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I'm listening to 630 CHED now and there seems to be a tornado heading towards Edmonton. There have been sightings of one west of the city. Scary stuff - I remember the Tornado that hit in 1987. Anyway, I forgot to post my Grandfather's obituary. I finally read his book/binder The Giant Made House Calls. It has extrordinary detail about his father's and grandfather's lives. Also some comments about his own life that picks up where his book Days of Freedom ends. It is rich in Coeur d' Alene (CDA) history too and should thus be made public at some point. His relatives were prominent politically and socially in CDA and Idaho. I don't want all of my Grandfather's work to be in vain. Perhaps I'll have time to do something one we relocate! I'll need months to edit the material and secure a publisher. Perhaps the one that published Days of Freedom.

People are calling in to the radio station giving eye witness accounts. Lots of fallen trees, golf ball and base ball sized hail, broken windows, etc. I've been working out since returning although the weather has prevented me from going to the park and doing my chinups. I'm wearing Grandpa's ring on my right hand fourth finger. It's a beautiful ring (14 carat gold with a large piece of Bloodstone. I don't see any red specks in it. I'll have to look closely at the rock that Grandma gave me. My grandfather was very ingenious by using his dentistry tools to make sculptures and art. I'm wearing my Thailand ring on left hand middle finger. Last night I found the tape cassette of my gerontology interview with my grandparents in 1997. Also found my paper that transcribed the conversation. I also have a tape of my grandfather interviewing my great grandmother in 1977.

It's strange that after death a person's life is pretty much extinguished. The physical personal items left behind are usually thrown out or given away. Some personal things are obviously kept and handed down to younder relatives and memories of the person are vivid. But if nothing is written down or photos identified then the person is basically gone in a few generations. I know, even having a person's diary or oral history recorded does not guarantee that a person's life live on. But it helps. I don't want to be a burden on others when I die. That means having tons of personal things for people to sift through and determine it they're historically valuable or not. Having my life story would alleviate much of the personal anguish of relatives dealing with my stuff. Throw what ever is left out! I'll get off my soap box about death now.

Good news is that the tornado warning for Edmonton has been lifted. Whew! Well, the other news is that I left Edmonton for Florida three years ago yesterday (August 10). Hard to believe! That was quite a trip and very emotional with leaving everybody behind. I didn't know when I'd visit home again. The 3 1/2 day drive was, in hindsight, suicidal and wouldn't recommend anyone do it! I 'll have to check my diary but I only stayed overnight in one place on the trip. It was near Fargo. Anyway, much has happened to Darcy and I - good and bad. It's strengthened our relationship and soon we'll be out of Florida and on to bigger and better things.

I suppose I should do the Friday Five as it's been a while. Here are the questions and answers:

1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country? Well, last immediate place out of state (Florida) would have been Spokane, Washington in July. Last place out of country would have been Toronto in June.

2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling? I'll qualify my answers again and state that my first unusual travelling experience was riding a camel around the Pyramids at Giza, Egypt. The most recent unusual travelling experiences were riding an elephant and seeing the fresh food (dead and live critters) in northern Thailand. The most disturbing events in both countries were seeing a person in Syria and an individual in Burma horribly deformed. Their limbs and spinal cord forced them to walk like insects. Hard to describe but it blew my mind away that they could live like that.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go? Interesting question - I'd love to do an overland trip across several countries. I'd love to see more of Asia and Africa. Assuming that I can choose only one country it would be India. Very large and diverse.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car? Travelling within a country I like either train or car/bus. I loved the bus/truck we had in the Middle East trip. The third photo on my photos page has the truck. I took the train in Thailand and it was convenient for long distance travelling. But car travel allows you to see the country more intimately.

5. What's the next place on your list to visit? I don't really know. My travelling friend, Tony from London, and I had discussed South America. But India is possible as I can get some good tips from talking with my Indian co-worker and another Indian friend.

Well, that's all for now. I need to go home and eat!

posted by Michael at 7:15 PM