End of September

This week was a really busy one. I taught the Advanced AutoMod class to 5 customers, 2 from Singapore, 2 from Ohio and one from Canada. This meant that I had to be to work at 7:30 or so to get things all set up, and then didn't leave until 5 or 5:30 on most days. They were great to work with, and we had a good week together.

On Wednesday Robert left for a short trip to Florida. He was going for some demos and meetings at Eglin AFB. He left at 6:30 Wednesday morning and returned home at about 1 AM early Saturday morning. Nyssa and I both missed him a lot!

I took Nyssa to the vet for her yearly physical. She's around 12 years old now, and is starting to show her age a bit. She has had a heart murmur for a long time, but it's getting worse, and so now we have to consider what we want to do to treat it - x-rays, echo cardiograms, drugs and stuff. I bought her a harness to use on walks, instead of the collar, which irritates her trachea and makes her cough more. I also found a cute little pink jacket for her, but will have to exchange it for a medium instead of a small. She seems to feel the chill more now that she is older.

We had nice weather until Friday, when it started raining - apparently the remnants of some tropical storm or other. Friday night Tiffany and Dan came over for steaks. I used the grill in the rain, and while I was getting it heated up, Nyssa saw the steam and started barking about it. She did this once before when I had a pot on the stove that had gone dry and was smoking a bit. A canine smoke alarm!

Tiffany has completed her coursework for an associates degree - here is a picture of her with her diploma.







Congrats, Tiffany!



Last night we had a mosquito in our house. Being the mosquito magnet that I am, I got a couple of bites before I saw the bug and squashed it. I really wish I weren't so allergic to mosquitoes - I have a couple of large red itchies.

It's hard to believe that September is all but finished. Our foliage is just starting to turn to the fall colors. It's late this year, because we had such a wet summer. However, it is expected to be especially brilliant for the same reason. I drove to Manchester, NH, on Thursday, and saw a bit of red here and there. Saturday during my bike ride I passed an area where all the trees had turned bright red. There are trees here and there on the way to church that have turned red. The next week or so will bring out the other colors, and I'll put some pictures up when I have some pretty views.


I wasn't able to do a lot on my thesis until the weekend. I pounded away at the code and couldn't get one particular thing to work, so I gave up for a while and went riding. About 10 miles into my ride I realized what I was doing wrong, and when I got back, I fixed the problem. Oxygen is so good for the brain! I'm just about finished with iteration 1 - all I have left is to feed back the results.xml document to the client, get the results nicely formatted, and then spin off a thread to launch the server-side activities.


We have a family in our ward with 5 little boys ranging in age from 9 down to 1 1/2. We have had them over and I have worked with the boys in the Primary when I substituted as the chorister. Their mom reported to me that the other day they saw someone who looked like Robert. Their 3 year old said, "Look, it's Sister Rains' brother!"


My Bosch bread mixer arrived this week. I now have a wheat grinder and a bread mixer, and have really enjoyed getting back into making bread. The whole wheat bread recipe from the Lion House Cookbook is especially tasty. It is also a good food-storage recipe - it calls for oatmeal, honey and powdered milk, in addition to the whole wheat flour.


I'm still looking for people to come to Boston to visit, so that I can go to some of the tourist attractions like Old Ironsides, the Freedom Trail and other places. Salem is a good place to visit in October, as they have all sorts of activities associated with their heritage and connection to the witch trials. The next 2-3 weeks will be especially beautiful as all the trees turn, and the coast of Mass. and New Hampshire is really pretty any time during the year.

Tri-State Seacoast Century

Saturday was the Seacoast Century. This ride starts in Hampton Beach, NH, goes south to Salisbury, MA, and then north to York, Maine, hence the name. It was a beautiful day but quite crisp and cold, with a stiff breeze off the ocean most of the day. I took a few pictures along the ride, as there are plenty of photo ops.

Hampton Beach is a seacoast town with a long stretch of sandy beach. Friday afternoon after we got there, Robert and I went for a walk along the beach. The tide was coming in and we watched the waves break and crash for a while. We saw plenty of seagulls, and then had fun watching 4 little sandpipers scurrying around looking for food. We also saw some really strange tracks in the sand - long lines of what looked like a bike tire, with little blips and blobs of sand to the side. We later saw a guy with a metal detector and a long-handled scoop - he was dragging the scoop in the sand, which created the lines.

Saturday morning we showed up for registration around 7:10 and got signed in. Robert did the Quarter Century this year - he has volunteered previous years. This is the 4th year that we have participated.

The first 15 miles head south into Massachussets and then return. It's not particularly scenic in comparison to the rest of the route, but there are some nice beach-front properties that people rent during the summer, and lots of salt marsh land. After returning to the state park (where the headquarters are located), the ride heads north through town. The first couple of pictures are from north of town - once you get past the main beach, the coast is rocky and rough.




















The fall colors haven't hit this area yet - maybe in a couple of weeks - so it was the end of summer vegetation. Last year people were picking fruit off the bushes along the road. This year I saw the fruit - it looked like cherries or crab apples, but the bushes were scrubby and short.

A bit farther north there was a large ocean liner off the coast. You can see it at the top of these pictures:

















After wandering along the coast for a while the route turns inland, where we come into Portsmouth from the southwest. We cross over a steel-grate bridge which we are supposed to walk over, and then there are some large hotels just after the bridge and lots of boats in the docks.






















There is a big bridge from Portsmouth over to Kittery, Maine, which we are required to walk across. It's a steel-grate drawbridge, and in past years the bridge has been up when we got there, but luckily it was down this year and we could just walk across. There were some very nice boats tied up on the far side of the inlet that the bridge crosses.




















After walking across the bridge, I tried to get back on the bike, and my right shoe wouldn't connect into the pedal. I tried two or three times, and finally realized there must be something in the cleat. Sure enough, there was a small black rock lodged between the cleat and the side of the sole, wedged in so tightly that I couldn't get it out without tools. A nice guy stopped and produced a small screwdriver, which popped it right out.

A bit farther down the road there were a couple of elders walking along the other side of the street. I whooped and hollered at them in true Melvin Glade fashion.

There are only 2 sag stops on this century. The first is at headquarters at Hampton Beach, and the 2nd is at Fort McCleary, in Maine. Here's a picture of me with the park in the background. The little brown building is the restrooms. They serve up cookies and peanut butter sandwiches, and fill up your water bottles.

The next stretch goes up to the Neddick Point lighthouse, also known as the Nubble lighthouse. The first picture below is taken from York Beach - if you blow it up, you can see the lighthouse way off on the point. Then there are some shots of the lighthouse with with me in front of it.

The ride is an out-and-back ride, with a couple of loops on the way back that aren't on the way out. I decided yesterday that I don't like out-and-backs, because as you are passing the places that you have passed before, you know how much farther it is to the end. That can be discouraging. We also had a really stiff wind coming along York Beach, and then some more wind as we went from Rye to Hampton Beach again. But all in all it was a beautiful day and one of the best times I've had doing this ride.

Utah/Wyoming Trip

I just returned from a trip to Utah and Wyoming. I flew to Salt Lake on Aug. 24 and returned on Sept. 3. Here are some highlights of the trip.

I visited Sarah and Brent and delivered their wedding present. Here's a picture of the happy couple. They have a nice student apartment in Provo and are anticipating another school year at the Y.

I worked in SLC Monday through Friday on a project. Our customers have requested that we hook up a real PLC (as opposed to a soft PLC) to an AutoMod model so that we can demonstrate that trick. Dan and I spent most of the week poking around at a PLC and trying to figure out ladder logic and how to use the PLC to control our model. I iinitially didn't think I wanted to do ladder logic, but it's actually quite interesting. We're still having a few problems which I'll need to iron out early this week, but it's been a good experience.

Friday I left SLC and went to Afton to visit Mark and Lacy and the kids. Saturday afternoon Kort and Tristen and I went for a ride. Kort has a 2-wheeler, and Tristy was riding his trike. They wanted to take me to the pasture and we started out heading in that direction. I didn't know which pasture or how far, and after we had made it almost to the middle school, I decided that we had better turn around. Korty is an expert biker and was riding circles around us while I hung back with Tristy. His little legs were pumping the trike pedals for all he was worth, and if I got to far ahead of him he would holler out things like "Grandma, don't go so fast!" On the way back to the house we had a bit of hill, and Korty was very kind to help Tristy over the bumps when he got stuck or tired.

Sunday night we had a really violent thunderstorm with lots of wind, and then it settled into rain. Monday morning there was a bit of snow mixed in with the rain. Monday around 11 AM the clouds lifted to show snow on the mountains. This picture is from the back deck, looking at the mountains to the east of town. Star Valley is such a beautiful place.

Monday morning we played in the basement. The boys have lots of indoor toys to get them through the long winter. Korty loves to play with my camera, and took some interesting pictures to add to the ones that I took as well.

Korty with Bullie and Buckie in the background.

Tristen with his dinosaur shirt.

I had to take a "silly" picture before I could get the boys to settle down and do a good picture.

Here's the good picture.

Here's another picture of Tristen.

We had fun playing with Lincoln Logs and building lots of different houses.

This is a shot of Turbo in his Fido Fleece. Turbo is getting up there in years. A couple of weeks ago he was really miserable and when Lacy took him to the vet, he had slipped a disk in his back. But he's all better now and runs around outside. He likes to play tug-o-war with his puppy and his frog. One night he dragged both his toys into my room and was disgusted that I wouldn't get up and play with him in the middle of the night.

Mark is in the height of the hunting season, but he came home for the weekend. His leg gives him a bit of trouble, which I suppose is to be expected. He's okay riding, but hiking up and down the mountain is uncomfortable. Lacy is due in November, and is enduring the last few months of the pregnancy and wondering how she will cope with 3 boys. She's such a whiz at house-keeping, I'm sure she will do well.

Tuesday we went back to SLC and Lacy then drove to St. George to visit with her family. I stopped at my favorite stores in SLC, and also visited the cemetary where Mom and Dad are buried. It's such a peaceful place, with a nice view of the mountains. The last couple of times I have stopped there I have had a hard time finding the graves. I always stop too far east. Last February when Robert and I were there we had to look for a while, especially in the snow; this time I was able to find the headstone a bit faster.

Tuesday evening I met my friend Carolyn for dinner in Bountiful. I also drove around Bountiful and Centerville, and am amazed at how much things have changed. They have torn down the old J.C. Penny's building and replaced it with "The Village" - an apartment complex of close to 200 apartments. They also have a nice new LDS Distribution Center on the border between Bountiful and Centerville, plus lots of new stores and restaurants along 500 West.

I flew home Wednesday, arriving in Manchester at 5 PM, and getting back to Billerica around 6:30. Robert and Nyssa were both happy to see me, and Nyssa spent time sniffing my clothes thoroughly - I assume she smelled Turbo.

I bought a wheat grinder while I was in SLC, and it was delivered on Friday. I have spent the weekend making whole wheat rolls and bread, and it is really tasty. Is there anything better than the smell of bread baking? Nothing I can think of, except the taste of bread warm from the oven. Today's Relief Society lesson was about food storage, and I felt all virtuous because we're building up our supply of essentials like wheat.