H-XM-1998

Christmas Greetings 1998

We hope all of you are fine, that you too had a smooth 1998 journey about the Sun. Mother Earth’s recent wobbles stirred up the wind here. The other morning I found large tree limbs torn loose from their trunks fallen out on the street – school yard trees uprooted – an unusual sight. This part of California never has tornadoes, never snows, never freezes. Only sun light and water droplets beam down, but once in a while hills catch fire, water soaked cliffs fall into the ocean and the ground wiggles to remind us of our insignificance.

Birthday just prior -- Christmas -- Birthday just after

Monica’s BD for Mother – the Families BD for Father; 75 Already!!!

Each year we are reminded of change – other than uses of the Oval office. In addition to aging we were reminded of more and more people unevenly dispersed. On our return to CA from Alumni in KS last spring traffic flowing south from Barstow was so heavy it stopped flowing – we crept along from dead stop to 20 mph for miles and miles. We thought there had been a big accident, large transports, with two way radios, were pulling off the road. There had been no accident, drivers decided to take a nap till congestion cleared – it was a Fri night. The return this fall was just the opposite. Leaving Las Vegas, trying to beat the falling sun, we were going with the flow to avoid a ticket. Traffic had moved to the right lane, with nil passing moving at 85 mph. A highway patrolman came passed me going 90 – nobody was pulled over. He pulled off up ahead at place with gas pump and facilities – I guess he made it in time.

Construction entering Barstow metered traffic, we ate then headed south. Going with the flow we expected congestion – there was none – flow sustained at 85 mph! We dropped down over the mountain, hardly slowing in the descent to flat country. In the flat I-15 became four lanes filled to 2/3 capacity as it swept under intersecting freeways. Keep alert and go with the flow – that’s the safest way to drive. A car passed me on the right, a quick glance at the speedometer said 90! Mary exclaimed this is too much and ducked down with blanket over her head! Highway patrolmen, like cowboys, had learned to get out of the way of the stampede – to only responding to a crash – we saw no crashes! I wondered if I could still drive it 10 years from now!

What a change from travel between McCook NB and Oberlin KS. Almost no traffic, on clear roads posted at 65 in KS and 60 in NB, with patrolmen eager to catch a speeding driver. There is indeed a time warp. I resolved to have the business section mailed each day from CA, even the Omaha and Denver paper business sections were anemic by comparison – subscribers seem to have no interest?

I was trying to get on the internet, with the other computer, while writing this – they’ve repeatedly upgraded the Internet freeway and I was getting on line right away, why the persistent delay? Next mornings business section said, Federal Express is experiencing heavy demand, due to Internet buying for Christmas!

I’d purchased stock in CISO, the people who connect people with Internet Routers. I’d thought of buying Pairgain but was lucky I didn’t, was down to 1/3 it’s peak! I wish I’d bought BroadCom which was up 10% this week, over 200% this year. Analog phone lines are limited to 56K modems, Pairgain’s chip converts analog lines to digital lines to achieve much faster speeds – they lost a major contract to a competitor. BroadCom makes chips to interface with cable; TV, data and voice use the same cable-port. Optic fibers permit light to be broadcast just as radio waves in the atmosphere, this permits over coming the limitations frequency band limitations. Uniphase I believe is a company hoping to solve how to broadcast over glass fibers, detect and route signals – a competitor to the above.

It’s obvious from the air that people gather in clusters, galaxy’s of places full of people, often in motion. Night headlights map strings of cars, moving like ants – coming and going. The galaxies of people are separated by near empty spaces, even continents and oceans. From desktop, or on the road, people expect instant access to someone far away. The market place is rewarding those who provide the means – society is being modified almost daily.

Government intervenes to “protect us” – a political process where those who lost out are trying to get in, at taxpayers expense. I’m pleased with Microsoft’s success – we have gained much for a modest fee. I’m glad they bundle things for us. For example, Windows98 and 98PLUS provide new screen savers. One is a changing display of objects as seen from space: the earth, the moon, the planets, sunrise, swirling clouds – beautiful views, a perspective few experience. There are dynamic displays of mathematically generated computer art. When discouraged by human failings, it’s uplifting to enjoy products of human skill – like art and beautiful music.

Halloween brought an indication of things to come. While in KS we received a program via email from George Savage in TX. When activated the program provided a skit of dancing characters with clever Halloween content. I’m sure Christmas skits are in the works – the growing community of emailers will soon be applying their attention to this type of personal greeting.

Carob Tree Trunk

The year began with a visit from the Fred Bigelows of AZ, I’d known Fred on Guam. Fred brought his computer and we upgraded it to the then current Pentium standard. We went to look at the Crystal Cathedral where Fred took the above photo, sorta.

We next attended the 19^th BG reunion in Tucson AZ where we made side trips to an Atlas Missile silo – an enormous thing built during an early phase of the Cold War. We also went through a Cooper mine where they had removed an entire mountain and were continuing underground. We also took in the Pima Air Museum where they had a considerable collection of WW II aircraft. The special event was having dinner under the wing of a B-29 in one of the hangers. I took along my computer and kept it busy making CDs of our 19^th BG history.

Bob Altman, radio operator on Colin Kelly’s B-17 crew, came up to me saying 14^th squadron is not shown as part of the 19^th BG? He was upset because one of the B-29 guys from Guam said the 14^th was not a part of the 19^th BG. It was 14^th sqd B-17s who flew MacArthur’s party out of the Philippines. I’ve written to the Pima Museum trying to correct that – I felt obligated to write as they elected me Chairman of the Board for the Association. Altman has communicated with the Smithsonian, and sent me copies of their correspondence – I recently mailed the Smithsonian CDs covering our 19^th BG history which elaborates on what Bob had told them.

Shortly after that we drove to Oberlin to attend Alumni Banquet. While there we managed to do some upgrading of the Museums computers and I made the acquaintance of fellows operating a computer repair place in McCook NB – I bought a good Pentium II case.

Mid summer wood cutting. Mary was allergic to the large Carob tree in our front yard, they stopped making medicine to counter it, so the tree had to go. The gardener with family and relatives cut it down, cost $650 – steep price – big tree. The wood is beautiful white-yellow sap wood with dark walnut like grained interior. I used electrical chain saw in bursts – after an hour of sawing I was soaked with perspiration. I ached all over and it took two weeks of days to condition the body to work. Handle to the saw broke while 20% of the work remained. With part number I went to Sears, they checked about and could not find one saying they’d have to order it from the supplier, and he shows he’s out of stock. I’d conditioned myself to expect that and started to turn away. He continued, they will have to make one. I said OK and he made a bill to be paid in advance – original price plus shipping from the factory – it arrived at my house two weeks later!!

I purchased a 6”X12” planer – it’s a terrific machine. By various methods I cut the wood into 6”x6” chunks then use the planer to square up two sides as a minimum. Using the bench saw I cut 1” slices. The process left a garage full of sawdust and a lot of wood planks of various lengths to be converted to a computer table. I finally rejected my innovative designs and decided to make a standard nice looking desk. It will resemble a standard office desk with drawers except the left side will house two computers. It will have an overhead shelf supported from the sides. The desk top, resting on ball bearing slides, will roll out for access to computer wires below.

Mid summer I went under the house and ran TV cable to my computer room. I installed a card and can now watch TV on my computer. I was so impressed I began to design an arm, like for a dental X-ray, so the monitor can pull up or push away from the big lounge chair in the den.

Mid summer David purchased a new Kodac DC-260 electronic camera and brought it for a family gathering.

Julia and JR Richards Monica and Bryan Bluff

David and Mary

We were so impressed with the camera, that I bought one and took it on our next trip to Oberlin.

I assembled a Pentium II machine using the case I bought in NB. David installed software for the camera in it and we transferred photos from his camera to the computer. The above, reduced to 40%, are from the first set of photos taken. We discovered that Windows 98 Plus includes a program called “picture it express” which is an ideal companion to an electronic camera. Electronic cameras identify shots by number, the number increments with each photo taken. Picture It Express shows a thumbnail image of each photo in a directory – you can then rename the photo and convert it to another format if desired. Photos sent over the internet are converted to .JPG format which uses only 2/3 the memory of other file formats. I still need to figure how to resize a photo. This document is about 30meg in size because photos consume their full original amount of memory when saved as part of the document, although the printed image is much smaller due to reduced scale and cropping.

In Sept we went to Reno NV to an American Guerrillas On Mindanao reunion. On our way to Reno we stopped at Inyokern for gas – we were startled to see a B-29! It is part of the beginning of a air museum – they had pulled it from China Lake where it had been exposed and became full of dirt. We had a good visit with the fellows there – they intend to rebuild it to fly! It’s possible but only at great expense.

Bob Stahl, Laptop & Gerald Chapman

I took along a lap top computer to show the fellows their photos and write ups on the monitor – their history section is unusual and remarkable – perhaps their story can someday become a documentary. I’ve since mailed CDs to all who asked for them and have received more excellent stories written by them.

We drove on to our second home in KS where we enjoyed a months stay visiting with relatives and friends. Julia, our daughter, was able to join us and since it was Halloween season, she helped decorate. Julia and Mary did a land office business handing out candy to a steady stream of kids out trick or treating.

Cousins at Eileen’s: Darrell, David & Diann Simpson, Nancy Landau, Julia Richards & Eileen Laird.

Julia, Eileen and Mary took in auctions, coming home with things. Julia’s purchases included dental picks, part of a misc collection, which came in handy for cleaning the clutch-brake mechanism on an old bike. After repairs and new tires, she enthusiastically rode off for a tour about town, taking the camera with her.

Julie’s main project was Liz – a stuffed coveralls scarecrow with mop hair and a Liz Taylor perfume sales photo for a face. A photo of Liz became a computer project where downloaded Halloween clip art was superimposed to lend special effect. Before departing Liz was placed in the basement to greet anyone descending the stairs. The large pumpkins were cut up and cooked into the makings for pumpkin pie then distributed to friends and family.

Upon return I assembled another Pentium II, only this time I installed an Intel Celeron 333 mhz chip and over-clocked the motherboard to cause the system to run at 417 mhz. The fellows at McCook told me it was doable, and they were right.

Mary’s year end project was the Gold Brush Award’ s Dinner for their Art Guild. She and friend Dorthy Martin spent hours for days making table setting decorations – they were quite clever and beautiful.

My year ended with our annual Flight Control Christmas Dinner. This one was special as I was able to visit with fellows I’d worked with some 34 years ago on a 3.5 year secret program. After the lunch I printed copies of the 51 page story I’d written about the effort to make a Post Boost Propulsion System to deploy 3 then new Hydrogen Bombs on the other side of the earth. I mailed copies to Buxton who was chief engineer; Nease who was chief scientist; Purpura who was on staff to the program manager; Averill lead analyst who used our new digital computer to define thrust magnitude and vector for the set of 13 rocket engines used to deploy the war heads; and Anderson supervisor of controls systems. All were primary players in the story. None had read or even known I’d written of that experience. I included a CD on 19^th BG history, 1941-1943 plus a “filler” section, which included other aerospace stories of interest to them. I’ll be interested to hear how their recollections compare with mine. Buxton had a severe stroke, Averill suffers from severe case of Parkinsons disease, Purpura wears a pacemaker, and Anderson has recovered from a heart attack. Nease, the youngest, is still in the pink of health. Only a few people were involved and I don’t know of anyone else having written a comprehensive document on this subject.

Found Liz file – so tacked it on

Merry Christmas to All