My daughter's eyes...

I remember the first time I came home after being away from my childhood home for more than a year... off on my life's journey to see and absorb the world on my own.

I came home to dutifully visit my parents that I had viewed as old fashioned, stodgy and out of touch with the modern world… these same parents I had often criticized

in my thoughts for their conservative views and the puritan ways. They worked so hard to embed their values in my character even though I rejected it all…

Upon my return, however, was it possible that I perceived changes in their faces

and their settling lives that I hadn't seen before?

They were getting older.

What a quaint and odd revelation that that they were not always going to be there?

Was it possible that my parents were suddenly mortal and they were not invincible? Were they more frail, it seemed, than the last time I'd seen them?

Was it now that I was seeing them in a whole new light?

By further examination was it possible...that...

My mother had a slight stoop and her hair was getting thinner and greyer than I remembered. She said she was beginning to forget things… she never forgot things...

My father's ears were getting bigger and his walk was a little less steady?

The TV and the radio volume were VERY LOUD.

Was it possible that he didn't remember that he had told me his stories at least a hundred times when I was growing up? My wife tells me that I do that too... you know...

They were still the same parents that gave me advice whether I wanted it or not.

They were the same parents with conservative views and focused on saving money.

They were still the same couple that could tell me what I was doing wrong and how I should “straighten up and fly right". They were the same couple. Weren't they?

It was only a passing thought...the first time I came home for my dutiful visit.

It was only later that we all became very mortal... and I miss them both.

I'm remembering it now... as my daughter came home after being gone more than a year...off on her life's journey to see and absorb the world on her own terms.

Hopefully only a passing thought for me….

For a moment there, did I get a glimpse of the same thought in my daughter’s eyes?

Preservation of Photos & Technology for the Next Generation

It has been said that it is now possible for your grandchildren and your great grandchildren to be able to know their ancestors since the technology is now available to preserve images, audio visual presentations etc. 

That being said, it may be possible, but it's not easy by any stretch of imagination.   

From a hardware perspective, technology is changing so rapidly that it is almost impossible to even guess which technologies will be around 25 years from now much less 100 or 200 years.  

In fact, Moore's law where technology is doubling in power in half the time is applicable to this preservation effort. What used to be 50 years is now obsolete in 25 years or less.  

 At least black and white photos from the 1800's are actually still around. 

I'm not sure that even becoming digital is a long lasting solution. 

 A case in point is the recent conversion I did from film, taken in 1960 to 1965 by my father with his 8MM home movie projector. 

About 20 years ago, I retrieved the small 3 inch reels of moldy film from his damp basement, and had them sent off to be  cleaned, splice and converted to VHS tape.  Then, about 15 years ago, realizing that VHS was becoming obsolete, I went out and bought a brand new VHS tape player and put it on the shelf.  

Awaiting the day that I could convert the VHS format to digital, thus finally being able to copy without degradation, I've been waiting to see  what hardware format would be the next generation before I convert it for the last time in my lifetime to present it to my daughter.  

In the past 15 years, CD's (too small to convert video) and DVD's (delamination issues over time) have come and gone from my consideration. Now Blue Ray, taking the place of DVD's has the same issue and seems to be yet another Sony Betamax vs. VHS flash in the pan.  

And now, even  NTSC has changed to Digital TV and HDTV so I'm now forced to convert to digital before the TV set will no longer support  composite video formats.   

Now that I'm digital am I safe?    

Certainly and USB external drive has got to be a limited life. We're already at USB2  ... or is it USB3?... or even USB at all?   

Now that I'm digital, what about the software formats?  MPEG2 seems to have survived for the last 20 years. 

 Is there somewhere on the cloud?  oh nevermind... The internet is already a nasty place, everchanging... I can't trust that to be around can I? ...besides the Chinese will probably own it in a few years anyway.  

They said that all the Sun spots were going to kill all computers and disk drives. 

Now what? Maybe the Egyptians were on to something... Hieroglyphics on Stone!   

Sooooooo..........What about the future?  

Maybe having too much technology is actually the MOST dangerous thing to preserving your lives and info for the next generations... 

 In the mean time.... I just hope I don't drop my laptop.    

Woodkrest Custom Homes

If you are thinking of doing business with a post & beam builder or supplier in Memphis Tennesee by the name of Woodkrest Custom Homes you need to call us first.
434-806-6125

We have not been happy with thier product or service during our process to build our retirement home. Important that you know the details.

They attend many of the Log Home and Timber Home Trade Shows looking for customers.

The principals are Bob Kress & Teresa Kress

Woodkrest Custom Homes Inc.
7757 Hwy 70
Barlett, , TN 38112

or

Woodkrest Custom Homes Inc.
3175 Johnson Ave
Memphis TN 38112

The Pilgrammage begins...

The Pilgramage begins…

So here’s the plan….

Sell house
Pack 1st half of house into Uhaul and drive it from Texas to storage in Virginia.
Fly home.
Pack 2nd half of house into Uhaul.
Pack 5th wheel travel trailer with remaining stuff that we don’t store for the next year and take it back to storage.
Pack daughter’s worldly possessions into Tahoe for trip to drop her off at college.
Close on house.
Drive 2nd half of house from Texas to yet another storage in Virginia.
Fly home…well technically now we’re homeless.
Family staying in extended stay…waiting for my return.
Drive daughter to college and drop her off in Michigan.
Drive back to Texas and pick up 28 ft. travel trailer, 3 vehicles…

Whew! …and finally head for Virginia to live in a campground for a year
While we build this house?

Who’s idea was this anyway?


Got a contract on the house…

Think that’s done? Wrong-oh chicken lips…

Now you have to put up with the buyers, inspectors, real estate people.
What ever happened to the concept of “As IS”. Take it or leave it.
Now you sell them a house and then you have to pay dearly AFTER they beat you out of $20,000 with a low ball offer.

The lady next door had to change out every window in the house after she took the offer from the buyer.

Also, this concept of sprucing up your house to sell…sucks.
Don’t believe everything you see on HGTV.

Fortunately the buyers didn’t make unreasonable demands but just the process of making changes to a house you’re trying to move out of is yet another hassle.

Changing out GFI’s. Putting GFI’s in outlets that never needed them because some inspector had to justify his existance. Oh well… another trip to Home Depot.

So here are the insane logistics:

- Accepted the offer on the house.
- Started selectivly packing like crazy while waiting for the 10 days of “oops
we changed our mind” er…grace period.

- 2 days of loading with help from a couple of high school kids and
1st Uhaul truck ( 2 gallons to the mile) and I’m off… driving from Texas to
Virginia with half the furniture. Wonder who’s going to help me unload?

- Got the request for changes to the house while I’m on the road somewhere in Tennessee. Great… Try fixing something long distance. It’ll have to wait until I get back.

- Come to Virginia and start trying to get the county to come inspect your temporary power box and the the power company to destroy your road with a trencher running power up the mountain. Sure hope they don’t cut the 13 drain pipes…but that’s another story for the blog I’m sure.

- Anyway, I arrived on a Thursday. Couldn’t get the county to inspect until Monday. Well, I’m got to stay around. Guess I’ll start cleaning out those clogged drains.

- You know…there’s something very peaceful about digging a ditch…nobody around just you and a shovel. Other than the cell phone, I was temporarily removed from the moving madness…if for only a weekend. We can do this…

- Bought a tractor from a man… Shook his hand, cut him a check for $15,000 and never even asked for a receipt…there’s something very comforting about that too. If you can’t buy a tractor on a handshake, what’s left in this country that’s worth having?

- Flying home now. Back to the madness of packing, daughter watching her whole life go into boxes, wife totally overwhelmed with getting everything in the house in the right pile, selling off furniture, giving the rest to Goodwill, dealing with the demands of the buyers wanting to take up a piece of the flooring so they can change see if they can change the color, turning off phones, internet, cable, power, daughter getting ready for college…but that’s her side of the story…

We’re committed now ! Retirement here we come…

Collateral Damage

It hadn't occured to me as my wife and I refocused on each other that our daughter would start to have trepidation about our leaving at the same time she does.
Yes. I guess we were very naive...

Maybe we were just too focused on trying to figure out the finances, the urgency of doing something before we cut to far into our savings trying to wait out the end of her final school year. Maybe we just didn't stop and think about how it would affect her. But it did...

She didn't say much, but I could see it in her eyes.
A few emotional outbursts in non critial times... like the morning of the garage sale to sell of mostly junk for 25 cents apiece when she didn't want to help.
It made us realize that this isn't trivial for her either.

Life is changing. The fact that she's leaving for college and probably never coming
home again for an extended period of time was not consoling.
She understands it..intellectually...but you could see it in her eyes.

Evidently, it's not an uncommon thing about kids leaving for college and expecting their home to stay exactly the same. Somebody was telling me about how its a freshman thing...to come back and compare experiences with her returning high school friends. Well, that probably won't be an option now that we're leaving too.

Despite the reality that we have to do something immediately to conserve cash for out of state tuition, it's also reality that our daughter's childhood home is also leaving town.

I hurt too when I saw it in her eyes.
We'll miss this place too.

But time will heal all...won't it?

Cleaning out the Garage...my life passes before my eyes

So it's time. 25 years and it's time to clean out the garage... as my life passes before my eyes, I review every piece of scrap wood from the woodshop as I load the
equipment into the new 6x10 utility trailer. Let's see...

Lathe...yep turned the laminated pedestal for the Music stand in the living room made from mahogany, white maple, ash, and walnut.

Band Saw...cut out piano keyboard parts from hard white maple and walnut...
walnut inlays...so many things you can use a band saw for.

Radial Arm...those 347.. 45 degree angle cuts around the ash chair rail in the living room...and the shields on the ceiling made in octangle from ash, oak and pine crown molding...oooo and the crown molding...compound miter cuts...must have taken a 10 foot piece to make that 4 foot right angle around the front door...now that was a project!

Table Saw...you can cut a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood with that in nothing flat.
2x4's become 2x2's and big flat pieces become table tops. What a machine!

Planer...now there's a man's piece of equipment...it'll take a round log and make it flat and straight...worked well on the mission furniture in the living room. Boy can it turn out the sawdust! Must weigh 2 or 300 pounds...took 3 of us to move it the last time.

Jointer...that and a planer and you can make anything square...except the actual corners of the rooms... don't try to put anything square into a corner of your house.

Mortise... Mortise and Tenon joints are the best. Mission end tables, coffee tables
just have to have a mortise and tenon joint. The only machine for a Square peg in a round hole.

Drill Press...so many uses for a good ole Craftsman drill press. I've drilled, sanded, and generally torn up more wood and metal on that old drill press. Surely a solid piece of necessary equipment in any man's shop.

Router table that fits on top of the Workmate...I've ruined more edges on that thing than I ever want to admit. Nothing like a good router with its high pitched sound to remind you of a dentist chair. Every time the wife comes out, I turn on the Router...runs her right off in nothing flat.

And there there's every other hand tool known to mankind...
2 Routers, 2 Sabre saws, 2Skil Saws...chisels, wrenches for metric and SAE(what does SAE stand for anyway)6 or 8 measuring tapes and two very fine framing squares for making valley rafters for the playhouse in the back yard. Cutters, pliers, and one can never have enough screwdrivers...

Guess I'll take down the 6 different train tracks that circle on the garage ceiling. Ho gauge and 027 gauge...a fine Lionel my father gave me in 1952. Pack them away for safe keeping...

Where did all this trim come from? I have blue pine trim from the house in California, pine trim from the house in Colorado, and ash trim from the house in Texas...yep...guess it migrated with me...from one 18 wheeler to the next.

Ooooo...there's a nice piece of mahogany...6" x 4" x 13"...I can still make something out of that...and that fine piece of walnut...remnants of an old project...
maybe I ought to keep that one too...

I wonder if I can take the trailer back and get a bigger one?...

The New Class of Boomers...

I was reading the Wall Street Journal the other day and they were talking about recent phenomenon after 9/11 and the spiraling economy and how it was affecting the boomer generation. It was quite an interesting perspective until I realized that they were talking about us.

The economy went down and a whole workforce of 50 something's were the first to go
from the workforce in order to cut workforce expenses. These were the Boomers, of course, being let go since their salaries were larger and generally in all those middle management positions. ergo...the ecomony downsized and corporations leveled.

The interesting perspective of this article was what happens to the 50 somethings?

Looking at it from the other side:
10- 15 years off the end of their retirement plan...
Now taking jobs, if they can get them that are half their living expenses.
Still feeding 30 year mortgages that were 9 years from being paid off.

They can't retire, too far away from their 401K, pensions, and retirement goals.
Late blooming Boomer families that now have college students going out of state.
Waiting to sell the house at age 55 and get the mortgage write off for the last move.

All those American Boomer dreams...being rescaled...hmmmm....ours too.