Well, I have been flowing all my data stream into forums for a while now. Have come up on Facebook upon request of the wife who needed a friend. Her sister and brother also needed friends. Our combined ages balance out the rest of the Facebook population. Apparently no one was graduated from my high school, or even lived in my home town, before 2005. I'll be found under the name "Mike Tracy". At least I think I still have that passport.
Ran into one of my dog brothers at work on Saturday. He's a real quiet guy, slight build, red hair and tattoos. Remember a pre-deployment, Combat Lifesaver course we did together three years ago. Smart and steady. He can tap my veins or reduce a tension pneumothorax on me any day. Did right well in injun country that last trip.
His daughter was born around three years ago too. He was with her(a little red-headed doll), his wife and another family with two little ones. I put the kiddies up on the seat with me and as there was a light rain blowing in under the wagon top, I spread my oilskin slicker across their laps and handed them the tail end of the drive lines to hang onto. We headed out to the farm and every time I gave the horses a voice command, the kiddies would pick it up and repeat it and turn it into a song. It was like a nest of little birds singing, or music from heaven. I am blessed.
Drove stagecoach today with my son Wayland to help people get in and out. He is solid with the horses too and can groom and harness and muck with me and is not at all intimidated by animals in the two thousand pound range. Unlike some adults that we have had kicking about and hanging around for years and never... and will never come up with the confidence to have a one-on-one equine relationship.
Don't like the stage much because it is difficult to have a conversation with the passengers down in the cabin, while I'm up on the high seat. And no shade and the sun beating down. Thank goodness for an umbrella-sized hat!
Have finally ordered a new hat. Went to one of the preeminent hatters in the nation, Jack Kellogg down on Douglas Avenue in Delano. Getting a silverbelly Stetson "Boss-of-the-Plains". Not from the Stetson company though, better. Just getting it in the style of the original. Don't plan on completely retiring the old "Sugar Loaf" sombrero. Had it for thirty years and it is so imbued with my personal power that I would be in danger from witches. The new hat is going to feel funny on me and I plan to ease into it gradual.
Going in on my day off tomorrow. My project plan clearly stated that I need eight hours prep time for a wheelwrighting job next week end. Haven't seen those hours on the sched yet. I don't think folks would want to see me doing dis-assembly and making felloe patterns when we could be fitting and tenoning spokes and sawing and mortising felloes and doing final assembly and tyre shrinking. That's what I think anyway. It's just good that I will have Ogre there to help me. If I don't stay ahead of my bosses with projects like these wagon wheels we will wind up with a Mangy Mandala of Mendacity rather than a Brilliant Bora Ring of Bodaciousness.
And that's enough crap from me. Time to hit spell check and go to bed.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Graduation-----NOT!!!!!!
Went to liberal arts and sciences advising last semester and found out exactly what I needed to take for a finish and took what they said plus some; went back with my senior form last week and they say "but that's under the old catalog and you need six more upper division credits." Could have got that in this fall if they'd have advised me correctly. And me with more total credits than Magister Ludi and working in the field for about 20 years. Well I guess they don't get any more money after they graduate someone. My plan is to copy and paste up some letterhead from the cheesiest online "university" I can find and use it to write Wichita State and tell them I am now happily degreed from a more prestigious institution and my recent lottery winnings will go to my new alma mater to endow a chair in fuckoffology.
Military retirement is still up-in-the-air. But at least there I know the level of incompetence that I am dealing with.
But I am not down. Got my Christmas present early. When I came home from work yesterday, my wife and son had been to the shelter and got, not one, but, two kittens! They were the last of a litter so they got them both. I named one Scipio (Scipio Africattus) and Wayland named the other Savage. They are about seven weeks old and just darlings. As I am recumbent here with the lap-top, they are sleeping on my chest. Blood pressure is loooow. Even got a window sticker for my car saying I am part of the Million Cat Rescue.
Thinking about spring projects. Ought to fix up my old KHS mountain bike for my son. Might have to get a new fork (bent in the greatest crash I ever had and the second time I destroyed a helmet) but it is a solid bike if a little heavy. Did jump a lot of curbs in my Duke of Delano days, although there was much re-weaving of rear spokes. My Ghost, love that bike, is an aluminum hard tail with Shimano Deore set-up and all it needs is a chain thrown on and a lube. We should go on some rides. In Missouri, they have converted quite a bit of riverside, railroad line into bike path and have some of that here in Kansas too. And maybe this summer, haul them out to New Mexico for some real spectacular peddling. My brother-in-law rides and I know we can make better time on some of the poorer trails, than we do with the 4x4.
Now its time to put kitties in their bed and then....The Greatest Crash I Ever Had.
I was on the right bank, Wichita Bicycle Path and going from street level to waterside on a ramp that angles down the embankment. Looked down and saw that my front wheel, quick release lever was not fully engaged. Said "Oi, gotta fix that" and kicked at it with my right foot, missed, and got the foot in amongst the spokes in front of the fork. Had time to realize, in the fractional second it took for my foot to go from the front of the fork to the back, that I might be in trouble. The foot hit the fork and locked the wheel. I was launched in the manner of, but with slightly more mechanical advantage than, a trebuchet. My trajectory reacquired the pavement some ten yards hence when I was in an head-down aspect. Besides the helmet, I was wearing a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off and to which I had affixed many chrome spikes on the shoulders and suitably decorated in the Metal-Head manner so as to awe and inspire my Delanoese subjects. The helmet broke and the spikes on my right shoulder gouged the asphalt so that it appeared as if worried by a large bear (you know, those animals that can be taught to bicycle with more sense and alacrity than some humans). Fortunately, it was but a one block push, inland, of my wobble-wheeled bike, to where I could put things right with some beer at Wally Brown's Down Town Saloon. Wally's was never a place where patrons dripping blood was any concern.
Never as full of myself as when I've made an ass of myself. I really hee-hawed on that one.
Military retirement is still up-in-the-air. But at least there I know the level of incompetence that I am dealing with.
But I am not down. Got my Christmas present early. When I came home from work yesterday, my wife and son had been to the shelter and got, not one, but, two kittens! They were the last of a litter so they got them both. I named one Scipio (Scipio Africattus) and Wayland named the other Savage. They are about seven weeks old and just darlings. As I am recumbent here with the lap-top, they are sleeping on my chest. Blood pressure is loooow. Even got a window sticker for my car saying I am part of the Million Cat Rescue.
Thinking about spring projects. Ought to fix up my old KHS mountain bike for my son. Might have to get a new fork (bent in the greatest crash I ever had and the second time I destroyed a helmet) but it is a solid bike if a little heavy. Did jump a lot of curbs in my Duke of Delano days, although there was much re-weaving of rear spokes. My Ghost, love that bike, is an aluminum hard tail with Shimano Deore set-up and all it needs is a chain thrown on and a lube. We should go on some rides. In Missouri, they have converted quite a bit of riverside, railroad line into bike path and have some of that here in Kansas too. And maybe this summer, haul them out to New Mexico for some real spectacular peddling. My brother-in-law rides and I know we can make better time on some of the poorer trails, than we do with the 4x4.
Now its time to put kitties in their bed and then....The Greatest Crash I Ever Had.
I was on the right bank, Wichita Bicycle Path and going from street level to waterside on a ramp that angles down the embankment. Looked down and saw that my front wheel, quick release lever was not fully engaged. Said "Oi, gotta fix that" and kicked at it with my right foot, missed, and got the foot in amongst the spokes in front of the fork. Had time to realize, in the fractional second it took for my foot to go from the front of the fork to the back, that I might be in trouble. The foot hit the fork and locked the wheel. I was launched in the manner of, but with slightly more mechanical advantage than, a trebuchet. My trajectory reacquired the pavement some ten yards hence when I was in an head-down aspect. Besides the helmet, I was wearing a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off and to which I had affixed many chrome spikes on the shoulders and suitably decorated in the Metal-Head manner so as to awe and inspire my Delanoese subjects. The helmet broke and the spikes on my right shoulder gouged the asphalt so that it appeared as if worried by a large bear (you know, those animals that can be taught to bicycle with more sense and alacrity than some humans). Fortunately, it was but a one block push, inland, of my wobble-wheeled bike, to where I could put things right with some beer at Wally Brown's Down Town Saloon. Wally's was never a place where patrons dripping blood was any concern.
Never as full of myself as when I've made an ass of myself. I really hee-hawed on that one.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Graduation!!!!!!!!!!!!!--------maybe
[[[Great joy in having Craig read and comment on my first post]]]
Found out they changed the requirements (sneaks) so I might have to put some more time in at school. Had so hoped to finish that four year degree in thirty years. Going from Batchelor of Arts in History to Batchelor of old Farts with History. Had to write a begging letter to some committee asking to be passed on with my original deal. We'll see.
Liked my historioghraphy class this semester. HISTORIOGRAPHY: where people who study history, study people who studied history. (Like Beavis's friend who wanted a tattoo of an ass, tattooed on his ass.) Anyway the prof is a classical philologist. (legal in Kansas) She spent a lot of time in Eygypt, reading papyri from the Roman period. She chose "the Fall of the Roman Empire" as the theme for our research.
In the twelve years since I was last at school, I have made quite a hobby of reading about Rome. Likes how they builded things and what tools they used and the amazing ambition of their construction. That kind of sucked me in to looking at the society. Slavery but social mobility too. Wasn't all like that...what wuz that dirty movie that had the young (swoon!) Helen Mirren in it? Interesting stuff. And always something new; Hadrianic collosii in Turkey, Varus's End in Germany, all them old pots-in-a-well in London the other day, 'bout the same time as they found that wonderful wood and ivory chair in Herculanium. And, to me the most exiting, those 29 or some odd ships and boats they are excavating in the old harbor at Piza. Some with cargos intact; some with crewmembers, dogs, jugged babies; stuff in good shape from oxygen exclusion. Etruscan through the Empire. And today I saw where they are opening up C. Augustus's old house on the Capitoline...still got paint on the walls. Should have tried to get down to Rome (and Florence) when I was stationed in Germany in '02.
Now its time to pop round to "Yes, your Opinion is Valuable to me...." and see if I can get Craig to tell us what he finds interesting in the Ancient World.
Oops, put Augustus on the Capitoline, it was the Palatine Hill where he washed his socks.
Found out they changed the requirements (sneaks) so I might have to put some more time in at school. Had so hoped to finish that four year degree in thirty years. Going from Batchelor of Arts in History to Batchelor of old Farts with History. Had to write a begging letter to some committee asking to be passed on with my original deal. We'll see.
Liked my historioghraphy class this semester. HISTORIOGRAPHY: where people who study history, study people who studied history. (Like Beavis's friend who wanted a tattoo of an ass, tattooed on his ass.) Anyway the prof is a classical philologist. (legal in Kansas) She spent a lot of time in Eygypt, reading papyri from the Roman period. She chose "the Fall of the Roman Empire" as the theme for our research.
In the twelve years since I was last at school, I have made quite a hobby of reading about Rome. Likes how they builded things and what tools they used and the amazing ambition of their construction. That kind of sucked me in to looking at the society. Slavery but social mobility too. Wasn't all like that...what wuz that dirty movie that had the young (swoon!) Helen Mirren in it? Interesting stuff. And always something new; Hadrianic collosii in Turkey, Varus's End in Germany, all them old pots-in-a-well in London the other day, 'bout the same time as they found that wonderful wood and ivory chair in Herculanium. And, to me the most exiting, those 29 or some odd ships and boats they are excavating in the old harbor at Piza. Some with cargos intact; some with crewmembers, dogs, jugged babies; stuff in good shape from oxygen exclusion. Etruscan through the Empire. And today I saw where they are opening up C. Augustus's old house on the Capitoline...still got paint on the walls. Should have tried to get down to Rome (and Florence) when I was stationed in Germany in '02.
Now its time to pop round to "Yes, your Opinion is Valuable to me...." and see if I can get Craig to tell us what he finds interesting in the Ancient World.
Oops, put Augustus on the Capitoline, it was the Palatine Hill where he washed his socks.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Thanksgiving Trip
So 29 people have visited here before I've gotten around to posting anything. The blog title is true enough. I have a couple history papers to write and that has driven me here to put it off. I do put the pro in procrastinate.
We went to my sister's place in New Mexico over Thanksgiving. She lives near a huge, lone mountain (an extinct volcano) that arises out of the sagebrush flats of the lower San Luis Valley. The mountain had been part of a private ranch but has recently been acquired by the state. I found out about this last year when I was in Iraq and became obsessed with exploring this wild and little visited chunk of real estate. We went there right after I got home but I didn't make it far up the mountain. I was physically drained from my tour and needed a few months to recover.
Back home I read everything I could find on the place and came upon a site that quoted a BLM archaeologist saying that the location had never been surveyed for cultural materials, (man made stuff) and there might be Indian atrtifacts, petroglyphs, Spanish colonial stuff, remnants of the early ranching days. My brother-in-law has a story about a medicine wheel near the summit. Well cool, next obsession.
The next visit would be a full-out expedition to locate and record (digital images and GPS coordinates) cultural materials on or in the vicinity of Ute Mountain, Taos County, New Mexico.
I created extensive packing lists for me and my son: iron rations, inclement weather gear, duplicate navigation aids, emergency stove, emergency shelter, 18 mile radios (with weather alert feature) for comms with base camp, water load-out tailored to activity and climatological data, first aid kit tailored to activity (SAM splints, analgesics, moleskin), and the full topographical package stored in the GPS with back-up hard copies. Oh, and a big-assed horse pistol because the bears are aggressively in their pre-hibernation feeding mode at that time and my son is small enough to be in the size-equals-prey matrix for the mountain lions that are known to live there. Like to view my wildlife from the outside...not the inside.
And we went and did it. We covered about a quarter of the south face. Up through the sage, yucca, prickly pear level to the pinon ( supply your own tilde over the 'n') pine and sideoats grama. They say the summit (10,000' +) is in the Canadian Zone with firs and such but that is another trip.
Artifacts? We found a fresh Bud Light can at our turnaround point. That was it.
And I don't wonder. The terrain is uniformly dry, trail-less and steep. Every step is on a loose rock. The mountain's bones are fractured and ready to drop stone on you by the ton if you try a scramble. No reason for anyone to go up there much. Except that one elk hunter who left a beer can stuck in a crevasse in the rock. (I don't usually dignify anyone who mixes firearms and alcohol with the appellation of hunter but for clarity's sake...) It was at a place where a person would wait to bag an elk.
Anyway, next time we will try the summit from the north face and see if we can find a ceremonial site. I have been by the anthropology department to see about medicine wheels and there are many types. Some of them would be hard to recognize if you hadn't seen examples. Also, there might be some signs of habitations or subsistance activities around the base of the mountain, but much of that will key on the availability of water. Haven't heard of any permanent water but there must be some tanks or seeps somewhere. The Rio Grande is close in horizontal terms, but runs in the bottom of a rather deep, if not spectacular, gorge.
Done with this for now. Got to go work on that degree.
We went to my sister's place in New Mexico over Thanksgiving. She lives near a huge, lone mountain (an extinct volcano) that arises out of the sagebrush flats of the lower San Luis Valley. The mountain had been part of a private ranch but has recently been acquired by the state. I found out about this last year when I was in Iraq and became obsessed with exploring this wild and little visited chunk of real estate. We went there right after I got home but I didn't make it far up the mountain. I was physically drained from my tour and needed a few months to recover.
Back home I read everything I could find on the place and came upon a site that quoted a BLM archaeologist saying that the location had never been surveyed for cultural materials, (man made stuff) and there might be Indian atrtifacts, petroglyphs, Spanish colonial stuff, remnants of the early ranching days. My brother-in-law has a story about a medicine wheel near the summit. Well cool, next obsession.
The next visit would be a full-out expedition to locate and record (digital images and GPS coordinates) cultural materials on or in the vicinity of Ute Mountain, Taos County, New Mexico.
I created extensive packing lists for me and my son: iron rations, inclement weather gear, duplicate navigation aids, emergency stove, emergency shelter, 18 mile radios (with weather alert feature) for comms with base camp, water load-out tailored to activity and climatological data, first aid kit tailored to activity (SAM splints, analgesics, moleskin), and the full topographical package stored in the GPS with back-up hard copies. Oh, and a big-assed horse pistol because the bears are aggressively in their pre-hibernation feeding mode at that time and my son is small enough to be in the size-equals-prey matrix for the mountain lions that are known to live there. Like to view my wildlife from the outside...not the inside.
And we went and did it. We covered about a quarter of the south face. Up through the sage, yucca, prickly pear level to the pinon ( supply your own tilde over the 'n') pine and sideoats grama. They say the summit (10,000' +) is in the Canadian Zone with firs and such but that is another trip.
Artifacts? We found a fresh Bud Light can at our turnaround point. That was it.
And I don't wonder. The terrain is uniformly dry, trail-less and steep. Every step is on a loose rock. The mountain's bones are fractured and ready to drop stone on you by the ton if you try a scramble. No reason for anyone to go up there much. Except that one elk hunter who left a beer can stuck in a crevasse in the rock. (I don't usually dignify anyone who mixes firearms and alcohol with the appellation of hunter but for clarity's sake...) It was at a place where a person would wait to bag an elk.
Anyway, next time we will try the summit from the north face and see if we can find a ceremonial site. I have been by the anthropology department to see about medicine wheels and there are many types. Some of them would be hard to recognize if you hadn't seen examples. Also, there might be some signs of habitations or subsistance activities around the base of the mountain, but much of that will key on the availability of water. Haven't heard of any permanent water but there must be some tanks or seeps somewhere. The Rio Grande is close in horizontal terms, but runs in the bottom of a rather deep, if not spectacular, gorge.
Done with this for now. Got to go work on that degree.
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