Hi all and letting you know-I’m suddenly buried with sprucing up my travel pieces and compiling them into a manuscript that's presentable to a publisher. Ruthie and I are convinced, naturally, that soon as it hits the stands at Barnes and Noble it’ll be a runaway best seller. As we work to make it happen, you’ll see remarks about how we’re doing right here…including any pain in the butt problems we’re having, whatever we do accomplish, and yeah my whining about Ruthie’s nagging to get it done. Meantime I'll keep posting now and then excerpts from the travel pieces…but not many (otherwise you won’t buy the book later on). Starting today our blog will include other stuff like my occasional humor columns for the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune. Finally, any comments you'd like to make following any of these pieces are most welcome. That’s it. Enjoy!

Here’s a timely piece for “This and That”

Goodbye Winter-Hello Spring!  

            Now that it’s finally warming up, it’s time for growing our tasty veggies. Ruthie and I are so nuts for our home grown ones that half the yard is a garden for them. And yeah, it’s still too cold for tomato and cucumber plants. But last week I planted seeds outside for the hardier stuff. When finished I had seed rows of carrots, radishes, and onions-quite a few actually-in our planter boxes.

             Seeing me bent over the boxes late the next day, Ruthie came over. “So, Garden Boy, what are you doing?”

            Eyes glued to the rows, I groused, “Nuts! Nothing’s sprouted yet!”

            She rolled up her eyes. “Honestly, Gilbert, they just went in yesterday!” (She calls me “Gilbert”, never “Dear” when seeing me act a bit…strangely). 

            “Well, the seed packets claim these are very fast-growing. I’m just checking.”

            Shaking her head, she laughed, “It’s getting dark! If you’re going to keep standing here…ha-ha!-want the flashlight?”

            She was right, I was being a goof. It was getting darker by the minute and the temperature was dropping. Then I groaned, “Did I just see a snowflake?” The weather guy had said it might snow, but only a little. Suddenly nervous I added, “Maybe we should tarp over these boxes.”

            “Gilbert, a little snow cover won’t hurt them. Let’s go inside.”

             I got up early the next morning, looked out the window, and? A little my eye! We'd been hit with six inches! Fortunately, the seed packets had also said these carrots and stuff are tough enough to handle it-which left the big question. Could I?

            Ruthie couldn’t. She yelled, “Get in here! Your radishes will survive but you’ll catch pneumonia!”

            Resigned, kind-of, I settled for peeking at the seeds I’d also planted in basement boxes beneath fluorescent lights. And lo, there they were, sprouts from our broccoli, cauliflower, beets, basil, and Ruthie’s dumb marigold seeds-jillions of them!

            Joining me moments later, she gasped, “Good grief, Gilbert, how much broccoli did you plant?” (I’m also called that when she’s ticked off).

             And yeah, I might’ve overdone it a tad. “Well, I’ve already thinned them, so no problem.”

            “No? Well, Garden Boy, that still leaves…” She started counting.

            Having already done that, I finished for her, “…thirty-four.” (There are. I just now went down and recounted them). And sure, much as we love the stuff, I had to admit-that’s a lot of broccoli. Not counting the cauliflower, another three dozen or so. As she went back up the stairs muttering something about having to buy another freezer, I did a double take at the beet sprouts. Already a couple inches tall and very healthy-looking, there had to be three or four hundred of them. Luckily, our pal Rita likes them, or else we’ll be buried beneath beets. She’ll be good for five or six bushels-I hope.

            Anyhow, I can’t wait ‘til a few weeks from now. Then I can zoom over to our local nursery for the delicate varieties of seedlings; tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, peppers, and you name it. The only problem; I’m restricted from going there without adequate supervision-by you know who.

            Meantime this morning I looked at the outside boxes and yep, the snow is gone and all that stuff is poking up. In fact, Ruthie just now went out there to see them, too- which might be my other problem any second. So, can any of you readers come over in a few weeks for some carrots and radishes-lots lots of them?  

            “Gilbert!!!”

           

              

Part II; star gazing fun continues and even includes...a UFO?                                                

Waupaca Star Party

            Seeing my struggles with the planisphere, Rick said, “Bring it here and I’ll help you.” Examining it, he reassured, “It took me three years to figure mine out. Suddenly one night I was doing it! Keep at it and you’ll be fine.” He held up what looked like a thickened pen. “This laser is another helper.” Shooting its bright green beam skyward at what he called the Keystone Formation, he scribed a line from the star Vega on one side to Arcturus on the other. “The line between those pointer stars locates the M5 star cluster in the Keystone. It’s not visible to the naked eye and your binoculars will only show it as a tiny smudge.”

            He was right. Through our binoculars M5 was just a pea-sized bit of fog.

            “Now try it with my ‘scope.”

            Out burst more of our “Wow’s!” as we took our turns. Seen through his 14” Meade, the cluster’s bright center of closely packed stars had a lovely halo of outlying ones. After re-aligning his ‘scope, he next showed us the Dumbbell cluster and the Swan nebula.                      

            Jeff called to us from atop his ladder “Come up and see it with my twenty-two inch!”

            Fascinated with the cluster’s greatly magnified image, I kept staring at it ‘til Ruthie tugged my pants leg. “OK, dear, let someone else have a turn.”

            Our exclamations were echoed by others all over the site as they, too, zeroed in on whatever they were itching to see. Better, the viewing was enhanced by perfect conditions; no interfering moonlight, a clear sky, and the cooler air temperature.

            As a surprise add-on to the excitement someone yelled, “Look to the west! What is that!”

             A very bright object was blinking on and off at regular intervals in its orbital trail across all the other stars.

            “I’ve never seen a satellite do that!”

            “Without red and green running lights that’s no plane!”

            A “Close Encounters” fan just went ahead and said it. “Maybe it’s a UFO!”

            As it winked out of sight, one of the pro-astronomers was a party killer. “Nah-it’s a satellite tumbling end over end. The panels are reflecting light from the sun that we can’t see.”

            Finally, Ruthie nudged me. “It’s been great fun, dear, but its way past midnight. Let’s go home.”            

            As we headed for the car, I kept raising the binoculars for final peeks at the Andromeda Nebula. I’d spent many a frustrating evening failing to even locate it. Tonight these NCSF people had taught me where to search it out and then shown what it looked like when brought closer in their ‘scopes. Seen now through our 7X50 binoculars the huge spiral nebula was still only a small patch of brightened haze. Even so, it looked awesome.

            As Ruthie waved me towards our car, I thought-It’s definitely time to give our stingy kids some stronger hints about that new ‘scope!