Holiday Letter -- 2008

Carl C. Fields
{Redacted}
{Redacted}

24 September 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

 
This letter was written in several “sessions.”  The September 24 date refers to the start of the first session.

I retired in May 2004.  Worked as a contractor during portions of 2004-2007.   This year (2008) has been my first full year of actual retirement, starting mid-November 2007.

Late May – Charleston SC (LPGA Event)

Spent a day near Charleston attending one round of a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event. 

Event was played on a course built as part of an upscale resort/housing development – on a barrier island, but on the lagoon side of the island – not the side facing the ocean.  Ponds separate most parts of the course from the back yards of the homes in the development.  Walked all 18-holes on the course during the day.  After about 14 holes, noticed an alligator in one on the ponds.  Then, noticed another alligator in the next pond.  Not sure how many I had unknowingly passed earlier in the day.

Tournament sponsors included the Ginn Company (the resort developer) and Chrysler.  The event seemed somewhat under-sponsored; several signs around the course listing names of corporate sponsors contained noticeable amounts of empty space.  The LPGA has announced this Charleston event will not be held in 2009. 

Late June and Early July -- Colorado 

Was in Colorado in late June and early July.  Spent a couple days touring in Colorado Springs (south of Denver) – my first time in that area.  Saw Garden of the Gods, which is a park containing group of large, almost-vertical (edge-upward) slabs of rock.  In this instance, “large” means probably ~100 feet high, ~500 feet long, and ~50 feet thick (these are guesses at the above-ground dimensions of a typical slab).  They are apparently part of the same formation as the Flatirons (near Boulder, north of Denver).  The Flatirons lie at about a 40° angle, not close to vertical.  Went to Garden of the Gods twice.  It looks quite different at different times of day, as the rocks are illuminated from different sun angles.

Also saw the US Air Force Academy including the A-frame-like cadet chapel, built in the 1950s (someone once said he didn’t know if people are supposed to pray in it, to it, or for it).  I hadn’t realized that portions of the A-frame roof are made of strips of stained glass.  This results in the interior of the upper-floor chapel more striking than I had expected (the building is divided to provide four separate chapels – on two levels -- for four different faiths). 

Took a cog railway to the top of Pike’s Peak (a whiteout snow squall was in progress when the train arrived at the summit, but it cleared after a few minutes – there is a gift shop at the summit, of course).  There is also a road to the summit.  I understand the overall record for the once-per-year auto race to the summit is slightly over 10 minutes – this is for a 12.4-mile, mostly-dirt road, with over 100 switchbacks, and, of course, it is uphill all the way (about a 4700 ft elevation change over the section of the road they race on).

Stopped at a series of dinosaur tracks and at Red Rock Amphitheater on the way back to Denver (both are west of Denver in foothills of the Front Range).  The state had permanently closed the road past the dinosaur tracks (and nearby fossils) to most vehicle traffic just a day before I was there (but visitors could hike up the road to see the tracks and fossils).  These tracks were discovered in the 1930s, when a cut was made into a ridge (now called Dinosaur Ridge) to build the road.  Now the road (which is responsible for discovery of the tracks) has been closed to help preserve them.  Something about that seemed vaguely unfair.  Red Rock Amphitheater (which I’d never heard of before) is a large outdoor theater cut into a hillside.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed (or maybe upgraded) it in the 1930s.  Their visitor center indicated the Beatles played there in 1964 and Bill Clinton spoke there around 1996.  A Snoop Dog concert was scheduled to begin a few hours after I was there.

September -- Salt Lake City 

Was in Salt Lake City for several days in September, attending an educational conference on family history research and then spending about three days at the Family History Library (FHL) in that city, looking up information about my family. The FHL is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons).  Didn’t find anything major, but I did locate several interesting items, such as a copy of the will written by one of my great-grandfathers, Aaron Francis Johnson, and cryptic records of a court case involving his heirs around 1906.  They were apparently trying to repossess some land he had owned.   

I’d been to the FHL for a few hours around 1999 (courtesy of Delta Airlines; they provided an unplanned 14-hour layover in Salt Lake City due to a flight delay).  At that time I didn’t know much about family history research and  didn’t see much of the library (and wouldn’t have been able to appreciate it if I had).  This time (knowing a bit more), I could appreciate what a fantastic resource it is.  They have perhaps 20-25 books on just one county in Missouri (Douglas County), where some ancestors lived for a time. 

They have over 2,400,000 unique rolls of microfilm (not counting backup copies); many of them stored on almost-floor-to-ceiling self-service cabinets (the type of arrangement librarians call open stacks). The FHL has perhaps 40 teams traveling around in several different countries photographing old government and church records.  Only a fraction of the 2.4-million-microfilm inventory is in the downtown library – the rest is in a special storage facility  (carved into a mountain) south of town.  The portion of the microfilm in the library takes up much of three separate floors.  The exact number of rolls of microfilm actually in the building was unclear, but my guess is something like one million.  The amount of space dedicated to the microfilm cabinets provided some insight into just what a large number “one million” is.  This makes the recent governmental actions, where they are talking about billions and trillions, even more impressive (and scary).  The FHL will probably not accumulate many more rolls of microfilm.  They are switching to digital cameras – and are also in the process of converting their microfilm collection to digital images (which, as I understand it, will eventually be on line).   

While in the Salt Lake City area, also did a bit of sightseeing, including going to Park City for dinner one night (it was the site of several events in the 2002 Winter Olympics).  Also went to Promontory Summit, where the two companies building the first transcontinental railroad met in 1869 (the Central Pacific had built track eastward from Sacramento and the Union Pacific had built track westward from Omaha).  This is sometimes called the “Golden Spike” site, although I’m pretty sure that golden spike was pulled out and put into a vault within an hour of when it was installed.  Also floated (for a few seconds) in the Great Salt Lake – mostly to be able to say that I’ve done it (this was at a state park called Antelope Island). 

Promontory Summit is basically in the middle of nowhere, on the north side of the lake (and is no longer on the railroad – the main line was shifted several miles south long ago, and the tracks were pulled up for scrap metal during the 1940s).  It was farther out of town than I had expected.  As I drove farther and farther, going there seemed less and less of a good idea.  However, once there, I really liked it.  They have rebuilt perhaps a mile of track on the original rights-of-way and have full-size working replicas of the two engines that met there in 1869.  Several workers and volunteers at the visitor center (including the two train engineers, both in appropriate period costume) were quite knowledgeable – and happy to explain stuff.  Learned the original Central Pacific engine (the one from Sacramento) was built in Schenectady NY.  That railroad had 143 engines transported to California by ship, around the tip of South America.  All the Central Pacific’s other cars, along with all their rails and spikes, were also taken to California from the East Coast by sea.  This is a great place for an engineer (like me) to visit, but it might be less interesting to a “real” person.

A company called AXF has a facility near Promontory Summit, where they test (and, I believe, manufacture) solid-fuel rocket engines (including the space shuttle solid rocket booster engines).  They have an interesting outdoor exhibit of perhaps 40 rocket engines (I’m pretty sure these engines were tested while fastened to the ground – not on rockets that ever flew).  Again, it’s an engineer thing.  I think this company used to be called Morton Thiokol (and probably just Thiokol prior to that).  Solid-fuel rockets are pretty hazardous, and test facilities for them are generally built in remote areas.  This provides insight into just how close Promontory Summit is to the middle of nowhere. 

Exhibits at the visitor center at Antelope Island indicate the island, together with two causeways across portions of the lake, limit the ability of the water in various parts of the Great Salt Lake to mix freely.  These effectively partition the lake into three regions, each with different salt concentrations.  Near Salt Lake City, the water is about 5% salt (by weight).  The main body of the lake (where I floated briefly) is about 14% salt.  The extreme northern end of the lake is about 25% salt.  For comparison, ocean water is about 3% to 3.5% salt.  Couldn’t tell if I floated any differently in the lake than I would have in the ocean (or in a pool).  After getting out, did a quick rinse-off in a cold-water (very cold water) outdoor shower.  I missed rinsing a few spots on my body and later noticed a thick salty crust on those spots; much more crusty than from swimming in the ocean.

October 2008 – California (for a week) 

Saw my sister Natalie in Santa Cruz.  She had an extra ticket to a Jimmy Buffett concert (a friend she had planned to go with was ill and could not attend).  The concert was in Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View -- didn’t see a shoreline, but the closest one would be San Francisco Bay.  The amphitheater seemed to be adjacent to the Google Corporation’s office complex: the Googleplex – a word I learned about 50 years ago from a book called Mathematics and the Imagination in the high school library (the book was written in the early 1940s – it’s the name of an almost unimaginably large number).  Mountain View is perhaps 25 miles from Santa Cruz, but on the other side of a pretty impressive mountain pass.

Jimmy Buffett and his band (the Coral Reefers) performed for about 2.5 hours, not counting about a 20-minute intermission (there was no separate opening act). He did the entire (outdoor) concert barefooted and wearing a T-shirt and shorts.  Apparently he has had this band for over 25 years; the double meaning of the name “Reefers” sort of dates them.  I noticed a few whiffs of marijuana during the concert, but surprisingly few.   

Based on the apparent age of much of the audience, he has probably had pretty much the same group of fans (Parrotheads) attending his concerts for over 25 years too.  I hadn’t previously known Natalie was a Parrothead.  Most of the fans were in costume  (such as Hawaiian shirts and pirate hats, but there were a few more elaborate costumes).  Had a feeling the crowd was there to see each other as much as to see (and hear) him.  Reminded me of attending a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” back in the 1980s (or was it the 1970s?). 

Buffett is involved in several business ventures, including distributing a brand of beer and a margarita mix.  Concession stands outside the amphitheater sold these products (along with the usual types of food and drink items).  They also sold souvenir T-shirts and sweatshirts, of course.  Did not see his CDs for sale.  Natalie later told me most people who attend these concerts already have most of his songs on CD. 

Don’t recall ever previously attending anything quite like this.   Enjoyed it immensely (although I’m probably more of a Warren Buffett fan).

About 3 years ago (a month prior to Hurricane Katrina), visited the D-Day Museum in New Orleans (later renamed the National WW II Museum).  The museum sends a newsletter each month describing scheduled activities (and mentioning they accept donations).  The schedules indicate they periodically show the mid-1960s movie, “The Sound of Music”.  They do it as an audience participation thing, encouraging people to bring popcorn, sing along with the movie’s musical numbers, and boo the Nazi characters.  This is also similar the old midnight screenings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”  I suspect, however, the “Sound of Music” screenings don’t start at midnight and they might discourage costumes (from concerns that neo-Nazis might show up – not the intended audience).
 

Tiger and Suzie

Around Halloween 1994 we answered a newspaper ad placed by a lady who had a ~9-week-old kitten to give away.  Turned out the lady (named Grace Rudder, who lived in Graniteville, SC) had been given two kittens (litter mates) by her adult children a week or so earlier (her children couldn’t decide which one she would like best).  She decided to keep the female (who she named Suzie) and give away the male (who we named Tiger).  The first time I saw Tiger he was chasing a piece of yarn under a coffee table in her living room. 

Around Christmas 1994, Mrs Rudder called and offered to also give us Suzie – Mrs Rudder had to have surgery, which would require that she spend some time in a rehabilitation center.  Offered to return Suzie when she recovered, but never heard from her.

Tiger seemed very excited when he was reunited with Suzie.  Suzie at first seemed aloof to him.  However, for the next several months (until they became more adult cats) they often slept together.  Suzie would wait until Tiger picked out a place to sleep or nap.  Once he was asleep, she would snuggle up next to him, then fall asleep herself.

In 2006, Tiger was diagnosed with a malignant tumor on his right side – a type of tumor that, even after surgery, generally returns.  He had two surgeries that year, a few months apart (and perhaps a biopsy too).  The second surgery was fairly extensive.  The day following that surgery was especially difficult for him – and for me.  One of the muscles in his right rear leg was removed in the second surgery, but he seemed to eventually recover full use of the leg (he walked without limping and could jump from one piece of furniture to another). 

Late in 2007 (after I had written last year’s holiday letter), Suzie became quite ill.  She was diagnosed with a malignant tumor (a different type than Tiger’s).  At first, her condition was thought to be operable.  However, during the surgery it was found the tumor could not be removed, and we let her go.

In March of 2008, Tiger’s cancer returned.  This time his right rear leg was amputated.  This was, in a way, a difficult decision, since he had been so joyfully active, running and jumping, even after the newest tumor was discovered.  However, in another way, it wasn’t a difficult decision, given the alternative.  He appears to be doing well, although, of course, he walks with a severe limp (which may bother me more than it does him).  Interestingly, he can run without a limp, but he doesn’t run often – and he never tries to jump.  Unfortunately, the prognosis is still that this type of cancer almost always comes back. 

Aiken SC 

Here in Aiken I was pretty faithful to running (or perhaps jogging) each morning when the temperature was above about 55 °F.  Usually take a route covering most of the 9-hole golf course behind the house; generally starting shortly before sunrise to ensure finishing before the first golfers tee off.  Normally I do one lap, but on a few occasions did two – and on a very few occasions, three.  The route passes a several-acre lake (a water hazard and irrigation water storage for the golf course), where there are usually a few interesting water birds.  The types of birds vary depending on the season.  A pair of Canada Geese raised a family at the lake this summer.  

In September saw a newspaper photo showing Pakistani Shiite Muslims supposedly burning US and Israeli flags to protest an incident involving an incursion by US helicopters from Afghanistan.  However, a close look at the photo indicated what they were burning was not really a US flag.  It had too many stripes and too few stars (it had about 20 stripes, so it wasn’t the 15-stripe US flag used for several years starting around the 1790s).  Their intent was to insult the US.  Wasn’t clear to me if we should not be insulted (since they were burning a piece of colored cloth – not a US flag) or if we should be doubly insulted (because they didn’t make the effort to find a real US flag to burn).

Regularly go to three different cultural series here in Aiken.  Two of these (4-6 shows each, annually) bring in touring professional groups.  The third is the Augusta Symphony, which does three performances in Aiken each year (usually with an out-of-town soloist).  Also usually subscribe to the Augusta Opera company, which seems to be on the decline.  In the 1990s they would sell out 3 or 4 performances of each of 3 or 4 productions per year.  Now they do only two performances per production (and don’t sell out) and there are only 2-3 productions per year.  

I thought the best show in these various series was “Barrage,” which is hard to describe, but it’s basically an instrumental group that is mostly violins, where the performers sort of dance and play at the same time.  Their show is similar to “Bowfire,” but better (“Bowfire," which has also been here in Aiken 2-3 times in past years, is also very good).  Also really liked “Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain,” a bluegrass music band.  These series tend to include some types of shows that I’m not much into (most ballets are in the category, as are some operas).  However, it seems best to subscribe to each whole series, to help ensure they keep going (but, as indicated above, the Augusta Opera Company may eventually die).

Have a great 2009!

Phone: {Redacted} (land);    {Redacted} (cell)