There is a resemblance…

September 24, 2009Family, ThoughtsFamily, Thoughtswarren

I was looking back at some old pics I had of various members of the family and I found two that sort of made me double-take. I had to ask my Mom about it and she straightened me out. I found an old photo of my Grandma in 1928 when she was 13. I saw another picture of my Mom in 1952 when she was 6. Before I knew the dates, I figured they were the same person spaced only by a few years. They are old pics…I mean really really old pics. Who could tell?!

(My Mom)

Anyhow, even more than the similarities between these pictures, I think both pictures look like my Mom as I remember her when she was younger (but that was a looong time ago). I don’t really know what my point is other than to say it’s weird to see old pictures of people. As long as I can remember, my Grandparents were old. They both had gray hair and wrinkles and all of the old Grandma/Grandpa sorts of things. I love my Grandma tremendously and miss her indeed. My Grandpa is 95 and still a riot. I guess he probably has been old for as long as I can remember.

(My Grandma)

But it is strange to look back at these pictures and think that my Grandparents were young and frisky and aggravating to their parents. They rode scooters and climbed trees and played kickball and talked too much in class. They became teens and twenty-somethings and parents and went through all of the same things we are going through raising our kids.

Does anyone else have a hard time seeing their elders as…well…regular people? As I age (but I am still dang young!), I think I am starting to understand. I see a resemblance between those pictures for sure, but I believe I am beginning to see a resemblance between our lives as well…and it’s a lovely picture.

Oh the West Virginia hills, how majestic and how grand

September 23, 2009Thoughts, WVWVwarren

I have told people that we are hilly here in WV. I think most people don’t really understand what I mean when I say hilly. You see, there are very few spots of flat land in Charleston, WV and most of those are either in a bad flood plain or are underneath some business. The rest of the area is hilly. Some say you need a longer leg on one side to walk the hills and it’s true. We take our hills seriously in WV. I decided to take a video of my ride home from work one day. There are a couple ways I could go but this is my typical route. I am not sure that this video even does the trip justice, but I think you’ll get the idea…

(please holler/leave a comment if this video doesn’t work for you…some folks have had trouble…I can reset the webserver which may help)

I love the WV hills for sure and so did the author of our state song…an atrocious song, but one that honors our hills. Ok, promise me you’ll listen to that song and then I’ll share with you a few more WV songs…go on…have a listen…

(stop it at around 5:15 if you are easily offended…this is the only version I could find)

See what I mean? It’s a bit painful isn’t it?

Most people are familiar with the John Denver song, Country Roads. Have a listen to it:

Some folks fuss about this song but I don’t pay much attention to them. This is a great song and, for me anyhow, a real WV song.

So, John Denver’s song is a WV song, but in my mind, the WV song is this one:

(here’s an audio only version which may be clearer)

Emily and I went to college at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where this song was first introduced to me. Dang, it brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it.

So, I love my WV hills. My wife says they wrap her up and hug her every day as she looks out on them. I can’t think of a better way of putting it. I love my home among the hills!

Meet Steve…he’s green

September 22, 2009Green, TechnologyGreen, Technologywarren

We’ve been a 2 car family for some time. I typically drove the tan colored Dodge man-van and Emily drove a green Chevy Lumina. The van was fairly new but we had the Lumina for awhile…it was 10 years old and starting to get wrinkles and excess gas. I mean that…the old girl had a few dings and started smelling like gas. We did our duty and took her to the mechanic to find the gas leak problem. They spent all sorts of time (and all sorts of our money) looking for the problem to no avail. We coped for awhile but finally decided that our family going out in a fiery car crash was not the way to go (at least until I get much older).

We started doing our homework and decided we needed a few things in our new car. First, we needed space for Isaac to grow. He’s becoming gigantic with no signs of a slowdown in the near future. He wears the same size shoes as I do (he’s 9) and he’s approaching Emily’s height. I didn’t want the backseat to be too large though. Isaac will be driving before too long. Enough said. We also decided we wanted a car with all-wheel drive. Winters here aren’t awful, but we do definitely get snow and it can be a problem at times. Safety was important because we figured Isaac will learn to drive on this car. By the way, 15 year olds should not drive. It’s crazy! And boys especially should not drive until they are 30. I once was a boy and I remember some of testosterone induced stupidness of 15 to 30 year olds. Finally, I wanted a car that polluted as little as possible and got good gas mileage, etc.

We looked at the Honda CR/V, the Toyota Rav/4 and the Subaru Forester. We didn’t like any of those options for various reasons. While we were at the Subaru dealer, we spotted an Outback that was beside the Forester on the showroom floor. It looked cool.

We decided to drive the Outback and that was all she wrote as they say. It had all those things I mentioned above plus heated seats! There were a few other cool features that made it even better…it is a PZEV car (partial zero emission vehicle) which means there are times when it runs that it release no emissions. It also has a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The details are fairly interesting but let’s just say it is heavy on cool and also enhances fuel economy.

So we drove Steve home. You see, like many people, we name our vehicles and this one is named Steve. He’s green and he’s green. We like Steve!

And of course, in typical fashion, the man-van (Bessie) started slipping out of gear right after we trade the car. Mind you, this is not an old van. We bought it new and have had all of the maintenance done on it since day one. It is a serious heap. We’ve had one problem after another but keep thinking, “this will be it…once we fix xyz, it will be fine.” I will never buy another Dodge again (sorry to all my Dodge friends). We may go have a look at Steve’s twin Ronny…

Cider Press Plans

September 17, 2009Food, TinkeringFood, Tinkeringwarren

Since I made my cider press last year, I have had numerous people ask me for the plans I used to build it. I couldn’t find any plans either so I sort of just starting cutting and drilling and painting. I figured that when it finally looked like a cider press, it would be done.

I suppose I did sort of congolomerate the ideas of plenty of folks and I added a few of my own so I can’t take all of the credit. My press is made soley of pine lumber. Hardwood is probably better but it costs more of course. I do sort of wish I would have had some plans when I was starting though so I will provide a few measurements that might help you build your own…

Click the image above to see the cider flowing. (Click here for a quicktime version)

By the way…you can see some of our first cider of 2009 over at Not Dabbling in Normal today.

Anyhow, here is my homemade cider press:

The length between the red and blue squares is 3 feet.
Between the red and green is 3 1/2 feet.
Between the green and brown is 1 foot.
I just added the yellow square because I thought it looked nice

The uprights are 2×4 pine and everything horizontal is 2×6 pine.

Hopefully these additional shots will help it all make more sense as well…

My sunny disposition

September 16, 2009Garden, ThoughtsGarden, Thoughtswarren

Even though I don’t care much for fall and winter, the sunflowers in the garden certainly do a lot to brighten my day during this time of the year. Initially, it’s hard to get over their size. Sunflowers are huge. Maybe they are too huge to even really hold themselves up, but, as I have said before, I love the optimism that they seem to symbolize. I suppose in the wild economic world in which we live, their bold yet simple existence is just what I need.

(sorry to the box-elder bugs that I caught in a private moment)

Anyhow, enough of that philosophical stuff…I also am fascinated by the pattern of the seeds in their head and the apparently sweet nectar that draws so many bees and other bugs. It seems like every time that I look at the sunflowers, they have a new bug climbing on them. In addition to bouying my mood, they sustain insects in a typically difficult part of the year when most nectar sources dry up.

I love sunflowers…not like I love Edward Cullen or Mountain Dew, but as far as natural things go, they are the tops in my book!

Falling

September 15, 2009Nature, ThoughtsNature, Thoughtswarren

Just as Summer felt like it got started in the last few weeks, here it is falling into Fall already. We’re winding up the garden and lots of things are starting to just get that look. I sort of hate that look. I am a Spring and Summer creature. I don’t really have the time of day for Fall or Winter. I get the Winter blues and cabin fever and the croup and the grumps and the uglies in the Winter.

I am not exactly sure what it is that signals Fall to me. As I walked around the garden and yard this weekend, a few things just sort of struck me as Fall, but there is more to it than wooly worms (holy cow! he’s all black…that means a bad Winter!), and corn husks.

And why exactly does a grasshopper feel like Fall to me? I suppose that is from the movie “A Bug’s Life” where the grasshoppers come in the Fall to steal the bounty of the ants. Well, this grasshopper was huge. I sort of had a tingle in the non-existent hairs on the back of my neck thinking he might be able to take me too.

Anyhow, I suppose Fall is here and I will have to return to knitting and eating lots of soup to get me through the Winter. Does it feel like Fall where you are? What sorts of things make it feel as though Fall has fallen for you?

Now I am experienced

September 14, 2009Family, FunFamily, Funwarren

Last night was my first time. I had held out, saving myself I suppose. Everyone said it would be special. I wanted it to be magical…something I would never forget. I had never been to Chuck E. Cheese. They just didn’t exist anywhere near where I grew up so that wasn’t an option. Once we had kids, I was busy…every single time somone had a birthday party there. Last night, Emily’s school had a fund raiser there and she committed me before I had a chance to make other plans. So, I got protection (hand sanitizer) and headed inside the place.

At first, I was pretty overwhelmed by the smell of kids and the number of germ-hiding locations. In fact, the germs were so bold that they didn’t even try to hide. They seemed to be flying through the air before my eyes in fact. Anyhow, we ordered some…uh…I guess you’d call it food. We ate and then started to play. Now folks, I never have really grown up…or at least I never grew up right. We played skee-ball and rode on the rides. Isaac showed me his expertise at a reaction time game and Abigail pedaled herself into the air on a magic bike.

I tried to ride the rides but I didn’t fit too well. The manager finally came over and asked me if I wanted a job as Chuck himself. “I’ll pass I think…I am part elephant and am afraid of mice.” She just shook her head and walked away. Don’t grown-ups understand? I am playing!

(I wanted to see if the bucket full of tokens we got were gold)

All in all, it was a pretty good time. A lot of kids from Emily’s school were there and I am sure they raised money. I had a pretty good time too. In fact, I wasn’t really ready to leave. I did need to take 2 showers and I did a dance with a scrub brush and a bucket full of Mr. Clean!

It’s Juicy!

September 10, 2009FoodFoodwarren

My Mom makes the world’s best pies (don’t try to dispute it…) and she always makes us several varieties when we visit. Isaac has convinced her to bake a special pie whenever he comes. You see, he loves cherry flavoring but not the big old snot-like lumps (his words) of cherries in pie filling. Of course, in making the world’s best pie, one wouldn’t dream of buying canned pie filling. So, since my Mom makes her own, she is in a great position to filter out the cherries after making the syrup. That’s right, she makes cherry-juice pie for my son.

I have to admit, I prefer cherry-juice pie to cherry-snot pie any day. All the flavor remains but you never get the surprise loogie. Now, my boy likes to eat and he is all about cleaning up the last drop of cherry juice. He gets that from his mother who has a similar feeling about ice cream and apple pie. It’s cool though because we don’t have to wash their plates after they do their tongue-cleaning.

When we eat cherry-juice pie, we don’t talk. It’s serious business, you see, eating the world’s best pie. These pictures are taken over a 4 second period so the silence doesn’t last too long. He devours pie! So, have you ever had a juice pie or do you like the chunks (particularly in cherry pie)?

Well, it is after 4:00

September 9, 2009Family, Fun, WVFamily, Fun, WVwarren

We took a trip to PA this weekend to visit with family and help with some home winterizing projects. I used to dread the trip from WV to PA (and even worse when we lived in TN) but as the kids have aged, we have found that a few movies, books and video games save lives. The kids travel very well and it’s become a non-issue for them to pack up and go. Emily and I count on a bunch of caffeine though as we always drive at night after we get out of work. It’s a 6.5 hour drive so that usually puts us in pretty late (especially when you consider that it follows a long work-day).

Anyhow, we count on caffeine and the groovy tunes to keep us going and it usually works very well. We headed up I-79 and drove until we got hungry. Subway usually agrees with our tummies so we pulled into one and ordered the usual. Emily ordered an un-sweet tea (she isn’t truly a Southern girl apparently). The feller at the counter said, “We don’t serve sweet tea after 4:00.” Emily said, “that’s nice, but I want UN-sweet tea.” They went back and forth several times saying the exact same thing. We were still in WV so one would think that we spoke the same language, but it was pretty clear that communication failed early on. Finally, the guy told her that they don’t serve ANY tea after 4pm.

(We got this one stuck in our heads!)

A lot of places in WV and elsewhere still have blue laws. I am familiar with them and couldn’t really care less as they don’t affect me. My wife without caffeine on a trip, however, does endanger my life. Green (tea) laws in WV must be overturned! We were in prime dinner time hours so I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t have sold their tea. And heck, they waste tons of food at Subway (as in all restaurants) so I can’t imagine that throwing out a bit of tea at the end of the day would have caused them much distress. No, no, I think there must be some moral reason why tea is banned after 4pm! If anyone can enlighten me on the issue, please feel free. My life may depend on it!

Hats off!

September 4, 2009Fun, ThoughtsFun, Thoughtswarren

I was browsing through the old pictures and I found a few from our beach visit this summer. First of all, I have this thing for licking bells. I am not proud of it, but it’s my vice. I am slowly dragging my family into my addiction as well. The kids will occasionally join me in the…uh…culinary experience. Add more ketchup and Isaac will lick anything.

Anyhow, we went to the beach at Tybee Island, GA this summer and we always visit the Tybee Island light house. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I spotted my new friend!

Part of what makes this so fun for me is the opportunity to embarrass Emily. Well, that day, I had the opportunity. You see, there was a troop of Girl Scouts who had just unloaded ahead of our arrival. I walked right up and planted a big one on the bell, right in front of them. I undoubtedly gave the leaders a topic for discussion around the evening campfire so it was a pretty good day in my book!

On the way back from the lighthouse, we spotted this sign which struck us as really funny…I am not sure that folks want to think of their congregation as “the slow church” in most cases, but one church, at least, was proud of it!

I say hats off to people who do whatever it is that suits them, be it licking a bell or going to slow church!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!