FRESNO HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1961! .

Most of us dread going to our high school reunion. I decided that I would attend mine if only to see who was still alive and could come. I surprised myself when I really enjoyed mine. The committee did a great job making it possible for the rest of us to have a good place to gather, and to enjoy the evening and only need to talk about how great our lives are and that of our children and grandchildren.

It seems that of a class of over 500 we have lost over 100 people, and had about 65 of the people attend the reunion. It seems that most of the class has remained invisible, and only a small group stay in touch with each other. It also was interesting that we concentrated who was present, and sort of ignored the rest..

I seem to have more nostalgia for the school then for many of the people and that may be why many people don’t show up for reunions. The physical buildings are so much of our lives that even when they have changed the look of the campus, it is the place that determined so much of our lives that followed. The fact that we graduated during the Viet Nam war was a part of how we grew up, and it affected such things as college and what we did with our lives. For some it meant the military, and others it meant go to college and wait for the draft or enlist when we wanted to join..

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South Dakota Number 49 On My Bucket List

It was an interesting week and I thought that now is time to write about my quest to visit all 50 states and how close I am to seeing every state. That does not include the four countries that I have spent time visiting.

It seems that over the years I have been to most of the states, including the two that are the furthest to travel to. It seems that I had visited Alaska and Hawaii early in the journey. Those two states not only are the youngest in the country, but seem to have the most variety of scenery. I also have been to some of the states where I had experiences that were not as good.

Maybe the fact that a couple of the states were only visited because they were places where I did military training. They did result in my time in New Jersy, which resulted in spending time in New York, and Connecticut. While my time in Georga meant I could visit relatives in Florida. Now though I will stay in the present and write about state number 49.

South Dakota is number 49 and I only regret that I waited this long to see the beauty and most of the people that I met. There is always an exception, In this case it is politics, and not the way that people acted with other people. It seems that I also meet a person who attended the same college as I did and it was nice to talk about our same opinion about the success of the football team.

Scenery may be the reason that most people visit South Dakota, with Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial being the big draws. The Black Hills have a sense of going on forever, and they seem to be greener then anything on the west coast. It did rain during our trip if that is a normal occurrence it would explain the fact that everything is green with the exception of the few trees that were in the process of the normal fall color change.

Mt. Rushmore is the rare monument that is free to visit with the exception of a nominal parking fee of $10 ($5 for seniors) It’s possible that you could stay there for hours but it is great since you don’t need a lot of time to understand all of the time it took to create this masterpiece of art and engineering. Yes, you can have both together. Gutzon Borglum is the artist, and the work that he did is a job that would be very difficult to start today because of the current environmental limits.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is more unusual since the work to create this monument to the indigenous people of the country is being done basically on contributions and while also raising money to assist the members of that community. The charge to visit the work site and other money spent at the visitors’ center go to finishing the project. The work was started in 1948 and the sculptor and his family have continued the work with the project. It will probably not completed for another 40 years. Korczak Ziolkowski who was not only the artist but he was the engineer and contractor, and now his family are working to complete the work on the mountain. Now days there is also a University, for the people of the indigenous community.

Keystone SD is the closest city to the monuments and if you stay there you should remember that some of the city businesses close after the normal tourist season. Also, it seems that Pizza and Ice Cream are the two food staples that are most popular, and have the most outlets in the city. Yes, it looks like a tourist area but most seem to be local businesses and that is great.

Only a quick view of the state that has many other reasons to visit but this is only an opinion piece and not a chamber of commerce write--up.

Tom Seaver you are remembered

This week saw the passing of baseball hall of fame pitcher Tom Seaver. I was fortunate to know Tom while we were studying at Fresno High School. Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley we all walked to school and Tom and I would meet and continue to school. Tom was not a big name on the school baseball team. He actually was slight in size. He did not really grow in size until college. I remember one yearbook picture of him that has the wrong name under the picture.

His father was a ranked golfer and his older brother was also known for that sport, but on the occasions that I was at his home it was only a friendly place to play after school. His family was always inviting and made me feel at home. I feel that was a part of him that lasted his entire life. When one of my aunts approached him later, during spring training, he did say that he remembered me. I hope so any way. He went on to reach many goals in life. Any of us who knew him had a great time watching him grow to the success he became. We remember that he spent a summer in Alaska pitching in the “Midnight League” where the games start at midnight in Anchorage and they are able to play without lights because it is still daylight. That led to his time at USC and the career in the major leagues. The only difficult time was when the Mets played the Dodgers and I had to decide if I should root for Tom or the Dodgers. The Mets and Tom were always my choice. Tom is a major part of baseball history at Fresno High and Fresno City College where he is one of the 100 top graduates during the first 100 years of the college. Now we should all toast his life and career maybe using some of the wine from his winery and the family will continue that tradition. I will always remember the pictures of him pruning vines each year. This was a sign to me that a new season was coming. We will always remember.

Alaska Part Two

Telling you what the best part of a trip is not only hard but it is so subjective that it really does not convey the information that is meaningful. On this trip, there was really not a best part. The glaciers may be the most dramatic but so many other places and features are great that they make it impossible to grade them from best to worst.

You should remember that you are a visitor and do respect the people and places that you are visiting. Think about the fact that on a modern cruise ship you have so many people and that can over run a small city. On the Alaskan, cruise think about the fact that your ship’s visit to a port can double the population of that city as Skagway for example. Then realize during high season that there may be several cruise ships in port at the same time.

Ketchikan is a great place to start since it will give you a feeling of summer season in the state. It is partially a tourist attraction and partial a small town that uses the tourists as a way to earn extra money during the limited warmer weather season. Remember that the people of Alaska do enjoy all of the seasons and that they see even what others see as cold weather as a reason to enjoy the sunny day. If 45° is cold, think about what could be colder. Do not laugh at people wearing shorts on a day that you have on a heavy coat. They may be doing the more normal thing.

When you are visiting the area you are not going to see it all because no matter how small the towns are, they are part of a very large state and that is the beauty of the trip in that you can see so much and yet you are not going to be crowded. In Ketchikan you can sees the history of the native people since many totem poles are located in that city including at the museum. Hint: a local bus offers free trips around the city and it does go to the totem pole museum. That offers a good way to see more of the area and not need to do much planning. The size of the cruise ships that are now in service will become even more apparent when you are in these small sized ports. The way that the ship dominates the port makes it very apparent. If you are in the high season it is possible that more than one ship will be in port at the same time and that in fact it could be four ships at one time. This means that the population of the town will be vastly different from normal and I suspect will affect the way the locals react to all of the visitors. The number of visitors will probably overwhelm some businesses. They do want the business but they do need cooperation from the customers to actually get any business accomplished.

Juneau is the state capital and when you visit you do initially find it hard to believe that a state capital can have the vibe of a small town and yet the importance of the center of power for a state. The ability of the people of Alaska to accomplish all they do and they do a lot more than most of us think about when we took to the north. It seems that we did get to enjoy the city before the major influx of tourists and so the cities did have a more relaxed atmosphere. We also discovered that if we went to the local library we could get an hour of actual internet time with a speed that was acceptable. On the ship, the internet speed was comparable to that of the glaciers.

When you are in such a small town, it does offer a chance to walk around and check out all of the local merchants without going too far from the ship. This allows you to be more relaxed and maybe shop more. You will need to pack luggage you will need to do so when you get to your final destination. You will go through customs when the cruse ends because of a short stay in Canada. Also, consider that if you have an air segment in your trip you do have the restrictions associated with air travel. Both luggage and TSA rules are so different then on a ship or train.

More in a later segment but I try to keep these blog articles somewhat short. That means that the rest of the trip will come later, including a train trip and a short stay in Canada.

And yes, we did find Waldo.

Alaska - Part One

A twelve-day ocean voyage seems to be a long trip and with six days considered to be at sea it may be one that you might find boring. In fact, it is the perfect combination of activity and rest.

Princess Cruses Ship the Star Princess (po8 photo)

This trip was to Alaska and started and ended in Los Angeles. That makes it very popular with Californians especially those from Southern California. That may be the one down turn in the trip that you did not meet many people who were from other parts of the world. The good part of our cruise was that being early in the season we were the only ship in port at all of our stops. Even a week later it showed that, multiple ships had arrived at this very popular area.
One warning about being at sea is that you are not going to have internet access all of the time unless you are fortunate to be on a ship that has upgraded to the latest technology and not all of them have done that. CHECK WITH THE CRUISE LINE TO FIND THAT INFORMATION BEFORE BOOKING.
We did stop at Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway besides cruising in Glacier Bay. I will write about each of these and our one stop in British Columbia, Canada; Victoria on Vancouver Island. An overall comment is that all of the local people we met at every stop had one thing in common in that they were people we enjoyed meeting and that made all of us feel at home. The trip was 4000 km or in real life 2485 miles and with all the distances and temperatures in metric that made the trip a math education. So when the ship was traveling at a speed of 20 kph in reality it was never going over 14 mph and so we really never knew how slow we were going. It also meant that when we traveled up the coast it did take three days to get from Los Angeles to Alaska.
A few of the highlights on the way up the coast were the slightly rougher sea heading north and the fact that the swimming pools on the upper deck looked like small wave pools and not that inviting. People did use them but it was decided that they had to empty the pools on the second day. It seemed that they might overflow and that could be a problem since a bank of elevators was located between the pools and there was a chance that if they overflowed, the water would get into the electronics of the elevators. It was a good excuse not to use the pools or the hot tubs that were available. Yes, you can bring medication to prevent seasickness but unless you are very susceptible you will not need it.
On a sea day you should be careful that you don’t spend all of your time eating and that is one of the problems on a cruise. Food is always available. Bring plenty of reading material or other things to do and even if you do not find time to do it all you will have something to fall back on. The cruise staff works very hard to eliminate what they consider boring and so many activities and shows will be presented. Every evening had several performances with a variety of styles. It was one major show in the main theater and shows in the lounges and other smaller venues. Yes, for those who want it they had a casino that was open when in international waters and people could play Bingo most days.
Because the ship is traveling at a distance from shore you will not see much of the coast and during most of the summer, the central and northern parts of California normally have fog off shore. If you study California history you will note that this fog is why the first explorers sailed past San Francisco Bay, missing the opening in the fog and landed further north. All cruises seem to have one thing in common and that is that the ship has a casino. Since some parts of the journey will be in international waters and not part of any particular nation they can have gambling. Some people do spend a large amount of time in the casino and on this ship it is all electronic slot machines. You don’t even need to exert yourself to lose money.
The best part of a cruise is that you can meet people from all over the world. When you have dinner using the open seating and sit at a shared table you do meet many different people and get to talk about different interests of the dinners. Some people fear that they will have dull companions but you will find that most people have something interesting to talk about and you might find some things that you have in common.
This trip was different in that many of the people take this trip because in leaves from Los Angeles and that meant that those from California and Arizona did not need to fly. Any trip that does not include going through airport security is great. Yes, you do go through a screening but it does not seem as bad as the airport. Because of maritime law, you need to visit another country and that means you will go through customs when you finish the trip.
Many highlights of a trip this long and I will take time later to try and cover some of the events but for now just think about the trip as one relaxing journey where you don’t need to change hotels and you only unpack and pack one time. Have fun and enjoy it all.

Journalism, Has It Changed That Much? Part 1.

Newspapers then and now, Part 1 what I learned in college and working at a newspaper. Part two, later, will deal with what I have seen lately.

I will not claim to have the most knowledge about the press and these blog posts I will try to limit my opinions to those things that I really do understand.

When I was in high school I decided that I would engage in several activities that were of more interest to me than the basic education. I really don’t think that it was a conscious decision but they were the things that I did that made being in high school more challenging. Some actually were part of the curriculum and did help toward graduation. The journalism and photography classes that I took gave me an understanding of what a news story should contain and how difficult it can be to take the pictures and write the story about an event that is occurring at a very difficult pace. Other classes gave me the education that I needed to be articulate in writing about a subject. I do agree that a basic education and taking classes in a variety of areas does help by giving the knowledge needed to write stories and actually convey the information that the reader needs.

What was the first thing that I remember from Journalism 1? Gather information accurately. Second write it clearly so that the reader will understand what is involved in the event. We started with the “Four W’s the H”. Who, Were, When and Why and How. We were encouraged to get all of this in the lead or first paragraph of the story. It was let the reader know the basics of the story and then flesh out the information starting with the most important and working down so that an editor could determine how much to use depending on importance and the space that was available in the publication. You will notice that even that long ago we were sure that some people had a short attention span and would not want to read a long story to find out what is occurring around them.

We learned to write our own headlines. We very quickly learned that the headline on a story was partially determined by the size of the type used and the column width available. They are always used to attract attention but should accurately convoy the content of the story and not be alarming. Remember that for those in a hurry the headlines may be the only part of the publication that is read. Sometimes more effort was made in writing the headline then the story because of the need to put so much information into so little space. You will note that some stories are given a one or two word headline maybe extending across the entire newspaper. That is followed with a sub headline that expands on the topic and leads directly into the story.

You will note that in high school I covered all areas of news including sports. By college I had several specialties including club news. The papers at both colleges covered on campus events and might look at the neighborhood of the school but not really cover city news. It was a big deal when the editor of the school paper attended a press conference for a U.S. presidential candidate. It was the candidate that he supported and he ignored all the rest of the candidates. His candidate did lose the national election but at least we had some coverage of a real news event. But all the things that we did were a part of learning. Even the time my story was not published because it might embarrass the school principal and the district, because he might have endangered the students in the school. He made a decision that a fire in an upstairs bathroom did not need to have the building evacuated. The event was covered on local TV news but not in the school newspaper.

So I’m not saying that we were perfect but that we did learn the best way to do the job and those basics are still as important now as they were then. I still do read newspapers and see some things on the internet. Unfortunately I see so many things that are not done very well at all levels and most of those may be caused by the speed of writing. That excuse is lost many times when it becomes obvious that the original story is not completely edited when it is updated for later publication.

I will spend more time on the current lack of desire to write a good story and more about the fact that they want to be the first to get the story out, in Part 2.

Are The Rams Really Coming To LA?

Are the Rams really coming to Los Angeles? We have heard so many stories in the past that even after it is announced, we still wonder. Now that they have collected $100.00 deposits for season tickets from thousands of fans, most think it is a done deal. I still need to see when and where they will play to feel confident that the team is here. Of course this whole process is to make money for the team owners and not about any fan base in any city. I have many questions about the entire situation.

1. What happens to the interest on all of the deposits? If the person gets the tickets, is the interest included in the credit. Do the people getting refunds get the interest?

2. Don’t the fans remember how badly the Rams treated the people when they left?
a. They left with no regard for Los Angeles
b. Nothing was done to make the any sense of the departure to a smaller market.

3. How expensive will it be to attend a game in Los Angeles?
a. Season ticket prices are always out of reach of most people.
i. You need a license to even buy a ticket?
ii. People buy tickets without knowing the price or what kind of ticket.
iii. Think about the suites and who will be getting those. Not really the fans.

4. Then you have the start of the real costs of attending a game.
a. Parking. They have made it almost impossible to get to a game without driving and who knows how expensive parking will be or how many will need to find parking outside of the stadium at an even higher rate.
b. Can you imagine what a season parking pass will cost?
c. It may be easy to get into the parking lot but how about getting out
i. Have they actually driven on game day at a major stadium?
ii. No one notices why people leave events in LA before they are over.

5. Drive on the 405 Freeway on any day of the week and you know that traffic is a mess.
a. You have airport traffic
b. You have people to and from Orange County
c. Add people going to San Diego – maybe to a football game
d. They say that it is only on Sunday but that is a big travel day

6. What about the prime games that the teams want because they draw the TV ratings.
a. Sunday night prime time games.
b. Monday night football?
c. New Thursday night prime time games.
d. Then after the college season ends you have games on Saturday.

7. Now add in the other events at a large stadium, the other events and the rest of the proposed development that will also produce traffic.
a. The mayor of Inglewood had already started the process to have a Super Bowl for the stadium that doesn’t exist yet.
b. They want a final four college football, yet another event that draws large crowds and many from schools that are not in LA.
c. Will they have a major hotel with convention facilities and that could lead to large conventions maybe a national political convention.

Yes they have given us vague assurances and they claim a lot but it will take a long time before we know what to expect. Think about it they still have the big announcements to make like who is buying the naming rights to the stadium and where are they getting the rest of the money to build this area out. Loans, revenue bonds or hope for enough attendance.

So, with all of the questions that remain I think that we must wait for more information before we start to celebrate.

The Sane Driver

There was a time when it was easy to tell what a driver alone in a car was doing when they were talking. It was easy because they were alone and so you knew that they were talking to themselves. So then you could assume that they were not sane and you should be careful of their driving skills. This fact is not true because most of us talk to ourselves when we are alone in the car because we know that we have the most intelligent conversations at those times. It should be added that my sanity has been challenged in the past and I think that it has never been proven that my conversations that I have with myself are in fact sane or intelligent. But I digress.

In today’s world we have added a new and alarming factor to this discussion. The hands free telephone makes it much more difficult to determine if the person in that car behind you is in fact talking to themselves or if they are speaking on the telephone. When you see someone holding a phone you know that they are using this to communicate even if it is against the law to use such devices in a moving automobile. It is those who have the built in phones or at least a hand device that is on speaker, that is deceiving. Added to the discussion is the feature that allows the device to talk back to you. This gives us the opportunity to have an argument with the voice coming from the car and makes us feel as if we did have another person with us. Of course the fact that it is not a person is not important or that other drivers don’t know that we feel as if we are talking to someone else. Is it important to know what they are doing? Probably not in most cases but if you did know that the person was not completely sane then you could make much more rational decisions and your driving would be much safer. Any time you see someone who is mentally deficient your reaction to them is what will determine their next action and you want to do those things that will make them feel the most comfortable so that they will react to you in a calm manner.

If you know them then you can use past experience to make those determinations but the chances that you do know them are not very high. When it is you doing the talking you can hope for two reactions. First that they think that you have a hands free phone option and are talking to someone important so that you’re extreme emotion is because of the nature of the call. Second they know that you are a very emotional person and that when you drive you take the time to have highly emotional conversations with yourself because you are the only one who really does understand you. So no matter what you see others doing while driving, you must always remember that when you are alone you might be doing the same thing or even worse and that despite all the things that are being done in modern automobiles that will distract us, we must still drive the vehicles at least in the short term.

New To The Vetern's Administration

The most interesting part of going to a Veterans Administration Center? It is meeting the veterans who are there for service. Not only meeting new people with a similar background but such a big variety of people. It is also interesting to watch the people moving around you while you wait for something to happen. I know that the military is famous for the infamous “hurry up and wait”, but this waiting is closer to the normal when you visit a doctor’s office, which I discussed in a post that you can read HERE.

The time spent here is generally waiting for an appointment or if you need to see someone different it is the take a number and then wait. Yesterday I wanted to ask a question and had number 44 while they were helping number 32. Turned out that half of the waiting people had other appointments or were impatient and it went from 32 to 39 very quickly.

The people working at this location all seem to have a good attitude and that does make it better. You know when a person doesn’t really care and that makes it harder when you need to wait for an action to take place on the other side of the country.

I went in for a new I.D. card and they were having a problem that meant I had to come back on another day. Well the people I dealt with made me feel good and that it was not my fault that the equipment would not cooperate. It felt like they were on my side and wanted it to get done in a timely fashion.
Two rules for this or any appointment do apply:

1) Always bring something to read or a puzzle to do while you wait. It fills the time while waiting and is a positive that sometimes means you won’t need to wait long.

2) If you think you will be at the location for most of the day you might want to bring a snack and a bottle of water. Especially bring the water it will be better than the water fountain.

3) Vending machines may have what you want but not at a cost that makes it worth the expense.

We hear stories about the VA and some may be true but I suspect that many are not and it may depend on who you see and what you are trying to do. It is like most institutions today in that it has too many clients and not enough staff to do the job. Let us hope that in the future they will have many less clients.

“Hurry Up And Wait?”

We have all heard this phrase and most of the time it is associated with the military. In fact it is the standard line in many movies that deal with the military of most time periods. It also has become a comedy line in these movies to show how slow the military can become.

The truth is that the entire world is based on this procedure. No matter where you go you are faced with the fact that you are expected to be someplace at a specific time. That you know that it does not matter if you come early because you will wait beyond that time you were told to be at the location to receive the service that they are being paid to provide to you. It does not matter if you are paying or if some other source is paying for that service. Insurance only means that the source of payment has changed. It means that the provider is guaranteed payment and not that there is a change in the way the service is provided.

Some of the places we normally see this situation and the way I feel while I’m sitting and waiting:

1) DMV – The Department of Motor Vehicles. They always have the excuses ready. That they don’t have enough people or too may patrons. The fact is that some employees don’t care. That puts the pressure on the rest of the people to do the work and you can tell by the way they react to the clients.

2) Doctor – Dentist. It seems that some of these professionals feel that their time is worth much more than that of the patients. It is possible that a patient with a more complex situation will delay the ability to serve subsequent clients. In fact if a professional is constantly late it should be obvious that the person needs to schedule more time to see each patient so that the ones later in the day will not automatically start later then they are scheduled.

3) Airport.

a. Ticket Line. You know that you don’t have baggage to check and even the self-serve kiosks are slow. Check in on your computer does help but many people won’t or can’t do it.
b. TSA – Transportation Security Agency. Always under a lot of pressure because the airlines want the people out quickly so that they are ready to board (see boarding area)
c. Boarding Area. After the TSA wait the people are irritated and putting their clothing back together while impatient to get on with their flight.

4) Lines. No matter where you are there is a line. Some places do things that try to make you feel that the line is shorter. The fact is that no matter what the line looks like it is time that is wasted. Even at the best places we would rather be doing something and not standing in line.

What can we do in these situations?

The truth is that we don’t have many options because the places know what is happening and the people who work we talk to really don’t have much power to change things.

1) Complain to the person causing the delay? Won’t do much good they will usually only make an excuse.
2) Complain to a manager? Maybe it will help but not likely. If the situation is possible they might give you a price reduction or some added service but not often. I was in a small restaurant in New Orleans when the manager/bartender came over to apologize that the kitchen had lost our order. He comped our beverages and followed up to get our food to us. It took a while but he worked with the waitress and staff to get it fixed.

What can I do to eliminate the situation?

Not much but sometimes all you can do is to make yourself feel better. Bring a book or some puzzles to do to fill that wait time with something that will be productive. Easy to do in a doctor’s office but more difficult while waiting in line in an amusement park. Sometimes I achieve more reading or working the puzzle then from the doctor.

It was a dark . . . . . .

“It was a dark and stormy night, when . . . . . “

You know the quote and as many writers I have always wanted to start a book with this line. The fact that this start is thought of as the classic bad start to a novel has ruined a perfectly good description of a bad night. It seems that this descriptive line could be the perfect way to tell a story. We are hindered in our creative efforts because we don’t want to be ridiculed for using the perfectly constructed series of words. It seems that the organization that defines bad fiction had taken this sentence and uses it as the child of all bad fiction.
I recently read the line in a James Patterson book. In “Cross My Heart” the line is used to open one of the chapters. Since he can use it why not the rest of us.

Some of the time we make out decisions based on what we think will be best for ourselves but in many cases we have our decisions made for us based on how we think the world will perceive our actions. In this case a perfectly good open to a book has been made trite. It is not just used as the best sample of bad writing but as a perfect bit of humor. This line has been repeatedly used by Charles Shultz as the punch line in several “Peanuts” strips. It is the now classic start to a “book” that is being written by Snoopy. It seems that Mr. Shultz knew the importance of this classic line and used it for not only a humorous purpose but to convey a message that it’s use was not limited by those who want to make it a trite line. It is possible that the stories that would start with this line may be candidates for the worst writing or it may be that the story that follows is that target and the opening lines are only a victim of those who don’t want to spend the time to understand what the author was trying to achieve.
The use of this good start may be limited to stories that are set in bad weather but that does not limit the type of story that it can start. It could be used for fiction of many types. Horror, Murder, Science Fiction, Western, or even Humor stories are good stories that could have this basic description of a meteorological condition.

It leads to a conclusion that when you stigmatize anything you limit the use of that subject. Is it a person or a group of words you can’t ever think that you can limit thoughts without butting a fence around the object of your actions and those you make the use much more difficult and in this case you eliminate a great way to start a story in a place that has limitless possibilities.

Photo by Bidgee, through Creative Commons

My Personal Top 50

Vacation is over and it’s time to see what the results of this year’s travel is on my goal to visit all 50 states. It seems that as I have gotten closer to this goal it will become harder to visit them all. The major part of travel this year was a train trip that started in New York, had a layover in New Orleans and then ended in Los Angeles. This travel did result in covering many states and actually resulted in crossing several additional states from the “to do” list. It makes the completion of this goal actually seem further away since it seems more difficult to do all of them at one time.

The four remaining states are: South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Now I will need to see if it’s possible to visit all four on one trip. It does not seem that it may be possible but then getting to this point seemed impossible when I started to try to achieve this goal. The next thought is what will actually be the last state to be visited. I know that the first state I visited was probably Indiana. The first state that I was in was Illinois since I was born in that state. Only one more question remains. Do I need to add the territories to my list? Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands? It is all relative since whatever happens nothing will charge in the bigger picture of the world but it is fun to think that no matter how briefly I have seen all of the country and come to the conclusion that I’m living in the part of the country were I’m most comfortable.

Flight Delay Thoughts

Back home from a long trip to the east coast. It did have a few different forms of transportation. But the flight from Chicago, O’Hare to New York, JFK was the one that left the longest impression on me. It was supposed to be an ordinary travel event but had a couple of bumps. Weather in the New York area caused several delays. First on the ground in Chicago and then by a very roundabout routing. The flight was diverted to going south to Saint Louis and then east to Washington DC before going up the coast to New York. Well the pilot decided that he needed more fuel to complete the journey safely so we landed in Atlantic City for more fuel and all together messed up the life of those with connecting flights out of New York. At least in our case we did not have that additional trauma.

This did lead to several thoughts while on the flight and not all was bad about the flight. As a good thing we did get to fly at a lower altitude (9,000 feet vs the usual cross county height as 37,000 feet.) So I was actually able to see a lot of the coast and make out what was down there. As an example I was able to see Barnegat Lighthouse on Long Beach Island, New Jersey and that part of the bay as we left Atlantic City.

But some other thoughts did come to mind.

1. When did they change the name of the area where aircraft are parked to the Tarmac? Was it done to make it sound more exotic? Was it done so people would not think that they were stuck on a parking lot?

2. Is there a world record for the length of time on a scheduled flight without turbulence? I have never gone completely across country without a period of turbulence. The flight across the pacific to Hawaii and another that went to Japan and neither was without some rocking and rolling. It seems that it is impossible to go any distance without the movement and are those periods are usually at the time that food and beverages are served.

3. What does the expression “Ground Hold” really mean? It sounds like we should get out of the aircraft and hug the ground. At least when you are still at the terminal it doesn’t feel so bad. When you are parked at the end of the taxiway watching aircraft taking off and landing in front of you is not comfortable.

4. Personally I had spent enough time in New Jersey many years ago and had not planned on visiting that state again especially on this trip. I liked Atlantic City before they tore down all of the old houses and put up all of the casinos with their attached parking lots. So I had not planned any additional visits to that city.

5. And finally I had the suspicion that the pilot was playing the theme song from the classic television program “Gilligan’s Island.”

I know other people have had longer delays and flights that were much worse. I’m not complaining about that. We did arrive at a reasonable time and only had a late check in and dinner, not many hours sitting in the airport, like some of the others probably did. It is only that on this extra-long flight I had all of these thoughts.

Just Some Random Thoughts

I had an appointment at my doctor today and came away from there with several very important thoughts that I was pondering while spending that intolerable time in the doctor’s waiting room.

On my way to the appointment I had a couple of drivers who were driving cars that had handicapped license tags or placards and the driver was speeding at ten miles an hour faster than the other traffic around them and making dangerous maneuvers. I have seen this same action in the past. It makes me wonder if those with the handicapped indication think that besides parking restrictions they also have been relieved of following other traffic laws.

When I got to the Doctor's Office, while I was in line to sign in and have them tell the doctor’s assistant that I was waiting and of course pay my deductible. I was looking out the picture window on the second floor at the front of the building and I noticed that the view is of a cemetery. This may be a pleasant green area across the street from the medical practice, but it does make a person wonder. Especially when they have an emergency on one of the same floors that you are visiting or you pass patients and you see so many people in wheel chairs who are carrying oxygen bottles. It does not give you a happy experience.

It also was made clear that when someone comes out to give the waiting room some information, like how far behind schedule some of the doctors have become, some people will ignore that announcement and to compound the offense, they not only keep talking, but get louder to be heard over the announcement. It seems that they don’t want other people to know what is happening. This does not only happen in this situation but in many. I have noticed at gym classes that when the instructor starts to talk, especially to give an announcement, some of the people in the class will start talking even louder.

That brings to mind those people who must always be taking, even when they are in a situation that requires that they pay attention to an instructor or to someone who is giving instructions so that those people can complete a specific action that they have actually paid to finish. In my case I’m referring to those who are in an aqua fit class and seem to have thought that talking during class is a good jaw exercise.

Why do so many people do those things that will annoy all of the people who are around them? It seems that the situations may be different but the cause is the same. Those people don’t care about anyone around them. They only care about themselves and that they are noticed. It is possible that they are not aware of what is happening, but that excuse only works for the first time. When they are made aware that they are making fools of themselves and that other people may not be laughing out loud, but they are laughing at those people just the same. It doesn't change anything and the same bad behavior continues. A real shame.

A Thought About Veterans

            Every year on Veterans Day we spend a few minutes remembering those who gave of themselves to protect our way of life.  Even those of us who did spend time in the military want to remember the ones that didn’t come home and those who did more than we did to protect our lives.  It is important to give thanks to them all year long.

            It is important to not only give a thought to those who died but those who suffered physical and mental injuries.  The fact that we know how hard it is for the wounded to recover even under the best conditions and that when they are not able to get the help that they need they are much more likely to suffer.  It is also well known how many veterans are living in conditions that are not conducive to a healthy life.  The number of veterans who live on the street is so high that it seems impossible.  The fact that any of those who served our country could find themselves without a place to live is a crime.  Yes some feel that they can only live this life but it should be possible to create a situation where they can live a better life.

            At this point I do want to indicate I know of places and groups who are trying to help give these people a better life.  A place where they can have a healthy environment and still the freedom that they want.  It is also important to put this message out in the open where it will be seen by people who need to be reminded of the situation.  The picture of a veteran is not always pretty and it is not something that we want to see.  It is important that we see them anyway.  

            I started writing this to thank the people at AMTRAK for the design on the skin they put on locomotive #42.  It was at the National Train Day and 75^th Anniversary celebration at Los Angeles Union station on May 3, 2014.  This locomotive is one that is in regular service on the lines in the east and brought out west for this special occasion.  That they have kept the markings after the reason they did the work is the important part of the thank you.  They did not only do it for one time but found the message important enough to keep going.  So thank you AMTRAK and the people who have done this work.  Oh yes they do have a program to hire veterans.  If they had that program when l got out of the service maybe I would have had one of my dream jobs.