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Christmas is one of those holidays that I always have mixed emotions over. I made a few lists. Some items may appear on more than one list demonstrating my conflicted thoughts. Some of the longer bullets approach rants. I prefer to think of them as observations of an aging skeptic.

Things I Like About Christmas:

• Family – always the best and more fun than a box of puppies.
• Memories – Mom Hagar and cookie gift boxes and Christmas cooking, Dad Hagar and photos, kids around the tree and now grandkids in PJs with eyes wide and flush with excitement. Speaking of boxes of puppies.
• Friends – Where would we be without friends??
• Decorations – Ok, despite the crabby observation below, they are festive and pretty.
• Cookies, bobalky, kolache – 5 to 7 pounds of pure joy.
• Fires in the fireplace – darn the air pollution, forward the ambiance.
• Amazon – let your fingers do the walking. With one-click buying you can spend money without looking at the cart!! Or… you can ask Alexa.

Things I Don’t Understand About Christmas or Maybe People and Christmas

• Black Friday – a horrible misnomer if you are a successful merchant.
• The person down the street who spends $2500 and 2 days decorating his house and feels compelled to share with me that Jesus is the reason for the season and they will be attending Christmas services for a couple of hours (there will be coffee and baked goods after). Could not bring myself to ask if they were donating to the pastor’s new Mercedes gift from the congregation. As an aside — house has balls (big, big balls), lasers, bulbs and music (Run Run Rudolph) – no nativity items.
• JC started out as a homeless guy. How come we don’t treat the homeless guys in Dana Point as potential prophets instead of pariahs?

Things I Don’t Like About Christmas

• Santa Claus – a conspiracy so kids will be nice and not naughty. Kids know! They have caught on! Back in the late ’50s and ’60s Santa was usually one of those homeless guys in a suit (see classic and hilarious Christmas picture from my friend James Polhamus on FB).
• TV Specials – thank goodness for the remote. I can’t take watching Frosty melt again this year!
• Emails telling me about gifts that someone in my sphere cannot live without — at 25% off and with free shipping – My finger gets sore deleting 42 new emails every morning. Kay Jewlers sends at least 4 or 5 a day. I unsubscribed!
• Amazon – I’m getting a Walmart butt because I am not walking all over town looking for gifts.

With all due respect to John Lennon and Paul McCartney!

Birthdays are a great day to sit/lie back and reflect. I was lying in bed this morning, thinking I should get up so that my back would not hurt and I could hit the men’s room and then look for my glasses. All of these things are minor inconveniences in the overall scheme of life — as we get older…

A lot of my memories are refreshed by family photographs which I am so grateful that we have. As I started writing this I realized that either I am way too wordy (most probable) or there are just a lot of things I wanted to write down. This will probably be a multiple post blog. Here we go…

I remember when I was three or so when my cousin Steve and I tied ourselves up so securely with a rope we sat on the lawn at the house on Leslie Road waiting for rescue. I remember Uncle Ben’s black Cadillac (probably a 1958 model) sitting in front of the roadhouse in Balmville. Then there was the family fun of watching me as a 4 year old retrieving eggs from the hen cages – still in therapy over that. I remember lying on the radiator in the study in Hazleton watching the Flintstones in black and white. Dad Hagar was commuting to NYC and would come back to Hazleton on weekends on the bus and I remember now and then going to the bus depot with Mom to pick him up. He would often bring me wooden 3-D puzzles as gifts; there was a round one in particular that I remember. I think that it was during this period, that Grandma and Grandpa Casucci  moved to 478 Liberty Street in Newburgh. I remember riding in the blue Ford from Hazleton to Newburgh to visit them, while lying on the back seat or on the backseat deck above the trunk during the trip up US 209. Looking back on it, I wonder what I would have thought if there was a panic stop or wreck as I flew from the trunk deck across the front seats causing severe head injuries to my parents before crashing through the windshield.

I went to Locust Street School for kindergarten – very traumatic. I did not develop shoe tying abilities early which was a prerequisite for K back then. I remember hitting my cousin Joe in the head with a piece of wood in our small swimming pool and Uncle George coming up into the front bedroom at 887 James St and raising holy hell with me (I was 5 or so).  Then there were the holidays and get togethers. Hide and seek at 887 James and at Uncle Mike and Aunt Edna’s with all of the family.  I remember thinking “why are they calling that woman Aunt Dedna”. Trips to Price’s Dairy with the Gaydosciks, and the milk being delivered with a horse drawn cart. Mr. Rabitz (sp) the local junk man (we call them waste haulers or Good Will today), tonsillectomy, John getting clonked in the head with an icicle falling from the roof, putting a new roof on the James Street house, going to watch Mike play basketball and a dance party in the living room that I found out later had an admission charge. There were four of us that were younger, Joe Gaydoscik, Joe Grula, John Yourishin and me. Sometimes Davey Smulligan joined in. Sometimes Walt would join in but he was in the cusp of being older. Pretty much the “rat pack” of five to nine year old hooligans terrorizing James Street. Playing in the old clinker dumps, going to Angela Park which for us was our Six Flags and stealing fruit off of neighbors trees.

There was a summer on Roxbury Pond in Maine. Dad Hagar was working on the Andover Earth Station (sounds so SciFi) one of the Telstar I receiving stations. What a spot for a 6 year old. The place we lived in was on the lake, there was a canoe, swimming, wood stoves, forts built in wood piles, hikes in the woods and rumor has it that I even got my picture in Life Magazine as they were inflating the Earth Station dome. It was like summer vacation for poor people. Mom Hagar and I left early because the school system was such that I would have had to repeat kindergarten because I missed the first grade birthday cut off date. Mom Hagar stood up and in her polite, quiet way informed them that they were idiots and that her son was not. By God he could tie his own darn shoes and did not have to go through another year of learning that. For those of you that have been to Maine.. well lets just say that they were unmoved by her impassioned plea.

Time marched on and we entered our sight seeing phase when we moved to Idaho. It began with the trip from Pennsylvania to Idaho in the dead of Winter. We had a company car – a 1960 Chrysler station wagon with push button hydromatic automatic transmission. Not a lot of interstate highways were completed so it was a slow scenic route. I do remember the Pennsylvania Turnpike and also the Illinois toll road which had the restaurants built as bridges over the highway. Pretty darn cool when you are like 7 years old. I also remember that we only stayed at Holiday Inns or Best Western Inns. 

As the thaw struck, we were off to Craters of the Moon, Yellowstone, Grand Teton Park, the Snake River Gorge and Sun Valley which were all within driving distance. Mom Hagar would whip up a batch of chicken and potato salad, drop it all into the old metal Coleman cooler and then into the trunk of the car, Dad would grab the cameras and we were off. Finished second grade in Idaho Falls, fell in love with the little girl down the street and had my first border collie who it turned out could not ride in a car. She ended up on Ardell Balls sheep ranch where I am positive that she was happier.

Next up – July-August and Winter, the North Dakota Years and Tom and Becky had nothin’ on us, the Wisconsin years.

I love Southern California sunsets. I have picture after picture of sunsets over Catalina, the Northern Channel Islands, San Diego and the Pacific Ocean. However, our trips this year to Hazleton, Pennsylvania; Truckee, California; Golden, Colorado; and Albuquerque, New Mexico; reminded me that I love the feeling of being at altitude and enjoying clear skies and sunrises and sunsets in the mountains. There is something special about cool, thin air (with a very low concentration of particulates) and a panorama of stars.

Speaking of stars. Looking back on it, it was a very close race between geology and astronomy when I was in high school. In retrospect, I gravitated toward geology because I liked the geology instructor more than the astronomy instructor. Since I had been in about half of the states in the US by the time that I was in high school, geology also made a bit more sense to me because I had seen it. Unfortunately, I had only seen the stars and planets from afar and I did not have a lot of hope for field trips to space in 1970.

But when it all comes back around, all of earth science was and is still intensely interesting for me. The roots of that interest are probably family related. Mom and Dad Hagar were travelers and I was the beneficiary (probably not always an enthusiastic beneficiary) of their curiosity to see new things. There are also probably some genetic contributions based on about half of the Yourishin/Kosco clan being coal miners and Granddad Hagar being a construction engineer for tunneling and aqueduct construction.

Dad Hagar was a big photography buff and telescope and telescopic lens guy so we would go out at night in North Dakota or Idaho or Yellowstone Park or Wisconsin and stare up at the sky. In the 1960’s there was a lot less light pollution!! He would point out constellations for me while working on getting pictures. On our vacations, we would drive and drive and drive and drive and he and Mom Hagar would talk about Badlands and granite and rivers and dams. Dad was a voracious reader with a lot of interests through the years and I am both thankful and a little concerned that his wide ranging interests might have contributed to my ADD tendencies. Or… it could be that my ADD tendencies contributed to his wide range of interests. Mom Hagar would add her knowledge about history and archaeology which she seemed have a very keen interest in. Until the day she died, she could tell you what type of bird was in a tree, on a picnic table or in the feeder and at least in South Carolina whether it was a regular visitor or an interloper.

Astronomy and trying to understand planetary motion also provided fodder for my love of navigation and surveying and being able to find out where I was with some simple measurements (okay maybe not simple until you do several hundred) and calculations (always helped to have the cookbook with you).  I am a huge fan of GPS and the underlying theory behind its operation. But there is just something magical about being able to measure an angle with a sextant, jot down an accurate time and begin to figure out where you are.

Hmm. this little post really went off the rails. I had planned on writing about hiking and camping…. Maybe next time!

Thanksgiving was in Albuquerque at Casa de Pat en Sandia this year. It had been scheduled almost a year ago as soon as she had purchased the new place.

Mollie, Olive and Bear and Swamper arrived on Monday after a 16 or so hour trip from Truckee. Apparently it was epic. Mollie set her sites on Albuquerque and rolled in at 0500 in the morning and drove right past Pat waving and the gargage lights on. Highway hypnosis at its finest. Joni, Kiara and I hit the road around 0600 on Tuesday for an 810 mile trip. North to Barstow, turn right and follow Route 66 until Albuquerque. The CMAX was loaded to the gunnels as we generally travel pretty heavy. We hit ABQ around 8:00 PM.

The weather was fabulous! Pat’s house is very southwestern in design and it is in a great location. We spent all Wednesday and of course Thursday putting together the feast. Pies, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, salad, ham, turkey and on and on. The girls played cards each night and drank wine while I went to bed.

On Friday, we went up Sandia Peak on the tram. Top elevation is 10,364 feet AMSL. One of the interesting observations on our trip to Albuquerque, no asthma irritants while we were there. At 10,000 feet, hiking around I almost felt like I was young and in control again and could breathe (always good!). The kids enjoyed the hike (including Kiara). Olive was fascinated by the fossils in the limestone at the top of Sandia Peak. Bear found all the vegetation, particullary the branches that looked like firearms, fascinating. We had a long talk about tree bark and how it helps the tree live and shouldn’t be peeled off. Both of those kids are smart as whips.

On Saturday, we loaded up and headed home. Mollie, kids and dog caravaned with us and we eventually stopped at Barringer Crater to look over the best preservd impact crater in the US. I had been there before, but nobody else in the caravan had. I think they were all a little skeptical about how interesting a hole in the ground might be. Once there everybody changed their mind and finally believed me when I said it was one of the more interesting places I had been. Bear saw it and first thing he said was “ASTEROID!”. Nice that I have a family of science believers.

We continued on with Kiara at the helm of the CMAX and Mollie peeled off at Kingman to head up through Las Vegas and then on to Reno and Truckee while we made our way back to SoCal. Took a leisurely dinner stop at Barstow since there were accidents on the Cajon Pass slowing life down … welcome back to California! Through skillful rerouting of most of the map applications that we had, we ended up driving down the San Andreas fault waiting for the “big one”.

So the trip was a rousing success. Everybody had fun. We rolled into the garage about 9:30 on Saturday evening and immediately dropped into bed.

ROAD TRIP – FINISHED!

So the scariest part of the headline above is the “May” part of the phrase. Really??? The implications are nothing less than mind boggleing (har har har). I have so may questions not the least of which is where this Italian doctor is getting the funding to keep up this research?

I would hope that even though this particular end result seems way out in left field, there are a lot of steps along the way which may benefit assuming Dr. Canaverro is actually proceeding as a scientist (somewhat questionable). But it is an interesting concept.

A work related saga. I used to be a hydrogeologist. Now all I do is fix problems, almost all related to something other than hydrogeology.

Didn’t write any more yesterday because that last line is pretty much just me bitching and I try not to bitch in these writings.

The upcoming weeks look to be real winners. Thanksgiving in Albuquerque with family, Christmas at home, with family and I am lobbyiung for New Years in Catalina.  The boat is in pretty good shape. We recaulked some of the teak on the deck to minimze water flow through the tesk. We will probably continue that process this weekend. There is a very slow leak in the main engine through hull. It is more of a weep than a leak. I will probably schedule some yard time in January or February to get it fixed.

We also seem to be begining the process to move onto the boat for a year. We will rent out the house. This is one of those things I probably want more than Joni but with what we spend on the boat, I would like to use it for something. The move involves further downsizing which is always a good thing to work on. The garage is getting less and less cluttered all the time and we are being very careful about how much stuff we have in the house itself working on getting rid of one thing for every new thing that we bring in.

Starting to think about this weeks road trip to Albuquerque. Looks like a 11-12 hour drive. Weather is looking good. Juat a matter of finding slurpees and slim jims on the road!

Yesterday was haircut day. For at least the last almost 29 years, I have gotten a haircut every three (or four) months. I have gotten every one of those haircuts from the same guy. In those years, we have been through and shared experiences on births, deaths, weddings, vacations, new cars, new houses, college, job changes, illnesses, political views and techno changes. I did a small geotech job for him at his hillside property and he cut my hair for free for a while. He hired one of our girls to sweep the hair up at his shop and do towels and other odd jobs. So for 29 years he has been my friend, my psychiatrist and my hair guy. Both of us are getting older, and I am a little concerned about the day that he retires. Although he tells me that his son is also a hair guy in his own shop, I am not sure if that will be the same experience. I may just have to let my hair grow.

Very excited that the holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving in Albuquerque with Pat, Mollie, maybe Bjorn, Caitlin, Olive, Bear, Brady, Jon and Ruth. Kiara may have to work and Kylie does have to work so staying in SoCal for the holiday. I have been tasked with stuffing, carrots and I delgated Sonia’s salad to Mollie. We have to bring the blow up bed if we don’t want to sleep on the floor. Should be a party! We will have Christmas at home (although we may go out for Chinese food for Christmas dinner!) and maybe New Years at Catalina.  Photo below – Mom and Dad Hagar’s; Georgetown, SC Christmas 1991.

Working on boat. Trying to waterproof the deck as best we can until replacement next spring. We recaulked a couple of sections that really needed it. We have many more areas and we wil probably work on it again this weekend, weather permitting. The teak is shrinking, particulalry around the hatches. To compound the problem, the caulk remains high so it creates little pooling areas on the teak which in turn makes the teak shrink more as it dries. We are in a catch-22 with it. I think that we may end up replacing a significant amount of the core on the deck because it has rotted out. Will be checking that as we remove the teak. It’s a boat!