Joshua Tree

In May of 2019 the three of us went out west to spend some time together on our motorcycles. One of the highlights of the trip was this ride through Joshua tree National Park.

Who knows what was being discussed in this conversation. I’m glad we stopped.

I had this photo professionally printed and it is now hanging on my wall. I never thought much about the importance of my photography until recently. As I walk past this picture several times a day I am reminded to slow down and live in the moment.

The trip was somewhere around 7,000 miles round trip, not counting the motorcycle riding. All the places we went together and then I was called in to work from the road and had to travel back home for a few days then return to pick up where we left off. What a crazy couple of weeks this was. But as I look through the photos of this trip I am, again, reminded to live for this moment.

Immature Golden Eagle at Lone Pine, California. This all happened very quickly and was over just as fast.
It is May in Utah! Coming over the mountain passes every day was a freezing cold experience. Us on a break.
Dad on a break at the “Valley of Fire”.
Zion National Park. No photo will ever do it justice. And I am not sure how I got no people in this photo.

As I go through the photos I wonder how we fit all this in. I really don’t remember much about the logistics now that so much time has passed.

It was hot but I managed to survive. I was recently in Las Vegas where it was 111° at 9pm. This wasn’t so bad.

On the way home I kinda wanted to step off the planet for a while and take a break. Work wasn’t that great and I was having a hard time staying motivated. I had no idea what was about to come next. It would not be easy in 2019 through 2021. Between the shit show that was work at times and COVID life was about to change. I didn’t know that in these photographs and oblivious to what was about to happen (or was happening and we just didn’t know it).

Being a nomad can be freeing. I enjoy being alone where I am rarely lonely.

Joshua Tree was but one of the many places I visited on this trip. It was an fun journey to the west coast and back. I wish I could remember the details now. I’ve always had the best intentions of writing things down and doing a better job of journaling. As I look through my notes I see that i was gone 23 days total.

I live in this moment the best I can. I do the best I can to listen without interruption. I say what I need to say to those who listen.

And I need to get my camera out more.

2024 Total Solar Eclipse

After attending the eclipse in August of 2017 I knew that I would want to be front and center for the total eclipse that would occur in 2024.

We had a couple of logistical challenges.

Initially I thought that we would travel to somewhere like Texas from Virginia to get the best possible chance of not having cloud cover during the eclipse. I didn’t realize how lucky we were in 2017 that there were no clouds at all during the viewing of that eclipse in North Carolina. How could we insure this time would be the same? That will take lots of planning and options.

Texas is a very long way from home. It was going to be a multiple day drive or a very long flight to get there. Then there is the hotel availability, throngs of people trying to do the same thing. We could camp. Whatever we were going to do we would have to plan and commit to something. It got complicated. We both work where taking another week off would probably be difficult or impossible.

After trying to sort out the best place to be I decided that I should not travel over the road at all and, instead, fly to a location. The problem of cloud cover at any eclipse location was still very much an issue because for certain over the path of totality there will be clouds somewhere. Especially in the northeast part of the US.

So my plan took the shape and consisted of a “game day” decision of six different locations spread apart about 500 nautical miles in the westerly direction from Virginia in the path of totality.

On the morning of April 8, 2024 I checked the weather and made the decision that we will go to Tiffin, Ohio. Tiffin was right in the path of totality. The airport located there is a small field no where near any major city and certainly not a destination people would flock to.

Interesting bit of planning trivia; Tiffin was the only location that would be clear of the six I chose. That was the weather on this day. I’m glad I planned so many different routes.

There was a challenge, though, in that it was the best place to go given the weather in all my my choice locations but there was still cloud cover. And, to make matters worse, there were a line of showers between home and Tiffin. We would be in the clouds and rain for some portion of the trip for sure.

I am an instrument rated pilot with access to an aircraft so I filed and IFR flight plan to Tiffin from Hagerstown, MD. It will be about a 2 hour flight. As predicted, we encountered clouds and showers along the route of flight but it was one of those laminar days where the ride was so smooth you think you are suspended in air. Yes, we got rained on and were in and out of the clouds but at some point … “POOOOF!” … we flew right out of the back side of the front into clear blue skies. A few minutes later we landed at Tiffin. It turns out we were the first people at the airport that day. They were expecting a crowd.

I fueled the aircraft for the flight home and paid for the fuel before parking in a spot we could view the eclipse. And we settle in for a couple of hours while we wait for the stars to align, so to speak.

40°25’42.3″N 81°42’57.4″W – Somewhere in Ohio the weather started to clear.
My co-pilot sleeping on the job. My brain, on the other hand, was on fire.

After we landed and got settled in we decided to order a pizza which was promptly delivered to the airport. The sun was out yet the air was cool. It was turning out to be a perfect day to view an eclipse. I mean, really. It all worked out so well.

Then one after another small planes started to land at Tiffin as well. I’m guessing there were probably around 50 small airplanes that decided to make Tiffin their viewing location. The staff at the airport were very accommodating. Of course, it is going to be a big revenue day for them with fuel and other sales that will happen on this day.

This is my second eclipse so I knew what to expect. Soon we could look up at the sky and observe the moon start to cover the sun. The bright day starts to fade as the moon moves into its place in front of the sun.

Partial coverage. Taken with a 10,000 ND filter on a 600mm Tamron lens on my Nikon camera.

It is still very bright out. But we all know it is coming. Soon day would fade to near darkness and the entire environment around us changes. The winds calm. The clouds that were there seem to disappear. The birds change their tunes.

Then it happens. And everyone as far as you can hear starts to clap and cheer.

This is a true color image taken without any filters on the same 600mm Tamron lens on my Nikon camera.

At the point of totality it is very hard to describe how you feel. Something special is happening and it is just an amazing human experience to be a part of it. Everyone around you feels the same; “small” but satisfied and amazed.

And 5 minutes later it is over. And 5 minutes after that people start to leave.

Leaving an airfield is very different than leaving in a car. Pilots fired up their engines, lined up at the end of the runway and shot back into the sky. Those were mostly VFR pilots. I filed another IFR flight plan home.

Once I obtained my IFR clearance we were one of the last planes to leave for home. I departed the field, got radar contact and positive control with the controllers and soon they turned us towards home. It was about another 2 hours to travel back to our home airport. We put away the plane and drove back home.

What an amazing experience these things are. The next one will be August 12, 2045. If I am still alive I will be over 80 years of age. And, yes, I will do my best to get in the path of totality one last time.

Rainbows

When we get summer rainbows around here they are very, very tall and wide.

I was going to post this on my Instagram account but the platform crops to its liking. That crop would only take about 1/2 of this photo and display it. I recognize the platform is trying to fit everything in a 1:1 square so this one definitely does not fit that model.

Even in the photograph I was not able to capture the entire rainbow. I forget when I stitch 10+ pictures together I need a ton of overlap to do it properly.

It kind of happened rapidly. I was looking for foxes on the ground when I looked up and saw this monster. I quickly turned my attention to the rainbow, took the photos and then went back to hunting foxes.

As is sometimes the case, I wish I had spent more time capturing the rainbow because a full rainbow like this would hang nicely on a wall somewhere. Next time, less ground and more sky.

I am learning.

Portugal 2022

After a year long planning effort that started in 2021 we took a trip to Portugal last October to see what this country is all about. What started as a casual conversation with a new friend on my radio ended in a two week cultural exchange. When I was chatting with my new friend he let me know where he lived and while we talked I did a ton of research of things to do near where he lives.

Close to his home there was a monument of some sort but I could not make out what it was. So I asked him. He said that it was a monument to Jesus and his mother Mary that had been placed there over 600 years ago. This thing piqued my interest because the USA has only been a country for 246 years at the time so this monument has been there 2.5 times as long as the US has been a country.

This conversation took place early in the morning when most others in the US are sleeping. When I got up the next day I asked my partner if she wanted to go to Portugal and check things out. I knew this was a place she wanted to go so the answer was a very quick “yes!”. So the planning began.

We knew this would be another “slow travel” event for us. We do not like vacation “packages” where things are all planned out for you. There are certainly a ton of those you can do in Portugal that look very nice but that is not our thing. We planned out the days we wanted to go and the basic route we wanted to take and then went to work to make it happen.

The dates we go are not as easy as you’d think. Because we both still work we have to make sure we are not leaving anyone at work in a lurch while we are gone. There are certain times of the year I can not travel because of work obligations. Same for her. That said, we marked our calendars and “backed in” to the travel there.

Other than the monument, I knew very little about Portugal. I would learn there were so many “World Heritage” sites there with history dating pre-Roman eras. That is kind of hard to wrap your brain around because it is so long ago. Again, the USA doesn’t have this kind of history so this is going to be a good history lesson for us.

Having been there now over 6 months ago the route we took, the maps we used and the places we visited make much more sense than they did during the planning stages. The whole country is about the size of Indiana and is adjacent to Spain and just north of Gibraltar.

Roughly, our plans were to fly into and out of Lisbon and for the longest time that was all we planned. We had days we would be there so we booked the plane tickets round trip. Even though we had no place to stay and no route decided we now had plane tickets to get there and back. That put the planning into a little more urgency than we had up to this point.

Here are my “highlights” take on our trip we took to Portugal. I figured you would want to look at the map and maybe send this information to others. The map makes much more sense to me now.

We did eventually figure out what we wanted to do and the number of days we would spend in each location we would stop for the night. Our itinerary was roughly as follows. I have provided hyperlinks to most of the places we visited.

  • Fly to Lisbon and stay 2 days around this large city.
  • Drive to Evora and stay 2 days
  • Drive to Vale de Figueira and stayed 3 days
  • We would eat lunch in a mom/pop restaurant in Pinhão (Touristy)
  • We would spend some time near Castelo Melhor viewing ancient rock drawings there (15,000+ years old).
  • One of the places I really enjoyed was São Xisto in the Douro River valley. We spent 3 days in this area.
  • We took a drive up to Gulmarae which is really where Portugal started as a nation state.
  • Then down to Porto for a couple of days. Nice but super crowded and touristy. Lots of history. We stayed in the old/original city there.
  • Then Colmbra, Ourém (lunch), Fatima (to see all the Catholic happenings) ending up in an AirBnB in the country.
  • A friend of mine, lives in Nazaré, sent me a text inviting us to stop by if we had some time. That is the place where world class surfers do their thing on the crazy waves there. Look that up on YouTube. We would visit them in Nazaré for an evening. It was fun catching up with them who we had last seen in the late 1990’s.
  • That was the end of our journey. From there we went back to Lisbon to catch a flight home.

The flights to/from USA are long but easy. Customs gave us no problems on either side. I have “Global Entry” and an electronic passport which makes going through the system easy and fast. As you know I am a photographer so I have tons of photos if you are interested in what it may look like there. I had problems flying my drone due to regulations that I didn’t not plan well in advance of the trip. Didn’t think it was going to be an issue but it is. They have very tightly controlled air space.

The people are nice and accommodating. We had no issues anywhere. It is a safe country but I’m told there are pick pockets which we never encountered. The people we encountered were all very kind. The larger cities have some of the same issues we have in the USA but felt safe to me.

Get your money in the airport. Don’t wander the country without cash. Once inside, it is very difficult to get Euros with US dollars. Take the hit up front and deal with the exchange rate or have a plan otherwise. I used my credit card everywhere and never had an issue. But some people do not take credit cards.

Douro River as seen from São Xisto

They do not tip for anything in Portugal. It is hard to get used to but they can be offended if you give them cash outside of a normal sale. Not everyone, but many. We did tip a guide and when we used Uber which they seemed to appreciate. The guide, in particular, only made money from tips so that was helpful for him.

Cost for things is about 25-50% of the USA rates. Food is markedly cheap. The only thing more expensive in Portugal than anywhere in the USA is the fuel which was about $8/gallon while we were there. But you pay for liters so it feels like the per gallon price, just 3 times as expensive.

Driving is easy but the streets are TINY. Signs are easy to adapt to but some of them are weird. I recommend reading up on the signage before you leave to have that in your head before you start driving. There are so many 1-way streets that I tangled with some while we were there. Parking in big cities very hard. Pay in advance, reserve your spot for easy in/out. I can see why people would not want to drive there yet we did not have any issues. If you are comfortable driving a manual transmission and have good situational awareness you will find driving there quite easy.

We were there to chill. And chill we did. Never in a hurry. Never rushed.

As I mentioned above, what started all this for us was a guy I talked to on my radios back in 2021. We did end up meeting him and having a nice long conversation with him. Super nice guy. We did this on our last night there. I got to see the monument I had seen on Google maps and met my new radio friend at the same time.

Rainbow over Douro vineyards

We were quite the spectacle in his neighborhood. It is a tiny place and all the neighbors came out to see what we were about. they helped us reach out to Tony who was not home when we arrived. He had no idea we were coming so him not being home was not a surprise. When his neighbor called him he insisted we stay and meet with him at a coffee shop in his town. Which we did.

Tony claims we made his whole year. He was over the moon that we dropped by and spend a couple of hours with him. Really, that was what Portugal was about. It was an uneventful, history laden, quite, relaxing time with kind people everywhere we turned.

Someone has a sense of humor in downtown Porto

We enjoyed Portugal and would like to go back someday if this life allows us the time to do so. In the meantime, we are working on the next International adventure that we hope to take sometime this year. It is about the same distance away but currently with a little political unrest. Still, we’ll keep on planning and probably go there anyway.

Its been a while.

I noticed my last blog post was from April 2021, a few months shy of two years ago. I am sitting here in front of a fire on a cold winter evening (3Feb23) contemplating everything that has happened since then. After all that has transpired, I figured I’d start creating again but not exactly sure how or when.

April 2021 was a good month for me professionally. I was working on things that were both satisfying and impactful for the company I work for. I had uncovered an opportunity that would be significant progress for all of us. Those were exciting times.

We were also in the middle of a full blown pandemic for most of this time. Officially, it is not quite over. Neither I nor anyone I personally knew had been sick with COVID-19 during the height of the global infection as the whole world was basically still in “lock-down”. The news constantly reported all the bad things that were happening, all the people that had died or were dying. At this point it was in the millions world wide who had perished from this disease. No one knew what was going on. No one knew how to make it stop. There were no vaccines to give to people that were proven to stop this pandemic from getting worse. Everyone was doing the best they could to navigate these times. Looking back, it was not easy mainly because no one had answers.

The company I work for was not allowing people to travel at all. In order to travel we had to have permission. And even with permission no one was traveling by air. It was basically once-off meetings in person where it made sense to do so. We all had spent 100’s of hours on Zoom calls moving forward the best we could. It was working but it was not normal compared to all my years past.

We had been in the pandemic for a solid 12 months now and things were starting to change a little. Some states were considering “opening” up a little by relaxing some of the restrictions if you had the vaccine (which I hadn’t yet). If people were high risk or otherwise able to get a vaccine it would soon be available for those people who go them first. It would not be available to me for some time to come.

So we mask up. We go about our time doing the best we can hoping that the virus runs it’s course without affecting those we love. No one we knew had been sick yet still we were being careful.

It is May 2021 and I am excited to go on a motorcycle ride with my dad, brother, family and some friends. Motorcycling being what it is, you are outside in the elements with the wind in your face. Hardly any way for the virus to take hold in that environment. We were all careful to mask up when around others and went on this ride together.

Dad, Katherine, Paul and John

There are some notable firsts in the photo above.

It was the first time Katherine would ride her own motorcycle on a tour like this. It was the first time that I had been terrified for someone else’s safety on a motorcycle! It was the first time in some time and the first time in 2021 that we had all be able to get together. It was the first time we were in large gatherings of people outside in a year. It was the first time I’d seen so many people and not one of them wearing a mask like we all had the year past.

There were some notable lasts. This is the last group ride we will do together as a family. This is the last motorcycle related trip I would make with my father. It would be the last time I rode motorcycles with my brother, my niece Katherine or Paul’s friend John.

It would be the last time I would be with my brother before he died of complications related to COVID-19.

The next few months after this trip are a blur. Two weeks after this trip I would meet some friends I hadn’t seen in some time. I went on a solo trip on my motorcycle in Arkansas and go on another solo trip to see a band I enjoy on YouTube at a Branson, Missouri venue. May, June, July and August would come and go with most of that time spent on my professional career. Fairly nominal life as I recall being laser focused on some of my work. I had a lot of things going on at work and it was consuming most of my time.

In early September my immediate family spent some time together in New Mexico near Taos and then in the Denver/Boulder area for a week or so. I was able to ride my motorcycle solo on some truly epic roads with some of the most awesome weather I had in a while. Those were fun and special times. We were still masking up but we were able to spend some time together which was super fun. I would not be vaccinated for two more weeks so I was still being very careful around others.

After that vacation I had to hurry back home to finish up some work I was doing in Florida. I was home for a week and then off to the Sunshine State. Everywhere I went it was very environmentally controlled. By then I had my first vaccine and for those vaccinated the rules were a little more relaxed. Masks were becoming optional but still widely worn in my circles. Being one of the only people with a vaccine in my company, in my group in particular, I was able to travel when others who either didn’t have the vaccine or refused to get the vaccine were not able to travel. Because of the low level of vaccinated people on my work team I was incredibly busy at work covering many bases there.

It was on this trip that I would learn of my brother being admitted to a Texas hospital in a treatment area for those with COVID-19. He was in an isolation hospital unit for those with infectious and contagious disease. I would learn that his condition before being admitted to the hospital was grave.

Once in the hospital the doctors were able to get him back in this world but it was not going to be easy because he had issues that got him there that needed to be dealt with. Some were addressable but the COVID-19 was not. He had COVID-19 (DELTA) and there was nothing anyone could do other than to make sure he was hydrated and let the virus take it’s course.

That was the hope. It was September. Life was busy and getting busier. Now our family has a “man down” 1,500 miles from my home. Seasons are changing. Warm air is being replaced with cold. I left Florida for home where I would stay for a while.

Mid November my youngest was home and wanted to meet a friend in Blacksburg so I rented a fast plane and took her to meet them there. These trips in the planes with my family and friends are always fun. They can also be “interesting” and this one had its excitement. Like with an aircraft of this type they can be complicated to learn all their quirks. The flight was fun and safe after dealing with one of those quirks. Winter weather was coming which always puts a twist on flying. Headwinds there and tailwinds back got me to/from Blacksburg in a hurry. Coming back home I was traveling 200 m.p.h over ground in this plane. Not bad for a cruise speed of somewhere around 150.

Even though things felt like they were getting back to normal the entire world was still in lock-down. It was feeling like we were getting through this pandemic. I am still optimistic that things would change for Paul. Unfortunately, his situation is getting much worse.

For the first few days Paul was in the hospital we were able to text one another. He would tell me that it was hard to move around. That it was hard to breath but that it was also hard to explain why. He would tell me in these texts that he could not take a full breath of air and that it was hard not to panic when doing so. He was hot. Then cold. Sleepless. Tired. Mostly tired. He told me that just eating a meal or drinking a glass of water was exhausting and took all of his energy.

Being somewhat of a digital hoarder I keep things like texts from others indefinitely. Mostly they help me with my “diary” of current events and help me remember what people say on a normal, sometimes busy, day. Usually it’s all benign things, logistics and such. So I do have all the texts from Paul. I’ve struggled with the decision to post them here or not. I ultimately decided not to do that in its entirety but do want to share some of them.

Did I tell him I loved him?

We tended to text each other quite a bit but it could be sporadic with gaps in between busy times in life. The last normal text I got from him was us discussing 3D printed parts for drones. Ya know, normal stuff for people with similar interests.

Him: “I just bought a 3D printer… do you have a joystick protector for your drone? Just made one for myself…. making another.. happy to make you one or more if you want one. Me: “Yes, but I had to buy mine! :)”

He was like that. He would find things that he liked and introduce them to others. I found him always wanting to share cool ideas and things he was working on. He was never afraid of trying something new. That is a trait of our family.

Back in the hospital Paul was following all the instructions from the nurses there. Everyone was hopeful that this would be a short lived problem caught early enough that with the proper help from the hospital staff he would be back home and getting back to normal life.

That would not happen. He sought help too late. This would have to run its course.

Soon the text replies would slow. And then they would stop. After stopping I would send more texts hopeful that once he was rested enough he would reply back. He would not reply back to me again.

5-6 October 2021 Messages

On the morning of 6 October 2021 I would learn that he could not breath on his own. His oxygen levels were too low and he decided on his own to be intubated allowing him some time to rest under the direct care of a doctor without the stress and anxiety he was experiencing.

// There is a lot missing in between these written words. My focus in life would suddenly change. Life would become consuming. I do not remember or write down a lot of detail from the next few weeks that did not pertain to figuring out what was happening to Paul. //

Although I would see him still alive in this world again he would never return fully back to us. Soon, his health would deteriorate. There would be nothing else anyone could do. It was clear he would pass soon and the only reason he was still with us was a breathing machine and narcotics. The latter were doing him no favors. He could not breath on his own. There was no hope of him ever being able to breath on his own again without a machine. And even with a machine his quality of life would likely be poor.

Five minutes before I said goodbye, I saw this hanging on a wall in the hospital. A reminder to lead where you are.

After many days of medical heroics, medicine and medical help had run its course. On the evening of 19 November 2021 his closest family would gather together at the hospital to say goodbye. His breathing machine was removed and he passed with all of us there with him. Frankly, one of the hardest things I have had to endure.

Paul would die the Friday before Thanksgiving, November 19, 2021 at 18:58 CT near his Hutto, TX home.

“Did I tell him I loved him?”, I kept thinking. This was one of the the weird thoughts that comes to mind in a time of crisis like this. The answer was “yes” and I had the texts to prove it. That fact made things a little easier, but not much.

This entire blog sucks to write. I am not one to write stories without happy endings. It is a shitty end to a story none of us wish would have to be written. He left behind 15 children, grand children, parents, a brother, sisters, extended family and many close friends who loved him. He left this planet way, way too early.

But left he did. There is no going back and undoing anything at this point. What has been said is said. What has been done is done. Any missing pieces are left to us to sort through on our own. There will be many days of introspection to come.

On the evening of Paul’s death, after everyone left the hospital floor, my parents and I stood outside of the hospital in the parking lot. We asked each other, “What do we do now?”

What do you do when a family member dies? I have no fucking clue.

I still don’t know.

That night we shared dinner together and left the next day to pick up all the pieces of this crazy few months of life we have just lived through. It sucks. There is no way around that. I think we are all moving forward the best way we know how.

Paul with his daughter, Sarah, circa 1991

Adios, Paul Westerman. You are missed. See ya on the flip side.

Paul’s Immediate family; Me, my sisters, parents and spouses.

I am going to go back to creating. See you on the next blog post.

Warm spring rain.

Before the sun went down today I wanted to get some grass cut. When I started it was warm and dry but on the horizon I could tell it was raining. The rain didn’t really look like it was going to come meet me but about half way into my task it really started to rain.

It was one of those rains that wasn’t overcast; just showery. I was thinking, “Why don’t I just park this thing and be done with it for the day?” I was soaked all the way through all my clothes and getting cold riding on the mower. “Just another 15 minutes and I’ll be done,” says my internal voice (like it always does).

Then I looked up and saw a full, very bright and vibrant double rainbow. By the time I got my phone out, figured out how to get into the camera app in the rain this was all I could capture:

Just like that, the sun went back behind the clouds and the rainbow was gone.

I was sitting next to my bees, in the rain with nothing more important to do.

I’m reminded to slow down and enjoy the moment. It may not seem like it but little bits of nirvana surrounds us all the time. Everything is as it should be.

Today nirvana was a rainbow sitting in the rain at the end of a busy work day. All I had to do was look up.

Down time

Kind of. We decided to go down to Florida to change the temperature for a week.

St. Augustine, Florida
Windy yet placid

I didn’t take the week off from work. Instead I just worked in Florida. It’s one of the cool things about my job. Technically I can work anywhere as long as I have good Internet access.

On this day I sat in a vehicle near the ocean and watched the wildlife while I worked. I saw things I don’t normally see. For 15 minutes I watched a family of dolphins body surf the waves. I really wanted to take photos of them but I was presenting in a meeting which did not afford me that opportunity. It was so interesting and deliberate. One of them would go on its back while the others on their bellies. They were clearly playing with each other.

Then a few minutes after that I noticed a seagull testing his scooping skills. It would pick up a stick, glide up in the wind then drop the stick. As the stick fell it would swoop down and try to catch it before it hit the ground. I watch them try to get his seagull friends to join in but none did. For 20 minutes this game continued.

One of the days it was 85ºF and we were able to ride a motorcycle all around St. Augustine. The other days it was chilly and cloudy so we decided to stay “inside”. It was nice to slow down, eat seafood and camp in another State Park. Go here for a map of Matanzas State Forrest.

I think I see the problem.

After 201,000 miles it’s finally time to change out the head light assemblies in my 12 year old truck. The old lights work but not that great. I think the new ones look (and hopefully work) better than the older opaque ones.

This spring I’ll be replacing the bumper and a passenger side quarter panel that was damaged in a crash, new fog lights (one of these leak) and put a new coat of paint on the front end. It’ll still be an old truck but will look a little nicer.

After that work, I’ll replace the roof. One of my family members decided it would be a good idea to dance on the roof with some friends at an outdoor event. Nothing that time, money, steel parts and some paint can’t repair.

To replace the assemblies you have to take off the wheels. Go figure.

Graduation: Confirmed

Yes, she said she graduated. Yes, they sent a diploma. No, they are not sending any more bills.

But tonight, with my own ears, I heard her name spoken in a commencement which confirmed directly from the school that she had, in fact, graduated.

Congratulations, Helen Westerman!

We are proud of you.

Helen is a 2020 graduate from the Virginia Tech Architecture program with Cum Laude honors. Whoop!

Mouse Nest

The other day I was cleaning up the barn and found this carefully crafted mouse nest. It is made from wool and insulation that was discarded as we progressed with the van build project.

Mouse nest

Right in the middle there is a nut of some sort.

No sign of the mice but I did leave the nest where it was and cleaned up around it. I’ll keep an eye out for Ratatouille and his crew.