In order to be a “new hobby” it probably has to be something I started this year. That kind of limits the selection to two things: making garden stuff and ham radio. It’s probably also a foregone conclusion which one makes the “best”?

I decided to make some raised garden beds and sell them. While they’re pretty nice, there’s no demand! I did sell one custom garden bed, one corner bed, and one potato box, but that wasn’t enough to even cover my expenses. I had a lot of fun making sawdust. I’d like to figure out something else to make that might be useful enough for people to buy. Suggestions welcome!

In September while we were in Yellowstone Park, I was kind of bemoaning the lack of connectivity when someone in the line told me that they had great connectivity; they had a ham radio setup. I talked with them a bit more and learned that quite a few RV owners also had ham radio licenses. A few days later I was reading an article on people who are on full-time RV “vacations” and communicate with other similar-minded folks on the two-meter ham radio band.

When I was about 14 or 15, I got my first ham radio license and a year later upgraded the license. I let the license expire while we were in the Air Force. However, I remember that I had a great time on the air waves.

I’ve since become licensed … my call sign is KF7FXZ. I’ve bought a two-meter radio, built a good antenna for the system, and am in the process of making it possible to put this transceiver in my car so I can use it while mobile.

This new hobby is definitely the “best new hobby!”

Ta ta for now!

Every year has its fair share of ups and downs. 2009 was, in that regard, not much different. I saw this image online and thought it would go nicely with this post. In my case, there’s no hair left to be pulled out.

Picking one frustration is impossible. So, I thought I’d make a list, in no particular order. Just because something comes earlier on the list doesn’t mean that something else lower on the list isn’t a higher frustration!

1. Traffic in and around Salt Lake City. It’s not that there is too much traffic, it’s that everyone seems to drive as though they’re fifteen minutes late and still have fifteen minutes of driving left. I’ve often thought that Mormons of all people should be the most courteous drivers. However, I remember many General Conference Priesthood Meetings where at the end the attendees were reminded to observe traffic laws and be polite and courteous of other drivers. On the other hand, my frustration may come from the fact that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve slowed down a bit!
2. Meetings starting late to wait for potential late comers. This drives me up the wall, actually. The message that I receive is that my time is not as important as someone else’s who isn’t there yet.
3. Health Insurance. The system is broken. Fix it already!
4. Elected officials whining. The other day I was reading an article in the Preston, Idaho newspaper about the county hospital board’s reaction to the failed bond levy in the past election. The measure required a 2/3’s majority to pass and failed by a 2/3’s majority. According to the board, the voters “didn’t understand.” So it’s the voter’s fault? Not so. If the voters didn’t understand, then whose responsibility was it to educate them?
5. My weight. Why can’t the pounds just go away? Exercise actually doesn’t help very much. It seems that to lose weight, one must eat less. To maintain weight, one must exercise. I don’t like that situation.

Ta ta for now!

I had to do a bit of research as to what books I’ve read this year. I did reread the first 11 books in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan in anticipation of book 12, The Gathering Storm, being released in November. Robert Jordan (a pen name), died last year without being able to complete the series. Jordan’s widow (and editor of the previous books) hired Brandon Sanderson to complete the series. Finishing the series requires three more books of which The Gathering Storm is the first and follow-on books will come in November 2010 and November 2011 (if all happens as planned).

I finished Jordan’s book 11 and immediately started on Sanderson’s book 12. Yesterday I put it down in disgust on page 362 at the end of chapter 23. I was furious at the direction the story had taken. My first thought was, “Jordan would not have written this into the story line!” Since then I’ve remembered that Jordan had a fairly detailed outline of the story all the way to the end, had written much of this book already, and had dictated a whole bunch more into a voice recorder. It probably is the direction he would have gone. Nevertheless, I’m not happy with it and the book will sit for a while before I pick it up again.

So, at the moment, The Gathering Storm is NOT a candidate for the “best book”.

I’ve also read a couple of other books this year that seemed to have potential. I’ve always liked Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction. I’ve also enjoyed Frederick Pohl’s work as well. When I saw that they had collaborated on a “New York Times Best Seller,” The Last Theorem, I bought the book to read. I finished it with great difficulty, only to be able to say I read it all the way through. It is science fiction fluff. Another non-candidate for the “best book”.

Clayton Christensen’s best seller The Innovator’s Dilemma was another of the non-fiction books I read this year, along with Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos. Both were excellent books, although the Cosmos book was deep reading in places and I had to take it slow, occasionally re-reading whole chapters to make sure I understood what was there. While neither are bedside reading, they were excellent and I learned a lot from both of them. Both of these books could qualify for “best book”.

I’ve also plowed through a couple of computer books, primarily to help with some of the web work I’ve been doing. Because of their nature, I don’t consider them to be candidates for “best book”.

In October I decided to get my ham radio license. That also required some reading, all of which is documented in another blog getmyhamradiolicense.com. Those books were successful in that I passed the licensing exams.

My wife Nina is a voracious reader. She usually has two or three books going at a time (I’m not able to do that) and probably has a long list of favorite books for this past year.

So, do I have a “best book” for 2009? The answer is “No.”  None really “rocked my boat.” Maybe next year!

Ta ta for now!

We don’t go to the movies very often. Nina would go more often, I think, but the movie selection hasn’t been all that great. The two movies that stand out for me in the past year were “Up” and “Star Trek”.

We enjoyed “Up” a lot. It’s a good movie, well done, and with a good message. As soon as it came out on DVD Nina bought a copy of the movie. It’s definitely a great movie.

However, the best movie of 2009 has to be “Star Trek”. We saw it three times in the theater and then again in Heather’s home theater in full surround sound. We both jumped at the same spot in the movie every time. I’ve got it downloaded on my iPhone and have watched it again on that little screen. It’s definitely the best movie of 2009 for me.

We’re going to the movies tomorrow afternoon to see the new Sandra Bullock movie, the name of which I can’t remember. Some say it’ll be Sandra Bullock’s Oscar performance. That’ll be good for her and I’m sure we’ll definitely enjoy the movie.

It won’t be as good as “Star Trek”, though.

Ta ta for now!

Continuing with the idea of looking back on the past year, it seems necessary to talk a bit about food and restaurants. I like to eat (as if that wasn’t noticeable) and enjoy eating out with Nina from time to time. For a while we were trying to have dinner out at least once a month on the first Saturday of the month. Lots of things seemed to get in the way of making that schedule work, but we still managed to get out to eat fairly often.

Pocatello doesn’t have a large number of what I would call “good to excellent” restaurants. However, in the past year or so, a few new ones have opened and we’ve had either dinner or lunch there.

My favorite restaurant in Pocatello at present in Ruby Tuesday with Applebee’s coming in a close second. Ruby Tuesday has a great atmosphere and is very conducive to good conversation. We’ve been there several times and a coupon came in the mail a couple of days ago, meaning that we’ll be back there in the next week or so.

When we’re traveling we do eat a lot of restaurant meals. Some are OK, most are just average, a few are really bad. Not very often does one raise to the top.

However, this year the best restaurant and best meal was one we had on the road, and was a take-out meal besides. We were staying in a campground near Hammonassett Beach State Park. It had been a long day of sight seeing and playing. We decided to get pizza and bring it back to the campsite for dinner. Dawnmarie’s family were with us, so Kirk and I drove back to the main highway and stopped at the first pizza place we saw and ordered pizza. It was to die for. For no other reason than that, we’ll return to this restaurant on our next trip to Connecticut just to verify that it was the best pizza we’ve ever had. And there you have it: my pick for the best restaurant for 2009.

Ta ta for now!

We definitely didn’t stay home during the past year. We made several trips, some lengthy, some rather short.

The drive we’ve made most often this year is the 55 mile drive between our home and Soda Springs, spending time with dad and with mother. During this time the road between McCammon and the Iron Bridge towards Lava Hot Springs has been under construction (which probably won’t finish until sometime next summer). We’ve enjoyed watching the construction and have been very impressed at how well it has gone with very minimal traffic impact. In any case, these drives can’t be considered “trips”, so they don’t qualify for the “best”.

Because of dad’s condition, we spent most of the spring somewhere between Pocatello and Soda Springs. Nina’s niece Ashlyn got married, which took us to Rexburg and Logan. My nephew Bryan’s newborn daughter died, which necessitated going to that funeral. Again, these don’t really qualify for the “best”.

In April we made a day trip to Yellowstone National Park. This was the opening day for vehicular traffic in the park. We had a delightful time … and this one does qualify for the “best”.

We made several trips to North Salt Lake and Heather’s house. Most of the time these were because Heather’s house is a convenient place to spend the night while we’re doing something else. We did go down a couple of times just to be with Heather and her family, with the time spent over Thanksgiving being a highlight. I think the Thanksgiving trip does qualify for the “best”.

In June we made the Really Big Trip out to Connecticut and back with several stops along the way. We got to see (although sometimes very briefly) family whom we’ve not seen for quite a while. This trip definitely qualifies for the “best” category.

We got home in time for another funeral, this time Aunt Marj. That required a trip to Tooele, Utah, which is definitely not a garden spot (sorry, Tooele fans). This trip probably doesn’t qualify for the “best”.

In September we made another visit to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed in the park and took very nice trips outside the park to places like Cody, Wyoming and Red Lodge, Montana over the Bear Tooth Highway. After all the activity involved with dad’s death and funeral in August, this trip was a very nice, relaxing time and qualifies for the “best”.

We went to Chandler, Arizona in October to spend some time with our daughter Jaelene and her family. We had a great time with them and really enjoyed the time we spent there. This trip definitely qualifies for the “best”.

And there’s yet another trip in our near future. We’ll leave on Sunday, December 20th to make our way to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with Dawnmarie and her family. We’ll come back in early January. This trip would also qualify for the “best” (and perhaps the most exciting, depending on the weather).

However, since we haven’t made that last trip, I’m not sure I can pick the “best trip” of the year just yet. Of the trips we’ve taken so far, they’d probably line up in this order:

1. Trip to Yellowstone in September
2. Trip out east in June
3. Trip to Jaelene’s in October
4. Thanksgiving with Heather’s family in November
5. Trip to Yellowstone on opening day in April

I may update this post after we get back from our December trip across Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and back. It should be a great time!

Ta ta for now….

For some reason there’s been a lot made of Veteran’s Day this year (or perhaps I’m just more aware of it?). I’m a veteran of the Vietnam War era.

In early March 1963 of my senior year in High School all interested seniors were invited to an assembly with the military recruiters. Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force were all represented, quite resplendent in their dress uniforms (for some reason the Coast Guard wasn’t there that day). Each gave a short presentation and if we were interested, we could stay and meet with one or more of the recruiters.

My High School class was very small … about 32 seniors as I recall. Not many of us went to the assembly and only four of us stayed to talk with the recruiters. I was interested in flying and talked a bit about that with the Air Force recruiter. There I learned that to be a pilot I had to go to college first, but that there were many other opportunities to fly. I took their qualifying test which measured ability in each of four areas. I scored at the top in each of the four areas. The recruiter said he’d be sending me some information.

Later that month I turned 18, old enough to enlist. I skipped school and took the bus from Soda Springs to Pocatello and met with the recruiter. I signed all the paperwork and was told that I’d receive my orders close to graduation from High School. Further, the Air Force, in honor of the centennial of the formation of the Idaho Territory, was putting together a squadron of enlistees from Idaho. We would have our own squadron flag and supposedly lots of other recognition.

A couple of days after graduation at the end of May, 1963 I was on my way to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas along with fifty other Idahoans and began my time in the Air Force.

I got out of the Air Force in August, 1968. During my tour of duty:

• I went to Chinese language school at Yale University where the highlight definitely was meeting and marrying Nina.
• I went through further training at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas where Nina and I started our married life together and our oldest son was born.
• I was then sent to Yokota AFB in Japan. Nina and our son James joined me there where we spent the next three years.
• I spent more than 3,000 hours flying and rattling around in the back of specially equipped RC-130 RC-135 reconnaissance Rivet Joint aircraft flying throughout the Pacific Rim.
• I also spent 18 months in Vietnam on temporary duty assignments during the time we were living in Japan, much of that time in the air over the Gulf of Tonkin and over Laos.

For the most part I enjoyed my tour in the Air Force. When we got out to go to college at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana our family had increased by two more daughters. I’ve never regretted leaving the Air Force and felt that I had done a good thing for my country.

However, even at a conservative, midwestern college like Purdue, the opposition to the Vietnam War was evident and disdain for servicemen was always present. Revealing my time in the Air Force was inviting ridicule and derision. Since most of us who spent time being shot at and managing to get out with life and limb intact weren’t very interested in talking about our experiences, that was never a problem for me.

My dad served in World War II seeing action in France and Germany. He wouldn’t talk very much about it either, until he got some forty years away from those events. My grandfather also served during World War I, but never left the United States. The devastating flu epidemic had broken out and he spent his time as an orderly in a military hospital. My oldest son spent time in the Navy. We have a bit of history of serving our country in my family.

I’m very thankful today for a few things:

1. A free country where service in the military is not coerced. A volunteer military is a better force to be reckoned with. I saw too many conscripts in Vietnam who made life dangerous for those around them.
2. A different attitude today towards our military men and women. They are putting themselves in harms way at the behest of our government.
3. The technology (such as drones flown from thousands of miles away) that keeps more of our military people out of harms way.
4. A growing distaste for solving the world’s problems with military might but still the resolve to do what has to be done (along with a concern about getting too soft and vulnerable).
5. What I learned and the impact it has had on my life from my tour of duty in the USAF.

Thank you to all who have served, those who are now serving, and to those who will yet serve our country. A sincere thank you.

Yesterday was election day for the City of Pocatello, Idaho. The mayor and three city council members were standing for re-election. The mayor and one of the council members were defeated in what should have been a routine, re-elect the incumbents election. So what happened?

One of the city council members was running unopposed. Another one had a young, eighteen-year-old challenger who drew a surprisingly large number of votes for someone so young and inexperienced. That is an intriguing clue.

We’ve had a rather irritating issue in the community for the past several months that just won’t go away: the city’s vicious dog ordinance. While the details aren’t particularly important for this discussion, a sizeable number of people feel that the ordinance as written is flawed. Because nothing really seems to be happening to resolve this irritant, it continues to be in the newspaper, on TV, and in coffee conversations.

My first inkling that this election might not be routine came a couple of weeks ago at the Pocatello League of Women Voters “Meet the Candidates” evening. When I arrived, there weren’t many people in the audience until about two minutes before scheduled start when some thirty people filed in. The candidates for mayor were first on the agenda. While they were stating their case, League members were collecting questions that the audience members had written on index cards. The moderator divided the cards into similar questions and synthesized a composite question for the candidates to answer.

The first question, which was a composite of nine audience questions, was about the vicious dog ordinance.

Mayor Roger Chase, the incumbent, answered first. He stated that he felt the ordinance was fine as written. His opponent Brian Blad, perhaps seizing on the moment, said that if the public was concerned, then the ordinance should be looked at.

Similar questions were given to the city council candidates. The incumbents were in agreement that the ordinance was fine as written and working well. Both challengers responded that the ordinance should be looked at carefully and that the public’s opinion needed to be sought.

Red flags went up in my head.

Satisfied, content people are far less likely to vote in a routine local election. However, people who are not happy with the current circumstances will definitely show up to vote.

Yesterday both sides of this complacency played out. The incumbents’ lack of concern for what is a serious issue for many people was obvious. They were being too complacent, perhaps even appearing to be a bit arrogant.

Less than 30% of the registered voters showed up to vote. Those who stayed home were complacent, perhaps even a bit apathetic.

Of the those who did vote, some were there because of their dissatisfaction with how the incumbents were handling the affairs of the city as demonstrated by their lack of concern about the public’s perception of the vicious dog ordinance.

Complacency looses elections and for the mayor and one of the council members, both excellent, long-term public servants, this complacency turned into a perfect storm. I’m certain, however, that Pocatello’s politicians won’t learn from this example, either.

Mayor Chase has been a good mayor for the City of Pocatello. Another blogger in Pocatello has written a very nice post about Mr. Chase and it’s worth a read.

Goodbye Mr. Chase and Mr. Richway.