Monthly Archives: January 2012

Ice Castle at Silverthorne, CO.

The last four days have been full (seems like I say that a lot).

I have put in lots (maybe 20?) hours on my 50th high school reunion. That’s not as much as one friend from the past who traced and/or called 323 lost or missing classmates from our class which numbered around 400. He used obscure search engines and even resorted to law enforcement connections to trace a few of them. My job was to database all this info from his 19 pages of notes.

Keith Roberts had a lead for someone who wanted dragons that turned out to not be so, but did lead to an antique store down the street who might be interested in some swords. I sold another Santa from the collection, too.

There was an unusual call for a vigil for a “mystery” patient at the hospital. The call went out from No One Dies Alone, and I showed up only to be told that the patient had miraculously recovered. Five hours later I got an email that he had died. I have a feeling I know who he was and why he might have been registered under another name, but without evidence, I’ll not speculate.

On Thursday, Cathy and I went to the Coburn Gallery on the CC campus to see an exhibit on a local collection of molas, which are amazing functional art pieces made by the Kuna natives in Panama. Layers of cloth are basted together then a design is drawn on the top layer. Carefully cutting, tucking and resewing the shapes reveal the colors of the layers below. Some had as many as six layers! We are lucky enough to own an old mola and are fascinated by the art. Cath is going to contact the curator of the exhibit and see if she would give us some more information about our mola. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mola_%28art_form%29

I’m still on the Board of the Mac club, so we had a 2+ hour meeting BFE on Thursday night. The topic for the next meeting is going to be the ‘iPad and Autism’. A 10 year-old, non-communicative lad who has autism will be there with his mother, teacher and therapist and “may” demonstrate on his iPad. We are told it has been an incredible breakthrough for him, both as a solid mechanism as reward as well as a new-found method of communication with the world. Cathy and I are committed to two other events at the same time as the meeting, so I’ll have to wait and hear the results from other members.

On Friday, I took our car in for a miraculous transformation of it’s exterior. Over the years there have been numerous rock chips, scratches, small parking lot dent and scrapes – even an encounter or two from the edges of the old narrow opening to our garage. While at an oil change at the Toyota dealer, I asked my service guy who he’d recommend to repaint the car. He told me about a magician up the street at the top of Motor City named Ken. One visit to see this guy in motion convinced me he was the dude. Friday, he worked his magic on our Prius. It wasn’t a paint job in the traditional sense – no spray guns were used. He matched the paint formula/color exactly from the hundreds of cans on his shelves, then took a fine brush (after buffing the area) and filled in each scratch and chip and scrape. He then covered it with a clear coat and buffed it out again. Two hours later the result was astounding! It looks like a new car! Total charge…are you sitting down?….$95!!!

That evening, Cathy and I went to the PPCC Student Art Show. Mango fan Django, who you might suspect is a Django Rinehardt derivative group, served up the fast-paced music and the show was very well done as always. We talked to Taffy Mulligan who used to head the art dept. there, but who is now up in higher administration. We also saw a bunch of other friends from the art community. Even though I had my camera, I didn’t take it out because so many of the photo students from PPCC were having a great time documenting the event. It was a kick to see them rolling on the floor of the crowded gallery trying to frame the perfect shot. My camera wanted to get down and roll with them, but I restrained her.

Saturday we headed to Silverthorne where we’d heard of a young man who built (is still building) an ice castle. The traffic was so bad that it took us nearly 3 hours to reach the Eisenhower Tunnel…stop and go all the way on I-70. The results of the trip still have my camera wagging it’s tail as you can see above (and not doubt will have to suffer through the next several posts). After the shooting experience, Cathy slipped on the ice and landed hard on her butt again, but seems to have no lasting injury. We then drove to Denver to see Chelsea, Neal and the grandbabies for a short time before racing home in time for the Philharmonic performance of Berlioz, Bernstein and Beethoven. I thought it amazing; Cath not so much. She is not into the atonal.

Yesterday, we treated Gerry to his Christmas present – a meal at the Swiss Chalet in Woodland Park. We started by sampling the 6 small flights of wine at home from the Tasting Room which was his Christmas present to us. Cath whipped up some yummy ‘pigs-in-the-blanket’ soaked in brown sugar and all sorts of delights before we left. Except for getting lost on the way up the Pass, the evening was jolly fun, good company, great conversation and superb food.

There…..that catches you up!

This is not China. Actually, it’s Wisconsin and the closest image I’ve got to what I think rural China might look like.

I stumbled upon another article about Apple and Foxconn that might amplify what Mike Daisey said in the This American Life episode #454. It’s from yesterday’s New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw

It brings up a slightly different bit of investigative journalism in a 7-page article with an attached video. And, for me, it brought up a concept I GOT to the core in the est Training in 1976: “You can live your life taking responsibility for everything by choosing it or you can take responsibility for nothing and live your life being the victim.” Applying that to the Foxconn/Apple issue, as an iPad user, I’ve got a couple of choices: I chose the coolest device on the planet AND I’m also choosing to face the ‘human costs’ associated with it as well as the monetary costs. Put another way, I’m responsible for buying it (paying off my credit card bill) AND I’m responsible for the man who lost his life in the explosion. The criticism in the Daisey piece and the NYT piece is really against those who either choose to buy it but not acknowledge the human costs or those who design and manufacture it but do not acknowledge the human cost.

What came out loud and clear to me in both pieces is that Apple (first Steve Jobs and now Tim Rice) are taking responsibility for ALL of it. They could have so easily looked the other way and hired mega PR people to spin the story, rationalize the loses, etc.

Think this is a black and white issue? Imagine being in business and designing a new product, going to someone who is capable of manufacturing that product. Your stockholders expect you to deliver a killer product on time and for a price that will cause it to sell like hot cakes and still deliver a profit. The manufacturer gets your money, buy the supplies, hires the skilled and unskilled labor to produce it which necessarily includes managers and foremen who are in charge of the laborers. The manufacturer also has owners (stockholders) who expect a profit and a good reputation which will drive more business their way. The workers want to do well so they can keep their jobs, improve their families, etc. Sometimes the only way they can do that is to work harder, faster, longer.

I did a rambling response to the NYT article, but by waiting a few days, I deleted most of that because CNET’s professional wordsmiths and journalists did a better job at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57367320-37/apple-foxconn-tale-goes-well-beyond-apple-and-tech/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 if you are interested in following the story.

Without talking about brand names so much, I’d be interested in your discussion of the larger issues involved, like:

What is a bargain?

What does ‘Buy American’ really mean?

What’s the difference between the words ‘cost’, ‘value’ and ‘price’?

I certainly didn’t plan to revisit China so soon, but an email from Meredith prompted me to listen to the following: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory

Truth be told, I didn’t need much prompting. I have the This American Life App. It has links to all 400+ shows, and I have started with number 1 and am now up to number 92 which is only Feb. 1998. Obviously, my plan is to listen to all 400+ hours, but I’ve made a dent in this goal already. Did you suspect that I REALLY LIKE this show??

Anyhow, number 454 is an excerpt from a one-man-show done by a fellow named Mike Daisey called “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”. This episode uses Apple as the vehicle, but exposes a much bigger question of global economics, basic human values, corporate regulation, unintended consequences and more.

I’d love to discuss different aspects of this show with you, my family and friends, but rather than describe the show through my set of filters, I’d like you to listen to it first, if you can carve out 56 minutes and then post some comments here.

The article from the paper on the left prompted me to take the green dragon (by Michael Whelen) on the right with me to the City Auditorium along with $5 to celebrate with hundreds of my Chinese brothers and sisters (to whom I didn’t know I was related.)

What?? You can’t read the small print on the article?? Did you click on it? Ha! I thought so. Did you double-click and see that it was the same size as in the newspaper? Oh, you clicked on it; it is huge and readable, but now you can’t get back to the post? Ha, Ha! (Use the back arrow…you’re in a browser). See what I mean about this being a more sophisticated blog?

Anyhow, my dragon – Guardian of the Raging Waters (or is it the Guardian of the Icy Castle?) and I sauntered into the City Aud. and were assaulted by ‘real’ dragons (O.K., silk dragons over the top of muscular Chinese teenagers) with a ‘musical’ accompaniment of near jet-engine decibels and 4′ diameter drums that threatened to stop your heart. I knew we were out-classed and in trouble.

We hid between the stiff Chinese wafers of the Jade Dragon Restaurant booth and the Universal Kempo Karate muscular dudes. I whipped out my iPhone and attempted to record the over-anxious dancers trying to feed the over-anxious dragons some glittery paper pieces from lantern-like IV props. (Not a worthy photo…)

The raucous, athletic performance came to an end, and I roamed the main floor looking for dragon displays…or at least someone I could talk to about selling my dragons. (Is there anyone reading this blog who doesn’t know about the 100 dragons I inherited from my cousin who was eaten by 100 cats?)

Alas, there were no dragon displays/booths. I had, once again, missed the perfect opportunity.

Soon, I was besieged by young and old wondering where I’d gotten my dragon. Youngsters brought their moms and asked them if they would buy one for them like mine. Octogenarians stopped to tell me of their dragon collections. This was a goldmine!

I started asking at each booth if they knew who was in charge, and finally I met her. She turned out to be Mali Hsu, and she was enchanted by my dragon. I was enchanted by the possibility of unloading 80+ dragons.

A year late and a lot more than a dollar short, I am joining the Chinese Cultural Institute and reserving a booth for next year’s Chinese New Year’s Celebration (The Year of the Snake…hmmmmm.)

When things go south, it seems they go in pairs or trips. My faithful inkjet printer with the continuous ink system packed up a second time, and I just didn’t have the heart to take it back to Voelker’s. On the same day, my laserprinter decided to have terminal vertical lines which were close enough together to make copy near invisible. Then, to make a nice round three, the amplifier for the sound system in the TV room developed a growl.

I love a good puzzle, but these devoured nearly three whole days.

Epson’s engineers had locked up my printer in the name of ‘protecting me from failure.’ I paid once to have their wicked software reset. Now, I had to have another printer.

Just by accident, I found one which was being sold for parts by a fellow on Craigslist. His baby sitter had jammed it printing her wedding invitations, and he felt he destroyed it trying to unjam it. We settled on $20 – he thinking I was quite the fool buying a destroyed printer; I thinking if Voelker had two broken printers, he just might combine to make one of them work.

Instead of Plan One, I spent two days, got ink all over the place, cursed a blue streak, but finally have a color printer that just works like it was brand new.

In addition, the new drum for the laserprinter arrived in record time. Now, I have two printers. Cathy’s printer stopped working so since I was in ‘printer mode’ I fixed her’s AND fixed the amplifier tonight.

Was it worth it?

You bet.

Thank God for metadata.

I’m doing my best to adapt. I have a new host for this site and new software to adjust things and a new theme which wants to adjust things FOR me and very little time to devote to making all of this work.

It’s the little things that drive one crazy. The photo on the left REFUSED to come in as a vertical. It was shot as a vertical, appears in all other programs as a vertical, and I have wasted 20 minutes trying to figure out how to rotate it using WordPress! There seems to be three levels of editing for photos and it took me that long to find the third level and realize that the universal symbol for rotate is used in this program to Undo and Redo the last change. They have dreamed up a NEW symbol for rotatation and it ONLY appears on the third level of editing…if you can find the button that takes you there! I’m a very patient bulldog….and I love a good puzzle…howeverr………………

I chose this photo which was shot with my iPhone to illustrate a point. I had forgotten when I shot this, where I shot it, and even what the subject was. Metadata to the rescue. Every digital photo has a little “sidecar” file which tells all kinds of valuable information about the photo: date, time, what camera was used, f/stop, shutter speed, etc. Some newer cameras even tell where the photo was taken using GPS coordinates! This is good and bad, but sometimes, especially for old duffers like me, a nudge from the metadata brings me the information my memory didn’t want to reveal.

So the Broncos didn’t make it into the finals. Life goes on…or it doesn’t.

Tonight we went to a Celebration of Life for Kit Eldridge at the Shriner’s Club. The place was packed, all of Kit’s family and friends and workmen buddies were there, the food was plentiful, and Audrey ‘almost’ held it together. Understandable, you say, for her to be fragile. It was her husband, after all. Wait until you hear their story…

Audrey, age 13, lived in the Broadmoor, and her parents owned a liquor store. Kit, age 20, worked with the elephants at the Cheyenne Mtn. Zoo, among other places, and would frequently frequent Audrey’s parents liquor store. Her mom was crazy about Kit and they would frequently chat on his frequent visits. One evening she asked him why his hair was always wet when he came in for beer, and he told her one of his other jobs was running a swimming/diving program at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. She mentioned she had a beautiful daughter who was also a competitive swimmer and wanted to learn to dive. It didn’t take long before she hired Kit to give her daughter diving lessons.

We’ve all heard the jokes about the perfect girlfriend requirements being: young, beautiful, athletic, and having rich parents who own a liquor store. The other side has perfect requirements, too: tall, dark, handsome, long hair (this WAS the 70’s), sharp dresser (bell-bottoms, peace symbol belt buckle), drives a Camero.

So, that’s how Audrey met Kit. She was more than smitten on first meeting. She had the script completely written by their 2nd diving lesson. There was no ‘maybe’. Kit was the one she would spend her life adoring.

There were a few adjustments: the Camero was souped up and trashed out. Upholstery cotton and springs were visible. OMG! Audrey, upscale Jewish girl had never ridden in anything but Cadillacs and Lincolns. AND he was MUCH older. AND he had girlfriends. AND it was just another job for Kit.

The lessons continued. Soon Audrey was 14 and more in love than ever. She was so freaked out at the upholstery in Kit’s car, that her parents bought him a brand new Subaru to drive Audrey to her diving lessons. (I think maybe the parents were reading her script).

Audrey recalled that they had their first “real date” when she was 14 and he invited her to come to the zoo and see what he did for a living. They toured the back scenes and then he told her to jump in the truck – he had to make a delivery…to the dump. She had never been in a truck, much less to a dump, but she was with Kit and it wasn’t a diving lesson! To her, it was a REAL date.

When they arrived at the 26th St. landfill, Kit jumped out, elevated the dump bed, and all sorts of noises emitted from the truck. However, the thing that finally got through to Audrey was the god-awful, eye-burning, incredibly bad smell!! She jumped out of the truck and yelled at Kit, “what’s that terrible odor??”

“Elephant shit, Audrey. What did you think we were hauling?”

That was their first date…according to Audrey.

The diving lessons continued. Her high school days continued and so did Kit’s life. He had girlfriends, and one of them inconveniently got pregnant (this was not in Audrey’s original script). Kit, being the ultimate ethical person we all knew, insisted on marrying the girl, even though everyone knew they were ill-suited, and the marriage lasted a very short time.

Audrey was now 15, Kit was 22. Without a lot of details in the story, we can assume they spent the rest of their years together from this point on. The math doesn’t quite work, but they were ‘together’ and then married 25 years.

The things he built as he became a master carpenter, the things they did together, the people’s lives they affected are side stories to the main script. They were soul-mates. This wasn’t Hollywood, but their story was better than a lot that made it to the screen.

I have started reading Audrey’s blog of Kit’s last 16 months as pancreatic cancer took him down. It is beautifully written, but I have to stop after a couple of entries. It’s just too vivid. I’ve cried buckets.

This is my 4th iteration of a blog for family and friends. The first edition was done with a very easy template through iWeb and hosted on the MobileMe site. It was a great adventure and elicited 5000 hits in its first year (no doubt half of them from me making new posts and adjustments). There were multiple comments, but it was not an easy process for visitors to the site. On the plus side, however, the site was never hacked and there was no spam to deal with. You can still see the old one for awhile at http://skip2.me/SkipLog/SkipLog/SkipLog.html . For now it will be the archive until I learn how to fold it into this site, however, there will be no new information added.