Number 6's Blog

Ocean at the End of the Lane?

July 27, 2013

I Just finished reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. It’s a short read narrated by a 7 year old boy. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to adults who like syfy, fantasy, or who just enjoy a good story. However, I must confess I really like the author and therefore and slightly prejudice. Fair warning: This is not a children’s book.

I believe Mr. Gaiman did a outstanding job of spinning the tale from a 7 year old’s point of view. The following quote, for example, really sounds like something a 7 year old would think: “Peas baffled me. I could not understand why grown-ups would take things that tasted so good when they were freshly-picked and raw, and put them in tin cans, and make them revolting.” Just thinking, that’s really true isn’t it.

Another quote rings true every time I’m around my grandchildren: “I do not miss childhood but I do miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled.” Children find great joy in the small things: a bowl of ice cream, blowing bubbles, bouncing on a bed, taking a bath. I wonder what is the age we lose our wonder off all things and become adults?

Summary: the boy meets a young girl at the end of the lane. They struggle against supernatural entities! One of the sides win and the story ends.

Actually, the story is a little more complicated than that. The family takes in a South African opal miner who commits suicide in the family automobile. Then strange things begin to occur. For example the boy wakes up choking in the middle of the night with a coin in his mouth. The young girl, Lettie, and he travel somewhere (maybe another dimension if you believe in the multi-dimension theory of everything) to stop the strange things happening. They find the entity causing the strange things but inadvertently bring her back to our realm (or dimension). Then the story starts to get weird…

I’m not spilling the beans on the ending, you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens.

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Posted by molson46

Family/baseball trip 2013

June 29, 2013

Gwen in Heaven

This June we traveled back to the Midwest to visit family and see a few baseball games. We had a great time visiting with my family. We also were lucky enough to watch baseball in 3 of the great parks in the Country. This blog is a day by day record of the vacation.

(Click here for more photos)

Saturday June 01: Up at 5. Drove to St. Louis – partially through a driving rain storm which flooded Springfield Missouri. Checked in at downtown Hilton. Watched the Cardinals beat the hell out of the Giants. First time in new Busch Stadium. Great views of the game but disappointed in the concessions. Costs an arm and a leg to eat and drink there

The Gateway Arch

Sunday June 02: In St, Louis. Breakfast at St. Louis Bread Company (Panera). Visited Grant’s Farm. Rode the tram and saw the Clydesdales. Lunch at St. Louis Bread Company. The Mississippi bridge at Alton was closed because of flooding so we drove to Monmouth via US 61, Hannibal, Quincy, and Macomb. Freeway all the way to Macomb. Staying at Americas inn. Built where Mellings used to be. Visited Sally and George.

Monday June 03: We traveled to West Branch Iowa and visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. After arriving at West Branch we lunched downtown at Reid’s Beans. It is a small quaint joint with no published menu. The menu changes every day and contains a limited number of items. 6 the day we dined there. If your ever close to West Branch and hungry I recommend them. After lunch we paid our $3 and toured the Museum. I learned a great heal about Herb. He was truly one of the giants of the 20th Century. And the $3 was a great deal you can only find in Iowa.

Monday evening we had dinner with Sally and George’s family and Jerry at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Peoria. A good time was had by all.

Tuesday June 04: Another day visiting family in Monmouth. We all drove to Davenport North Park today and shopped. After we arrived back in Monmouth we visited the Monmouth Wine Bar – Market Alley Wine. It was a pleasant surprise and pretty busy for 4PM! Since it was our last night in town Gwen and I dined at Cerar’s. The meal was great as usual. Whenever I visit Monmouth I wonder how a restaurant this good survives in a town as small as Monmouth.

Downtown Chicago

Wednesday June 05: We exercised and then drove to Schaumburg for 3 day stay in Chicago. Spent the afternoon chilling in the Springhill Suites. Dinner at the Rosebud. It is a Chicago Italian restaurant. Very good but expensive.

Thursday June 06: Raining this morning so we spent a quiet morning in the hotel washing clothes, nerding out on the computer, and exercising.

We ate lunch at Portillio’s Hot Dogs – a Chicago institution. Hot Doug’s is supposed to be better but I’ve never been there so don’t know. I do know Hot Doug’s is 4 blocks from where I lived from 1966 to 1968. I need to go back there and see the old neighborhood. Hot Doug’s moved in after I left. Was this a coincidence?

After lunch we drove downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago. Traffic and Parking cost were terrible. If we ever do this again I will figure

Chicago Art Institute

out a way to take public transportation. The Art Institute was great. Saw America Gothic. Also paintings by Sargent, Whistler, and Mary Cassatt. Dinner at the Ram Brewery. There seem to be good micro-breweries everywhere but Texas?

Friday June 07: Spent another morning exercising and hanging around the hotel even though the Sun was shining. At 11AM we hopped the bus to Wrigley Field for a Cub/Pirate game. We froze to death, figuratively. The Cubs lost but we had a great time basking in the glory at one of the shrines of America’s pastime and all. The Schaumburg bus is definitely the way to. No fighting traffic, no paying $40 for a parking spot. After arriving back in Schaumburg we went to a pre-wedding party at one of Karen’s siblings homes in Schaumburg. I can’t remember their name because I had too much to dream that night. Then we took Sara and Paxson back to their hotel and called it a night.

Chicago Pizza

Saturday June 08: We exercised, and checked out of Springhill Suites. Had lunch with Mike, Sara, and Paxson at Giordano’s. Great pizza. Supposed to be the best in Chicago (Giordano says its true). Spent the afternoon at the hotel doing too much of nothing (its a song title by Peter, Paul, and Mary – I’ve been trying to fit it into a blog for years and this was my chance) while waiting for the wedding to finish. Then we had drinks with the Nuestadt family in the hotel lobby. Later we dined at Stonewood Ale House with Dave and Gretchen. The Stonewood appeard to be a great place to watch a sporting event. We ate early but people were already flocking in to grab seats for the Blackhawk Stanely Cup game. All around the bar they had two rows of satellite (?) bars and a bank of large screen TVs above the bar. We watched the beginning of the hockey match with Dave and Gretchen. At 8PM we left for Indianapolis and left them to babysit Paxson in the hotel. We arrived at the hotel there at 1:30AM.

Sunday June 09: Woke up at 10:30AM and had to check check out at 11AM. I don’t believe I had slept this late since I was a teen ager. Wait, I never slept that late as a teenager. I had to get up at the crack of dawn to milk cows and slop the hogs. Of course all of this was up hill in a driving snow storm. Maybe driving late at night in an unfamiliar area when you are 66 wears the body down. Drove to Cincinnati and visited with Jim, Nancy, and Jack. That evening we went to Reds game with Jim and Jack. They were playing St. Louis. The Reds ballpark is great. The game went 10 innings but Cardinals finally won 11-4 by scoring 7 runs including a grand slam in the 10th. Jack is a real baseball fan and a real tropper. He was excited the entire game eventhough the game lasted well into the night.

Jim & Jack at Reds game

Monday June 10: First thing in the morning we drove to Kroger’s and bought ingredients for smoothies. If we don’t have our smoothies we turn into Chewbaccas I have been told. Then we lounged around the Jim and Nancy’s the rest of the morning. We ate lunch at Bob Evan’s. It was very good and healthy. I had bean soup and a pot roast sandwich, Then we drove to Covington to visit Brian, Michelle, Brian Junior, and Erin. We ate dinner with them at a Beppo Uno in Piqua, Ohio. I had the pizza. It was very good.

Downtown Cincinnati

Tuesday June 11: Our last day in Cincinnati and we toured the town with Jim as our guide. First we visited Spring Grove Cemetery. It is the largest private cemetery in the U.S. It was started in 1845. The cemetery is huge and many of the monuments are huge as well. Many generations of a single family are buried in the same large plot with a huge monument marking the plot. I wonder how many cemeteries have their own web site? Seems to me social media for the dead is a market waiting to explode. Enough of that. Seems Gwen and I have started a pattern of visiting Cemeterys. On our last trip to New Orleans I drug her to the Napoleon Cemetery #1 which I know we both enjoyed.

After Spring Grove, we drove downtown, ate breakfast at a really great place. I wish I could remember the name. If your ever in dowtown Cincinnati and hungry for breakfast call Jim. Then we took photos from the 49th floor of a skyscraper, and across the river in Covington. On the way back to Jim’s we stopped at a really cool wine bar (Marty’s Hops & Vines) and relaxed with a couple of really good craft beers. Gwen had wine of course.

Cincinnati from Ky.

For dinner Jim and Nancy took us to Nicola’s in Cincinnati. Best meal of the trip!!

Wednesday June 12: Drove from Cincinnati to Memphis. Very enjoyable drive. We stopped for Lunch at Buckhead’s in Bowling Green Ky. Great lunch. The trip took about 7.5 hours.

If your in Memphis you have to eat barbeque, riight! The problem is there are so many joints serving great barbeque. We chose to eat dinner at Corky’s . It has been voted as best Memphis ribs for 28 years in a row. The ribs were delicious. Plus, there was a Corky’s close to the hotel. After stuffing our selves at Corky’s we drove down to Beale Street and listened to the blues. The entire street was full of parked bikes. Apparently Wednesdays in the Summer are bike nights. They really made the night special with all the noise and 100s of characters walking up and down the street drinking beer. We listened to several blues groups from the street and and finally settled on a group in the park at the end of the street. I did not get any group names but they were all awesome.

Thursday June 13: The last day of our vacation and I could not wait to see home. The 7.5 hour drive from Memphis lasted 9 hours because of road construction. Hint: Don’t ever drive I40 from Memphis to Little Rock. Somewhere on that stretch there will be road construction and long lines of 18 wheelers. Other interesting points:

Discovered the worst McDonalds near the Memphis Galleria. Day old tea, order came out very slowly in shifts. Staff was slow and rude
Discovered the worst Wendy’s on IH 30 leaving Little Rock at exit 123: dirty, understaffed, slow, everyone’s order in front of us was wrong, out of baked potatoes, rest rooms filthy with no toilet paper
On I40 in Arkansas there was a major delay with the road down to one lame. We stopped completely for 10-15 minutes. Then we would move for a bit. Then repeat.
I30 at Texarkana road work was almost as bad. We simply stopped for a half hour and then drove 5 mph for 10 minutes before reaching a small group of workers patching the road.

Thursday night – home at last!!

Cardinals Ballpark

Reds Ball Park

Note: I never mention restaurants I don’t like. This time I made an exception of the two on the last day. They are national chains and I expect to have the same quality of service and same quality of food at ever McDonalds and Wendy’s.

Leave a Comment » | Family, Food, Vacation | Tagged: baseball, Chicago, Cincinnati, Memphis, Monmouth, St. Louis | Permalink
Posted by molson46

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

May 27, 2013

The Screwtape Letters was written as a series of letters from Screwtape (an experienced demon) to Wormwood (a junior demon) providing advice drawing Wormwood’s patient (The Patient) into eternal damnation. Written by C. S. Lewis in 1942 during the height of WWII as a satirical novel detailing the battle over the soul of The Patient in the eternal battle between The Enemy (God) and Our Father Below (the Devil).

The book was written from the point of view of the forces of Hell which is a unique turn of the screw. Each letter provides advice from Screwtape to Wormwood on tatics to lead The Patient to Hell after death by undermining the faith of The Patient.

I won’t devulge the details of the book but I have to bring up a couple of interesting concepts that especially impressed me:

The forces of hell hope people live many years. That gives them more time to corrupt their victims. Also, as people grow older they are become less idealistic. I’ve considered this idea the past several days and find it true in my own life. I came of age in the 60s and was very idealistic. I thought we were going to change the World for the better. Now that I am in my 60s I consider what has transpired and realize we pretty much stumbled through life just like all the generations that came before us. In that vein I have to nominate “The Pretender” by Jackson Browne as the theme song for our generation (“He started out so young and strong only to surrender”).
God created in man an unique two fold creature whose body is bound by time but whose soul is eternal. As a result we humans consider time very precious and consider any intrusion on “my time” such as work, an unexpected visitor, etc. as stealing our time. In the grand scheme of the Cosmos “my time” is but a puff of smoke in the wind.

In summary, its a short, well-written (around 120 pages) novel with a moral in every letter. 4 stars out of 5.

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Posted by molson46

Texas Rangers Spring Training Trip 2013

April 30, 2013

This year we did a Texas Rangers Spring Training trip – March 15-22. (Click for more photos)

We flew to Phoenix Friday and ate lunch at Four Peaks Brewery in Scottsdale. I ordered the walleye. It was delicious. The beer was good as well. Then we drove to Sedona our headquarters for the trip. Our lodgings were the Wyndham Sedona. We have a timeshare with Wyndham which allow us to book any of their locations. The lodgings are generally top-notch. They are great for people like us who need a kitchen when we travel. The main downside to Wyndham is they encourage you to attend an ‘information” session which is really a sales pitch to buy shares in the condo or buy more shares in my case. I always say no I am not attending a session. For dinner we walked across the street, stocked up at Safeway, and ate in the condo.

Sedona: View from Airport Mesa

On Saturday we drove back to Phoenix/Surprise and took in the Rangers/Dodgers Spring training game. We stopped at New York Bagels in Sedona on the way for a bagel breakfast.

Before the game we dined at Amuse Bouche (rated as the Number 1 restaurant in Surprise by Trip Advisor). I would call the food casual French. It’s a nondescript place in a strip shopping center. Most of Surprise is nondescript. However the food was great and I believe it is probably the best restaurant in town.

Perfect day for a baseball game in Surprise

The weather was perfect for the game: high 80s, not a cloud in the sky, and a slight breeze. We sat behind the Ranger dugout on the 4th row. Spring training games are really different. They split the roster and were playing two games so we saw a mix of regulars and minor leaguers’. The regulars play around half the game and then they walk off to the club house in center field. Everything is really laid back and relaxed. The Rangers beat the Dodgers 4-0 in a 2.5 hour game. That was another difference, the game zipped along at a rapid pace.

The lady sitting next to us was interesting to say the least. She was in her 70s. She took forever to say anything. Not that she talked slow, but she said it over and over again and twisted it a little bit each time she said it. She finally shared she was a Valley Girl in the 60s. Probably too much LSD and speed.

After the game we dined at our favorite restaurant from our last Phoenix visit –

The patio at Beckett’s Table

Beckett’s Table. We arrived an hour before our reservation because the game was much faster than we thought. We sat on the patio and were the first diners seated in Beckett’s new patio area. The tables and seats were constructed from used railroad ties and other recyclable material. The food was as good as we remembered. We will definitely dine there again.

Sunday was our first full day in Sedona. We ate breakfast at the Coffee Pot. I was surprised. The outside appearance gives the impression that it is a greasy spoon. However, the parking lot was overflowing so we gave it a try. The ambiance inside was very homey and western. The food was really good also. Highly recommend it.

We spent Sunday hiking the West Fork Trail. The trail is rated one of the 10 best in the U.S. It follows a creek into Oak Creek Canyon for 3.5

Oak Creek Canyon

miles crossing the creek 13 times. The canyon walls tower around 2000 feet above the base of the canyon. The creek crossings are normally easy. However the previous week Sedona received 14 inches of snow followed by a few days of warm weather. This made the crossings very interesting. I discovered Gwen has exceptional balance as she scampered across tiny logs fallen across the stream while I kept stumbling off and getting soaked. We made it to crossing 10 when after 2.5 hours we decided to turn around.

Sunday dinner was at the Golden Goose. It was mediocre dinner. I was disappointed as it had high ratings.

On Monday morning we decided to give the Golden Goose a second try for breakfast because it was in walking distance and were rewarded by a delicious breakfast. Breakfast was much better than dinner.

After breakfast we climbed into the rental car and drove up to Jerome, an old copper mining town on the built on the side of a hill. We visited the Jerome State Historical Park and then drove though town. We tried a restaurant called Grapes for lunch and were pleasantly surprised. It is THE place to eat in Jerome

Jerome. Az

Next we drove through Clarksdale and visited the Tuzigoot National Monument. It is a 110 dwelling pueblo ruin dating from the 1300s. Interesting, and if you are over 60 and have a National Park Senior Citizen pass ($10 for your lifetime) you get in free.

Monday night we tried Maria’s Mexican. It turned out to be mediocre. Not doing too well for dinners in Sedona.

On Tuesday we traveled to the Grand Canyon. We picked up breakfast at McDonald’s and hit the road. The drive from Sedona to the Grand Canyon is scenic. The first part of the trip is the drive through and out of Oak Creek Canyon. Then through Flagstaff and the National Forest to the Canyon. We parked at the El Tovar. We walked the rim in that area until lunch. We ate at the Arizona Room. The meal was mediocre (I have been using that word a lot but we were very unlucky on our choice of restaurants this trip in some cases). Then we drove to the Desert View entrance on the East side of the park stopping to view the canyon and walk several times.

Back in Sedona we dined at the Silver Saddle in uptown Sedona. The meal was delicious. Recommend it also. I had steak and Gwen I am sure had some sort chicken dish.

On Wednesday we stayed close to Sedona. We alternated between hiking, relaxing in the Wyndham, and eating. Today’s restaurants and results were:

Breakfast: Golden Goose
Lunch: Wildflower Bread Company – very good, will remind you of Panera’s except the food is better.
Dinner: Elote. The restaurant opens at 5:00PM. We arrived at 5:15 PM and had to wait 45 minutes. Elote was worth the wait. They serve Mexican and it is great. Definitely the find of the trip. I’d put it in the same class as a Stephen Piles restaurant. I had butternut squash soup and green chile tamales. Gwen had guacamole and jicama salad.

Thursday was not the best vacation day in Sedona/Phoenix. The day started out fine. We ate breakfast at the Wildflower Bakery which was the best breakfast we had on the trip. Actually, the bagel shop was pretty darn good also.

Then we checked out of the Wyndham and drove to Phoenix. So far so good.

We had the day to spend in Phoenix and Gwen wanted to visit the Queen Creek Olive Farm. The only problem was it wasn’t really in Phoenix. It was on the far Southeast side about 60 miles from our hotel which was close to Surprise stadium on the far Northwest side. Other than the 1.5 hour drive each way through the city the farm was nice and we had a good lunch.

We watched the Ranger/Angels preseason game Thursday night. Rangers prevailed in the bottom of the ninth.

Our hotel was a Marriott Residence Inn at 17N and Happy Valley. It was new and really first-rate.

We flew home Friday and that’s the end of the story.

Cathedral Rock

Click for more photos

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Posted by molson46

Some days are diamonds, some days are gravel

April 30, 2013

There is an old John Denver song – Some Days are Diamonds and Some Days are Gravel. Well my day Monday was both. Summary: I took a bike ride. I rode into a truck. Now, I hurt to breathe and sneezing is out of this world. I don’t believe any ribs are broken. Other than that I have a few bumps and bruises.

I woke Monday morning (April 29) ready for a brand new week. When you are on a 7 day weekend you like Monday’s as much as any other day of the week.

I decided to take a long bicycle ride. The morning was perfect. The temperature was 57 degrees and there was no wind. No wind in Texas Spring is as rare as the Cubs winning the World Series – so maybe this is the year. I decided to ride the bike through East Allen and Lucas. That area is mostly rural so no lights and very little traffic. Up until 2 hours into the ride I was having the best ride of the year. Then disaster struck! I turned onto a new street. All of a sudden there was a pickup about 2 feet in front of me. I just had time to start to say a very bad word but never finished it because I slammed into the truck doing probably 15 mph! Of course the bike and I bounced off the pickup. For the first few seconds I thought my jaw and ribs were broken and the wind was knocked out of my lungs so I could not breathe.

After a minute or so I could breathe again but my ribs hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before and blood was spurting out of my chin.

I managed to get the bleeding to stop holding a handkerchief against the cut but my ribs were not getting any better.

Then I saw my bike. It was in no shape to ride either. The front wheel was bent and the handlebars were turned the wrong way. By the way the pickup was parked when I hit it and did not have a scratch. I secretly believe the pickup jumped out from the curb and hit me.

It’s the day after now and I feel like a train ran over me. Oh, well. This too shall pass.

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Posted by molson46

Retirement Part II

March 28, 2013

This is my second and final post on my thoughts on my impending retirement. The first post spanned from birth to hiring onto E-Systems.

My first big shock at work was working on a team and interacting with other people. I toiled virtually alone at all my other jobs from driving a tractor on the farm to repairing microwave transmitters for Continental Electronics. My first assignment was with a group of around 7 of building computer system based on a 24K mini-computer with 7 level paper tape as the only IO device. My, how technology has changed! My cube-mate was Sharon Horton. Steve McNeil sat in the next cube. He knew more cuss-words than anyone I ever knew and used them in a very casual manner. Jim Snow was our lead. After that project I moved onto another one lead by the Sarge, Dave Scott. Other members of the team I will never forget are George Hall, Dave Hooker, Jim Dunn, and, Roland Rentz.

After a couple of years I volunteered for an assignment in Alice Springs Australia. We lived there for five years. I was a maintenance programmer there instead of building systems. The kids went from babies to just young enough they don’t remember anything except what we tell them. We formed some great friendships there and camped out bush a lot. We learned to enjoy soccer, rugby, and Aussie rules football. We saw the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Hawaii, Fiji, and our favorite – Adelaide. We returned home with mixed feelings but I was bored with work and the kids were getting older.

After returning from Australia I was talked into switching from Software to Systems. The switch was promised to be temporary but lasted the remainder of my career. I enjoyed the Systems journey. It was a journey literally. I traveled most of the rest of my career- Australia, West Coast, Denver, East Coast, State College, San Antonio, Florida. Other than I traveled I can’t really say much about what I did except:

I made money
I had fun
I did something useful

I did get to know many really good people. Also, some of them were really nerdy. Like let’s calculate the gravitational effect of a proton on Halley’s Comet on the Earth at Midnight GMT April 23, 1587. I’m not going to mention any names because at my age with my memory I’ll leave someone out and wake up at 3AM in a panic.

Meanwhile on the home front the kids grew up, we grew older, and our previous generation passed away. We, mostly Gwen, must have done okay because the kids all graduated from Texas A&M, started careers, got married, and procreated.

They say its the journey and not the destination. I really enjoyed the journey and am ready for another one.

Best advice: He that is not busy being born is busy dying.

Best moments:

Fixing a righteous problem in a component I developed. Talk about immediate high
Flying home after a long and successful installation

Worst moments:

It’s Friday afternoon at 4PM. We are trying to install a new System. The head Customer dude tells us if our System crashes again this weekend to turn it off, tear it down, and go home.
Its the day before Thanksgiving. Both sets of parents coming to visit – mine for the first time. My VP tells me to get on a plane and fly to Australia tonight to fix a problem or turn in my badge.

The best moments dwarfed the worst moments by far. And it’s true: If you love your job you will never work a day in your life.

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Posted by molson46

Retirement Part I

March 1, 2013

I’m retiring a month from today and…

I was born in 1946 along time ago in a country far away called the Midwest. It was quite a different place and quite a different time. In the place where I grew up everyone was a farmer or had some connection to farming. We thought diversity meant Lutherans, Catholics, and Methodists attending the same school.

Fast forward to 3 years of school in Chicago – what an eye opener.

I discovered Polish saugages, Wrigley field when I needed a day off from school, and roomed with good friends from exotic Pittsburg who had never seen a cornfield.

Then, fast forward to Fort Worth — another eye opener.

My only previous connection with Texas was John Wayne movies. I imagined mountains, cactus, sage brush, and cattle. However, after graduating from DeVry Institute I found myself and my two Pittsburg friends driving Southwest to Texas to start work at Generous Dynamics building F111 aircraft. Mile after mile we kept expecting the scenery to change. We were really excited driving through the Arbunkle Mountains (actually small hills) in Southern Oklahoma. Well, we thought we are finally getting close to Texas: plenty of red rocks, cactus, hilly, and everything looks dry. How disappointed we were when after a few miles the landscape returned to close to the midwest. It was a little drier, the weather was a little drier (in March), but otherwise looked much the same as the Midwest.

My first August I wondered why anyone lived in this hot hell hole. But then January came and I could play golf. I was hooked on Texas. As Daryl Royal used to say “Son, after you’ve worn Florsheim’s you never want to go back to Tom McCann’s.

My three years at General Dynamics did not change my life substantially. I was still a Midwest nerd, single, and, my idea of a good time was driving around aimlessly all night – going nowhere, seeing no one, and doing nothing. I was laid off from that job along with 30,000 or so other people. So, I went back to school.

It was at school that I meant Gwen, my future wife. At the time I thought she talked to much and was pretty naive because she had never heard Simon and Garfunkel sing Sounds of Silence which by that time was the anthem of my generation.

Nothing much happened until one Thanksgiving week. I was home studying like usual (probably proving the set of real numbers given the set of integers. I always liked math). Gwen called my roommate because her battery had died. He was out at a bar so I hopped in my car and repaired her battery. The rest is history: love – dating – marriage – kids – grandkids.

Back to retirement. When we tied the string I was still in school so I hired onto Continental Telephone in Useless Texas. I attended UTA in the day and repaired microwave transmitters at night.

During my senior year I interviewed with a number of companies. I was a math major with minors in physics and computer science. At the time there were no Universities in Texas offering degrees in Computer Science so the high tech companies were hiring math majors to fill their positions. My two most memorable interviewes were EDS (Ross Perot’s company) and E-Systems. EDS want me to cut my hair and wear white shirts and ties. E-Systems did not care as long as I produced so I went to E-Systems. I remember May Sue Thorton, Ed Redwine, Jim Snow, and John Harris interviewed me.

I graduated in December 1973. On January 2, 1974 I started my employment at E-Systems in Garland Texas and moved to beautiful John Glenn Drive in Garland Texas. A few days later on February 2 our first child was born – Claudia. Meanwhile I was sitting in the E-Systems leper colony. But that is a story for another day.

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Posted by molson46

Life in Inda’s Slums

January 26, 2013

Behind the Beautiful Forevers Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.

I had never heard of this book before my daughter gave it to me for Christmas. However the title was interesting to say the least. How did a Beautiful Forevers relate to life in a Mumbai slum?

Turns out the Beautiful Forever is a hugh billboard advertising Beautiful Forever Tile hiding the slum from the jet-setters at the international airport. The title does provide a sense of irony to the book.

For the most part the story takes place in the slum situated beside a large cesspool by the Mumbai International Airport. Most of the slum (Annawadi) inhabitants depended on the airport for their livelihood – from reselling trash to stealing anything that was not bolted down and sometimes even bolted down items, to part time subsistence paying jobs for which they were often times stiffed.

The book’s main character is Abdul, the oldest son of a minority Muslim family in a mostly Hindu slum, who provides the income for the family by buying and reselling trash. As an aside most of the fathers in the book either suffer from tuberculous, drink too much, or otherwise are not the family provider.

The main plot is the family’s trial and tribulations after their one-legged neighbor self-immolates herself because of an argument she had with their family. Abdul, his father, and his sister are charged with first setting her ablaze and later with just driving her to attempt suicide.

The book is a fast read and does not become boring. I recommend it.

The author spent 4 years of her life interviewing and chronicling the lives of the people of the Annawadi slum. Assuming their lives are similar to the characters in the novel I am indeed blessed I live in the USA, have a great job, and a decent family.

Amen

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Posted by molson46

New Orleans / Destin / Shreveport Journey November 2012

December 26, 2012

Orphan Boys Cross

Ride down to NOLA

As usual, we drove from Fairview to New Orleans. I really don’t like to fly and besides driving is cheaper for 2 if you need to rent a car at your destination. We stopped in Shreveport at a local eatery Tacomania. Of course it is Mexican food and must be authentic because Menudo is on the menu. It was good and not a chain which is always a plus. However, don’t dress up when you eat there. It’s just a local diner.

We also stopped in Baton Rouge to eat at Bravo!, an Italian chain Gwen loves but has no Dallas locations. So that was an upper to the trip. It is on the Southeast side of the city at the Mall of Lousiana.

New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans without incident, checked in at the Wyndham, and headed out to the One Eyed Jacks on Bourbon street to a rock jam session with a couple of Texas groups – Emery Quinn and The Wheeler Brothers. Both bands were really good. The atmosphere was pretty sparse and of course smokey. I’m surprised but Gwen lasted 2 hours before she asked to leave. Smokey honky tonk and loud new style rock/country/Texas music is not her thing.

Then next morning we had breakfast at our favorite NOLA breakfast place The Trolley Stop on St. Charles just down the street from the Wyndham. Then we relaxed at the Condo before checking out and touring the Napoleon Number 1 Cemetery. If you can only visit one above ground cemetery while in NOLA this is the one. It has to be one of the original cemeteries in the City because of the area and the age of some of the tombs. It’s just down the street from a restaurant called Commander’s Palace which is a couple of blocks off of St. Charles and is a must eat place for lunch. Caution – make reservations on their as soon as possible before you arrive. We did not and therefore did not dine there.

Napoleon’s Cemetery #1

After the cemetery we stopped by the Morning Call for café au lait and beignets. The Morning Call has the best coffee in the World! And I have partaken of coffee on 5 Continents.

Then we headed out to Destin along IH10 with a stop in Slidell La. at the Southside Cafe which is worth the stop if you’re in that area of the World and hungry.

Destin

We arrived in Destin in good shape and checked into the hotel. We were pretty wore out after the trip so we dined at a local Carrabba’s.

Woke up Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and ran 3 miles – actually ran 1/2 of the way and walked the other 1/2. I’m still trying to let my right foot recover from something. I think the something was too small shoes but of course I’ll never be sure. After running we relaxed in the condo for a bit and then drove slowly to Seaside where we had lunch at the Great Southern which is an open air, at least this time of year, establishment serving “Southern” cooking. I had the catfish and grits. The grits were sooo good. Then we drove on to Panama City to see the Wyndham there. I was not impressed. Stay in Destin when you come to the Florida Panhandle.

Seaside Ice Cream Stand

After returning from the drive we spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the Aggies beat Sam Houston State via a new free App “TuneIn Radio” which allows you to listen to literally 1000s of radio stations. We tuned into Dave South’s live broadcast. I don’t know how they do it but I plan to use it as long as it lasts.

We dined at McGuire’s Irish Pub Saturday night. It is the highest rated restaurant in the area on Trip Advisor and another great place to eat if you are ever in Destin.

Sunday in Destin was a rest day for us. I walked the beach while Gwen read. We ate lunch at Bonefish. Then we watched the Cowboys win in overtime. After the game we drove down to the port and dad a drink at an open air bar and watched the sunset. But damm, I lost my sun glasses at that bar. We prepared dinner in the condo, packed and had a good nights sleep.

The beach

We drove to Shreveport Monday which was totally boring.

Shreveport

We stayed at a Hampton Inn on the Southeast side. It was a great place except for no refrigerator which is a must with Gwen. We ate dinner at the steakhouse in the Eldorado Casino. Best meal of our trip and by far the most expensive – $140.

Find your beach

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Posted by molson46

Napolean’s Cemetery #1

December 8, 2012

We were in New Orleans a few weeks ago. While there we visited one of the oldest cemeteries in the Garden District – Napolean’s Cemetery #1. It is a spooky place and well worth the stop.

Napolean’s Cemetry #1

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Posted by molson46