May 31, 2005 Memorial Day

Today is a holiday honoring those who gave their lives in defense of the United States. Today is also a day of rememberence. I can't visit the graves of my parents today since the site is 2500 miles away. Clayton Yanagisako, a cousin of mine, who was close to my parents and shared my Mom's love of plants and flowers, emailed me that he would bring flowers to my parent's grave today. Thoughtful.

Some people think that once a person passes away they are gone and tears and money shouldn't be spent over them. Others pay their respect to those that have passed and remember them. I should think that a memorial service is that last public gesture of respect by the living to the departed. After the service, private and personal gestures of respect are maintained by loved ones and those to whom the departed had meaning.

It is appropriate that the government established this one day to honor not only those who defended this country, but for all that have died.

I put the United States Flag on its bracket outside the house this morning. As I looked around the street, there were a few flags about, much less than during the 4th of July.

As a veteran I wanted to show that I had respect to those that died serving our country and I honor their memory.

Memorial Day weekend

I had planned to go into the Mohave Desert to do some plinking with friend Ernie. I haven't fired my M93 Savage in .17 HMR nor the M1994 Winchester in .357 Mag, the replacement for my old 30/30 which has been retired to the fireplace mantle as yet.

Instead, I am heading to Hawaii to attend a memorial service for my sister-in-law that died after being hit by a car 3 months ago. I am tasked to write a eulogy for Phyllis Kakesako Matsuda who died on May 21, 2005 at the age of 64 years.

So this weekend, instead of plinking out in the desert (where it is finally cooling down after an unusual heat wave) I will be plinking on my notebook computer preparing a speech. So I spend my Memorial Day writing a memorial speech.

Phyllis had a hard life. Her generation grew up sort of in between the baby boomer and the previous "greatest generation". In Hawaii, many of her contemporaries worked blue collar jobs after high school. College wasn't considered except for a small minority. The public schools in Hawaii weren't the best for college prep and probably still isn't. The teachers tried, but the cream of the crop teachers worked the pricy private schools to which many of the more affluent families in Hawaii sent their children.

So there wasn't a professional class that addressed issues in the public school system to pressure for better education for their children. The parents of the public school kids were just happy that their kids could attend high school, unlike themselves. They never challenged the authority of the school administration to demand better courses and teachers. The professional class didn't care about "public schools".

Phyllis was a product of an inferior school system that graduated non-college capable students who entered the blue collar trades after high school. Denied a good high school education, she just entered "beauty school" so to get a job doing the hair of affluent women who went to private schools and graduated from college, marrying well and living affluently.

Years of working people's hair, then as a stocker for SEARS, she could never afford the luxury of even owning a car, and was able to buy her condo in a congested area only with the financial help of her Mom. The congested area was her doom as she was hit while crossing a busy street, in a marked crosswalk, by an inattentive driver.

How do you celebrate the life of a person that lived in the margins of society? She had a marginal life and she wasn't happy, was never able to take trips or vacations except for 2 instances in 30 or 40 years. One to visit my family twenty years ago, and the last time when she attended her niece's graduation from Vet School. So this Memorial Day, I will be plinking away writing a memorial speech.

Life and Death and Another Day in Paradise

Weather projections call for temperatures as high as 93 degrees F today or 84 degrees. Regardless, it is supposed to be warm, if not hot. Earthquake weather! (A bad thing to say in California)

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law who was hit by a uninsured car driven by an out of town visitor in Hawaii three months ago, hovers at death's door. She was walking in a marked crosswalk when the driver, unfamiliar with the area slammed into her while moving at speeds above the speed limit. Experiencing multiple injuries from broken legs, hips, ribs and arm, along with a fractured spine and skull, she never regained much consciousness in the past three months and is now experiencing multiple organ failure along with a lung infection from being bedridden for so long.

She is dying. Her only fault was that she did not drive so she used the excellent public transportation system that the City and County of Honolulu provides. The problem with public transportation (buses) is that you sometimes need to cross the street to catch a bus. Crosswalks aren't armored safety zones that a pedestrian may rely on to protect them from the wayward or inattentive driver, as my sister-in-law found out. Often there are inattentive pedestrians interacting with inattentive drivers, since I know most people will not knowlingly walk in front of a moving car nor will a driver deliberately mow down a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

This was an accident. Mostly likely the converging of two inattentive persons with horrible results.

Outside my window it is a beautiful day as only sunny California can be. Almost like Hawaii, blue skies, white puffy clouds, and the sounds of birds and unending distant traffic. It is sad to realize that a few seconds of inattention three months ago is causing a human being to lose her life. I think when it is my time to die, it will be a beautiful day in sunny California, and in Hawaii, surfers will be heading out for the beaches and life will go on without noticing the ebbing spark of one human life. Like today.

Downhill against a Headwind

This past sunday Ernie and I met at the Irvine, City Hall park and headed to Newport Beach along the San Diego Creek bike trail. The creek flows to the ocean, actually the Newport Beach, Back Bay, so since the bike trail followed the creek, the ride would be easy, all downhill, right? Wrong.

It wasn't easy due to a strong headwind blowing in from the Ocean. It was hard pedaling to keep moving and we struggled against the wind, I guess, due to our middle age girth! I weigh about 175 on a 5'10" frame and Ernie about 160 on a 5'8" frame. We aren't wide! However, the wind made a difference in the distance we managed to ride. We got to the Pacific Coast Highway and the ferry to Balboa Island was a short mile away. However, we were pooped out! So we turned around and headed back.

Going back was easy! The slow elevation climb was nothing since we had that previously pesky headwind pushing us along. Barely had to pedal. About a mile to the park we stopped for coffee at a bakery on Harvard & Main and sat there with coffee and a peanut butter cookie and talked as old men do.

Ernie wants to go back to visit Viet Nam and see places where he was stationed. He belongs to a vets organization that all served in Viet Nam and I told him that he should arrange a tour with his organization. He asked if I would be interested, and I said no. I didn't serve there as he did, having being stuck in the continental U.S.A. as a "remf" or "jody" (long story).

He also wanted to go back to England where he also had a tour and asked if I was interested. I said I was, but not with him since two old vets would certainly get into trouble running around that country. We should take the wives....well that put a damper on any travel. End of Subject.

We eventually made it back to the park and made tentative plans to head out to the Mohave Desert to do some plinking. Ernie is an old cowboy (he wears cowboy boots to work) and has an old Colt .45 single action revolver. I gave up revolvers years ago and prefer a Sig Saur P220 .45 or my Glock M36 .45. But we have .45s in common. So maybe plinking is in the works the next time we get together.

Death of a HP LaserJet 5L

A few years after I purchased this printer I noticed that while printing, the printer would grab gobs of paper sheets and would jam. I thought that it was the cheapo paper I was using so I purchased LASER printer paper. It helped, but not by much. After another few years, the printer now about 7 years old, I learned from HP that the printer was defective and if I sent in the bar code and a copy of the sales slip, I would get a $10 break on a new HP printer! Like I kept the paperwork after all these years!

I purchased the HP printer due to the then excellent reputation of HP's products. I also purchased several inkjet printers for the kids in college and for my color prints. Even my office provided me a HP laser printer. Then my issued HP printer started to eat sheets of paper, but this time, HP had a repair kit to solve that problem. Meanwhile I was still using that HP 5L printer for personal use.

Now, my printer has finally died. Attempting to cycle paper for printing, all it does is hic cup a lot and the paper feeder doesn't feed. So with great pleasure, I will take this printer to the recycle dump (can't dump it in the trash anymore) and toss it!

My next printer WON'T be a HP product. I suspect that HP went the way of GM and FORD with cost cutting and profit margins. The product looks good and performs well, initially, but in the long run, when you don't trade it in for a new model every 3 years, it develops problems and reliability issues. I guess the engineers at HP lost out to the business profiteers and the products lost their reliability.

Well, off to COSTCO to check on (cheap) printers!

Bike Paths, with coyotes

Diligently doing my cardio exercise requirement (by biking) I am exploring the extensive bike path network in Irvine, California. This morning I rode part of the path that parallels the rail tracks that runs through the middle of the city.

Interestingly, there is an extensive open area along the tracks and the nearby bike path that has native vegetation (weeds, to gardeners) and native sycamore trees. I believe the open area is the coyote freeway to free meals in the nearby residential areas. Cats always disappear if let out at night. Small dogs get attacked during the early morning and evening hours. Coyotes are numerous and are not intimidated by humans. The recent rains in Southern California has allowed an increase in the animal population due to the abundance of native plants. The predator population accordingly has increased and the younger predators are seeking new territory.

The residential areas provide excellent forage (trash cans and outside cat and dog dishes) and fresh meat (dogs and cats). So, during the daylight hours, bicyclists and runners enjoy the many paths thoughout the city, and during the night, it is a freeway to dinner for the resident predators.

Out of curiosity to see what is about, I plan to do a late night run on the bike along this trail.

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo

Hope I spelled that right. I guess it isn't too strange to have all these Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Southern California. Celebrating a victory over the French way back in 1863? Although that victory was tempered with huge defeats over the next couple years, the Mexicans look at that date to show that even a New World peasant army could defeat the mighty French Army! In time, with the influx of Mexican immigrants to California, Cinco de Mayo will become a State holiday! Some nationalist groups here in California have been posting billboards that say "Los Angeles, Mexico"!

I think we may be carrying diversity a little too far.

On the other hand, I finally decided to attempt to return to the ranks of the employed. After a 1 year absence from collecting a paycheck, I developed some boredom and decided to use my residual knowledge of defense contractor security regulations. Now all I need to do is to hang my shingle (advertise?). This blog may or may not be a good idea, but I need to start somewhere to develop (or regain) my thinking process.

Bike hitch post

Got notified by REI that my Thule bike hitch is at the shop for pickup. This will give me more range to wander since my riding radius is about 10 miles, long enough to give the butt aches and the hands some numbness. During Springtime, I hope to drive my trusty 1994 van carrying my bike to interesting but distant places to attempt to get that wonderful photoshot of something. I will plan day trips for the time being. I use a Canon Digital Rebel with 6.3 megs. That camera took some awesome shots at Yosemite this past winter. I followed the heavy storms that hit California in January and drove to Yosemite about 8 hours behind a heavy snowstorm. I managed to get some really good pictures of Yosemite Falls the day after the storm cleared.

Wanderfrog

My First Blog. Taking the persona of a green frog, I will hop around to different locations and on different subjects. My first love is photography of which I really suck! So I will post other subjects. I recently retired from THE GOVERNMENT as security specialist. Nowadays, the role of security specialist is not unlike the green frog. Both are disappearing from the environment. Later posts will address some of "forms" of security verses "function" or lack of.