Christmas Letter - 2023

 

Merry Christmas, 2023

Usually I write my Christmas letter on word processing, print out 40 of them, and include them in Christmas cards.  Well, not this year.  I'm doing the letter 'new style'.

We've finally made up our minds to move to the East Coast.  We've been waffling and waffling thinking our kiddos would come to their senses and move west of the Mississippi.  Our four month summer trip to western Virginia and pretty much all of North Carolina was to investigate other possible East Coast locations other than Richmond.  Well, we loved Asheville.  Apparently, who doesn't.  It's a great climate, and it's incredibly beautiful with green everything.  It's a two hour flight to NYC with five flights a day.  On the negative side, the housing market is not only expensive, but also the tightest market I've ever seen.  Plus, there's no train service.  

One of my jobs is finding possible houses to buy.  I've expanded my search to Fredericksburg, Virginia, a town of 28,000 that is 50 miles south of Washington D.C. and 50 miles north of Richmond.  I know all the advantages of Richmond since I lived there for a few months.  Fredericksburg is an hour from the Richmond airport; 1 1/4th hours from Dulles, and is on the Amtrak lines that run in the northeast corridor.  It's a five hour train ride to Penn Station.  It's also the home of James Monroe's presidential library.  (I have to throw in these little tidbits.  It's a knee jerk reaction.)

I've been following the Asheville, Richmond and Fredericksburg housing markets all summer and fall so I can get a feel for the various neighborhoods and understand the pricing.  One of the Fredericksburg attractions is it is an area of 55+ communities including a mature one that Del Webb (founder of Sun City) built just west of Fredericksburg.  The other center of condo communities is south of Richmond.  We'd really like a condo (called 'townhouses' in the East) because the association would be doing the outdoor maintenance.  Drake has done ALL the yardwork he ever wants to do after the Hurst house and the gigantic oak trees.

We just signed a listing agreement for the Sun City house, and it will go on the market 1/2/2024.  In October we cleaned out this house.  In November we packed up the CLUTTER.  That's what Drake called all my stuff, and I have not let him forget it for an instant.  December 1st we stored 1/3rd of the house - 50 tubs and some odds and ends of furniture.  Our purpose is to stage the house.  Now, we are doing a major clean of everything.  The carpet cleaners come 12/19, so cleaning, painting, etc. has to be done by then.  When we sell, we will store the rest of the Sun City stuff and head East.  When we buy another house (our 9th), we'll send for all our stuff including the stored CLUTTER. 

Within two weeks of our announcement we were moving, the kiddos made the announcement they were buying a house in Cobble Hill.  (Suburb of Brooklyn which is one neighborhood south of the Manhattan battery.)  We are thrilled for them.  Our son-in-law has become a transplanted New Yorker.  He loves everything about the city.  Our daughter enjoys the city, but not the tight NY apartments with their tiny square footages.  She grew up in Hurst, suburbia between Fort Worth and Dallas.  The new house is a suburban house transplanted to the Big Apple.  They say it's a 10 year house since it sits only 2 blocks from the good elementary school our grandson already attends.  The new house is 2300 square feet with a laundry room and outdoor space.  Ironically, it's in a remodeled church building.  I haven't seen the house in person yet, but I think it was taken down to the outer walls and completely rebuilt inside.  That means new plumbing, wiring, central air, and central heat as well as all new appliances.  So much better than dealing with a brownstone built in 1889.

I've written about our trip to North Carolina this past summer, so if you missed those blogs, you can just circle back.  We took time out of being busy house bees to take a Thanksgiving cruise.  Here's something funny.  We've taken three different cruises on Holland America, and we've only seen one ship - the Koningsdam.  I teased the crew their company really only has one boat.  Last Thanksgiving we left from San Diego and went south into Mexico.  This year we left from San Diego and went north up the coast of California.  Holland America arbitrarily cancelled two ports of call (Santa Barbara and Monterey) substituting a Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico (trashy border town).  

We loved Catalina.  We rented a golf cart and tooled around for a couple of hours, bought some t-shirts and an excellent magnet.  Catalina Island is an interesting place.  There are several plants and animals which are only found on the island.  Big controversy is the Conservation Commission wants to kill off the mule deer which were imported at the turn of the century.  They are destroying native plants and overrunning the island.  Naturally, there's a 'save Bambi' group opposed to the kill off.  Here are the pictures of the island:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hn3wDZMmoGvrVwzo6

San Francisco is a city we know very well.  Not only have we visited several time, but we lived in Berkley (across the bay) for a summer.  However, we have never sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge.  That was thrilling, and to me, the visual highlight of the cruise.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QGVF1nxHCg2Yw85u6

 I was disappointed because the day we were there was the day of the week most of the museums (Asian, DeYoung, Legion of Honor, etc.) are closed.  We really didn't care because we spent the day with one of our dearest young friends - we alternate between calling him our pseudo son and our Godson.  He lives in downtown San Francisco.  He rented a car and continually dropped us off at our next attraction while he parked.  Like Drake, he's concerned about my mobility.  We did go to the top of Russian Hill and to various neighborhoods tourists rarely visit.  Drake is still rocking his Texas Rangers cap.  See the pictures.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WhBjmTSqD5NXss4M7

We did manage to go to a couple of museums - one of which was terrific.  We saw the Cable Car Museum which was FREE!  It is the actual place all the cables wind and unwind for the cable cars.  There were examples of various cable cars.  At one point there were several cable car companies especially prior to the 1906 earthquake.  There was historical flotsam and jetsam.  If you want to see the cable car pictures click the link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JpQ1pYkt7WYPE3Su9  

The grandkids are doing great.  Fiona will be 18 months old at Christmas and Cedric will be five.  He started kindergarten this year.  Here are a couple of recent pix:

And my favorite grandkids picture.....making that boo boo all better.

This has been the good news portion of the year.  We only had one major hiccup.  I had a pretty bad fall on Mother's Day in Brooklyn.  The short version is I tripped over a piece of sidewalk a tree root had pushed up.  I tried to catch myself, but instead that turned into a running start to the fall.  I wound up in the emergency room for several hours.  CAT scan of my head, several x-rays of my wrists and knees, and hands, morphine for my dislocated finger and seven stitches in my head.  Glasses messed up, shoes ruined.  I'm still recovering.  My hand is still re-habbing - thus why I don't want to address Christmas cards.  In October my right knee 'woke up' and I was hobbling around until I got a steroid shot.  I will spare you the pictures of my wrapped hands, black eyes and stitches.

Instead, here we are at age 73:

And, yes, that is my gray hair.  We are planning a wonderful Christmas holiday.  I hope your holiday celebrations are equally wonderful.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

World Series Champions

 

I think I will always remember the night the Texas Rangers won the World Series since Drake all but levitated at the last pitch. Most people don’t ‘get’ it. He’s been following baseball since he was 7 years old. His first team was the Cleveland, Indians. It was his Dad’s team, and he even got to go to some games. When he was a bit older, he used to call up the radio station and answer trivia questions to win tickets to an Indian’s game. That happened more than once. Of course, the Indians were never able to overtake the Yankees to win the pennant and go to the World Series.

When the family moved to Texas, he became a fan of the newly formed Houston Astros. He followed that team from 1963 until 1989. Playoffs a couple of times, but no World Series. When we moved to the DFW area in 1990, he became a Ranger fan. Then, he endured the heartbreak of 2010 and 2011 World Series losses. So, he’s waited from age 7 to age 73 for his team to win the World Series.

The other terrific thing that happened was so many of our friends called us, emailed us, and texted us with congratulations. He’s certainly looking forward to next season, and I think it’s more fun to watch a winning team. Drake doesn’t really care – baseball is baseball. Ironically, he went to a Fall League baseball game the day after the World Series finished. (Fall League is a league of the best lower A, upper A, AA and a few AAA players that the teams send to Arizona to play against one another from now until Thanksgiving.)  I guess he needed to taper off.

I'm sure you've realized I started this blog months ago, but we've been incredibly busy.  Now, the baseball world is in 'Winter Meetings' where deals are made.  The Rangers have already signed another relief pitcher....  He's a bit of a rehab.  No more deals yet.

The hot topic is:  Can the Rangers repeat?  We've got a precedent (2010/2011).  I hope Michael Young and Adrian Beltre enjoyed the World Series win, but it must have been somewhat bittersweet.  

Hurrah for the Texas Rangers (and Baseball)!

 We can't let the baseball season drift away this year without giving the Texas Rangers their due.  No one except me and Drake saw the Rangers as doing anything this year.  They lost 100 games in 2022 and they've won 90 this year.  I'm not sure the team has enough juice to get to the World Series, but it really doesn't matter.  The season has been more fun - 90 wins, duh, rather than 100 losses.

In our household it doesn't matter if you win 100 games or lose 100 games, Drake (and by default ME) watch all the games.  If the Rangers are behind by more than five runs, and it's later than the 7th inning, sometimes Drake will abandon the game.  He's a complete diehard.  

Big surprise that he's been living and dying for the Rangers during the post season.  Again, no one picked them to beat the Tampa Bay Rays or the Baltimore Orioles, but they did.  Now, though, the Astros are a mascot of a different color.  We are currently behind the eight ball.  We have to win two more games in HOUSTON to go to the World Series.  Stay tuned.

Drake has been into baseball seemingly since before he was born.  His Dad was a semi-pro left handed pitcher.  The day Drake was born, Norm was supposed to pitch.  The OB doctor sent him to the mound saying the baby wouldn't be born until long after the game ended.  In those days, fathers were not allowed into the labor/delivery area, so it didn't really matter where he was.  According to Merilyn (Drake's mom), his thoughts weren't on the game.  I don't know if he won or lost, but Merilyn was in labor 27 hours and had a 'forceps' delivery - that's where they pull the baby out with salad tongs around the head.  Norm had plenty of time to finish his game.

Drake played Little League and Babe Ruth.  He was a short, wiry, fast, and smart about the game 2nd baseman.  (He was 5' tall in the 9th grade.)  Unfortunately, his last coach was a drunk.  The coach got drunk, then upset, left the field, and drove off while his team was still on the field playing a game!  Norm could have coached the team, but he couldn't get enough time off work to do it.  Then, Drake's eyes went bad - he became nearsighted when he was 14.  Those two things were enough to end his baseball career.  I also think he figured out he just didn't have the body type to play baseball at much higher of a level.  5'11" tall with a 28" waistline when he graduated from high school, he was a geek in the making.

Basically, I've had to accept baseball season is just part of our life.  The tradeoff is the ballet and any museum or attraction I want to see is cheerfully attended by Drake - as long as it doesn't interfere with an important baseball game.  One of my fascinations from the very beginning of watching/attending baseball with Drake is his incredibly deep knowledge about the game.  He can point out stuff happening that most people don't even realize is taking place during a game.  We actually went to see the Ranger's low A and high A teams play this past summer in North Carolina: The Down East Wood Ducks and the Hickory Crawdads.  These are the most minor of minor league games.  They were fun, and I actually bought jewelry and a painting in Kinston, NC - home of the Down East Wood Ducks prior to the game in an art gallery, not the baseball field. 

The other fun part of baseball as far as I'm concerned is all the baseball sayings Drake knows.  He knows some which I'm POSITIVE he's made up.  When I google them, they are always actual sayings.  Here are some of my favs.  You can figure out what they mean:

WORM BURNER

BASEBALL ISN'T OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER (Yogi Berra)

NEVER SAVE A PITCHER FOR TOMORROW; TOMORROW IT MAY RAIN (Leo Durocher)

CAN OF CORN

THROW STRIKES, BUT DON'T GIVE HIM ANYTHING TO HIT (said by every pitching coach)

THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL

NINETY PERCENT OF THIS GAME IS HALF MENTAL (Yogi Berra)

THERE ARE TWO THEORIES TO HITTING THE KNUCKLEBALL.  UNFORTUNATELY, NEITHER ONE OF THEM WORKS.

GET SERIOUS; IT'S BASEBALL.

EVERY PITCH COUNTS

SWING LIKE NOBODY'S WATCHING

BRINGING THE THUNDER

SITTING IN THE CATBIRD SEAT

HIGH CHEESE

ELEVATE YOUR GAME

BATTER UP, BUTTERCUP

RALLY CAP

CROOKED NUMBER

RUNNING OUT OF OUTS 

BARREL IT UP

A BLOOPER, A BLEEDER, A BOMB

A FROZEN ROPE

A LONG STRIKE

MENDOZA LINE

MEATBALLS

LIVE ON THE CORNERS

AROUND THE HORN

FLASHING THE LEATHER

A FIVE TOOL PLAYER

This list can go on and on and on.  Baseball has been part of the culture since the early 1800's.  Just watch "Baseball", a film in nine innings by Ken Burns if you don't believe me.  This year the game has been revitalized or ruined depending on who you talk with.  It's faster, snappier, with more runs, hits and steals because of three things:  a pitch clock so the pitcher can't go into a Zen trance between every pitch; bigger bases; and the 'shift' being banned.  This year most games were just slightly longer than most movies - even Spring Training games.  

So root for the Rangers, the Diamondbacks, the Phillies, or the Astros (at this point in the season), but tune in because postseason baseball is really exciting.  Oh, and just to point out one last thing:  baseball players and fans are renowned for their superstitions.  My baseball guy has been wearing a Texas Ranger shirt EVERY DAY during the post season.

   

Western Mountain State Fair, North Carolina

 Our visit to North Carolina wouldn't be complete without a fair visit.  We were pleased to attend the Western Mountain Fair.  This is a subset of the State Fair, so it wasn't gigantic, but it was choice.  Every fair I've been to has something which sets it apart from any other fair - remember New Hampshire and maple cotton candy?  Well, this is apple country, so I wasn't surprised to see this booth on the midway.  

Another unusual part of this fair was the staggering number of North Carolina products which you could buy.  There was even an 'apple store' where you could buy several different types of locally grown apples.  I have to confess we bought fudge instead.  There was also an interesting exhibit about the North Carolina State Forests.  I spent some time visiting with two forest rangers.  One's specialty was trees and the other fish.  I learned that hemlocks (which take 40 years to mature) shade the trout streams which makes the trout healthy.  Appalachian Mountain trout are as finnicky as they come.  Shaded streams keep them healthy.  It was an interesting anecdote about the interconnectivity in nature. 

This is the tree forest ranger

As usual, my favorite part of any fair is the crafts.  There were some great ones at this fair, and I took pictures of about 10% of what we saw.  Here's my favorite craft:

This hummingbird as well as the morning glory flower was carved out of basswood by the 'bird man'.  This is the nickname his other carver friends have dubbed him.  Here are three more examples of his work:

Yes, that feather is carved wood

This is a lady slipper, a  type of pitcher plant

Finally, the big draw on a Tuesday was the Youth Llama Show.  It was fun.  The picture is of the 'senior' who won the competition in her division.  The animals were beautiful, and each one was so different.  There was every color, variable size, and one was even shaved like a poodle!  

I could have spent more time at this fair.  It has the best midway we've seen.  It had not only blood curdling rides, but also little people rides.  The ferris wheel was lovely.  We rode the aerial tram which went over the entire fair.  I was able to take my best picture of the Blue Mountains from the tram.

As always, if you want to see my pictures, click on the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SoL5wT6k6AnA73uY7

Welcome to the North Carolina Vanderbilt Extravaganza - AKA "The Biltmore Estate"

Vanderbilt Estate - "The Biltmore" in Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville, North Carolina is best known for the Biltmore Estate.  This is one of the Vanderbilt houses.  The setting is 8,000 acres upon which is the mansion, the formal and informal gardens, a conservatory, complete with as many orchids as I've seen since Hawaii, a farmyard, a deer estate, [this must be a holdover from when Vanderbilt thought he was the King of Asheville], and a winery.  There are also several restaurants and shops.  The whole shebang is still privately held by the Vanderbilts and several family members live on the property in cottages/houses, rather than the mansion, and run it all.  For the privilege of seeing all of this, they charge the lordly fee of $85 per person.  To be fair, it is a two day ticket for everything EXCEPT the mansion.  I had it in my mind this place was on top of a mountain out of town.  Instead, it's right inside the Asheville city limits.

Today, the building of this monstrosity would be filmed as a documentary.  They started the building in 1889 and finished in time for the house to open for Christmas, 1895.  Landscaping was still being completed.  The mansion cost $5 million in Gilded Age dollars.  That's approximately $168 million in Electroic Age dollars.  Since still photography was available, Vanderbilt's architect documented the construction process. The photos and explanations are part of the house tour.  If you are interested, you can read about the construction and see the 19th century photos.  The Vanderbilt historical staff has tried to find the names with photos of the people of color who helped built the mansion and landscape the grounds.  In keeping with 19th century thinking, the 'colored' were not paid equally, nor offered the same benefits as the white workers.  At least there are some pictures, and jobs were offered.

Honestly, the most interesting aspect of this house was the art.  There are Singer Sargent paintings, Renoirs, Manets, and other locally/internationally famous artists.  There is Serves' porcelain, but the jewel of the art collection is a 17th century tapestry.  There are three tapestry panels -  one extremely rare, and the other two are just 'rare'.  The tapestries at the Biltmore are three of the seven virtues.  They are 'Faith' (only one in existence); 'Prudence', and 'Charity'.  Thanks to the centuries and the French Revolution, fine wall sized tapestries tend to be priceless.  

Most of the rest of the mansion is pretty much the norm for Gilded Age houses with the exception that there's hardly any 'gilt' - actual gold used as paint or decoration.  The Vanderbilt house, "The Breakers" (Newport, Rhode Island), the 'summer cottage' of 30 plus rooms is covered in gilt.  This house actually feels like it was lived in.  Most of the furniture looks comfortable, and there are places to eat that don't include a table for 20.  The mansion is very large, and I've deleted from my photos the 'extra guest bedrooms' which all looked about the same as a really nice hotel room of the era.  There were just lots of them.  

There is an indoor swimming pool and a bowling alley.  The house was (and is) an ongoing project of renovation and redecoration.  One large room was being redecorated when WWII broke out, so the Mrs. Vanderbilt of the era stored all the National Galley of Art pieces in this room for the duration of the war.  She considered this her war duty, and never even suggested charging the museum for the storage. 

I thought $85 per ticket was pretty steep, but I have to say it was an entire day's worth of entertainment.  The gardens were really exquisite.  The conservatory rivaled many city botanical garden offerings.  There were orchids I'd never seen.  Of course, it helps that western North Carolina is very temperate and everything seems to grow here.

One of the reasons the garden areas are so spectacular is the landscape was the last 'park' designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.  He died shortly after the mansion opened.  His mature grounds of the 21st century are still a triumph.  

I think Asheville would be better served by the Biltmore Estate if the grounds were open to Asheville residents for a nominal fee.  The brochure talks about 'hiking trails', but I didn't see any.  There is a pond; a lake; and a portion of the French Broad river.  It certainly wouldn't detract from the 'tourist attraction' to let the local population use some of the acreage carved out of the center of their city. 

If interested, there are two sets of photos - one of the mansion and grounds, and the other of the building process.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1QaL6obEJBuMAkR7 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8b3TXzaMe147BR2h8

 

  

65th Mount Mitchell Craft Fair, Burnsville, North Carolina

 Last post I mentioned Mount Mitchell which is the 6,684 foot mountain in the Blue Ridge.  It's the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River.  Well, we still haven't seen it, but we have certainly tried to this weekend.  We headed north from Asheville to attend the 65th Mount Mitchell Arts and Crafts Show at Burnsville, North Carolina.  It's about an hour north of our Asheville house, and about 2000 feet higher.  Thus, it was a few degrees cooler.

Now, everyone knows we've attended a ton of craft shows all over the USA.  I tend to find a LOT of jewelry, some pottery, and occasionally a painting.  The Mount Mitchell show was huge, and the quality was extremely high.  We discovered another coven of potters located in this area of NC, and their skills are outstanding.  We also found two people crafting things which were unusual.

Meet Lee Miller who produces butterfly jewelry.  Yes, from real butterflies.

There's a great story in how he got started.  One day his potter girlfriend found a dead butterfly on the windowsill of her studio.  She brought it to Lee making the offhand comment that she wished she could keep it.  Lee is a surfer, so he got out his surfboard resin and somehow managed to coat the butterfly to preserve it.  It worked so well that he started ordering butterfly specimens from a specimen company (who knew this was a thing), and voila' a new craft is born.  Here's an example of a 'light catcher' which was my favorite.

The other crafter which fascinated me was Anthony Stockton.  I've discovered when you find someone with a passion for creation, they will talk to you endlessly.  Meet Anthony:

Anthony handcrafts hunting knives and pocket knives beginning with various grades of steel bars.  He doesn't forge his knives; he uses various grades of grinding, then he heats his raw knives in a knife kiln, grinding the edge finer and finer between heatings.  Then, there's getting a perfect cutting edge, polishing and setting the knife into the hilt.  Anthony's knives are not cheap, but they are so worth the cost for these magnificent tools.  Anthony is holding his favorite knife which he plucked from a table of 20 knives he was selling.  *FYI - I didn't take a bad picture, he's standing under a red nylon covering which gives him that popular 'sunburned' look!

The star of this crafting show was the quilt show.  There were about 70 quilts as well as a display of patriotic quilts which has a unique story.  

These ladies, who are part of the Piecemakers, run the mission which honors veterans in a three county area.  First, they make about 55 quilts a year with patriotic themes.  Then, they GIVE THEM AWAY to the veterans beginning with the oldest vet down to the youngest.  They do this every year.  The lady on the left has even gotten her husband into the action. I guess he got tired of being a quilt widower.  He's started creating and quilting his own quilts for the project.  This was my favorite of all the quilts on the stage which are representative of the quilts they are giving away this month.  Then, they just start again.

You got to pick out your favorite quilts in various cataegories  (challenge, small, medium, large, graphic).  Challenge quilts are quilts made respecting set forth rules for the construction.  Small, medium, and large - self explanatory.  Graphic were garments.  Here are the quilts I voted for:

Challenge quilt choice

"Small Quilt"

Medium Quilt

Large Quit

Graphic category

I also found something in Burnsville, NC that you just don't see everyday.  The town has a sundial.  Yes, a sundial - not on the ground - hanging on the wall.  Here it is:

It's almost 3pm - Eastern Daylight Savings Time

This delighted me as much as the unusual sculpture in front of the town hall meeting place, and the cafe with outdoor patio seating with stream sitting on the town square.  As always, I've taken a bunch of pictures of everything including an abandoned church being overtaken by nature.  It reminds me of the saying:  "Nature always bats last, and she bats 1000."

If you want to see more pictures, click the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UuSjRuQshH1jwiTg9

PS - I also bought material for my granddaughter to have a new dress from leftover material being sold as a fund raiser.  You'll see it in the pix.  

 

Bonsai and More

 I have been hyperbolic about the trees since I arrived in North Carolina.  Now, that we have arrived in Asheville, centered in the mountains of the state, the evergreen family have joined the hardwoods.  I will confess it's very hard to accept these rounded hills as mountains after having spent time in the Rocky Mountains.  The folks in Fraser and even Colorado Springs would laugh to hear these little mounds of about 2100 feet (elevation of Asheville) classed as mountains.  In North Carolina's defense, there is a 6,684 foot mountain (Mount Mitchell) in the Black Mountains - about 35 miles from Asheville.  Mount Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi, and even Coloradans can't sneer at an almost 7,000 foot mountain.  

Meanwhile, back to the trees.  Aside:  There's a balsam forest on Mount Mitchell.  I mean who has ever seen a balsam tree?  I can hardly wait to see those!  I only know that wood from those cheesy airplanes which were GUARANTEED to fly.  You had to assemble them, and if you got the upscale kitc, it included a rubber band for some mysterious purpose.  They usually cost about $.50, which was cheap enough, so you could persuade your mother you desperately needed one since you'd been so good on the shopping trip.  90% of the time the assembled 'plane' landed on the roof of the house the first time you tried to 'fly' it.  

Having been enraptured by the trees since I arrived here, my first real outing in Asheville was to the North Carolina Arboretum (tree museum).  It was wonderful.  I put names to many plants and trees which I had been seeing in the area.  This arboretum is a combination of gardens and trees.  The point of pride of the Arboretum is their extensive bonsai collection.  If you think I'm wild for big trees, then I'm over the top for little trees.  Brooklyn's Prospect Park has a small collection they keep sheltered in a glass greenhouse, but this North Carolina collection was founded and nurtured by:

Here is my favorite bonsai (hard to choose from so many):

This bonsai is entitled "40 acre rock" and has a miniature Juniper and a miniature boxwood planted atop the rock.  Picturing the tree in a setting makes the bonsai an even bigger marvel in my opinion.

There were so many trees and flowers (regular sized) it was hard to pick favorites.  That said, here are the two items which really did it for me.  First, a holly tree which will sprout Christmas red berries in the winter.  Hollies are evergreens, and new leaves push the old ones off during the spring like Live Oak trees.  The flower that stunned me, and I smelled it before I saw it, was a star lily growing!  Here are my pix of these two:

The holly tree - 25' tall next to an elm 
which towered over it.

Star Lily - wonderful smell & in the area of stuff 
which is supposed to grow great here

As always, I took a bunch of pictures.  See all the different varieties of bonsai.

Just click on the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SVeFE8znjqVcfKsT6

The Funnest Time in Roanoke

Roanoke, a town of 320,000 is filled with outstanding museums (way above average for its size), great restaurants, and a beautiful setting of rolling hills set in a hardwood forest.  We just kept finding wonderful things to do and places to see right up to the last day.  

Our last day was spent playing pinball because.... Roanoke has a Pinball Museum.  For my youthful readers, 'pinball' was what people played prior to video games.  Thanks to the Covid Pandemic, pinball has made a big comeback.  Apparently, spending a whole bunch of time at home meant, if you were a man, then you needed a 'man cave' equipped with your own pinball machine.  I actually talked to two 30ish nerdy guys who were debating the best of the newest machines.  

Here's what one of the newest of the new pinball machines looks like:  It's called "Weird Al's Natural Museum of Hilarity" and has the most up to date solid state innards and a pixel based monitor.  It also leaves a lot to be desired in terms of reliability.  It broke multiple times in the first three months of its arrival at the Pinball Museum.  I played it.  More about that later.

Of much more interest was my talk with "Jason", a mechanical engineer, who volunteers his time repairing these machines.  When I first saw him, he was changing out a transistor based innard for a mother board in a game manufactured prior to 1977.  That was a pivotal year for pinball:   Electronic motherboards appeared and took the place of 'wires' and transistors.  Here's what a transistor innard looks like in an old pinball machine.  Jason was changing out these innards and transforming the game into a motherboard/solid state game.  As the older machines age, parts are just not available.  He will use the same 'top', but the mechanics inside will be completely different.

Wires and Transistors - how every pre-1977 pinball machines looked inside. (above and below left).  The conversion to motherboards - pre1977 to post-1977 pinball machines (below right)

Here's Jason

Whenever I talk to someone who really enjoys either his job or his hobby, there's such enthusiasm.  Jason couldn't wait to show me the 'special' machines.  First up, is 'Humpty 

Dumpty'.  This game was designed in 1947 and it is the first game to employ 'flippers'.  However, they are NOT in the place you would normally expect.  See is you can find them:  

Yes, that's the flippers:  Right above the 10,000 yellow barrels which is about half way up the machine.  It's not until later, that flippers descend closer to the bottom of the machine.  And, it's not until the introduction of the solid state machines that flippers got bigger.  

Drake is an old time pinball player since he played a machine at the pool hall in Altus, Oklahoma during his last two years of high school.  His favorite machine at the museum was a Bally machine called Bows and Arrows.  He said this one has the features he was most accustomed to from that era.  It also has the small flippers and mechanical counters to keep track of your score.

Another strange machine from the 1950's was one called "Lido".  It seemed to blend a gambling element, almost like a slot machine.  You could choose your 'level' to play depending on how many nickels you initially fed into the machine.  I think the photographs will help you get the picture.

I really wanted to play this machine, but it was one 'under repair'.  Jason told me it was almost impossible to have all the 'old' machines up and running all the time.  I decided to skip up to some of the first motherboard machines.  I noticed two things about the more modern machines: (1)  The flippers were about 1/3rd bigger, and (2) the machine would hide the ball, and you had to be prepared for the ball to squirt out in various places.  Initially, I would just stand there as the ball shot out about halfway down the board.  I gradually got better - about a C- worth of better.  Here's the machine I really liked which was one of the first to have an interactive monitor - the 'bride' would have different faces depending on your score with each ball.  At first, I didn't even realize what was happening.  Here's what it looks like - very futuristic, very silver (instead of red, blue, yellow and green).

Remember, I said I'd played the 'newest' game?  It shared more characteristics with the Bride of Pinbot than the Bow and Arrow Game.  Here's a look at the 'board'.  The ball, initially hidden from the player,  would squirt out from multiple places.  You had to be quick, quick, quick with the flippers.

The Pinball Museum is in the center of downtown.  It's in the Market Square which has been selling stuff continuously since 1882, just as the railroad arrived, thanks to that $10,000 bribe. 

The Center in the 21st century is home to a farmer's market, two museums, a few stores (like a candy store!), the local stage for live theater, and a miniature aquarium.  Here's my favorite aquarium shot.

We waved goodbye to Roanoke, and hit the road for Asheville.  It's in the mountains, and if the Canadian smoke ever clears, this place nestled up against the Great Smokey Mountain National Park should be lovely.  I'm already getting the vibe that Asheville is to North Carolina as Austin is to Texas.

Here are more pinball pictures.  I'm playing a Beatles pinball game.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/j7tMXKVjDBEKPnqG8