Category Archives: Family

It’s A Big World After All

February 11, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

It’s so easy to sit here, exurban house with woods, center of North America, a long string of way below zero nights and three feet of snow on the ground, it’s so easy to sit here and not see the rest of the world.

Case in point. My brother writes from Muhayil, Saudi Arabia. It’s in the southern third of Asir province, red on this map. You can see that Asir borders Yemen, right where the red touches the gray.

He received a warning from the American embassy today about terrorism. The embassy does not allow their staff within 50 miles of Yemen. He’s 100 miles. That’s not far as the shrike flies. In the same e-mail he talks about a man crucified nearby for practicing witchcraft. That was 2011. He says the Saudi government can and does publicly behead criminals, then flys their body around attached to a helicopter.

That’s terrorism, witchcraft, beheading and public display of a body by helicopter. True, we have Michelle Bachman, crack houses, pick-up trucks on the lakes and snowmobiles but we can’t touch that four.

Family, Travel

Minnesota RV and Camper Show

February 9, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

America. You know you’re in the land of the free and the home of the credit card when you pay to get into a place so you can convince yourself to buy something pretty expensive. That’s what Kate and I did today. We went to the Minnesota RV and Camper Show at the Minneapolis Coliseum.

(class A)

We’ve gone on several memorable RV trips, all earlier in our marriage and both enjoy the road. Kate in particular prefers modes of transportation that involve packing and unpacking least. RV’s and cruise ships match up well. Take the stuff out of the suitcases once, then pack it up to go home. Bliss, as far as Kate’s concerned. It’s not as important to me, but I see the advantage.

Our decision to keep multiple dogs has hampered our traveling by adding the cost of boarding. Otherwise, we might have set out on a third phase wanderjahr, cruising the blue highways.

(class C)

The show has row after of fifth wheel trailers with pull-down picnic decks, slide-outs and fireplaces. Yes, fireplaces. The class C motorhomes, the cabforward and bedroom, kitchen, living area immediately behind, used to be somewhat affordable. Now they’ve gone above $100,000, about what you would have paid for an A-class motorhome ten years ago. Unless you have a very ample wallet, the design and craftsmanship on the lower and mid-range vehicles veers from cheesy to tinny. $100,000 is a lot of money to pay for something with a door that flexes as you open it and stairs that wobble.

But Kate had seen something in the paper, something interesting. Not cheap exactly, but approaching affordable. The Vistabule teardrop trailer. Made here in Minnesota by a man whose commitment to good work is evident, these units intrigue me. A good way to see wilder places on the cheap without all the huffing and puffing of a pack.

Might be more on this later.

Family

Residents of North America Since 1717

February 7, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

A woodprint of Richard Ellis’s grand-son Dimick, born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in 1776. Richard was the first Ellis settler of my line in the U.S. and a captain in the Revolutionary Army. This print is on the flyleaf of a long, 272 page genealogical history of the Ellises descended through Richard. He was born in Dublin, Ireland to Welsh parents and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 13 in 1717. (just got the link to this book, of which I have a copy, today.)

Art and Culture, Asia, Family, Friends, Holidays, Myth and Story, Retirement, Third Phase, Woolly Mammoths

Ecce Homo

February 4, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

Scott got reservations at David Fong’s, a long time Chinese restaurant in Bloomington. David Fong, Yin’s brother, started a chow mein takeout on the same location about 50 years ago. This was eating in a Chinese restaurant on Chinese New Year’s, not eating a New Year meal. The food was very good, especially since Scott came complete with recommendations from Yin as to what we would like. Handy.

Frank, Warren, Tom, Scott and I were there. We shared our steak kow, mongolian beef, lo mein, honey crusted walnut shrimp, pot stickers and a crumbly chicken dish whose name I can’t recall. You put the chicken in a lettuce leaf, sort of like a taco. All of them were tasty.

We spent a lot of time talking about grandkids. Scott and I had a similar experience of five-year old grand-daughters who decided we were not “real” grandpop’s because we were not the biological father of their parent. As with Ruth, this has passed in Scott’s case, too.

Tom has set up an intriguing question for our February 17th meeting: What does it mean to be a male in our culture? He has also asked that we bring three images of men that will start off our conversation. I’ve got a few posted here, but as I’ve gone hunting for images it made me wonder if there is a book called the male image in art. Lots of such books for females, many of nudes, but of men? A quick google search in the books section shows none. Probably are some, but that they’re not obvious says something.

Another thought that occurred to me, and it relates to third phase life for men, is this, what is our image of a man at home? That is, beyond the guy with the fly-rod, golf club, barca-lounger, or woodshop. And these are based on the silly, even pernicious idea of third phase life for men as the replacement of work hours with a favorite leisure activity.

With no positive image of a man at home it’s difficult to understand how to be at home when one has left traditional work life behind.

Cinema and Television, Family, Sport

Guy Cred Lost

February 2, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Imbolc Valentine Moon

So much for solidarity with the grandkids. The Broncos got broke by the Seahawks. I missed it all. May be slipping away from guy cred, I know. That’s Peyton Manning there on the ground next to that nasty hoss.

Instead, Kate and I finished the 10th episode of the 9th season of the British cold case series, the Waking Dead, the finish of the series. It took dedication, perseverance and stamina to watch them all, but we did it. We’ll always have Waking the Dead. But not Superbowl 48.

Aging, Family, Third Phase

Mature Adults

January 31, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Winter Valentine Moon

Necessary but not necessarily pleasant work this morning. Kate and I went through our health care directives, making sure they still reflected what we wanted. Mostly. We then read through our wills with a similar purpose in mind. They’re seven years old. We need to ask the boys what, if anything, they might want in our estate so we can enter that in a list for them. We knew this seven years ago and somehow haven’t gotten around to it. Is that Denial I hear rushing by?

We looked, too, at our trust instruments. They, too, are mostly ok, but I still haven’t added Kate to our Vanguard account. Again, I’ve had seven years to do it. I promised I wouldn’t take any more than that amount of time before I got it done.

We also discussed funeral/celebration arrangements, coming to no firm conclusions, but with progress. Asked some time ago to donate my body to medical science so they can investigate my inner-ear bones–no, seriously, I intend to but haven’t gotten around to filling out the forms. Can you hear the beautiful blue Denial in the background?

After this we made a list of matters around the house that need attention. We’ve lived here 20 years and though we’ve kept with major things: new furnace, air conditioner, roof, siding, dishwasher for example, there are many smaller things. Our outdoor trim needs painting and in some places replacement. A lock here. A light fixture there. Handyman sort of things. We have a guy. A few garden things. Laying down woodchips in the vegetable garden. Pruning the orchard. Javier work.

Painting living room, kitchen, hall and master suite plus repairing that settling crack we’ve had for, what? 20 years? Finishing Touch painters.

Changing light bulbs and cleaning out the garage. Kate and me.

After all this responsible adult stuff, we went for lunch at Azteca, our favorite Mexican joint.

Family

Bonded, Dutiful

January 25, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Winter Seed Catalog Moon

Kate and I talked about Denver, about the grandkids, about dogs, about our home here. We’ve decided, for now, to remain here. When we’re down to one dog and/or, have smaller dogs, we might consider a move. If we end up in a situation where we have to vacate this house for physical reasons, we might consider a move.

We also discussed ways we can be more actively engaged in our grandchildren’s lives over a distance. In the past we’ve said we want to see them at least four times a year for a week or so at a time. The Stock Show, their birthdays, which, thankfully, are close together, a time in the summer and a time during Holiseason, Thanksgiving or Hanukkah for example. We’ve done regular skype times, but those grew pro forma, too routine; so we need to come up with ways to communicate with them regularly, but in different ways.

As a man of German cultural influence (though with considerable Celtic influence, too), there is a strong sense of duty when it comes to family and it got triggered this last visit to Colorado. These kids are not just Jon and Jen’s responsibility, but mine, too. Kate’s, too. While the American mobility patterns of the last few decades have separated us physically, the bonds are no less strong and no less real.

It’s up to Kate and me to figure how to remain in Gabe and Ruth’s life. We’re not alone in this, I know. Again, any thoughts from any of you out there will be appreciated.

Family, Great Work, Science, Sierra Club, Weather +Climate

Accentuating the Negative

January 23, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Winter Seed Catalog Moon

Again the even heat is so fine. Makes this feel like a work space instead of a commandeered backroom.

Most of the time today reading materials for the Climate Change MOOC and then listening a set of lectures by Richard Somerville. He’s a theoretical meteorologist which means that his work includes creating and running weather prediction and climate models. He is understandable and dispassionate. And all the more troubling for it.

(this “ski slope” graph shows the rates at which emissions have to reduce when peak CO2 emissions happen on three different dates, one already past. And we’re currently accelerating. again, see Great Wheel for particulars.)

It’s bugging me right now that I’m putting up all this negative information on Great Wheel, but the terrain ahead of us has become clearer and clearer the further I go in this course. The world needs to act soon and the developed world needs to show leadership. The EU has committed to emission goals that will meet the challenges and they have more people and a larger economy than we have. We need to act.

Then, we have to figure out the issue of sustainable development in the developing world, especially China and India, but in Brazil and Russia, too, the BRIC countries. And we really don’t have much time. In order to avert literal disaster (see Great Wheel for particulars) emissions worldwide have to peak no later than 2020 and begin then a very sharp reduction. By very sharp reduction I mean getting to a world with 80% less carbon emissions before 2050. 80%!!!!!!!!!!!

This, the Great Work of Thomas Berry’s work of the same name, is one on which we cannot fail. If we do, we consign our grandchildren (Ruth and Gabe) and their children to a world of currently unimaginable extremes in sea level rise, temperature, significant rainfall events, coral bleaching, ocean acidification and probably an increased severity of hurricanes and typhoons. You wouldn’t want to live in this world and your children’s children won’t want to either.

Family, Our Land and Home, Woolly Mammoths

Welcome Home

January 23, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Winter Seed Catalog Moon

-20. That should be cold enough. Felt good to come downstairs to an evenly heated 69 rather than the previous starts at 59 or 58. The barometers pointed straight up and already at 30.75. That’s pretty high. Means a big cold front is here and likely to hang around for a while.

Being with Warren and Sheryl at the Dakota, listening to local jazz musicians felt like a welcome home. Out with Kate and good friends, in the city. One of the things I’d miss if we left.

Even the punishment of the cold last night. A signal that this winter would be winter. No, not all of them have been that way recently, but at least this one is and the further you go from here south the less likely this kind of weather is. Ever.

On the other hand there’s Gabe, “Grandpop, would you write about baby animals?” Ruth, “Don’t go, Grandpop. Don’t go.”

Family, Sport, Travel, US History

Write About Baby Animals.

January 20, 2014 Charles Leave a comment

Winter Seed Catalog Moon

Gabe, to whom I read some of my blog entry about our trip to the Children’s Museum, asked me, as we were walking away from the MLK Rodeo, “Grandpop, write about baby animals. About how cute they are and how I love them.” We’d just seen a Holstein and her calf bedded down for the night in a pen behind the Denver Coliseum.

This was our usually annual visit to the stock show. (I missed last year with another round of doggy surgery and expense.) We go walk through the exhibits, look at farm equipment, see livestock exhibitions, admire the Cinch cruel denim ads, the cowboy hats and boots for sale, the cattle stalls and leather vests. One booth, Colorado Tanners, had hides and pelts which could be made into anything you want. Can’t forget the really big belt buckles, lots of’em.

It was busy this year because we came on MLK day. In the past I’ve tried to hit weekdays when the crowds are smaller. This time, though, I wanted to take the kids especially to the MLK rodeo with all African-American cowboys and cowgirls. It was a good choice, as it turned out, but it meant the holiday crowds were there.

106 years old this is the largest stock in the world by number of animals involved. It’s a big deal and people come from all over to participate. I always see folks with Iowa State sweat-shirts, for example.

The rodeo announcer distinguished himself as a racist, saying, “There’s one thing about this crowd. They’ve got rhythm.” But worse, at another point, when a second announcer described a 24-year old cowgirl as looking 14, the announcer said, “But that never stopped you did it.” This tarnished the event for me. Which is putting it mildly.

The events themselves though were good. Calf-roping, considered a high art among the rodeo crowd, was good. (if you weren’t the calf.) So was the bronc-riding and the barrel racers.

When we got back to the hotel, Ruth grabbed me and said, “I don’t want you to go Grandpop.” Gabe came around the car and gave me a big hug. So did Jon and Jen. It was family. Three generations appreciating each other. Wow.