Did the Crocus Croke

Just when you think that Mother Nature is giving you a break from winter she hits you with another snow storm.  Well actually it wasn't so much of a storm as just a nice gentle overnight snow that came straight down covering all the tree branches with a white coating.  It was about an inch on the ground and did provide kind of a winter wonderland but at this point I didn't really care about any more wonderlands.

We have been having some really nice warm (50's and 60's) spring weather and the bulbs and spring flowers have been coming up like crazy.  We have some crocus around the yard that have started to bloom and over at Joan's mom's house there was a solitary daffodil that had bloomed.  I never realized how many they had planted until I was there working in the yard for a couple days cleaning out leaves and sawing up some limbs that the heavy snowfall had broken off a couple of pine trees.  There is a woods on the back of their property with a trail that dad always kept up so that you could easily walk to the back of the property.  They had planted daffodils along each side of the path almost the whole length of it and they were pushing up their leaves and probably will be blooming in a few days.  It should be quite a display of yellow blooms.

Did the crocus croke in the snow?  Below you can see the crocus blooms struggling to stay in the sun in spite of the spring snow coating all around.  Did the crocus croke - no I don't think so because we know that Mother Nature knows best.  The blooms just close up and when the sun comes out they come out again also.

These photos were just taken a couple of days again on March 26th.

Life is Good

A Tale of Murder - Part 3

At the end of Part 2 of this story my cousin Dick Lowther had been injured during the attempted robbery of coins from his home during the early hours of the morning on July 2, 2009.  When the dogs started barking warning a next door neighbor that something was awry he came out swinging a club chasing at least one of the robbers away.  He stopped to help Dick and called 911.  Dick was taken to the closest hospital, Robinson Memorial, in Ravenna.  The attending surgeon from Robinson testified in court that Dick said that when he went to the door a guy grabbed him, pushed him down to the floor, sat on him and held his head down.  The surgeon testified that Dick had a significant spinal cord injury and had loss of feeling and loss of movement.  The spinal cord had started swelling and as a result he was loosing feeling and ability to use his muscles to breathe.

I am telling this story from my knowledge of what happened as reported to us by Dick's sons and as reported in the Record-Courier newspaper.  The Record-Courier is the major newspaper published in Ravenna which is the county seat of Portage County and the site of the county courthouse where the trials of the robbers were to be eventually held.  The news of the robbery was front page news and included many photos of the perpatrators.  I would scan and put this information in the blog but am reluctant as I don't know what laws may apply to copyrighted published material.

Dick was life flighted to Akron City Hospital for more intensive care.  I don't know all the details of the treatment but I understand that surgery was done to repair his broken neck.  For a short time after the surgery Dick was off the ventilator and could talk and reveal the details of the assault.  Shortly after that he had to be put under heavy sedation due to complications.  For the next couple of weeks Dick remained in a comatose condition with little improvement until the doctors started to try and bring him out of the coma.  At first things were slow but eventually Dick did respond and regained some degree of consciousness but still required major life support. 

Dick was paralyzed from the chest down and a quadriplegic from the injuries and continued life support was required to maintain life in somewhat of a delicate balance to prevent infections and just keep him breathing. 

This is where some very hard decisions are presented to those involved in a situation like this.  At this point Dick could only commuicate by simple head movements.  The family along with the doctors decided to remove life support and for a short time without tubes, etc., Dick was able to communicate that he did not want to remain under life support.  Dick's life journey ended on July 30, 2009.
 
What a shame for an innocent retired person enjoying life with family and friends to have his life taken away by people engaged in such a deplorable act.  To be sitting watching TV one moment and then a few minutes away a quadriplegic and mortally injured is one of those twists and turns in life that you can't possibly imagine happening.   I guess the moral of the story here is to never open the door to your house to anyone at anytime asking for help.  As Dick's son said an offer to call 911 and report a motorist in distress is the only way to deal with this in todays world.

During Lent our Wednesday evening meetings have been discussing praying and ways of communicating with God.  This past Wednesday part of the discussion was termed "praying with the scriptures" and one way of doing this is putting yourself into one of the stories or persons of the Bible.  When asked who you might see yourself as or relate to one person said The Good Samaritan.  I have been thinking about this in terms of Dick's experience.  Is there a limit or should there be in terms of helping others?  I guess that a degree of caution and investigation is necessary at the beginning of helping anyone in todays world with all the scams out there.  Once you find out the details of who you're helping then go for it to the extent that you are able.  Was it any different in Bible times?  Probably not and like the saying goes - there's nothing new under the sun. The moral of the Good Samaritan story was to help others in need and that is a good thing but I would add to start cautiously.  Dick's intention was to help someone as he did many times before but little did he know what was waiting outside his door.

Next in the tale - the bad guys!

Life is good - enjoy!

The Day to Plant Peas

Thursday - 3/18/2010

I forgot to put in yesterday's entry a key item and also I have to make a concession that Mother Nature maybe doesn't really have a "cold heart" afterall.  In light of the great spring weather during the last week maybe I was hasty in making such an accusation.  We've been experiencing great spring weather, probably more like May weather this past week with the highs around 60 to 65 with a lot of sunshine and just perfect for working in the yard or garden.

I was thinking back to what my father used to say around this time of year which was that we should plant peas on St. Patrick's Day.  I don't remember if we ever did this but probably not as the ground is usually still too wet and cold but yesterday was perfect and spading the ground was easy. I got the shovel out and spaded enough ground to plant two rows of peas and left it to dry out most of the afternoon.  Late afternoon the ground was perfect to rake and plant.   I had to make a trip to Hartville Hardware to buy some seed as I didn't have any left from last year.  I picked Little Marvel which according to the tag on the bin had the shortest growing season of 63 days so around May 20th we should be eating fresh peas out of the garden if my father knew what he was talking about.  I didn't however check the phase of the moon  and all those other factors so critical with gardening.

All this is also predicated on whether the ground hogs, possum, deer, raccoons, etc., that use our garden as a lunch basket leave the peas alone.  I think that peas were one of the vegetables they left alone last year.  They sure loved the green beans.

Mother Nature - we're in your hands.  Sunday when we get the predicted rain mixed with snow we'll be complaining about the weather again but we know that it won't last.

Life is Good

Two Days at Enjoyable Hard Labor

Wednesday - 3/17/2010
Happy St. Patrick's Day to All
A slight diversion from "A Tale of Murder".
The last couple of days have been the most fantastic of spring days.  The sky has been cloudless and with clear blue skies with temps around 60 degrees our yard was calling for help in getting cleaned up.  One of the annual spring tasks seems to be to clean all the gravel and pieces of sod that the snow plow throws onto our grass on the berm of the road.  I thought that last year was bad but this year set a new standard.  Undoubtedly the large amount of snow increased the number of times the plow came through.  I can't be critical of the job that they did and we always had a clear road to get out of the neighborhood.  I do wish they wouldn't put their blade beyond the edge of the paved surface and leave the loose gravel and sod in place.  So much about ranting about that.

So yesterday the whole day was spent shoveling and raking gravel and sod off of our yard and then hauling it away with the garden tractor and trailer.  My next door neighbor Jack helped me some and then we worked on his.  Getting out of bed this morning brought the discovery of aches and pains in places that I didn't know I had.  Last evening Joan had started cleaning out leaves and debris from our flower beds and there were many piles around which I added more of and started cleaning those up plus cleaned out all the debris from last years vegetable garden. 

To my surprise I came across the area where I had planted carrots and found some of the green carrot tops sticking out.  I had left some in the rows on purpose and planned to dig some during the winter but I had forgotten all about it.  I went ahead and dug them out and found them in great condition.  Below is a photo of my harvest.
(left click to enlarge)

In case you are wondering about the colors they are from some heritage seed that I bought that supposedly were grown as long ago as 1000 years.  They are called carnival blend carrots and pretty neat I think.  Upon eating some I got wondering if they were anything like ice wine made from grapes that were frozen increasing the sugar content as the carrots in my opinion seemed sweeter and had more flavor that they had last fall.

Life is Good.

A Tale of Murder - Part 2

In the last blog entry I told a little about my cousin Dick and some family background and at the end I was explaining that Dick was peacefully sitting at home watching TV after midnight in the early hours of July 2, 2009 when there was a knock at the door.  It was a young woman saying that her car had broken down nearby and could she use the phone to call for help.  Dick was always the type of person to help someone when they had a problem and invited her in to use the phone. 

Shortly after she was in the door Dick heard some more noise outside and going to the door was attacked by two more males waiting outside.  One knocked Dick down a put his foot on his neck to hold him there.  In the meantime the other male and woman began searching through the house for coins reportedly worth $50,000 and possibly also any guns that Dick had.  During all of this there was another male waiting on the street as the driver of the get away car.    The female and male in the house began searching for the coin collections that they had came after and possibly any guns.  About this time the noise had stirred up the dog next door and he began barking and had aroused the neighbor.

At this point the robbery plan started falling apart and time had run out for the robbers to make any kind of a significant haul.  Next door the neighbor had awakened and seeing that something extremely wrong was happening came out of his house to investigate with a large wooden dowel and seeing Dick being attacked and held down went after the guy with the club.  By this time the man and woman inside the house had grabbed some coins and they fled to the car along with Dick's attacker and made a get away.  The neighbor seeing that Dick was seriously injured called 911 for help. 

I don't know how the police system works but apparently an all points bulletin was put out on the robbery and that the theft of coins was involved.  Later in the morning an off duty policeman acting as a security guard at an IGA grocery store observed people trying to convert coins to dollars at the machine there and having some problems doing it.  He put two and two together and called it in and asked for backup.  Within a matter of hours all four were under arrest.  What they were trying to cash in were 740 commenorative quarters worth about $185 and amounted to their entire heist.

(To be continued)

A Tale of Murder - Part 1

This is a true murder story and the victim in the story was my cousin whose name was Richard "Dick" Lowther and lived in Rootstown, Ohio. 

Dick was a first cousin of mine and the son of Arthur and Hazel Lowther, Arthur being the brother of my mother.  I have many memories of the times during the growing up years when my parents and uncle Art and aunt Hazel were all alive us cuzzin's would be able to get together.  Most of these times involved meals either in Kent, Ohio at my aunt and uncles house or at our farmhouse in Uniontown which was about 20 miles south of Kent.  This wasn't a real often gathering but maybe once a month or so.  This was back in the days when the whole family would gather around the dining table to eat together and enjoy whatever topics of discussion came up.  Aunt Hazel was an excellent cook and my mother was a great cook so wherever it was it was a great meal.  We lived on a farm and my mother could whip up a meal for two people or twenty people at the drop of a hat covering the table with dishes of food mostly from the garden and farm.  Joan always jokes that you couldn't see the table for the food and that is no joke. The culture of our two families was quite different. We were "country folks" and they were "city folks".

My grandparents (Lowther) lived in the south half of a farmhouse that my parents owned across Portage Line Road from our house.  My brother and his family lived in the north half of the house so I spent a lot time over around there.  My cousins and aunt and uncle would come often to see the grandparents there.

Growing up on the farm I only had one friend that lived relatively close by and the general area had not turned into housing developments yet.  It was pretty much scattered small farms and in those post war times a lot of the owners had gone to working in the rubber shops.  My father said that they were not real farmers since they did not earn their living farming but were just city farmers.  In some ways I think that my parents liked it that there were not a lot of kids around to influence me during my "growing up" years.  So when the occasion came to go to Kent to visit my cousins there it was somewhat of an experience for me.  They lived in the city of Kent and had a lot of other friends of their age in the neighborhood and going there was always a mind expanding experience with me being the naive country cousin.

Usually about once a summer mom and dad would let me stay at my cousins house for a weekend  and vice versa they would come and stay at the farm for a few days.  Dick was a couple years older than I was so he had a drivers license before I did although I started driving tractors and trucks on the farm starting around eight years old (another story).  Dick's sister Diane was about my age so it was always fun to go there and meet the neighborhood kids and run around in the "big" city.  One memorable summer day Dick and some of his buddies decided to go to Twin Lakes where someone they knew had an abandoned property and they went swimming. I was never sure whether they had permission to do this or not but they talked me into going along.  I couldn't swim but there was a nice sand beach there and a short ways out there was a wooden platform fastened.  They said that the water was not too deep and I would be able to walk out to the platform.  Going out wasn't too bad keeping my head above water but coming back I must have been at a different place as I missed my footing and amongst flailing of arms one of the other guys pulled me to shore and after gasping for breath and spitting out water that I had swallowed I was fine.  I think that it was somewhat of a life saving experience overall.  I never told my parents about that experience as it was one of those things that you don't tell parents about it or it would mean no more opportunities of that kind.

When the cousins came to the farm it was a different experience for them also.  It would be times of playing in the hay mow and jumping down into a pile of hay, going back to the creek on the farm and fishing and doing the kinds of things that I thought was fun.  It was probably somewhat boring but nevertheless "different" for them.  Dad always could think of some kind of work for us to do so that would keep us out of mischief.  One day when Dick was probably around nineteen and I had my drivers license he showed up with a '57 Chevy with glass packs.  He let me drive it and boy was that cool.

Over the years as we all grew older we went our separate ways and seeing Dick was maybe just a once a year thing at a reunion or anniversary gathering or chance meeting at the Portage County Fair.  Sometimes he would just stop by to see what was happening.  Dick had a family and eventually was separated and the last number of years lived by himself in Rootstown.  He was well known in the area belonging to a number of social organizations such as Parents Without Partners, Ravenna Moose, Kent Masonic Lodge, Kent Canadian Club, Kent Coin Club, and United Methodist Church of Kent.  Dick was an avid coin collector and had a collection worth quite a bit of money.  He also reportedly had a collection of guns.

This background leads up to the happenings of early in the morning of July 2, 2009 when a woman came to Dick's door saying that her car had broken down nearby and needed help.

Mother Nature Has a Cold Heart

I'm just going to cover January and February weather in general with a few comments as I'm not disciplined to write daily on the blog   Anyone that likes snow would have loved January and February in Ohio as we virtually had snow almost everyday.  We were fortunate in that all of the snow came down gently and we didn't have any wind and blowing snow to speak of causing drifting or we would have had a real mess to contend with.

We had plenty of snow the weekend that we got back from North Carolina and without much drifting the road crews have done a great job in our township to keep the roads passable.  I decided however that I would rather mow the grass twice a week in the summer than run the snowblower four or five times a week and sometimes twice a day in the winter.  Below is a photo of some driveway clearing with the snowblower.

From the last week of January and through February the snow just kept coming down almost on a daily basis. We didn't see the ground until this week (3/9).

Where did we park the van?

An excellent example of an "ice dam" or put another way damn ice.

I had to try this - it didn't hurt much and came right off after Joan poured the warm water over it.

The birds have been really hungry. 

One of the worst disasters that happened was the collapse of ten hangars at the airport where we keep our plane resulting in the destruction of 10 maybe 11 planes.  I think that one hangar may have had 2 homebuilts in it.  Ouch!!

Fortunately ours held up fine in spite of the heavy load of snow you can see on the roof.  Here's 25Whiskey poking its cowling out of the hangar.

Looking forward to Spring.

A Week of Concern and Rememberances

The week of February 1, 2010

The week of February 1st was a week of snow and trips to the hospital to see Joan's dad.

Joan spent a couple of nights at the hospital alternating with her brothers and sister.  It was a tough week as dad was too weak to undergo treatments that might have solved part of his physical problems.  Late in the week he was released back to the assisted care facility.  Mom and dad had been in a stand alone cottage where they enjoyed some self-sufficiency but returning from the hospital they were put in a room in the main building where dad could receive more intensive care.  On Saturday morning around 8:15AM dad quietly passed away.  Over the past couple of years dad had some congestive heart failure but in general had been in fair but declining health but he never really complained about feeling bad.  In a sense the happenings of the last week transpired rather quickly and he was gone quicker than any of the family would have thought if asked a month or two ago.

The death of a parent makes you think of your own mortality and the death of my own father back in 1976 caused me to adopt Joan's dad as my own surrogate father.  Both men were probably best described as kind and gentle people and shared many common traits.  Both were firm in their faith and supporters of their churches.  Some common names were shared - my dad's middle name was Floyd, Joan's dad's first name was Floyd and my brothers middle name was Eugene which was Joan's dad's middle name.

Growing up we never missed going to worship on Sunday and never worked on the farm on Sunday other than the normal chores that had to be done such as milking the cows.  It was a rare Sunday that we did some kind of work on the farm that was deemed necessary such as getting a field of hay in the mow before expected rain on Monday.  I only ever heard dad cuss one time and that was when we were moving the combine and a grain wagon from a farm that we tenant farmed in Uniontown.  Dad was anxious to get to a different field to combine wheat because the weather was good and the grain was dry.  I don't remember who was driving which but as we were about to pull out onto Canton Rd. whoever was second bumped the other and it broke a hydraulic line on the front of the tractor and hydraulic oil went everywhere.  That pretty much ended the combining for that day as we had to park the tractor and go get parts and make repairs taking up most of the afternoon.  Well it probably wasn't the first time that I heard those words but it was the first that I heard my dad say them.  It was definitely an overstressed situation for dad.  As much time that I spent with Joan's dad I never heard a cuss word.

Joan's dad was a veteran of World War II and received The Bronze Cross and Purple Heart.  He served his country well having left his wife and daughter Joan back home.  The family was fortunate that he was able to return home at the end of the war at a time when many didn't.  We all consider him a hero in our eyes.  Some of his letters home during the war survived and are very tender and expressed his love for his wife through his own words and those of poems of other authors that he sent.

Some of the good times that I was glad to share with Joan's dad was fishing.  We made a number of trips to Wingfoot Lake some of which when the macular degeneration had taken some toll on his eyesight but even if he couldn't see the bobber very well he could still catch as many or more that me.  One of the very memorable fishing trips that we have talked about many times was a day fishing in South Carolina on Lakes Moultrie and Marion.  Dad, Joan's brother John, and myself had hired a guide named Tom to find some catfish to catch.  Tom was kind of an "old codger" and I think that dad in particular wasn't taking well to his demanding ways in telling us how to fish.  He was real fussy in where and how to put the line in, how to hold the pole, etc., etc., and keep your eye on your line and not be looking around enjoying the scenery.  We had just spent about 20 minutes getting started fishing and getting our instructions from Tom when dad hooked onto the first fish of the day and it was a big one at that.  Tom helped dad land a 39 pound catfish (we have always called it a 40 pound, you know how fishermen are) into the bottom of the boat. We all stood around looking at it dumbfounded as it was the probably the largest fish any of us had ever seen let alone caught. Tom started yelling at the rest of us to not pay any attention to the fish and watch our lines which was kind of hard to do with such a big fish at your feet.  We knew later of course that Tom wanted us to be ready in case there was another big fish that might hit one of the other lines.  We ended the day with a whole lot of catfish and of course dad won the pots for the first and largest fish.

In later discussions with Tom during breaks or over lunch we found out that he served during World War II in the Pacific islands.  He was one of the guys that went onto the islands and directed fire from the big guns on the battleships offshore.  He was another war hero.  After we found that out we were glad to accept his instructions.  On a later trip Joan's mom also went along and her presence created a whole different atmosphere and we all had a great time.

Joan's brother Scott spent a couple of nights with dad in the hospital and had some heartfeld discussions with him.  Scott gave a very nice talk at dad's funeral about family times and dad's relationship with the family.  Scott said that one of the lasts things that dad had told him was that he had "no regrets".  What a wonderful thing to be able to say in your last days is that you did your best and have no regrets!

We Head Back to Ohio

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Saturday was a pretty laid back day with the city for the most part snowbound.  Hardly a vehicle was moving in the area and after venturing out to check a few things in the trailer I knew why.  I found out that running shoes are not the best thing to wear for traction on the ice and had to hold on to the stair railing and tread easy and slowly to get to the sidewalk.  If you had a pair of ice skates you could have skated on the street.  

We stayed around the house and just made ready for the trip back tomorrow.  Joan had a neckless that needed a couple of repairs so Jean worked on that.  Jean is creative in all artistic endeavors but has specialized in jewelry making the last few years and does a lot of work in silver.  She has some of the neatest tools including a small rolling mill to create consistently flat sheets to work with.  Below she is working on Joan's necklace.

(left click to enlarge)

Below is Joan and Jean just enjoying the time to relax.  The weather was in one sense a blessing in that we could just stay in and relax and not feel like we needed to go and do something around town.

I spent some time on Jean's computer and making phone calls to AAA or whoever we could think of to try and get reports on road conditions.  For all the technology available you would think that there would be better information readily available.  I'll have to admit that the live video cameras at a couple of the entrances to tunnels on the turnpike were interesting and somewhat helpful.

Early Sunday morning I took a walk for a couple of blocks and went as far as the main side street along the complex to see what the local road conditions were like.  I thought that if we could get to the Interstate that was just a few miles away we would be okay to travel.  North Carolina uses very little road chemicals and don't have the equipment to plow snow as they normally only have one or two snows a year and they melt off in a day or so.  A couple of intersections and a minor hill to get to the main street had been sanded and I was pretty sure that we could eventually get to the Interstate.

We said our goodbyes and crept out of the neighborhood with the trailer.  That thousand pounds of tongue weight on the center of the rear wheels on the fifth wheel attachment helped I think as we made it all the way out without too much trouble.  Don't know what I would have done if we would have started sliding backwards down that one grade with the trailer behind us.

We made it to the Interstate with little trouble.  As we headed up good old I77 there was always one lane that was just wet but clear of ice but almost always one lane had ice that was breaking up and if you tried to drive on it you could only go about 20-30 miles per hour as it was extremely rough.  Our solution was to follow the semi that was a discrete distance ahead of us and when he changed lanes we changed lanes.  By the time we started climbing the mountain up to Fancy Gap the road was just wet and clear of all snow and ice.

As we pulled into the I think the first rest area in West Virginia we had clear Carolina blue skies and all was good as far as traveling.  Parking along side a semi made me feel a little like one of the truckers.  The poor trailer was covered with salt and dirt and in a sad state and was going to remain that way for a while after we got home.

  

The rest of the trip home was uneventfuland.  We decided to go directly to the hospital in Massillon to see dad.

A Phone Call from Home

Friday, 1/29/2010

You will probably notice that my comments for a given day is usually earlier than the post date but no matter how hard I try I can't keep up with making the posts current.  Oh well, it just means that you are reading stale news I guess.

Jean had a jewelry making class previously scheduled today so we were on our own to do with the day as we pleased.  This actually worked out OK as we needed a little down time after the rush to get packed and getting on the highway.  Jean had left us with instructions on how to walk to downtown Belmont without getting lost so late morning we went for a walk.  It was still a nice day but cool.  Belmont is really a nice small town in the suburbs of Charlotte with the advantages of being only 15-20 minutes driving time to downtown Charlotte and yet gives the feeling of small town life far from a major city.

(Left click to enlarge)

Our first stop was at a bicycle shop to take a look at bike carriers.  We have a four bike carrier that we put on the back bumper of our trailer which gives it a considerable bouncing, action on the highway.  It is designed for a 1 1/2 inch receiver that we have on our mini-van and we use a reducer so that it will fit the 2 inch receiver on the trailer bumper.  At any rate there is some bounce effect on the back of the trailer and on the trip down I had noticed at rest stops that the horizontal arm that holds the bikes was getting to be not so horizontal and also had developed a slight tilt to the side.  It was starting to make me a little nervous and I didn't want to lose all four bikes on the highway someplace.

The bike shop didn't have any four bike carriers in stock so I decided to move one bike to the truck bed and one into the trailer.  With just two bikes left on the carrier I decided it would not be a worry about any catastrophe happening.

From the bike shop we went on up town and stopped at an old time hardware store that was probably as old as the town itself.  From there we stopped at a couple of antique stores and made one purchase of a book named "Catrimony" that uses photographs of cats with one liners of human marriage situations.  Kinda unique.

Belmont has a number of restaurants that look like good places to eat but we elected to stop at one that Jean had told us about.  It is sponsored by the Catholic Church Sister's of Mercy and provides a place for persons with mental and physical handicaps to work and gain a sense of worth to their lives.  We enjoyed the meals very much and would recommend it to anyone going through Belmont.  The name of the cafe is Cherubs Cafe and operates under the Holy Angel organization founded in 1956.  They are a committed organization founded to help all ages and degrees of handicapped persons. 

We found our way back to Jean's house and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  We had began to hear warnings of a major snow storm headed to North Carolina having moved from Texas up through the middle south of the country.  Jean's friend Don came over and we enjoyed an excellent dinner and celebrated Jean's birthday.

It was about this time that we received a phone call from Joan's sister back home that Joan's dad had fainted at the assisted living facility where they moved to last year and had been admitted to the hospital for tests.  When we leave home we are always concerned with the health and well being of loved ones and not being close in case of problems arising.  Mom and dad had been pretty good over the last couple of months and although we are always thinking of them we didn't have a high concern of any immediate problems or we wouldn't have left.  Now our concern was high and our thoughts were of dad and if and when to leave for home pending the outcome of the tests and dad's overall condition.

Snow was falling now outside and quickly covering the area and the warnings of a major storm hitting North Carolina were coming true.  We went to bed with heavy hearts.

Saturday dawned with about 4 inches of snow cover with the storm continueing.  The precipitation had turned to sleet and freezing rain which was now covering the snow.  Everything was virtually shut down in the area and no one was traveling on the highways.  We couldn't go anyplace today if we wanted to especially towing a trailer.

We got the call that dad had been diagnosed with a couple of very serious problems and in his weakened condition there was little treatment that they could do especially a possible surgery.  The decision was now obvious that we needed to return to Ohio but when was the question.

Outside the snow was now covered with about a half to an inch of ice and venturing out on it required you to hold onto something with one hand.  The streets had become skating rinks with for some reason the snow and freezing rain turning into solid ice.  Observe below.

We decided to wait it out Saturday and see what the roads were like on Sunday.

In Search of the Sun - Part 2

Thursday - 2/28/2010

After a somewhat interesting night we had a relaxed breakfast in the trailer and didn't hurry to get started as we had only about seven hours of driving time to get to our destination of Belmont, NC where our friend Jean lives.  Leaving Marietta and heading to Charleston, WV it was overcast and the roadway somewhat wet but no snow.  The trip down the West Virginia turnpike went well and the mountains were not a problem.  We hadn't been down I77 with the fifth wheel before and I was wondering how it would go.  We have found the fifth wheel to be much more stable than the pull trailer that we had years ago.

The weather really improved as we got into Virginia with blue skies and the temperature up to around 55.  It almost seemed like summer to us after the sub-freezing temperatures in Ohio.  We were really glad that the weather co-operated as the mountains through West Virginia and Virginia are not something that I would want to do on slippery roads with the trailer.  We really like the panoramic views coming down the mountain into North Carolina from Fancy Gap.  It's hard to keep your eyes on the highway when there is such beautiful scenery, almost like being in an airplane looking down.  To the south you see Pilot Mountain with it's dome pointing up from the level surroundings on the beginning of the Piedmont area around it.

From there it was a relatively easy drive on down to Charlotte with beautiful weather.  As usual we had to make a phone call to Jean for the last couple miles of instructions.  I have got to download the most recent maps into our GPS as the version that came with it over a year ago doesn't have her street address in it and I can never remember the last couple of turns.

Jean has a beautiful home in Belmont and makes us feel at home there.  Jean and I have known each other since grade school and our families have traveled together a lot over the years and in fact Joan and my first camping trip as a couple was with Jean's family down to Mohican State Park in Ohio.  That was back in the days when you primitive camped down along the river before the state turned the park into a resort type park with a lodge and pool, etc.  Since then memorable times have included camping in Yellowstone Nat'l Park, a hike down into the Grand Canyon and staying overnight at the Phantom Ranch, and the hike in the Swiss Alps.  All great times.

We parked the trailer on the street in front of her house and decided to let Inky have the trailer all to himself and Joan and I accepted Jean's invitation to stay in the house.

Another good day of travels.

In Search of the Sun

Wednesday - January 27, 2010

We had made the decision after returning from China to head south in search of sunshine and warm weather for the month of February.  Weather in northeast Ohio is particularly dismal from mid-November through February with mostly overcast days and little sunshine.  Add to that numerous days of snow, slush, and maybe some freezing rain for good measure just to make things miserable.  Last year we spent February in Phoenix and discovered that there are places where you don't have to endure the depression caused by the northern Ohio environment.  One of those light panels that you can sit next to might be a good investment.  They say that they actually do work.  However, if you can why not go where you can enjoy real sunshine.

One of the reasons that the Ravenna Arsenal was built about forty miles northeast of our house to manufacture ammunition's for World War II was because of the high percentage of overcast days during the year.  It was thought that any enemy bombers would unlikely be able to find it under the cloud cover.  It's nice that we could support the war effort in this manner.

It seems that we were really busy in early January and had decided to wait until after a Habitat meeting on the evening of the 26th and then hit the road with the fifth wheel on Wednesday the 27th.  We still had a lot of packing to do Wednesday morning but decided that whenever we were ready we would leave and that turned out to be about 2 PM.  We planned on a stop in Charlotte to see our friend Jean for a day or two but knowing that it was about 9 or 10 hours driving time with the trailer we would be making an overnight stop someplace along the way.  Fortunately we hit a break in the weather and the roads were good even though the ground had been covered with snow for a number of days.

Unfortunately the temps were in the 20's so I didn't want to put water in the holding tank of the trailer or fill the piping and take a chance that it would freeze.  I had drained it and put in non-toxic antifreeze back in October so that's the way we started out.  After all we would be in Charlotte soon and would be able to fill up there with it undoubtedly being above freezing.

So about 2 we headed down I77 towards Marietta.  We decided to stop in Marietta to eat since we had kind of missed lunch before leaving home.  By this time it was around 5 and the wise decision seemed to be to find a place to stay overnight.  While we were eating we took out the campground guide and found out that there were two campgrounds close by.  We called the first one and it had closed permanently.  We called the second and they were closed for the season.  Now it was either a motel or the Wal-Mart and we opted for the Wal-Mart parking lot.  The furnace heated up the trailer quickly, Inky (cat) was happy and we had all we needed to be comfortable for the night - a well stocked refrigerator, our own bed, etc.  The only thing missing was a way to flush the toilet.  A trip to Wal-Mart and a purchase of a case of bottled water solved that problem.

About 2 AM I woke up to the familiar sound of a helicopter not far away and it just seemed to be staying in one place.  I took a look out of the bedroom window and about a few hundred yards away was the helicopter hovering with a large spotlight flashing around on the ground.  There was light snow in the air and the spotlight really showed up well.  That was about the time that I remembered hearing on the radio as we approached Marietta that there was a manhunt on in Washington County and a helicopter had been loaned to the local police for the search.  Time to check that I had locked the door.  The familiar chop-chop went on for maybe a half hour or so and then quit so I assume that they got their man.

So ends our first day of searching for the sun.
Life is good.

Hangzhou, Shanghai and Home

November 19th and 20th, 2009
I am finally trying to wrap up the trip to China.  There have been so many other things that have been keeping me busy but I have to make way for the next journey.  I had been studying for the FAA written Instrument exam for a number of months along with ground school a couple times a week but I took the test on January 25th and passed it.  Now I look forward to the flying part to actually practice IFR approaches to airports, holding patterns, and the other related parts that I have studied about but now will do in real life with the instructor.  All this will lead up to the next test - flying with an FAA examiner to hopefully get my instrument rating.

We had a day in Hangzhou to do sightseeing of this interesting city.  Hangzhou was founded 2,200 years ago which makes it a couple of centuries newer than Suzhou.  These time periods are amazing compared to the United States and cities here.  Maybe not if you consider the indigenous American Indians as the original inhabitants. 

A word or two about the Grand Canal (mentioned earlier).  Another pretty incredible manmade thing in China.  It extends from Hangzhou to Beijing in the north 1,103 miles and even though shorter than the Great Wall it too is an amazing creation at a time when manual labor was the moving force behind it.  The Grand Canal is the longest manmade canal in the world.  Early parts of it were started in 486 BC.  The elevation of the canal varies from 1 meter below sea level in Hanzhou to 38.5 meters above sea level at its summit.  Amazingly flat for that long a distance.  The canal was built originally to transport grain from the northern reaches of the country to the south.  An estimated 360,000 tons at its peak.  Today bricks, gravel, sand, diesel fuel, and coal travel on the canal.  An estimated 75 million tons are handled through the Jainbi locks on the Yangtze entry point itself.  The canal was renovated in the early 1400's requiring a workforce of 165,000 laborers.  This was during the period of the Ming Guys who liked to travel down the canal to summer to enjoy the beauty of West Lake. 

Marco Polo visited Hangzhou in the late 13th century and described it as "beyound dispute the finest and noblest city in the world".

A few more pictures below.

One of the thrills of the last day in Shanghai was a ride on the Magnetic Levitation train.  It is I think, the fastest passenger train in the world but not sure about that.  It goes from the Pudong/Shanghai airport to downtown which is about 30 km in 7 minutes.  At the peak speed the day we rode it reached a maximum speed of 431 km/hour or about 268 miles/hour without wheels but with magnetic levitation.  That's pretty darn fast.  Below is a photo taken along side the train.

An interesting thing is that it was designed in Germany, installed in China but when I looked at the screen where the non-functioning operator sits the screens are in English.  I say non-functioning operator as I read that there are no operators required but that passengers feel more secure going 250 miles/hour if someone is sitting there at the console.

Here is a link to a YouTube video that I created of the trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuYhPP_6HeE


Here is Rainbow at her usual postion in the bus describing her family and what we were seeing as we traveled.

Here is the jump seat at the front of the bus that we had fitted with toilet paper dispensers on the armrests.  It was always good to have a supply when we stopped for lunch or just plain nature breaks.  Toilet paper was always in short supply it seemed in public restrooms or even in restaurant restrooms.  Joan tells that most of the restrooms had "bombsight" toilets (will describe this in more detail if needed), however the handicapped stalls were fitted with Western style toilets so that is where she would head.

Normally I only use pictures that I have taken however there are a couple of public use photos that I found that I would like to put here.   The first is the Tianmen Gate to the Forbidden City where you enter The Forbidden City from Tianmen Square.  You enter under the large photo of Mao.

The white railing along the entry walk indicates where the walk goes over the moat that surrounds the old city.

The next picture is a panoramic of the Forbidden City that gives a good indication of the immensity of it.

 

Sorry that it is such a small scale but if you left click on it maybe it will come up larger.

On the final night in Shanghai we went to a Chinese Acrobatics show that was very good.  The last of the acts was a ball or cage of death as it is sometimes described.  There were many signs saying not to videotape the show so I didn't but there are some links that have video that others have taped and posted.  My cousin's husband Joe and I have had a continueing conversation by email about whether the act is a trick or not.  I am still leaning to it not being a trick but Joe is adamant that it is a trick.  Don't know, but you can judge for yourself if you go to the links below.

http://virtualreview.org/china/zoom/1292235/shanghai-acrobatics---6-motorcycles-in-a-steelcage---most-dangerous-show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdXwX9yydk

The night we were there they used six motorcycles in the ball.  Must be a dizzying experience for the riders!

On the way back from the show they took us to the Bund (Google that) where we could look over to the newer skyline across from the Bund.  Quite a sight at night.

Then it was back to the airport the next morning for the flight home and again the ceiling there intrigued me once again.  Below you can see the ceiling with no supporting elements but with the clothespins sitting on the cables from side to side of the wide building.

Below a clothspin

If anyone knows if my conclusion is correct and that is the clothespins support the structure sitting on top of the cables let me know.  Gotta be!  Real clever!

Well that's that end of the China trip - remember the World Expo is in Shanghai in 2010 - this year, so I say go for it if you can.

A great trip to an amazing country that we in the States have made what it is and helped create a whole middle class plus a lot of rich upper class folks.  People there live a lot better than they did 30 years ago thanks to the United States.  The shoe is on the other foot now so to speak.

Life is good!

Suzhou to Hangzhou

November 17, 2009

Suzhou, like everything in China seems to be really old. The city is believed to have been founded in 514 BC on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Suzhou has been called the Venice of China because of all of the canals through the city. Narrow city streets go over these canals by bridges built mostly of ancient stone in an arched design. Rainbow took us for a boat ride on one of these canals at night through an older section of the city. It was a great experience seeing the culture from the water side. Unfortunately a lot of the canals and older parts of the city have succumbed to urban development with the building of highways and shopping centers as has happened in a lot of other Chinese cities. Fortunately it appears that at least a lot of the areas that we rode the boat through are being reconditioned due to the tourist trade and the culture will remain that surrounds that part of the canal system. A lot of lights are installed along the canal and gives kind of a romantic feel to the trip.

Along parts of the canal we saw beautiful homes built ages ago by rich Chinese families. These had beautiful stone traditional entrances and even though you only saw a small part of the house you knew it had to be beautiful behind the façade. Other buildings along the canal were multistory (maybe two or three stories) housing units that it was obvious did not house rich families but probably poorer families. Clothes hung on clothes lines, some strung across the canal with pulley systems to retrieve clothes or other places with clothes just hung on the sills of open windows. Most of these buildings were right against the water with hardly room for a boat to dock and people to step out.

Other occasional buildings had red lights out that identified the probable trade inside. Of course red is a popular color in China however so I may have made the wrong conclusions.

Another few buildings had a docking space and some beautiful Chinese boats tied up that apparently were a popular backdrop for wedding pictures as at one spot there was a bride and groom in their wedding clothes having pictures taken.

At another spot we disembarked for a walking tour through an older part of town and as we walked we passed by a well that was an open hole maybe 18 inches in diameter in a small courtyard between old apartment buildings. Rainbow explained that this was a neighborhood well where the residents came to get water. While we were standing there a woman came with a bucket on a rope and let it down to get water in it and then off down the street she went. I should mention that the streets there were hardly wide enough for one small car and now that I think about it, they probably were just wide as a large sidewalk.

Rainbow then led us into a “flea” market area which apparently was the place where the locals went for their daily supplies. It was narrow, dark, and barely wide enough for two or three pedestrians to pass. Now this is how I imagined old China to be. It was an interesting environment with the sounds of the vendors, the occasional motor scooter, bicycles, and the scooters that you really had to watch out for were the electric ones. They could sneak up on you real quiet like. Along the way there were household utensils, hardware, buckets and all kinds of animals in all states of life and death. Live ducks and chickens in crates tied by their legs, dead ducks and chickens laid out for your selection on tables and also all kinds of sea creatures – eels, fish, and other unidentifiable parts and pieces. All this in dark alleys with vendors on both sides lit by bare light bulbs on wire strung overhead. Numerous vendors had cooked food ready to take home for supper lending interesting smells to the environment. All I can say is I hope a Wal-Mart never replaces all of this culture.

I looked out of the window at the hotel and saw this scene below. Probably a whole city block was being farmed. From our level it looked like the main crops were green vegetables of some kind. I am still somewhat puzzled as to whether this was an area that had been left unbuild on for some reason or if buildings had been demolished and before a new building was going to be built the farmers had taken over. It scene seemed completely out of place.

You can left click on the pictures and some will come up full size and some won't.  For some reason the editor loses the link to the full size photos sometimes.

Suzhou has become known as the center of China's silk industry. We visited a silk factory mockup at a silk factory outlet type store. We got to see them unwind the cocoons pulling the single filament of silk off the cocoon and winding it onto a larger spool. It takes a considerable amount of time to collect all the silk fibers and go through the weaving process to create the fabrics. Very beautiful results. Below you see some bedrooms outfitted with silk sheets and bedspreads. Nice, but I would be afraid of slipping right out of bed onto the floor.

Another of their handicrafts with silk is the making of rugs.  Again bright vibrant colors in any design or size that you might want.  Price is proportional to the number of knots per inch.  Some of the most expensive were small but with 2500 knots/inch.  One about 12x18 inches that we looked at cost $6,000, very beautiful but you don't put these on the floor to walk on but hang it on the wall.

Some of the most beautiful hand work done with silk was the embroidery of pictures onto a silk backing material. Some of these pieces were very large with so much detail it was incredible. The prices were also incredible but understandable as the one's with so much detail cost well over $10,000, some multiples of ten's of thousands.

A roof at the silk factory with a nice design from the snow.

Tea bushes close to the office and display buildings.  A cool snowy morning.

Fields of tea across the street on a foggy cool morning.

The man below is drying the tea leaves in a heated bowl.

 We went off to visit a Budda temple surrounded by beautiful gardens.

A happy Budda tucked away in some of the gardens.

Lotus flowers were domant this time of year.  These were on West Lake where we had a tour boat ride across the lake.

Tour boats waiting for passengers.  A little slow this time of year and type of day that it was.

A giant dragon boat on West Lake and yes the pogadas were part of the boat.  West Lake is renowned to be a famous lake where the emperors liked to visit in the summer time.  A check on Google will undoubedly provide a lot of interesting about the lake.  Unfortunately the day we were there it was foggy, drizzly and gloomy.  We couldn't appreciate it I'm sure as much as we would have on a nice summer day.