It is over

      Wellsir, it is Christmas Day and half the presents have been opened, oohed and ahhed over and now the day begins.  One family was here for the day before and Christmas day. The rest will arrive later today and then, to quote Maurice Sendak, "Let the wild rumpus begin." When everyone gets here, there will be four children under 10 years, two children just barely over that and a large gaggle of adults and that always makes for some interesting times at Christmas. The children are naturally excited whilst the adults are naturally tired, usually frazzled and ready to rest.
      Everyone wants to have a good time, enjoy the day and enjoy each other. The small kids want to run and play and yell and act like kids. Unfortunately for both groups, this house is too small to accommodate both groups wishes.  Isn't there some genii in a bottle we could get to increase the size for 24 hours?
      The most popular toy among the younger technology set seems to be a DS X, and no, I am not sure what it is. It was the most asked for to Santa as I had direct knowledge of requests to him. Santa, being very old and very wise, always said, "Hmmm, well, we will see what we can do." Then he would thoughtfully repeat the request while looking directly at parents and/or grandparents. Hopefully some of the requests were filled.  Hopefully the item is worth  all the longing.
      There is one story about Christmas that almost haunts me and you may find it interesting. People about my age can remember that Christmas meant one toy or item from Santa, new underwear and new socks. There could possibly be a shirt mixed in there. One very unusual year my little sister got a large tricycle and it had mud on the tire.  We were convinced that an elf had ridden it from the sleigh to inside the house and didn't tell Santa he had gotten it dirty.
      Right, there had to be a cover story of some kind there, and since it was Christmas Day, even hard evidence could be ignored and suspended belief continued.
      My grandfather used to visit around and on one particular Christmas, it was our turn. My grandfather was fun and funny up to a point but one would learn early that one did not cross that point. Having him visit was a great delight, especially since it was Christmas.
      I woke up that night to hear my dad and granddad talking and I kept hearing this snapping noise. I heard my dad say something like, "I always wanted a pair of pearl handled pistols when I was a kid."    My heart  stopped, my breathing increased a hundred-fold and the world began to spin. All those impossible things happened within the space of a couple of seconds.
      Then  my consciousness returned and I knew what the snapping sound was. Yessir, the next morning Santa had left me a pearl handled cap pistol. The mystic ended for me at that point but having a real cap pistol made it worthwhile. I never told my Dad of what I had heard. He would have been crushed.
      To this day I like for Christmas Day to be sunny, warm and totally without snow. I do not want to see the proverbial White Christmas. On a sunny day we could go outside and play with our new toy and we could run and hoop and holler and work off the past weeks of anticipatory energy. Being cooped up inside because of wet snow would be enough to put our parents 'round the bend. 
      And besides that, school would be out for another week and all that time was just beginning to be stretched out before us.

Home Again and Public Transportation

1. Home Again and Public Transport
2. Ah so, the Chinese philosopher speaks
3. Reader's Comments
4. Yes, you can

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Readers' Forum
We've been gone so there isn't any - but check below for an important announcement
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         I heard a person say, not long ago, that sometimes getting home was the best part of the trip. Depending on what type of trip that person had, that may be true. But I would tell that person to either not travel anymore or to be more careful in their traveling. This last trip had some stressful times in it, but overall, it was a very good trip.
As you probably know, I like trains. I like riding trains even more than just looking at them, but I like trains. Australia made the mistake of privatizing many of their “rides” and that left out the people who needed them. Many fares are too expensive for the average worker and that creates a problem. It is a problem we seldom experience here in the U S as we have government subsidized highways and airlines which makes traveling more affordable. Those people who can’t afford to drive or fly can just stay home.
One thing that is really good about Australian train travel, and I think their Sydney area bus travel, is that the senior citizens get reduced fares. The Sydney travel area extends very far out to the far outer suburbs and the fare for the travel there is greatly reduced. A senior can travel on bus, train, ferry or any combination there of for $2.50 per day. That sounds awfully civilized to me.
I don’t mean this to sound as a travelogue but just to illustrate a point to my U S friends, let me tell you what public transportation could be like. We were taken by auto to Dubbo as that was on the route home for our wonderful host and hostess. Then we went by train from Dubbo to Lithgow, then switched trains and four minutes later  to Hazelbrook. After a night with a friend we went from Hazelbrook to Sydney Central where we caught the train to Sydney International Air Port.
All of that traveling was done while seated in a comfortable seat with a wide window to see the countryside and the Roos lounging in fields. On the hour and a half ride into Sydney we were in seats reserved for “Elderly or handicapped.” The first time I had seen that marking was in Ukraine several years ago. The U S is not always the leader in providing services and should sometimes look around to see what works elsewhere.
Having visited and lived in places that provides public transportation to the public, I am a big fan. It not only is a necessary service, it would help with the air pollution in most of out major cities. Imagine taking 50 people with the almost the same exhaust emission as one auto with one person in it. OR, if that bus was powered with natural gas, there would be virtually no harmful emission for 50+ people. Yessir, I am a fan of public transportation.
This was our third visit to Broken Hill, Australia which is very near the center of Australia. Broken Hill is a city of just over 20,000 people but it has public transportation and a large taxi service. I know of several cities in Oklahoma with about that population. Can you think of any that would have scheduled public transport?
There is one disadvantage to their transportation; it is on the wrong side of the road. Very often you will see signs painted on the street, just as you step off the curb, which reads: LOOK RIGHT. They are designed for foreign visitors who are just wandering around and may temporarily forget where they are. It didn’t matter how many signs I saw or how many times I reminded myself, I would have to force myself to look right. Lifetime habits, and self preservation techniques, are hard to break.
I tried to overcome that by constantly swiveling my head both directions no matter where I was. That seemed to help my brain adjust without a headache. Then making sure to cross the street at a painted crosswalk helped as traffic was supposed to stop when a person was in one of those. Usually they did.
But even with better public transport, treating seniors with respect, less traffic and some wonderful wildlife, it is good to be home. I have had up to four grands and one great kid in our house since we got back. There isn’t anything better than that.

 
Chelsea Cook
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2. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.”
 Lyn Yutang
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3. Reader's Comments
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     Comments? State them, it is your turn to speak.
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4. Yes, you can
    Send this address on to others and see what they think -- and yes, I'd like to know.
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Getting there is half "the battle"

Unlike a cruise, flying across the International Date Line can be intimidating. That is, if you have done it before and know what to expect. As you cross west to east you lose a whole day, or that is what it looks like on the calendar. We left Los Angeles and hour late, on September 22 and arrived 14 hours later on September 4. When the next generation of aircraft takes over it is beyond me how that will work.


Then we hung out at the Sydney airport for too long and that plane was late for leaving for Adelaide and our family there had no way of knowing they didn't have to rush down as they were driving from Broken Hill.

All in all, as the clock is measured, we were travelling for over 35 hours. No stops, no rest areas, we were in transit either flying or waiting to fly. As I had woken about 4:30 A M before leaving, that was a very long time to stay awake and attempt some semblance of alertness. I did get to doze on the 14 hour flight but only lightly and not for long. That's another story.

Some would look at the preceding narrative and think it to be a horror story. It is just one of those things one has to do if one wants to travel and get places. Critics are correct, we could have gone to Wichita, Kansas several times and even been rested when we got there in the same time it took us to get to Adelaide, Australia. That is correct but there is a major flaw in that. We would have been in Kansas if we had done that but instead, we were in Adelaide, Australia and the next day we were on the beach watching the surf boom. Yes, oh yes, I picked up shells and rocks. Try that on the prairie of Kansas.

Almost everyone I spoke to before leaving the states said they wanted to go to Australia. It isn’t all that difficult if you can stand the air flight over and back. Many people are put off by that and say they “could never make it.” Actually, they are either admitting they are too prissy to do a 14 hour flight or they are too spoiled to put up with a little inconvenience. Personally, I think both – in many cases.

It is easy to tell when you have entered a new place as you get out of the Sydney airport. There are clues all around you but you may not notice them at first. No, you will not see kangaroos hopping by and koalas hanging from the shrubbery as you exit. You have to get out of town to see that.

If you drive anywhere out of a city after dark you may see one more kangaroo than you wanted to see. Many, many autos here have very thick bars fixed across the front of their cars, appropriately called “roo bars.” Kangaroos seem to have a suicidal desire to jump in front of moving vehicles. Many roos are big, like six feet tall big and heavy to match. The roo bars help you survive the close encounter with a large roo but doesn’t do much for his longevity.

Even little roos and wallabies try to destroy themselves and you so cation is advised. There is, as you have guessed, a difference between hitting a coyote or possum and hitting a large red roo.

Another difference is the light. Light is hard to describe with a few adjectives but this light seems softer while the landscape in western New South Wales is harsher than in Oklahoma. Oklahoma light is bright and hard but in eastern New South Wales the light seems subdued. Or maybe my eyes can’t see as well back there.

In a day or so we will drive nine hours up to a small place in north-central New South Wales. The whole of the highway is very empty. There are a few villages, and a town or two, but you can drive for a very long time without seeing any dwellings or buildings. It is not a good place to meet a kangaroo at 65 miles per hour.

I am looking forward to seeing the place at Coona again as this time there has been much rain. As this is coming spring in Australia, there should be many flowers in bloom. They have some of the most exotic flowers in the world and I love them.

OK, also I will be thinking of where I can set up a new been hive.

...and furthermore for August 16, 2010

...and furthermore


1. Sunny days are for nothin'
2. How to be happy
3. Readers' Comments
4. Forwarding is allowed

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Readers' Forum
Did you catch the mis....mis.... nevermind.
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    Last week I got to do something I haven’t done in years – and I bet you haven’t either. Back about, uhh, “many” years ago, the summers were longer, the days were hotter and things moved slower. It was nothing to use up an entire day just breathing and doing nothing. Many times, way back before we entered the age of instant everything, the world seemed to move at our pace. We weren’t captives, at that point, to the gratifications we have come to expect.
    Last week I went out under a tree and lay in a hammock for about an hour or more. I did not feel guilty and I did not have a nervous collapse because there should have been umpteen things I should have been doing. I should have been lying in the hammock, so I did.
    The temperature was near 100F and there was virtually no breeze. Flies did attempt to make this session unpleasant but I ignored them. Ignored all but those who seemed to want to make my face a landing place when practicing their aerial maneuvers. The others tried to get my attention but after most of a life time of putting up with middle school and high school students, the pesky flies did not particularly bother me. I didn’t like them but they weren’t about to ruin my afternoon.
    Back in the olden days, when summers began in June and ended with Labor Day, kids had time to be kids. I seem to remember playing some organized baseball but it really wasn’t all that organized. Maybe I was not all that organized. Playing marbles, running the hillside, riding bikes and slipping off to go swimming seemed to be a better plan of action than to have adults try to relive their youth by telling you what you were doing wrong.
    Lying out under the willow tree reading Jack London was not wrong. Hot summer days were made for reading or maybe not even getting that ambitious. Maybe we should just lie in the sun and get tanned all over or as much “all over” as were allowed to tan. Tanning all those other parts happened when we went to the strip pits to swim and act like today’s boys seldom know how to act.
    There is something magical about the hot sun beating down and you just being totally immobilized. Up above there are white clouds standing thousands of feet tall towering above the horizon and drifting off to magical places. Some of them contained castles or pirates or sailing ships that went to places undreamed of by young land locked boys.
    Later on we learned that clouds were only a collection of moisture but they were thousands of feet from earth and stretched for miles high. Finding that clouds were not the creatures of a young boy’s imagination was tempered by the fact that their science was even more than your imagination.
    As you are there watching a massive cloud drift across from southwest to northeast you could only long to go where you supposed  it was going. This cloud could look down and see you but it soon would be over a part of your very own country that you could only read about and imagine. Then the cloud would be over the ocean and may be over a foreign country.
    Hard as you tried you could not imagine the sights it would see nor the people who would see it.  The sun continued to beat down and the brain grew weary trying to stave off the effects of its hypnotic powers. The clouds continued to drift across your field of vision and if your eyes opened long enough, you could follow the path of a particularly interesting one.
    But lying in a hammock is new. In those days one took an old quilt out under a tree – or sometimes just out on the grass. Back in those days one had to be especially careful and not take a quilt that was not “old” or one would have his time outdoors cut severely short. Mothers were possessive of things like expensive quilts being dragged out into the yard and abused by boys.
    But an old, raggedy quilt was perfect for stretching out, lying on, listening to the sounds of locust, thinking of watermelon for later that night and mostly, wellsir, mostly for doing nothing.
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2. How to be happy - two wise men
The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness.  You have to catch it yourself.  ~Benjamin Franklin

If you want to be happy, be.  ~Leo Tolstoy

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3. Reader's Comments
Agree? Disagree? We can talk
     Comments? State them, it is your turn to speak.
     Click here:  andfurthermore@cox.net and please put COMMENTS in the subject line

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4. Forwarding is allowed
    Send this on to others and see what they think -- and yes, I'd like to know.
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                                             Readers' Forum
##I know it is almost unbelievable, but I mistyped, since I don't make mistakes, the number of the Light Brigade. As I told this alert reader, I relied on my memory. Yes, I know, a foolish thing to do.
    **Did you mention 500 charging into the valley of death to test readers to see if they knew
that in his The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred, Lord Tennyson really wrote "Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred?"
## I want to know where that extra 100 chargers came from and why they weren't there when I memorized.... nevermind.
## But this reader, and the next, seemed to be in tune with last week's idea.
     **    ** Amen, dear one.  …
       ** Just as a heads up. The head football coach at Jenks Makes $86000 a year just for coaching. With his other perks he pulls down over $106000 per year. Oh, by the way, this was the coach who got caught using ineligible players last year. After a three month suspension he's back at work. What kind of message are we sending to the children w/ this?
 ##   Jenks is a suburb of Tulsa but was a separate town back when that was possible. Like all Oklahoma schools, it is way underfunded this year and next year is supposed to be worse. I am glad they have their priorities straight and entertainment gets its proper place above those academic programs.
See you next week.