Captain Rob

On Wednesday I had another 'Before the Mast' program aboard the Pilgrim at The Ocean Institute. The students were 5th graders from Our Savior Lutheran school. I was the Captain on their program last year as well. Their photographer took lots of pictures of both programs, and he brought me a disk with the pictures from 2008. This one shows me standing on the quarterdeck of the Pilgrim.

We give the students lots of hard work and challenging tasks, but we sprinkle the program with sea chanteys, a jig, and a few humourous moments as well. Few things are as satisfying as the expressions on their faces.

A Second Grandchild

My elder daughter, Amber, and her husband, Ron have blessed us with a granddaughter, Briana Carlotta Gill.

Brianna was born on September 22. Because she is adopted, we held off on the announcements for a week or so until all of the adoption paperwork was complete. I sent out emails to family and friends, but I did not get around to writing in my blogs until today.

Bonnie and I are happy, of course, to have a second grandchild.

Quinton at 6 Months

Our grandson, Quinton Thomas Dale, was 6 months old in June. He sure is growing fast. Our daughter, Heather, had some great photos taken. I just had to post a couple of them:

Quinton and the French bulldog, Nick, are getting along well, too:

Rare Cactus Flower

When bought this cactus about 40 years ago. It was about 2 inches high and 2 inches around. Today, about 1 foot tall, the cactus bloomed for the first time. The nursery owner told me it is called Ferocactus Gatesii, discovered in the Baja California desert by Professor H. E. Gates at California State University of Fullerton. My cacti and succulents handbook does not mention it, but some internet research revealed that it is a subspecies of Ferocactus Gracilis, sometimes called "Fire Barrel Cactus."

Since this cactus blossom is probably seldom seen, I decided to celebrate by sharing the picture.

Cell Phone Saga

I read somewhere that 30% of telephone users in the U.S. have abandoned their land lines completely in favor of cell phones.

I'm pretty "tech savvy" for a guy my age, but I don't embrace new technology until I find either a specific need or an economic reason for doing so. That's why I did not even purchase a cell phone until a year ago. My reason was a need. I bought it primarily so Bonnie can reach me in an emergency when I'm not home. We also observed that public pay telephones have essentially disappeared, and we occasionally find ourselves wanting to call somebody when we are on the road.

The cost for my AT&T land line did not seem excessive at the time, so for the overlapping service I opted for the provider that appeared to be the cheapest (and to require the least commitment), that is, a TracFone. The service cost about $10.00 a month, and I did not expect to use the 400 minutes allocated for the one year of air time.

When Bonnie had to relinquish her company-provided cell phone, I bought her a TracFone as well. Her package includes "double minutes for life," so she has a budget of 800 minutes. At first this move seemed to be a mistake because her phone took two minutes or more just to acquire a signal. That proved to be a defect in the phone. TracFone replaced the phone and transferred both her number and minutes to a good one. Their technical support is a little less than perfect, and requires a little patience, but it is there.

It worked out so well, in fact, that when I purchased another year of air time for my phone, I also bought a "double minutes for life" ticket. I figure the time will cost between 12 cents and 15 cents per minute. It's the same, of course, for local and long distance calls, and there are no "access" or"roaming" charges. I am assuming that Bonnie and I both use all of our minutes, which may not be the case.

I have noticed that the monthly bill for our land line seems to have increased by almost 50% over the last couple of years. Just for fun, I figured out what my land line cost me last month. It worked out to almost 35 cents per minute for local calls. Long distance was even worse--since we only made two one-minute calls, long distance cost $3.84 per minute! Because we are relatively low volume users, we could probably tinker with the options and reduce those costs.

But it looks like I had an economic reason for trying cell phones all along, and did not realize it. For us the cost of the two cell phones is comparable to the cost of the single land line. Bonnie and I decided to make all of our long distance calls by cell phone. I plan to see if I can drop the long distance coverage on the land line altogether.

At this point, I am not even sure we want to hang on to the land line.

One thing that bothers me is that when a call is "cell-to-cell," both the caller and the receiver are charged for the time, which is not the case with land lines. So I will be paying for incoming calls as well as outgoing, and I have no data on what that cost will be. I guess I will just try to keep track for a few months and estimate the impact.

Of course, some sort of disaster could wipe out cell service altogether without affecting land line service. But that is not very likely. To keep the land line for that reason seems almost as "survivalistic" as buying a firearm or building a bomb shelter, and I don't do either of those things.

The day may not be far away when the statistic for "all cell, no land line" increases to 30% plus 2 people...

Welcome, Paolo!

We had to say final goodbyes to Lucy last December, and to Bogie on Memorial Day weekend. The losses of her friends left our other shar pei, Jazzy, without a playmate, and thoroughly bored. Well, that all ended on June 15, when Apollo came to us all the way from Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.

Apollo is a 7-month old springer spaniel with tons of energy. He is blind in one eye and has limited sight in the other, but that does not keep him from playing with great enthusiasm and vigor. Neither Bonnie nor I care for the name Apollo, but he had such a strenuous transition that we did not want to add to his confusion with a name change. We decided that if we call him Paolo he will probably not notice the difference.

Paolo and Jazz took to each other immediately. Paolo, Bonnie, and I are still undergoing our "period of adjustment," but we see improvements everyday.

My Favorite Campaign Badge

My collection of campaign items numbers around 1,700. Of those, nearly 200 relate to my favorite presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt.

I never thought about what may be my favorite badge, but beyond a doubt this 1 1/4 inch Theodore Roosevelt badge is the one:

It is neither the rarest nor the most expensive of Theodore Roosevelt buttons but I have sought it for years. My good friend, Neal, recently decided to sell a good portion of his TR collection. He gave me first choice as well as a bargain price for this one. The badge is not actually in my collection yet--Bonnie bought it to be my Christmas present this year.

I posted a picture of my second favorite, a 7/8-inch button, a while back.

This one is much rarer than the first; I have only seen 3 others like it in my approximately 57 years of collecting. It was a gift from my father.

Fix my own car? I think not

I love my 2004 Nissan Maxima. Although it is approaching its 5th year in my garage, I still consider it my new car.

I decided to replace the engine air filter last Tuesday. I did that regularly on the '51 Chevy I drove in high school, but recently I have just let the dealer do things like that at oil change time. It was pretty easy on the Chev. There was a big metal cylinder at the top of the engine. I would just remove the wing nut that held the top on, remove the top, pull the old cylindrical filter out, plop a new one in, and replace the top and wing nut.

When I read the owner's manual, the task looked almost as easy on the Maxima. The filter is flat and rectangular. It is housed in a plastic box. The box lid is molded to the hose that feeds the air into the intake manifold. First, I loosened the clamp that secures the hose to the manifold. Then I removed the connector for the temperature sensor from the hose. Next I unfastened two spring clamps that held the lid on the box and rotated the lid and the hose until I could slide the lid off. Then I exchanged the new filter for the old one. I put the lid back on, fastened the two spring clamps, reattached the temperature sensor (I thought), and tightened the hose clamp.

The engine started fine. But when I shifted into drive, it seemed like the engine had no power at all, or perhaps like the transmission was slipping. I knew it wasn't the transmission. I had done something wrong when I replaced the air filter.

I turned off the engine and checked my work again. Aha! That temperature sensor was not snapped securely into place. After I fixed that and re-started the engine, everything seemed to work fine.

Then the "service engine soon" lamp lit on the dashboard. Now that usually comes on when you forget to put the gas cap back on. The lamp indicates problems in the pollution control system. When you put the cap back on, the lamp goes off after a few minutes of driving. I assumed the same would happen after I replaced the air temperature sensor--WRONG--it remained on.

So, off to the dealer I went. They attached their computer to the Maxima. They determined that the temporary lack of an air input temperature sensor "confused" the engine's computer so that it could not set the engine idle correctly, and so that it lit the lamp. The technician let the engine cool down a little, and then reset the computer for proper idling and to turn off the lamp. All of this was done in just two hours for a fee of about six times the cost of the filter.

My '51 Chevy worked fine without a computer or an air intake temperature sensor. When I started the car, I pulled out the choke, and when the water temperature gage showed that the engine had warmed up, I pushed the choke back in. I was the computer. And I could replace the air filter without collateral damage.

Now I know the correct way to replace the Maxima's air filter. But I will probably not do it again. I won't try to replace the spark plugs or adjust the timing either.

I also understand why the manufacturers place a big shroud over most of the engine and its parts. It looks fancy, but a little intimidating. They don't want putterers like me confusing their computers. They win.

Farewell, Bogie

BOGIE [Chu Hill's Bogart Hisata Inu]

August 4, 1994--May 23, 2009

Of the several dogs whose companionship we have enjoyed, Bogie was the happiest, the most loving, and the most devoted. One could not ask for a finer friend than Bogie.

Bogie would 'guard' the door to the kitchen in the evening when I washed the dishes. If Bonnie and I were at opposite ends of the house, Bogie would lie in the hallway half-way between us. When we got into bed to watch television, He used to jump up on the bed and lie as close as he could to one of us. As arthritis set in, he had to forego that pleasure, but he would lie in his own bed at the foot of ours.

He overcame more than his fair share of problems. Once he was bitten by a neighbor's dog. He swallowed some prescription pills for high blood pressure. He came down with a case of 'bloat.' He got a fragment of a rawhide chew stuck in his throat. Each time, he recovered quickly and continued his loving companionship for Bonnie and me.

Bogie enjoyed his daily walks to the fullest. As he grew old, the walks had to be shorter and much slower. But no day was complete for him without one. It seemed like the high spot of his day was when Dad put on his walking hat and got the leash out.

Recently, Bogie became almost completed deaf. But his heart and mind were still strong. The constant pain and stiffness from severe arthritis, combined with what appeared to be a severely abscessed tooth, however, made us decide to release him from his earthly burdens.

Bogie will be sorely missed...

Quinton Update

Our grandson, Quinton is almost 6 months old, so this update is probably overdue. He seems to be getting along fine under Heather's constant care. He is still a little small for his age, so Heather has started to supplement his diet of mama's milk with some rice cereal and vegetables. Like most folks his age, he has some difficulty getting it into his mouth.We sure are glad we decided not move to Washington state. In Yorba Linda we can see Quinton on a regular basis.

Earthquake Again!

This time it was a cluster of 7 small quakes that occurred Thursday and Friday the 23rd and 24th of April.

They ranged in magnitude from 4.0 down to 1.8. They were centered in the Chino Hills about 2 miles north and east of Yorba Linda, roughly 5 miles from the Williamsons' house. They were all very short in duration, and caused little damage. Some of the pictures hanging on our walls were tilted a little.

The quake we had last year was also centered in the Chino Hills, but a local seismologist believes this group appear to have originated from a different location. An article in the Los Angeles times stated that the number of quakes in our area that are magnitude 3 and above has increased in the last year, but they are not sure what it means.

I think it means there are a lot of geologic faults in the area--that's about all.