Does the 12th Iman = the antlchrist?

Just who is this 12th Iman that is expected by some Muslims? Is he the Antichrist? There are a lot of parallels. Think about it - I am!

Interesting foods

Nancy and I enjoy trying different foods, so when we see these, for us, exotic things in a grocery store there is a temptation to buy them (usually resisted, though). When in the south we keep seeing various Hispanic foods, some looking interesting, some not so much. Having no idea what most are or how to prepare them, though, we seldom pick any of them up. Recently we were looking at some roots and decided to make the plunge. We picked up a Jicama, a Yucca, and a Malinga root. It turns out that the Jicama is normally eaten raw and we found it to be quite tasty. We were told that it can also be cooked and stays rather crisp, much like the chestnut in Chinese cooking. We were told the other two were boiled like a potato, so that is what Nancy did. We found both to be very bland and almost tasteless. The Malinga had a bit more taste than the Yucca, but our curiosity being satisfied I think we will stick to potatoes. The texture of both is rather interesting. The Malinga has a texture much like well cooked beans rather than the somewhat grainy potato texture. I would have to say the Yucca is best described as very soft with no texture at all - almost like boiled okra, although not that bad! When the cost (over $1.00/lb) of these is factored in we will henceforth stick with good old American potatoes and rice - at least until we see something else that looks interesting. The only thing that we might possibly buy again would be Jicama.

Loss of an old friend

Today was a sad, yet exciting day as we learned of the passing of an old friend, Stella Whitehouse, on Tuesday, Feb 1. Stella was 91, and has been looking forward to the day she can meet her Lord and Savior in person. Now she has. Last summer we were informed that Stella had less than 24 hours to live, so we rushed over to the hospital to say our goodbyes. What did we find? Not what one would expect of a "dying" person to be sure! She was sitting up in bed, as excited as we have ever seen her at the prospect of finally meeting Jesus. With this attitude it is hard to mourn her passing, even though we may miss her. We had an enjoyable hour or maybe two reminiscing about various memories.  Stella had been dealing with a form of Leukemia for perhaps 20 years, and was no longer producing red blood cells. Supposedly, the only thing keeping her alive was blood transfusions and she had told the doctors that she wanted no more of those. Of course, the 24 hours went by with her still alive, then she improved to the point that she was released from the hospital and went home. The old New Englanders just do not die easily!

Who was Stella? For many years she had been the head secretary of the Plant Science Department. I was not in that department, but when I joined the University of New Hampshire faculty I was informed that if I wanted anything from that department I would have to go through Stella! Not really true, but that was her reputation. If she had been a man she may have been considered a curmudgeon, but that is not really a fair description. A curmudgeon is usually thought of as an ill-tempered (and frequently old) person full of stubborn ideas or opinions. Stella was not ill tempered, but she did not easily suffer foolishness. Her stubborn side was not misplaced because it was based on correctness - some based on years as a secretary and some from being a long time New Englander. She was never reluctant to correct someone who was in the wrong, be it with manners or grammer. I was once chastised for not removing my hat upon entering a building, and I am sure I was no the only one ever receiving this chastisement. Misquote a bible verse and you would usually be corrected and be given the reference if you needed it. Mispronounce a word and it would be corrected. Misuse the English grammar and you would be corrected. It could sometimes be irritating, but mainly because you knew you were wrong and just didn't like being corrected. One of our mutual friends had a rather serious stroke, almost dying. He has had a long road back, but his brain generally works fine - he just cannot easily get his thoughts into words. Interestingly, in her presence he only needed to speak a few words and she could usually finish his sentence.

Goodbye Stella. Many will miss you, but mourn your departure we cannot do. We can celebrate your homecoming with you, though. Enjoy yourself and bask in the glow of the Lord's presence. We will meet again by and by, and you can continue to correct our grammar for eternity!

Transition time

Right now we are sitting at Lazy Days RV (near Tampa) while a couple problems left over from December get taken care of + a couple of new ones that cropped up. We left the great campground east of Fort Myers yesterday and are headed for the NC/SC border where, for the next two months, we will be working at a Christian camp a few miles east of Interstate 95. We hate to leave southern Florida, and hope it will not be too cold where we are going. At least the big storm crossing the country is apparently not coming that far south. As has been our practice we spent January volunteering at ECHO in North Fort Myers. I spent the month trying to get their on-line bookstore straightened out. Probably a third of the books in inventory were not on line. I was unable to complete the task, but should be able to continue the work in my free time. I don't know what is facing us at the NC camp, but whatever the task it will be physical, not mental.

On the Road

When my wife and I bought our first motorhome we were thinking in terms of a trip to Alaska, but events the following two summers prevented such a trip. In the mean time I had run across a journal kept by George, the second cousin of my GreatGreat Grandfather, during his trip from Omaha to Marysville, California, in 1864. Since we did have a bit of free time that summer we decided to follow the same trail as best we could and take pictures of what he described. This was a very interesting and enlightening trip, but when we returned home we totaled up our costs and realized that it was a pretty expensive trip in diesel fuel alone. Then looking at a map we realized that, distance wise, we were only half way to Alaska. At this point we pretty much gave up that idea - at least driving there. It would probably be less expensive to fly, particularly since I have a first cousin in Anchorage who has invited us to stay with them.

Back to the California trip: As we went along we stopped at museums and accumulated knowledge about the California trail. Interestingly, several times more people went to California than went to Oregon, yet much more has been written about the Oregon Trail than about the California Trail. The two diverged at the northeast corner of Nevada, with the California Trail heading southwest along the Humbolt River.  Upon seeing the Humbolt River Samuel Clemens (He had not yet adoped his pen name, Mark Twain) wrote in "Roughing it" that one could jump across the river until tired then drink it dry. George commented in his journal that it was somewhat less impressive than a creek back home in Ohio. While much was recorded concerning the gold rush to California, we found very little written about the California Trail after about 1754. The trail had changed a couple of times by 1864 and George followed the road which had been laid out by the Pony Express, and by 1864 had been purchased and used by the Overland Stage. This was some 200 miles closer than the original California Trail, but no less hazardous to travelers. Many travelers kept journals, but George's journal is one of the best. His is the only journal known which recorded camping one night alongside a group traveling using dromedarys - which greatly frightened his mules. The little group got a late start from Omaha and found themselves in the middle of Nevada on the anniversary of the Donner Party's entrapment by a snowstorm atop the Sierra Nevada range. You can almost feel his anxiety, but the decision was made to press on, and fortunately snow came a bit later than year so they made it through.

I mentioned that George had traveled a route shorter than the earlier California Trail. His path departed from the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger in southwest Wyoming. He followed a new road in a canyon south of Echo Canyon (which was used by most earlier travelers) then through a canyon now used by Interstate 80 and down into Salt Lake City. From there the Overland Stage Road went south and skirted the Great Salt Desert, traveling from water hole to water hole. Finally, they crossed the Sierras via the Hennis Pass Road, rather than the Donner Pass. By 1864 the Hennis Pass Road had been developed as a toll road for freighting supplied to the Nevada mines. During our trip we traveled much of this road east of the pass, finding it well traveled and partially paved. In a subsequest trip to California we traveled western slope of the road. It became worse and worse as we climbed. Reaching a small settlement high in the mountains we decided it was time to head back down to a paved road! On the way down we met a fellow coming up pulling a boat. After stopping to talk a bit we squeezed by hoping our tires would not slip off the side - it was a long way down!

Upon returning home I felt that George's journal really needed to be published, which I did along with my comments on what we had found.

Introductory ramblings

As anyone who has been to college knows, a professor is never at loss for words and is always ready to share his great and wonderful wisdom. I have been too busy to blog, but I guess it is about time since I no longer have a captive audience that has to listen to me if they want to pass the next exam. Actually, I retired in 1999 - hard to believe it has been that long already. Many have said they are busier in retirement than they were when working. It is true! But there are several reasons for this:
1) Once retired you only do what you enjoy doing and everyone knows time passes rapidly when doing something enjoyable.
2) Face it: very few people retire when they are young and full of energy. It just takes longer to do things and the older you get the longer it takes. But who cares!
3) Most importantly you need to factor in at least one nap a day.

What have I been doing to occupy my time? Well let's see. I have always wanted to develop my skill as a photographer, and I have done a bit of that. Not as much as I would like, though - I just have not had the time. Like many old codgers, I became interested in my family and that just grew an I began to collect information about my widely extended family. My father's fifth cousin did a lot of work on the family and starting with this I ended up producing a thousand page book on the descendants of my ancestor who arrived in this country in 1749 (I think). Then I discovered an organization called ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) which my wife and I volunteer at least a month per year. When I retired we bought a motorhome and began to travel. Then we discovered Mobile Missionary Assistance Program (MMAP) and decided this was for us. We now volunteer with this organization four months per year, arriving on a project the first Friday of the month and work the next three weeks for the organization. We travel in our motorhome and have worked for churches or Christian camps most of the time, doing anything from maintenance  to renovations to new construction. The projects are expected to supply full hookups for our RVs so this makes travel just a bit less expensive.

Well, that is about enough rambling for an introduction, so will sign off.