Hero of the Day

Hmm, never thought about it really. Doesn't matter because I won't remember to follow through on it anyway. But, I have a nomination for my Hero of the Day and, well, he wins because he was the only one nominated and I'm the only judge.

Anyway, we were coming home from the JDRF Walk this morning and there was a guy on Campbell moving a coffee table. No big deal, right? Except he was towing it on a little trailer behind his bicycle. Huge kudos to people who use bikes for practical tasks and errands! We should all do more of that (myself included).

No, the photo above isn't actually our guy; sorry. He wasn't that impressive.

But check this out: http://www.bikesatwork.com/bicycle-delivery-service/furniture-moving.html

Or consider this: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/sep/28/pedal-powered-moving-day/

The Pikeville Cut-Through Project

Well, here's something that started when I was ten years old and finished when I was a father of two. Pikeville calls itself the "City that Moves Mountains." This comes from this cut-through project--which is second in scope only to the Panama Canal project--but might as well refer to their horrendous love affair with mountain top removal strip mining.

Anyway, when I was real little the river flowed through town, which makes sense as many towns grew up along rivers. However, the Big Sandy often flooded and caused a lot of trouble for the residents. The solution? Cut through a mountain and send the river, a highway, and a railroad line through the cut. Of course! Why not?

It took fourteen years and seems to have worked like a charm. Nothing looks the same as it did when I was a kid. Here are some pictures from an overlook designed to give you a view of the result. And here are a couple of links with a little info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikeville_Cut-Through

http://www.cityofpikeville.com/visitors.cfm

Mountaintop Removal

So I've just spent several days in coal mining country. It's also a hotbed of cancer, bronchitis, black lung, and a host of other ailments, but that's for another post. Even though I pretty much just stuck with my brother and spent a lot of time holed up at my mom's house, I couldn't help but notice the strong push by the coal industry. I saw one guy walking downtown with a t-shirt that boldly claimed "COAL IS OUR FUTURE". I don't think he realizes how short that future is.

The night I arrived I stopped at Applebee's for a bite to eat--we'll deal with that decision another time--and there were some kids at the next table and a couple of them were wearing t-shirts, presumably for one of their school's sports teams, that listed sponsors on the back, including Friends of Coal. The indoctrination is probably fairly complete by high school anyway.

I was in Eastern Kentucky for four days and in that time there were two different pro-coal events in town. There was a coal industry meeting designed to assure the community that coal will be around for more than a hundred and fifty years. They were there to make sure the local newscasters used the words "clean coal" at least three times in three minutes. They were successful because, of course, the local news team did nothing to inform their viewers that "clean coal" is a mythical vapor-ware technology designed to buy the coal industry time. The other event was an "energy summit" featuring a climate "scientist" who is "not sponsored by the coal industry." Note: The petroleum industry is not the coal industry. Hmmm.

According to my brother, Pikeville just recently voted to disallow mountaintop removal. If this is true, they have my admiration. However, if this ruling does exist it doesn't extend to the county--Jon showed me a horrible example of mountaintop removal that is ongoing and blatantly obvious. From the new road (which covers the house my mother grew up in, by the way) you can see the remains of a mountain that once stood twice as high as it does now--and they're still stripping it down layer by layer. We could see a bulldozer driving down the center of the project. If you look at the pictures you will see the flattened section in the middle. The last time I was in Kentucky that flat spot was more than twice as high as the ridge immediately to the right. These projects are all over the coal mining regions of the Appalachian Mountains. The very real health and environmental dangers of this mining method cannot be stressed enough. There are no enforceable restrictions on what the mining companies do with the tailings and waste products from these methods. Much of it ends up in the surrounding valleys and rivers, creeks, etc., poisoning the ground water and damaging ecosystems and critical habitat for many species. And even if these dangers don't concern you, just look at it! Our Appalachian Mountains are disappearing for nothing more than huge profits for corporations who could not care less about the people whose lives they are destroying in the process.

"Excess" Baggage

Here's another thing to bug the crap out of me!!!

I just noticed on the receipt for the $20 they charged for my suitcase (each way!!!) that it is a claim check for "excess baggage"!!! Since when is a suitcase while traveling "excess" baggage? I can see if you check a second or third bag. Sure. If you can't do with one,  you're going about it incorrectly. But to imply that anything above a "carry on and small personal item" is "excess" baggage is ludicrous.

That said, judging from my flights this week I'm not sure how the airlines can be making any money. Two of my connecting flights have been on the empty side. The flight from DFW to LEX only had twenty-one passengers! The flight from LEX to ATL was empty enough that they actually announced that everyone was on the plane and if you wanted to find a better seat, go for it. The flight from ATL to PHX, a big 757, had some, but not many, empty seats.

In Flight Wi-Fi

Well, I'm on a Delta flight that offers Wi-Fi. It was only a matter of time before they offered it. Joan and I were just talking about this the other day, actually. We are currently at just over 35,000' and just went through a small patch of turbulance.

This is kind of cool and all, but I'm not so sure about the whole privacy thing.

By the way, I'll be posting a few photos from my trip after I get home. Well, tomorrow. It will be pretty late when I get home tonight.

Sooner!

Email

I just logged in to my account after four days. I have 183 messages and 60 SPAM messages. Why do I get the feeling it'll take longer to get caught up than I was gone???

My Kentucky Trip

My Old Kentucky Home
Okay. Fine. Kentucky was never my home. I've never lived there. But the old Stephen Foster standard seems appropriate enough to describe my trip to Kentucky to see my mom and two brothers. I haven't seen my mom in six or seven years and one of my brothers in close to eighteen or so.



Some Sleep Would Be Nice

No one is ever going to accuse me of being organized prepared. To catch my flight I needed to leave the house by 5:00 a.m. because I had to drive to Phoenix and I'm just not a fast driver. Sleep would be a good idea for a day like today, especially when you consider my driving history. However, since I spent the day watching the kids about the only thing I managed to get done was my laundry. Well, washing it and drying it, anyway. I've never been to good about the putting away part.

When Layla and Tina left at about quarter to seven, I still had to pack, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, fold and put away any laundry I wasn't taking with me, bottle and brew my Kmobucha (so that it doesn't turn to vinegar before I get home), give myself a haircut, and whatever else I'm forgetting at the moment. Oh, yeah, I had to take Pepper and Bunny to Mike & Liz.

I got things going, a little of each thing, more or less. I made the bed. I started folding laundry. I ate dinner. Mike called a little after 8:00 so I packed up the pups and headed over to their house. I dropped off the dogs and got home just in time to catch Castle, a show I watch regularly. During commercial breaks I brewed my tea and folded some laundry, gathered toiletries, that sort of thing. And immediately after Castle...I fell asleep on the couch.

I woke up in the vicinity of 12:30 with nothing completed, including printing pictures to take to Mom and burning CDs for Jon. The kitchen was a mess. This was not the best possible scenario. But it forced me to focus. I cleaned the kitchen and ran the dishwasher. I bottled and brewed the next batch of Kmobucha. I picked what clothes to pack, swapped the small duffle I originally planned to use for a suitcase (jacket, suitcase, running shoes--no small duffle this time). I started picking and printing twelve photos and selecting and burning CDs. I put my laundry away. I even gave myself a serviceable haircut. When all was said and done, I was finishing up at the computer and it was quarter after three. I had to be up in an hour in order to leave the house by five.

I brushed my teeth and jumped into be with my CPAP machine flowing and lulling me to sleep. I think I even had a few dreams before the alarm went off and I realized I would have to get ready and drive to Phoenix all while in a coma. Should be interesting.

I wasn't drifting off on the drive (again, with my history this is a concern) but man was I tired. If I wanted I could have pulled to the side of the road and happily slept for hours. I managed to leave the house by five after five and was parked and out of my car and heading to the shuttle by 7:45. Not to bad for someone who generally drives slowly and conservatively. I did doze off on the shuttle bus between the parking lot and the terminal, though. It's a good thing the announcements are pretty loud.

I had time to get an egg and cheese croissant in the terminal (it took longer to stand in line to pay for it than it did for them to make the sandwich and for me to eat it). I got to my gate and had enough time to send Joan and short email of my progress and then it was time to board. A short nap and a bloody mary mix later and I'm jotting this note to post later.

I wonder if I'll be able to find any free wi-fi in Raccoon or Pikeville, Kentucky? Do they have a coffee shop or library or something that might have it? Who knows. I could always stake out a hotel parking lot and take my chances! We'll see what happens.

Airport Wireless

I know I've said this before, but airports should all supply free Wi-Fi. There's no reason not to considering how much it costs to fly and how much concessions cost at airports. Phoenix has free Wi-Fi. I'm not sure which other ones do. I can tell you one thing--Dallas-Ft. Worth does not. One of the largest airports in the country and they have a T-Mobile hot spot that you have to pay to use. It's criminal if you ask me considering I had to fork over an extra $20 just to bring my suitcase along on the trip.

Wednesday, November 4

I started the day with a nice run along an old rail bed. There's an abandoned rail line right across the street from my brother's house and it made for a good place to run. I'll probably do it again tomorrow. It's all uphill so the return is pretty nice. This is not an officially converted Rails To Trails project or anything like that, it's just a track that follows the rails. At some point you lose site of the actual rails, but you know they're just on the other side of the jungle of vegetation that is growing everywhere.

From the over grown rail bed, filled with weeds and stones and cinders you segue to a grassy siding to a paved "road" and eventually to a dirt or gravel path. Once you lose the road you are surrounded by sheer walls where the line had been blasted through the rock. Moist and chilled air heightens the sound of water dripping from the seeps all along the rock walls. Woolly Bear caterpillars seem out of place in the cold mountain morning, but I see several and they are on the move to fulfill their part in the transformation process before winter comes.

I was about three and a half miles into the run, on my way back to my brother's house when a small red pickup came driving up the little paved section of the path. I moved to the side and was preparing to wave as the local drove by, no doubt wondering what the hell someone in shorts is doing running along the old rail bed. The window started to come down and I was prepared to say "No, I'm fine. Thank you for checking" when I realized it was my brother. He had been worried because he thought I had been gone a long time. I assured him I was fine and continued my run back to the house.

Showered and dressed and into the car, we proceeded up the mountain to Mom's house. I had forgotten how crazy the roads are--and this is since they "improved" them: narrow winding paths barely a car and a half wide sneak up the mountains around blind curves; wash outs line the edges of the road and draw attention to the sometimes sheer drops of three hundred feet or more that await the fool who miscalculates a turn or doesn't pay attention to a curve; and all the while cars barrel up and down them at excessive speeds. This is not for the leery. And I am leery. Very leery.

We got to Mom's house to find a couple of fresh fruit pies and baked apple cake. I've always been a fan of strawberry rhubarb and peach pies and wouldn't you know it, we had one of each. Jon and I both did our best to inflict some serious damage on the pie and then couldn't quite resist the apple cake--it was still warm and moist and delicious.

After our pie binge and fending off Mom's desire to cook everything in the county for us, we went for walk up the road with the intent of checking out Fishtrap Lake. We weren't far from the house when it started to rain. We went back for the car and as soon as he drove out of the driveway the rain stopped. We went down the road as far as we could and then hoofed it the rest of the way. We had a geocache on the GPSr and thought we might be able to get on the old road and head over the hill to Lower Pompey and find the cache at the marina at the park over there. The lake is the result of a dam project and there is still the remainder of the old road going over the ridge. We worked our away around the edge of the lake and through some brush and muck and got on the road. We followed it a ways but soon realized it would be dark before we got there. We turned back, got the car, and made the drive around to the other side to check out the dam and the park they have built around it. We never found the cache, but I was able to check out the dam.

It was getting dark and we figured Mom would be getting worried about us so he headed back to her house. We were late for dinner and I think we had upset Mom a bit, but we dutifully ate our dinner. Mom still doesn't know what to make of me being a (mostly) vegetarian--she thought that meant I would eat turkey or chicken--but I ate all of the sides and the potatoes and mostly made up for not eating the pork chops she had fried up for us.

It was just about eight o'clock and I was getting sleepy (and I'd had about enough of high volume television). Burbon had gone to be already so Jon and I made our leave. I was in bed by 8:30 and typing away. I had to put the computer away because I was dozing off. Like I said, I only had about an hour of real sleep the night before so I was pretty wiped out. I am actually finishing this up on Thursday evening! Wednesday was a pretty full day and a pretty good one.

Thursday, November 5

We started the day after nearly eleven hours of sleep. I was in bed by 8:30 last night and got up about 8:00 this morning. I skipped a run today and Jon and I headed into town for some touristy activities and a couple of errands. Our first stop was Lowe's for a dryer power cord and then the Food City for a bottle of contact lens solution. The we hit the Huddle House for some breakfast. I had an excellent garden omelet with whole wheat toast and some grits.

After breakfast it was time for a little sightseeing tour. Our first stop was the overlook which provides a parklike setting where you can see the entire town and a view of the Pike River cut through project. The redirecting of the Pike river is a project second only to the Panama Canal in scope. That's kind of impressive to me.

There are a lot of historic buildings in Pikeville that I never realized were there. There was a photo slide show on a display at the courthouse (I needed a bathroom!) that showed me just how important Pikeville is to the region. Being the county seat, it was the center of activity--court day, hangings, you name it. There are some really cool old buildings including a Masonic lodge with a very ornate stained glass window. I learned from the several plaques around town that Pikeville and the Pike River are both named for the same general who gave his name to Pike's Peak and headed the expedition to find the sources of the Mississippi and Red rivers. I also learned that Riddel of Embry Riddel fame was from the area and once flew under the bridge here. That's impressive flying.

Pikeville was also the site of a lot of the famous Hatfield McCoy feud and the violence surrounding this family rivalry. One of the most famous hangings resulting from this feud took place at the site of the old courthouse. Just up the hill from town is the Dils Cemetery where many of the McCoy family are buried. The first of the McCoys involved in the feud is buried here and the town has erected a large stone marking the graves of he and his wife. Most of the older stones in the cemetery are illegible. The cemetery is also one of the first non-segregated cemeteries with about a fifth of the graves being those of African Americans.

We left town for Ma's and made a stop at Jon's to let the dogs out and drop off some stuff. While we were there my brother Bob and his wife Cheryl pulled up. They were also headed up to Mom's and saw that we were Jon's so they stopped. We caravaned up from there and it wasn't long before we were eating a good country dinner. I skipped the turkey but ate all of the sides. Sitting here now, I'm feeling a bit hungry and wish I could have some of that pie from yesterday right about now.

Friday, November 6

Today we got up and went to Kmart so I could buy Jon some underwear! I saw his underwear and while he doesn't care, I knew he was going for an MRI on Sunday and I knew we'd all feel better about it if he had less air-conditioned drawers. From there we went to lunch at El Poncho's--it's supposed to be the best Mexican food in the area but I have to say it was not all that great--they definitely rely on cheap ingredients.

After lunch we went up to see my Uncle Buck. I haven't been in his house in almost thirty years! He was just the same, a little thinner, a little grayer, but just as full of it! My Aunt Ann is doing good, too.

A few stops to see where my mother lived as a kid (the old house is gone and there is a highway in its place!) and back downtown to walk a couple of swinging bridges and it was time to eat. We went to Chirico's, a local Italian restaurant for pizza. It was very good pizza!
We went up to Mom's after our dinner and I'm pretty sure we offended her by having already eaten. Oops.

After sitting around watching Mom watch some very bad telethon for a local holy roller gospel station for an hour or so I was getting ready to leave. Just as I was about to tell Jon we'd better pack it up, Mom got up, went to the other room, and came back with a couple of photo albums. There were a couple of cool photos from when we were kids but most of the photos I enjoyed were of my kids when they were little--cute! After photos, though, Jon and I headed down the mountain to his house. I still had to pack up and be ready for our early morning wake up call. We were heading up to Mom's for breakfast before I headed out on the highway.

D-Day (Departure Day, Saturday, November 7

I woke up before the alarm and after a brief debate with myself whether to get up or try to sleep, I got up and started putting everything away, including deflating the air mattress I had been sleeping on.

I wasn't sure if I would bother with a shower today, but I did. When you're going to be traveling for about twelve hours all told you might as well start out as freshly as possible.

We went to Mom's and I had two eggs and two biscuits along with the V8 I had brought with me. Then I had a cup of coffee, figuring I'd need the caffeine today.

We sat a bit and took a couple of photos and then it was time to go. Mom had to go into town anyway, so we all left together. Mom left before us because I drive like a turtle on those crazy twisty roads. However, when we got to the bottom of the hill, she was parked at the stop sign waiting for us. We pulled up behind her and she got out and walked back to the car. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I asked. She wanted to make sure I didn't need anything! What could I possibly need, I wondered. Money or anything I needed from her, was her reply.

Mom. Get in your car.

I dropped Jon off at his house and said goodbye and then I hit the road. It's a very boring two and a half hour drive to Lexington from Jon's house and it's almost all radio no man's land. I did get caught up on my .38 Special listening needs.

I made it to the airport without incident, including exiting and filling my gas tank before returning the rental. That will probably surprise a lot of people. I made good time to the airport so I stepped into the airport restaurant for a bite to eat. I should have grabbed something when I got gas--$13.99 for a poor quality serving of overcooked fish and chips just doesn't sit well! Anyway, here I am waiting for my plane to depart. I'm on my way home. In another eight hours I'll be in Phoenix and then I have to drive home. I can't wait to get there!

Kentucky

Just a brief note today. So, I'm going to visit my mother in Raccoon, Kentucky. Yes, yes, I could go into that at some length. But I won't because it's 3:13 a.m. and I have to get up in an hour and leave the house by 5:00 to catch a flight in Phoenix to Lexington. From there I will drive three hours to Raccoon. I'll stay at my brother's house.

I'm not sure how this is going to go. I'm sure no matter what someone will be butt hurt by something I say or something I do. More likely something I don't do--like stay at one place over another or spend enough time with this person or that or not see this one or that one. Oh well. Make the most of it.

I hope they have a bar in Pikeville and I hope my brother wants to go to it.

Sooner. I have to sleep for an hour...