Bee Is For Bicycle

What are the odds. I was enjoying a great bike ride along the Keystone, West Papio, Halleck Park, and Walnut Creek trails. I was heading back home and *SMACK* something hits me in the forehead. I reach up and brush at the spot and came back with a bee on my hand (I was wearing bike gloves). I waved my hand around and felt around the left side of my forehead. The area stung a bit. I must of looked a little crazy as a lady walking her kids and dogs nearby looked at me a little funny.

When I got home there was a nice red blotch on my forehead. I thought the bee might have stung me but, while the stinging feeling is still there, the red blotch had faded away and there is no swelling. I guess with my speed (10 MPH) combined with the speed of the bee resulted in a hard smack to my head. I doubt now that the bee had enough of its senses to sting me. I was lucky.

Besides the bee incident, I had a pretty good bike ride. My goal was the Walnut Creek area. The creek is dammed up, part of the area flood control system, making a small lake. The Walnut Creek trail is a three mile loop around the lake and through the tall grass meadows in the area. I'm going to have to drive back and walk around this scenic trail. It begged for my camera which was sitting on the kitchen table. There are also six geocaches in the area that need to be discovered.

I did manage to find three geocaches along the 26.55 mile round trip ride. I found "Jupiter's Acorn", a standard ammo can cache; "Pole Vault", a tube shaped container hidden under a pole cap on a bridge; and "Welcome To LaVista", a micro, log only cache. I'm not sure I like to geocache on a bike. I worry about dropping the GPS and, if the cache is off the trail, I worry about someone coming along and swiping my bike.

Wasting Away For Good Numbers

Last May I had a blood test that wasn't so good. High cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood glucose. After I returned from vacation I put myself on a diet.

I kept track of my food intake using a free program called Cron-O-Meter. I didn't really starve myself. I just watched my fats and carbs. Lots of chicken and pork. Goodbye beef and ice cream. Candy, I hardly knew you. Cakes, cookies, sayonara. This diet has resulted in me losing about ten pounds which is a little disconcerting as I thought I didn't need to lose weight, just change where my calories were coming from. I've had to cinch my belt a little tighter to keep my pants up. Then again, several sites on the intertubes say that my new lower weight is in the 'normal' range.

The diet has payed off. I received my latest test results from the Doctor today and all my numbers, all of them except HDL, are in the normal range. As usual my HDL, good cholesterol, is low. Now the struggle is to maintain my weight and not lose any more.

Travels, Day 13, On The Way To Guatemala

Mom continues her travelogue:

Date: 7-1-72

Place: Mex City, Mex - same as yesterday

"We toured Mexico City today. Visited University of Mexico which is beautiful - supposed to be a million students. We visited Museum of Anthropology. A hugh place but interesting. We visited Mexican Markets, National Museum + Maximillion's Castle. We visited parks + then home to the trailer.

Everyone is tired tonight - Walked miles it seemed. Got lost coming back to trailer park."

Mexico City is an an interesting city full of history with a European feel (I've never been to Europe but the Wife thinks it has the right feel and she's been there many times). I remember the murals at the University of Mexico and the Museum of Anthropology. It was one of the last places we went in the city and I remember being tired ... very tired. I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should have.

The Wife and I went back to Mexico City in 2003. We went to many of the places I'd been to thirty-one years earlier. I'm sure things had changed a bit. The museum didn't feel the same at all. The 2003 museum felt smaller than the one I went to. Of course, I was smaller in 1972 so everything felt bigger then. I also appreciated the city more even if I was not feeling well while I was there.

Travels, Day 12, On The Way To Guatemala

Mom continues:

Date: 6-30-72

Place: Mexico City, Mexico - Guadalupe Del Lago Trailer Park

"Would you believe we got stuck in a hailstorm on a mountain top in Mexico. It was hailing + raining so bad [Dad] stopped on a mountain curve (we were at 9,000 ft). When the hail stopped we started going and the tires just spun. We sat there for awhile and the hail melted + we were on our way.

We drove through beautiful mountain country most of the day.

Tonight we parked beside a Kansas man who says he stayed at Rock Village resort for years. As I said - small world! Lions Club convention is being held here now."

Click here for a larger map.

This sounds like an eventful day. Too bad I don't remember it. Did I sleep through it all? Was I not impressed by hail and rain up in the Mexican mountains? I have no idea. Strange I can remember a tiny little thermometer but I can't remember the awesome forces of nature.

Rock Village is a resort not far from the one my parents used to own. When we left Missouri, I left my two turtles and their little bowl with the awesome fake palm tree (I think their names were Jack and Charles) with the Rock Village owner's kids. I also got some cool quartz crystals from those guys but I can't remember what I traded them for. Maybe stickers. When I was a kid stickers were like gold. I still have some packed away somewhere.

August Boston.com Top 50 Finalist

I managed to get another picture into the top fifty in the Boston.com photography contest. This August's theme was Architecture. I submitted a picture of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. Here's my submission:

If you like it, please take time to vote for it. You can vote HERE. Voting ends Tomorrow at 4PM eastern. They only gave us 24 hours to vote.

September is going to be a tough contest month for me. The theme is "Jobs". I'm uncomfortable taking pictures of people. I always feel like I'm intruding on someone's privacy.

The Quest For Cambria: Brownville, Nebraska

Since we moved back to the Midwest just over fourteen months ago, I have been searching for a replacement for the town of Cambria, CA. You may remember that the quest started last year with a trip to Walnut, IA. While Walnut, an antique-centric little town, holds promise, it doesn't have the artist colony feel that I was looking for. On Sunday we went to another possible Cambria replacement, Brownville, NE.

Brownville is a small, quaint little town located an hour and a half south of Omaha along the bank of the Missouri River. The town, population 150-200 souls, looks just like it did at its founding in 1854. We pulled onto mainstreet and found what I believe is the only restaurant in town, the Lyceum Bookstore & Cafe. Fortunately for this tiny town, the food is pretty good.

After lunch we walked around the town exploring the bookstores, antique stores, and art galleries. The main business of Brownville seems to be used bookstores. There are five listed on the town's web site. The most interesting one, and the only one we went in to, is the Antiquarium & Bill Farmer Gallery. Located in an old brick school building, the kind I went to school in back in the 60s, the placed in packed with room after room of dusty books, Squeezed in all the corners, crevasses, and recesses are all types of artwork. The place is a mess. It looks like most of the junk from the school days is still in there with the books and artwork. It's like everyone's junk drawer expanded into a whole building. When we came in, the owner, I presume it was Bill Farmer, was leaning back in his chair snoring. While we didn't buy anything, I could have browsed through the books, art, and junk all day.

We made our way back to the car stopping at the Wheel Museum on the way. The Wheel museum was full of even more interesting junk such as a covered wagon, several other types of horse drawn carriages, and a cannon (A sign described it as "made in 1846, bought by the town in 1862 for protection from the slave state of Missouri ..."). It was an interesting little display of eclectic antiques punctuated by the dead bird that appeared to have been lying on the floor for quite awhile.

We drove south looking for our next stop, the Spirit of Brownville riverboat. We found it moored next to the River Inn Resort. We were planning to take the riverboat out on a river cruise. We were a little early so we drove back to the nearby Meriwether Lewis dredge. The dredge, built in 1931, helped dredge a navigable channel up the Missouri. We paid our three dollars apiece for our guided tour. The volunteer, an 88 year old old fart, was extremely knowledgeable, extremely witty, full of stories, and not very tolerant of stupid questions as the other couple who went on the tour with us found out. After receiving his first stupid question, he was pretty relentless in making fun of the couple. In a gentle but obvious way he told them they were as stupid as their questions. I just kept my mouth shut except when I explained something to the couple. I liked the guy. If you had an afternoon, he could probably talk your arm off and then some, and it would all be fascinating.

We ended our day in Brownville with a one hour cruise in a simulated paddle boat down the Missouri River. The ride was slow

and peaceful. I can't say the river is a pretty one. They don't call it the Muddy Mo for nothing. The excursion was capped by the Brownville bridge on the north end and the Cooper Nuclear Power Plant at the other.

Brownville isn't quite Cambria. It's a little too small but it is definitely trying. There is an active art movement with several galleries. What's missing for us is the eclectic stores that made Cambria the destination. We will be going back when more stuff is open (is was labor day weekend and some places were closed) and there are several historic homes that are waiting for us to tour. While we walked through the town we were making a long list of people we will have to bring here. We'll probably go back in a couple weeks to attend the big two day flea market on the 26th of September.

Brownville, besides being a nice place to visit, has a personal interest for me- it is the southern end of the Steamboat Trace (I thought it was the northern end but I was set straight on this trip - I was all bass ackwards). The Steamboat Trace, a trail that follows an old railroad right-of-way, goes twenty-one miles north, ending near Nebraska City. Next spring I intend to walk this trail, starting in Nebraska City, spending the night in Brownville, and returning to Nebraska City the next day. This is going to be a big test for me. My longest hike so far has been just over 15 miles. I will be attempting to do two 21 mile hikes back to back. I also intend to do this with a light pack on my back, the first time I've ever done this. I'd been concerned about how far I would have to walk to find a hotel once I reached the end of the trail (I'm not a camper, GeekHiker). Adding more miles to a 21 mile hike didn't sound too appealing. This Sunday trip solved that problem as the trace goes right by the River Inn Resort. This is perfect. Walk 21 miles, eat dinner on the Spirit of Brownville on one of their dinner cruises, and fall asleep to the sound of the flowing Missouri River. The River Inn Resort even includes a full breakfast with your room.

UPDATE: Forgot the link to the pictures. The Pictures are here.

Travels, Day 11, On The Way To Guatemala

Mom continues her log:

Date: 6-29-72

Place: Guadalajara, Mexico

"We drove most of the day. Uneventful. The road was bad since they were repairing all the bridges along the way. We didn't make good time at all. We intended driving farther tonight but we got lost on a detour through town + finally wound up here - Del Sol Trailer Park - new."

A larger map can be seen here.

Guadalajara. I've been to Guadalajara?!? I guess I've been in more of Mexico than I thought.

This appears to be an uneventful day with uneventful memories. Not all of our days can be memorable.

Our View ... In 58 Seconds

Our house has something that I would never expect to find in Nebraska - a view. To me Nebraska is synonymous with flat and often boring rolling hills. In the year or so since we moved, I have discovered that Nebraska has some awesome scenery that, at times, ranks up there with the mountains and the oceans. Heck, the Sand Hills in western Nebraska are like green undulating ocean waves frozen in time. The view off our deck, a view of farm fields and distant forested hills still amazes me. Some mornings the fog settles in the Papio Creek bottom, the trees and power poles raising above the mist.

A year ago I decided to start a photography project. Every day I would take a picture off our deck. I started taking pictures two hours before sunset, adjusting the picture taking time as the sunset time shifted, but, for the last few months, I just started to take the pictures at 5:00PM no matter when sunset was. In other words, I became a little lazy. I don't think it diminishes the results. Earlier this week I completed the project having taken pictures for one year.

I used Picasa (now replaced by Google Photos) to create a movie of the pictures. The video, which runs for about 58 seconds at six frames per second, consists of 336 pictures. I don't have 365 pictures because of vacations and weekends out of town, activities in the late afternoon preventing picture taking, and, frankly, forgetting to take the daily picture. Never the less, I did manage to take pictures 92% of the time. I set the camera on the deck railing to steady the camera but, as you'll see, the camera is never aligned the same way. My umbrella got caught in a couple pictures when it was raining. I think these quirks give it character.

The view changes with the seasons. Leaves come and go. Last winter was a little bereft of snow - a disappointment especially after I got snow shoes for Christmas. The farmer who had planted corn last year planted soy beans this year. The dead tree on the left of of the view lost half of itself during a wind storm. The world changes and the view lives on.

The video and the pictures that it's made off doesn't really do justice to our view but it should give you some idea of what we see every afternoon.

Travels, Day 10, On The Way To Guatemala

Mom's travelogue continues:

Date: 6-28-72

Place: Mazatlan, Mexico

"We drove 12 hours today - seemed a long ride. While we ate lunch in the trailer on the roadside, [Dad] put a thermometer outside and it registered 138°. [Brother] said 'How can those guys stand the heat?' when he saw Mexican men shoveling gravel on the road sides. Tonight we are at the Pacific Ocean. The sound of the surf is real clear - give me the ocean any day rather than mountains. {Homer-Dog, Dad] + I waded in the surf. [Brother] fell asleep out in lawn chair by trailer. Was 11:30 before we got to bed. We haven't been getting up very early but did this morning."

Click here for a larger map.

I remember that thermometer. A little, 1 inch square plastic thing with a magnet so you could stick it to your dash. At least that's what I remember. For some reason, once again, I thought this was done on another trip somewhere in the U.S. My mind doesn't associate it with Mexico.

I don't remember Mazatlan or seeing the Pacific ocean for the first time. I'm not too surprised as I'd already seen an ocean before (the Atlantic ocean during one of our two Florida vacations). The second time is rarely as memorable as the first. Even so, when I read this entry, I have flashes of ocean waves splashing my legs. I may remember more than I think.

My preference is for the mountains. This could be because I lived near an ocean for almost 21 years. Maybe it's because I worked on the ocean for several of those years. Maybe the novelty ran its course. Then again, it took almost ten years for me to actually get in the ocean in California. Yep, I lived in California ten years before I actually got in - at the urging of the Wife if I recall correctly. For the first eight years of my life, I lived in the water - at least when it was warm enough to get in the lake. Somewhere between eight years old and adulthood the allure of water dried up ... so to speak. I suppose that will become a whole different post some day.

Offutt Air Show 2009

I've been to a couple of air shows in my life and on Saturday I went to number three. My first was the Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) air show and my second was the Red Bull Air Races in San Diego. I always go in thinking it will be meh! and it turns out to be be pretty good. Offutt's air show didn't disappoint.

The Offutt show was very similar to the NBVC show. Military aircraft - this time of the Air Force variety instead of the Navy kind - and civilian aerobatics. It was so similar to the NBVC one that I bet they use the same military standard operating procedures manual. Similar food. Similar souvenirs. Similar static displays. Similarly good.

The star attraction this year were the Blue Angels. Kind of ironic that we saw the Air Force's Thunderbirds at a Navy air show and the Navy's Blue Angels at an Air Force air show. They were pretty impressive.

Along with the Blue Angels there were the heritage flights where airplanes of different eras fly together. Offutt had two such flights - Combat air craft and Cargo air craft. Looking Glass, the flying command center stationed at Offutt, did a few flybys. The Army, not to be left out, demonstrated their parachuting prowess with the Golden Knights.

I ended up with almost 300 pictures. A small sample of the good ones can be found here.

There was one more similarity with the NBVC show. Offutt was smart to have various satellite parking lots with shuttle buses to take people to the base. The issue was at the end of the day when everyone flooded to the bus pickup to go back to their cars. Like the Navy, the Air Force knows nothing about traffic control. A serpentine line started forming and stretched for quite a ways. Every one was playing nice until two buses pulled up at the same time. When the second bus opened its doors, inconsiderate jerks, displaying terrible examples for their children, jumped out of line and ran to the second bus. Before you know it people in the original line were booing the people in the newly formed dumbass line. After complaining to some airmen, who had appeared too late to be of any good, we were shocked when the airmen told people to form two lines. A near riot broke out before the crowd gave in to the inevitable. People who had been in line for less than thirty minutes ended up on the bus before people who had been in line for almost two hours. Not fair.

To top it off, I burned my face and thighs to a crisp. Despite this and the lack of sensible crowd control, it was a very good air show. The Wife and I have decided though, unless there is something spectacular, this will be our last air show for awhile.