Category Archives: Storytelling

random stories without any related theme

SXSW

04 Sunday Mar 2018

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IMG_1776Hah, fooled you.  This is not a blog covering the digital creatives that descend on Austin in March.  I am however in Austin.  I realized my mistake upon arrival at ABIA yesterday.  Conditions inside the terminal were claustrophobic.  Thank God I didn’t try to rent a car.  Still not sure how I scored a ticket on Southwest for under $100.  Must have beat the real crowds by a few days.

DIA was packed too, with home-bound skiers.  As bad as I’ve ever seen it.  Southwest maintains a seemingly random pattern of kiosks in front of the ticket counter for travelers to claim their baggage tag.  People didn’t know how to queue up efficiently.  It didn’t help that an agent walked around barking out instructions that there is no line.  No idea what she meant by that.

The lady directly in front of me panicked when her turn came.  She fumbled around in her purse for identification or her smart phone.  Her bag didn’t just spill, it literally exploded its contents onto the floor.  Apparently stressed, she shrieked like a banshee out of frustration.  Like in a scene from Home Alone, a hundred travelers all hushed themselves to stare at her as she sunk to her knees, sobbing, to collect her belongings.

After all this, my flight wasn’t full and I was able to spread out with my newspaper.  My brother picked me up and we stopped for lunch at some pub in the Domain.  I quaffed a 512, a locally crafted IPA.  Pretty tasty.  Looking forward to some more local food and beverages, and hopefully a few trail runs, over the next several weeks.

New Traditions

31 Sunday Dec 2017

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Matts El Rancho

My family didn’t always meet up for a post-Christmas dinner at Matt’s El Rancho, but now that I think about, I suspect we’ve been doing this for well over a decade.  For this extended family, it’s become a new tradition.  I imagine it appears to you that I’m seated at the end of the table in this photo, but I assure you that from my perspective, I was seated at the head of the table.  There’s an upside-down world reference in there somewhere.

I generally end my blog year with a contemplative post, introspective, thankful and hopeful for the year ahead.  Absent any running exploits to focus this running blog on though, it’s been a sappy December and such content has become my new genre.  I’m a regular Hallmark channel.  Doesn’t bother me though because I welcome change.  I suggested I might stop blogging altogether in my last post but what I suspect I’ll do instead is simply post stories with less regularity, and put more thought into them.

family

The photo above is of my family at my mom’s house on Christmas Eve.  She is currently in the hospital with a chest cold.  Born in September, 1933, she is 84 years old.  On the drive back home, my kids speculated on how we would celebrate Christmas when our grandparents are no longer there for us to visit.  Our traditions will evolve, likely around the new families my kids themselves will bring forth into this world.  Christmas without my mom and in-laws is something I don’t think about and prefer not to until the time comes.  There are still plenty of good memories to be made without dwelling on sad thoughts.

It’s like which side of the table I’m sitting on.  Am I avoiding conflict?  I would argue no.  I know the future will come, and I’m an optimist.  Making the most of the now is the benefit afforded to optimists.  This was a dark year for many.  I felt it as much as any other social liberal, climate concerned conservationist, or secular scientist.  I’ve refrained from sharing my political views since the primaries because, well partly because I became bored with it, but mostly because I prefer to turn my attention away from negative discussion.  I know that must make me sound like a pussy, it’s certainly not very aggressive.  I’m not that way at my job, but I am outside of work.  I’m not a protester.

graffiti wall

This photo is of the girls with their cousins the other day at the graffiti wall in Austin.  The two blondes are mine.  I can assure you, they are a passionate bunch.  Not me.  I believe the best approach to all this year’s hate-mongering speeches on campus would have been not to protest – to not attend at all.  Ignore them.  Don’t attend.  Don’t feed the beast.  Sure, physical aggression requires counter aggression.  But the hate-filled loudspeakers operating in today’s media only exist on the attention we afford them.  I think I learned this at age eight from an episode of Star Trek.

My favorite TV is the news.  This makes me a fairly boring person in conversations, but I can’t help it.  Still, I stopped watching the news this past year, after the primaries, once I determined it was only making me feel worse.  Occasionally, when there was a big week of news, I’d allow myself to watch Rachel Maddow for a couple of nights.  I mean, who else do you know that can giggle throughout their entire newscast?  I still read the morning paper but for the most part, I no longer watch the news.  I decided it wasn’t helping me, so another new tradition.  I now watch Murdoch Mysteries.  I think enough seasons remain to carry me through 2018.

I feel good about myself when I’m able to change my pattern.  I can’t say it means growth but do feel that change is usually good.  It bothers me to know just how predictable, just how pattern-bound, I am at times.  Blogging every weekend for 8 years.  Running every day.  A drink every night.  A relative commented to me over the holidays he noticed I wasn’t drinking.  He thought I’d quit.  I haven’t but I’ve gone a week now without drinking.  I quit for half a year in 2014 when I had cancer because I couldn’t drink half a beer without finding myself sitting in a dark room listening to Pink Floyd.  I don’t mind a little melancholy but that was time in my life when maintaining positive thoughts were paramount, so I simply quit drinking.  Don’t feed the beast.  Of course, I was happy to start drinking again because that signified I had moved on.

New Years resolutions are all about change.  Change is good.  At least, it can be.  Embrace it.  Set some goals for yourself for 2018.

Pensive Thoughts on Blogging, on Writing, on the Year

17 Sunday Dec 2017

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iStock tech gap

This was the first photo I ever blogged, on December 31, 2009.  I suppose I started blogging at work a few years before that, but it was the same photo that I started with.  I don’t consider myself visually-oriented.  If you’ve seen me dress, you’d agree, but I generally give attention to my blog photos because I feel they oftentimes tell the story better than I can in words.

I’ve been thinking about putting my blog on hiatus for a few months.  I don’t know that I will but it’s fair to say I haven’t been putting much thought into my blog stories lately, and that makes me a bit sad.  It used to be I would curate my thoughts all week before finally capturing the story into words over the weekend.  Even some of my longer posts only take me five or ten minutes to write because I’ve already written the stories in my head.

I should perhaps reword my statement above and say I haven’t been putting stories into my thoughts lately, because that’s how I think.  I wouldn’t say I’m a vocal storyteller.  I lean towards laconic.  But my pattern of thinking is to structure free thoughts into stories.  I imagine I have the same thoughts roaming around my mind as anyone else, but I typically form a narrative for them.  It’s clear to me that I should have considered a career in journalism back in college, but then writing is and has been one of the strongest components of my job and career.  From the fifty or so emails I type every day to the PowerPoints I create for Sellers and Customers.  I’ll be putting a few hours into creating a story today for how my company markets security information and event management.  In a PowerPoint form factor of course.

Working on a Sunday segues into why I might pause my blogging.  Not that I don’t have the time, as I already said it takes very little effort for me to actually write.  It’s that my free thoughts are so focused on work right now.  And I haven’t been reading much fiction lately, which has always been my muse.  I suspect I’m going through a boring phase so why write about it?

It is my personal digital platform to leverage for marketing my book, but it’s not like I’m doing anything now in that arena either.  Ellie said she would build me a website for my writing over Christmas break, maybe that will replace my blog.  I stopped blogging back in 2014 for over a month and no one seemed to notice.

I think what I’m struggling with here is that I don’t want to blog if I don’t have anything halfway interesting to share.  It is a good exercise even if I have nothing clever to say.  It helps me to be introspective.  And it’s practice writing.  I have a good friend whose writing I love to read.  Every paragraph is like a Dali painting.  Each sentence a masterpiece in creativity.  Yet he rarely writes because he says it’s a struggle and he doesn’t enjoy the process.

I’m the exact opposite.  I can write about nothing and find it easy.  That might actually be a bad habit that blogging isn’t helping me with.  If you’re a writer, than you are familiar with the strong attitudes authors have toward blogging.  They either say it’s a good exercise and serves as a marketing platform, or they despise it as cheapening the medium.  I’m asking myself that question now.  I’m wondering if it’s in my interest to continue or to take a break.  We’ll see.

Christmas Party Banter

03 Sunday Dec 2017

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iStock winter ornaments

I celebrate the holidays with my friends with an annual fondue party.  Everyone brings something to dip or the dip itself.  One person noted at last night’s get together that we’ve mostly known each other now for twenty years.

Perhaps because we’re from Colorado, or simply our generation, not sure, but we are an athletic lot.  Not necessarily healthy.  A fair number of us have replacement body parts.  Several have artificial knees and ventured how it would be cool to eventually get blade runners.  So much of our talk centers on our sports pursuits and our decaying health.   Half my group of friends could easily pass for under forty by looks, but to listen to us talk you’d guess closer to sixty.  Ask us how we’re doing and replies come back enumerating blood counts and protein deficiencies.  This has to be a sign of aging.

My friends are well educated and all lateral thinkers, so conversation can steer in any direction.  But we tend toward the inane and don’t often discuss politics.  With that said, I barely arrived last night before being asked if I believed in God, and the Russian investigation did come up at one point.  Maybe we’re maturing.  Probably not though.  As discussion turned toward the recent spate of celebrity sexual abuse allegations, there were no deep thoughts on the need to establish equality and respect for women in general.  It was all jokes, with the most ribald coming from the ladies.  Apparently aging and maturity are two different things.

For my part, trying to come off sounding clever and sophisticated, I brought up bitcoin and blockchain tech, letting everyone know of my recent Amazon order for a hardware wallet.  I was immediately challenged to explain the value of this virtual commodity.  I couldn’t.  Honestly, I don’t even understand how we derive value from fiat currencies.  Some things though are like time travel, trying to understand how they work ruins the story.  I’m not investing in bitcoin.  I just like to participate in tech to better understand it.  That’s what writers do in order to speak to things.  They experience it.  I’ll purchase less bitcoin than I spent on the wallet.

In the end, it didn’t matter what we talked on, the talking itself was the means to the end.  Seeing everyone doing well and sharing in laughter has launched my holiday season with good cheer.  Karen has our house looking festive and I’m excited now to visit family at the end of the year.  Happy holidays everyone.

Game Ender

14 Saturday Oct 2017

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IMG_1604I find myself this morning faced with an epic moral dilemma.  I don’t play facebook games.  Those analog chain letters with specious purpose.  At their worse, they propagate stealthy adware.  At best, they strive to trend a positive mood for the world.

I was nominated to post photos of nature for seven consecutive days to flood facebook with color, life and hope.  The catch is I have to nominate a friend each day to do the same.  And if everyone were to play, there would indeed be an electronic flood, the likes of which could theoretically crash facebook’s servers.  Not surprisingly, facebook doesn’t condone such games.

Don’t think I couldn’t do it.  I wouldn’t have to drive far for a trail run that would provide glorious fall photos.  But in my present mood, I instead walked out into the middle of my front street and snapped this shot of the tree canopy, where branches vie to reach one another across the chasm as they succumb to the seasonal pause in growth.  For me, this captures how I intend to play this game.  I won’t be nominating anyone else to continue this folly.

Not because I don’t have friends capable.  I have four friends currently on a bike tour through Vermont.  They would no doubt excel at this game.  Maybe they even started it.  I could easily nominate seven friends.

Maybe my reason is simply spite.  I was nominated by two friends at once this morning.  Without being deeply engaged with the rules of this game, I suspect that’s a foul play.  I’m of a mind to nominate them right back.  Without granular guidelines defined, think of the circular consequences of such an action.  It could break the Internet.

I will not allow myself to be put into that position.  The possible electronic destruction is too dire.  Instead, I am taking the bold action to end this game.  Let it die in digital dust.  Still, I’m posting this one photo.  Isn’t it sort of pretty?

 

Trigger

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

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triggrb

My cousin Dick and his wife Cheryl headed off to Ennis, Montana this morning after spending the weekend visiting us from Ventura, California.  Each year they drive cross country for a couple of months in their 5th wheel RV named Trigger.  The name comes from a beer-drinking encounter Dick had in his youth with Roy Rogers.  Roy kept walking into the kitchen to refresh Dick’s beer because he was wearing his Marine uniform.

Dick joined the Marines, the Reserves at least, at the tender age of 15.  He wound up driving a tank at the end of the Korean War, something he wishes he could still do.  The RV is a modern substitute.  He’s retired after a career leading America’s clean air regulatory agency, although one never really retires after a career like that.  He’s now working with a consortium of concerned scientists as part of the Trump Resistance.  I helped him with his latest PowerPoint.  Cheryl is a reservist with FEMA.  There’s a good chance she will be called up to respond to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, cutting their road trip short.

dick n cheryl

Trigger is now headed north, likely camping somewhere south of Yellowstone.  Trigger’s ultimate Montana destination is Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  Trigger will then wind its way down to visit three of my sisters in the Quad Cities before trekking back home through Missouri to research a graveyard in Dowling.  And who knows, I might catch Trigger again on the trail back homeward to Ventura.

The Lazy Gardener

21 Sunday May 2017

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IMG_0830My strategic delay in planting this year looks brilliant given last week’s heavy spring snowfall.  The wine I drank this weekend was in celebration of my gorgeous tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, kale, spinach, leeks, lettuces, chard, strawberries, melon, and a mix of florals to bring the bees; not the pity party so many of my fellow growers wallowed in as they assessed the damage to their crops.  Sorry guys but second mouse gets the cheese.

I have to share with you the tremendous energy I have after planting.  The mud, deep under my nails, gives my fingers satisfaction they can’t find hammering away on a keyboard.  Like a walk in the woods, despite the physicality of it, I’m sitting on the porch, drinking a cold one, feeling recharged.  Gardens give life.  I get so excited just thinking about sautéing those greens.  This is going to be a good summer.

Big Blue

23 Sunday Apr 2017

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IBM BookshelfMomentos from twenty-three years at IBM sit on my bookshelf.  Maybe more are hiding in my desk drawers.  I might have lifted my stapler from the office.  My history with IBM began when I drove a forklift working on their packaging line the summer of 1981, as part of the production of word processors manufactured in their Austin, Texas facility.  I later worked as a computer operator as an intern in 1990 while obtaining my masters from CU in Boulder.  I then started my 23 year run in 1994 with their wholly-owned subsidiary ISSC.  I forget what that stands for now.

My stash includes a coffee mug from that first gig with ISSC, various recognition things, a passport with all its pages full of stamps, a sticker making fun at me for an attempt to write a motivational blog when times were bleak – made me laugh even though the joke was on me – and the ubiquitous Think logo.  Not pictured, the stapler because I use that.

Karen and I have always considered it ironic that my career was so steady while she averaged three W2s and 1099-misc forms annually from her contract jobs, because our personalities suggest the inverse.  She’s cautious and I’m the risk taker.  But I was generally satisfied, doing really cool things.  When I did begin to think of departing, other life events got in the way.  And my searches were always passive, meaning I only responded to recruiters contacting me first.  I could enumerate a half dozen reasons for finally leaving but the primary logic is that sometimes stimulating professional growth requires a new start somewhere else.  So that’s what I’m doing.  New job begins May 1st.

Funniest thing is that, because I turn 55 on Monday, tomorrow, three days before my last day on the job, I qualify for retirement.  Specifically, the retirement benefits IBM makes available to departing employees based on certain criteria of age and years of service.  I get to take my pension with me and roll it over into an IRA.  And I get future health benefits that I’ll be able to apply toward medical insurance premiums after I’m retired for reals.  I didn’t plan this, it’s all bonus.

Meeting retirement criteria though, actually accepting the benefits, on top of turning 55, is enough to make me consider that I might have reached middle age.  I didn’t pay much attention to turning 50, but 55, well, it has twice as many fives in it.  Karen arranged for a few friends to come over next Friday evening for a happy hour to celebrate both my birthday and changing jobs, and it has the undeniable feel of a retirement party to it.  My fault I suppose for working so many years at IBM before moving on.  I’m not normally very introspective.  Very few of these blogs ever wax nostalgic.  But saying goodbye to so many colleagues and the events of my last days has given me pause to reflect on my career.

I’ll be 70 in another fifteen years.  Safe to say I’ll be retired before then.  I simply don’t feel that old.  I run a marathon in another two weeks.  I’m still youthful, in my mind.  Granted, I grip the stair rail walking down in the morning, to support my delicate knees and ankles.  But that’s just because I run so many darned miles.  After sporting a buzz cut throughout my 40s, I grew my hair out, and it’s not all entirely gray.  It still grows like a weed.  I will admit to listening to relaxing music, but that’s my acquired taste.  I still wear blue jeans and t-shirts.  I still do new things.  Published a book.  I’m taking on a new job.  I’m not dead yet.

Neither is IBM.  It might seem like I’m leaving a sinking ship.  Five years of shrinking revenue.  But I’m not leaving because of that.  Like most people still there, I believe in their strategic imperatives, and I understand their business will diminish before it picks back up.  That’s simply the way creative destruction works.  Other than say the phone company, IBM is perhaps the only American technology company still around after 100 years.  If I say IBM, you hear computers.  IBM is synonymous with technology.  IBM will be fine.  By the way, I have a half dozen IBM-logo button downs from working as a booth-babe at trade shows if anyone is interested.

Resolutions

28 Wednesday Dec 2016

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cup

I don’t always make New Years resolutions, but when I do, I blog them.  Completing a thousand mile drive home from Texas to Colorado gave me ample time to contemplate.  I came up with two goals, both doable.  Enlarge the photo if needed to read my new coffee cup.  You’ve been warned.

First resolution is to run a marathon in 2017.  Sure, I’ve run marathons before but this time will be different.  This marathon will be spectacular.  This marathon will qualify me for Boston.  I didn’t run any marathons at all in 2016.  It was an injury year.  Strained hamstrings and lower back pain.  Although truthfully, I ran less to devote time to writing.  Hard to do it all, but I’m going to in 2017.  I’ve run within seconds of qualifying the past two years.  My plan is to run the Colorado Marathon May 7th, fast enough to qualify for the 2018 Boston Marathon.

Next goal is to publish my next novel.  Maybe not publish, but I’ll start writing.  I already outlined the story in my head during the two day drive from Austin and just finished capturing it in notes.  I’m changing up my writing goals a bit from my first book.  It was important to me to experience the writing and publishing process, end-to-end, the first time around.  I gave myself a target date to ensure I finished.  It’s fair to say, writing a novel is one of those projects so many start and never finish.  So completion was paramount to me.

For my second novel, I want to focus on two other areas of writing – quality and marketing.  I want my second novel to be better than my first.  I think it will be.  And I want to put more energy into a marketing plan.  I’m willing to take longer to write for a better book.  And I’ll expect to allow for multiple months after it’s complete to perform the requisite marketing tasks.  Obtaining a review before publishing could take a couple of months.  I might even enter contests.  I might also put more into up front research.  I’m going to budget two years for this second book.  I still think setting a timeline is important.  My experience on the first novel was to treat it like a project, and projects have target dates.

The benefit of stretching the book process out for two years is I’ll have more time for running.  I recall a good twenty years of my life where I had zero hobbies.  Now I have two.  Life just keeps getting better.

Last Day

26 Monday Dec 2016

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hyde-park

This is my last day of the holidays in Texas.  Driving home tomorrow morning.  These are some highlights.  Eating out is always one of my favorites in Austin.  We’ve been dining at the Hyde Park Bar & Grill for thirty years.

book-for-mom

It’s so hard to shop for your parents when they already have everything they need.  I simply wrote a book and wrapped that up for my mom.  Writing a novel this year didn’t make me exceptional in this crowd.  I enjoyed the discussions with Mark and Paige on their novels.  Paige has published several and Mark is still editing his first.

papa-reading

It’s a tradition that Papa always reads for the girls on Christmas Eve.

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0012.JPG

Brit, Ellie and Rachel dressed up fancy on Christmas day.  Ellie and Brit ran every day too.  They ran a ten miler one day, to counter the extreme eating.  No matter how many times I got them down to Town Lake, Brit would run past the bridge where she was supposed to cross, running farther than planned.

bnw

The fancy dresses didn’t last long.  I recall seeing them mostly in their pajamas.

santa-gift

I always get the best gifts from my brother-in-law Chad.  This package included a Batman onesie and even funnier coffee cup.

grandkids

Each year includes a photo on the stairs of the Collier-Mahoney-Campbell grandchildren, from Brit the oldest to Liam the youngest.  We’ll end today with some laser tag and dinner at Matt’s El Rancho.

Singers & Songwriters

01 Saturday Oct 2016

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brit-in-hotel

Brit has been participating in the Durango Songwriters Expo this weekend, starting Thursday.  This is where Meghan Trainor was discovered.  It started out fun, attending sessions and networking with music and TV industry executives.  Last night was brutal though.  She received some ugly criticism, along with her band, after performing for reviews.  Without repeating what Brit related, the critics made Simon Cowell seem like Mother Theresa, all in front of a room full of local peers.  Tough industry.

Tried to cheer her up.  You have to take criticism for what it’s worth.  Provided in a constructive fashion, it can be a useful tool.  Instead though, it tends to be negative, almost by nature.  And it can stop you in your tracks.  I can certainly relate.  I just blogged last week about the criticism I’m receiving now as part of a writer’s critique group.  I didn’t go into detail but can tell you it’s been 99% everything I’m doing wrong.  Some of it’s been good, better word choices and more concise wording.  I don’t agree with over half it though.  Maybe I shouldn’t be so confident, being a first time writer, but it’s my story and some things I just want to do my way, no matter what my critics say.

Case in point, nearly everyone points out I’m misspelling WiFi by writing it lowercase as wifi.  Like I don’t fucking know that.  I have a master of science in telecommunications.  I wrote my thesis on frequency hopping spread spectrum before most people knew what the Internet was.  I know WiFi is an acronym but it looks like shit on the printed page in uppercase.  I’m ignoring the advice.  Maybe that’s a stupid newbie mistake but you have to go with your heart on some things.

Being dense sometimes helps to keep from becoming discouraged.  I recall as a kid being caught in a compromising position with my high school sweetheart on her parents’ couch. The next time I visited, her dad sat me down for a chat at the kitchen table.  While he cleaned his gun collection.  His message went right over my head.  I didn’t get the point he was making until years later.  Whether your response is from arrogance or ignorance, moving forward beats quitting out of fear.

Brit got home after performing last night at 4am.  She woke up a few hours later and told us about her nightmare experience.  After balling her eyes out over breakfast, she said, “Well, I’m going to put on my big girl pants and drive back into Boulder to be with my band, and perform some more.”  The girl is going to sing another day.  Brit just needs to keep doing what she loves, like this YouTube mashup she arranged and filmed singing with her little sister over the summer.  Click on that link and tell me she doesn’t have a future.

Rock n Roll

18 Sunday Sep 2016

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arroyo-verde-trail

I rolled through the hills of Arroyo Verde Park, for a decent five mile run Saturday morning.  The park, about a half mile from my house, was full of dogs and their owners at the grassy bottom, but contained an awesome soft, dirt trail that undulated around the rim.  Great park and trail system.

cafe-nouveau

Brit and I found a wonderful french-themed restaurant after my run, Cafe Nouveau, where we had Beignets with bacon and maple syrup for breakfast.

phantom-carriage

We arrived early for Brit’s pre-performance rehearsal, so we checked out this horror-themed taproom named Phantom Carriage.  A real find in Carson, near the StubHub Arena.

we-are-la

At 8pm, Brit rocked LA at a concert benefitting children’s education.  I was given a VIP pass, and to be fair, I played roadie hauling the band’s equipment.  Got to see Rachel Platten perform, and later, Kevin Costner with his country band, Modern West.

band

The band is Pete Pidgeon, who is pictured here playing lead guitar.  Brit knows him from Denver.  The funniest thing is that the other backup singer is another Mahoney, Jesse Mahoney.  Eddie Money’s daughter.  Nice girl.  Brit had another friend, Alexa, hang out with us, a super sweetheart.  Brit made some good friends in LA and gained valuable acting experience.  We drive home today, shooting for Zion by nightfall.

Ventura

16 Friday Sep 2016

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california-st

I flew out to California Friday to drive Brit back home.  She picked me up at LAX and we drove to my cousin Dick’s house in Ventura to where she has been staying.  House sitting actually since Dick and Cheryl have been RVing throughout Colorado the entire time.

oysters

We arrived in Ventura just in time for lunch at the Lure Fish House and Oyster Bar.  I drank a local IPA with my oysters and ahi tuna sandwich, Firestone Union Jack.  It boasts the west coast IPA style, similar to Colorado, which is aggressively hopped.

girl-scout

Brit was excited to relate her previous two evenings of filming as an extra in a popular TV show.  She applied by uploading photos, to the casting director, of herself in various Halloween costumes that she put together from Target and a local thrift store.  The gig was to be a trick-or-treater.  They liked her girl scout outfit well enough that she got the role.  Their costume department paired it with a scandalously short skirt that has Brittany questioning the meaning of a family show.

sunset

We ended the day with a sunset dinner at the Aloha Steakhouse on the beach.  iPhone 6, no filter above.  We sat at a window overlooking the ocean and the Ventura Pier.  I started with a Figuroa Mountain Hoppy Poppy IPA, before settling on a cab sav to pair with my ribeye.  Actually, I ended the day here.  Brit went on from dinner to rehearse for a gig tomorrow with Eddie Money’s daughter, Jesse.  They’ll be signing together at the We Are LA Festival tomorrow evening.

Cari got Married

05 Monday Sep 2016

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comfetti B&W 2

In a church built by Swedish Evangelicals on the east bank of the Mississippi in 1917, Cari and Erik had the perfect wedding Sunday.  Brit sang Photograph by Ed Sheeran and her cousin Brook sang opera style in French – this is a short video below.

My sister Sandy is Cari’s mom, pictured below being seated by her son Spencer.

Spencer n Sandy 2

Long story short, Cari got married as you can see in this video below.

Weddings are such the time for family reunions.  I got to see all four of my sisters.  And all their kids.  Even all the grandchildren.  Pictured below are my sisters Kathy, Sandy, Deb and Nancy.

sisters on rooftop

 

I’m not the only one who thought Cari and Erik made the perfect couple.  All the speeches confirmed these two are made for each other.  Even more special, I saw the same perfection everywhere I looked.  One brother-in-law bought a second home in Costa Rica and spends a good portion of the year living there, because the climate is good for my sister’s health.  That’s devotion.  Another brother-in-law lights up like a beacon whenever I ask a question about his wife, my sister, and will talk for hours on every detail of her life.  He’s still deeply in love after over thirty years.  Below are Deb and her husband, Kim.

Deb n Kim

There are just so many happy members of my family, my parents must have done something right.  The photo below contains two sons, four daughters, six grand daughters, and three great grandchildren from my parents’ marriage.  Plus one daughter-in-law and a couple of son-in-laws.

family

My parents’ wedding photo, from the previous millennium, was on display on the signing book table.  My dad was 21 and my mom just turned 18, five days before her wedding.

Constance n Johnny

I hope the best for Cari and Erik.  Their wedding was a joyous start.  These photos don’t tell half the story of what a wonderful wedding weekend it was and of all the love on display.

confetti B&W

Rehearsal Dinner

04 Sunday Sep 2016

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rehearsal dinner

My sister Sandy’s oldest child, Cari is a special niece.  She spent eight summers in a row with my family in Colorado, through high school and college, serving as nanny to my youngest daughter Ellie.  She is my daughter number three.  She’s pictured here with her fiancé Erik, at the rehearsal dinner.

kathy n ed 2

The rehearsal dinner was held at Stella’s Fish Cafe in Uptown Minneapolis.  I’m pictured here with my oldest sister Kathy, in a rooftop reunion.  First time for us to see each other in thirty years.

mom and her girls

Weddings are a fine occasion to get dressed up…and to get amorous.

kissing

The girls both bought their dresses hours earlier at Target.  Brit could only stuff so much into her purse, which was all she carried on her $100 Spirit Airlines flight from California.  Ellie didn’t know she would need a separate dress for the rehearsal dinner and the actual wedding.

ellie n brit

Hanging out now waiting for the big show at the Grace University Lutheran Church.  Brit is practicing in the hotel room, the song she will sing before the wedding.  Ellie and I are going to run on the Marriott treadmills, and maybe hit the hot tub.  Then we’ll all get dressed up again, for the wedding this afternoon.

The Long Road to Minneapolis

02 Friday Sep 2016

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After living less than an hour south of the great state of Wyoming for nearly thirty years, I finally made the drive Thursday, on my way to a wedding in Minneapolis.  I found the landscape quite scenic as I drove through Cheyenne and across the southeast corner of the state.

mt rushmore

After Wyoming, I drove through South Dakota.  I’ve now visited every state west of the Mississippi except for Alaska.  The girls are pictured here at the evening show for Mount Rushmore.  I can tell you that Orlando has nothing on Rapid City.  This place invented tourism.  We saw what we had time for.

Wall Drug Store

Doubt I’ve ever played the tourist more than in South Dakota.  We ate lunch at Wall Drug.  This place is definitely a must see, but don’t feel obligated to eat lunch there.  Poor Brittiboo got stiffed by Zoltar on her fortune card.

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From Wall, we veered off I-90 and took the long road to Sioux Falls, through the Bad Lands.  If you never knew, this is where wind comes from.

bad lands 1

Really cool 35 mile drive for $15.  You’ll learn how to use the panorama-mode on your camera out here.  The girls set records on their Instagram likes.

 

We totally beat the crowds, with school starting back up, there were very few families.  Mostly retirees in RVs.  The windy road through the Bad Lands has a couple dozen or so turnouts and trailheads to take photos.

bad lands 3

We made it as far as Sioux Falls.  Tomorrow we meet up with my family in Minneapolis for my niece, Cari’s wedding.  Great road trip so far.

Tennessee Pass

28 Sunday Aug 2016

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Dick n Ed

My cousin Dick has been driving around the Western Slope in his fifth-wheel RV the last couple of weeks with his wife Cheryl, and we decided to hookup at Tennessee Pass this weekend.

Dick

It didn’t occur to me that asking a 79 year old to hike 1.3 miles at nearly 11,000 feet, to camp out in a yurt, might be a bit much.  He joined the Marines at 15 to drive an M47 Sherman Tank, I figured he could do it.  He hiked back and forth several times in fact, to retrieve the bread, mustard and Argentinian Malbec from his RV, parked back at the Nordic Center.

lunch

Dick was born in Davenport, Iowa, same as me, but his mom Ethyl, my Grandma’s sister, moved to San Diego when he was a kid.  He met Cheryl there, who grew up at China Lake.  She tells a funny story about the worst Chinese restaurant ever at China Lake.

cook house

They live in Ventura, California, about three miles from the beach, but 300 feet up a bluff with views of the bay and Santa Cruz Island.  Brittany is staying there now, through August and September, to attend acting classes and auditions.

final hike

I joined Dick and Cheryl on Friday, but Karen and Ellie drove up Saturday, so that Ellie wouldn’t miss her first high school cross country race Friday afternoon.  This is Ellie and me on a hike this morning with Mount Elbert in the background.

Ten Pass Cookhouse

We got the idea to camp at the yurts from our neighbors who camped here two weekends earlier.  You park and check in at the Cooper Ski Resort Nordic Center, about nine miles north of Leadville on Hwy 24.  They haul up your bags while you hike 1.3 miles through the peaceful forest.  The trail passes the cookhouse after one mile.  This is where we had dinner.

cookhouse view

As rustic as this experience is, the cookhouse is clearly the best restaurant within thirty miles of Leadville.  Ellie and I had the lamb, Karen and Cheryl the elk tenderloin, the best meal, and Dick ate the pheasant.

pink sky

We had to hike a quarter mile to dinner and back, but others drove in and hiked the full mile to dine here and enjoy the sunset.  A true destination restaurant.

TP Cookhouse

We dined inside but are pictured here enjoying drinks and the views of Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, and the Holy Cross Wilderness Area before dinner.  We caught up on family history and learned details about Dick and Cheryl’s family, whom live so far off in California.  We might visit them soon to drive Brittany home in another month.

 

 

 

 

Rio

06 Saturday Aug 2016

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Tell me you’re not excited.  The Olympics defy explanation.  So much of the news around Rio has been negative, about how they won’t be ready.  What city is ever ready?  I like how the US Olympic Committee deals with it.  They simply take their own construction team to fix plumbing and drywall issues in the athlete village.  They don’t complain, they just deal, because the Olympics is about overcoming adversity to achieve greatness.  The Olympics are awesome.

I watched part of the opening ceremony last night.  The parade of teams and lighting of the Olympic flame.  I would have loved to watch more but the event went on past my bed time.  The parade of athletes entering the stadium is always one of my favorite events because it conveys the peace of the games and pure joy on the competitor’s faces.  I know the athlete’s won’t be thinking about the issues Brazil currently faces as a nation.  I hope the best for Brazil as they host these games, which must serve as a metaphor for many of their own struggle of  democratic institutions vying to triumph over the corruption of demagogues.

 

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I’m ready to watch two weeks of unadulterated sports.  I don’t care which sport, it’s the competition that matters.  I love the background stories on the individual athletes.  I find myself motivated to run and no doubt will pick up the pace of my own workouts.  I’ve been slacking off lately.  Yesterday was my first run after five days.  Work has been getting in my way, but not now that the Olympics are there to drive me.  Ellie and I have plans to run the hills of the East Boulder Trail this morning.  Ellie watched the opening ceremony with me last night.  She’s motivated too.

Ellie’s Last Days of Summer

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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south congress 2

Instagram is Ellie’s social network of choice, as I believe it is for many 14 year olds.  And a picture says 1000 words.  Ellie sent me these pics from her final days in Austin, saying 1000 words, and then some.

south congress

She knows how to capture the best of Austin, and the fun she is having wth her cousins.

mt bonnell

I remember the first time I climbed the million steps up Mt. Bonnell, and saw this same view, in the late ’70s.  Ellie’s photos are making me truly nostalgic.  I have so many good memories of this hill, and Barton Springs below.

Barton Springs

It’s so nice to see Lake Travis completely refilled from the rains.

Lake Travis 4

Ellie is totally up on politics and has her own views.  This is from South Congress.

willie

Bee in Her Beer

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

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twisted pineBrit had a bee in her beer at Twisted Pine’s open mic night.  For reals.  It was nearly empty and she got a free refill.  She should have received a full dinner.  Brittany has been taking her voice students to perform at Twisted Pine on Tuesday nights for months.  Saturday, she drives to Ventura, California to take acting classes through September.

open mic night

We don’t often get out to see Brit perform with her bands.  As empty nesters this week, we had the freedom and the time to get out.  Tuesday nights are for her Wildflower students, she sang a song since we were in the crowd.  She has some amazing students.  I suspect they will miss her as much as we will.  Some will continue taking voice lessons with her via Skype.  Modern age education.

Ellie Update – Austin Summer ’16

25 Monday Jul 2016

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Ellie n Rachel

Ellie is in the midst of her cousins for nine days.  She is pictured here with her older cousin Rachel, visiting Austin from Eugene, playing Top Golf.  Ellie says she sucks at golf.  I told her that’s how you know you are golfing.

Ellie n Liam

Liam is the baby of all the cousins, so he gets special treatment.  He doesn’t appear to like Ellie picking him up much.

cousins

I’m told they made their escape with 10 minutes to spare.  Ellie said they work well together as a problem solving team.  Team work.  Let’s check back in with them after a few more days.

My Valentine

14 Sunday Feb 2016

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porch steps

By my count, Karen has been my Valentine now for 30 years, which is 31 Valentine days if you follow calendar math.  The really amazing thing is Karen is still only 29.  The photo above is from 1994, on the porch steps of our first home in Colorado.  We rented our very first home together in the late ’80s in the Hyde Park neighborhood, north of the UT campus in Austin.

Vail

Not every Valentines Day has been perfect, sometimes it snowed.  Karen has been a sweetheart every year though.  Upon moving to Longmont in 1998, Tortugas quickly became our favorite setting to wine and dine.  So this is where we celebrated Valentines tonight.  I love you Darling.

Tortugas

Christmastime in Texas

26 Saturday Dec 2015

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Postings

I drive Mom to the Round Rock Presbyterian Church Tuesday morning to pick up the postings from Mary Ann.  For decades, Mom has been assisting in the weekly bookkeeping effort of posting donations.  They reconcile the numbers once a month.  Mary Ann uses the computer while Mom works with paper and pencil.  It keeps her brain sharp.  All the better to mind her children’s business.

table

Coming home for Christmas provides opportunity to meet up with family. It’s been a couple of years since we last dined with the Horners – James, Liz, Emma and Claire.  Liz and James are film producers visiting home from Berkeley California.  Liz is Karen’s cousin.  I would go on about how good the Grove Wine Bar and Kitchen is, but good eats is standard fare for Austin and to be expected.  After quaffing a 512 IPA, I enjoy a flight of French wines; 3 ounces each of a 2011 Gérard Bertrand Tautavel Grand Terroir, a 2012 Chateau L’Hospitalet Coteaux de Languedoc La Clape and a 2011 Féraud-Brunel Cotes du Rhone Villages Rasteau.  Not sure why I thought I needed to try a local brew, these wines are incredible.

 

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The girls visit Karen’s Uncle Melvin, Liz’s father, on Christmas Eve.  He might be moving soon to live with his daughter Jane and her idiocats in Houston.  We rarely travel to Houston so this is a good time to visit.  Ever the history teacher, Uncle Melvin tells tales to the girls of the McBee family from the early days.

mom

We attend services on Christmas Eve at Mom’s church and open presents.  Here she is opening her grandchild Christi’s engagement picture.  I meet Christi’s fiancé Kevin for the first time.  He’s a super nice young man who teaches the PE program at Christi’s elementary school in San Antonio.

Kevin hums along as the girls entertain Mom with a few songs.  This song above is You and I and the song below is Happy Ever After.  The girls improvise as this is the first time for them to play the ukulele to most of the tunes.

We migrate to Karen’s Dad’s house for Christmas where Brit’s Uncle Steve upgrades her ukulele with some nice quality Aquila strings.  Brilliant way to improve a cheap ukulele, assuming you can string a guitar.

charlies angels

I try to get Karen, Steve and Laura to strike a Charlie’s Angels pose here but they are too dignified.  It’s always a huge multiple-family gathering at the Colliers for Christmas.  Watching the little kids open their pile of gifts is entertaining.

Brit on Town Lake

Brit and I get down to Town Lake for some exercise.  Brit runs while I walk.  Still injured.  It’s so warm this year, I sweat walking in the rain.  I might remember the full moon though for Christmas more than the heat wave, it’s so spectacular.  Mostly hanging out, reading and dining at my favorite Austin eateries before the drive home next week.  The Alamo Draft House is on our list.  Might even stay an extra day to avoid a coming blizzard.  Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas Drive to Texas

21 Monday Dec 2015

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Ed xmas 2015Christmas this year begins with dropping off Millie & Meeko at the doggie ranch.  Not having to listen to Meeko’s high pitch bark for ten days will be the greatest gift of all.  Four dress shirts from Brittiboo and new house slippers from Karen rate a close second.  We open our gifts Saturday night before the thousand mile drive to Austin.

Ellie xmas 2015

I suspect Ellie is pretty happy with these bindings for her snowboard.  The drive Sunday goes well in the Honda Odyssey.  Brit and Ellie play the ukulele and work on their harmonies singing non-stop, making the drive not much different than sitting around the house.

 

The winds increase in southern Colorado and persist through the Texas Panhandle.  We have the wind at our back through New Mexico.  Massive wind turbines are pervasive along the road, harvesting the wind in Colorado and Texas.  I know people complain about how these wind mills scar the landscape.  I’m in awe.  I see them and think about how humankind is leveraging technology to generate power.  So cool to view these up close.  We spend Sunday night in Amarillo where the girls become infected with the Santa Zombie virus so common this time of year.

Brit and Ellie work on a new song on day two of driving.  Brit already had a line or two and some chord progressions on her ukulele.  Together, the girls come close to completing it.  Play the video.  We eat lunch in Breckenridge along Hwy 183, and arrive in Round Rock by 4 in the afternoon.  Home for Christmas.

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Hiatus

29 Saturday Mar 2014

Hiatus

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