Skidboot The Dog

-
-
Skidboot is an amazing dog.
-
And although his owner is just a Cowboy from Texas he sure has some great lessons about life to share. Please take the time to watch this video all the way to the end.
-
Video: http://tinyurl.com/flg83
-
Their website: http://www.skidboot.com/
-

-

-

-
-
-

Tree Planted in 1749

(click on the pictures and they will enlarge)

-

About 5 miles from my house here in Holland there is a protected tree.

-

It is a London Planetree or officially a Platanus acerifolia. This hybrid tree was developed before 1700, probably through a cross between the native Sycamore and the Oriental Planetree. The specific scientific name, acerifolia, refers to the maple-like appearance of the leaves. Brown, green and gray patches mark the smooth bark of this tree. Also, the bark peels away in large flakes. This tree grows well in moist soils of humid temperate regions

The sign says that it was planted in 1749. That is before the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.

-

I'm not a particularly small guy. Look at the size of this tree compared with me. This tree is really big.

I once heard a definition of the difference between Europeans and Americans:

Europeans think that that something 100 kilometers (62 miles) away is very distant.

And Americans think that something 100 years old is very old.

-

Unsetteling Quote by Hermann Göring

Last night there was a long documentary on TV about the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II and the number two man in Nazi Germany, Hermann Wilhelm Göring. This guy was officially named by Hitler as his successor. He survived the war and was the top man on trial in Nuremberg.
-
I find everthing about the Nazis abhorrent. And I think it is vitally important that we not forget their evil or how it came about. I like Germany, and the German people are some of the nicest people I have known. How these decent, hard working folks came to follow these kinds of leaders on an evil path to self destruction has fascinated me for years.
-
Today I decided to do a little further research on Göring, so I was reading the Wikipedia article about him. And I came across the following quote which I find rather unsetteling. I certainly don't nornally go around quoting Nazi officials, but I think it is important that each of us give some thought to the mindset this quotation shows. I am not saying that a parallel exists today, but I do think it is something we need to be very careful about.
--
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
-
...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
-
-

The Pope's Speech

-
For anyone who is interested here is a link to an English language translation of the Pope's speech regarding the wisdom of using violence to impose religion: http://tinyurl.com/ffdm6

-

Michael Dwight Garland

Mike’s birthday October 8 is coming up this Sunday. Then after that in just another few months on January 17 it will be 10 years since he died.
-
Michael Dwight Garland was born in 1952 and was named after Dwight D. Eisenhower.
-
In my opinion Mike was the most physically attractive of the 3 siblings. He played tennis. He was charming and he had friends. And really fine, good looking girls from wealthy families were attracted to him and liked him, a lot.
-
For sure with an honours degree in Electrical Engineering from UTEP he had the best degree of any of us.
-
I guess sometime in the last year before he died we were talking on the phone. He let me know that he was still angry at me because he felt that Daddy loved me more than him. He was still hurting over it. This really kind of took me aback. I told him that I sort of felt the same way in reverse, that he and Daddy had enjoyed watching football together. Since I have always been sort of a nerd, and I didn’t enjoy American football. So I guess I was a little jealous of Mike’s relationship with Daddy in these American Male things.
-
What events stick out in my memories? When Mike got that tumour on his ass. He hid it from everyone. He kept getting in trouble at school for wearing his shirt tail out, and still he wouldn’t admit to anyone that he did it to hide the large cancerous growth on his butt.
-
When he was in Hotel Dieu Hospital having it removed I remember Mother being worried because the Doctor had told her that they might need to remove part of Mike’s hip too. I can remember taking the bus downtown after school to visit Mike in the hospital.
-
I also remember the time he got arrested for shoplifting. Some Old Spice aftershave. He didn’t have any money but wanted to give Daddy a Father’s Day present. Heartbreaking really. I was such an asshole. I felt that it would be best for Mike for them to be tough. Fortunately Frances and Daddy were wiser than I was. One of Daddy’s childhood friends was now a lawyer and a judge. He got Mike off.
-
For a while he wandered around and was sort of lost. Living up in Lake Tajoe and working as a fry cook in the restaurant of a gambling casino. During a leave I took from the Army Frances and I drove her black 1971 Ford with the 429 V8 up to visit Mike, pulling her 28 foot Airstream trailer. One of his friends was this really sweet, nice girl. She would disappear for a few months at a time (to go work as a prostitute). Mike could accept this. This was pre-AIDS, but even so I had a difficult time dealing with this. I really admired Mike’s open mindedness.
-
I remember when he came back to El Paso that he worked once again as a cook. This time in the Taco Bell on Montana near the Hill Top Oasis. He seemed to deal with it just fine and didn’t find the work demeaning. Or at least that is the way it looked to me. I guess that wasn’t much lower in status than working at Radio Shack in Bassett Center like I was, but it seemed like it to me.
-
After graduating from UTEP Mike first went to work for El Paso Electric, then later at TI in Dallas. He had always liked Dallas. He named his cat Dallas, he and Daddy really enjoyed watching and rooting for the Dallas Cowboys on TV, and he was real interested in the killing of President Kennedy in Dallas.
-
Just before I moved to Europe I visited Mike in Dallas. He was still working at TI. He was living in a pretty nice apartment. But he sure didn’t own many “things.” No big stereo, no record collection. Not a lot of books, in fact not much at all. I remember thinking how wise Mike was not to burden himself with a lot of material possessions and junk like I tend to do. It was only after his death that I learned the disturbing truth. Mike spent most of his money on drugs legal and otherwise. And when he ran out of money he took all the money out of his retirement savings, then began maxing out his credit cards to keep this terrible druggie lifestyle going.
-
Mike loved the Hobbit, Tolkien and the Trilogy. And Stranger In A Strange Land by Heinlein. He turned me onto the music of Ray Lynch (No Blue Thing) and Outback (Dance The Devil Away). Mike was a good computer programmer. He was smart as hell. Good at math too. And still fun to be with and charming. What an amazing combination.
-
Mike wanted more out of life though. He left his good, stable job at Texas Instruments to pursue the dream of getting rich. Being an owner and being part of building the next Microsoft. It didn’t work out, and it basically broke him. Emotionally, financially, and physically.
-
By this time Mike was horribly addicted to prescription medication of all different sorts. And it all started at UTEP with Dr. Raymond Showery over-prescribing muscle relaxers for Mike’s stiff neck.
-
I remember a phone conversation Mike and I had about my son. It was one of the few times that Mike and I ever talked really harshly to each other. I felt Mike was encouraging my only child to use hard drugs. I was worried that Ben would get addicted to drugs and ruin his life. In a really hard and mean voice Mike told me, “He already is.” That hurt. Really bad. I still cringe hearing Mike’s tone of voice in my memories. Momentarily it felt like Mike was consumed with intense hatred.
-
And I remember the night that the phone rang. All Frances said was, “He’s Dead.” That’s all she could say. I knew exactly what she meant. Mike was only in his mid-40’s. What a waste.
–
Its now ten years later I’m really still not yet fully recovered from the trauma of Mike dying so young and so completely pointlessly. Frances is dead too. Things sure have changed. I’m now divorced, old, semi-retired and have a grey beard. And Leukemia. I no longer make well over $150,000- per year. In fact at the moment I have absolutely zero income.
-
I’ve done some amazing things in my life, still Mike and his death are right up there among the very most significant events of my entire life.
-
Thank heavens for Lisa Escaloni and Eddie Anderson. With their immense help all of us survivors made it through. Their friendship for Mike was really unbelievable.

-

http://paulgarland.blogspot.com/2006/01/mike-garland.html
-

Kerpen Germany

-

Michael Schumacher is the best racing driver in the world. Hands down. In his home town of Kerpen he has a really fine indoor go-cart track.

-

I was driving through Kerpen today and saw a little market open. I stopped to check it out. A Turkish couple had a little stand where they were selling fruit, and they had green tomatoes. Wow. I haven't had fried green tomatoes in many years.

So I bought some. On the way home I realized that I fry things so rarely my frying pan is already packed. I guess I will try to fry them in the sauce pan that I boil eggs in.

-

Another lady had a little stand where she was selling mostly used household junk. She sold me these 3 wine glasses for $1- each. She had no idea they were vaseline glass and were worth between $10 and $30 each.

-

-

German WWII Westwall

(click on the pictures and they will enlarge)

-

-

The weather was beautiful again today, so I took the Vespa out to search for more WWII bunkers on the Siegfried Line or as it is called in Germany the Westwall.
-
Bunkers 1, 2, and 3 are just under 5 miles from my house as the crow flies. From a distance all three just appear to be mounds of dirt covered with tress and vegetation in the middle of farm fields.
-
The really fascinating one was bunker number 2. By climbing through the brambles and vegetation I was able to get the center of it.
-
There were several pieces of very rusty, bent steel sitting on the surface. Along side was what appears to be a WWII combat boot.
-
I have no idea if this combat boot was from a German soldier or an American. In a way it doesn’t really matter after this length of time. Either way it was just some young man who was hoping to get back to his family and friends after the war. If he didn’t make it through the war alive I hope he is resting in peace.
-

Clinical Drug Trials in Humans

-
BBC4 aired a very good radio show about the TGN1412 disaster that took place at Northwick Park hospital in north London England when a new monoclonal antibody leukemia drug was tried on humans the first time. This isn't some baby-portion sound bite for intellectually challenged individuals, it takes the BBC around 40 mintues to look into it.
-
My Leukemia Doctor in England, Professor Terry Hamblin was one of the people in this radio show because he was one of those experts who was appointed by the British government to the group which looked into the procedure used in this case and also in general looked into the protocols that are used in the testing of new drugs in people in the UK.

-

One of the issues they looked at is using the technology of the internet to share far more information than has been shared previously.

-
When you have the time you should listen to this radio show. Its really quite interesting.

-
LINK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/pip/py6ln/
=
-

The New Dark Ages

-
In Germany they have just cancelled the Mozart Opera "Idomeneo" because they were afraid of what the violent Muslims would do.
-
Yes, this is the beginning of the New Dark Ages. And there is going to be lots of more of this if we keep being so sensitive to their closed minded fundamentalist religious wishes. Remember the Taliban blowing up that centuries old statue? Well here we go again.
-
And keep in mind they weren’t at all worried about upsetting the sensibilities of Christians or the Buddhists. Even though Christ’s severed head would also be shown along with Buddha’s and Mohamed’s.
-
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble called the decision "crazy".
-
The German Prime Minister is lady by the name of Angela Merkel.

--

She is a physicist who grew up in east Germany under communism. She really understands the consequences of living under a totalitarian regime.

-

She said, "We must be careful that we do not flinch out of fear of radicals who are prepared to use violence. Self-censorship for reasons of fear is not acceptable. It should only be allowed when it is done responsibly within a genuine and completely violence-free dialogue of cultures".
-
I would describe this as extortion.

And I would call it absolute bullshit.

LINK: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2186167,00.html
-
-

Minor Surgery

-
I had a little bump cut out this morning by the surgeon at the out-patient clinic on the 5th floor of the Heerlen, Netherlands hospital. Everything went fine.
-
The surgeon was a very attractive female in her early 30’s. My lung doctor is also a nice looking young woman. I find that in general women professionals have to be about twice as well qualified as males to hold the same type of good jobs, so I always prefer having a woman doctor treat me. They also have a much better bed side manner. Plus they are just nicer than men! Especially if they are young, attractive, and sharp intellectually.
-
Her helper was a man, probably in his very late 50’s. Gruff and with lots of experience under his belt. A good team.
-
Afterwards they let me see it. I guess it was about the size of a nice big pecan. And white meat. I told her about in my youth in West Texas, castrating beef and eating rocky mountain oysters cooked on an open camp fire. I didn’t tell her that I had lived in South Louisiana long enough among the Cajuns to have developed a certain appreciation for the delicacies of road-kill cuisine. I could imagine this little piece of white meat roasted nicely and covered with BBQ sauce and maybe a little Louisiana Hot Sauce. Honest. Kind of weird, sorry, but true nonetheless.
-
She said unfortunately it would have to go to the pathologist to make sure it was not cancerous.
-
Then I had another interesting experience on the way out. The elevator malfunctioned. So there I was standing in a not-going-anywhere elevator with an older Dutch couple and a young couple. At least there wasn’t any elevator music playing. We waited a few minutes and then finally one of them got on the elevator phone. Within another few minutes the door opened and we were let out.
-
What was I thinking? Well, first I thought, “At least I have my Diana Gabaldon book with me. I’ll just read a while.” Then I thought, “Well from my cell phone I can send out e-mails to my friends and family telling them the funny story about being trapped in a Dutch elevator on my way from surgery to the parking garage.”
-
Now as long as the imunosuppression of the CLL doesn’t result in an infection or anything like that there should be no problems. And I’m feeling real good so I really don’t think there will be any problems at all.
-
-

Tongeren Belgium

-

Tongeren is the oldest city in Belgium and is just filled with archaeological sites.

-

It also has one of the nicest Roman museums anywhere, and is one of the few to contain a dodecahedron.

-

Well preserved portions of the middle age city wall from the 1200's still exist as do long portions of the Roman wall outside of that from the 2nd century.

-

The Moeren Gate is a beautiful entrance to the city through the middle age city wall.

-

-

Octoberfest

-

In the early 1970's I lived in Frankfurt, Germany.

-

Some very dear friends of mine from El Paso were living in Munich and I visited them a couple of times. Mark and Ann. I attended the Octoberfest there in Munich, and it is incredible. The word awesome has been so overused that it no longer carries any weight, but used properly it would be appropriate.

LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoberfest

I've been a teetotaller for years now, so sitting around with a bunch of drunks watching them make fools of themselves is not nearly as much fun as it used to be.

-

But since there is a little mini-Octoberfest going on a couple of miles from where I live I plan to go by this weekend and check it out. Music in the street, a flea market, clowns. Wow, sounds like fun.

-

-

John Muir

-
John Muir was a fascinating man. He was born in Scotland in 1838, emigrated to America in 1849, and ended up being one of the greatest conservationists in the history of the nation.

-

He is widely viewed as the father of the conservationist movement. He also created the Sierra Club.
-
In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied Muir to Yosemite. This is what Roosevelt later had to say about John Muir, “No man was more influential than John Muir in preserving the Sierra's integrity. If I were to choose a single Californian to occupy the Hall of Fame, it would be this tenacious Scot who became a Californian during the final forty-six years of his life.
-
It was John Muir whose knowledge wedded to zeal led men and governments to establish the National Park Service. Yosemite and Sequoia in California, the Petrified forest and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and the glacier wilderness of Alaska are what they are today largely because of this one man, in whom learning and love were co-equal.
-
More than any other, he was the answer to that call which appears on the Courts Building in Sacramento: Give me men to match my mountains.”
-
On my last trip to the UK I made sure to visit his birthplace East of Edinburgh in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland and took these pictures of the house that he grew up in.
-
-
This is a link to the wikipedia article about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

This is a great book:

http://paulgarland.blogspot.com/2006/04/john-muir.html

-

-

Eygelshoven Church

clik on the pictures and they will enlarge

I’ve lived in Eygelshoven for almost 10 years now. My house is sort of on top of a small hill. It takes me 20 – 30 minutes to walk to the bottom of the hill and back. So it is a nice little bit of exercise. I try to do this 4 or 5 times a week.
-
Today when I got to the bottom of the hill, which is right in the center of our little village, I decided to take a little detour and take a few pictures of the historic church in the center of town.

-

While I was walking around the church taking pictures an old man walked through the church yard. I stopped him to ask about the church, and it turns out that he is the pastor of the church.
-
I learned a lot from him. Two thousand years ago the main Roman road from the Roman Imperial city of Cologne going to England ran right past this church, thus going through the center of our village.

This is logical as it would parallel the little river called the Wurm. In the 21st century this little stream is the boundary between Germany and The Netherlands. I guess it is a few hundred yards East of my house.
-
The oldest part of the structure is a defensive fortification that the people retreated into in times of invaders. The only way in was via a ladder. This part of the building dates to about 1000 A.D. To keep things in historical perspective, this was the period after the breakdown of the Carolingian Empire. Right about when the first Crusades began.

He told me that some of the bricks used in the construction of the defensive tower date back to the Roman era. Recycled construction material, which was very normal back then.

This made me feel really good because on a prior examination of the church I had thought to myself, “Wow, some of these bricks look just like what the Romans used.” The orange stone in the picture to the left is clearly a terracotta Roman roof tile.
-
The choir portion of the church was built in 1509, and in 1517 the Bishop of Liege consecrated the church.
-
He told me that on Sunday mornings at 9:00 they hold their services which includes Gregorian chants.

Wowie Zowie!

http://hpgarland.blogspot.com/2006/09/eygelshoven.html-

-

To see more pictures of this church click on this link: http://tinyurl.com/yk2773

-

Link: http://www.schola-st-johannes.com/

-

-
-

Carbide Bicycle Lamp

-

From the late 1800's to around WW1 early in the 20th century, bicycles were an important form of transport. And here in Europe with the high latitude, and thus the long winter nights, reliable lighting was essential. Clearly this was a safety item.

This was before battery or generator powered incandecent lighting, and certainly well before LEDs.

The solution was the same type of lantern used by miners. Water was dripped slowly onto calcium carbide. This made acetylene gas, which was burned.
-
As I was leaving the flea market in Belgium yesterday I saw an old man with a box of junk. I found this lamp in it. He was asking EUR 12- which is about $15- US. Since this lamp is very easily worth $50 to $75 (if any knowledgable collector were foolish enough to sell it) I jumped on it.
-
If you clik on the picture it will enlarge and you can see how incredibly detailed their work was back then.
-
If you want to see some more of the carbide bike lamps in my collection scroll down to the bottom of my pictures of the lamps in my collection of European pre-electric lighting: LINK http://tinyurl.com/p7egd
-
This link takes you to an older blog entry on the subject from my archives: http://paulgarland.blogspot.com/2006/07/carbide-bicycle-lamps.html
also
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/2070/251712668509679/1600/Bike%20Lamp%20Carbide%20_.jpg


-

-

Hard Times

-
The main doctor treating my leukemia is a Dutch hematologist here in Holland. I say treating, he is just doing periodic physical examinations and blood tests. I am still in the watch and wait phase thankfully!
-
I've also seen one of the world's top specialists in CLL Dr. Terry Hamblin in England. In fact after he started a blog this event made me begin the process. He is going through some tough times now and needs everyone's thoughts: http://mutated-unmuated.blogspot.com/2006/09/hard-times.html
-
-

Volcanic Glass

-
Obsidian is black glass from volcanic origin that is found in many places. It is the most commonly found natural volcanic glass. The black color comes chiefly from magnetite, Fe304.

-

It has the unique property that when sharpened it can be sharpened down almost to one molecule thick. This makes it sharper than a razor or the very best surgeon’s knife, and in fact some doctors have actually used obsidian scalpels. Especially when they are having surgery done on themselves.

Researching obsidian a little I see that Wikipedia says that obsidian scalpels are five times sharper than the finest steel scalpels and are in current use in cardiac surgery.

LINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

-

Obsidian has been used by man since the stone age, probably as early as 75,000 B.C. as a cutting tool and in making arrow heads.
-

--

In Russia (Ukraine) there is a location where magma came to the surface and bubbled out over a quartz sand bed. The main ingredient in glass is silicon dioxide, and in this case the sand melted and was transformed into naturally occurring transparent glass. The glass closer to the surface has more bubbles in it. My guess is that it was probably quenched rapidly, maybe by water.

The man I got it from told me that that this glass also has traces of lead in it, which makes it a slightly blue in color. But after getting it home, looking at it under shortwave UV lighting, and doing some research I think he may be wrong. It seems more likely to me that trace amounts of iron are what has caused this blue-green coloration.
-
I was really lucky to buy a piece of this natural glass today from a geologist who had a stand at a small flea market in the Belgian contryside. I paid him EUR 0,60 for this piece of glass, which is less than $1- US.

I guess I should have put a ruler next to it to give the picture some scale. Click on the picture and it will enlarge enough to be much more interesting. This piece of natural transparent glass is about 100 mm wide. He had some pieces (which were more expensive) which were maybe 30 cm across and weighed many kilos.

LINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass
-
-

Energy Cost

-
I see on the news that El Paso has the highest gasoline prices in Texas at $2.55 per gallon.
-
Here gasoline is about 10% cheaper in Germany than in The Nederland. Buying at the very cheapest place unleaded is EUR 1,20 per liter. This converts to $5.77 per gallon or about 2.26 times more expensive. So the cheapest place over here is much more expensive than the most expensive place in Texas. The higher price is all due to taxes.
-
I just saw Bill Clinton on TV. He was suggesting that everyone change out their incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs. These last 10 times as long. Incandescent bulbs are only 10% efficient, the rest generating heat. Each house could lower their electric bill 40% if they did so. Great President Clinton; good advice.
-
But then he bragged about the Mercury SUV he just got, which gets 32 miles per gallon. What a pig car. No way Billy boy, bad advice.

-

My Prius got 50 mpg and this 15 year old Fiat I am driving now gets over 40 mpg. For an ex-President who needs to haul around armour plating and a bunch of big Secret Service Dudes that is fine.

-

But both for the environment and for our budgets, us normal folks need to go for good fuel economy. And that means hauling less mass around, i.e. small cars. Or small engine mototcycles or 4 cycle motorscooters (50 cc or 125 cc) or sometimes even riding a bicycle, which is both good for you and also the environment/budget.

-

Not big Mercury SUVs. Give me a break Bill. You're a lot smarter than that.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/101/2016/1600/vespa%2003.jpg
-
-

Eygelshoven

-
When they were renovating the middle age church in the center of our village they found a Roman mile marker stone hidden away in the basement.

-

There are neolithic and paleolithic settlements all around here.

-
There are also lots of 2,000 year old Roman settlements and villas. And a nice little stream called the Wurm runs through Eygelshoven.

-

No doubt a Roman road ran through town too.

-

Probably this old middle age Christian church was built on the site of a far older pagan church. That is quite normal.
-
I bought this old post card of the village church in an antiques sale.
-
I was walking past the church today and noticed this guy. So I took a picture of him. I have no idea who this fellow is, but he sure is spooky looking!

-

Oops, Hold the phone. My pagan tendencies are showing. I'll bet that is a representation of the carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth.
-

-

Double Eagle

-
I collect old things that have the Double Eagle symbol which was used by the rulers of the Roman Empire.

Various kings and cities in Germany have also used this symbol.
-
So it was a real treat to find this oil lamp from the late 1800's at an antiques sale today, and even better at the giveaway price of EUR 6- (less than $10-). This oil lamp was made by T. Seyppel & Co. in Brussels, Belgium. The flame spreader says patented 1886.

-

The first composite picture is some of the stuff from my own personal collection.

-

The second picture is of various ones I have seen here and there. In this second composite picture, the third picture from the left is of the middle age city wall in the imperial city of Aachen, Germany. The wall was constructed in the late 1200's, but the double eagle symbol in the picture dates from 1690.

-

-

=

(if you click on the pics they will enlarge)

-

-

-

-
-

-