Deer Creek aka verizon Music Center

We flew over Deer Creek the other day and got a pretty good view.

Inversion

The light was right and the world was in the glass but upside down.

Carb Day

Danica after driving in the pit stop challenge.

The picture does not due the wheel justice.
Looking closely, you can see the digital display on the control wheel.

The heart and soul of the 2006 Indy car, the Honda motor.

Laporte trip

Here's a veteran of many years, opening the door after a brief flight of fancy.This is downtown Rolling Prairie. Looks a lot smaller here than it did when I was growing up there. My wife tells me I was shorter then.

This whole south of downtown Rensellear looked to be very deep. They have probably been making it for some time.

library bear

The bear at the monroe county library.

Cool Kids

a few links

I ran into a few interesting links this weekend, and thought I should share them.
Don't try the first one without a fast connetion to the internet.
http://discover-g.uits.indiana.edu:8290/website/isds/viewer.htm

Poetry collection

Thomas Sowell

orthophotography

a couple of hams

Backyard

Sinking into the soft, freshly turned pile of earth,
My father and I take a break from digging.
The apple slides up and down my father's sweatshirt
Shiny red, reflecting the sunny day, blue sky.
The fresh dirt mixes with the hot lilacs
And sweat creating a nosegay fitting the day.

The apple is inspected, its shine approved,
A hand slides into a worn pocket
Returning to the sunshine with a small knife.
The blade clicks open, inspected and also approved,
Assumes the well known position in the hand.
The small blade cleaves the redness exposing white clean flesh.
The crimson curl grows.

A child knows no more of god.

competing moving company balloons

sunset

Sunset waiting for the Airshow to start

flying the plane alone feels like this

"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken."
      -from "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer"
              by     John Keats

These pictures were taken with long handheld exposures,
since I did not pack a tripod.

What they are is airplanes, gliders or helicopters doing a night time airshow.

The one below is my favorite.

air show pictures

This picture happened by accident, but I thought it was funny.

A turbo without the sheetmetal

chalet suzanne

We ran into a friend who told us about a get together that happens at a wonderful place that is just outside of Winter Haven. You can find out a lot more about it by following the link.

The place is a secluded little inn and restaurant, with it's own airstrip and lake.
We were there for a get together that they have during the SunNFun week.

While we were there, somebody was giving rides in a Waco. I was standing just to the edge of the apron on the grass strip. The approach is made over a lake that is 30 feet below the end of the runway. These pictures were taken in succession.
http://www.chaletsuzanne.com/

I'm not sure how busy this is most days, but it was a wonderful golden twilight evening, and the food was excellent.

other

http://spaces.msn.com/timportal2005/

pileated close-up

We were talking at the big round table when Julie said, there is a pileated out there.
They have excellent eyesight, so we moved slowly. It saw us anyway and flew down to the lower deck. We got a picture.

link for dogs

http://www.safeandsoundpets.com/index.html

view off the deck

Happy the man

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

Trip to Owensboro

Through the help of our friends, we got to go to Owensboro Ky to see Three Dog Night. While we were there, we also enjoyed a visit to Moonlight Bar-BQ. I would recommend all of these activities. Our rooms were right on the river. The traffic on the river moves at a slow pace, but is grand in scale. I took the picture through the window.

I was going to crop this picture, but I thought the guy in the back had an expression worth saving, as this was how I felt having to wait for the Bar-BQ.

Kris enters a new world

Kris got a new camera and was taking pictures of me, so I returned the favor.

something pretty from my mom

I graduated from high school at sixteen - had trouble finding a job because of my age. Of all places, since I never wore make-up, I worked the cosmetics counter at Woolworth's for a very brief time until my Daddy saw an advertisement in the paper. I applied and got the job with Indiana Abstract.
I sat at a desk and typed all day long - some days went to the court house and went thru dusty old records in the vault there. I worked with three phenomonal women. Laura Smith, Mabel Zumstein and Olive Peterson. Laura was the boss under the owner of the company, Merlin Porter (a distant cousin to Charlie's father). Laura and Mabel were in their fifties - I was just seventeen and Ollie (everyone called her that) was somewhere past seventy-five.
She had never married, worked in the court house since her teens, moving to the abstract company when her boss wasn't reelected. She was such a friend to me. We often had lunch together. The business was in an upstairs office across the street from the court
house. It was a big cavernous space with high tin-lined ceilings and great big windows - one of them a bay window that hung out over the sidewalk below. It was there we ate lunch and learned about one another and our lives.
Below the office was an office supply store and next door to it was a small cafe with booths on one wall and a counter with stools in front of it on the other wall. We would go down there once in a while for lunch. People from the court house and downtown would gather at lunch time but we had an advantage - we'd leave upstairs just a bit early and get a booth. The first week I worked there we were all in a booth when a man came in and sat down on a stool.
After a few minutes I asked, "Do you see that guy? He's got a real problem, look at the big lump on his hip." Everyone collapsed in giggles and Laura announced in a whisper, "That's not a lump, that's his bottle, he's an alcoholic - AND he's the county prosecutor!"
On another day, Ollie and I were going down the street to another restaurant. We were going along when she suddenly paused and looked at the sky, walking just a bit awkwardly as tho her feet were tied together.
"Don't look, Marcia, just keep walking. The string on my bloomers just broke." With a swift kick she tossed the fallen bloomers off the curb into the street, held her head high and continued walking. I'll never forget the expression on her face - it was that of a queen, someone who knows exactly who she is and tells the world. What a lesson for a greenhorn country girl!
Ollie was always inquisitive about my life. After my marriage she would ask questions about "living with a man". Our first child was Ollie's first child. She gloried in my pregnancy,
often asking if she could put her hand on my swollen belly to "feel the baby move."
I think Ollie is still walking tall and straight - on heaven's golden streets.

Looking for Spring

Looking for Spring

Thoughts slow through cold nerves,
Not warm enough to sing.

Brighter mornings, longer days
Light and heat increasing.

Watching brown damp earth
For hope among the decay.

Coco nose

Coco looks a bit strange at this angle, but is always interested.

airplane

It was very cold and sunny, the sky reminded me of Colorado, and I could not fly, since I was recovering from a throat infection.

finally sunny

After a few days being sick, and feeling as grey as the weather, the sun comes out on a cold day, and gives us a look down the valley.

a look at spring I can't wait

suddenly

and suddenly we are walking
the warm car left behind
breath fogging the way ahead
I'm a step behind, trying to catch up
Cold speeds the step

basketball

A concentrating guard

guarding concentration

passing in

warming up

contrails

The sky was clear and cold, and the contrails made quite a pattern.

Our friends house from the air

We got to go flying. The air was still and the sky was clear. We flew over there house and took picture. Flying is great.

How To Bar-B-Q pork

This is the cooker that I make slow cook pork with. I got it a Loewe's, around $75.
It says it is a 7 in 1 cooker, but I only use it one way. If you were so motivated, you could use regular charcoal, but the propane part works for me. It has three sections, base middle and top.
The base is a bowl, and it comes with two plates that fit inside the bowl, and a grill that covers the top of this layer. The middle is just a tube that holds up the second rack. You can use this to do more meat than I usually do, but we can't eat that much without help.

This second picture shows the grill unstacked, so you can see the parts. The foil is an integral part. Although I do not spend a lot of time cleaning, putting in a foil layer in the bottom allows for the removal of the foil after a cooking session, and as gravity rules, most of the mess is in the foil.

So once I have checked to make sure I have a full tank of propane, (I keep two at the house just in case). And I have the foil in the bottom of the cooker, I can start cooking.

But the most important part of the cooking is the preparation of the pork. I have tried many different methods, including vinegar/water marinades, injections with spice mixtures, and rubs. I like to keep things simple, and inexspencive if possible. So I get my spices from the generic sections of the store, and keep them simple as well. I use onion powder, garlic powder, garlic salt, salt, a bulk mix that I get at Sam's and some fresh ground pepper from my pepper mill. The only special mix I use is Kroger's Jerk seasoning. It seems to add just the right bit of sweet.

The other consideration is what kind of cut of pork. Sam's is currently selling loins and tenderloin cuts that are excellent sliced. If you want something more like a pulled pork I recommend a Boston Butt. The extra fat makes helps keep the meat moist when you cook it long enough for the connective tissue to break down, allowing you to pull or separate the pork.

What you see here is a Boston Butt.
I don't use a measure on how much of what. I usually end up with about a cup and a half of rub. Probably something like 1/3 onion powder, 1/3 garlic powder, 1/3 garlic salt, a teaspoon of salt, and a generous grind of pepper. To that I add a teaspoon of the Jerk seasoning. I dry wisk that together to get a good mix. That is what you see here.

Rub this mixture into the meat. To do this spread out some foil on the counter, and put the meat on it. Put a tablespoon on the meat and spread it around. As you rub it on, it will absorb some of the moisture from the meat. That is the secret to this method, I think. The mix on the outside works with the moisture from the meat as it heats up, and helps to season the meat all the way through. It also stays on the outside of the meat, forming something like a crust.

Here you see the meat with the rub applied.

Around this time you want to get the cooker up to heat. I like to cook at about 200 degress indicated, this gives the interior time to catch up with the outside. Your results will vary with the cut of meat, and the condition of your cooker. I understand that another method of doing this requires at least a day and a case of beer. The meat usually cooks for me in about 5 hours for a 3 pound cut.

One thing I can't tell you is how to tell when it is done. I have tried using thermometers, and timing and looking at the juice that runs out. After doing enough of these, there is a certain softness that comes to the whole cut, that lets you know. Another tell tale sign is the bottom of the cut getting good and black. When I started cooking these, I would move them and turn them and I think I was working too hard at it. With the round shape of the cooker, there are not many hotspots. So now is put the cut on and make sure it stays at temperature. I only move it when it is done. And that usually takes a large spatula or two as the meat falls apart.

IU vs Michigan

We got some great seats thanks to our friend Susan. The picture is captured from TV. You can see John Mellencamp next to his wife and our friends Dan and Sue in the back row. IU won and they looked good doing it. Robert Vaden got a certain look in his eye and took the game. Thanks Susan for getting us close.

morning on the square

We had a power shuffle at the office, so I found myself on the square before the sun came up and tried to take a picture. It was dark enough that I could have used a tripod, but did not have one, so I only got one shot out of the 8 I took.