Book: J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy"

I heard about J.D. Vance and his book "Hillbilly Elegy" on CNN.  He was invited to discuss how the 'President' had won the election and the disaffection of the working class and working poor of appalachia.  It heard rave reviews so I decided to give it a read.

I had to wait a while to read it because there were so many people with a hold on the book at the library.  I finally got it and dove in and was promptly disappointed.  The line under the title is "A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis." This is a bit misleading.  95% or more of the book is a memoir of the author's family with only a tiny fraction of the book about the 'Culture in Crisis' that I was more interested in.

As a memoir the book is fine.  I wish the author had dove deeper into how the working class had become disaffected and how this changed how they saw their country and government.  To be fair this book was written before the last election so he had no way of knowing what was coming.  I expect he would have written a different book entirely after the election results.

I gave this book three stars on Goodreads mainly because my expectations hadn't matched the book.

Dark Skies Over Homestead

Safety First - Glasses for
observing solar eclipses

Yesterday I drove down to Beatrice, NE home of Homestead National Monument.  This was also one of the many official NASA observation points for the total Solar Eclipse of 2017.

I left home at 4:00am and drove to the Gage County fairgrounds where I parked my car and took a shuttle bus to Homestead.

I arrived before most of the concessions were open.  I sat down in one  the chairs that we set up around a main stage.  While I waited food and shopping concessions opened and I had the luck to watch Bill Nye (the Science Guy) answering questions on live TV.  I was sitting maybe ten feet from where he was standing.  I'm not a huge Bill Nye fan but I do respect what he is trying to do (educate the public in science) and I might have been a bit star struck.

Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

It was around 7:00am and nothing would really start astronomically speaking until 11:30am.  In the meantime, on the main stage, a folk singer performed (including playing "Moon River" on a handsaw), a NASA scientist gave an explanation of what to expect and what exactly was a solar eclipse, and a PBS band played songs from "Ready, Jet Go".  As you may have guessed, most of the events and entertainment were kid-centric.  Fortunately a guy from Texas struck up an adult conversation with me and we killed the hours talking.

The day's weather had started out relatively clear with only wispy clouds but as the events proceeded heavy clouds moved in and we experienced on and off showers.  While I was a bit disappointed I really felt sorry for all the people who drove many hours to get here.  There were even people from Britain and France.

As the eclipse started the clouds thinned a bit and we got our first view on the sun missing a chunk.  This peek didn't last long before the clouds thickened again.

When the sun disappeared behind the clouds everyone headed for the food trucks.  The lines were so long I decided just to eat the snacks I'd packed just in case.  I did have a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake at 9:00am before the lines formed and it felt wrong eating it so early in the morning but it was very tasty.  I bought a magnet for our collection and, from the US Post Office van, a cool sheet of color changing eclipse stamps.

As we approached totality, when the moon would completely cover the sun, I checked the National Weather Service kiosk where they had a live radar feed.  Weatherwise it wasn't looking good so I slowly made my way to the shuttle bus stop.  Right when totality occurred the clouds thinned again and gave us an awesome view of the ring of fire.  The sky darkened like a sunset on all horizons.  The crowds cheered and we all stared in awe of a total solar eclipse.

Totality.
(A slightly zoomed version can be seen here)

When totality ended I jumped on the shuttle bus and headed for the car.  Despite being on that first bus it still took over four hours (normally an hour and a half drive) to get back home via the clogged back roads of Nebraska.  There had been 8,000 - 12,000 people at Homestead and they said there were over 400,000 people along the area of totality in Nebraska.  They all seemed to return home at the same time.

All it all it was a pretty cool day.

Finally! We Have Our Counter Back!

For the past week a contractor has been remodeling our kitchen.  This consisted of ripping out the Formica countertop and replacing it with granite, sanding down and refinishing all the cabinets, replace the sink and faucet, and adding pulls to all the cabinet doors and drawers.

It took me a couple days (off and on) to empty out all the stuff in our cabinets and drawers in preparation for the work.  It's amazing how much 'stuff' you can have in a relatively small space.

During this last week I have learned how much I use the kitchen countertop.  Making lunch in the bathroom can not be sanitary.  It definitely was not fun.

Now comes the chore of wiping out the cabinets and drawers, dusting off and moving all the 'stuff' back into said cabinets and drawers, and cleaning all the dust that has seemed to have settled everywhere in the house.  That is my Friday ... and some of the weekend I would imagine.

Oh ... and the kitchen looks awesome!

P.S.  Sadly I did not take pictures.  I'm slipping in my old age.

Photo Moving Update

As I mentioned back in July I was planning to move all my blog pictures from Flickr to Google Photos.  I'm making progress having completed two of the three phases of the move.

Phase One was downloading the pictures from Flickr.  This didn't take too long.  I had to download each album separately but it took only six days after I started to finish downloading the three hundred and twenty-one albums.  Actually it was only four days since I did not download while we entertained the Best Man and Matron Of Honor.

Phase Two consisted of the unzipping of the files, renaming of the pictures, and the uploading of pictures to Google Photos.  This took a bit longer.  Unzipping the files was a couple clicks for each album.  Some of the renaming was easy since I could rename a files in bulk but some of the albums required each picture to have a unique name.  One such album had over three hundred pictures ... each with an unique name that had to be entered one at a time.  Uploading was easy with only a few tweaks to picture dates to insure the photos were in the correct order.  In all, this phase took fifteen days with only a day or two in there when I took breaks.

Now I start Phase Three.  I now go through my thousand plus posts and relink all the pictures.  This could take awhile.

One thing I've notice as I was uploading the pictures was how fun it was to look at all the pictures I've taken and posted over the past eleven years.  As a matter of fact my eleven year blogging anniversary is next week.   It will be interesting to reread all my posts and, probably, correct some of the thousands of spelling errors.  A nice long walk down memory lane.

Book: Kate McCahill's "Patagonia Road"

My latest read is a return to the travelogue.  Kate McCahill's "Patagonia Road" chronicles a journey following another traveller's journey - kind of meta really.  The author loosely follows Paul Theroux's "The Old Patagonian Express" which documents his travels through Central and South America by train.  McCahill forgoes the train travelling mostly by bus instead.

Her year long travels start in Guatemala where I lived for nine years.  It was fun to recognize some of the names and places she visited.

She continues on through El Salvador, Nicaragua, (after a jump by airplane) Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.  While she does visit the capital cities she spends most of her time in smaller cities, towns, and villages where it is easier to meet the real people and experience real culture of the region. She also spends time learning Spanish and teaching English along the way.  She gives herself time to steep in the local culture, something that I admire but I rarely get a chance to do.

Intertwined with the travel stories is the author's personal stories. I found these parts to be distracting.  I was more interested in what she was experiencing and learning.  Fortunately the personal stuff is a smaller portion of the book.

I enjoyed this book.  I enjoyed recognizing places in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru that I've visited.  The book hooked into my sense of nostalgia and my interest in travel.  I gave this book four stars out of five on Goodreads.  It definitely was an interesting read.

The Last Batch (???)

Back in May I posted a picture of a Dove on a nest in our backyard.  Since that picture was posted there have been three clutches of eggs on that nest.  The second and third round had two eggs each.  I suspect the first also had two but I'm not sure since I never saw the newborns out of the nest.

Yesterday the last two newborn doves left the nest and, to the consternation of Iago, decided to take a long rest on our deck. I eventually had to shoo the little devils so that Iago wouldn't blow a vein.

The last of the doves ... I think.

There was at least one other nest in our area located in our neighbor's gutter which, I think, had a couple clutches as well.

Yesterday I counted six or seven doves flying around our backyard.  I'm pretty sure there are more hidden in the trees near our house.  This is new.  We've always had a pair of doves that visit our yard but never this many.  It has been a very productive summer this year.

I Found A Strange Head ...

On Monday, after sleeping in after the awesome Paul McCartney concert and eating our fill at Lisa's Radial Cafe, the Matron of Honor, Best Man, the Wife, and I headed to Walnut, Iowa.  Walnut's claim to fame is a large number of antique stores running up and down the short main street.

While a few places were closed on Monday there was enough open for everyone to find something to buy.  I bought a man head shaped rattle/noise maker that is probably haunted.  I passed it by a couple time before I grew tired of it calling to me and I went back and bought the strange little head to shut it up.

After returning from Walnut we went out to eat at the awesome Benson Brewery for a very tasty dinner.

I haven't had such a nice day for quite awhile and it was ... refreshing.

Music: Sir Paul McCartney

On Sunday the Wife and I, along with the Matron of Honor and Best Man visiting from Minnesota, went to our last concert of the summer: Sir Paul McCartney.

This was an amazing concert.  The warm up was a DJ playing covers of Beatles' and Wings' songs which is a new one for me.  This definitely put me in the mood for what was to come.

McCartney and his band (only four members - guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums) came out shortly after 8:00pm and proceeded to play for three solid hours with only a short two to three minute break before the encore.  The band did have a few breaks when McCartney did solo renditions but he didn't take any breaks himself - remarkable for a seventy-five year old performer.  Near the end of the concert his voice was getting a little raspy but he still sounded great.

His sets were a nice mix of Beatles, Wings, and solo material.  In between songs he told stories to the crowd about the old days, Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones.  He sang tributes to John Lennon and George Harrison.  He played my favorite Beatles' song ("Let It Be") but he left off my second favorite ("Long and Winding Road").  A wonderful set.

Back in the USSR with Paul McCartney.

This was one of the best concerts I've had the pleasure of attending.  It was right up there with the Eagles which was my favorite.  When it comes to length and number of songs performed, McCartney is at the top of the heap.  An awesome experience.

Photos can be found in my 2017-07-23 Paul McCartney Concert Google Photos album.  (This is the first post using Google Photos for all photos.  Let me know if there are any issues.)

Moving Day Has Begun

Since I started Homer's Travels I have hosted my pictures on Flickr.  Flickr has changed hands a couple times since then.  First they were bought by Yahoo.  This year Yahoo was bought but Verizon.  In the twelve years I've used the service it has gone from one of the most popular photo sites to becoming a has been forgotten corner of the intertubes.  The culprit of this decline is social media.  People post pictures on Facebook and Instagram theses days.  This loss of popularity, along with the changing of corporate hands, has me a little nervous.  After some thought I have decided to copy all my photos from Flickr to Google Photos.

It's going to be a long process.  First I have to download all the Flickr photos.  This consists of downloading each album as a zip file - the format Flickr uses when downloading multiple files.  I happen to have three hundred and twenty one albums.  I spent most of the afternoon downloading and I'm not finished yet.

Next I will have to unzip and rename each file since Flickr adds a number string onto the filename of each photo.  This isn't that difficult since I have several programs for renaming files in bulk.

After that I have to upload the photos to Google Photos albums.  All eight thousand eight hundred and thirty of them.

Finally, after all the pictures have been uploaded and filed away into their proper albums, comes the hard part.  I have to go through all one thousand seven hundred and eighty six blog posts and change every link that connects to a picture, changing it from Flickr to Google Photos.  I think this will take the longest since I will have a large number of links to check.

I'm guessing it will take at least six months to finish the move.  It all depends on how gungho I am at tackling the job.  I'll let you know when I finish.

Music: Blondie With Garbage And X The Band

On Wednesday the Wife and I braved the 99℉ (37.2℃) temperatures and headed to Stir Cove for an evening of music.

We arrived a bit early to stake out a nice place on the grass in the open air venue.  It was HOT.  Fortunately water was available and it wasn't too bad if you didn't move too much.  When the first act came on stage the sun began to dip behind some horizon hugging clouds and the heat was moderated a bit.

The first act was half of X the Band.  The pair (Exene Cervenka and John Doe) did a short bluegrass set that was entertaining.

Shirley Manson, lead singer of Garbage.

Next on the stage was Garbage.  I was only familiar with a couple of their songs but I enjoyed their set.

Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie.

Last up was Blondie.  The band sounded great.  Lead singer Debbie Harry ... let's just say that her pipes haven't aged well. She came close at times but she just didn't have the range she had in her youth.  Having said this, for a person of seventy-two years she sounds pretty good.

So, in the end, this concert was entertaining but a bit below our expectations.

A few pictures can be found in my 2017-07-19 Blondie & Garbage Concert, Stir Cove, Council Bluffs, IA Google Photos album.