Snow Day Feb 2011

Snow Day Feb 2011, originally uploaded by ND Wright.

We got a lot of snow last week!

Sears 10 speed

Sears 10 speed
Sears 10 speed bicycle I found at a garage sale for $1. Needs a lot of work.
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

Another great garage sale find. Needs lots of work, but I believe it can be salvaged.

Go Electric: Bike Commuting Made Easy

Exploration

This country has so completely lost its heart for exploration. We went to the moon 40 years ago and we haven't been back since. It's sad.

Those men did a great thing. Going so far. But in the following decades we have been content with barely getting out of Earth's atmosphere. To me that's like crossing the pacific only to come home to play in the pool in the backyard.

A couple things have conspired to have me thinking about these things. First was getting the first couple discs of the show "Defying Gravity" from Netflix.

Great show, humans decide to tour our solar system. It was cancelled before they finished airing the first season. Thankfully they released all the episodes to DVD.

That tells you one thing. Our culture just isn't interested in space any more. Not like it used to be anyway. The second thing was that the show was set in the 2050s. Why should it take so long for us to get back to the stars?

Second I've been watching "When We Left Earth" on the Netflix watch instantly. All about the early space program. I see what those men did and with the extremely primitive -- by our standards -- equipment, and I just have to shake my head. We should be in space now. We should have a real permanent station in orbit. We should have a colony on the moon. And we ought to be halfway to Mars.

The third thing that got me thinking about this was learning that the International Space Station is now visible from Earth. If it's not raining I'll be able to see it traversing my sky tonight about 11:13pm. It shines brighter than the moon. But we're in for more clouds I think.

I grew up dreaming of space travel. Reading Robert Heinlein. Heinlein expected colonies on the moon by the mid-1980s. Ships capable of interplanetary transit in days instead of months. And we could do it, but we don't. We've lost our drive. We need to get it back.

Railroad crossing

Railroad crossing

Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

Colton and Zara

2008 cherry blossom festival - 6
The Cherry Blossom Festival is held each May in Cherryvale, Kan. These are from 2008.
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

This is a photo of Colton and Zara playing at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Cherryvale, KS, May 2008.

Zara worked at the public library in Independence for a bit when Noel and I were living in Independence.

Colton and Zara have an excellent sound that Noel and I have always enjoyed. Tonight, Noel found their web site, and lo and behold they have an album out now! So I popped on over to the iTunes store and bought it straight away.

Check out their web site! http://www.coltonandzara.com/

Jammin with the new guitar

Got a guitar again after many years without.

This is the Ibanez IJV50 JamPack. Purchased for $100 at Guitar Center in Overland Park.

I enjoy playing it very much.

To go with the guitar I also picked up Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method Grade 1. I am fairly proficient at playing chords and such but I wanted to really learn to play the guitar, for reals. In the video I play a couple of songs from the book.

Oil Spill

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a massive disaster. Here's a widget to keep tabs on it.

Who You Gonna Call?

Life and death

I've decided that I don't believe in death.

Hundreds of my cells "die" each day, yet I do not die.

Could it be that we are just "cells" of a more complex system?

Emotional and physical scars

Many folks today are under the impression that once a past emotional injury has healed that it can no longer pain you. And that if you do experience pain over past hurts then you have obviously not allowed that to heal.

I've been thinking about this lately and I have decided that I flat do not believe it.

I severely injured my wrist many years ago, left quite a scar. It has completely and fully healed. I've even regained the feeling in my fingers that doctors said I might not. But sometimes when I lift something or otherwise stress that wrist, it will hurt like hell. I believe that emotional scars are much the same way.

My childhood wasn't -- by far -- the worst, but there are a number of emotional scars back there. I believe that I've made peace with my past, and that those hurts have healed. Still, under the right conditions they do cause me pain.

Folks expect me to behave as though the pain doesn't exist. But I can assure you that if you come up and stick your thumb in the scar on my wrist I'm going to yelp and probably try to slug you. I don't know why I would react any differently to folks shoving their thumbs in my emotional scars.

Gambling and the lottery

Some folks we know will be put off to find that we occasionally play the lottery.

Why? Because they believe that gambling is wrong.

But most of those people have health insurance.

So which is worse? Gambling that something bad is going to happen? Or gambling that something good will happen?

At least when I lose my gamble the money goes for a good purpose, helping public schools. When they lose their gamble the money just goes to make rich people richer.

Garage sale finds

Here are a couple great bikes I found at a garage sale today. Great stuff.

At the fort

The family spent some time at the old fort here in Fort Scott, Kansas, before folks started home.

Courthouse tulips

Courthouse tulips
Tulips in bloom at the Vernon County Courthouse in Nevada, MO.
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

The Nation's Finest

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The home of Key Work Clothes, the Nation's Finest, in downtown Fort Scott, Kan.
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

Jesus is Lord

10roll3 - 04
A mural on the side of a building declares that "Jesus is Lord over Ft. Scott."
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

Milo and the Turtle

Milo and the Turtle
Our pup Milo meets Mr. Turtle.
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

I've been having a hay day uploading some old stuff I've found in the laptop.

I thought I'd put this stuff up years ago, but I guess I didn't.

Boots

Boots
These boots were made for walkin'.
Originally uploaded by Nick David Wright

I purchased this pair of Doc Martin's boots in March 2007.

I have worn the heck out of them. I finally got around to replacing them this past week.

I don't know that I've ever had a pair of shoes to last three years before. Especially taking into account what I put shoes through.

I really wanted to get another pair just like these, but there was one thing stopping me. Waterproofing.

These weren't. And when they got wet, my feet got soaked. And I got miserable.

I had picked out a pair of shoes. I wore them one night on the job at the college and I took them back the next morning. They just hurt my feet.

When I took the others back, I found some more boots on an isle I had missed the day before. I liked the look of them, then I saw the magic label "waterproof."

I tried them on, and that was that. They are a pair of Skechers, sorry don't know which model.

They are some of the most comfortable boots I've ever worn.

And with all the snow we've gotten today, I am definitely loving the waterproofing.

Zonkers

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Family shots from Zonkers.
Nick David Wright

This past week was Spring Break for the school district I work for, so we spent most of it at my Beloved's sister's house.

One of the things we did was go with the kids to Zonkers. A small kind of indoor amusement park. They had games and rides, etc. I took along my camera and got a few snaps while they were at it.

We were planning on returning Saturday morning so that I could be at the college for my shift. But when I woke from my afternoon nap Friday, I checked the weather to find winter storm warnings for our area. I had no desire to repeat what we did last Christmas (i.e. - drive home through a blizzard), and we had turned off all the heat in the camper. So we came home that evening.

I really can't believe this weather. It's completely crazy. It's been snowing all day, pretty heavy. I'll post some pics later.

I want spring back! Luckily I won't have to wait long.

PS - Notice my Beloved's new hair cut? That's another thing we did while up in KC.