Christmas 2009

Hope everyone is having a good holiday. We think Oliver had the most fun today - unwrapping and playing with his gifts (and very willing to help us with ours!). If it squeaked, crinkled, or came in a box - it was his! The photos really don't show how much he had shredded and spread the wrapping paper.

Trains

As part of my duties as a Bill Long Foundation board member I am serving as a part-time "engineer" during the display of trains at the Oberlin Public Library. This continues a tradition started by the manager (Bill Long) of the Oberlin Co-op Bookstore many years ago. Every 3 or 4 years the board sets up the train display and then runs them for a period. More information and archived photos showing the set-up of this year's display and the trains in past years can be found on their site's Trains page. Clicking on the above photos will take you to my entire collection of larger versions of the train photos (more than a hundred so far). I also serve as the website's webmaster (no surprise there).

Oberlin's Frank Lloyd Wright House

Nicki and I finally toured the Weltzheimer/Johnson House - designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948. Only 3/10's of a mile from our house - we frequently walk our dog past it - we've lived in the neighborhood for almost 30 years and we're only now taking the tour. Small, compact house on a good sized piece of land in a very quiet part of Oberlin. Many typical Frank Lloyd Wright elements. Very informal leisurely tour. I took a few photographs - hard to resist.

Chicago Trip - St. Joseph

Final day - stayed Monday night in St. Joseph, Michigan, at the Boulevard Inn looking over Lake Michigan. Good dinner, good breakfast, good walk down the hill past the Amtrak station and on the beach.

Chicago Trip - Porter Grandparents

Monday Martin, Nicki and I drove up to Beloit and had a very nice lunch and visit with the Porter grandparents.

Chicago Trip - Millennium Park & Lakeshore

Martin, Nicki and I drove into downtown Chicago and visited Millennium Park and walked over to the lakeshore and had a nice long walk south to the Shedd Aquarium. We didn't actually tour the aquarium - the walk outside was our focus.

Chicago Trip - Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House

First day in Chicago - took the photographic tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House. A little more than two hours of wandering through and around the Robie House with a small group led by the Assistant Curator. Time to see the details and areas not normally part of the tours. Between Nicki and myself we probably took 400-500 shots. Nice sunny cool autumn day.

Tree Fungi

We have an unusual fungi growth on a tree we had trimmed 4 weeks ago where a dead branch had been removed. You can see growth just in the 3 days between the first and latest photos were taken. The tree advisor contacted a professor from Ohio State and they may remove the growth this Wednesday for use in his classroom. Unfortunately the tree will need to be taken down as the fungi is an indication of problems within. I'll update this entry as growth continues and as the tree disappears.
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Update - 9/30/09 - The fungi is gone. The arborist and the OSU professor ooohhhed and aaahhhed and cut it off late this afternoon. We'll hear about the class reactions soon I hope. More photos were added to the series above. For a couple of them I climbed to the very top of our house roof to try to get an angle to show the top of the fungi - successfully.

Crushers Game

Nicki and I attended the September 9th playoff game between the Lake Erie Crushers and the Kalamazoo Kings. Crushers won 4-2 and now lead the series 2-1. Very good game to watch, friendly crowd, lots of park food, and fireworks after the game. More satisfying than an Indians game. Nicki even managed to snag a game ball. The couple behind home plate are neighbors Rick and Sue. They attend Crushers games regularly and got us the tickets.

You can never get enough of Oliver

We've been through a series of exercise balls but Oliver never tires of chasing and herding. We have major playtime at least 3 times a day. We can't end the day and head for bed without a late-night bout of chase the ball. It's what he does best. And now he's on YouTube.

Baseball

Nicki and I attended a Lake Erie Crushers game last night against the Evansville (Indiana) Otters (Frontier League independent professional baseball). Same division as the Traverse City Beach Bums that we saw with Steve and Judy. The Crushers won - started out strong 11-0 and held on to win 11-8. Cloudy and slightly cool evening - great for watching baseball. Very good seats right behind home plate. Nice for our first game.

Roof Work

Week one of the roof work. Entire roof shingles removed and new ones installed. Replacing the 3 skylights on our porch roof and moving them to our garage. New skylight over our kitchen. Pictures will be added as we head towards completion.
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Roof work (shingles and skylights) was completed August 28th with the gutters being added August 31st. Now for interior touch-ups.

Michigan Trip 2

Completed our second trip into Michigan last week. This time we pulled the kayakamobile with us to add to the adventure. Tuesday it was a straight drive to J and S's place on Long Lake near Traverse City. Completed the day with a stop at Moomers Ice Cream - great old-fashioned ice cream with a view of the contented cows grazing on the hillside below. Wednesday was kayaking in the hot sun on Long Lake, a baseball game with the Traverse City Beach Bums losing a close game against the Sauget, Illinois, Gateway Grizzlies, and then another visit to Moomers. Thursday we did another outing in the kayaks on Long Lake, then a car ride to the Short’s Brewing Company for late lunch/early dinner, a little shopping in downtown Traverse, and a stop to pick up a pint of ice cream at Moomers. Of course each day we had excellent sunsets and topped the evening with games of Spinner. Friday we did a morning kayak on Long Lake and then started a round-about return trip to Oberlin, driving to the west coast of Michigan down to Manistee (watched a freighter heading out onto the big lake), dinner with B & B in Lansing, and finally home a comfortable 20-30 minutes before midnight (no stops for ice cream). The kayak trailer worked well, the traffic was tolerable, and the vacation was enjoyed by all. So ends the summer.

Houghton Lake

A weekend at Bob and Barb's cottage on Houghton Lake (Michigan). A quick drive up last Friday collecting Barb and Bob's mom in Lansing on our way. Laura stayed with Lucy and her parents in Lansing. David and Ashley arrived at the lake Saturday with their two dogs. Lots of wind, cool evenings, moderate days, some heavy rains, decent sunsets, great food, quiet times, good conversation, no boating. Back to Lansing Sunday. Returned to Oberlin Monday.

A Memmott Family Special Weekend

Just a few quick snapshots from the Memmott family gathering at the Little Valley homestead - including the house a little depleted, the LVCS alumni gathering, the living room playroom and office sans furniture, and the Sunday's "final" gathering of brothers, sisters, and the younger generations. To see larger and more detailed versions of the photos click here.

The Last Classroom

Could this be the last classroom I ever call mine? It will never be the same. Really. Wednesday the powers that be plan to knock out the East wall (to the right of the door) and expand the room about 10 feet with a new wall. Maybe one that finally has the electricity that was never installed when the room was first constructed two summers ago. It will become a full size classroom. I took several carloads of materials I have bought and collected over the last 35 years - mostly books. The only thing yet to do is to meet with my current principal and do the ceremonial returning of the keys. And then it is done.

Stacked

Only in Oberlin. Our city employees are very creative.
Addendum (7/22/09): Our recycle cans got the same treatment.

Retirement! (Almost)

I'm done. It's official. Thirty-five years is enough. I have just completed my last teaching day and retirement has begun - of sorts. Still need to clean and pack my classroom and that will take a couple weeks. And tonight is the High School graduation which I should attend (need to take photos for the school website anyway). Lots of hugs from kids - and protests (take a closer look at the photo above). So onward.

Trailer

One more step toward getting back on the water. Last Saturday I had a hitch installed on the CRV. Today we picked up a trailer from Car Gear in Akron. They put it all together so all I had to do was attach it to the hitch (and pay for it of course). Meanwhile therapy goes well on the shoulder so I'm hoping that real soon we'll be able to load the kayaks onto the trailer and begin the 2009 season in earnest.

Addendum: At the top is a better photo with the kayaks on the trailer and a better perspective of the trailer's size.

New York City Trip - March 2009

A few photos from our March 25th-29th trip to New York City including the view from our hotel window, Central Park, Natural History Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, and the Cloisters. We did begin our trip with a night in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and ended with an overnight in Little Valley but no photos were taken at those locations. Visits with Martin, Bridget, and Martha. Lots of good food and good walks. A good time was had by all. Click on the above photos to see bigger versions or a slideshow.

Deer at Midnight

Two deer visited our front yard bird feeders just after midnight. They gorged for a while and then slowly moved on. Luckily Oliver slept through the whole thing and we didn't miss the bark. If he had only known... It is very hard to adjust the camera in the dark especially knowing if the flash started working the deer might notice. The last 3 shots were unflashed.