Windsurfing the Columbia River Gorge and Bridging the Cultural Gorge

We went to the Columbia River Gorge. I sailed in it. That confers a certain amount of status since it is the premiere nukin' wind spot of the planet. Of course I sailed in an uncommonly light wind, using my longish floaty board that I can tack. I never got very far into harnesses, foot straps and carving jibes even when I was at the peak of my game about 20 years ago.


Me


Son James near the event center. I taught him everything I knew; then he took it from there. He has videos of the same outing taken from his water proof video camera that straps to his head.


More James, this time at Mary Hill park about 40 miles east of the event center


When we began packing up our gear after our last evening at Mary Hill park we passed a native American family grilling their dinner. I made some cheery remarks like, "Mmmmmm, smells really good. This elicited some chuckles. Just a little later as we started loading our stuff a little girl from the family came over and invited us to join them and share their Bar B Q. I thanked her effusively and declined politely, explaining that we had to get back to Hood River. I didn't have much time to think. I figured we didn't have much to contribute and I didn't know how much they had to spare. Also dear wife had been excited all day about a restaurant in Hood River where she wanted to eat supper.

After we all got under way we each confessed that we wished we had accepted. I felt like an oaf for declining. If you only listen to the news you would think there is nothing but squabbling between native Americans and European Americans over who gets the salmon, what can't be built in native cemetaries, whether to dam a river, etc. In this un-newsworthy moment total strangers extended themselves and invited us to break bread with them because we appeared hungry. Truly for us Americans, notwithstanding diverse origins, there is much more that unites us than divides us. ...like food and family!

Fun on the beach at home in Olympia, WA

My son James is visiting us from Florida this week. Wednesday we gathered at our beach access on Eld Inlet of Puget Sound. Here are some pictures that we'll remember fondly because we plan to sell this nice family home and move to the Carolinas.

Wednesday was warm with no wind so we did Stand Up Paddling or SUPing as it is called. Here's James contemplating his first SUP.


Apparently we were very puzzling to the harbor seals because they usually popped up to investigate as you will see in the following pictures.


Here's my friend Rob doing his first SUP.


Wife Catherine has great balance and never even got her hair wet. I can't say the same for myself.


James and Catherine.


James and friend

The next day (Thursday) was very windy. No SUPing for us but James had a real "woo hoo" afternoon windsurfing. See our videos on his blog: SUP Windsurfing

Here's a glimpse of his fun on the water.

Great Day at Mt. Rainier

We went to Paradise visitors center at Mt. Rainier National Park yesterday. We took a hike to Panorama point. The flowers and mountain glaciers were spectacular.
The people are my sister Mary, her husband Tom, my wife Catherine, and me. Animal is a marmot. Click any picture to enlarge it.

Need a Couple of Bucks?

If you need a couple of bucks, just call on me. These fellows along with their doe friend accomplish much of the pruning that we need as we spiff up our house getting it ready to sell. We just need to supplement them with some giraffes for the high stuff.

Apologizing for Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Lately I have read about a group that wants to apologize to Japan for us dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This has been met by wide objections from Americans who protest, "Ha! They asked for it when they bombed Pearl Harbor first. They should be apologizing to us." Another objection centers on deterrent. "It wasn't nice, but we had to nuke 'em to save American lives." These may be persuasive arguments for why we should have done it in 1945, but they are not relevant to why we should not apologize in 2009. I am sympathetic to the apology supporters for reasons outlined below.

Reason 1: Japan's decision makers and those they commanded killed a bunch or our innocent people, but so did our retaliation. Even if necessary and justifiable, we killed a bunch of their innocent people in addition to (or instead of) their decision makers.

Reason 2: It has been 65 years and we have been friends and growing together as allies in world leadership all that time. Today there are adults living in both countries whose grandparents weren't even born when these horrific acts of war took place. Japan is not a current adversary with whom we have to talk tough for our national security.

Reason 3: What the heck is the harm in it for us? What if we apologize before they do? That only makes us look magnanimous in their eyes and the eyes of the global community.

I just looked up "apology" in www.dictionary.com. It is defined as "a written or spoken expression of one's regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another". I noted that there are two ORs and no ANDs in that definition. Surely most of us feel at least sorrow for the injury caused to at least the innocent children killed and maimed when we dropped the big ones. That strikes me as justification enough to offer the apology. I also note that nothing in the definition says those who offer the apology must feel or believe themselves to be the greater transgressors than the party to whom the apology is offered.

My wife gets home today from a 5 day visit with her parents. I didn't complete all the chores I promised I'd complete. I shall apologize for not meeting my goal. I shall not say "I'm sorry I didn't get all my stuff done but YOU left the car lights on and killed the battery TWICE last week." I'll just tell her I'm sorry I didn't get all my stuff done and how great it is to see her. She knows she killed the battery twice. This is the way you need to act with those important to you to keep the relationship strong and healthy.

A Rain Barrel. Life is Good!

I just completed a rain barrel installation on our Edisto Beach house. Woohoo! This is the type of thing retired engineer curmudgeons like to do and talk about. It solves two problems. It intercepts the rain that pours off the front of my house and washes out the driveways, and it collects water for the plants. Our town water comes from wells and is so salty it's bad for the plants. Fortunately the town lets you draw free reverse osmosis drinking water from spigots at the town hall.

The white pipe is the overflow system. I drilled a bunch of 3/16" holes in the part that goes around the corner of the house to distribute the overflow water. OK, I paid a guy to install a gutter on the front of the house to catch the water. Fiddling around on the top of a jouncy 24 foot extension ladder is a good way for an amateur to end up dead.

The Model Airplane Family

As a child in Columbia, SC in the mid-50's, Owens Field was but a short bike ride from my home. I loved to go there and study the airplanes up close. I marveled when they defeated gravity as they took off or gently floated in for landings. The big airplanes were fascinating, but so were the model airplanes that hobbyists came to fly on weekends near the old Curtis Wright Hanger. Eventually at age 12, I built my own model, which was frankly a rather disastrous performer.

On Sunday afternoons an African American family frequently appeared to fly their models. That seemed a bit unusual to me in those Jim Crow days where everything was segregated. What I remember most about the family was that the model airplanes they built and flew were superb. They looked as if they should be carefully displayed in a museum rather than flown about over the hard asphalt. They were excellent replicas of actual aircraft including even spectacular multi-engine bombers. The whole family worked together to fuel them, start their engines, and set them into flight. They performed as well as they looked.

The family was as memorable as the airplanes they flew. They arrived in a late model Dodge that always gleamed from a recent wash and wax job. The family was always dressed as if for church. Even the young boys wore suits and ties. At the time, I wondered why they arrived so spotless and formally attired for an afternoon of play. Did they feel they needed to go the extra mile in appearance and decorum to assure being accepted among all the white people? Did they take just pride the fact that they far exceeded their comparatively advantaged neighbors in their craft? Did the parents feel resentment that they had to go to such lengths to demonstrate their competence and respectability? Were they encouraged and heartened by the acceptance and admiration shown to them by onlookers like myself? I suppose I shall never know.

Ten years after my idyllic Sunday afternoons of aviation admiration, I was designing real airplanes for Boeing in Seattle. My skills had improved since my first crash and burn model. I received tremendous support in improving those skills. In South Carolina I was allowed to go to good public schools and encouraged through my university years in a tough engineering curriculum. Those advantages were not available back then to the family with those fine models.

Over 40 years since I left South Carolina to seek my fortune in the great northwest, I have maneuvered myself back home. The other day I walked by the old Curtis Wright hanger at Owens field. It still sits there, windows broken and vines crawling over it. A cyclone fence surrounds the hanger and grass grows high from all the cracks in the asphalt around it. The carcass of an old B-25 bomber or something of that ilk sits like a ghost inside it. Jim Hamilton Blvd. and a skateboard park occupy the space where people flew the model airplanes. As I looked over that memorable space I wondered what became of the nice family with the perfect model airplanes. Are the parents all wizened and gray somewhere enjoying their golden years? Have the children grown up and realized their dreams? I sure hope so. I wish I could thank them for entertaining and inspiring me with those cool model airplanes.