Side bar: The plane was taken out of service purportedly because a frequency on their radio wasn’t working. Interestingly, just as they announced that an attempt would be made to fix it a worker walked onto the plane with a container of the blue chemical flush. Most of the passengers around me, including me, were wondering aloud whether the radio “problem” was a euphemism for a bathroom issue. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case and we were redirected to another gate and plane, which departed an hour and a half later than we were originally scheduled.
The interview went fine in so far as I answered their questions, they answered mine, and all of the conversations seemed convivial. Whether they realize it or not, they and their computer science students could use my broad experience to enrich their program beyond just programming without necessarily even changing the curriculum. I see several ways to introduce the students to the large number of disciplines in Information Technology while teaching the curriculum. One change I did propose during the interview is that they include Java as a programming language course. Dr. Sherry Jones told me that she talked with every single one of my references. Thank you all for your positive comments.
Then, at the suggestion of Dr. Gary Arbogast, the search committee chair, I spent Thursday evening and all of Friday and Saturday visiting with my family. I did and it was truly a great time, including two meals which included morels and all the meals which included my mother’s baking: sourdough whole wheat bread, biscuits, muffins, …
Four other members of my extended family, from my father’s side, came in for a visit on Friday. This made seven of us but as one or another seemed to have something else to do, six were available to play card games, the perfect number for Queens using three decks. There was also an even number of men to go shoot partner pool for most of Saturday afternoon.
Before they arrived on Friday, my father suggested that I ride his ATV up to visit the home place and see the work they are doing on it. He also suggested that I ride on the hill on beyond the place, which leads to the title of this blog entry.
My mother’s dad’s and mother’s place has been empty for a few years now but the division of the property was just completed and neither side, however amicable, wanted to invest a lot of time and energy on maintaining a piece that may not be theirs when the division was final. Now, they are working to save a bit of their history. Taking down the fence around the yard really opens the place up. Other than washing dozens of canning jars, the yard, and restoring electricity and gas, the most work so far has been on salvaging the “cellar.”
It looks far different than I ever saw it. Even in the later years of my grandmother’s life, it was always full of jars of food, probably food too old to eat but still full. Still the work that has been done so far is quite a lot for one person to be doing, or even two should my mother be helping Dad.After seeing the home place, I did ride literally over the hill beyond and behind. Then in a fit of nostalgia, I decided to ride up to see the old hay meadow in which I worked as a young teenager for three summers in a row helping my granddad “put up” hay. While I’m sure I was of some help in the last couple of years, my early help consisted of mostly riding the horse that was pulling the shocks to the haystack.
Unfortunately, I continued on the more recent logging road instead of turning right on the old road to the hay meadow. I continued on up to the ridge anyway and decided to cut up the correct old road on my way back down. Now, instead of just the wheels doing the rolling, the whole ATV decided to roll. Even though I was thrown off down hill in what was to be its path, the initial toppling was slow enough that I was able to scramble out of its way. I even had enough time to think of and reject trying to stop it from rolling. Anyway, it ended up off the road, mostly on its wheels, but at such an angle that there was no way I was going to get it out without help. It was even still running so I turned it off and started walking.
With all of my rolling, a substantial bit of time had gone by and my father was already looking for me. We walked up to the “site” and he decided that he’d better get the tractor. By the time he got down to the truck, he brought it up instead. Due to the poor placement of a slightly steeper and wetter portion of the road and a truck without posi-traction, one front tire and one rear tire just uselessly spun. The other two just uselessly sat there. Eventually the truck became “stuck” somewhat cattycornered. That is, it wasn’t technically stuck but the only direction it could successfully move would have put at least one tire over the edge.
While I picked up the debris of tools and other things originally in the basket of the ATV and put them in the back of the truck, my father went to get the tractor. With the tractor, he was able to pull the truck’s rear tires sideways back onto the road. I drove it up the hill a little bit and parked it on a side logging road that was fairly level since it went around the hill rather than straight up it. Then the tractor seemed to easily pull the ATV onto the road.The ATV started right up and I drove it down the hill. At the bottom I followed him as he drove the tractor back to it’s shed and gave him a ride to the bottom of the hill so he could get the truck. While he was definitely nice about my wrecking his ATV, I don’t think he trusted me to retrieve his truck. (If I ever follow a tractor on a muddy road again, it will be from really far back.)
There is more. My next blog entry will tell about my trip home. Let me just say that the number five figures prominently.
