The main attraction at the beginning of this new decade occurred in September, but we will cover it first, and then review the earlier part of the year. One of SPOT’s principal investigators was a professor of Environmental Science at the University of New Mexico. He invited me to visit with his students and to discuss his project. He suggested I bring Joyce along if possible. His wife could use some company that didn’t include business of any kind. The trip fit well into my job description and Mom was ready to go. So we packed up and headed for Albuquerque (by air). After we finished our business, we spent a day just visiting the sites in Albuquerque. That was quite an experience in its own right. Beautiful cathedrals, and steeped in south western culture.The Rio Grande ran through the western part of the city where there was a large city park. A visit to that site was a real eye opener. Most states that include significant wetlands also experience one or more invasive species of vegetation that threatens the species diversity of the area. For example, in the east, privit, kudzu, water hyacinth and Japanese honeysuckle are problematic in wetlands and aquatic sites. In many western states, the Salt Cedar (Tamerix spp.) is a serious invasive both in the wetlands and uplands. The issue is not so much that they shade out other species of plants, but their leaves secrete high concentrations of salt rendering surrounding ground unsuitable to support other vegetation, or wildlife for that matter. Because of little to no competition, the Salt Cedar grows in dense stands to the point of making walking difficult where they are well established. In this particular park, the Salt Cedar was stifling. Overall, however, Albuquerque was well worth the visit, and I would recommend it to anyone traveling in the general area to take a little time to check it out.
Stan (the prof.) suggested we might want to visit Los Alamos and especially the Bandelier National Monument. He had a graduate student (I’ll call him John) who with his girl friend would be glad to go with us to show us the ropes so to speak (he’s been there before). They were a nice couple and we were more than happy to have a guide for this trip. While we had a quick look at the Los Alamos facility, the more fascinating site was the Bandelier National Monument. This national monument includes some 33,000 acres of canyon and mesa country and its past human inhabitants. You will note the inhabitants (Pueblo Indians) lived in caves carved out of the soft face of the canyon walls. Yes, they were cliff dwellers. Although not shown in the plate, there were several areas where there were a series of 3 or more ladders accessing higher points on the cliff’s face including a large tribal gathering cave near the top (a three ladder climb). I told Mom I would never make it living there. Can you imagine climbing all the way down in the morning and realizing you left your wallet on the bedroom dresser? The story here was about a woman who climbed all the way up to the meeting room, but froze at the thought of going down the ladders. With terror in her face, she just stood quivering at the top of the ladder and couldn’t move. Sam was an athletic young guy and he managed to get around her to the ladder. With a lot of conjoling we got her turned around so Sam could grab an ankle, and step by step he guided her down each of the three ladders. After they cleared the first ladder, the rest of us started down slowly not to spook her anymore than we had to. It was an ordeal, but Sam did well and got her down safely. Acrophobia can be terrifying, and glad I don’t have much of it. It was a great day and the visit to Bandielier just reminds me of the fabulous country we live in, and why travel all over the world (like many do) when such a treasure trove of geologic and historic features awaits you at home (DVII-1).
We went back to Albuquerque for the evening and left early in the morning for Taos NM a couple of hours north. Just had to visit that town because that is where McCloud, the deputy sheriff who moved to New York in the popular TV series of the same name aired during the ‘70s. Starring Dennis Weaver as McCloud, it was one of my favorites. So if you needed a reason for going to Taos, that was it. The road to Taos ran along the east bank of the Rio Grande which at that point was a robust pretty river full of water and rapids. Going to Taos turned out a little more interesting than we thought it would be. Taos was a small town, and somewhat “touristy”, but not too much, and not a whole lot to see, except we were located on top of a large mesa. We found out that a few miles west of town was the grand canyon of the Rio Grande. We decided as long as we were in the neighborhood, we needed to check it out. Heading west on the main highway all we could see was flat prairie as far as mountains way in the distance. Up ahead we saw a bunch of cars parked and people milling around. As we got closer, we noticed there was a bridge up ahead and the cars were in a parking lot, and then, there it was, like a giant knife sliced through the mesa from top to bottom, for down there in the bottom ran the Rio Grande. The bridge, of course, spanned the canyon. We parked and walked out on the bridge and looked way down at the river. Just ahead of us on the bridge was a small cluster of folks looking at something. What, might you ask? Unbelievably it was another acrophobia case. There were no ladders involved here. The woman simply sat down in the middle of the bridge and wouldn’t budge. No one tried to lift her up for fear of injuring her. Someone called the State Police and soon a beefy state patrolman showed up, who easily lifted her into the back of his patrol car and drove her back to the parking lot.
It was a long day, so we stopped in Santa Fe for dinner and the night. It was also a site we wanted to visit. Well after a good night’s sleep, we hit the streets of Santa Fe, and found about what you would expect to find in any tourist town, St. Augustine for example. We were very disappointed to find such a famous town no more than an elaborate tourist trap. We left town early and headed back to Albuquerque to board our plane home in the morning. Our New Mexico trip was one of the most diverse and interesting adventures from home (home seems to be an adventure day to day). While we didn’t know it then, this would be our last trip from our Virginia base.
Earlier in the year, we had a visit from Gordon, the younger of Mom’s two brothers and his wife Martha on their way to South Florida, where they spent much of their winters (can’t blame them). Other than that we decided we better focus on our own digs. I was getting some vibes that our days in Virginia may be numbered, so any unfinished jobs at home needed to be brought to a reasonable conclusion in case we had to up and move. So moving on from my birthday on January 8, let’s take a look at how far we have come in five years in Herndon. Plate DVII-2 is a collage of pictures summarizing where we stood in 1990 and what we were facing in 1986 (DVI-9). We were really proud of how the basement turned out. What started out as a simple wall, turned into a four room secondary living and working area. The stairwell divided the space into left and right, and the long heating and air conditioning duct divided it front and back. A couple of feet from the stairwell were the main heating and air conditioning units. Right behind the stairwell and a 6’ corridor we installed a bathroom, water fixtures of which were already installed. The side walls of the bathroom ran to the outside back wall of the house. The bathroom had a sink and commode, and we had real plumbers come in and connect all that together. I made all the electrical connections for lighting and wall sockets. The door to the “Jon” opened up facing the back of the stairwell, with a back to front corridor separating the heating and air conditioning units from the stairwell, which led into my office space. So turning right at the bottom of the stairs would find you in my office and several shelves where we stored many canned foods and other non-perishable items. Turning left at the bottom of the stairs would place you into the rec room (wreck??). Here was a working TV, kids toys, chairs, couch and a couple of tables. These two rooms were at the front of the house. Matching the two front rooms divided by the stairwell were two back rooms divided by the new bathroom. Right behind the rec room, was Mom’s room with a nice counter from the new bathroom to the north end of the basement. Here she had all the materials and space to pursue her interests including teaching materials and colorful sweatshirts, etc. Extending from her counter toward the front of the house and along the wall of the new bathroom was my space for conducting business, plus a nice deep sink and a below-counter apartment sized refrigerator. On the other side of the new bathroom and behind the heating and air conditioning units resided my workshop with all the standard sawdust generating equipment normally associated with such a room. My work bench backed up to the side of the new bathroom. I made sure I included enough studs to support such a work counter. In the process of all this, we also enclosed the aforementioned large heating/air conditioning duct in matching wood paneling as the walls of the four rooms (DVII-2).
Having finished the basement, we were pretty proud of our work and the added functionality of the house especially because of the increased traffic coming to visit both from the north and south. But we should not forget the changes in the overall property. These changes are well documented in Plate DVII-3. Referring back to Plate DVI-18, the changes really stand out as a substantial improvement. For example, the willow tree in the southwest corner. From the spindly stick it grew to a substantial tree playing host to the local bird population. The northwest corner and our rock garden had progressed nicely, and along with the southwest corner nicely defined the property along the community path traversing the neighborhood. The foundation plantings around the house and deck as well as a few more tree plantings completed our landscaping for the moment. However these indoor and outdoor accomplishments over the past 5 years were accomplished with some apprehension (or perhaps offered as a bad omen). Remember we left Jacksonville right after the major expense of replacing all the windows.
Mom and I enjoyed the Northern Virginia area as a place to live. The whole Shanandoah valley was just full of things to do especially in the fall with all the fairs and yard sales. Inside DC itself, (after seeing all the requisite monuments, cemeteries and statues) quickly became very old. Except for a few visitors we seldom ventured inside the beltway if we could avoid it. In addition, I was not at all happy with our work environment over in Reston. As long as I could stay on the road in my role of managing the preliminary results of the data product for practical operational use, I was happy. For example, one of our PEPS (Preliminary Evaluation for SPOT) was a professor at San Diego St. University in Southern California. He invited me to come and give a presentation to his graduate students. After the class he asked me if I had dinner plans and other than eating, I didn’t. Well, it turned out the class wanted to take me to dinner. While many of the students would be looking for employment soon, I still felt it a compliment that they would invite me out to dinner on their “dime”.
My feeling of apprehension came to pass early one morning in January, 1991. I was called into the chief’s office and was informed that the PEPS program was winding down and they were having some budget problems (who doesn’t?). Apparently I was one of the higher paid (outside the beltway) employees and further I turned 62 in January. That would make me eligible for early withdrawal of Social Security (with lower monthly benefits, of course). For all those reasons, my job was being terminated. I didn’t argue the case since the decision was already made, but I had a couple of projects winding up that didn’t require any travel and I agreed to finish those up. However, I was to pack my things up and be out of the building by close of business that very day. Sure enough, right at 5:00PM two uniformed security guys escorted me to the front door (to make sure I didn’t exit with anything I shouldn’t). The next day I came back as a normal citizen, to work out my separation papers and stipend with the Personnel Director.
So what now? We loved our newly renovated home, but there was no way we could sustain ourselves in the DC area under these circumstances. In any case I would have to set up my own consulting business (initially “Resource Dynamics” sounded good). Actually engaged a law firm to help me set up an LLC. Since I had some items to finish up with SPOT, we had a couple of months to figure it out. I was glad we had progressed as far as we had with our basement build-out. I had a nice home office already for me. In fact, all the large expenditures for the house renovation had already been paid.
For the next few months, I spent most of my time in my basement office, or the wet counter where the phone was located. Talked a lot with Cleatus Turner, my old supervisor from St. Regis, who had formed his own company. It became apparent that the opportunities I was looking for were not going to be in Jacksonville, and we didn’t really want to do a reprise in that town. It was also clear that remaining in the D.C. area would not be feasible simply because of the cost of living. Many government agencies were headquartered in the area including Departments of Agriculture and Interior. Both those agencies had substantial staff foresters employed around the country in National Forests and wildlife areas. They can retire after 30 years, while still quite young. Many of them will fill their early retirement years as consultant foresters. Many of their spouses held full time government jobs as well. With one sustainable salary, consulting fees could be minimal to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in the area. Those circumstances did not exist for us if we were to live off the consulting fees I would have to charge.
In the last few years with St. Regis, I had developed some good relationships with the University of Florida, and Georgia. Arnet Mace was the Dean of the Florida School of Forestry, and he also taught a class. I put many miles between Jacksonville and Gainesville where I made several classroom presentations. Dean Mace also made several visits to our new facility at Interstate North to see how we were using (or testing) this new space technology. It turned out that he had just left Florida in 1990 to assume deanship at the University of Georgia School of Forestry and Natural Resources. As mentioned earlier, Bruce was nicely settled in Athens with a new wife, family and in a business he loved. With all that in place, our next destination was a bit of a “no-brainer” and we were Athens bound.
We hunted around and found a realtor that would handle the selling of the house and would recommend a realtor in Athens to find us a house. Not seeing the need for both of us to go, I went to Athens and met with the recommended realtor (forgot the name), and he spent the afternoon driving around several neighborhoods, and of course he had his favorites his company pushed. Several of his favorites were far from downtown and the University. I thanked him for the tour and it gave me a lot to think about, but it may be a month before we could move from our current location. When I got home, I talked about my trip with Mom and pointed out I wasn’t too happy about the tour down there, and we need to take a better look and she agreed. So we went on with the current house sale procedure. It wasn’t long before an anxious buyer was found. The housing market was pretty good, and the value of our house had almost doubled over the past 5 years. The offer was well off what we were looking for, so we told the realtor we needed to keep it on the market just a little longer to see if we could do better. Meanwhile, at Bruce’s suggestion, I went back to Athens to meet with a realtor he knew and in whom he had some confidence. Her name was Sharon Gay, who’s husband was a well known local builder. I met with her and we went on another drive, but much different than the first one. In fact, none were on the outskirts, but much closer to downtown and the University. Oddly enough, some of the areas we covered were the same as our original visit, but the guy spent little time promoting any of those properties. One property I remembered was in the Cedar Creek Subdivision. It was on a 25,000 sq’ lot with at least 1/3 as an undeveloped woodlot. That area was the back one-third. Most of it was in old but small suppressed hardwoods with several notable exceptions. Most striking though were a number of what I would call “Soil Bank” pine (Loblolly) planted in the ‘30’s during the great depression (same as me). The site was good, slightly moist and sloping down toward Cedar Creek (a main tributary to the North Oconee river). The pine averaged about 70’ in height and 16”-20”in diameter. They occupied the back half of the woodlot. For an old forester, where could possibly be a better place to settle in. When a price was mentioned, I was sold, especially when considering the house and living cost difference between D.C. and Athens. This was the second time in our marriage, I picked a place “cold turkey” I hoped Mom would like (DVII-3).
The last staff meeting I had at SPOT, I had mentioned compensation I had due for my four months of work since termination, and they said they would take it under advisement. So once our decision to where to move had been made, I went to see the Personnel director for SPOT, and he announced that the company considered me a “double dipper”, one who wanted to be paid twice. I asked how they came to that conclusion, and he said my separation check was far in excess of what I would be owed!! There was absolutely no relationship between my separation check and what they owed me. The full value of that check was mine, additional work or not, and I made that clear and reminded him he knew it too. After seeking legal advice, I determined it would be more of a hassle than it was worth, so I didn’t push the issue. I just chalked it up as a bad experience. The good news was I hadn’t turned in any of my work that I had done since I was sequestered in my own office. I gleefully fed it all into a shredder and called it a tough couple of months, but good riddance.
The move to Athens was uneventful (thankfully) but like all moves, it took a while to unload, unpack and to set up the house. One benefit of being in Athens was only 15 miles away in Oglethorpe County, and Bruce’s house and he typically did Thanksgiving. This year was no exception. In addition (just to add to the seasonal celebration) on October 9, KB and Barry came through with another granddaughter; Caitlin and we were all invited to actually see the birth occur (I had mixed emotions). While the process was fascinating, any future invitations will probably be received with a “been there, done that ” sort of response. That event, plus the great (as usual) Thanksgiving spread put on by Bruce and Pam pretty much wrapped up 1991, but was closely followed by the grand arrival in early 1992. It was on the 30th of January 1992 that the “Kid” George and wife KRO, introduced their first, a cute (aren’t they all) baby girl Ellen Ruth. That meant we had at least one grandchild from each of our four siblings. The excitement surged to it’s finale in March with her baptism in Montgomery. What a great start to a new and enlightening decade (DVII-4).
The launch of my new enterprise, Bob Barker & Associates (mainly George) and some University folks and some from the Athens Clarke County Central Services and Planning Divisions, success was at the very least, measured in terms of financial gain, but a pretty high plus in learning the ropes of community governance. Starting off with a series of short courses and seminars, set up and assisted by Dick Field and Ben Jackson of the University, I had an opportunity of meeting many people. In addition, I joined the Georgia Forestry Association early on and I think attended my first meeting in the fall of 1993 (I could be off a year one way or the other). During that meeting, I was introduced to the Athens-Clarke County landscape manager (Roger Cauthen) by Dick Field. I arranged a meeting with Roger back in Athens the following week. During that meeting in Athens , I learned Landscape Management was a Section of the ACC Central Services Department. Part of Roger’s responsibilities was the hosting of a civil action committee called the Community Tree Council of Athens-Clarke County. Dick Field was already a member of that group and since they had some openings, he urged me to join because they needed a strong forestry voice within their group that wasn’t an academic. While I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that statement, he didn’t have to twist my arm too hard to accept. Rest assured it wasn’t long before I knew exactly what he meant by that statement, and that may become apparent as this retrospective plows on forward.
Somewhere along the way I met a member of the Oconee County Planning Department. Like many of the northeastern counties in Georgia, they were experiencing rapid growth, which was creating transportation problems. They were interested in exploring the possible role of digital image data from the low resolution satellite imagery in their planning process. Already involved with Oconee County, was my old colleague Roy Welsh, the director of the UGA Geography Department. He had developed an innovative digital mapping program utilizing the global positioning coordinates of latitude and longitude. He was also interested in the proposed network of satellites that would provide global positioning information on demand. So we spent the next two or three days in the Oconee County government building talking over the possibilities. I was sort of apprehensive, because a lot of questions for which we really didn’t have an answer for simply because we had never approached using satellite data with precise geographic coordinates overlayed on the imagery. Always a first time for everything, and Oconee County Planning was anxious to proceed to find out.
It turned out that Athens-Clarke County had many of the same transportation issues as Oconee. Already a cooperative agreement between the two counties was in place and was called ACORTS (Athens Clarke, Oconee Regional Transportation System). This group was currently looking at a major road corridor that ran through Oconee and the southern part of Athen-Clarke counties. In the Oconee portion, it was Mars Hill Rd. It began at the northwest corner of the county where it intersected with U.S. Highway 78 entering the county from the west and the towns of Monroe and Atlanta. From there, Mars Hill Rd. proceeded southeasterly through Oconee county and into the town of Watkinsville, where it turned northeasterly entering Athens-Clark at the crossing of the North Oconee River. Here the road name changed to Whitehall Rd. Now I tell you all this because this was to become my first job in Athens. Using UGA’s automated mapping system now generically called GIS (Geographic Information System), it was possible to develop a corridor 25’ wide with the roadway right down the center. The only thing left to do was to precisely identify the vegetation component albeit not accurately depicted by the low resolution of the imagery at that particular point in time. This was especially problematic in those areas where the vegetative component fell on the right-of-way boundary. For example, if the vegetation component was a tree, did it fall on public property (within the right-of-way) or on the surrounding private property. My job was to locate and properly position (from the road center line) all major vegetation(trees), so they could be factored into road improvement specifications. Needless to say, this and related activity kept me busy for several months, and into the 1993-’94 time frame. As I proceeded on this project, I didn’t think for a minute the domestic scene remained benign until I finished. No such luck.
At the end of Sept. 1992, Diane up’ed and delivered a fourth boy, Stephen. Of course we had to make a western visit to Tribune KS. As we have been doing over the past few visits, we took another scenic route through Arkansas this time, targeting Fort Smith that was close to I-70 are normal route to Kansas. Fort Smith was the town that Judge Isaac Parker, the famous “Hanging Judge” held court. While his old restored courtroom and the inevitable gallows were soberly interesting, the many wineries we passed (not all, of course) were far more uplifting. From Fort Smith, we proceeded to Wichita and old Dodge City. The attempt to highlight how the old town looked, it was a total flop from my historical perspective as was the visit to “boot hill”. Our time would have been better spent in the “Old CowTown Museum”. It was a fun trip out, as most of our diversons were, and nicely broke the monotony of a long trip. Of course, the real excitement for the trip was the “end game” in Tribune, where we first greeted Stephen on the changing table as we walked in the door. As might be imagined, the new baby caught the attention of the other four siblings and at least 3 dogs, and perhaps a cat or two (DVII-5).
Along with a new decade, we were embarking on a phase of our life with new “digs” in Athens. Of course there were things we needed to purchase to make the home functional. We had to buy and install a new washer and dryer, a food freezer and refrigerator. The boxes in which this equipment came captivated the kids’ imaginations, and the packaging in fact became the no-cost super toy that kept grand-siblings occupied for several weeks (VII-6). With all the yearly excitement about behind us (hard to predict nowadays), it was a treat to join the crowd in Montgomery for Thanksgiving.
While the eighties produced a quantity of grandchildren, it didn’t seem things would slow down much in the ‘90’s. After Stephen’s arrival in Sept. of ’92, we all sort of took a sigh of relief. After all, an even dozen wasn’t bad. Then low and behold, along came Jason to George and KRO in October of 1994, which gave us a great kid, but also the superstitious number 13 as a total. Jason became the centerpiece of most activities for the rest of the fall and winter of ’94. Except of course for the Christmas season and Callaway Gardens (which for a few years became an annual event). I think we took all grandkids (east of the Mississippi) to see the wonders of Calloway via train rides in the Nov./Dec. time frame (VII-7).
Early in 1995, I received a call from Peter Dress, assistant to the Dean of the School of Forestry. They were looking for someone to replace Walter Cook. Walter and I were both friends and colleagues. He taught surveying, mapping and photogrammetry. He was up for retirement and they wanted a replacement that would expand the scope of the class to include spatial data as well as all the others. The class would be called “Spatial Data for Forest Resource Management”. The new spatial data, analysis and applications in a mapping environment had been labeled as “Geographic Information Systems” (GIS). All of a sudden, gone were the good old days of grabbing an aerial photograph and a handful of @#$#$$% paper maps and heading to the field. Things were changing fast. Paper maps were being replaced by digital files as were airborne photos. Added to those data sources were spatial data acquired by satellite. These digital data sources were huge, and grew exponentially with the level of resolution required. Not for the first time, the database far exceeded the capability to store and process it. Universities around the country were working on the problem, which far exceeded the needs of the forestry applications. Classes were being expanded to include GIS training. The job of data compaction was being addressed and (not so slowly), abilities to handle masses of data were being addressed. But at the time of my appointment to conduct such a class, no available GIS specialists were matriculating out of universities. So my appointment was designed to be temporary until they could find a legitimately trained GIS individual.
Since landing a job (paying) at the forestry school was one of my objectives since moving to Athens, I jumped at the chance. Of course I was obsolete as any one in this new field, but we innovated and put together a book to cover all our material. About this time, a whole new wrinkle came into global positioning. A cluster of 24 satellites make up what is referred to as the Global Positioning Satellite system (GPS). This was clearly a situation where students and teachers learned in parallel. With luck I could stay about ½ step ahead of them. Now in 2021, you would be the outsider if your vehicle doesn’t have an operational GPS location capability. From an academic standpoint, this was a great experience. From a practical and social standpoint it was a bit of a disaster. All I can say is college (University) was not as it used to be, and it has continued to degrade ever since to the point I would have to seriously consider the benefits of attending undercurrent domestic mores.
There is little question that money ($$) and politics have encroached further into time spent on basic social and practical skills (English, History (Civics), Math and Science). Much of this decline was accelerated by the downside of state sponsored scholarships. Supporters of these scholarships have long touted the great opportunity it presented to especially low income families, and of course theoretically it did—but: money can hire lawyers and lawyers know how to game the system. As a result, funds designed to help those that needed them ended up in the hands of those who didn’t. Constant pressure like this on teaching faculty created stress and tended to push toward the direction of least resistance. Academic institutions often resorted to student government bodies to help to sort things out. Unfortunately, they have inadvertently “left the asylum in the hands of the lunatics”. Conditions have continued to slide right up until the writing of this retrospective, and has reached a critical point that can have a serious impact on our very way of life. Otto von Bismarck, the famous German statesman and diplomat, once observed there was a special providence that looked after drunks, idiots and the United States. Lets just hope his observation still holds true.
Two additional happy events in 1995 included a unique trip to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and another unique trip to Tribune KS. During this period of time, George was expanding his expertise in urban forestry applications. Initially most of this activity was locating, specific identification and basic physical condition both in terms of the tree (and its root system) itself and the suitability of its physical location. George had already signed an agreement with the city of Ft. Lauderdale for a basic urban tree inventory. While George carried out the field work, KRO would maintain the tree file, and location so a detailed map could be provided as one of the completed products from this effort. While he had a couple of friends to help him, I agreed to plug in as well. Of course this left Gram with Ellen and Jason, which at that age (all three of them) was a real challenge for Gram. We invited Karen’s 12 year old Alyssa to come with us to help with the kids. She proved to be a responsible young lady and made a fine companion for Gram in wrangling Ellen and Jason. Actually the kids were pretty well behaved as well and we had a great week down there. Each morning was highlighted by a delightful bowl of hot oatmeal served up by the motel’s small dining room, but it sure hit the spot. One morning, my assignment was a neighborhood away inland from the ocean on the west side of the railroad tracks. Well I am sure you have heard the expression: “On the other side of the tracks” or “wrong side of the tracks” referring to the less desirable part of town. There is such a designation in Ft. Lauderdale in spades. In the commercial part of this area and along the main street were a series of open garages, with various services offered such as “Auto Repairs While you Wait”, or “Auto Detailing, Best in Town”. Outside these open garages were groups of young men, drinking beer at 07:30. While I was a bit nervous to begin with, most of these guys were a bit curious (can’t blame them), but otherwise quite friendly. Also in the more residential part of this area, people did confront me to find out what the heck I was doing, again can’t blame them. When I explained, most folks just beamed and remarked that they were impressed the city was actually allocating funds to their area. It made them feel good. Most folks were as nice as they could be and promised to keep their yapping dogs on a leash (ha, ha).
The most outstanding experience I had in that area was in a large public park containing many trees and recreational areas including basketball hoops on asphalt courts. Some of you readers may remember a comedic actor and story-teller by the name of Andy Griffith. He initially did a lot of stand-up comedy in various towns, but ended up on TV, first in the “Andy Griffith Show” where he and Don Knotts (Barney Fife) played sheriff and deputy in a small town. In later years he gained his greatest audiences in a detective/lawyer series called “Matlock ” where he played a floppy dressed lawyer/detective and when outside would wear a big floppy “Tilley” type hat. Well now, I have a Tilley hat that I wear outside to deflect most of the sun from my eyes and head. I had the hat on that morning and as I was progressing around the park I came upon an area with several clusters of trees. The area also had several clusters of basketball courts, some of which were in active use. One of the areas was within 100 feet or so of where I was, and I figured if I just did my job and ignored them (they were so involved in their game) I could just cruise on. No such luck. Suddenly from behind me came this loud voice “Hey Matlock!!” The hair on the back of my neck rose, then I heard them laugh and I cracked up myself, and ambled over to talk to them. Like most others they were curious why “Matlock” was in their neighborhood. When I explained, they, like most others, were surprised Ft. Lauderdale was planning and spending money on these kinds of activities, and more important that the plan was actually being carried out with boots on the ground. These were good guys who when they stood up, I could look straight forward right into their knees. I enjoyed the encounter, and I think our presence and visibly conducting the urban tree inventory was well received in this less than optimum neighborhood. In more affluent neighborhoods, we often had the sheriff or local police cruiser check us out after nervous homeowners wanted to know what was going on but were not going to come out as ask us themselves (DVII-9).
The second big domestic event of the year (besides my teaching experience) was our not so rare trip to Tribune KS to visit with Diane and family (largest by far). This year we took the great southern route west, then north up to Kansas. Leaving Athens, we drove south to Gulf Shores AL, just south of I-10 where we spent a few days at our favorite beach. From there, it was on I-10 due west until we reached San Antonio. I believe we spent two days there as well. The highlight of San Antonio besides the well known Alamo, is the River Walk around the city. This river walk was formed by diverting the San Antonio River around the city. As it circled, a watery cul-de-sac was formed headed by a large reflection pool. This represented the town center and on one side of this beautiful pool was a high rise Hyatt Hotel facing on the other side San Antonio’s Convention Center. Leaving the convention center and moving out into the river again, it continued until it met the other branch forming a river again where it continued its flow southward which was controlled by a dam giving some control over water levels during high water events. I can’t remember, but the dam may have been used also as a source of electrical energy generation. But back to the river walk itself. It supported all kinds of restaurants, bars, and entertainment platforms for various productions and shows. The food and drinks offered up were superb. A fun place to visit if you ever have the opportunity. Just fly in some Friday afternoon, spend a fun weekend and come home on Sunday –piece of cake.
After our few days in San Antonio, we headed north on US 83. We had to cross two e/w interstates on the way; I-20 and I-70. We were expecting to spend our first night between those two major highways but earlier a series of tornadoes zig-zagged through that area, which changed our minds since the entire area was out of electricity. We continued and finally found a Holiday Inn just south of the Oklahoma border. By mid-morning the next day we crossed the OK/KS border and into the town of Liberal (the Oklahoma pan handle is quite narrow). It was in Liberal where Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz ran their antics. They even had a tin, and straw man there to greet us. We didn’t stay in Liberal very long since it was still quite a drive up to Tribune, and we were two pooped out people when we finally arrived late afternoon (DVII-9).
Well, 1995 was a busy but interesting year, but it was time to recharge a bit, and the Christmas season was a perfect time to do just that. To start with we decided we needed a little time spent at 155 Sandstone Dr. That of course didn’t mean we had no visitors. But there were two new things, one being a pair of small live spruce tree saplings. We needed some outplanting of trees and this seemed to be a good idea to use them as live Christmas trees first. The second and one with high utility potential was a multi-seat swing that we mounted between two trees on the front edge of our little woodlot. To say mom loved it would be an understatement (VII-10). It wouldn’t be Christmas without a trip to Pine Mt. GA and the site of Callaway Gardens. We have tried to do this with the kids from those east of the Mississippi. This year it was with Bruce’s two, Robin and Greta. Calloway at Christmas was spectacular, but pretty much the same basic themes; the train ride, and static exhibits with some modifications, but the spread was so magnificent, re-visits were almost as much fun as the first one. We also made trips to Tallassee AL to visit George, KRO and the kids, Ellen and Jason. Jason was just over a year old. And finally we paid a visit to KB and family in Kennesaw, just outside Atlanta GA. Of course visiting anyone in the greater Atlanta area was on an extended trip, given the typical traffic situation. In any case, this Christmas, a decade mid-point, was relatively non-hectic and relaxing.
There were a few stress points during the year, principally during April and May when mom had a battle with pneumonia. She was hospitalized for a few days, but came out of it in flying colors. She continues her pre-kindergarten activities at Young World. Presumably, she was just a substitute, but it seemed someone was always absent, requiring her demonstrated expertise working with this particular age group. I had finished up my first quarter teaching Spatial Resources for Resourc Management with a class of 12. Starting in January 1996, I would have a class of 40 or more. One of the more challenging tasks of any teacher or instructor, is to capture the attention and interest of the students (most of them anyway). In this particular situation, the winter of 1996, the attention and interest factors were a definite challenge, why? The 1996 spring Olympics were coming to town.
There was a cold start to 1996, with an early snowfall of some 3” of snow, but it didn’t last long and the warm-up for the spring Olympics took over the conversations. As mentioned earlier, I was approached and invited to become a member of the Athens – Clarke County Community Tree Council. Though class and laboratory (Field) precluded attending many meetings, I kept abreast of things through Roger Cauthen, my county contact. One thing the City wanted to do was to spruce up the landscaping around town and specifically the Olympic venue sites. For years, Athens, and now Athens-Clarke County wanted this landscape upgrade, but happily the Olympics provided the needed incentive. The two areas where I really noticed the changes were downtown Classic Center and the Visitors Bureau. Visibly the most dramatic and permanent change was College Station Rd. Here serpentine sidewalks were installed with new site friendly trees planted. The road itself was expanded to a four lane highway by redesigning and building a new bridge over the North Oconee River. For a couple of years the rights of way looked rather puny with sidewalks and tall sticks dominating the scene. It didn’t take long before the crowns of the trees developed, and steady diameter growth proceeded with canopy development. In addition, the center islands of the highway were populated with Crepe Myrtle (the large species group). Now some two decades into the 21st century, the sidewalks are almost invisible from the road, and with the Crepe Myrtles blooming, one couldn’t have a more attractive entrance to the University.
I should mention here that Athens was not the official site for the Olympics, but because of the University, many facilities to satisfy Olympic standards were available only 60 miles from the named site, Atlanta. Atlanta was truly the official Olympic site for 1996. It also took the brunt of the one unscheduled event, the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. One of the security people, a young man with law enforcement aspirations, noted a suspicious package in an obscure location, and moved it away from the heavily populated area, where it subsequently exploded killing one and injuring 111 people (one more died later of a heart attack). The young security person (Richard Jewel) was immediately under suspicion, and before any investigation, the FBI was on his case. The young Jewel was devastated, and while subsequently quietly released when a known anarchist Eric Robert Rudolph was charged with the act, Richard Jewel never fully recovered. Too often, I fear, overzealous prosecutors rush to judgment to show they are on top of local breaches of the law, with too little thought of the consequences on innocent people if they are premature.
The next three years was pretty much academics oriented with my teaching responsibilities. Of course, classroom procedures were pretty well set with little variation. I did make the comment in1999 that my wife and I just celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary, when a guy in the first row asked: “to the same person?” That sentiment was carried to the field, where more non-controlled variables played a more dramatic role. To reduce the possibility of disaster, students needed to learn how to read a compass and to reach the destination where they thought they would. For some of the more “macho” students (guys usually), “hey, no problem”. Take one guess who was first to get lost? We also taught them standard area and linear measurements commonly used in forestry operations. Linear field measurements are not usually stated in term of inches, feet and yards, but in Gunter Chains (1 chain = 66’). The basic area unit of measurement was made in “acres” (1 acre =43,560 sq.ft). Ten square chains = 1 acre (10 chains = 660’. 660 squared = 43,560 sq ft.). It was easy to see by most the utility of the “chain” as a unit of measurement. Now in the field one was not going to tote a one-chain tape measure. The art of distance measurement is to determine how many paces it took an individual to cover the 66’. Of course that is going to vary from person to person (male or female). Along a stretch of road we set up one, two and three chain measuring distances along the side of the road so students could pace out and see what their specific pace number is. By using the 3 chain length, they could do that whole distance and divide by 3 to get their average pace per chain. Of course walking in the woods is not the same as walking along a road. One had to learn by experience to add and subtract as you went down into a gulch or smashed your way through a tangle of briars and brush, or tripped over a root, and how to offset around obstacles and come back on proper compass course.We of course set up a three or four point circuit beginning on the road and ending up a ways on the same road (we had run the course the day before and had all points and the finish monumented with an item the two person crew would bring back as verification of their visit. Each crew (5 of them) received directions to each point in terms of compass direction and number of chains for each leg of the polygon. Well the results were highly variable, if not scary. One crew didn’t find any of our monumented points and sort of panaced and began to guess directions (the worst thing you can do). Believe your compass under all circumstances. Combined, we finally “yelled” them back home.
Later in that semester we were back in Green County where we had carried out some of our basic forest measurement techniques described in the previous paragraph. This time we had with us a new faculty member that was to officially take over my role. She was a newly minted PhD in GIS technology. Given the fact she held a doctorate degree, I assumed she had done the pre-requisite forestry training. Our task for this lab assignment was to establish the property corners. We had only 6 people, so we were divided into two three person teams. We only had four corners to establish. The property was trapezoidal in shape with two corners were westerly on the river and two easterly across the highway for a couple of chains. I asked my successor to take one crew and find the northwest corner. A property map showed the distance and direction to the northwest corner. I would take the other team, establish the southwest corner and use the same map, cross the road and establish the northeast corner. There was a north-south running woods road that came close to the corners, and we would meet up there (with luck).
I took my crew, and asked them where we should start looking for our southwest corner. Turns out the adjacent property to our south had a woods road that followed the property line west for a ways before turning south. This in itself moves us closer on easy to traverse terrain. Didn’t last long, but it was a help. I was impressed they thought of it. From that point it was pretty steep and rough down to the river edge. We got about half way down there when one of my crew, probably the oldest member, eased up to me and joined me as we got closer to the river. I finally asked what his problem was (he was looking very nervous). He hemmed and hawed a little then asked; “how old are you”. I had just turned 70, and told him so, adding “what is it to you”? As most of my readers are well aware, I am not a skinny wimp of a person. This guy stated he was worried if he and the rest of the crew could get me back to the road if I had trouble. I kicked him in the butt, and told him to get down to the river and find me around the corner, and if I’m in trouble, just float me down stream to the first village. Looking back on it, he may have had a good point. 70 years old seems a bit much to begin doing this kind of thing. However, I felt great and why quit when I felt good doing what I was doing.
Because of our good starting point, we found the southwest corner on North Oconee River, and proceeded east on a known bearing to establish the southeast corner and proceeded to follow the defined woods road north and somewhat surprisingly ran into the other team, with my replacement. They found the corners on their own. My replacement was indeed an unhappy camper. Scratched arms, messy hair and of all things, brand new shiney boots all muddy. From the midwest, she had trepidations about southern river-bottoms, and forest lands in general. Her focus on this day was on snakes, gators, mosquitoes and ticks (not necessarily in that order). Her work in school involved computers and sophisticated software to manipulate information from raw data, of which she had little clue. The issue was not the computing and analysis of the information, but rather the data upon which the information was derived. If the data were flawed, then the information was flawed, and the old saying “Garbage in, garbage out, only 10 times as fast” was in play. Regardless of the degree achieved, students need to be taught where and how the original data were collected and what are the probabilities the information derived from them being within a workable range before further processing is done. Not my problem anymore, but truly hoped she would soon understand that. You know, maybe she did. She left the forestry faculty in less than 2 years.
There was no period of wondering what I was going to do now my formal teaching career was at an end. Never fear, never a dull moment on the home front. In June of ’99, we were planning to visit Diane. Sitting having breakfast one morning, we observed two Goldfinches on our bird feeder, and realized summer was almost upon us, and decided this visit was a good opportunity to explore further west using Tribune as a jumping off point. So, after a nice visit, we pointed northwest and Steamboat Springs CO. We arrived well before nightfall, and had an opportunity to explore this wonderful and famous ski resort with no snow. The mountains were green and ski trails and slopes slashed down their sides. We stayed at the Ptarmigan Inn, a Best Western facility but we would call it upper class. Enjoyed our night there and dinner at the Ore House. Several of these eateries are through the west, and are along the lines of Outback, but more cozy than Longhorns. So, great food and sleep our first night out. The next day was a long day from Steamboat Springs to Dinosaur National Monument, where we spent about a half of day, and then on to Teton Village up in Wyoming. Our route took us up the Green River and through the famous Flaming Gorge National Monument. What a spectacular drive that was. At one point we took a loop road called Goat Run (or something close to that). The loop road followed high above the river below. Couldn’t even see the river, just the vertical faces of cliffs that almost gave a person the feeling of vertigo. I was very uncomfortable driving and asked Mom to tell me what we were seeing. We got back on the main road north with a sigh of relief. On reflection, it was a great little detour, but like so many other things: “Been there, done that”. However, the trip up through Flaming Gorge was spectacular, especially around the reservoir. I was really interested in seeing the grounds of the historically famous “Green River Rendezvous” near the town of Daniel. It was once here that the mountain men and Indians met for trading and other questionable activities that could become quite spirited. Nothing now except a second river bottom with cultivated fields. So onward we went to Teton Village. The drive was spectacular beyond words with the Teton Range just west of the road. We also learned that in Wyoming, horses have the right-of-way. Thank heaven the wranglers had very efficient dogs with them, so we were not stopped too often, or long (DVII-11). We finally got to Teton Village where we checked into another Best Western Motel, but not of the grandeur of the one in Steamboat Springs. In fact our one window looked out at the bottom of a hill as a backdrop to the two Dempsy Dumpsers serving the facility. We were going to be there for two nights. (one day) but didn’t expect to spend much time in the motel.
The time of year was June, so there was no lack of tourism on scene. However, most tourist groups were families with kids. From experience, I know if they all got going before 10:00 in the morning it would be unusual. So Mom and I got going a little after 7:30 and headed north on the paved road that served our motel. We went only a mile or so when the paved road made a left turn to the east. Continuing north was a well maintained but not paved road north toward the town of Moose. To our right ran a stream with a wide flood plain. We saw many moose and deer grazing in the distance. To our left (west) the mountains began. About 5 miles down the road there was a parking area west of the road. We drove in and found it was a trail head. We decided we were ready for a little early morning walk.While we had a camera, my main picture taking was to be with a bulky cam-corder. Worst investment I ever made. Unfortunately Steve Jobs and Apple had not developed the iphone as yet. Anyway, with all equipment collected and reasonably secure, we headed for the trail head. After a quarter mile or so, we crossed a frechette swollen stream the valley of which the trail followed along at an increasing elevation above the creek on the valley slope. As we progressed along the trail, we came to a point where the trail turned left in a right angle and ran some 100 yards or so before turning right to get back on course. This was a little cove the trail had to follow because of changing elevation. Standing just before the first turn we could not see the extent of the cove or where it turned back on course. We could see straight ahead and clearly see the trail up stream. Well I decided before I went any further, I would get the cam-corder ready to go. Mom decided to go ahead and I would catch up in a moment or two. Well she took off around the corner and out of sight while I was still fumbling with the cam-corder. In a moment she reappeared as she had made the turn and started up the trail, but slowly waited for me to catch up. Well I was finally ready to move on after her when I looked up and coming down the trail was a deer. A doe, but still a deer. There was a slight bend in the trail between Mom and the deer, and neither saw each other until only about 8’ separated them. Talk about a Mexican standoff. The deer looked left and right, took a few tentative side steps and then leaped left down the ravine as it was gone. By this time I was by Mom’s side. She seemed perfectly calm, and not at all threatened by the deer, but truly excited by the experience. This was to be Mom’s one on one encounter with the local wildlife population. We decided that encounter was a good time to head back to the car.
The next day we got up early again and took off for Yellowstone National Park. The first day there we did the standard tour of hot springs and geysers. We had nice accommodations near the center of the park just to the west of the swollen Yellowstone River. It was that eastern part of the park where we spent most of our time. It was a beautiful day, so we stopped and picked up some picnic fixin’s and stopped by a picnic area right on the river’s edge. Our table was ideally located, and we had just finished setting up for lunch when we looked across the river (rolling full and fast), and saw a group of bison coming down the bank on the other side of the river. Much to our surprise, those buffalo simply marched into the water and commenced to swim across to our side. This would require cam-corder coverage, so I ran back to the car to get the gear, and headed back toward Mom and our table, but had a few bushes and shrubs to plow through for my shortest distance back. As I busted through the gaggle of bushes, I literally almost ran into the side of a buffalo. He stopped and looked around to see what was going on, and gave me a look. Right behind him was another buffalo. He happily remained in place until I could skirt around the ample rear end of the beast I encountered. His attitude was “ho hum” at best. I reached our table. Mom was all excited as she had been jumping up and down waving her arms to warn me. This time I had a camera, and was able to get a picture of the beauty I ran into (DVII-11). After lunch, we spent a good part of the afternoon in the eastern part of the park, and was impressed with the Yellowstone River falls, which I previously knew nothing about.
We had spent our last night in the Park, so by mid afternoon we pointed the car east and headed for home with the first night to be in the small town of Wapiti WY, in what was locally known as the “Red Cliff” area. That alone attracted our attention. So we traveled east on highway 20 with the Shoshone River just to the south of us, until we saw the sign Absaroka Mountain Lodge, where we pulled in for the night. The lodge was beautiful and owned by a Canadian hockey player (go figure). Our accommodation was far more modest than the fancy lodge, however. The cabin barely accommodated two bunks, and the bathroom the whole width of the cabin in the back (see door in plate DVII-12). Oddly enough that door represents a significant event during our visit. Seems like we had a storm during the night and a major power line following the main highway was compromised by falling branches, and all power lines were down. Now you cannot simply understand dark until you are in a small cramped space. As was predictable (at our age), a trip to the restroom was almost a given function, and sure enough Mom got up first. Everything was nice and ominously quiet, then a lot of banging coming from the bathroom. Turns out there were no windows in the bathroom and she couldn’t find the door, never mind the door knob. Of course I got up and opened the door for her, and just left it open until morning.
The next morning, the power was still off, so Mom and I decided to take a little walk on the trail down near the horse barn. They do offer horse excursions for breakfast, or lunch, but we had to be on our way, so we selected a short early morning walk instead. It was a beautiful morning, clear and mild. Our path followed that of the horses in a small creek’s broad creek bottom. We saw the fire pits where the mounted campers would have breakfast or lunch. All around us we could see the deep rust-red to purple cliffs the area is famous for soaring above us. We hadn’t gone far before I heard a crunch to my left, and out stepped a moose cow, with a calf wobbling behind her. Didn’t pay a bit of attention to us (happily), and we made sure we adjusted our progress not to over take the pair. After a little bit, the moose turned left off track and disappeared in the brush. We too turned around and headed back. Having had no breakfast as yet we were ready for some. Just a brief observation here: I suspect this whole Grand Teton-Yellowstone National Recreation area is as heavily visited as any other, or darn close to it. The number of animal-people encounters must be huge. Under these circumstances I believe to get used to the annual human incursion occurring every spring and summer, and for the most part find us non-threatening. Our single encounters and the recent joint encounter with ma ma moose and mooslet seems to bear this out. In any case, we made it back to the lodge after greeting a half dozen folks on horseback heading out for a breakfast ride. At the lodge there was still no electricity, but we had a breakfast to “die” for. Turns out their grilling suite is completely operable without any electricity. What in the world, you might ask, might that be? Simple: a Weber (or similar) gas grill (DVII- 12). The breakfast of bacon, eggs and hash browns was sufficient to last us until we reached Cody in late morning.
I think Cody was our biggest surprise. Just the name Buffalo Bill Museum didn’t sound like much, but considering the town was named after him should have impressed me more. After our visit, it really impressed me. We purchased our tickets, and they ink stamped our hands. Turns out our tickets were good for two days. Why in the world would anyone want to be in a museum for two days. Of course we didn’t have two days, but soon wished we did. The museum itself was huge, and divided into specific interest areas. For example, I show in plate DVII-12 a Wigwam, a semi-permanent structure in some North American Indian Tribes. In addition to the Wigwam was a whole Indian village including their traveling teepees they carried with them while traveling. Also shown cooking pits and implements they used during the period, including clothes, baskets and bags/purses. In other parts of the museum, many other renditions of the period, its natives and settlers. One exhibit really standing out was that of guns of the period. Many years ago my dad gave my mom a nice little double barreled 20 gauge shotgun. It was a neat little gun with elaborate scroll work on the metal breach of the gun, and manufacturer’s name L.C.Smith. Lo and behold, I found it’s duplicate in that gun display and realized we had a collectors item. Smith’s name is no longer on shotguns, but on typewriters (Smith-Corona). We really could easily spend another day there, but there were a few other things we wanted to see on the way home, and we needed to move on. The museum really impressed us, and anyone in the area would not be disappointed with the visit.
Just a couple of more stops before heading east and south home. The next state to the east was our next destination, South Dakota. What a beautiful state chock full of U.S. history. Our first stop just off the Interstate was the outlaw town of Deadwood. Here one got the real feeling of the old wild west. Unlike Nevada with all the modern gambling equipment. Deadwood looked and felt the part it played. But they served beer, so walking around and quaffing a couple of suds, we were done for the day. The following day we went to what I would consider a perfect finale to our northwestern trip; Mt. Rushmore near Rapid City. Now that is one of the places hard to properly describe with words. It is a special feeling one gets standing beneath such a huge sculpture of our founders. One more night out, then back on Interstate 90 to Sioux Falls and then south on Interstate 29 and home with no more than another night on the road and rest stops.
AS we close out the ’90’s there are two more events that need to be fleshed out for the reader. One was a solid plus, the other of which was a mixed bag. First and most satisfying was our fabulous floating deck extension (DVII-13). I’ll draw your attention to this particular plate in describing the proceedings and what the heck is that deck floats. Well it really doesn’t. The bases are short concrete pillars with a square top depression that would just accommodate a length of a 4×4 post, and four slots to accommodate 2×6 or 2×8 boards. The floating concept comes in by the ability to vary the height of each pillar by placing variable lengths of 4×4’s in the top. In undulating or sloping surfaces this enables a level surface (the deck) to be maintained.
Not only did we want a deck extension, but we wanted to add a cooking shelter, or lean to that would be constructed at the driveway end of the deck. We started out at the same level as the original deck, carried that some 30-40 feet, and dropped down a step and dedicated that lower level to the grilling lean-to. At that time we had to place a header on the house to accommodate the roof of the shelter. The evening before this scheduled construction was to be done, I looked at all these stumpy concrete footings scattered all over the work area and decided to move them out of the work area all together out of an abundance of caution. Had I not done this, you may not be reading this. We had a couple of step ladders, one of which was a light 6’ aluminum ladder. I had it right against the house and when I got on it to attach said header (2×10), the leg closest to the house fell in a hole left from the original construction of the house. Of course with my weight, the light aluminum leg just buckled, throwing me smack on my back right where the concrete footers were the day before. When I went down, the sound was substantial enough to bring Mom out to see what happened. Well other than having my wind blown out (and you feel you have already died), I was visibly OK. I went and got my much newer fiber-glass ladder that was much more sturdy than the aluminum one, and continued the framework for the roof. In doing this, I enlisted Bruce and at one time his son Robin to help me out from time to time. The final project looks pretty good considering who designed and built it.
All the deck activity led to the next (not so pretty) event in the fall of 1999. I had an appointment with my friendly urologist to check on a higher than desired PSA (Prostate Specific Antigens). Soon after the results were in and I got a call to come in for a “chat.” Apparently my fall jarred the system such that my PSA skyrocketed, and I needed to have a biopsy done on the prostate ASAP. As you might have guessed by now, I indeed had prostate cancer. Now we could go through a lot of procedures to try to contain it, or go ahead and remove the prostate. Since I was 70 at that time, sexual issues were nil, and urinary tract function would be compromised, but I would get rid of an infected prostate. We decided on this latter option, and had the operation. Although the urinary tract ended up functioning like a hose without washers, the cancer was gone and had not spread. Just a little over a year ago from the moment I am documenting this event, 20 years had passed and I was finally cleared of any cancer left behind. Ironically, my Dr. was an old Navy doctor operating as he always did, and shortly after my operation they found far less invasive procedures to treat prostate cancer (of course), but apparently not soon enough to save him. He died of prostate cancer just about the time I was cleared of it. So the bad news is incontinence for the rest of my life. The good news, I’m still here just six months short of turning 94 (2022).