Concert day

Today I went to the Library again, and since I couldn't take out any books, I photographed the ones I wanted to read, so I can read them on my computer. I found this great photo of Alfred A Knopf and his wife, Blanche:

Alfred A Knopf and Blanche Wolf Knopf

I am particularly interested in this book on The Mythic West by Robert Athearn. Knopf hated Athearn's writing, but this is a really interesting study of the whole concept of "The West" and how it has shaped our understanding of the nation.

This evening we went to the Colorado Music Festival Concert at the Chautauqua Auditorium. It was a great program - with the theme of "Trading Places: From Paris to New York." All the music had an America-France connection.  It opened with Bernstein's Candide Overture, then Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, followed by George Antheil's Jazz Symphony. The pianist was Marc-Andre Hamelin - who was outstanding, and so was the orchestra, conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni. The second half was Milhaud's A Frenchman in New York and the evening ended with a rousing American in Paris by Gershwin.  A very enjoyable concert. We had very good seats - Betsey used her wheel chair and that put us in a special area with good views of the pianist and conductor and especially the percussion section, which was very busy in this concert!

The auditorium is a marvelous pavilion going back to the old Chautauqua days, with sides that open up and a high ceiling. A very nice venue.

The Chautauqua Auditorium

Jean-Marie Zeitoni

Mark-Andre Hamelin

Inside the Auditorium tonight before the concert started

Wednesday report

Today, Ellen and I got up in fairly good season and I got my breakfast smoothie made before Emma and Betsey came downstairs. We both got showered and Ellen got some wash in, we said "Hi" to Betsey and Emma, and went into Boulder.

Emma fixing breakfast for Betsey

We went to our favorite stop first, Alfalfa's Market, for a coffee and scone, and then I went to the main library of the University of Colorado: Norlin Library. My thought was that this was a chance to look up some things relating to Frederick B. Tolles' manuscript that I normally do not have easy access to:  e.g., some books by the other four authors in the 5-volume series he was writing Vol. 1 for, plus, a couple of books by a Univ. of Colorado history prof, Robert Athearn,  whom Alfred A. Knopf absolutely panned as a writer (back in 1959). I wanted to get a sense of whether Knopf's criticisms were just.

Norlin Library is huge. It took me a while to get oriented and then decide where I wanted to settle in. I ended up in the stacks on level 3B at a table near several of the books I was looking for. Boy, I could have easily just gotten totally absorbed there. I love libraries, especially the stacks. It's like you're surrounded by an almost infinite number of universes just begging to be explored.

I found six books: (1) Walter Johnson's How We Drafted Adlai Stevenson; (2) a collection of essays honoring Kenneth Stampp, titled New Perspectives on Race and Slavery; (3) and (4) two books by Athearn, In Search of Canaan: Black Migration to Kansas, 1879-80 and The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America; (5) a book by Thomas Cochran, The Great Depression and World War II;  and (6) The House of Knopf, 1915-1960, which I hope may give me an overview of the kind of publishing house Alfred A.Knopf was running. I dipped into all six, spent a bit more time with Athearn and Johnson. Knopf was actually very critical of the writing style of both of these historians. I found their writing quite engaging. The book on black migration to Kansas during the Reconstruction period looks especially interesting. But the opening of Athearn's The Mythic West, in which he describes his boyhood in Montana, was riveting. And Johnson's first-hand account of how Adlai Stevenson got drafted as the Democratic nominee for President in 1952 is really fascinating, especially in light of our current political campaigns. Johnson was co-chair of the committee that drafted Stevenson, so it's written from the trenches. I hope I get to read these books, but I can't take them out as a non-UofC person (maybe I can use Rob's borrowing privileges). I was able to leave them on a 24-hour shelf so they'll be there when I go back tomorrow.

Walter Johnson

Robert Athearn

 I walked from Norlin Library to the College of Engineering where I was to meet Ellen at 1:30p.m. It turned out she had had a sort of frustrating time of it, including having the iPhone do what it has often done for me - the screen suddenly "blows up," i.e., everything gets many times its normal size, and you can't get it to function. So she couldn't call to tell me she would be late. But it all worked out - she was there in time to get Betsey at 2 p.m., and we came home and Betsey rested, Ellen ironed, and I grilled chicken for dinner. Rob had a dinner meeting so it was just the three of us, and we had a delicious meal of chicken with peanut noodles and all the trimmings! After dinner we binged on season 5 of Downton Abbey which Betsey had recorded ages ago but not actually seen. We had a good time!

Tuesday report

Today, Emma came at about 8:00a.m., and did everything that's needed in the morning: helping Betsey get dressed, fixing breakfast and taking Betsey to work. We stepped out of our bedroom to say hello, but mainly laid low until everyone had left. I was feeling just tired enough to welcome a quiet morning. I fixed my breakfast and came back to bed, and worked on my "Olga and  Barney" project.

I'm creating a photo album with narrative about my parents' lives. I'm at the stage of collecting photographs of mom and dad from the huge archive I have in iPhoto on my computer. I'm amazed how many I have - about 100 or more - but they are scattered through a total of about 12,000 photos I have on my hard drive. So I'm doing a lot of seeking and dragging. It's so easy to create a hardcover book, though -  you just put the photos into a file, arrange them in the order you want (basically chronologically in this case), click "create" and bingo! You've got a book on your computer. You can then add text, design each page and rearrange the pictures as you wish. When everything is to your liking, you click "buy" and a few days later the actual book shows up in your mailbox (that's the one on your house, not your computer). I've done this twice so far - about Ellen's father and Shirley's parents. It's quite satisfying. And of course, I'm still working on Ellen's father's manuscript project and the 1955 era letters to Katie project. Plenty to keep me occupied. 

Here are a couple of photos that will be in the album:

 

The house my mother was born in, at 36 Steinstrasse, Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Her family lived on the second floor in the back.

Amazingly, the Assel family, who owned the building, were still living there in 

1945 when my father (who was a chaplain in WW 2) visited here right after 

Kaiserslautern was occupied by the Allied armies, and they welcomed him warmly.  

My mother as a teenager in Canton, OH, where her family settled after emigrating to the U.S. in 1910

While I rested and "worked" in bed, Ellen went shopping for dinner. When she got back, I made myself lunch and then drove to Louisville  - about 20 miles - to pick up a repaired folding shade for Rob. The ropes that adjust the shade on the window over our bed had broken and been repaired. After that I went to Rite Aid to get a prescription refill and came home. Rob and Betsey interviewed a possible PCA late this afternoon, and then we ate the lovely dinner Ellen had prepared - a recipe requested by Betsey - corn chile over baked sweet potato. After supper and cleanup, Rob and i re-attached the shade, and then Ellen and I took a stroll. 

                                         The repaired shade. 

Tomorrow, the morning schedule will be the same as today, but we'll be picking Betsey up at work and bringing her home. And Ellen will cook again. 

Good bye and hello

On Monday we left Alpine and drove to Boulder. We said our teary goodbyes to Paul, Jenny and Max, and our cheery hellos to Rob and Betsey. We got up pretty early Monday morning - early for us - and did our final packing of the car which I had begun on Sunday. We also stripped the bed, and did some basic cleaning. Paul and Jenny went off to work, Hannah arrived to be with Max, and when all was packed, we slipped away. One last item we took that we had not brought was Ellen's dulcimer which she had left with Paul when she had moved back East from Jackson some 16 years ago. Could it have been that long? I guess so, because it was Ben's birth that brought her back, and I think he's sixteen now. So it is now wrapped in a blanket on top of everything else.

The packed car - that's the dulcimer on top of the blue suitcase. A lot of stuff!

We ate breakfast at the Coffee Cabin and we were on our way by 9:30 or so.

The Coffee Cabin

It's about a 540-mile drive to Boulder. Up through the canyon to Hoback, then over through Bondurant (tiny), Pinedale (bigger) where we stopped to mail cards, stopped at the Sublette County Visitor's Center where Ellen found nice post cards, and went to the Library for WiFi (the award-winning building was designed by Carney Architects when Ellen worked for them). 

Pinedale Library exterior

Library interior - main reading room

 Then on to Rock Springs,  where we stopped at a Taco Time - I had a taco salad; Ellen her usual rice and beans - then on to I-80 east across southern Wyoming to Cheyenne and down I-25 to Boulder. I read aloud from Arthur Ransome's Great Northern, we listened to a Guilford church service on tape - July 2, 1989 - Shirley preached on the theme of "God is the potter and we are the clay" from Jeremiah. She had visited a local potter's studio and learned a lot about what it's like to work the clay on the wheel. The potter - Ruth Tillman Osborne - told her that when all goes well, the clay "sings." Shirley liked that. Ruth also gave the church a vase she had made and that became the center of the children's story in which Shirley actually involved the children in working with clay! 

Ruth Tillman Osborne's Vase

The reading and the listening (and in my case some dozing) helped the miles speed by. We got a supper-snack at a Flying-J truck stop south of Cheyenne and arrived at the Shay's at 7:45 p.m., just 15 minutes later than the estimated ETA we had made on Sunday. Not bad! 

Our first week here, Emma, a PCA who is the daughter of Betsey's energy healer, Lyria Pascal, will still be helping out mornings, so our work will be lighter. More on that later. 

A working Sunday

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. I did go to church this morning, but Paul and Jenny had not returned from their rafting trip so Ellen stayed home with Max. Pastor Alan was in good form. The theme was, "The bread of life," and once again the basic message was simple: we are fed so that we can feed others. Everything we receive is intended to be given away. That is one of Alan's gifts: you can explain the message of his sermon in a few simple words. I can learn from that. And he always has at least one very personal, memorable story that illustrates his theme.

I came home, had a bite to eat, and set to work breaking the Sabbath! My first job was to completely empty out the car. No small task. Then I drove to the car wash (self-serve) and thoroughly vacuumed and then washed the car. Then I drove to a shady spot and thoroughly wiped down the exterior with a chamois and cleaned all interior surfaces with Armorall wipes. Then I came back and reloaded the car. It looks nice. Meanwhile, Ellen is doing several loads of wash. All of this, of course, because we are leaving in the morning. My hoarseness seems to have cleared up. Maybe it was some kind of allergy. So we will be in Boulder tomorrow night. 

Paul and Jenny have returned and they are unpacking, drying, putting away. Max has a friend, Caleb, he is playing with. It's a busy place. 

           Star Valley United Church sanctuary:  It was full this morning. 

Pastor Alan Schoonover making an announcement at the coffee hour after church. 

The two youngest and by far the cutest members of the congregation. They are twins. 

Trip to Idaho Falls

We always make at least one trip to Idaho Falls with Max while we are visiting in Alpine. This time we hadn't as yet, but today, Paul and Jenny took off for a two-day raft and camping trip on the Snake. They are  going to put in below the Palisades reservoir dam, pull over tonight at a campground, and continue on tomorrow to a pull-out farther downstream (not sure just where). Ellen and I are looking after Max. This seemed like a good day for a trip to Idaho Falls. So we said goodbye to Jenny and Paul - with a loaded truck (amazing what you need for just a two-day rafting and camping trip), and took off ourselves a bit later.

                                  The loaded truck! 

                   Goodbye Jenny and Paul! Have a good time!

It's about 75 miles to Idaho Falls, so it takes almost an hour and a half to get there. I read aloud part of the way from the second Harry Potter book, but I was having a lot of trouble with hoarseness. Don't know where that came from. Our first stop in Idaho Falls was Max's first choice - a new Cabela's outlet, brand new in fact. It is a hunting and fishing outfitter's store. Huge. Max had seen a catalog, so he knew what he was looking for.  I have never been inside a store like it. After the recent incident of the Minnesota big-game hunting dentist luring a much-loved lion, Cecil, out of a protected area and shooting him, it was disturbing to see video games for kids being sold that involve shooting big game animals - including lions - on their TV. Max is drawn to guns and knives at this age. It's a big part of the culture in this area, and it's probably all the boys at his school talk about. I hope he outgrows it. Without being too heavy-handed about it, we expressed our opposition to guns. Our sole purchase at Cabela's was a bag of freshly roasted cashews. 

From there we went to Five Guys, where Max loves the fries, and then to Barnes & Noble's.  Ellen had promised Max he could pick out one comic book. He took his time and chose a Minnions comic book, with all pictures. No text. Not a bad choice. (Minnions is currently a popular animated movie). 

Navigating the current cultural world of a seven-year-old boy is challenging for these oldsters who think nostalgically about what feels now like our more innocent childhood. But then I need to remember my fascination, not with guns (though I had a beebe gun) but with German and Japanese war planes. I had an enemy plane spotting manual at an age just a little older than Max (I was ages 8-13 during WW 2), and spent hours drawing pictures of P-38's shooting down Jap Zeroes and German Messerschmidts. It feels different but maybe it wasn't. 

From B&N's we went to I-Jump. A very big bouncy-house! I watched Max while Ellen looked for yarn. Max had lots of fun, though he is good for only about 45 minutes at most. He likes running up a steep slide and sliding down. But 

his favorite is like being at the pool - doing a flip, not into water, but into a sea of foam cubes. But you can do that just so many times and it begins to get old. 

                        Top of the slide! 

                               Bounce, bounce, bounce

                         Flipping into the foam

You can watch your child in every area by means of TV monitors. Max is in the lower left monitor. 

After I-Jump we came home. An additional purchase at B&N's had been a new Lego kit! Ellen was going to send him one after we left, but agreed to get it now. Max couldn't wait to get home to start working on it. So home we came. I read in the car again, but was even more hoarse. I'm still hoarse tonight. This could raise issues for going to Boulder on Monday. Betsey doesn't want any germs in the house. Her immune system is zip at this point. I sure hope it clears up tomorrow! We'll see! 

Rafting down the Snake River

Friday we had a great time rafting down the Snake River. We took a section that had no rapids to speak of. We put in just below Hoback Jct., at the Pritchard Boat Ramp and took out downstream at the Elbow, that point in Alpine Canyon where the Snake river turns sharply west. We were on the river almost two hours. It was a beautiful day, sunny, but not too hot. The only fly in the ointment, so to speak, was that when we were pumping up the raft, Paul discovered a pin-hole leak in the floor of the raft. This meant that on the water, the floor was very spongy and water came in. It didn't prevent the raft from floating because it is held up by four side compartments, it was just sort of a bummer. However, part way into the trip I realized that the pump port was right at my feet, and that I could actually pump up the floor compartment and then keep it pumped up by working the pump now and then to keep ahead of the leak. Once I had figured that out, the trip was more pleasant for everyone, and not that much of a hassle for me. So we had a great time.

We went into the river at about 3:30 p.m. and got out at about 5:30 or so. There were logistics involved, of course. We met Paul in our car at Elbow. He had the raft and everything in his truck. We left our car at Elbow and all went to Pritchard in his truck, put in the raft and floated to Elbow. Then I stayed at Elbow and deflated the raft while Paul and Ellen drove back to Pritchard in our car, and then they both came back to Elbow, in car and truck, we loaded everything into the truck and came home. Afterward Paul treated us to supper at a very nice restaurant called the Yellowstone Garage which is just a couple of miles from Paul's house, and a very nice restaurant it is!

Here are some scenes from our trip:

We all took turns st the pump. Here is Ellen taking hers.

Paul manipulated the oars to keep us in the channel and avoid rocks

The river was fairly swift in places, placid in others

The scenery along the river was gorgeous

 

We went by the Snake River Sporting Club facility where Jenny works as Membership Director

We went by a fly fisherman and waved but he didn't wave back.Maybe he thought we were scaring away the trout

The ducks were unperturbed by our passing

The Yellowstone Garage dining room. Great food!