Hammies help the Horsemen with "Relay for Life"...

Last weekend, the American Cancer Society sponsored an event called the Relay for Life. This is a gigantic fund raiser which, from what I can tell, takes place everywhere and comes in many forms -- creativity and imagination being the key. This particular event was sponsored by a group of equestrians (maybe that's too fancy of a name, maybe "cowboys and cowgirls" and "wannabes" more fits the bill) from Shelby County and took the form of what is called a "Poker Ride."

Our amateur radio club, Shelby County Amateur Radio, Emergency Services (SCARES), has provided communication assistance for this for a few years now. Our role is to provide communication at the various checkpoints along the route the riders must travel. We give a pretty quick response to emergency situations, and help with traffic control at the rally points and the road crossings. Each year, different challenges come up and the group has come to rely on our ability to communicate quickly with emergency services providers. This year was no different. It seems a horse either threw a rider or just decided to get out of there, because it was off and running by itself down a pretty busy highway. Our guys were able to track the horse and direct the club members to its location, in a corn field maybe a mile down the road.

My particular station for the past two years had been a crossing which has the riders coming out of a woods, along a trail which this year is flanked by corn, which is about 6' tall. At the end of this little trail, they have to cross a somewhat busy two-lane highway. I get them across when the lanes are clear and stop traffic if I have to. Horses don't really move that fast on these roads, and sometimes they will stop right in the middle. Most of the people in the cars and trucks are cooperative, partly because they want to stop and check out this site of about 20 horses at a time crossing the road. It really does look pretty cool if you are not used to seeing this many horses every day.

The riders each paid a $15 entry fee. When the ride began, they would get a poker card (from a regular deck of playing cards), and would draw one at each of the rally points. At the end of the ride, the people with the best poker hands won the door prizes. The weekend featured a camp out, a cowboy-style dinner, and musical entertainment in the evening. From what I could tell, this was a pretty good, if not occasionally rowdy, fund raiser. I was told that they had over 160 riders!

In my early flying days, we used to do this at our flying club and would set it up at small airports all around the state. It was good flying and lots of fun.

In any event, I know they raised a good bit of money to help fight a pretty insidious illness, and it was our pleasure to assist.

We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell. I choose the latter and that is why we volunteer to help in this way. If we feed our faith, our fears will starve to death.

Hooah

Road Trip Down the Muddy Muskingum...

One of the nice things about being retired and having friends who are also there and share the same interests and background is that you can get together, tell some of the same old stories and no one seems to care that much. They are still funny, and they still bring back memories of times when those things were a bit more important, or so they seemed.

That was the case last week as Dave, Dave, Bob and I got together for our annual golf outing. We went to Zanesville again this year to play Eaglesticks Golf Course, and try to get in our dinner cruise on the Lorena (an old wooden sternwheeler, which is located on the Muskingum River) which was cancelled last year due to insufficient bookings. This year, though, we included our wives in the trip. We had planned to get them together and have them tour the Longaberger Basket plant and the Dresden Village area. However, we found out those things were closed on Wednesdays during the summer -- an impact of the economic downturn, I guess. So, they decided to have lunch at the historic Tom's Ice Cream Bowl in Zanesville, and then go to the Heartstone Pottery plant. They took a tour and then went to the work area where they were able to paint a piece of pottery, which the Heartstone people would then fire and ship to them.

Following a pretty bad round of golf we headed to the boat. The golf was terribly slow -- at times, there were 4 groups on the same hole, and it must have been a holiday I didn't know about because absolutely no one was in any hurry. That kind of play really throws my game off, and after a little over 5 hours and being on only the 14th tee, I figured that was enough!! I picked up and took Dave in so he would be able to get to the boat in time to get it ready for the cruise.

We were on the front deck and had a real nice location when the boat went down the "Muddy Muskingum." It was a very calm ride, with just a little breeze. I may have told you that when I was a kid, we used to live in Zanesville and my dad owned a ski boat which we used to take up and down the river on the weekends. This cruise brought back memories. One of the neat things was that Dave and Bill (the Captain-in-Charge) let Pam drive the boat. She had a great time, ringing the bell and blowing the big horn a few times as she piloted it down the river. The meal they served was very good and really topped off the trip.










The next day, Pam and I drove around to look at all the places where we lived as kids and the apartment we lived in as newlyweds. Everything looked really different. Can't imagine how that happened over the past 40 years. We were also able to get together for lunch with one of Pam's brothers -- Lee. It was good to get together with him. We don't get to spend time with our brothers and sisters often enough...we talk to them, but it's not the same.

One good thing coming out of this trip is that the group plans to get together to play golf in August at Wright Patterson. This should be fun. We'll probably get another round in later this fall.

Yesterday brought the beginning, tomorrow brings the end, and somewhere in the middle we became the best of friends. (Author Unknown)

Hooah

Her people call her "Cow Whisperer"...

Every evening after Bailey is fed and has had her shot, Pam takes her for a walk. I go some of the time, if I'm not off playing golf or fishing or watching the Reds. Walks in the country are usually pretty interesting because you're likely to see all kinds of critters on the way -- most alive, some dead. Every once in a while, Pam will tell me she saw a deer running through the wheat fields. Lately, there have been lots of rabbits seen going in and out of the corn and bean fields. I sometimes marvel at their brazen indifference to the presence of Bailey. In the old days, she would have been barking, straining at the leash to chase them off thru the fields. It's like they know she can't see them anymore and they are flaunting their new-found freedom.

Another group of "critters" we usually run into is the new group of baby cows at the farm just down the road. Pam has taken to stopping and talking to them each night. The babies even come from the other side of the lot to see her when she comes down the road. They aren't all that sure what that brown thing on the end of that leash is, but they certainly recognize Pam. She'll go over to the fence and talk to them, hold out her hand and let them lick it, and let her rub their heads. Sometimes, they even knock each other out of the way to get in front of her. It gets comical at times. And then, something will spook them and off they will go in a gallop. Kind of like a little stampede.

I suppose anyone who doesn't understand the curious nature of baby cows would think all of this was strange. Like she has some "gift" for communicating with animals. I think she's starting to get the nickname "Cow Whisperer."

When the pressure of a complex world thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the country; and when I hear the cows heralding the onset of a colorful sunset, a cool evening, my cares fall from me - I am happy.

Hooah

BEWARE: Junior High Kids camping out...

Last Sunday night, we had a group of junior high students from the church youth group here to camp out. The senior high students went to a site down the road about 3 miles, and the younger ones came here. I'm not sure if this was advertised as a camping adventure in the wild north country or what, but they came.

As usual, the winds were whipping around when they got here, which made it quite an adventure -- junior high kids trying to put up tents. You know the expression, "trying to herd cats," well that really fit the first hour or so. They were having fun just checking everything out. Fortunately the adult chaperons recognized the situation and decided to help. I did suggest that it might be easier to set up the tents if they used the pine trees as wind blocks. As well as you know me, you know I would have had them lining up those tents in a straight line ("dress right, dress") and that campsite running at peak military efficiency. RRRRIIIIIGHT!!! Remember, these are junior high cats!!! They don't do Dress right, Dress.

Well, the tents were finally up, and it was time to swim. They had this part down pretty well and they really seemed to enjoy it. One of them asked in passing if there were fish in the pond and I said there were some. That same person then asked if they were big and I said some of them were very big. Since they didn't ask the last question -- "Do they eat people?"-- I didn't say anything about the last group that swam here. Besides, that's still under investigation (ha, ha). They were really having a good time. My neighbor was having a group of his high school friends over to their pool and they were having a pretty good time too in the nicer clear pool water with the diving board and the rock music being pounded in from the speakers of one of their cars. I suppose that's OK if you like that sort of thing. Give me a green pond, a dock and the possibility of being eaten by fish anytime.

The kids then got into some fishing, although I didn't think they would be very lucky after just inflicting more commotion and unrest in the pond than had been done in years. But, they did catch some bass, bluegills and a few crappies. One of the bass was quite big, and one of the crappies was over 12 inches. They did a pretty good job of baiting their own hooks and taking the fish off without killing them. Of course, being junior high boys, they had to outfish the girls and show them who was the best at this.

When I was president of the Sidney Pilots Association, one of the rules for planning meetings and outings was "Bring food and they will come." These sponsors obviously subscribed to that as they had plenty to feed the kids. I did cook the hot dogs on the grill for them, but they had everything else under control. Two of the sponsors got everything all fixed up in the kitchen and everyone had plenty to eat.

The boys tried their hand at fishing again before dark and gave it another go at swimming. Then it was time to put a fire in the fire ring and they sat around the fire, sang campfire songs and told some ghost stories. It was cooling off quite nicely, so I knew their sleep on the ground would be good. Pam, Bailey and I certainly had a good night's sleep in our bedroom, on our soft bed!! One of the boys wanted to know if they were allowed to get up early to fish again, and I told them early fishing started at 0530. They said they would be up. Sure enough, they were walking out of their tents at the crack of 0900. So much for the early fishing. Even the adults were up before the kids, sitting by the pond enjoying some quiet time. Now all the kids had time for was some juice and donuts before heading back to their houses and, probably, some more sack time.


All in all, I think everyone had a good time, even the chaperons who were probably not used to sleeping outdoors on the hard ground. Fortunately they didn't have to go to work the next day. I s'pect they've done this before. I know Pam and I and Bailey had fun sharing our place with them.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. (e.e. cummings)

Hooah

Ham radio Field Day...

Ham radio is one of my hobbies, one which really came about in 1990 because a communications sergeant tried to tell me it was of no value to the unit for him to go to the field with us because the equipment we had didn't work. At that time I didn't know any better, but I suspected he was flat out lying and I couldn't prove it. That bothered me, so I took up the hobby, took the classes to get licensed, and then scheduled another field exercise. I told that sergeant to get all his gear packed up in his trailer and get in the convoy line-up. Following the usual line of excuses and my direct order, he complied. When we got to the field, he again told me the equipment wouldn't work, especially the antennas. I then showed him my brand new FCC license, and pointed to where I wanted the antenna sited. The look on his face was priceless. To make matters worse, I then took an hour of my time to show him how to hook up all the equipment and how to connect the balky antenna. Needless to say, he was impressed. Furthermore, now that he knew he could never give me any more trouble about communications and field duty, our commo got quite good.

I've enjoyed being involved in amateur radio over the years and have even upgraded my license to General Class. With the higher level licenses one can do so much more. You also get to meet some pretty interesting guys and participate in some fun things as well as some valuable community service events. And that leads me to the subject of Ham Radio Field Day. This annual 24-hour contest, which was held this past weekend, is one in which Hams simulate operations during a natural disaster and try to make as many "contacts" as possible. Benchmarks clubs try to achieve are (at a minimum) -- contacts in all 50 states, at least one contact in each Canadian province, at least one contact in the various island locations (V.I., Puerto Rico, etc.) and then other countries, if possible.

The contest is broken down into various categories of operation: field locations, fixed locations, commercial power, emergency power (generators and batteries only), and mobile operations. Teams get different kinds of points for different kinds of contacts, and double points for contacts done thru Morse Code.

Guys work a few hours at a time and get to use all their skills at tweaking that hard-to-hear distant station. I worked a total of 7 hours and was hitting it for about one contact every two minutes for about an hour or so. Grant (right picture, N8KZL)the president of the club, said the goal of the really good guys is 2 contacts per minute, so I've got some work to do yet. In any event, I was proud of the time I spent, especially since I did get a contact with some island out by Hawaii. I didn't get to think about it very long as Grant said "keep going."

Our club does real well in this contest. Grant said it was because of the amount of really good equipment, and the kind and quality of our antennas. We've got some real smart guys who really know about this kind of stuff. I'm kind of a rookie in this arena, so I've got a ways to go to earn my pocket protector.

Every time I turn on the power to my Icom 735 and start tuning the dial, I wonder who I'll be talking to, what their story is, their experiences in life, their expectations. I wonder what they look like, do we have anything in common other than this hobby. I marvel at my ability to travel by air waves into the living rooms and radio shacks of people I will never know otherwise. To enjoy ham radio requires a spirit of adventure, a creative mind and an adventurously open mind.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. (Mark Twain)

Hooah