©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com Notice anything new?
Yes, The Epistle has a new look and I don't like it one bit. It was due for a fresh coat of paint and so it was time for a little makeover. Nothing too dramatic, after all I am not a dramatic guy, but while black seems to be my color of choice, I thought you might need a little waking up.The problem is that I started playing with a few new templates, didn't quite find anything I was happy with but by then had lost my old one. Don't get too used to this one, if I have my way it will be changed by next month.
The transition, cont’
After visiting with daughter Kami last month, we drove up the coast to our home in California and visited my favorite in-laws. We spent our usual week doing maintenance chores at our home and visiting with friends. Then, returning to Los Angeles and flying to Seattle Washington we rented yet another car, and drove to Anacortes to spend some time with daughter Amy and family before driving back south to see daughter Cassie and her little one Kayla. Having wound up all the grandkids as much as I could, we caught the next flight out to the island.
Again, after the usual ‘get the place up and running’ chores consisting of getting all the water systems working, boats launched, and outdoor furniture drug out from winter storage, we were settling in and ready to go.
Our weather has been a mixed bag, some great days, some coolish, some rainy. We did have one freak storm that downed a number of trees in the area (none of ours) causing a lot of downed power lines. We were without power for 3 days. It was a micro burst with winds up to 70 MPH (110 Km / Hr) The bummer was that we had 8 of our dock chairs, including some heavy teak chairs blow into the river. I recovered 4 of them but the others have not been seen since.
Around here there is a saying "The river chooses some" It refers to the fact that when the area is first visited, some people feel an afinity that draws them back again and again. Locals muse that "they get it". This was a case of the river 'choosing' our chairs...
Finally, I came across a fabulous new short video clip of our neighborhood that I know will just blow you away. To see it, just click HERE
My HERO
I love mother in law jokes. They add a little humor and relief for some poor guys who suffer from the disapproval and nattering tongue lashings regularly heaped upon them. I think that in most cases, we marry and hope for the best in our relationships with our in laws but expect little to avoid being disappointed. Many of us can relate to the horror stories we hear of the pain and anguish poor guys go through at the hands of their mother in laws. The truth is, I can’t.
I am one of those rare, undeserving saps who took an awful long time to fully realize what a gift I received when I married into my wife’s family. Both my father in law (since passed) and Mom, were (and she remains) the poster children of what I can only aspire to be as a grandparent and outlaw. Ooops, I mean in-law…
When we built our home in California, my father in law spent a week doing all the rough plumbing for me. The man was a gentle giant. Mom made special outfits for the kids, brought gifts for each of them from all their travels, stepped in to babysit the kids on several occasions so Janice and I could take a week off on our own, has taken the kids on trips with them, has been generous to a fault to our entire family and has never, ever spoken a condemning word to me about anything.
Ever.
Remarried 3 years ago at 84, she and husband Vern went diving off the barrier reef in Australia for their honeymoon. To this day, they travel incessantly all over the world. When home, she teaches water aerobics an hour a day, is an accomplished artist (her paintings hang on our living room walls in France), has designed and built several ginormous stain glass windows for 2 churches (as seen above) and has been a volunteer of one sort or another, her entire life. But mostly she has been a sterling example of walking the walk of her faith. The woman is an impossibly tough act to follow.
Mom, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the gift of your daughter.
Video archives
There was one other project I got my head around this winter. For the past 20 years I have wanted to be just like you. That is, have our collection of thousands of pictures that we took of the kids growing up and the endless hours of family travels, birthdays and school plays on videotape sorted out, organized and digitized for posterity.
You do have all of yours done, right?
For the past 3 years, we have been taking photo albums and videotapes from our home in California to the Island in the summer and returning them in the fall. Then, we take a bunch more to Europe and return them in the spring.
Janice is in charge of pictures (titles, sorting and creating appropriate albums) leaving me in charge of videos. First, I had to convert all the video tapes into digital computer files. It was then I discovered that the files could not be uploaded to Google because they were not in an acceptable file format. So, I converted them all into an ‘acceptable’ file format and edited them to the extent that they are stand-alone subjects or events. Finally I began to upload them so that they could be seen by our family and friends.
On the right side of this page below the blog archives are everything from the “Home and Garden” styled TV show featuring our home in California that was filmed before I retired, to an updated video tour of our home in France. There is footage of a SWAT team I led while in the Military Police.
There are outtakes from my stage show, the levitation I performed at Wizard Island in Oregon for a video we were working on as well as Janice performing as my assistant in a show I did in our early years. Finally, there is even footage of my risking life and limb while suspended 30’ from a crane to put Christmas lights on my grandkids outdoor tree.
Half way through the project, Google stopped accepting videos so I had to put the rest on You Tube. Much like Google, it allows uploading unlisted videos that are not made public without the owner’s permission. Unlike Google, You Tube limits video upload lengths to 15 minutes so anything longer must be done in ‘parts’, as in part 1, part 2, etc.
Subjects like our 10 year old playing with my handcuffs (work related equipment, not usually part of our home entertainment system! :) and not being able to remove them could have negative career implications, so she will choose who she will permit to view it. Except for a future wedding video, of course…
The technology is great and was obviously not available to our parents when we were kids. The change is a good thing as I have less than 50 pictures of my younger years and parents and not a minute of home movies my father took of us when those items were shared after he died. This was a serious ‘bucket list’ item for me. I would have felt that I cheated the kids out of some important memories of their growing up had I been pushing up daisies before finishing this.
Anyway, it’s all there… the good, the bad and the ugly. It is a video history of sorts of most of our family. No need to ever have to read a boring book to fall asleep with when you have 179 of these family movies available. This was all videotape transferred to digital format so some of them were quite old and have sound tracks seriously out of synch with the video.
Most correct themselves after a few minutes. Some portions of the magic clips are very dark. This was because it was how the show began and the lighting was set for a live audience, not for recording purposes. The videos were only intended for the casts review and improvement. The sound quality on many is disappointing. Either the videotapes deteriorated over the years or my technological expertise fell short.
I would appreciate knowing of any broken links or other glitches you find. We would love to hear from you regardless.
