Saturday Pictures on Wednesday

Saturday Pictures on Wednesday

July 29, 2015

(click to enlarge)

We snapped some photos on our way back to Bozeman from Seattle. I always check out the wind farms; there are a couple east of the Cascades adjacent to I-90.  A front was coming through with gusty winds. Blades were twirling this time. 

Pasture and an out building.

Abandoned railroad trestle crossing I-90.

When we got near Deer Lodge, Montana, we looked up and sure enough there was fresh fallen snow atop the highest peak -- a sight not usually seen before September.

Fresh snowfall appeared above Anaconda as well.

And fresh white snow was across the mountain tops east of Butte.

At dusk the temperature at Homestake pass had already dropped to 44 degrees Fahrenheit, a huge contrast to the 108 degree temperature we encountered in Spokane on the way out. At home that night the low was 38. Happy to be home again.

Hot To Trot To Seattle

We have been in Seattle through most of July this summer, house sitting while my sister is off to Iceland, Sweden and Denmark with her niece (my oldest daughter). Meanwhile we got a fellow looking out after our home back in Bozeman.

When we blogged about the trip over on I-90 I neglected to mention the extreme heat we encountered along the way. At the lowest point on the first day of our trip (a bridge across the Spokane River) the thermometer peaked at 108 degrees.

The next day when we passed through the massive wind turbine farm above the Columbia River Gorge east of Ellensburg I noted that, as is the norm, there was little movement. On this peak cooling and electricity consumption day, the blades turned on probably one-third of the turbines and slowly rotated at that. I would venture a guess that perhaps ten percent of the electrical generation capacity was actually being realized. As per normal, alternative and renewable energy, alternative and renewable energy, alternative and renewable energy, say it five, ten, fifteen, a hundred or a thousand times and elect someone who says that for you -- that will make it work, Okay?

F/V Northwestern of Deadliest Catch fame, docked at
its home port, Salmon Bay above Ballard locks,
Seattle, Washington.

As we crossed over the Cascades and cruised down to Seattle temperatures cooled to the mid-90s due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean. We settled in and have been in Seattle since.

You could call it my home away from home, in that Seattle is the city I've spent more time in than any other place that I have not actually settled in my sixty plus years on this earth. My first visit was 53 years previous.

Love at First Byte

I was watching the tube when a commercial came on for "Match." Apropos of nothing, I thought isn't that "Match.com?" Why are they dropping the dot.com? I do not have an answer.

Then things got kind of hectic around the house, with two teenagers, a teenager soon to be, and a third grader raising a ruckus. 

I wondered, how the hell did this all got started? We were almost pioneers, and it was called Metrodate.com. You can look it up. So I did and here it is. I remember, someone from a Philadelphia paper called up. My only real complaint is that I'm not still 47.

Love at first byte: Personal-ad Web sites booming But some doubt quality of e-mail intimacy.

By Eils Lotozo INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

POSTED: April 20, 2001

Lorraine Kay, a 58-year-old business consultant who lives in the Poconos, tried placing a newspaper personal ad. She got one response.

Now she searches for Mr. Right online. "There are photos and you can get so much information so quickly," Kay said.

The World Wide Web might not be the place we want to go to buy pet food or bid on our groceries. But there is one thing we are flocking to the Internet to shop for, and that's love.

Online dating services are booming. According to Internet analyst Media Metrix, 5 million people visited personal-ad Web sites in December, up 57 percent since 1999. A search of the Web turns up hundreds of dating sites, with names like Americansingles, Atlastwemeet, Virtuallydating, and GetGaga.

One of the largest, Match.com (owned by Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch), claims 1.4 million subscribers. Kiss.com says it gets 40,000 new users per week (and is being purchased for $17.7 million by a competitor, Udate.com). Billing itself as the nation's largest gay personals site, Planetout.com has more than 250,000 singles ads.

Thanks to the Web, newspaper personals - where SWMs once went ISO LTRs with SFs - are going the way of the dinosaur. At newspapers, revenue from personals is down 50 percent since 1996, estimates Michael James of Minneapolis-based MicroVoice, which provides personal ad services to more than 400 daily and weekly papers.

Joining a trend among daily newspapers - including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Los Angeles Times - The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News in October discontinued personal ads. (An exception is the New York Times, which will start carrying them.)

The ads are even disappearing from alternative weeklies. This month, Philadelphia City Paper discontinued voice personals and instead runs a sampling of the ads placed by subscribers to Metrodate.com, a Willow Grove-based online dating site focused on urban professionals in 12 cities.

"Voice personals have become obsolete," said City Paper publisher Paul Curci.

It's easy to see why.

Posting and answering personals is free on popular Internet sites such as Yahoo and America Online. On the online dating sites that do charge, the rates are low - say, $19.95 a month or $49 to $99 a year for unlimited use - compared with $2 per minute to call a 900 number and answer a newspaper personal ad.

Online sites let users post photos, and offer cautious singles the chance to communicate without revealing home e-mail addresses or phone numbers. Screen names serve as aliases.

"I have to read through every [newspaper] ad to find someone who meets my criteria," said Trish McDermott, Match.com's vice president of romance. "On Match.com I can say, 'Show me all men between 20 and 25 within 50 miles of my home, that don't smoke, have a certain level of education and make this amount of money.' . . . And you're not restricted by the circulation of the publication."

"Online dating is the best thing that has happened in a long time," said Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociologist who is Kiss.com's online romance expert. "There is a large pool of people out there who are isolated in their work, or in terms of geography, and have come to the end of their social network."

That's the case for Timothy Schneider, 48, who runs the electron microscopy lab at Thomas Jefferson University. "Let's face it, people in my age group spend much of our lives at work, and dating at work is a dangerous thing at best," said Schneider, who is divorced.

He's dated five women he's met through Metrodate, though none long-term. Finding a partner is complicated by Schneider's lifestyle: he lives on a yacht on the Delaware and doesn't own a car. "I have to admit, that is not going to have widespread appeal," he said. "I work about 10 months a year and then I sail. Basically, I'm looking for a woman to sail into the sunset with me. That is a niche thing."

And there is no shortage of niche services for online dating. There are sites aimed at animal lovers, disabled people, and seniors. Others target ethnic and religious groups - Catholics and Jews, African Americans and Latinos.*

Penn State student Rena Zoll, 23, has been trying Fitnessdate. "These are people who are into their bodies," said Zoll, who is from Newtown. "It's not like meeting someone in a smoky bar."

Sharon, a 38-year-old Main Line resident, also has used Fitnessdate. She is not comfortable publicizing her last name - for some people there is a stigma attached to finding dates online.Though her experience has been generally positive, she has gotten some risque messages: "There are really a lot of strange people who hide behind their computer screens."

The concern for security has given rise to services such as Whoishe.com, which provides a background report on your cyber-suitor. Another site, 24/7 Unite, offers handwriting analysis and psychological profiles of would-be suitors.

"One of the big hurdles is the legitimacy of meeting people online," said Schneider, who asks dates to contact him at his work e-mail address, and uses his title and phone number. "Women are nervous enough about meeting strange guys. What I'm trying to do is take away a layer of uncertainty."

Kay, the consultant, has heard the warnings about people misrepresenting themselves on the Web - but hasn't encountered that problem in replying to about 20 ads in two years. She dated one man for 16 months.

"What I'm finding is there are lot of really nice people out there," said Kay. "To me, it is actually safer than meeting someone in a bar. If they live in my area, I get to check out who they are."

And, she said, "after six weeks of communicating about his family and what he likes to do, you know him in a way you'd never get to know him in a bar."

Some experts, however, say that e-mail can foster a false intimacy. They say that human beings are visual creatures, getting crucial cues and information only through observation.

Sociologist Robert Billingham, who teaches a course on marriage and relationship at Indiana University, worries that online dating services encourage the idea that there is a single "soul mate" out there for each of us. "The truth is that there are probably about 875,000 perfect people out there for you," said Billingham. "But relationships take a tremendous amount of work and personal sacrifice."

"My advice to my students is trust your friends and your parents to recommend someone for you," he said.

Despite the vast numbers of singles seeking love online, there's little information on how well the services work. "To anyone dumping on online dating," said Schwartz, "I'd say, 'Have they looked at the alternatives?' "

"If we're successful, we lose a customer," pointed out Brad Pliner, a founder of Metrodate, which recently celebrated the birth of its first Metrodate baby. Washington attorney Grady Foster, 47, met computer security specialist Teresa Wagamon through the site a little more than a year ago. They live together and now have a four-month-old daughter.

"The whole thing is just amazing," said Wagamon, 41. "We had no friends in common, and we have solitary types of hobbies. We never would have met."

Eils Lotozo's e-mail address is elotozo@phillynews.com.

They used to promote themselves with one of our baby pictures. All is well. Back to it now.

Thoughts and Greetings From North Dakota

Welcome to North Dakota postage stamp.

The world is happening all around us. Thank God for the opportunity to look around, experience, engage and enjoy.

We are in Bismarck (population 61,272 as of the 2010 census) today, the state capital of North Dakota. People are happy, excited and friendly. You can sense the oil money all around. The roads are wide and smooth and heavily populated with late model full-size SUV's and extended cab pick-up trucks. Buildings are new and bright -- construction projects abound. Help wanted signs are everywhere. Traffic volume is up, stores are buzzing and restaurant parking lots are crowded. The daily newspaper is four sections thick. Awash in oil revenues, the state has created a massive legacy fund, and a revolving school construction bond fund that parcels out loans to local school boards charging one percent interest. If you want work, if you need work, this is the place to come.

It being January, the deal -- of course -- comes with some conditions. In the eastern half of the state there are ground blizzard warnings, as 50 plus mile an hour wind gusts roil down the plains from Canada stirring up snow to cause limited -- as low as zero -- visibility. The forecast for this afternoon in Bismarck is for wind chills down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight, the raw temperature is expected to drop to 24 below zero.

Four "March for Life" buses loading in Atchison, Kansas.
 Photo Kansas City Star.

Meanwhile today, back in DC, in the Nation's capital, the March for Life goes on on this anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, despite the ice and snow that closed down your federal government yesterday and most schools throughout the region staying closed today. During the decades I worked in DC, this usually was the largest demonstration of the year, yet it receives scant media attention. I could not help but notice the hundreds of buses that ferried in passengers from throughout the country, parked along and surrounding the three mile loop that rings Hains Point. No other event brought in so many.

I admit, that most of my adult life I was indifferent to abortion. I would say, I can't get pregnant. It's not my issue. Then we had kids in what are referred to geriatric pregnancies, which means that every time mom twitches, someone is doing a sonogram. Early term in multiple pregnancies, I repeatedly saw the squirmy, active, engaging humanoid within and saw and heard the tiny beating heart. After that experience I don't see how I could have the heart to be party to a decision to terminate a baby. I wish that, somehow, others could have the same experiences to assist in bringing the scourge of abortions to an early end. God bless my wife for sticking with it and giving birth to our three little miracles.

Our three little miracles.

  

Larry Speakes, RIP

Larry Speakes has died. He was appointed Deputy Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan in January 1981. Subsequent to his service in the White House,

Larry Speakes at the White House, The Washington Post

Mr. Speakes was employed by Merrill Lynch, Nothern Telecom and then the United States Postal Service.

Mr. Speakes was thrown into the limelight after John Hinckley's assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. On that dark, dreary day outside the service entrance to the Washington Hilton, Hinckley grievously wounded Reagan, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and DC Metropolitan police officer Thomas Delahanty, as well as shooting Speake's boss, White House Press Secretary James Brady, in the head. Brady suffered permanent, paralyzing injury that confines him to a wheelchair and permanently affected the portions of his brain controlling speech and emotion. From that point forward until he left for the private sector, Speakes handled White House daily press briefings and was Acting Press Secretary for the administration. Brady retained his title, and his position on the payroll, through the remainder of the Reagan administration.

I met Mr. Speakes towards the end of his career. I jogged during lunch hour.  He worked out. We became fitness center locker room acquaintances and engaged in the normal banter, even when, as I learned later from press reports, he had descended into the fog of Alzheimer's disease. Larry always had a smile and a kind word for everyone who crossed his path. He will be missed. Rest in peace Larry.  

How to Dress in Arctic Air

Balaclava

Most of the country is dealing with uncommonly cold weather this week. The talking heads are saying if you are under 40 years old you have never experienced anything so frigid.  Our low was -11 degrees Fahrenheit last night, and the kids are off to school.  I'll be out and about this morning and off to the pool, without a second thought about the frigid weather.  It's just another January day in Bozeman and we know how to deal with it.

The key to protecting yourself in single digit and subzero weather is to dress for it. Yes, don't go outside unnecessarily (well, we will recreate outdoors in single digit temps here). But proper dress will allow you to survive, avoid frostbite and be reasonably comfortable. If you have ski pants or a snow suit wear it. On top wear multiple layers. At the max, I wear a t-shirt, a turtle neck, and a flannel shirt under a thick down filled hooded parka or ample Carhart coat zipped completely up to the chin. Wear long underwear, pantyhose or running tights under your pants or rain pants over. Wear thick socks in warm, snug, and insulated boots, preferably with a thick sole to maintain an insulated layer above the frigid ground.  Tie, clasp or snap the boots on with your pants securely tucked within to maintain an airlock.  

Heavyweight Carthart coat

Wear thick, insulated gloves or mittens (or thick on top of thin). Mittens are preffered. Tuck them into your sleeves. If you are wearing gloves and are outside for an extended period of time, pull your fingers into a ball inside of the glove whenever possible so they insulate one another.  Make sure your neck is covered by a scarf or balaclava.  You absolutely must cover your ears -- they are extremely vulnerable to frostbite and freezing. It is best to wear stocking hat under a tied parka hood.  Or wear a bomber hat. Have as little exposed face as possible. If you have ski goggles, bring them along.

Okay you guys, you can plan and do it now. Once you get in sync it only takes a few extra minutes to dress for the cold.  Have a great day and good luck to all.

Elementary school hallway in Bozeman, Montana

Returning to Her Roots

Yesterday we drove to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to catch a United flight to Denver, connecting with a United Express flight back home to Bozeman. The planes were filled mostly with holiday travelers, including families, individual college students, servicemen and women returning to their posts for duty and skiers destined for points west in Colorado and up to Big Sky near Bozeman. While the flights were overbooked, all the standbys were able to board and several seats were empty ultimately due to missed connections resulting from delays and cancellations caused by the winter storm headed through the Midwest and on to the Northeast. Having started near the Gulf Coast I didn't spy anyone wearing shorts until we boarded the connecting flight to Bozeman. Go figure. 

We visited my in laws in Huntsville, Texas where one of our activities was to visit "the shop" as they refer to the family business, dba Wagamon Printing, a short run printing operation. The best customers are a local hospital and a bank. 

My brother-in-law Jack and his sister operate the enterprise. With the demand for specialty forms, printed checks, flyers, business cards, letterhead and printed envelopes being nowhere near what it once was, causing their offset printing business volumes to fall like a rock, Jack went out a couple of years ago looking to diversify and procured equipment to run a screen printing line. Wagamon printing now screen prints yard signs and appreciates (no they adore) hotly contested political contests. Teresa and her dad, Doc, are venerated founders of the 30-year old business. But now when they cross town to spend a few hours at the shop they serve an even more valued function -- free labor.

The shop is located a couple of blocks up from the campus of Sam Houston State University and a block away from bordering upscale apartments. The shop has a large paved, and currently unused parking area. Jack's next plan is to use recycled shipping containers to build stacked apartments for the student market on that north section of the lot. Stacked containers are lean and green and have the cool factor working for them -- and more floor space than efficiency apartments and the dorms. We will be keeping tabs and offering unsolicited advice.

When Jack isn't printing he is cold calling whoever has filed to run in the next primary campaign.

Following is our shop visit in pictures and samples of signs.

Screen printing line -- a barrel of ink (black container) automated screen table (angled yellow screen), take away belt (flat belt middle right) and dry lamp (green control unit far right).

Jack holds down take away table while supervising Teresa and Doc.

Put Texas First! "Dwayne Stovall is a candidate for the Republican nomination for U. S. Senator w/ Jeffersonian principles; federalism, republicanism, and limited government."  The Wagamon's wish him well, not necessarily because of his politics but because they have the yard sign account.

There are more than Laddies and Lannies in Texas than you can shake a stick at. Laddie lost his re-election campaign for County Commissioner running as a Democrat last November.  Now he aims to resurrect his political career running as a Republican for County Judge.

Wagamon Printing screen prints signs for the prospective competition (here is doubting Jack dubs the container apartments with a name ending in "e").

Local lawyer running for judge.

Local service advertising.

Realtor signage.

Sign advertising Charity promotion.

During Fugate's primary campaign he said, “I will be accessible to constituents, and have the best coffee.” Fugate didn't make it to the general.

Jack printed these up when he was sparring with the old guard on the Huntsville City Council.

Shane Barge is currently serving on the New Waverly Independent School District school board.

The Junior Service League of Huntsville puts on the Pistols & Pearls BBQ Benefit each year to support a local charity.

Doc stacking and counting the "green" run out of the dryer.

Please Don't

Drink and escalator this New Years Eve holiday.

Be careful out there. Good luck to all.

In the National News

Updated 2nd edition, buy it here.

Bozeman, made the front page of the Wall Street Journal Friday below the fold, not for a story on the local economy that's so hot that the minimum wage is virtually meaningless and rental apartments almost impossible to find, not for a report on the burgeoning tourism industry that is driving double digit growth at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport at Gallitan Field and has made the airport the busiest in the state, and not for a feature on RightNow Technologies which grew from an internet startup to become Bozeman's largest employer, to spawn Montana's current at-large Member of Congress and to be bought out by Oracle and become one its most valued operating divisions.  No, it isn't any of these business or economic stories.  The front page topic is citizen reports to the police department.  The Journal reports,

In this mountain town (pop. 39,000), police officers' duties extend beyond the daily rounds and reports. They provide fodder for one of the hottest books in town, "We Don't Make This Stuff Up: The Very Best of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle Police Reports." 

While some newspapers are banking on the Internet and video to move their business into the 21st century, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle is taking a different tack: turning its police blotter into literature. After more than 100 years of printing, the local broadsheet curates the confusion and mishaps of everyday life and puts these things into a $10 paperback whose second edition is hot off the presses.

Police blotters, laying bare the foibles of the community, have become the focal point of several websites and books around the country. Here in Bozeman, the concept has really taken flight. In addition to the book, the newspaper, which has a news staff of 19, is now offering T-shirts and promoting its wares on a Facebook page that has more than 3,000 "likes." At bookstores and other shops in town, the books are stacked high and sometimes topped with a red or blue flashing light just like a police car.

Here is a sample.

Bozeman Daily ChronicleDecember 18 

From the police reports: An 18-year-old man ate a cookie and started hallucinating while at the Beehive Basin trailhead.

Should have called the pharmacology department on that one. And another.

Bozeman Daily ChronicleDecember 17 

From the police reports: A young child was reportedly walking alone on Fowler Lane. When a deputy contacted the child’s mom, she said the boy had taken a different route home from the bus stop so he could look at Christmas lights.

Bozeman below the fold

Tis the season.  And another.

Bozeman Daily ChronicleDecember 9

From the police reports: A caller complained that Interstate 90 was icy.

This is Montana.  It's December dude. Again.

Chronicle Police ReportsYesterday

An employee of a Frontage Road car dealership backed a Jeep into three Subarus.

More vehicle mayhem. Dogs.

Bozeman Daily ChronicleDecember 5 

From the police reports: A man was seen being dragged by sled dogs on Gooch Hill Road. The caller said it didn’t look like he needed medical attention, just help getting the dogs to stop.  

I'll say. And finally.

Bozeman Daily ChronicleDecember 18 

Great news! Belgrade sculptor Jim Dolan said his three steel horse sculptures have been found! The horses were found dumped on a ranch near Townsend last night and Dolan got them back this morning. Stay tuned for the full story.

Oh, wait.  That last one was real news. Enjoy and good luck to all!

Bozeman police on Main Street.

Stop!

If you were ever wondered how .....

Staring at the Black Line

I got back in the pool today and managed to stave off leg cramps until climbing out, when a dose of mustard saved the day again. Later, Leonard, an 84 year old Denver Bronco fan who swims a mile Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, advised I should drink pickle juice to avoid the cramps altogether. Leonard says his wife swears by it; she hasn't had night time leg cramps since she started drinking a daily dose. Straight up cider vinegar gets a heads up on the net -- vinegar apparently being the common ingredient among the self-help remedies. 

When swimming laps, back and forth, back and forth, staring at the bottom of the pool, there is plenty of time to think and sometimes that's exactly what I do. Today, I thought about when I first started swimming for exercise, which was at Stanford in the 1970's. I had always lived in the frigid upper Midwest, but this was California -- what opportunity! I had a mid morning open hour that yielded time to jump on my bike to hightail it across campus to the swimming complex.

Stanford Aquatics center, Google Maps satellite view screenshot.

Back in that day the total aquatics center was the two pools on the left -- a 50-meter Olympic size pool (bottom) and a 25-yard competition pool and diving well (top) with one-meter and three-meter diving boards. The bleachers were there then, but they were completely exposed to the elements. The student/faculty locker rooms were through the entrance under the bleachers to the right. Most days during the school year there was a morning chill so I would dahs out of the locker room straight into the pool, and then rush back out to get under a hot shower when I finished laps. On warm and sunny days I would try to find 5 or 10 minutes to bask in the sun and dry out on the deck. Either way, I'd jump on my bike to get back in class in time for an 11:00 am or noon start.

By the modern picture it is clear that a second Olympic size pool has since been added (right center), as has a much larger and better equipped diving pool (top center), with diving platforms (10, 7.5 and 5 meters) to supplement the standard diving boards. 

I remember one time swimming laps in the competition pool, the fellow in the next lane was motoring back and forth in a rather unique fashion. He was erect, bicycle kicking with his legs beneath the surface while holding weights above his head in each hand. I get exhausted just thinking about it. I asked when he rested for a spell, what in the world he was he doing.  "Training for the Olympics" he said. "Good luck," I responded and put my head back down in the water, continuing my laps. Sure, right, training for the Olympics I thought. We can all have our dreams.

The next time I spied my pool companion was on TV. There he was on the podium receiving the gold medal for the 100 meter breaststroke at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. "That's him, that's him" I exclaimed, "He wasn't pulling my leg!"

John Hencken competing in the 100 meter breaststroke in the 1976 Summer Olympics.

The swimmer's name is John Hencken. He won two golds in Montreal, one for the 100 meter breaststroke and the other as a member of the 4 x 100 meter U.S. medley relay team. He won a silver in 200 meter breaststroke. Amid the tragedy in Munich four years previous Hencken had won a bronze in the 100 meters, earned gold in the 200 meters and also was awarded gold in the medley relay. Jimmy Carter took away any chance of John gold medaling in a third Olympics when he demanded the U.S. team boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

John Hencken, left, with 100 meter breaststroke Gold Medal at Montreal.

Here is a list of Hencken's world records.

Men	1972	John Hencken	100-Meter Breastroke (1:05.??)
Men	1972	John Hencken	200-Meter Breaststroke (2:22.79)
Men	1972	John Hencken	200-Meter Breaststroke (2:21.65)
Men	1972	John Hencken	400-Meter Medley Relay
Men	1973	John Hencken	100-meter breaststroke (1:04.35)
Men	1973	John Hencken	100-meter breaststroke (1:04.02)
Men	1973	John Hencken	200-meter breaststroke (2:20.52)
Men	1974	John Hencken	100-meter Breaststroke (1:03.88)
Men	1974	John Hencken	200-meter Breaststroke (2:18.93)
Men	1974	John Hencken	200-meter Breaststroke (2:18.21)
Men	1976	John Hencken	100-meter Breaststroke (1:03.88)
Men	1976	John Hencken	100-Meter Breaststroke (1:03.62
Men	1976	John Hencken	100-Meter Breaststroke (1:03.11)
Men	1976	John Hencken	400-Meter Medley Relay

John Hencken is an Olympian, a world champion and fodder for a good old memory.  Good luck to all.