Hello Life, Goodbye Columbus ...

Is this Day Two? Seems like Week Two! It has been very interesting visiting Columbus this time of year. What little sunshine, clean air, sweet smelling freeshly mowed grass, old hardwood trees and Blue Spruce I have experienced have been very nice.

The Ohio Emergency Management Operations Center is where we have been staging the recovery operations and it is a state of the art facility with large screens and looks a lot like Mission Control in Houston.

I move north tomorrow to be my area of media work, and the rest of the FEMA group moves further NW to set up the Joint Field Office.

So I will get a good look at rural Ohio beginning tomorrow and for the next few weeks as I make my media rounds.

The towns along the north side of Columbus were established in the early, early 1800's and the houses along the roadways are really old and stately...sourrounded by old forests...very neat.

What is also, well, enchanting from an Old American way is the town of Worthington. The main street is a north-south street called High Street. It was named High Street because, well, the east-west streets slope down hill from High Street.

So, in the meantime, I will finish my third episode of Law & Order in a row and then catch some shut eye. So...let's see, where is my blue blankie for nite-nite. Jameh, where did you put it? :-)

OHHHHHHHH....WHY......OH!

Well, here were are again, back on the street...MR DISASTER. I have currently taken up residence in the Residence Inn in north Columbus, Ohio. But, not for long. As soon as the president signs the disaster declaration, it is off to the races for media assistance...and MR DISASTER moves to the great metropolis of, stand by, yes, it's Bucyrus, Ohio.

So to assist those who are not inclined to look for a pronunciation guide, the town is bew-CY-russ. Or it is either staying in Bucyrus, or Lower Sandusky...or perhaps Mansfield....but not Sulphur Springs (something about an odor).

So, in short day one was committed to letting US Air taking its sweet time trying to make sure I didn't get here until about midnight...and then having to arrive here at the state command center for an 8am meeting...and...and...and...and...

So...let's see what other little known fact about my region I can discover. Humm, well, it floods in Ohio a lot.

Got Those Wednesday Random Thoughts, Do Dah, Do Dah (now try and forget the melody!)

Well, we have all recovered from Brian coming home...it seems. Brian had little jet lag coming back from Haifa, or so it seems. He has settled into school after one day of classes and work immediately. This morning he will work in the game room, study hard and read Harry Potter! Yep, business as usual.

Cheryl has joined the local fam. She is into school at UAH and as usual is way beyond her years. Immediately she seems more mature than kids years older. She is a case! She wants to go into journalism. Yep, she picked the right crowd allright!

Maria and the boys (sounds like a rock group from the 70's) have kinda settled in at the Forenghi's. She and Diana and Danesh are looking for a good place to call home (residence) and the battle of wits between Diana and Rosana y Brian has begun (ala Princess Bride) over which school Jeremy should attend: Mtn Gap (booooooooo) or Challenger (yeah!).

Speaking of Maria, she is getting plenty of experience in learning the city by taking Cheryl to school. I make sure I have my cell phone with me at all times so I can give her directions and landmarks so that she can find her way home! hahahahaha Poor little lamb, keeps losing her way.:-(

Brian has surely told you all about his room. We painted it according to previously accepted (multiple) colors and arrangement (lots of trim). Brian has some questions. So, there may be modifications. I'll post a pix of the room shortly.

We finished painting and glorifying the woodwork in the hallway. The woodwork really shines and looks great. Only problem is that with the painting and the intense heat, the doors swelled and now the bathroom door and our bedroom door won't shut all the way...hummm.

I finished the living room front room bookcase arrangement deal. It, I must say, looks fabulous. I am pretty happy how it turned out. It, too, is gleamingly white! It is neat to have built something like a punch-out and bookcase so solid that you (me) can actually climb on it to paint it!

OK....so there is a lot going on indeed. Oh, and Olga (some may not remember her) declared last weekend. She, living in Huntsville, had been attending the Book 1 study circle that Navid was tutoring in Madison. While fulfilling one of the projects from Book 1 to go to a home and have a devotion at the Heiberts, she declared her belief in Baha'u'llah. She becomes the first declaration from the Institute Process in our Cluster. Yahooo. Indeed, it takes a village.:-)

OK...more later.

Calling Nurse Katrina, Calling Nurse Katrina!

Katrina and about 100 of her newest friends gathered Sunday to gratulate her on becoming a Nurse Practioner (and, well, actually, the rest of the 100 also were so awarded...but they have to get their own blog recognition). That's Katrina on the last row, the last seat, on the far side of the group of graduates (click on the picture to find Waldo, er, I mean Katrina's smiling face).

Katrina received her "Pin" from the Dean which signified that she was one of "them." She has to take a big test later that qualifies her to practice (why do they always say "practice" medicine on patients ... hummmmmm).

She strolled across the stage with a certain determination, style and grace that only a woman so near to giving birth again could do...with a bounce and springy step, lighter than air, except for any slight awkwardness caused by the basketball she was hiding under the dress...

And after she crossed the stage, in characteristic form, she stopped to applaud the next person to cross the (nearly) finish line.

There were a bunch of relatives and friends on hand for the event...and truly a wonderful time was had by all!:-)

One more big announcement, Nafeh has received his MS and is on easy street toward getting his MD and perhaps his PhD...and soon there won't be anough alphabet left!

We all had a great Sunday, getting to spend the day with the Fananapazir's and more photos of those events will follow.

Where The Buffalo Roam

On my last Sunday in Kansas, I traveled to the Maxwell Game Preserve to catch a glimpse of a buffalo herd. You could actually drive onto the Preserve and that day part of the herd occupied the road. While I could not get out of my car, I could get within inches of these magestic animals.

Right away I learned that these animals can be a little territorial, or they just like tourists in red cars...

Some Buffalo families like to just hang out on a Sunday morning and take turns in the dirt wallow to get rid of the flies....

Others just graze. If you look closely at the face of the guy in the back, he seems to be sharing a little joke with the bigger guy...or maybe the jokes on me, "Hey, Bill, look at the little guy in the cage with wheels...heheheheheh."

There were others deep into the folliage grazing, and I seem to have caught the attention of one young bull who wasted no time clomping down the hill to see what I was about...

His big old face filled my car window...and I was in an SUV! Our conversation ended when some of those flies escorting him took a liking to the cars fake leather interior...

It was getting a little hot, and when it gets above 85 or so the Buffalo head to the shade or go into "no movement" mode. Some get a little testy.....one animal was just getting ready to take their turn for the dirt bath...

Another Buffalo thought they could impose...

Ooops...here I am a few feet away and not only did the bull whirl around, but an even bigger bull just to the left of the wallow gave out a big snort. I kinda thought I had chosen my position poorly...

And the intruder turned to run and wouldn't you know it...here I sat. Thank goodness Chrysler makes cars out of unibody construction. No harm, no foul...I got a good snort from the intruder and it bucked away avoding the car. In the side view mirror I saw the guy who gave the commanding snort seemingly saying, "Ok, you've seen it...now, 'Move along little doggie.'"

The Maxwell Game Preserve was established in the 1800's by Maxwell, the first white child born in that part of central Kansas, south of Salina.

When the Europeans first arrived in the US, Buffalo herds even occupied part of the south Florida everglades. The huge herds receeded about 100 miles for every ten years that the settlers moved west. When the frontiersmen first came to Kansas in the early 1800's, they gave accounts of Buffalo herds 12 miles thick. But, by the time Teddy Roosevelt was President only 23 or so wild Buffalo existed on the ranges of Wyoming.

Today there are some substantial herds. Maxwell's isn't a huge herd, but well cared for.

My Humble Beginnings

It all started at a home on the range, July 23, 1949. It was a long, long way then on the two-lane K-10 from Eudora to St. Mary's Hospital in Kansas City as I recall. :-), but we all made it.
The farm house still stands and is being taken care by a nice family with a bunch of kids. My room was in the far right corner on the second floor.
I didn't know exactly how old the farm house is, or how old the farm was...back then we also had cattle, chickens, pigs, and we grew a good crop of corn. The current owner has the original deed to the land which shows the land was purchased from the local Indians (I think they were Osage Indians), the same tribe who actually settled the town of Eudora, and the original farm may have been purchased from the village chief.

The barn was built in the 1880's ... gosh, the barn was already 70 years old when we lived on the farm!

Part of the time before I was six or so we lived in town and our home was at 9th & Church. My room was upstairs on the end. We got baths in the kitchen sink, and we had a black and white TV sometime in 1954.

The house was across from the Catholic Church that was started in 1863 and finished in 1864.

There is a lot more to a real travelogue, but it is better in the telling in person.
I was able to swing by Eurdora during my recent month in Kansas.