Scamander — on and off road … including water
Posted By RichC on May 29, 2012
Hmm, may have found my next car?
Memorial Day respect, Patriotism 101 and archived posts
Posted By RichC on May 28, 2012
I would be remise not to mention Memorial Day and our nation’s honoring and remembering those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. It is a day that many of our citizens tend to blend with honoring all veterans … not a bad thing … but in some respect causes confusion over the purpose for the day.
… the day set aside to honor of those who have
died while serving in defense of our country …
Of course in even broaching the nuance of the federal holiday can get you the evil eye from fellow citizens … almost as much as the one I get when I raise the stars and stripes back to full staff Memorial Day afternoon. (maybe it would be better just keeping it at half-staff to avoid looking disrespectful?)
On Memorial day the flag is flown at half-Staff until noon, then raised to full staff until sundown.
This is also as good a place as any to comment on “not flying the flag at half-staff” on Veteran’s Day … another day of flag flying protocol confusion.
Veteran’s Day (formerly Armistice Day), November 11th: This is a day to honor our nations Veterans. It is not a day of mourning, but a day of celebration and honor; the flag remains at full staff.
Several years into my daily blogging, it is interesting to look back at past Memorial Day posts …
- 2011 – Remembering an honor trip to Washington DC with my dad
- 2010 – Veteran’s cemeteries
- 2009 – Decoration day and memories
- 2008 – CBS Sunday Morning video tribute
- 2007 – Retiring old flag and end of school birthday bash video
- 2006 – Established .. The 30th of May 1868
- 2005 – No post … shame on me … but here is one about military service near that date. It is interesting to see what I was thinking and reading.
Keeping my eye on subtropical storm Beryl
Posted By RichC on May 27, 2012
Just watching … although north a bit too far for more than a little wind, heavy surf and rain to really be a threat to Encore or the marina. … thankfully. Currently sustained winds are 65mph and the speed is increasing. It is a little concerning considering this is the second named storm of the season AND hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1st.
Beryl should make landfall tonight close to the Florida/Georgia border and primarily be a threat due to heavy rain and flooding. It will be interesting if it makes the predicted u-turn and heads back to sea after dumping a bunch of rain?.Personal: An update on my mom …
Posted By RichC on May 27, 2012
My mom would not like this personal post talking about her, but since I’m archiving partially for my own journaling I wanted to write down what was buzzing around in my head this past year.
Between my dad, who is with mom almost all the time, my brother Ron (thankfully able get to Sidney regularly—he is closer) and me (weekends and when I can detour my schedule during the week) … we’ve been visiting with mom and consulting with the medical experts trying to come up with the best rehab option after a challenging back surgery. We’re slowly running out of options in how to get my mom back to health – complications are unfortunately all too common in recovering from back surgery. At this point we’re depending on mom’s own strength, motivation and fight; I think this will determine if she is able to move forward or will decline. The doctors and medical staff are doing about everything they can to medically treat her … they seem to be competent, but can only do so much.
Brief history …
It has been a challenging month (well year really) for my mom in dealing with complications regarding several physical issues. First, she has been treated for Sarcoidosis … successfully for about 10 years. Dr. Baughman in Cincinnati (UC) is highly regarded in treating Sarcoid patients; his treatment uses drug therapy to retard the growth and spread of the infected cells. For the most part, it has been controlled and contained to her lungs that are monitored regularly … but the treatment unfortunately negatively impacts how her family doctor treats Osteoporosis. Time and age caught up to my mom with the latter, and in the past year fractures in the brittle vertebrae made moving painful at first (about a year ago) and unbearable in the late autumn of 2011 particularly in her legs.
The pain med route was the first approach but later was no longer was sufficient and what she was left with was a possible but questionable surgical repair. She tested, scanned and prepped for the first scheduled surgery in December 2011, but after the surgeon looked her most recent scan and condition of her bones, decided last minute that he could not repair the vertebrae. So it was back to the pain meds and to see if there was anything else.
She was referred to a Dr Farhadi, neurologist in Columbus (Ohio State Med Center) who suggested something other than “rods and screws” … he thought there might be a way to relieve some pressure on the nerves and “cement” the fractures. So preparations, new scans and tests opened the door to surgery a couple weeks ago. The surgeon was somewhat successful in reducing the pressure on the spinal column and nerves, but was not able to repair any fracture due to infected tissue and bone (which he sort of suspected). 
Tissue was taken and cultures incubated (or grown) to determine what kind of infection so the best antibiotics could be administered to tackle the infection. Unfortunately no repair can be made until the infection is gone (up to a year of treatment is the prognosis).
Yesterday, we received the good and bad news about the bacteria that mom is infected with. Good: they have a combination of three antibiotics in which to fight the infection. Bad: the infection is something that caused enough concern in the hospital that the infectious disease doctor has moved her to isolation — Mycobacterium Avium Complex – masks for visitors, closed doors and nurses/doc wear full masks, gloves and breathing apparatus. More than likely mom contracted this bacteria which is found regular due to her compromised immune system … much in the way that HIV/AIDS patients compromise immune systems are susceptible to these kinds of bacterias.
In the meantime, mom’s “full year of dealing with this” condition in just recovering has not been optimum. She is weak and her stamina is about gone. The long term hospital and rehab has been challenging and getting her back on her feet very difficult. Complications due to lack of mobility, medications and having her body so run down that she has some fluid retention that needs to be treated besides the back issue and infection.
I’m trying to remain positive in the little things at this point. One: She is currently close to home and dad can visit easily a couple times a day without having to live somewhere else or drive distances. Two, she is not in severe back/leg pain and the C2 pain meds are being eliminated (some withdrawal). Three, they have removed the oxygen and no long has to be catheterized; she can use the toilet next to her bed with help.
The next big problem is that normal nursing home rehab probably will not be able to care for her needs … and she’ll most likely get release from the hospital IF she improves. Sidney does not have a care facility that will be able to continue the nursing care and physical therapy that is needed. The nearest recommendation “so far” is about 40 miles away … dad will not be able to safely drive to this urban care facility. Hmm … what is next?
For family and friends checking in with us … I appreciate your prayers for mom. Please continue.
Mitt Romney has an image problem – he looks like a politician
Posted By RichC on May 26, 2012
Although the polls have risen for GOP candidate and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney, he still suffers an image problem. I’m not sure what it is …maybe he just looks too much like a politician? 
Some say he seems stiff or scripted; that he is out of touch with regular America. The talking heads paint him as a 1% who doesn’t really care about the rest of America, but slowly I think Mitt Romney is growing on people … or maybe the nation is just growing tired of the empty promises of “hope and change?” (now that’s a politician)
One would think beating President Obama, with all the failure, the excessive spending, the big government agenda and partisan cronies of his administration… would be easy? But something is holding Governor Romney back. He can’t shake the perceived image that he is just a successful capitalist looking out for the rich fat cats (hmm, mainstream media problem?) Even as a Romney supporter, I wonder what the real Mitt Romney is like … is he really out of touch or is that just an image thing?
Peggy Noonan had an opinion-editorial piece on Friday in the WSJ and she highlighted a few campaign trail questions asked of Governor Romney. I enjoyed a couple answers regarding mistakes.
It’s his own mistakes "that make me want to kick myself in the seat of my pants," that "cause me to try and be a little more careful in what I say. . . . I’ve had a couple of those during the campaign, which have haunted me a little bit, but I’m sure before this is over will haunt me a lot."
Asked for an example, he mentions "I like to be able to fire people." He meant, he says, those, such as health-insurance companies, that provide inadequate services. "I have to think not only about what I say in a full sentence but what I say in a phrase." In the current media environment, "you will be taken out of context, you’ll be clipped, and you’ll be battered with things you said." He says it is interesting that "the media always says, ‘Gosh, we just want you to be spontaneous,’ but at the same time if you say anything in the wrong order, you’re gonna be sorry!"
Another observation had me sort of connecting a little bit more with “this guy” … that of using technology … and in particular the way he uses the iPad. (too bad it’s not a public blog … yet)
He keeps a campaign journal on his iPad: "Now this is going to make my iPad a subject of potential theft!" He used to speak his entries, but now he types them on an attached keyboard. "I’ve kept up pretty well, actually." He writes every two or three days, so that 10 years from now he can "remember what it was like," but also to capture "the feelings—the ups the downs, the people I meet and the sense I have about what’s going to happen. It’s kind of fun to go back and read, as Ann and I do from time to time."
Perhaps the real question we’ll all have to ask is what we want America to look like? There will be two candidates, two parties and two very different paths. We can see where the current administration is taking us, and we will have to choose. Personally speaking … I prefer the America I grew up in even with all of it flaws and faults. The European socialism model we are inching toward is not at all attractive to me.
"I think there have been inflection points in American history where the course of the nation has changed, where culture, industry, even military strategy have changed." The Civil War was one such time, the turn of the last century another.
He [Romney] believes we are in one now: "I think America is going to decide whether we will put ourself on a path toward Europe—whether we will become another nation dominated by government, where citizens are dependent on government for the things they want in life, where opportunity is sacrificed, where military strength is depleted to pay for government promises, where unemployment is chronically high and wage growth chronically low. That, in my view, is the course the president has put us upon." If Barack Obama is re-elected, "it will be very difficult to get off that path. If I’m elected, I will usher in a period of economic vitality," that will leave the world "surprised."
Not only the world: "America is going to see a vitality we had not expected."
Just for the fun of it … where is this?
Posted By RichC on May 25, 2012
A stray image found on my phone … where was I? 
Looking forward to a new MB GLK diesel in 2013
Posted By RichC on May 25, 2012
Ever since the debut a few years ago, I’ve thought the rugged looking MB GLK sport utility vehicle has been a nice smaller addition to the Mercedes Benz SUV line up … but it would be been better as a diesel. Next year it looks like the U.S. may get the little 2.1 liter 4-cylinder BlueTEC diesel … the review looks promising (check out the photos).
How will the warm spring impact the 2012 hurricane season?
Posted By RichC on May 25, 2012
I’m not sure how the NOAA models forecast the hurricane season but Adminstrator Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. predicts a “less active season compared to recent years. I was assuming that will the warmer spring and mild winter that thre U.S. would be seeing more named storms? Go figure?
For the entire six-month season, which begins June 1, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says there’s a 70 percent chance of nine to 15 named storms (with top winds of 39 mph or higher), of which four to eight will strengthen to a hurricane (with top winds of 74 mph or higher) and of those one to three will become major hurricanes (with top winds of 111 mph or higher, ranking Category 3, 4 or 5). Based on the period 1981-2010, an average season produces 12 named storms with six hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.
“NOAA’s outlook predicts a less active season compared to recent years,” said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. “But regardless of the outlook, it’s vital for anyone living or vacationing in hurricane-prone locations to be prepared. We have a stark reminder this year with the 20 th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew.” Andrew, the Category 5 hurricane that devastated South Florida on August 24, 1992, was the first storm in a late-starting season that produced only six named storms.
Favoring storm development in 2012: the continuation of the overall conditions associated with the Atlantic high-activity era that began in 1995, in addition to near-average sea surface temperatures across much of the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, known as the Main Development Region. Two factors now in place that can limit storm development, if they persist, are: strong wind shear, which is hostile to hurricane formation in the Main Development Region, and cooler sea surface temperatures in the far eastern Atlantic.
“Another potentially competing climate factor would be El Niño if it develops by late summer to early fall. In that case, conditions could be less conducive for hurricane formation and intensification during the peak months (August-October) of the season, possibly shifting the activity toward the lower end of the predicted range,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
“NOAA’s improvement in monitoring and predicting hurricanes has been remarkable over the decades since Andrew, in large part because of our sustained commitment to research and better technology. But more work remains to unlock the secrets of hurricanes, especially in the area of rapid intensification and weakening of storms,” said Lubchenco. “We’re stepping up to meet this challenge through our Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project, which has already demonstrated exciting early progress toward improving storm intensity forecasts.”
Lubchenco added that more accurate forecasts about a storm’s intensity at landfall and extending the forecast period beyond five days will help America become a more Weather-Ready Nation.
In a more immediate example of research supporting hurricane forecasting, NOAA this season is introducing enhancements to two of the computer models available to hurricane forecasters – the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) models. The HWRF model has been upgraded with a higher resolution and improved atmospheric physics. This latest version has demonstrated a 20 to 25 percent improvement in track forecasts and a 15 percent improvement in intensity forecasts relative to the previous version while also showing improvement in the representation of storm structure and size. Improvements to the GFDL model for 2012 include physics upgrades that are expected to reduce or eliminate a high bias in the model’s intensity forecasts.
Next week, May 27- June 2, is national Hurricane Preparedness Week. You can find out everything you ever wanted to know about hurricanes on the website for the National Hurricane Center
Sunny – but hot – Memorial Day weekend forecast
Posted By RichC on May 24, 2012
I was glancing ahead thinking about mowing grass and noticed the weekend forecast looks nice for the Cincinnati area. We’ll most likely see some isolated thundershowers with the heat rolling in, but sunny skies sound good to me. About the only complaint for the official summer kickoff would be that 90+ degree days are starting already — the pool will feel good!
Jon Kitna’s greatest play: NFL QB to high-school math teacher
Posted By RichC on May 23, 2012
Thanks for sharing this article Tim. Jon Kitna is still one of my favorite Bengals quarterbacks — he earned respect both on and off the field … and continues as a high school math teacher “by choice.” A great guy for all to look up too.
TACOMA — “We’re working,” Jon Kitna says. “We’re working.”
It’s his first-period math class at Lincoln High School, and yes, Kitna is working. Has been since 7 on this Thursday morning, which is when Kitna walked onto the campus of the high school he once attended, past the statue of Abraham Lincoln and into Room 102 carrying a bag full of McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches.He will spend the next three hours in this classroom on Tacoma’s east side where the clock remains stuck at 1:44. The man who spent the past 16 years studying X’s and O’s as an NFL quarterback will spend three periods explaining x to the fifth power among other assorted math quandaries.
You might have heard Kitna retired. Well, that’s not true. He’s just not playing football anymore. The NFL career he never expected is over, and he’s now in his first year teaching math and coaching football, which is exactly what he hoped to do when he left college in 1996.
“The NFL wasn’t supposed to happen,” says Kitna, 39.
Quarterbacks from Central Washington University don’t usually move on to the NFL. Not even the really good ones, and as great as Kitna was, he graduated with a degree in math education and had every expectation his next gig would be in a classroom and not under center. He applied for his first teaching job before he signed with an NFL team.
How did a man who played 16 years of professional football and made millions of dollars wind up — voluntarily — in a classroom at the most impoverished high school in Pierce County? It’s a tough question. One that Kitna himself can’t really answer, not even with one of those equations he throws at his students.
He doesn’t know when he decided he was going to do this, because he can’t remember a time when this wasn’t part of his plan.
“I never knew I wasn’t going to do it,” Kitna said.
Which is why one of the most successful NFL quarterbacks to come out of this state shows up early in a collared golf shirt, his hair still buzzed so close you can see scalp, bringing a bag of breakfast for his students.
Applied education
Understanding Kitna’s conviction about this position requires you go back to when he first applied for the job.
Back in March. March 1996.
Bill Milus — who coached Kitna at Lincoln — had retired, and Kitna applied for the job the month before the Seahawks signed him as an undrafted free agent. He was an NAIA All-American on a national championship team and perhaps fortuitously was college teammates with the nephew of Dennis Erickson, the Seahawks’ coach at the time.
Kitna spent 1996 on Seattle’s scout team instead of in a Tacoma classroom. It was the starting point for a pro career as unlikely as it was impressive. He was World Bowl MVP while playing in Europe, a backup to Warren Moon and the first starting quarterback for Mike Holmgren in Seattle. He started 124 NFL games, playing for the Bengals, Lions and Cowboys after leaving Seattle in 2001. He passed for almost 30,000 yards.
Plenty of people say they won’t let the NFL change them, but Kitna demonstrated that. Football was a career; teaching was a calling.
“I didn’t marry an NFL quarterback,” says Jennifer, his wife of 18 years. “I married a teacher and a coach.”
Jon Kitna used to talk about taking some time off after he stopped playing. At least a year, maybe two. But then Jennifer began to notice that the longer her husband played, the shorter the amount of time he talked about taking off.
All of that explains how the Kitnas wound up at a coffee shop on South Ninth Street and Broadway in Tacoma last November, meeting with Pat Erwin, Lincoln’s principal. Kitna was the Dallas Cowboys’ backup at the time, his second year with the team. He suffered a back injury earlier that month in practice. A bulging disk that he’d had for years had become a herniated disk, and Kitna had decided that 2011 would be his last year in the NFL.
“We weren’t the only school that was interested in Jon,” Erwin said.
But there wasn’t going to be a better fit than Lincoln. Mike Merrill — Lincoln’s previous football coach — became the athletic director, and the school didn’t hire a coach so much as it staged a homecoming when it introduced Kitna.
“If it was going to be in the city, it would have been real hard for it to be anywhere besides here,” Kitna said.
Here at the school he once attended, as did his parents. Here at a school that hasn’t made the state playoffs since 2003 and had the same weight room that Kitna used when he attended.
His son, Jordan, will enroll at Lincoln as a freshman next year, becoming the third generation of Kitnas to attend the school.
So after he was introduced in January, Kitna came to Erwin and said he and his wife wanted to buy all new equipment for that weight room. Fantastic, said Erwin, but first they’d have to go to the school board to get approval since the project was going to exceed $50,000.
One problem, Kitna said: “I already bought it.”
On Feb. 24, they got permission to install the weight-room equipment that by then was already waiting in the trucks outside. And so the heavy lifting of building Kitna’s program started.
“Greatness in these halls”
“Charles, how much do you weigh?” Kitna asks.
He’s talking to a sophomore who stopped by his classroom before school starts. Charles wears socks that read, “I (heart) haters.” Charles weighs 135 pounds, and he’s been attending the weight-training sessions Kitna runs after school.
“You weigh 135 pounds and you front squatted 155 pounds?” Kitna exclaims. “My man. My man.”
Charles didn’t play football and had never lifted weights until Kitna arrived at Lincoln. Now, he takes his shirt off during the workouts, and if there’s an ounce of fat among those 135 pounds, it’s not evident. The kid is shredded.
Kitna has a rapport in the classroom. A natural ability to communicate with these kids, which is good, because the rest of this job is hard.
Start with the fact that Kitna is used to learning a playbook, not putting one together for the day’s lesson. Throw in the overhead projectors and the graphing calculators — which Kitna didn’t use in high school — and, well, there are times when staring down a blitz would feel more comfortable than standing in the pocket of his classroom.
“The technology is completely overwhelming,” Kitna says.
His classroom is open before the school day starts, and the teacher who was looking for open receivers last year is now looking for opportunities to assist. He thanks a student named Anthony who comes in for extra help.
It’s not hard to imagine a former NFL quarterback filling his afternoons with football. It’s tougher to imagine that same man — a guy who was making $3 million last year — arriving on campus at 7 a.m. and bringing breakfast for kids who need extra help, hosting a home room and then teaching two periods of algebra.
That’s what makes Kitna’s return so extraordinary.
“We don’t believe that we’ve been given all we’ve been given to just enjoy a comfortable life,” he says.
This was the path Kitna and his family wanted. One he planned for, and while he ended up in the classroom much later than he expected, he’s here now. Back at the school he attended before heading off to Central Washington, where he started out as the last of 12 quarterbacks and played his way not just to the starting job, but to a pro career.
His career is proof of the potential that is contained within these halls, something he points out. There are about 2,000 players in the NFL at any given time, and every year as many as 400 rookies come looking to take someone’s place at the table. Two years ago, Kitna went and looked up how many players from his rookie class remained in the league.
He counted six, and two of them attended Lincoln: Kitna and safety Lawyer Milloy, his high-school teammate and the best athlete to ever come out of Lincoln. That reality provides the backbone of the rallying cry.
“His message is, ‘There’s greatness in these halls,’ ” said Erwin. “That’s the exciting thing about having Jon here. Do I want to win football games? Sure. But I want him to be able to convey to kids his story and the greatness that is here in this school so that kids start to live up to their potential as opposed to live down to some of the expectations others might have.”
Kitna’s expectations are high. He has visions of an alumni association whose donating members number in the thousands, and Jennifer has turned the school’s booster club into a registered charity.
The school has a new weight room, the football program a new energy and in Room 102 there’s a first-year math teacher standing at the front of his classroom watching his students complete their assignment.
“We’re working,” Kitna says. “We’re working.”
Yes, they most certainly are.
Danny O’Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2018240060_kitna20.html
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.