Paradise

Photos and commentary by Katrin Maldre.

If you happen to be in Milano, it is only 4.90 euros that you need to get to the paradise. Train takes you there, and not even over, but through the mountains. Lago di Como is the place, and I have hard times of thinking of something more beautiful than it. Sure, I'm not the first one to discover it, but the summer heat kept the crowds moderate and brightened all the colors to the extent it all started to hurt. Why ever go to another place?

 I visited only two of the cities - Bellagio and Varenna, but in Varenna I was twice, just because the first time my camera had run out of the batteries and I couldn't leave without having some images to share, don't you think so? Maybe you won't believe otherwise? The abundance of pots and flowers and mountains and sun was such a dream for somebody from a potless and mountainless country as me, and I want to believe that they never have any winter. George Clooney who has a villa on the other side of the lake said that he spends there 40 days a year, and I think he will only increase the time when he becomes richer and had to work less (or can do more meaningful work). 

Chisel

In August 2001, the apples in the orchard in the upper-right corner of this picture were not yet ripe. But as we drove around the valleys in this region of Washington state near the town of Wenatchee, we saw clear evidence that harvest-time was approaching: people were pulling fruit boxes off the backs of trucks and piling them high at the edges of the orchards. I heard of one geology student who swiped a couple of those boxes for mailing rock samples; the rest of all used five-gallon plastic paint buckets, which we took to the post office  in Leavenworth, Washington, where the clerks were used to people shipping rocks in five-gallon buckets, at library rate.

On the last day of fieldwork that summer, we climbed this ridge near the mouth of Swakane Canyon, to examine an outcrop about a thousand feet above the valley. My adviser and two fellow students reached the outcrop long before I did; they determined that the garnets there were as advertised, whacked out a couple of samples, and then lolled in the shade of an overhang while I continued to climb. One of the other students, Carlos Zuluaga, stopped teasing me long enough to snap some pictures; for this shot, I took his suggestion and posed with the chisel in my mouth.

The outcrop was related to my thesis project, so they showed me the samples they'd collected and asked me  which one I wanted to carry back down the hill and onto the airplane, since we'd already mailed off our rock buckets. Then they teased me some more because I had trouble making up my mind. So far as I know, the rock I chose, labeled 01NC215, is still stored in the basement of Bevill Hall on the campus of the University of Alabama, but it didn't make it into my thesis. 

Dr. Bobo

This week in Tuscaloosa, Dr. Philip Bobo was acquitted of five corruption charges from an eight-year-old incident involving state medical service contracts. Dr. Bobo was head of the emergency department at the hospital in Tuscaloosa and also ran a clinic around the corner from our house in Forest Lake, called Emergi-Care, which treated members of our family from time to time for the various and sundry medical issues that keep happening in a houseful of growing boys. I always felt that Emergi-Care was a wonderful neighborhood amenity.

Dr. Bobo and his good friend, former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, had been in hot water ever since the Republicans took over from the Democrats in Alabama. Tuesday morning, the New York Times editorialized that as soon as the U.S. Department of Justice gets a new Attorney General, the role of Republican operatives in the Siegelman matter should be investigated. Siegelman is currently in prison. A jury deliverated for eight days before acquitting Dr. Bobo;  the Tuscaloosa News noted that his popularity in the community may have saved him.

Sad to say, meticulous good conduct is not what saved Dr. Bobo. It seems that he and Governor Siegelman were comfortable playing hardball with state money. Hardball can look like corruption after your party loses an election. And then the corruption charges can look corrupt themselves after the party in charge of charging loses an election......

Dr. Bobo

Young Ted

Somewhere around 1985, Ted became a horseman and won ribbons in a show. Then, in the summer of 1989, he tried skiing without skis down the warm but white slopes of Mt. Rainier, Washington.Somewhere around 1985, Ted became a horseman and won ribbons in a show. Then, in the summer of 1989, he tried skiing without skis down the warm but white slopes of Mt. Rainier, Washington.

Gifford's Ice Cream

Old front cover of the menu from the old Gifford's. In the woman's hand is a cup of hot fudge for a sundae.

Farm Day

The crops and the livestock are all...could be worse.

Sunday was Cow Pie Bingo Day in Portland. Kathryn Nekoie needed to raise several thousand dollars for charity in order to run in the New York Marathon this November. She chose the charity Kids First, and to raise the money she rented a cow from Smiling Hill Farm and offered for sale 400 raffle tickets at $10 each; each ticket gave the purchaser rights to claim one "square," about 2 feet by 2 feet, in a little pasture marked with lime and orange fencing on the Lyman Moore Middle School ballfield. If the cow pooped on your square, you won $500. The winner was the purchaser of Square 215, Lisa Naweel, Kathryn's husband's sister. The cow's name was Isabel, and she rents out at $300 for this sort of event. She was pregnant, and this was her very first Bingo affair. The farmer who chaperoned her for the event said that Isabel's attention was mostly focused on investigating whether or not the fence was electrified, a distinction she had learned to divine with her whiskers. She only had a few whiskers. Kathryn said the fund-raising was successful, and now she could concentrate on training for the marathon.

At the refreshmen stand, Schattie Nekoie was looking forward to wearing the tablecloth for her Halloween costume, but she wouldn't tell me what kind of costume it would be.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my tomatoes are still green, but still growing. They were planted July 1--late. I forget what kind of tomato they are scheduled to become.

Piano Man

Babies

Portland Harbor

Tugboat Vicki and Liberty Ship John W. Brown in Portland harbor. The liberty ship, built in Baltimore, is one of two still afloat today, out of 2700 built. This one was built in 41 days; the record time for a similar ship was 28 days.

Joe at one of the guns on the liberty ship. During World War II, the ship sailed with a crew of about 50 merchant mariners, plus an armed guard of 40 sailors from the navy.

Cousin Jessica

Cousin Jessica and her high-school boyfriend Rich in the North Cascades, August 2002.