Will by a Warmer River

The 27th of December dawned yesterday with a passing shower and then cleared off to this weather here in Florida. This boat departed from the private docks here on Hutchinson Island at the Coconut Cove Condo's. The pier pole sitting pelican and I watched them quietly depart for either a cruise around the Indian River Estuary and intra coastal waterway or out the cut to the Atlantic Ocean.
     My son and I talked about how much the water calls to him when he is near the ocean. And our time together over on the gulf shore was spent playing in the waves with his children and nephews. We had days of really nice waves for the gulf, with boogie boards and kayaks to surf them. Plenty of sand and water for my son.The Indian River Estuary, here on the Atlantic side of Florida, is a very biological diverse ecosystem that is a reminder of how much I love being near the water, but even more near a river. I love the ocean views, especially when the shore has some bluffs and rocks for the waves to break against. The gulf and the Atlantic are nice here, with great beaches, but they don't call me to go boating like rivers do.
     Here in Central Florida they have started to work on the recovery of the Indian River Estuary, looking at storm water discharges, the health of different fish and turtle populations. Throughout America, just like Salida Colorado, we are embracing our rivers and their health. Building to watch to river, not have it in our back yard, but our front yard. Here they don't have dams to be concerned about, but they do have runoff from huge areas that affect the health of this system. I am a member of Trout Unlimited and so read their magazines about opening up rivers to the sea and know that we are doing better, the success of the salmon returning to the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula after those dams were removed is proof of this. There are many more not so public successes. I suspect those working for the Indian River Estuary will find success also. I think our climate awareness adds to this process, if for no other reason than this feels more local than the ozone and we might be able to make a change. I was encouraged as I watched some YouTube video yesterday to acclimate to what we might do here during our visit, that talked about the work in progress.
   It is warm and lovely here, and with all the weather happening north of us, rain, snow and tornadoes, the scene above seems especially tranquil.
     I love being Will by the river, but in winter, I love that this river is in a warmer climate!

Traveling America

It is December here by the river. Snow has come this week and the cold has settled in. We had plans to spend Christmas in Florida with some children and grandchildren, and so have set off to drive there and that brought us to this river. The Mississippi at Natchez Mississippi. At this point on the Mississippi, the Arkansas that flows past our house has already become part of this flow. It is amazing

to think of water that flows past our house is now flowing here. We have been driving for two days and this morning will see us drive across Mississippi down to Mobile Alabama to Tallahassee to stay with friends. It is nice to drive across America when you can give yourself permission to wander as you want, to pause and look. I find myself always drawn to the water and the Mississippi is such a line for east and west of America. There are stories in the west, about our rivers. Those of us who raft the Arkansas here in Colorado, know stories, the Colorado River is certainly well loved with many tales, John Wesley Powell and such. But the Mississippi, is any river in America more written about? Can one stand by the Mississippi and not think of Mark Twain? It is especially impressive when you drive to it. I have flown a plane that far east and it is neat to turn circles over the Mississippi, but to stand next to it is the only way I can feel the immensity. We drove down a piece of the Natchez Trace to Natchez and I really felt the history of the Indians and the pioneers in the settlement of this part of the country. To then arrive at this river is to feel like you know what they saw.
  We are staying two days at the Miccosukee Land Co-op just east of Tallahassee Florida with friends.  This place is 300 acres of individual homes in the fecund forest and swamp of central Florida near the St Mark River. It is an intentional living community started by young people from an FSU course in the 70's and seems to be a success. Modest homes in the woods and a community center and pool. Our friends have a lovely garden and this time of year is when they do a lot of their gardening, the lemons and oranges are ripening, they just had a big Okra harvest that we enjoyed in gumbo last night.
    Tomorrow we move on down to below Clearwater for our Christmas week with my son Bill and his family from Denver and his Sister in law and family from Chicago.
    It is exciting to be seeing parts of America more intimately than just flying over them or even just driving by on the interstate. To drive America and see America gives hope to our future. It is not as bad as the news would have us believe. A smile will always be returned. A road curtesy acknowledged. A common purpose of life in America felt. I look forward to new experiences as we wander for the next few weeks before we are back and I return to being Will by the River.

Living with an Electric Car

A little over a year ago, this Chevy Volt came to live by the river with us. It was our second electric car, the first being a 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle that had been converted to all electric. That VW and some solar photovoltaic panels, made it pretty nice to drive by a gas station after years of no choice except who was selling gas the cheapest. We had friend with a Volt we test drove and liked. What we liked about the Volt was that it was all electric drive until the range was depleted and then a gas motor came on to run a generator. There are also simple mode changes that let you save some battery range or share the range with the generator for more electric current when climbing hills. Something you do a lot around here. We have found that unless we leave the valley, we generally have enough electrical range to do what ever we want around here, so the nine gallon gas tank, if we were just around Salida and BV, could last for as much as 1200 miles.
       I have been using google alerts for accumulating articles on electric cars for a number of years. I also have a subscription to Green Car Reports. Between these two sources I have watched the evolution of the electric car industry, lusted after a Tesla, marveled at what BMW has produced in the i3 and the i8. Seen BMW build a state of the art carbon fiber plant in Washington State. Watched the beginnings of Tesla's and Panasonic's giga factory in Nevada. So a lot of what the Volt could do was not a mystery to us. But in my reading it was apparent that the electric car industry as a whole was struggling with selling the cars. Somehow even test drive was not always convincing. But the electric car industry could sell these cars if people had a little time in them and this has been our experience. The Volt is a complex car with a lot of ways you interact with it. The possibilities of regenerating braking becomes clear when you drive US285 to Denver and have only used 2.8 gallons of gas.
      A Boeing F35 strike fighter has something like 7 million lines of computer code. The Chevy Volt has 10 million lines of computer code. So it takes some getting used to the ways you use all the cars features. Chevrolet has struggled, I think, with there marketing of this car. Even so they have the highest approval rating on the Volt of any car they have sold in the history of the company. For us, here by the river, this past year has been one of learning to driver a little differently. Of marveling at the capabilities of the car and being challenged to use as little gas as possible. It is said of Volt drivers that they don't have range anxiety, they have gasoline anxiety!
     It is going to be fun to see what the future will bring in electric cars. There drivability is so much easier than internal combustion engines (ICE) and we prefer to drive our Volt rather than our ICE truck. Just check out Tesla videos on YouTube and you will see what I mean. In the meantime, I think I will go on a long drive in our Volt.
Will by the River

Life after Time Passes

All my children, grandchildren and spouses 2014

Last year at Thanksgiving we had that rare occasion of all my children and their families in the same place at the same time. It happens so infrequently as the rush of their lives intrudes, as the space between us all grows by States. But when one looks at a picture like this, at least from my perspective, I see what time passes means, to have gotten to live long enough to have a picture like that. It does give meaning to Thanksgiving and being grateful.
     I think that as each year passes, we all take time to look back. Look back the year, maybe even look back the long life that has been granted. As I said in the last blog, the idea of being grateful is good for health, but I also think that as I get older, one of the benefits is I have more to be grateful for.
Experience, hard won by mistakes and time, takes on a new shiny luster when viewed from the lofty perch of time passes. To have accomplished, to have made a contribution and to have set a new group of engaged with life young adults into the world is a reminder of what perseverance brings when mixed with time. One needn't start tallying their place in life with a picture like that one above, Enough is said there.
     But I have lived long enough, time has passed enough, that I can find peace in my family. I can look forward to what surprises they will bring to my life as I continue to make a contribution in return for the air I breathe. I think that time passes and your grateful list grows while I continue to experience new and wonderful things. This strange thing called life, colored by each of our own perceptions is pretty cool. I can't wait for tomorrow.
Will by the River

Thanksgiving and the Grateful List

It was an interesting week leading up to Thanksgiving.The Salida Brass played at the funeral for our fallen member Bob Cook. Then later I went to Aspen with my friend Ralph and we finished this Beech Bonanza we had worked on to repair the metal on the bottom of the cowl that had ground off in a gear up landing.  Two endings that came on top of each other.

       I have been on this project almost two years, working over there when we could. You would think I am grateful that it is done, which I am, but I am also grateful for the experience of the work.

      Just before Thanksgiving I read an article about having a grateful list. The author was trying to write something he was grateful for each day. The idea is that it increases happiness in your life. This happiness seems to also improve health. But his premise was our consumer society breeds dissatisfaction. 

We end up wanting more and never being happy with what  we have. This article caused me to review all that I am grateful for. On this Thanksgiving weekend of family and friends I have much to be thankful for. 

It seemed to me that this feeling of thankfulness was everywhere I was, with family, even just out and about. The lighting of Christmas mountain, with fireworks, and freshly falling snow was very much the holiday season. As I looked around at my friends and neighbors in Salida, they had expressions of gratitude for their community. 

       Keeping a grateful list was a family habit some years ago, but not lately, this article has me thinking it might be a practice again. At least for me, I have so much to be grateful for, and as I watch my grandchildren play, or finish work that was a joy, to use skills learned over a lifetime, it is with satisfaction that I can think of much to list. I hope everyone can enter this holiday season with gratefulness, to share of themselves and get back even more than they give. Be grateful and look to the future with optimism. Happy Holidays from Will by the River

A good life passes

It is November. They are starting to groom the slopes up at Monarch. We are well into the change of the seasons. While this evidence of the cycle of life goes on it's steady course a well lived life came to an end this week. Bob Cook, a founding member of Salida Brass, died of cancer at the age of sixty. Bob grew up in Salida, he and his Brother ran a hardware store and Bob went on to working as a accountant.
       This kind of steady and quiet life is such foundation for so much that gets done in America. This kind of life is, for me, a reminder of "one day at a time" is all we really have a promise of. Planning, obsessing if you will, about the future is shown to be the folly it is, when a good life ends before it's time, such as Bob's.
     The Salida Brass, with the founding father of the group visiting,  will gather this Saturday the 14th of November to honor Bob. We will be playing Christ the Lord is Risen as Bob did every Easter for 44 years.
      Perseverance is a human quality that I have come to appreciate more as I have aged. I feel it is the foundation of accomplishment. Certainly to accomplish you have to start, but, you have to also finish.  I view Bob's life as well lived.
       Rest in peace Bob, we will carry on, we will be steady, we will try and live with integrity, one day at a time..