proud papa

Last night at our sons’ parent-teacher conference, we learned that he is pretty much an “A” student, likes to ask questions, loves math, excels in social studies but needs work on penmanship. Don’t most fourth grade boys do need to work on penmanship?

We met Andy’s teacher, and she seems like a wise, elementary school veteran who knows how to keep a child focused. She seems to really like him. She’s given him a seat near the front of the class. She challenges Andy with high-level work, and he challenges her by testing boundaries. Do you suppose that’s why he’s in the front of the class?

Andy smiles for the camera

Just like any other boy, Andy misbehaves sometimes. He doesn’t always come, the first time you call him away from a video game or his computer. He has been known to put off homework until the last minute. And he does have his grumpy days. But when he smiles at you, and looks right into your eyes, you see only the good in him.

Apparently, his teacher sees it too. She’s going to be a good fit for Andy, and I think they’ll both learn something from this relationship. It was a GOOD parent-teacher conference.

Andy’s a bit like me, and he likes to be the one entertaining people.  I, was the class clown. Never one to shy away, except with a book sometimes, he’s gregarious and outgoing. A friend to everyone he meets, and always eager to help another.

I wish I could be more like him.

narrow minded snacking

An engineer friend of mine is approaching her twentieth anniversary of working at our company. To celebrate, our company is throwing a cocktail reception for her, and Susan gets to pick the menu.After a quick poll of our office, she decided on some pretty typical “happy hour” fare: a veggie tray, some chicken strips, chips and salsa, and calf fries. CALF FRIES!

Calf fries taste like chicken! Really?

I don’t care what you call them; Rocky Mountain Oysters, Montana Tenderloins, Cowboy Caviar or Swinging Beef; they are what they are! I’ve never eaten THAT part of ANY animal, and up to now, I’m pretty sure I haven’t missed much. But Susan and Mitch, the other engineer in our office, insist that I’ll love them!

Mitch says “Think of them as beef potato chips.” Sliced thin, breaded and deep-fried, they bear no resemblance to what the bull gave up to become a steer. And Susan says they taste like chicken. I’ve heard that one, before! They both insist that I’ll love them, and after a couple of drinks at the party, I’ll forget what I’m eating. I’m thinking it might take more than a couple of drinks.

We work in Dodge City, Kansas, the beef capital of the world. I could have anticipated this. And I’m not claiming to be a picky eater. Good friends will tell you that if you can fry it, I’ll eat it. This time, I’m being called out, though. I may have to swallow my pride, so to speak, and try these “calf fries”, just to avoid being teased and joked about at work. I mean, this IS Cattle Country.

I wouldn’t dream of disappointing Susan and skipping this party, but I may have to come up with some clever excuse not to try these beef testicles. I wonder if Susan would believe me if I told her I was allergic to chicken?

vacation’s over!

Our little family vacation is over, and we’re back in Kansas. After spending Saturday through Tuesday in the Missouri Ozarks, we’ve come home to unpack, do laundry, mow the yard and generally recover from all the walking, hiking, swimming, siteseeing, wasp stings, shopping and excitement of travel by car with a nine year old.

Wilson’s Creek was pretty interesting, even for our son Andy. He’s a Civil War buff, and really absorbed a lot of the information about strategy, some of the politics, and of course, the live artillery demonstrations. I enjoyed the history, and the architecture of the few remaining buildings on the grounds.Here’s a picture of me in front of the Spring House, which protected an underground stream that provided water for the family, as well as a cool place to store milk, butter and other provisions.

Ray House, Wilson's Creek Battlefield, Springfield, Missouri

The only other building still standing was the Ray House just up the hill. This simple house was quite proper at the time, and featured wood floors and a private bedroom. After the battle at Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1862, this house was used as a Confederate Field hospital, treating wounded troops from the South. Andy was less interested in this one, because there was no fighting going on here.

I’ll post more pictures and stories from our Missouri trip in a few days. If you just can’t wait to see them, check out the link to my Flickr page on the lower left of this page.

wilson’s creek

Our vacation continues.

Saturday, we visited the Civil War battlefield at Wilson’s Creek, just outside Springfield, in southwest Missouri.  Andy is a big civil war buff and we knew he would enjoy it.

It was a hot day, much like it might have been nearly a century and a half ago when this battle was fought in the hills of southwest Missouri. We were lucky to find a group of men demonstrating artillery fire with an old bronze and brass cannon. This is the part that impressed Andy the most. The smell of gunpowder and the smoke made our eyes water. We were warm in shorts and tee shirts. Imagine how these men in cotton, wool and leather must have felt.

The battle at Wilson’s Creek was the second battle of the Civil War. Even though I grew up less than one hundred miles from this historic field, I never new the significance of the history made here. Later today, we will return to the battlefield, visit the museum and have more stories and photos to share.

vacation!

It’s nearly the end of summer, and we haven’t taken a family vacation yet. Because I’ve been in Dodge City working for AT&T, and Sharon and Andy have kept the house in Wichita running without much help from me, we simply haven’t had time for a trip. I have to be in Dallas a week from Sunday for business, so we’ve got just enough time for a quick trip to the Missouri Ozarks before school starts.

We’re going to Springfield, Missouri first, to see some Civil War battlefields. Andy is a huge civil war buff, and we plan on seeing several reenactments of famous battles over the weekend. A baseball game, some shopping, and site-seeing in the beautiful Ozark hills await us over the coming week. We may even go to Branson! Yee-Haw!

Family vacations may become a thing of the past for us soon. Andy will one day choose to spend time with his friends and his own activities. Until then, we’re going to experience as much as we can, as long as it’s still cool for him to hang out with Mom and Dad.

Sharon and I have always taken our own separate time away as well, every year. She with her best friend Cindy, and me on a motorcycle trip to somewhere enchanting. But this year is different. Cindy is in poor health and unable to travel, and I’ve shot most of my vacation running back and forth to Wichita for special scout projects, house projects, family reunions and graduations. I’ve only got a few days left to spend on whatever it is we need to do between now and the end of the year. I’ll choose wisely.

I hope your summer was good, and that if you have children, or a spouse, that you’ve been able to enjoy your time in these warmer months.  Pretty soon, we’ll all be in that hurry-up, rush-rush routine of fall that leads to winter, that leads to holidays, that leads to spring, that leads to summer, when we start this crazy process all over again. Life moves too fast, sometimes, doesn’t it?

Good luck! Happy Summer!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is my wife’s birthday. Sharon Lou is celebrating by going to work, and I’m away in Dodge City, so our celebration will have to wait for the weekend, when we start our vacation. This is the first year we’ve been apart for major celebrations, including our 15th wedding anniversary last month, and I hope it’s the last.

My wife is a few years younger than I am, and I think she’s gliding gracefully into middle-age with me. She’s probably more concerned with age than I am, but aren’t many women? I don’t know for sure.

Search for Sharon Lou on Facebook, and wish her a Happy Birthday, today, August 5th!

ifr into dodge city

I should be able to log .7 hours of IFR this morning, driving to Dodge City in heavy fog. If you’re a pilot, you understand. If you’re not a pilot; well, it was very foggy.  I actually used my GPS receiver to tell me how far I was from my required turns, because the fog was so thick. Yes, I drove below the speed limit, and no, I didn’t use my bright headlights.

I am staying with my brother-in-law and his wife, about fourty-five miles southwest of Dodge City, while I wait for an apartment to become available in town. That means I have a ninety minute round trip commute ever Monday through Friday. Add to that the three hundred miles I’m piling on my truck or motorcycle driving home to Wichita every weekend, and you come up with just about seven hundred miles a week!  I should get ‘professional driver’ status in the truck stops.

Here’s a picture from a lookout point on Highway 50, just east of Dodge City. This feedlot sits just across the road from the packing plant you can see in the distance. I’m told it will smell much worse in July and August. Imagine the anticipation.

 

 

As I mentioned before,  I’m still waiting to get in to my new apartment. When I first made the arrangements, the unit was to be available June 1st. Then it was May 1st.  Near the end of April, I called the apartment to firm things up, and got the bad news. The leasing office girls made a mistake, and the apartment was not going to be available until June 1st. Is that a problem?

My home, for now.

Just a wee one. But wait! The owner of the apartments felt so bad, that she gave me the first month’s rent free when I move in first of next month. Win! And free cable! Okay, so they give free cable to everybody, but still, it’s a win!

 

The job is going well, and is very interesting. I’m working with a CAD system that designs, draws and archives maps for copper and fiber telecom cables. My boss is actually in Austin, Texas, so I have no one actually looking over my shoulder, so to speak.  You can imagine that it’s pretty relaxed.

As the weather warms up, I’ll be moving around Dodge City more, with my cameras in hand. I got my Dodge City Library card today, so soon I’ll begin doing the research into the history of this gateway to the wild west. And of course, the new Boot Hill Casino is rapidly taking shape just west of town, so I’ll snap more pictures this week to show you what it looks like now.  Until next time, thanks for reading.

dodge city dazed…

I’ve been occupied with the temporary move to Dodge City, Kansas, and haven’t been focused enough to write anything here for about a month. Thanks for waiting.

As I mentioned last time, my company is in the process of downsizing about twenty thousand people all over the world, and some of them were in Kansas. I had options to take a modest severance package or seek work elsewhere with the company. I chose elsewhere, which happened to be Dodge City, Kansas.

Eventually, I will be working as a Computer Aided Design Technical Specialist at my new assignment. I think my company was surprised that anyone agreed to take job in Dodge City, because they had no training plan in place for my new job. To be fair, there is a union contract being negotiated and possible strike looming right now at my company, and there’s no doubt that is the focus of the middle and lower level managers who would normally be training me right now.

I’ve had a difficult time finding a place to live in Dodge City. There are major road, jail and casino construction projects (probably all related, somehow) going on right now. Those projects have made decent rental properties very scarce.  I finally found a nice apartment, but it won’t be ready for another three weeks. After three weeks in a hotel, and three weeks taking advantage of the kindness of nearby relatives, I’ll be ready for a place to call my own.

When I get settled in the apartment, I’ll write more about work, life and the social experience that is Dodge City. The area is rich with history, as I found out at a lecture last week. I will have much to write about over the coming months, and I hope you’ll find some of it relevant. I’ll be including some photos, too, of my new home and some points of interest for you to look at. Until then, thanks for letting me share.

go west, young man.

Just like nearly everyone else, I have been touched by this recession. My company has nearly 300,000 employees world-wide, and even before the market nose-dived last year they announced a plan to cut costs, slash jobs and increase share value.  I’m a stock-holder, and have been for longer than I’ve been an employee, so I understand this. It’s nothing personal.

As an employee, however, I am affected in a very personal way. At the end of October last year, seventy of my co-workers and I were “surplussed”; my company’s definition of a “layoff”. Some retired, while some took a severance package that could equal a year’s wages. With just nine years service, mine was much less than that.

However, my company has a labor contract that requires them to offer me another job in Kansas if I am in danger of being laid off. If I accept a relocation, I get a new job with the company, often at a lower rate of pay. If I refused the job offer, I would be out-the-door with nothing more than unused vacation pay and unemployment benefits. No golden parachute. No gold watch. Just a “Thanks for everything. Please give us your key-card and ID badge. Goodbye.”

I don’t want to move. My wife has a very good job. My son enjoys and thrives in his school. While they really can’t move, we discovered that I, in fact, can. Two good incomes in today’s economy will be necessary, and I won’t find comparable work anytime soon here. It was a very difficult decision for me. Just ask my wife. But reality and the economy won out.

Two weeks from today, I report to my new job in Dodge City, Kansas.

a quick update….

Sadie got adopted!

Sadie has a new family! She was adopted over the weekend from the Kansas Humane Society. If you read my previous post, you know what a difficult decision it had been to give her up. We’re just delighted that she’s found a new home, and will take her rightful place as Queen of the House with some other lucky family.

But we still miss you, girl.