the mallet over and whack the stakes with the finer side.
- Flip the steaks over, season again, and then tenderize again.

Step 2 - Marinade

- Lay the steaks out in a big casserole or flat, plastic container so they are one layer deep.
- Pour equal parts wine and Worcestershire sauce into the container until the steak is covered. You can start with one cup of each and keep going until the steak is covered. This is going to use a lot of Worcestershire sauce. Also, buy extra wine so you can serve the same kind of wine for dinner that you used for the marinade. It really works.
- Wait. If you can wait an hour, great. If you can wait 4 hours, that is better. If you can wait 8 hours, excellent. If you are trying to do this all in the evening for dinner, then get the steaks in the marinade first, and then make all of the rest of the dinner, start the grill, etc., so they have as long as possible to Marinade.

Step 3 - Grilling:

Depending on the thickness of the steaks, grilling won't take long, and will require your undivided attention. The rest of the people for whom you are cooking can be employed to set the table, make the other food, etc., so that everything is ready to go when the steaks come off of the grill. Doing all of this work and then letting the steaks get cold because no one is ready is very discouraging.

Depending on the fat content of the steaks, they are going to drip fat onto the grill and that is going to catch fire and burn your steaks. I keep a loaded Super Soaker next to the grill so I can put out any flare-ups instantly.

Start with the grill clean and hot - turned up on high. Put the steaks on the grill and leave them just long enough to brown them. Flip them over and brown them on the other side. This will help seal in the juices so you don't have dry, chewy steaks.

After the steaks are browned on both sides, turn the grill down to a medium low setting, or on charcoal, move them away from the hottest part. You want to cook the steaks as slowly as possible to keep from drying them out. This is why you need a fire fighting device because this might take a while. Ideally, it should take just long enough that you finish right before your guests mutiny because they are starving and the steaks smell so good.

Keep an eye on the internal temperature of your steaks. You make have to flip them from time to time so they cook evenly. You can use a knife to cut the steak and look at the color, or you can use a meat thermometer. When they look done, take them in and eat them right away. You will probably have to experiment with your grill and different cuts of beef until you become a grilling Jedi, but when you do, you will never want steak from a restaurant again. Anyone can make an expensive steak task good with this method, but if you get really good, then you can start buying the 99 cent steaks.

The Coffee Filter Incident

2011-04-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

As I am sure that you know, education funding in the State of Washington is taking a beating now that the government is suddenly broke. A practical example of just how broke my local school district is really brought this home to me.

My son's grade school Physical Education class is having a bicycle safety class this month. The district, has some bikes that they got from somewhere, and they are bringing those in for the kids to use. I don't think that they belong to the school because the PE teacher didn't know how to adjust the seat height, so my 5th grade son was riding around with his knees up to his chin. Anyway, the kids need to have a helmet, but if they don't have one, the school district has some that the kids can borrow. If you are a parent you are already cringing and thinking, "head lice," like I was. Not to worry. The district is way ahead of us and they indicated that they would provide hair nets for the kids to wear under their borrowed helmets. I was not aware that hair nets would keep head lice off of you, but that was the plan. I just sent Alex to school with his own helmet, and I was very glad that I did when he came home and told me how the "hairnets" had worked out.

It turns out that the school doesn't have hairnets for the kids who are going to borrow helmets. I don't know if they can't afford them, or it was just bad planning, or what happened, but there aren't any hairnets. Instead, the kids who borrowed helmets were given - I am not making this up - coffee filters. They had to wear coffee filters on their head under their borrowed helmets. It doesn't end there. The kids were asked to write their names on their coffee filters so they could use them again for the rest of the bike safety classes. I guess that can't just give those things out, willy nilly.

I am embarrassed for the coffee filter kids. In case you were wondering, no, my son doesn't attend school in a developing nation somewhere. This is right here in Seattle. It is possible that the school has plenty of money and the PE teacher is just a massive idiot, however, we have not seen any indication of sub standard practices in the past, so I am giving the PE teacher the benefit of the doubt. Hairnets, or even coffee filters, come about a million to the case at places like Costco, but the school, apparently, doesn't have money for them. It's ridiculous and demeaning, and we have to tell our government to get it together.

Teaching A Kid To Use The Phone In 2011

2011-04-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

As my son gets older, I have been encouraging him to place his own phone calls. I have him make the call to a family member to say thank you for a birthday present. Sometimes he has to call a friend to ask about homework. Since I was 33 when my son was born, the technology to which he is exposed is quite a lot different than it was when I was his age. We occasionally hit gaps in his knowledge that I just took for granted that he knew, and it has occurred to me that the phone system is a Victorian dinosaur.

My son was born in the 21st century. The phone system was born in the 19th century. Three years after the telephone was patented, my great-great grandfather took a horse drawn wagon from the family homestead to look for work. His letter home describes a five day journey to make a trip that would only take an hour and a half by car today. Think of all of the technology that has been invented since 1876, and it is astounding that we still use landline telephones.

When I was a kid, we had a home phone in the hallway. Everyone did. It was in some central location in the house so you could hear it ring, I suppose, and no matter how many people lived in the house, they all had the same number. There was no Call Waiting, no voice mail, and no Caller ID. Because you were taking a call that could be for anyone in the house, you had to be prepared to take a message. There was a paper and pencil by the phone. People learned telephone manners. They said,"Hello" when they answered the phone, or something like "Smith Residence." Sometimes, people got busy signals and had to call back. If you left a message, you had to tell the other person your name and your phone number. When we got a new fangled "touch tone" phone, we learned about the "pound key." My son doesn't know about any of this.

In my son's lifetime, he has only ever made calls on cell phones. He doesn't know the phone numbers of family and friends because they are in his address book on his phone. In his experience, each person has their own phone number, and they all have Caller ID so he doesn't even need to know his own phone number. He's never heard a busy signal, and he doesn't know what a pound sign is.

One day, I told him that he should call his great-grandparents to say thank you for a present. He called and then sat there listening to the phone for a really long time. After a while he hung up without saying anything, and called again. After the third time that he did this I asked him what the heck he was doing. He said that there was a weird noise on the line when he called them, so he was just listening and waiting for it to stop. I had him call again so I could hear it. It was a busy signal. He was ten years old and didn't know what a busy signal was. If you think about it, when was the last time that you heard one? Nearly everyone has Call Waiting, now. At that moment we were transported back in time a couple of decades and I had to explain how phones worked in the olden days.

This morning my son told me that he needed a refill on his asthma inhaler. I thought that this was an excellent time to have him learn to use the Walgreens refill service where you call in and put in the prescription number. I talked him through it. You call this number, you have to listen to the choices and pick the number for a refill. Then you type in this number. Pick the option to pick it up tomorrow and type in "0800" for 8 AM. I thought that we were good. He thought he was good. He went downstairs to make the call - using his Mac and the built-in phone in gmail, of course, not an actual telephone. Time passed. Much time passed. I went downstairs and asked him what had happened. He was being redirected to speak to someone in the pharmacy department, he said. I asked him about options he had picked, and then it struck me - the pound sign. "I don't know what a pound sign is," he told me. Of course not. No one prints signs with things like "20# flour" any more. Also, he normally uses Web sites to find information, not phone systems.

The funny thing is, while I am having to teach my son things like phone manners and what a busy signal is, I have adults at work that have lost their phone manners. I call them for a conference call on Skype and they don't say, "Hello." They click the button to accept the call, and then just sit there. I like Skype much better than the Victorian phone system because people have an name instead of a long string of numbers. You can see if they are on-line or offline, or busy. You can even just type a quick message if you don't want to talk. Joining big groups together is easy - just add them to the call. The only thing is, even though Skype is very modern and works great, we still need the Victorian courtesy of saying, "Hello" when we answer the phone. I guess some things stay the same.

Kubota!

2011-04-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

I saw the most amazing thing on the way to work this morning: a man driving a riding mower up a ridiculously steep hill. In the rain. I saw the name on the side of the mower, and I knew what was going on.

In civilized parts of the world, people have the sense to come in out of the rain, and they most certainly do not mow their lawns in the rain. Under no circumstances would they ever consider mowing a wet, steep hillside with any kind of device, let alone a riding mower. In Seattle, however, we don't have those kinds of options. If we waited to mow until it wasn't raining and the grass was dry, the grass would be 10 feet tall. Likewise, there are hills all over the place. A friend of mine was doing some lawn work and fell off of his terraced back yard and broke his leg. On the plus side, the firemen cleared all of the blackberry vines that he fell into in an effort to cut their way to him. Steep hills are everywhere.

The hill that I saw being mowed this morning was in Crystal Springs Park. There are tennis courts on a small, flat bit, and then the hill drops away so sharply that a person could not walk up it without a rope. If your return volley goes over the fence, you are not getting that ball back. Ever. Anyway, there, in the rain, on the side of this steep hill covered with slick, wet grass, was a man driving a riding mower straight up. He made it look effortless. At the top he turned slightly to avoid high-centering, and continued on his way as easy as you please. Why didn't he just topple backwards? How in the heck did that mower climb that hill? My old Land Rover was practically a mountain goat, and it could not have made it up that incline. I just made out the name on the side of the mower: Kabota.

I've seen Kabota's at the The Fair, and I have heard the stories, but now I am a believer. They make four wheel drive mowers and tractors, and from what I saw this morning, I think that they can be summed up in one word: badass. I am not kidding. I could sell tickets to watch that guy drive that mower up the hill. Admiring guys (because women have better sense than to stand in the rain and watch a guy drive a mower up a hill) would murmur and give a little golf clap with every lap.

One thing did occur to me, though - the first time that the guy drove the mower up the hill, how did he know that he could do it? Was it luck? Does he even know how amazing that is? Maybe he carefully calculated the center of gravity, coefficient of friction, torque, and other factors and concluded that it was well within operating parameters? Lucky moron, or genius? That is a fine line that all men walk. Maybe he was the unwitting victim of a cruel practical joke - the other lawn guys told him to do it and then they were all surprised when it worked? However it happened, the first guy to sit on that mower and drive it straight up that hill had giant, brass, cahones - or he was just stupid. Either way - amazing.

How to Safely Remove a Sharp Cat from a Linen Closet

2011-02-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

Through careful, scientific experimentation I have discovered the safe way to remove a sharp cat who has jumped into the linen closet from said linen closet without sustaining life threatening injuries. This procedure assumes that the cat has already snuck into the closet and taken up a position in the inky darkness on previously clean towels and or sheets, claws and fangs at the ready. Reaching into the closet without a shark-proof bite suit is suicidal, so just follow this simple procedure instead.

Step 1: Close the door to the linen closet with the cat inside.

Step 2: Knock *LOUDLY* on the door 3 to 5 times.

Step 3: Standing behind the door, and using the door as a shield, open said door.

Step 4: Observe as sharp cat *leaps* out of closet, tail erect and poofed out, claws extended, and fur standing on end.

Step 5: Close the door and exit the area before the cat wises up and seeks retribution.

The Good Die Young

2011-01-25T15:19:00.000-08:00

I am frequently called upon to resolve issues great and small with the computers of friends and family. This can be fun because I like to fix computers, and it can be a good excuse to visit with friends. Over the years, I have developed a theorem of computer ownership: A computer owner's attachment to their computer is inversely proportional to that computer's usefulness. In other words, the older, slower, and more full of dust bunnies a computer is, the more an owner will swear that they can't live without it. Maybe this is because we fear change, or we grow comfortable with our things over time. I don't know, but someone should do a study.

Just last weekend some friends had our little family over for dinner in the hopes of bribing me to fix their computer. (Note: this form of bribery is very efective on nerds). Their computer had to be one of the newest, nicest, and cleanest computers that I have ever been asked to fix - and it was dead. I don't mean, that it needed a new hard drive, or a power supply. I mean that it was bereft of life, ex parrot, motherboard toasted, use it for a doorstop, dead. My [relative who shall remain nameless]'s steam powered laptop with hieroglyphs on the keyboard that I fixed over Christmas was completely repairable with a mere 36 hours of installing Windows updates, but this 2 year old, spotless computer was dead.

The amazing thing was how calm the owners were about their computer being dead. They were ready to buy a new one that day without a look back. On the plus side, the dinner was excellent, but I felt bad for the good little machine that had quietly expired in the next room. Maybe instead of a new machine, I should get them a really old, terrible one that they will curse every day for its slowness, but will never die out of sheer spite. I think I have a few of those in my basement....

Seattle Winter Driving - A Five Step Class

2011-01-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

As we know, Seattle comes to a screeching halt the second that a snowflake hits the pavement. Some of these issues are beyond our direct control. The articulated buses, for example, instantly crash if there is even a hint of ice or snow. All of them. Instantly. Since there are a lot of them, and they are quite large, and they tend to travel on major streets, they serve as a kind of auto-destruct mechanism for the city. During the "snow storm" (read: light dusting) just before Thanksgiving, 200 buses crashed or got stuck. Really. If terrorists could crash 200 busses at the same time, blocking major roads across the area, we would be knee deep in Homeland Security people. Perhaps they could get us better busses.

Anyway, we can't control busses or the weather, but what we can control is - drum roll - ourselves. *gasp* I know, I know. You might be saying to yourself, "I can't be expected to actually, you know, drive on ice or snow. That's crazy talk!" If we can all stop hyperventilating when we see snow, we might take a moment to consider that some places get a lot of snow and it stays on the ground all winter. Those cities still function. "Well sure, but we have hills, man. Hills! Those other places are all flat," you might counter. I do enjoy skiing in the winter and one thing that I have noticed when I have driven to ski resorts all over North America is that they tend to have a) snow, and b) mountains, yet they remain in business, year after year. Their customers are able to get to them, despite the snow and non-flatness. Hmmm. How could this be? Let's take a moment to think about how these curious people are able to drive on ice and snow without crashing.

Here, then, is my free, five step class on how to drive any vehicle in snow. It works on front-wheel drive cars, all-wheel drive, rear-wheel drives - anything. You won't need to pay anything, or buy any special equipment. It also works on ice, sleet, and even rain.

Step 1: Don't have bald tires. Many people avoid doing maintenance on their vehicles because who wants to spend money on that where there are so many other, shiny things that we can buy? I mean, really! If you are one of those people, let's talk about the round, black rubber thingies that hold your car up off of the ground. Those are called "tires." When tires are new, they have these kinds of grooves in them called "tread." The tread bites into snow and helps keep your car or SUV from crashing. This is going to sound crazy, but after a while that tread starts to wear away. Once in a while, you need to spend 30 seconds and look at your tires to see if any tread is left - or actually, no. You can just go to a tire store and ask the nice person who works there to look at your tires for you. Who can be bothered to look at all four tires, anyway? You should do this *before* it starts snowing because after you start sliding into the ditch, backwards, it is probably too late.

Step 2: When you are driving your vehicle, just drive your vehicle. Some of the next steps are going to require a lot of your concentration and attentiveness, so you will have to put down the phone, your coffee, lipstick, mascara, bowl of cereal, book, etc., put both hands on the wheel, and look out of the big window in the front. In fact, put all of those other things in the trunk so you wont be tempted. Your driver's seat is your work area while you are driving and your work area should always be clean and free of obstructions. It is not necessary to wear safety glasses.

Step 3: Slow Down. This is going to come as a shock to some Seattle drivers, and there is no easy way to break it to you, so I'll just say it. Snow is slippery. I know. Take a moment to absorb that. OK. Because snow is slippery, we have to change the way that we drive when we drive on snow. Crazy. What an inconvenience! Don't these people know that we have places to go?

We could talk about static and dynamic friction, Newton's first law of motion, etc., but the condensed version is just this: slow down. For example, suppose we are pulling up to a stop sign and the road is icy. If we just drive right up to the sign and step on the brakes as we might do on dry pavement, we will probably shoot right through the intersection and crash into one of those city busses that is already crashed there. Why? Snow is slippery. Crashing involves a lot of tedious paperwork and inconvenience, so if we want to avoid that, then we might - what? - slow down. We need to start slowing down for the stop sign a lot earlier then normal. This requires a) looking out of the big window in the front and b) thinking and planning ahead, which is why we have Step 2. If you slow down gradually, then you will be more likely to be able to stop. If you are driving more slowly, then you will be more able to control your vehicle better, make turns, and generally not take out innocent bystanders, hedges, or mailboxes.

Step 4: Try not to use your brakes. If you slow down, then you will need to use your brakes less, which means less opportunities for sliding wildly out of control. Sure, your fancy car might have anti-lock brakes and traction control, or maybe even all-wheel drive, but those systems only kick in *after* you have already screwed up. They attempt to snatch you back from the edge of oblivion, but they can only do so much. This is where you have to do more work. You - not the computer - have to look out the window with your Mark 1 eyeball and plan ahead. Maybe slow down a bit so you can anticipate what the driver ahead of you might do. Maybe accelerate more slowly, and slow down for stops more gradually. It's a hassle, I know - your time is precious and all of this driving business gets in the way of returning that urgent text message, but there is no avoiding it, I'm afraid.

Step 5: Gears. Now, you might have read Step 3 and said to yourself, "Ah ha! Well, Mr. Smartypants, I can't slow down for a stop sign when I am on a hill because there is, like, gravity, and stuff." I will grant you that, yes, there is gravity, and yes, it does make your vehicle go faster if you sit idly by and do nothing. You could always stamp on your brakes, but then you will probably slide. In Step 4 we learned that we need to try not to use our brakes. So how on earth are we supposed to get down a hill slowly without using brakes? It's inconceivable! Well, I am hear to help. Somewhere in your car you have some kind of stick or lever that you use to make your car go forward. You move it to "D" to drive and "P" to park. There is even an "R" to make it "reverse" which is fancy talk for going backwards. Amazing. If you have a closer look, you might notice that there are some other letters, and maybe some numbers. There might be an "N" for "neutral," but on past the "D" there might be an "L" or a "2" or a "1". Did you know that your car has more than one forward gear? Just like gears on a bike, the "1" or "L" is for going slowly, then "2" goes a bit faster, "3" a bit faster, and so on. If you are about to go down a hill on snow, move your gear stick out of "D" and put it in one of those lower gears. If you imagine yourself on a bike at the top of a hill, and you put the bike in 1st gear and coasted down the hill, what would happen? You would accelerate to terminal velocity, where wind resistance equals gravity, at which point you would be going like blazes. Unlike a bicycle, a vehicle has an engine, and because of a thing called "compression" it will not speed up like a bike *if you put it in a lower gear*. Remember - the lower the gear, the slower the car goes. If you put your car in "L" (low) or 1 at the top of even the steepest hill and, with the engine running, you take your feet off of the pedals, your car will walk itself right down that hill and it will probably never exceed 10mph. You need to go out and try that on a non-snowy day so you can see for yourself how it works in your car. Then when it snows, and you have to go down the big, scary hill, you will know what to expect.

That's it. You don't have to buy anything (except maybe tires, if your old ones were bald), sign up for a membership, attend meetings, or anything. Follow these five steps and you can drive nearly any car in ice and snow - and not crash into me. Thank you.

Tell The TSA No - Politely

2010-11-24T10:53:00.000-08:00

We need to stop acting like scared little sheep and follow the example in this blog: "My TSA Encounter." This man was polite, but stuck to his insistance that the TSA has no legal right to require a pat down or backskatter body scan. We have constitutional protection from unreasonable search and seizure. One terrorist boards a flight overseas with an underwear bomb that didn't work, and now the TSA says that they have to grope grandma? No. Just no. Stop flying or block up the airports by politely refusing to submit, and the airlines will lose so much money that they will make the TSA back down. As a side note, it was on the news yesterday that most government officials are escorted around security, so this is really up to us.

One more thing - making the selection for extra security screening "random" is not better. The police are not allowed to randomly frisk people on the sidewalk when those people are offering no probable cause that they have done something illegal. This protection is guaranteed by the 4th amendment. Why then is it OK for the TSA to have greater powers of search than the Police? The answer is that it is not legal. They can only search if we allow them to do so.

When the millenium bomber took a car ferry from from Canada to Washington, there was no TSA, but he got stopped. Why? When approached by a customs official and asked if he had anything to declare, he got out of his car and started running. That guy was stopped and searched and rightfully so. As it turns out, he had nitroglycerine in his back seat. If you and I walk through airport security and offer no probable cause, then we should not be treated like a criminal. I would even be happy to apply for a background check so I could be pre-screened for any latent terror sleeper cell activities. My family has been here since 1685, but we can't be too careful. Once I pass that background check, however, I never want to be screened again. To get a concealed carry permit in the state of Washington, one must be fingerprinted and then background checked, pay a reasonable fee - and that's it. You're good. Having done that, I am good to walk all over town with a loaded gun in my pocket, but I can't take shampoo on an airplane and I have to let the TSA grope my family. No. Just no.

1918 Letter from China

2010-09-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

In the papers from my great-great Aunt Katie was this letter from a friend who must have been on a missionary mission in China. It is dated 1918, and is written on paper made from bamboo. At the time of this letter, Katie was living on a farm outside of a tiny town in the middle of the Great Plains. She seems to get letters from friends that traveled all over.

The letter documents the practice of some people in China who got rid of baby girls. I tried finding "Kutien" on a map, but that seems to be the English translation of either a district of Fuzhou, or of Gutian. There was a lot of missionary activity in that region before WWII.

"Kutien, China April 6, 1918

Dear Miss Bookless - Thus far the New Year has been fulfilling your wishes to me. It has been bringing joy and peace to me. The work goes nicely. Yesterday morning we had another baby left at our gate. A two day old girl wrapped in old rags and placed in a little basket and this hung on a bush. But this casting away of baby girls gets less and less all the time. We sent her to the City Magistrate but it was beautiful to see the way our Chinese Christians took pity on the little creature. They wanted to keep her but the Magistrate wants to stop this kind of work so we must send the cast a-way babies to him and

he tries to find out who is guilty. They would be punished if discovered. The baby will be put in the City Orphanage and no knowing what will become of it afterward. It is hard to have to see such things.

Again thanking you for your New Years Greetings. I am

Your Friend
Laura Frazey

This is Chinese paper made of bamboo pith."

Looking For Work - 1879 Style

2010-09-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

My sister recently sent me a box of letters and papers that my great-great aunt Katie had kept. Among them was this letter from my great-great grandfather, James Scott Bookless, who went by his middle name, Scott. He had set out from the family homestead near Abbyville, Kansas in search of work and he was writing home to let my great-great grandmother, Jennie, know how it was going. The family continued to live on the farm, so I am assuming that they just needed some extra cash to make ends meet. They had married in Illinois five years earlier and then moved to Kansas to stake a claim and build a farm.

At the time that this letter was written, they had 2 kids and Jennie was pregnant with their third. James had just turned 41, and had been married before and had six children from his first marriage. It seems as though the youngest, Addie, was still living with them. Jennie was only twenty five. Jennie was left at home with three kids, away from her home in Illinois, pregnant, in a sod house on a farm, while Scott headed out to seek work. It was October, and raining. In 1879 their only way to communicate would have been letters like this one.

In the letter, Scott is writing from Florence, Kansas which is only 79 miles away, but the journey in a wagon drawn by horses took 5 days. Google maps says that today this trip would only take an hour and 27 minutes. He set out in a wagon with a team of horses. One of the horses hurt it's leg, and he had to put the horses in stables because of bad weather on several nights. I can imagine that this would be been a setback since he was trying to save money by only eating one meal a day. Even so, he still gave bread to a couple of travelers who had no food or money. At the end of the letter he includes a little note to the kids, and it is obvious that he cared for them.

Here is my transcription of the letter, to the best of my ability. The story is kind of amazing as compared with how things are today. Scott was not a big user of punctuation, so I have added some where it seems appropriate. The grammar is not perfect, but you will get the gist of it. I have tried to fix the grammar for the sake of clarity in some places, but I have tried to keep to his wording where ever possible.

"Florence Marion
County Kan
Oct 13, 79
Monday Evening

Dear Jennie - you was so anxious that I write you I will now do so. I am at Florence as you see. Arrived here about twelve o'clock today. Staid last night in Peabody. The night before in Newton. The night before in Burton. I got Jack's [one of the horses] leg hurt in Hutchinson the night I was there and the road was so slippery and muddy I had to travel slow. It rained on me every day since I was out until today. I [had] to put my team in the livery stable at Hutchinson, Burton, and Peabody on the account of rain. It is

nice and clear now. I could get work in the stone quarry and make a dollar and 25 or 50 cents a day, but against I paid my board and feed my team I would not make as much as to husk corn at 80 cents or one dollar a day. I am going north in the morning about 3 miles where three men have five hundred acres to husk. They offer two cents per bushel. That is making money slow. I may have to go to Cottonwood Falls. They say there is lots of corn there and a little east of there it twenty size. From my grub [something] lasts I only eat about one meal a day. I did not open my grub box the day I left home until the next day noon.

Then I eat normal until the next morning. I generally eat one meal a day. I am not hungry. One of my chickens spoilt on the my hands. I throwed it away. Since I came to town it spoill three or four of my biscuits. I have not eaten any light bread yet. I have all of it except what I gave to a couple of travelers that was without money or bread. Tell Hill he can get work, that he can make one dollar and half, or 25 anyhow, in the stone quarry, but it will not pay me to work and feed my [team]. Tell the other boys I will write them as soon as I find work. They tell me people has not commenced gathering corn yet. Well

I hope you are all well. The day I was between Burton and Newton I was sick and sick that night, but was alright by morning. There was a man told me that there was another man from Reno [county - where Scott was from] came in [to] town this evening hunting work, but if I know him I have not seen him. He came from Winfield on the railroad. Write Jennie by return mail direct to Florence, Marion County, Kansas. If I am not here I will have it forwarded. If there is anything from hill bill let me know. Goodbye
Jennie Dear Scott
Addie Dear be a good sis. Help ma and take care of the potatoes well. Gracie, Pa has not forgot his little girl. Be a good girl and pa will try and bring you something. Well Eddie do you play with [something]. Goodbye sweet little children. Pa"

In the margin is written, "Jacks is about over his lameness."

Working at Home

2010-09-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

My son's before and after school care program is hosted at a public school, and every year they shut down for one or two days right before school starts. Apparently I was supposed to plan to be unemployed those days. Silly me. Fortunately, I have a job that I can do from home.

Today is one of those shutdown days. School starts tomorrow, so Alex and I are at home. I am spending the bulk of the day on conference calls and email, so Alex is keeping himself busy with other projects. It is very good that he can do this. Currently, he is cleaning off some shelves in the basement to figure out which old toys need to go to Good Will.

The cats are somewhat discombobulated when we don't go to work. They have a full, daytime schedule and that does not include us. Dimitrious hung out with us for a while. He spent some time napping next to me as I took conference call after conference call, waking up only to gnaw on my hand a bit before dozing off again. That's his way of saying, "Keep it down! I'm napping here!" Eventually he left to go walk his morning patrol route outside and to see what the neighbors were doing. Flipper came by once, but when I wouldn't let her sleep on the keyboard of the laptop then she couldn't be bothered and left. Gracie is outside sleeping in a lawn chair in the sun and could really care less if we are here or not. George is off on extended patrol and might not be back for days. A Stellar Jay landed on the deck railing outside the window where Alex was working and squawked that he, Alex, better hand over some peanuts. We have not put peanuts out in long time, but we still had a few and put them out before the Jays ruffed us up.

At one point I finished a call and Alex was just astounded by how long I had been on the phone. I told him, truthfully, that tomorrow morning at 7AM I have a two hour call to discuss the call that I just had. Alex thought that was very funny, laughed at me a lot, and is generally feeling better about having to start school tomorrow. After that call, starting school does sound pretty good.

Boy Scouts of America (Made in China)

2010-08-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

As you might have guessed by now, my son is in Cub Scouts and I am a den leader. Whenever I go to the Scout Store to get patches or awards, or bigger items like uniforms or backpacks, I encounter the same thing: Made in China.

If a person is shopping at a discount store, buying some cheap, molded plastic item, one expects to see the Made in China label. When I am buying a Boys Scouts of America official uniform at the Boy Scouts of America store, I expect to see "Made in the USA" on the label. If it has a Scout logo on it anywhere, I don't want to see Made in China. I am sure that the store sources items from China with the best of intentions. If they keep the prices low, then it makes Scouting more accessible to more kids, but the BSA is a 503(c) charity, so I would think that someone could talk American manufacturers into good prices.

Does this make me a xenophobe? I don't know. All I know is, it feels pretty pathetic that a 100 year old institution that is as American as apple pie has to have all of their things made in China. I recently read an article by someone who was advocating that we all, each one of us, make it our responsibility to read labels. When we are out in the shops, and there is a choice, we need to make a conscious effort to pick items that are made in the US. This means that our money stays here, and people in the US are employed, and they spend their money, etc. I try to do that as often as possible. I seek out local companies, locally owned restaurants, and even local wine and beer makers. With the economy in the dumps, we all need to take care of each other and this is one way to do that. I am not anti China. I am pro US.

Scout Badges at Work

2010-08-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, at my office, I borrowed a QA engineer named Ben from another team so he could help us finish some testing on a large project. Our team has borrowed Ben several times in the past, and everyone is friendly with each other. I was teasing him by telling the other QA engineers to boss him around and give him lots of work to do. Ben replied that, because I was a Cub Scout den leader, that I was not allowed to practice slavery. I told him that, not only was slavery an accepted practice in Scouts, but that we actually have badges for it. I adapted the Webelos Handyman badge for use at work, and sent Ben this email.

P.S. Only software people who are familiar with scouts will think that this is funny - so not many, then. In fact, maybe just me. Everyone else just move along - nothing to see here....

Hi Ben,

You mentioned that, since I was a Scout leader, that I was not allowed to practice slavery if you help us test [name of software]. As I mentioned to you, the Boy Scouts of America has a long standing practice of slavery (also known as “Service Projects”), and in fact has badges for it. Here, for example, is the Handyman badge, which is quite easily adapted to [software] testing:

HANDYMAN

Do These:

1. With your parent, guardian, or ~~Webelos den leader~~ Scrum Master, complete the Responsibility Character Connection.

a. Know: List all the tasks you can think of that are necessary in keeping ~~a household~~ [software system] in good shape. Name the tasks that are your responsibility. Tell what it means to be responsible for these tasks.

b. Commit: Talk about what happens when people don't do their jobs. Tell why it is important to be helpful and to be responsible. List ways that you can be more responsible on your own.

c. Practice: Choose one of the requirements and show how you are responsible by doing that task well for two weeks.

And Do Six of These:

2. With adult supervision, ~~wash a car~~ run a test case.

3. Help an adult ~~change a tire on a car~~ determine repro steps for a bug.

4. With adult supervision, ~~replace a bulb in the taillight, turn signal, or parking light or replace a headlight on a car~~ enter a bug in [the bug tracking system].

5. With adult supervision, ~~show how to check the oil level and tire pressure on a car~~ verify that a bug has been fixed.

6. Make a ~~repair to a bicycle, such as tightening the chain, fixing a flat tire, or adjusting the seat or handlebars~~ test case for a major feature.

7. Properly ~~lubricate the chain and crank on a bicycle~~ estimate the time required to test a feature.

8. Properly ~~inflate the tires on a bicycle~~ reduce the hours remaining to test an item in [the tracking system].

9. ~~Change the wheels on a skateboard or pair of inline skates~~ Enter your time to the correct project in [the time card system].

10. Replace a light bulb in a fixture or lamp.

11. With adult supervision, ~~arrange a storage area for household cleaners and other dangerous materials where small children cannot reach them~~ review and add comments to a Design Phase Document (DPD).

12. Build a ~~sawhorse or stool to be used around your home~~ Sprint Task in [the tracking system] from scratch.

13. Help take care of the lawn.

14. Arrange a storage area for ~~hand tools or lawn and garden tools~~ test cases in [the document system].

15. Clean and properly store ~~hand tools or lawn and garden tools in their storage area~~ your laptop after a hard day’s work.

16. Label ~~hand tools or lawn and garden tools~~ new bugs with the correct sprint iteration in [the bug tracking system].

17. Put together a ~~toolbox for common repairs around the house. Be sure the toolbox and tools are stored safely.~~ an automated test that covers more than one test case.

By the way, thanks for helping us out. Again!

regards,

Tod Bookless
Scrum Master

Rain at Cub Scout Camp

2010-08-07T18:59:00.001-07:00

So we are at Cub Scout Camp and it is raining. Rain was predicted for a week in advance. A rain coat was on the packing list that was sent out multiple times. It rains 9 months out of the year, here. Naturally, most of the scouts do not have a rain coat.

For the record: a cotton hoodie does not rapell water. At all.

Anyway, this really doesn't matter because the kids stand in the rain without any coat and get soaked. This is the conversation that we have with every scout:

Leader: It is raining. Where is your jacket?

Scout: huh?

Leader: Your jacket or coat or poncho. Where is it?

Scout: I don't have one.

Leader: I am sure that you have a jacket. Where is it?

Scout: I a) lost it, b) left it at the craft lodge/archery range/in the woods, or c) I only brought a sweater.

I am off to the nearest convenience store to buy a box of trash bags so we can make ponchos.

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The Dump As an Entertainment Venue

2010-07-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

It is funny how things change as you move through life. On a sunny, summer afternoon in my bachelor days I might have done any number of things for fun. Now, as a home owner and family man, a big time is had in a trip to the dump - and I'm not joking.

I met my wife when she purchased the house next door to mine. She bought it from her great-aunt and great-uncle who moved into assisted living. They just took what they needed for day to day living with them, and since it was being sold to someone in the family, everything else was left behind. This included some nice things as well as expired food, crumbling flower pots, a dead lawn mower - everything. Over the last year or so, we have been taking truck loads of miscellaneous items to Goodwill and the dump.

It always starts innocently enough. I don't think that we have ever set out with the plan to take a load of stuff to the dump. We start cleaning some part of the house or garage or shed or carport, etc. and we fill up the trash cans, recycle bins, or yard waste cart immediately. I'll say that we could just take a load to the dump, and then we will start to look around. What about this? What about that - and then it's on. We find more junk and more junk and more junk, and in no time at all, the truck is full.

The funny thing is, taking a truck load of stuff to the dump is very rewarding. The obvious part is that some corner of the place is so much cleaner than it was. It is like a weight has been lifted. Now that part of the house or yard is free from clutter and can resume its normal life. What is less obvious is the sheer joy that we get in flinging those old items into the pit at the transfer station. How often do you really get to heave old junk high in the air and see it smashed? This thing that has been moldering away in the corner of the yard, nagging you, tugging on your sub conscious to-do list - not just gone - expelled - cast out! Be gone! You don't have to pick up the mess, either because what? - you are at the dump. You just fling it into the pit. The bulldozer smashes anything that you don't. Imagine if you will, a horrible, 1960's, light pink toilet flying through the air and shattering into a million pieces. Glorious.

Last weekend we decided to build a gate in the fence, but first we had to clean the area around it. There was an ancient, green fiberglass, Sears fishing boat that we had been walking around for more than a year. The hull and deck were coming apart, there were holes, etc., but there it sat. A ten foot long, moldy, eye sore. It sat on the remains of some wooden deck who's plywood was so rotten that we could crumble it in our hands like old graham crackers. To the dump! We loaded that boat into the back of my truck and then began to fill the boat with rotten boards. More and more disgusting things were discovered and thrown into the boat until it was full. It was not until we were driving into the dump that I began to worry. Would they accept a 10 foot long, fiberglass boat? Would they say that it was too big? No one said anything to us, so we backed the truck up to the pit. With Amber on one side, and me on the other, we gave the boat a shove. It's center of balance tipped down and it flew off the back of the truck, into the pit. Fantastic. We only had a couple of minutes to admire the flying, debris filled boat, and worry that someone might come out and yell at us for throwing it in there, when the bulldozer rumbled by. It did not crush or smash the boat - it pulverized it. Then it backed over it, smashed what little pieces were left of the boat with its blade, and then drove over it again. There were no pieces left that were bigger than a toaster. This thing that we had been trying to figure out what to do with for more than a year was gone, and we were freed from our bondage to one more piece of junk. The transformation of that piece of the yard is amazing, and it feels like we really did something. It is weird, but I love a good day at the dump.

Wedding in Wyoming

2010-07-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

Amber and I decided to have our wedding in Wyoming. Her (very large) extended family is already there, or was already planning to come to town for an all-class, class reunion, a birthday, an anniversary, etc. With so much family in town at nearly the same time, it made sense to have it there, and it is also close enough to my family in Denver and Kansas that several of them could make it, too. Wyoming it was to be, then, and everything went well, but road trips and weddings are always an adventure.

The first step was to get to Amber's parent's house which is located on the Thunder Basin National Grasslands just outside of Osage, Wyoming. To put it in layman's terms: you can't get there from here. You can fly to Rapid City, South Dakota and then drive two and a half hours west through the Black Hills, or you can fly to Denver and then drive six hours north. With three of us flying out, we could save a total of $900 by flying to Denver. Amber's Mom very generously volunteered to come and get us so we would not have to even rent a car. Also, our very kind neighbor, Mr. Campbell, volunteered to feed the cats and to drive us to the airport at 6AM.

It has been a rainy Spring in Wyoming, so the grasslands were green and beautiful. I really enjoy road trips and wide, open spaces, so I thought that the drive was great. At times during the drive it was just a bit windy in the same way that the South Pole is just a bit nippy. Yikes. Anyway, Amber's Mom is an excellent driver and made short work of the distance. We even had time to stop at the Black Thunder Coal Mine which is the largest open pit coal mine in the US. They have one of those giant dump trucks and a big tire out in the parking lot so tourists can stop for pictures. We drove past the active and reclaimed parts of the mine that are right next to the highway, and the reclaimed area looks like no one ever so much as poked it with a stick. Anyway, we arrived at Amber's parent's house late in the evening on July 2nd. It really just takes a whole day to from Seattle to Osage, no matter how you get there. Perhaps I shall have to look into flying lessons....

The nearest town of any size is Newcastle, Wyoming - the county seat of Weston County. On the third of July, the town hosted the All Class, Class Reunion. The classes are not really that big, so they just share a common class reunion every few years for all of the alumni. The reunion features a parade where they try to get a car for each graduating class represented in the parade. Amber's Dad drove her 1967 Ford Galaxy convertible in the parade. He also has a 1966 Mustang that he loans back to the original owner so she can drive it in the parade each time that she comes back for a reunion. After the parade was a BBQ in a park. This being beef country, the lunch featured barbecued beef. People in Seattle always look at me funny when I tell them that BBQ restaurants in Seattle are usually weird. There are some places that get close, but none of them make anything that is even close to being as good as that simple BBQ Beef sandwich that we had at the reunion.

I noticed another weird thing at the reunion lunch. When parents take their kids to the park in Seattle, the parents stay right next to the play area. You will see 10 kids on the playground and 10 parents, or sets of parents, watching. No one takes their eyes off of their kids, and for good reason. In Newcastle, Wyoming, the kids just go play in the play area, and the parents just let them. The kids are not going anywhere and no one is going to mess with them. If someone was dumb enough to try and grab a kid, all of the surrounding adults would probably realize it and the offender would probably not leave the park standing up.

One of the recurring themes of driving places around that area is wildlife. There are antelope, deer, and lots and lots of cows. Since Amber's parents live in an open range area, there are cows walking around on the roads and highways all of the time. One evening we went into town for the class reunion street dance, and Amber was driving. Since she grew up in the area she was very alert, and thankfully so. The road was dark, the moon was not out, and there, at the farthest reach of the headlights, appeared two, small, circles of light. I was still staring at them, wondering what they could be, when Amber was down-shifting and braking hard. The circles of light turned out to be the eyes of a Black Angus cow who had decided to nurse her calf in the middle of the road. Thankfully, she was looking at us so we could see her eyes, and she was on a straight piece of road, otherwise our trip could have been very different. On a trip back from Mt Rushmore on another evening, Amber drove through four or five herds of deer who were grazing along the twisty road that they call Hell's Canyon. Amber is a very good driver.

Another highlight of the trip was driving The Pink Jeep. When your house sits on a 2.9 million acre grasslands that is criss crossed with dirt roads, it is not really necessary to make your kids wait until they are 16 to drive. When Amber was eight, her Dad painted a 1947 Willys Jeep pink, taught her to drive, and told her to stay inside "the triangle" and off of the highway. "The Triangle" is made up of three roads that enclose hundreds of acres. Because her parent's house is slightly higher than the surrounding territory, and because the Jeep is pink, they could see her for miles around. Also, everyone who saw the Jeep knew exactly who it was that was driving it so Amber and her younger brother could not really drive somewhere they shouldn't without their parents getting a call. The Jeep has no power steering, no power brakes, a manual transmission, and a tiny fuel tank. It is brilliant. Starting at the age of eight, Amber drove that Jeep down every cow path and over every hill. Later, Amber and her brother graduated to dirt bikes, but the Jeep became the learning car for every cousin and grandchild. I got to drive the Jeep around a bit, and it is easy to see why it was a favorite for soldiers. It just irons out bumpy roads, visibility is perfect since there are zero pillars or even a windshield in the way, and on muddy roads it is perfectly controllable with the easy inputs from the throttle and just a bit of opposite turn on the steering wheel.

We did some tourist activities on our trip, too. We all went into Hot Springs, South Dakota one day and went to visit The Mammoth Site. It is the largest concentration of mammoth bones anywhere in the world. Pretty incredible. We also went to Evans Plunge which is a water park that is fed by a hot springs. Alexander's new cousins taught him how to maximize the distance that he could shoot himself out of the end of the waterslides. Very cool.

Normally it is hot and sunny in the Black Hills in July, but we brought a bit of Seattle weather with us. One morning we drove over to see Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore, but when we got to Crazy Horse it was cool and foggy. We drove around a bit and found a kind of junk yard/rock shop/antique store where a perfectly friendly, and clearly crazy, pistol packing older gentleman was the proprietor. We found one of those triangles that you ring to call people to dinner and bought it for Amber's Mom who always seems to be cooking for an army. We then continued on, stopping at an unusual winery, and then found our way into Custer State Park. Our theory was to take the scenic route over to Mt Rushmore, but when we got into the park and looked at a map, we realized that the scenic route was a bit too scenic - quite long and ending in a dirt road down the mountain. We decided to leave that for another day when we were not driving Amber's old Cougar (where is the Pink Jeep when you need it?), and backtracked to the main highway. Along the way, however, I was able to get a cool photo of The Fingers in Custer State Park.

The next few days were mostly taken up with wedding preparations. More family and friends began to come into town. Amber's bridesmaids arrived and began to help and to have fun with Amber. Alex and I took off for an afternoon and drove go-karts and bumper boats and played mini golf. Many of the guests stayed in The Fountain Inn which features an interesting notice in all of the guest rooms. Alex and I stayed there on Friday night before the wedding. Everyone pitched in and was very helpful. The actual wedding was at the Flying V, or as it is locally known - The V. It is a historic landmark and very cool. We had planned an outdoor wedding and it was supposed to be sunny, but on the actual day there were thunder showers moving through the area. We would run out and take a few photos, then run back under cover, then back out again, etc. About an hour before the wedding, the rain stopped and the family ran out and dried off all of the chairs. My college roommate's Dad, and all around great guy, came up from Colorado to be our pastor. The ceremony was just perfect, and we had a very nice dinner and reception after. Amber and I got to dance to our song, cut the cake, throw the flowers, etc. in the great hall at The V. All of those photos will be posted later. After the reception, Amber and I climbed into her 1967 Galaxy and drove over to Jake's B&B in Custer, South Dakota for our wedding night. In hindsight, this was not a great plan. The bed and breakfast was excellent, but we had selected a 43 year old car to drive through Hell's Canyon at night. There are lots of deer, no shoulders, no guard rails, no airbags, no anti-lock brakes, no traction control, drum brakes, and lap belts - and lightening. The car is kept in perfect running order by Amber's Dad, and the rain and the deer kept their distance so we arrived at our evening's lodgings in good order. Whew.

The day after the wedding we returned to The V for brunch and the opening of presents and clean-up. Once again, everyone pitched in and was a huge help. After that we went back to Amber's parent's house to celebrate her grandmother's 80th birthday. There were lots of cousins for Alex to play with, and Amber's Dad, two uncles, and I invented a new game: Extreme Horse Shoes. Extreme Horse Shoes is just like regular horse shoes but you play it in a lightening storm with lots of dogs running around trying to trip you and catch the horse shoes. The final score was 10 to 8 in favor of Amber's
Dad and Uncle Bob when we called the game before we drowned. Pretty funny.

On our last, full day in Wyoming Amber took us out on an adventure. She hopped on her dirt bike, Alex and I borrowed her Mom's 4-wheeler, and a bunch of cousins jumped into The Pink Jeep. We drove all over so I could take some photos, and then we found our way to Shark's Tooth Hill. This whole area was a sea floor some millions of years ago, and there is a sandstone hill where shark's teeth wash out of the stone when it rains. The kids all took ziplock baggies and Amber showed them where to look so they could all find some shark's teeth. Looking south from Shark's Tooth Hill over Thunder Basin National Grasslands it is hard to imagine that people have ever walked this area. It is difficult to capture the vastness of it. Every time we crested a hill we caught another amazing, impossible vista. I am very glad that places like this still exist.

The trip was epic. Wyoming and the Black Hills are amazing. Amber's family is terrific. My family and friends that could make it were very kind and pitched in to help. Not everything went perfectly as planned, but Amber and I worked together and I feel even better about the two of us, if that is possible.
Frankly, I can't believe what a gigantic, cosmic do-over the universe is giving Alex and I - to meet Amber and her incredible family and to make our own, little family. You may or may not believe in God, but I sure can feel His helping hand in all of this, and I am humbled and awed by it.

Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River Road to be "Fixed"

2010-06-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

In the past I owned a Land Rover, and I did not just putter around town and do shopping with it. I actually took it up into the mountains during blizzards to go skiing, and I took it on National Forest Service "roads" (read: muddy, goat tracks) with like-minded friends. The greatest of these roads was The Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River Road.

The Middle Fork started off easily enough. The first bit is paved and passes perfect houses with perfect yards. That part ends very quickly, however, as the road dives into the forest. During the Spring snow melt, the river is a class 5 rapids, and the many sections of the road hang precariously to the side of a cliff. The road is often narrow, unhelpfully slanted towards the perilous drop, muddy, rutted, and slick. The "shoulders" of the road are best measured in inches, where they exist at all. There are no guard rails. If you go off the road, your best hope is that you will crash into a tree and stop before you land in the river. Ruined carcasses of cars that were not so lucky can be seen here and there.

For variety, the road includes steep, one lane (really 3/4th of one lane), rocky, steep, narrow, steep hill climbs, as well as bottomless mud pits, washouts, blackberry patches that can swallow a truck whole (saw this), potholes that can stop a Jeep dead (we saw this, too), and finally - The Mother Of All Mosquito Bogs.

So why on Earth would people drive down such a terrible road? We, and many others, drove it because it was Epic. Beautiful, untamed forest with a wild river running through it, and us trying not to die, crash, or snap an axle. You were beyond cell phone coverage, a long way to the nearest help, and you had to have your wits about you and really drive that road.

Now that I have a 4x4 truck again, I thought that I would drive the family out to see this incredible place - but it is closed. If you read the DOT list of reasons for closing the road you will see all of the reasons why we went there in the first place. They are trying to put together a project to widen the narrow spots, add shoulders and other safety improvements, and probably remove the mud pits, too.

If the DOT finishes the project then I am sure that the road will be much better. I probably won't find German tourists upside down in a blackberry patch in a rented 4Runner any more, but the road will probably lose most of its wildness. I feel kind of sad about that.