Happy Halloween!

Dance off!

The Grizwalds visit several Large Holes, then go home

We jam packed the fun into the last segment of our trip: Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon, river rafting on the Arkansas River, the Million Dollar Highway, the Mining Museum in Leadville, and the Royal "Rip Off" at Royal Gorge.

When we went rafting on the Arkansas River, we had a paid river guide who was responsible to keep us all from drowning. But it didn't take long for Dad, and his 23 years of military training, to assert himself as the captain of our ship. Pretty soon on the trip, Dad was barking out orders to everybody in the boat.

"Row! Row! Row!" he commanded.

The Dutch family that shared our boat and the young twenty-something guide weren't really sure how to handle Dad.

Finally, Mom shut him down with, "This isn't your boat, General Washington."


The video below highlights a nice opening shot of Shiprock in New Mexico.



That's it for the Grizwald Family Vacation, and the end of my series in "old movies." We now return you to your regularly schedule program...

The Grizwalds take Vegas

We arrived in Las Vegas literally a month before I would be legal to gamble. Lousy freaking timing, huh?

The weather was the opposite extreme from Yellowstone. It was a sweltering 105+ degrees Fahrenheit.

"What happened to Utah? What we do in Utah?" you ask.

Nothing. I slept through Utah.

Aww, Shucks!

My meetings got out a little early today, so I sped off to downtown Seattle to take in some sights. I wanted to go up in the Space Needle, but when I arrived, there was a sign posted on the ticket booth window which said, "CLOSED. Private Event 4pm-7:30pm." Rats!

Undeterred, I headed on over to my new favorite Seattle restaurant, Elliott's Oyster House for an early supper. I treated myself to 24 of the freshest, nicest oysters from the Puget Sound. Late October to early November is the high season for oysters, and since the restaurant shucks them only after you order, these are absolutely the freshest oysters you will ever eat (unless you're an otter).

My first round of oysters was paired with a 12 year Bunnahabhain, which is a superb Islay whisky. The saltiness and seaweediness of this fine whisky went superbly with the texture and flavor of the oysters.

Then, for my second round, I switched gears a bit to try a lowland dram of Auchentoshen. The Auchentoshen was a much simpler malt, but still provided that satisfying disinfectant property for eating so much raw shellfish. (Always a concern.)

The meal wasn't cheap. I'll be eating McDonalds for the remainder of the trip to try to recover my per diem, but the splurge was well worth it!

Chevy Aveo

I'm in Seattle again this week, and every time I come out here, Eddie wants to know what kind of rental car I have.

This time, I got a Chevy Aveo. I'm not normally a fan of Chevy, but this Aveo is pretty neat--definitely has a very European feel to it. I like the metallic orange color, and the fact that it gets better than 34 mpg, but the boot is so small that I doubt if even Frank would fit in it!

The Grizwalds on the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Park is a seldom visited park in southern Idaho. When we started planning this trip as a family, this was the one park that I really wanted to see. We were all glad we did.

The park lies near the first nuclear powered town in the U.S.A, the town of Arco. It is fitting that the landscape looked like a nuclear Armageddon. Workers at the nearby nuclear power plant are bussed in over land that looks barren and radioactive. It's not, that's just eastern Idaho for you.

Just beyond all this is the park itself, a remnant of volcanic ages past.

By this point in the trip, our family was well into our RV traveling 'groove.' Every evening, after a long day's drive, we would pull into our campground for the night, hook up the water and electricity, and settle down for some television, dinner, and cards. It was a pretty nice way to live.

Bright and early each morning, we'd eat breakfast, pack up the RV, unhook the utilities, and then dump the sewage tank before setting off. My dad and I had the job of dumping the tank each morning, and we had gotten pretty good at it. Speed was of the essence.

The routine was this: My dad would take the long flexible hose out of the compartment. While he took one end of it and hooked it up to the RV's discharge pipe, I would hook the other side up to the sewage connection at the campground.

Then he'd say, "Ready?"

"Ready!" I'd reply.

And he'd pull the lever opening the sluices, and the pipe would gurgle happily as all of our effluvia went neatly down the drain. Very simple, very clean. We'd hose off everything and pack it away, and we would be on our way.

But not so, Idaho.

On this particular day, we grabbed the hose, as usual. Dad hooked his end up as usual. But mine wouldn't fit. I had trouble screwing the hose onto the campground's sewage connector.

"Ready?"

"Not ready."

It was too late. Dad pulled the lever. He either didn't hear me, or was totally into the rhythm of his routine.

In my memory, the event happened in super-slo-mo. I listened as I held the armed end of the sewage hose while the happy gurgling came closer.

I dropped the hose in a mad effort to escape, but it was too late. Day-glo green from the chemicals, the chunky liquid, with bits of toilet paper and things I'd rather not think about (even today), erupted out of the hose, filling my Docker shoes and swarming all over the campground sewage pad.

Abandoning my shoes, I shimmied up the nearest lamppost like a Congolese ape shouting, "NOT READY! NOT READY! NOT READY!"

Dad frantically tried to push in the lever, fumbling with the lever to stop the flow, but he couldn't manage it until the entire tank was empty.

I stayed up that pole until my dad hosed off the entire area, including my shoes and my feet. Then, it was a very long and very quiet ride in wet Dockers for the rest of that day.

The Grizwalds get into some Hot Water

Yellowstone National Park is a must see vacation spot for anyone visiting the U.S. This was our coldest spot on the trip. Despite the fact that it was July, temperatures at night got well below freezing, forcing Mike and I to huddle for warmth in the back of the RV. (Whoa! Bad mental image!)

And if you know much about Mike and I, you'll know that was desperation, indeed!

The Grizwalds and a Few Dead Presidents

After the Badlands, it's a short trip over to Mount Rushmore.

Electoral College Math

Let's do some mathematics. No politics, just math. Simple math based upon all the latest polling data.


Today, there are 22 states solidly for McCain. Broadly speaking, those include Appalachia, the Deep South Bible Belt, Tornado Alley, and the middle Western states.

Obama has 23, counting the District of Columbia: All of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific coast, the Beer Belt states surrounding Lake Michigan, plus New Mexico.

That leaves six toss up states, and it should come as no surprise that they include Florida and Ohio, plus Colorado, North Carolina, Nevada, and Missouri.

I think most people covering the polls would agree that this is a pretty accurate position of how things currently stand, and how the states may likely go.

Scenario #1: McCain's Best Hope


I give ALL those toss-up states to McCain. Every single one of them goes to him. The Great Schlep fails to deliver Florida. The Bradley Effect sneaks into the Ohio polling places. Colorado stays red because the Latinos stayed home.

In this scenario, McCain's most realistic hope, guess what? McCain loses. By nine votes.


Scenario #2: My Prediction


This is what I really think will happen. I give McCain Ohio and Missouri. I wrestled about Ohio, because it could go for Obama, but I think it will be close. So, I give the benefit of that doubt to McCain. But Obama gets Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and definitely Colorado.

Obama crushes McCain: 333 to 205. This, folks, is my prediction, so let us wait and see how I do.


Scenario #3: The Morning After

Now, to be fair, how can McCain win? He needs to win ONE of the following two states:

Virginia or Pennsylvania.

If he wins just one of those states, plus ALL the toss ups, he's done it. But, if he fails to win either Virginia or Pennsylvania, it's over. You can turn off the TV on election night and go to bed early. No need to wait up watching CNN or Fox News until 2am. If Pennsylvania and Virginia go Obama, McCain cannot win.

Now, the most important message in all of this is that the only thing to screw all this up will be if you don't vote. Everyone must vote! Don't get complacent. VOTE!

The Grizwalds go to The Badlands

After driving through the northern plains of Tornado Alley, our first real stop on the trip were the spectacular Badlands of South Dakota.

Two Humorous Motivators...

Here are a couple of fun videos to kick off the weekend:

and

Grizwald Family Vacation

The year was 1991. I was living at home, a junior at Georgia Tech. Becky and I were dating pretty seriously, but not yet engaged. Michael was just about to graduate from high school. And our family took one major trip out west in a rented RV. Our eighteen day tour took us from Georgia to Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and back home again. It was a monster trip with some monster time spent on the road.



Michael took most of the video, and it was clear when he taped the entire first four hours of driving that some major editing was going to be needed. Mike narrated the journey:

"That was exit 195."

"Exit 196."

"There's a gas station."

"Exit 197."

Mike said he wanted to record the whole trip. Ugh!

So, I've cut down the 90 minute "condensed" version that I had on VHS, to under 20 minutes, split into seven small, digestible clips. Here's the first, as we set off from Georgia, bound for Ponca City, where we visited with relatives before setting off on the major portion of our trip.



Listen closely near the end as an eleven year old Olech introduces his "Uncle Korn" as "Baldy himself." Priceless!

Letter from Dan to his Children and Grandchildren

My neighbor, Dan, whom I respect and admire deeply, has written a beautiful and impassioned letter to his adult children and grandchildren, beseeching them to vote Democratic this November.

With Dan's permission, I reprint his letter here, in full:

October 22, 2008

To My Children and Grandchildren:

Dear Steve and Carol, Teresa and Mark, Elaine and John, Laura and Greg, Greg and Sheryl, Dan, Emily, Monica, Bryant, Kevin, Jeremy, Patrick, Amanda, Masie and Aiden:

In early 1776, Thomas Paine, a recent English immigrant to the American colonies, wrote a pamphlet about the issue of American independence from England. Then, as is the case now with Senator Obama’s call for change, the need to consider a major change was confused with misinformation, claims and counter claims, attempts to cause fear if change were to take place, intimidation and outright lies. Mr. Paine’s pamphlet cut straight through all of this and in very clear language, told it like it was, showing how the colonies’ problems were the fault of the King of England and his advisors. His pamphlet, which he called “Common Sense”, clearly made the case for change and the Declaration of Independence.

I’m no Thomas Paine, but it is time for some common sense about this upcoming election and why we need some major changes now – just as they were needed in 1776. This election is very important for all of you; it will basically decide how you will live in the future. You need to know that while there is a lot of attention to Mr. Obama and John McCain as individuals, it is their philosophies, approaches, and the people around them, that really make the difference, and we need the common sense to make the right choice.

For the past eight years, under George Bush, Richard Cheney and their advisors, we have been forced to endure a misguided, controlling Republican philosophy that says if you give tax breaks, government contracts, and other favors to big corporations and very wealthy people, they will create jobs and widespread economic opportunity and the benefits will “trickle down” to the rest of us.

We can see now, with the current financial crisis, that this approach is nonsense. Only trouble has trickled down: Eight years ago, our government had a surplus of money in our Treasury. After eight years of radical Republican philosophy, our country is nearly ten trillion dollars in debt (which, unfortunately, will be your problem for many years). We are spending ten billion dollars a month on a war Mr. Bush and his advisors started by lying to the rest of us; big companies – the ones who were supposed to benefit us – are going out of business because people like John McCain did not want to regulate them, and as a result, more and more people are losing their jobs and savings.

Meanwhile, some of those Republicans and lobbyists who control the government have allowed greed and arrogance to be their guide – several have been caught giving huge contracts to friends and have already gone to jail; others are under investigation, but worst of all, they have promoted an atmosphere of “I’m in control. I can do whatever I want”. This arrogance has also caused major problems with other countries.

Just as in 1776, when the King of England (whose name, by the way, was also George) tried to keep the American colonies under his thumb, the primary objective of the current Republican philosophy is to stay in control – at all costs. To them, the environment does not matter; health care does not matter; even freedom of religion does not seem to matter.

If big energy companies want to harm the environment, fine; if large pharmaceutical companies want to raise prices and increase health care costs, let them; if radical religious interests want to tell our military personnel how to worship God, go ahead – as long as you help us stay in control to use government for our own interests.

We cannot go on like this. We have to come to our common senses. It comes down to this: Senator McCain will continue the radical Republican philosophy of “control for our own self interests, at all costs.” That is not good for you. He may have once been a “maverick” but he has sold out to the radicals and the uncaring zealots in his own party - just to win. Even many who know him well are opposed to him, and his judgment and sincerity certainly has to be questioned by his choice of Governor Palin as his running mate. John McCain is seventy-two years old. He has had cancer and has other health problems. For him to have us think that he seriously considers Sarah Palin a possible President, is insulting. She has no experience relevant to the Presidency and is simply being used by Senator McCain and her own Party in a desperate attempt that uses demeaning “Joe Sixpack” and other pandering comments to attract votes.

Senator Obama is not perfect – no one is. But he is certainly not the bad person that Republican lies have alleged. There are even those who oppose him because he is black. These people are small minded, prejudiced and mean spirited. They have no place in our society. Ignore them. They are only good for showing what we should not be. Senator Obama has the ability and instincts to be President. His philosophy and those with whom he works, is to seek consensus on major issues, not to try and control them. He believes that healthcare is a right, not just a responsibility of those in control, and he is clear thinking on things (even though they may seem far off to some of you) like retirement. He also knows we have to repair relationships with many other countries, and unlike John McCain, made an excellent choice for a Vice President when he selected Joe Biden.

In many respects, it is unfortunate that we have to label ourselves “Democrat” or “Republican”. There are many good, moderate thinking people in both parties who are willing to do what is best for the country, and like Thomas Paine, have a pretty clear idea of what the causes of our problems are. If we had something like an American Independence Party, perhaps it would be easier to deal with the very difficult problems that have arisen in the past eight years. But we have to solve the problems that are important to you now. That means we will deal with the two parties that we have, and focus our government on what is best for most people, not a rich, controlling few. For me, that means the only “common sense” choice is Senator Obama and Senator Biden.

Love,

Dad and Grandpa

Please, vote Obama.

Mr. Obama Comes to Town

Barack Obama came to Leesburg yesterday. CBS estimated 30,000 people were present for the rally at Ida Lee Park (where I swim and work out in the mornings). That's as many people as live in Leesburg! Traffic was completely gridlocked getting into and around Leesburg, from about two o'clock through until nine o'clock. My commute was 90 minutes yesterday, and trying to find alternate routes around the gridlock took me all the way into Fauquier county before getting me home.

I really, really wanted to go. This was history in the making. But with the traffic issues, the huge crowd, and having to take off half the day to be there, I finally decided not to show up.

My friend, Clarence, did go, and he got some great shots of the rally. Since I couldn't be there, here are some of his photos.

I'll just have to wait until I get that invitation to the White House to meet Mr. Obama.

The Michael Show

I was going to post the videos from our wedding, but even though I greatly compressed the video from over an hour and a half (most of it is our insufferable preacher talking endlessly) to just about five minutes, it's still not the most exciting stuff.

For any of the real die hards out there who want to see it, you can view all of my wedding videos at YouTube by hitting this link. Highlights include some of the last footage of all the grandparents, including especially good close-ups when we were all posing for the big group photo after the receiving line.

I will call your attention to the wedding reception, which was one hell of a good party! My favorite part of this video is around 7:37 when the future Most Reverend Michael Harris puts on quite a salacious show.

Merrick and Deachi were pretty "loaded" in this video, and it's fun to watch them follow around my rather handsome best man, Rob. Olech shows up in this video too, as a thirteen year old. There are lots and lots of other relatives too, like the last video I have of Grandpas Harris and Guier, and Grandma Harris too. Viola makes her appearance, as do all the aunts and uncles.

Of course, Becky is gorgeous--absolutely stunning! And as for me, well, I look like I'm about fourteen years old. (Perfectly legal marrying age in Georgia.)

Maxa Road

This is my last video from Dad's old 8mm film. For those wanting to run through the entire set of old movies again, use this link on YouTube.

Around 1975, we lived in Aberdeen, Maryland, and lived on Maxa Road next to the Interstate.

There's some fun video in here of Schatzie attacking me as I slide down my new slide.

Christmas in Ponca City, 1974 1975

Here are the last of my Christmas videos, all of these from our visit to Ponca City. Despite what the videos say, Merrick points out to me that these videos are from 1975.

First, we visited Grandpa and Grandma Harris's house on Maple Avenue. Here we spent Christmas with Tricia and Travis and Aunt Pam and Uncle Lynn, David and Aunt Nena, and Grandma and Grandpa Harris.



Next, we went to visit to the Pioneer Woman Statue, Ponca's most famous landmark.



After this, we spent some time visiting at Grandpa's house on Whitworth. Merrick shows up in this video as just a baby. I particularly like Aunt Terry's flowing gown. Very stylish! I'm thinking maybe she just returned from the Lawrence Welk show, where she performed a beautiful aria. Uncle Bobby and Grandma and Grandpa are also in the video.



Finally, after the present opening, we rode horses at Uncle Butch's and Aunt Ruth's ranch.

Meyer Lemon Harvest

We had another bountiful year from the Meyer Lemon tree. This year, we picked fourteen lemons off the tree, two more than two years ago! Four of them instantly went into the most delicious lemonade, and the remaining lemons we cooked up into lemon curd, which we'll freeze for the coming months of pancakes, cheesecakes, waffles, and muffins!

Yum!

Here's that Lemon Curd recipe:

Lemon Curd

3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind or lemon zest
2 large eggs
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
2 Tbsp butter

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk. Cook until sugar dissolves and mixture is light in color (about 3 minutes). Stir in lemon juice and butter; cook for 5 minutes or until mixture thinly coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cool. Cover and chill (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

Note: Lemon Curd can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can easily double or quadruple the recipe and freeze it in heavy-duty Zip-Loc bags. Thaw in refrigerator, and use within 1 week of thawing.

Photo credit: Luke Harris, 2008.

Flooring Update

As of this evening, I have completed laying down the flooring in the master bedroom and most of the master closet. This leaves me with both boys' rooms, the reading room, the hallway, my bathroom and the boys' bathroom. Still quite a lot to do.

I've now perfected the art of the "snap-together", which wasn't as trivial as I thought it was going to be, but now that I know how to do it, the pieces fit together very well. You cannot even see a gap in them after they've been fitted. The precision of this Witex flooring is truly amazing.

Here are some photos of the project as we started it. I mention "we" because Luke has helped me most of the way. At left, you can see Luke vacuuming out the debris from the repair we made to the subfloor. (We had to replace a broken piece of the plywood that was squeaky and looked unsafe.)

The Witex is a free-floating floor, not anchored to any wall. It lays atop a foam underlayment called "Floor Muffler", which provides some cushion and noise dampening.

So far, so good, but I better stop blogging and get back to work!

Christmas 1974

Here's the last of the small, intimate family Christmas videos. Tomorrow, I will post some wonderful videos of Christmas in Ponca City. (Stay tuned for those!)

The highlight of this video is seeing a very cheeky Dad lounging under the Christmas tree. Seriously, Dad, how short was that robe?! Your sideburns were longer than that robe! (See 2:27 in the video.) I hope the rest of you can resist the beefcake in this video! I'm sure to start getting a lot of hits from "less reputable" sites now.

At this point, Mom has now shortened her hair, and is ready for the hairdo that would carry her through the 80's.

Ouch!

Dinner with David and Bonnie

David and Bonnie are old friends, way back from high school days in Starkville. They were in town for the weekend touring around DC, and so we decided to hook up for dinner on Saturday night. We grabbed the kids and headed down to Pulcinella in McLean, which is a wonderfully rowdy family-style Italian restaurant.

David and Bonnie haven't changed much, and their boys, Thomas and Brennan were really cute, gregarious boys. Thomas is about Luke's age, and Brennan is a couple years younger. Both boys had just enjoyed their visit to the Spy Museum downtown and were showing us the secret codes they had created with their decoder rings. It was just super catching up with old friends.



This wouldn't be my blog if it didn't have pictures of the food: