A to Z: 2024 K is for космонавт (cosmonaut)

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 12th Yuri Gagarian is the first man in space

63 years ago today the Russians beat the U.S into space again.  This time, Yuri Gagarian became the first person in space.  This You Tube video shows some footage from the event.  

 

Just in case you don't read Russian, the text  below the video translates into English as:

 On April 12, 1961, the Vostok spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for the first time in the world, with pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on board. For this feat, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and starting from April 12, 1962, the day of Gagarin's flight into space was declared a holiday - Cosmonautics Day. On September 27, 2010, by decision of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, April 12 was proclaimed the International Day of Human Space Flight, which will be celebrated annually at the international level.

I decided to copy a couple of the you-tube comments and show them in Russian , and then in Russian printed phonetically in English and  then finally translated by google translate into English.  

The first comment is from @elenadushyna8975 from 1 year ago

Все молодцы!! И Королев! И Гагарин! И все остальные неизвестные, кто причастны к этому великому событию!!! 

 Vse molodtsy!! I Korolev! I Gagarin! I vse ostal'nyye neizvestnyye, kto prichastny k etomu velikomu sobytiyu!!! 

 Well done everyone!! And Korolev! And Gagarin! And all the other unknowns who are involved in this great event!!! 

The second comment is from LarussaShudrova from 8 years ago

 Спасибо за воспоминания! Спасибо! Помню, какую испытала гордость за страну, когда передавали по радио сообщение о полёте человека в космос. В душе всё пело.

 Spasibo za vospominaniya! Spasibo! Pomnyu, kakuyu ispytala gordost' za stranu, kogda peredavali po radio soobshcheniye o polote cheloveka v kosmos. V dushe vso pelo. 

 Thank you for the memories! Thank you! I remember how proud I felt for the country when they broadcast a message on the radio about man’s flight into space. Everything was singing in my soul.

What strikes me about the coverage and the comments is the great sense of accomplishment.  I lived in Russia for 2 years from 1992 to 1994 right after the Soviet Union was dissolved.  It became clear to me fairly quickly is that people are very similar regardless of what country they are from and being proud of your country is certainly not something the U.S. has a monopoly on.

By Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, Link

April 12th Yuri Gagarian is the first man in space.  

Gagarian died almost 7 years later in a routine training flight.

****************************************************************************

The song of the day is Keep Me Running performed by Ashley Cleveland

Randy Stonehill wrote and performed the song on his 1976 album Welcome to Paradise.  The below video features a young Stonehill performing the song.

 

 Stonehill turned 72 earlier this year and I made this post to celebrate.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: G is for Going to the Zoo

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 8th is National Zoo Lovers Day

I love zoos.  I'm not sure exactly when I fell in love with them .  It may have been all the times Dr. Lester Fisher visited the Ray Rayner show when I was a kid on a segment called Ark in the Park.  Dr. Fisher was the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  It could have been on my trips to the Brookfield Zoo when I was a kid, I know I had one birthday party there.  It  may have even been when my grandparents would take my brother and sister and myself to the aforementioned Lincoln Park Zoo.  It may have been all of those things and more.  

Here is a link to one of our other blogs that shows a great video from a family trip (sans me) to the Brookfield Zoo.  

I really enjoying going to free zoo's.  Here is an article from February of this year talking about 12 such zoos (I've been at 3 through 6). 

# 6 The St. Louis was the most recent zoo I visited.  Here are some pictures form my trip in March

My favorite animal, the giraffe at the St. Louis Zoo

In my 2015 A to Z challenge

G was for giraffe poop

Raja The Elephant at the St. Louis Zoo

Raja has been at the zoo for 30+ years

He will be moving to Columbus Ohio in 2024 or 2025

An Amur Leopard at the St. Louis Zoo

I went to the zoo with my dear friend Dave Hendrick

We were both missionaries in Khabarovsk Russia in the early 1990's

Khabarovsk is situated  on the Amur River

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Speaking of animals: Today's song of the day is Gonna Buy Me A Dog by The Monkees

7 songs in my A to Z playlist looks like this

 

***********************************************************************************

Today is also the day for the total solar eclipse.  We will be watching it at school today.  The next one won't me in the U.S. until August 23rd 2044.  Instead of pushing 60 like I am now it will be exactly a month before my schedule 80th birthday.  My Dad turned 86 on March 23rd and he will be watching it with my Mom and brother.  So that's older than I will be next next time.

Will you be watching the eclipse today?  Do you enjoy zoos?  Answer either or both of these questions in the comment section.

 To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

60 Years In 60 Days 1993

1993 Foreign Soil.

From Late 1992 to Late 1994 I lived in Russia. 1993 was the only year in my life that I was not in the United States at all.  I embraced life in Russia and did not have much culture shock at all,  It wasn't until I got home that I realized the impact of missing an entire year of American culture.  I was able to keep up with the really important things like the Bulls Threepeat.  I heard most of the major developments.  

But even as recently as this week when I was watching Dave with relatives. Someone asked what year it came out and I didn't know.  I can usually recall the year a movie came out by remembering what was going when I saw it.  For example, I remember  Ferris Buellers Day off came out in 1986 because I watched it with fellow camp counselors from Camp Manitoqua and I worked at Camp Manic Toga in the summer of 86.  I remember Ordinary People came out in 1980 because we were reading the book in my sophomore English class and the class took a field trip to go see it.  Dave came out in 1993.  I didn't see it in the theatre so I have no reference point to the year.

The same is true about sports, t.v. and news of that period.  In the 30 years since I've come home from Russia there have been multiple gaps in my shared experiences with others because of the disparity of our 1993s

Don't misunderstand me.  This is not a bad thing,  It's been kind of like found money. On Spotify I am often discovering albums that came out in 1993 or 1994 that I never was aware of and enjoy discovering them 30 years later.

My years in Russia were the best 2 years of my life to that point.  I made lasting friendships, did worthwhile work, and was stretched in many ways.  I may not have been in the U.S. in 1993 but I certainly had found a home.  

Wordless Wednesday: Russian Roommates Reunited

 Wordless Wednesday is at Comedy Plus. 

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Remembrances of a Lost Friend

 I graduated High School in 1983 at the age of 18.  In 1987 when many of my classmates were completing their undergraduate studies I moved to Macomb, Illinois, and began attending Western Illinois University.  I saw those years as a time to learn but also an opportunity to be involved in ministry.  I came onto campus and became part of the leadership team of the local ragtag chapter of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  

Like most campuses, ours had a new student fair each year.  I helped man the I-V table. I met many people that day and many signed up for more information.  One of those people was an 18-year-old freshman by the name of Frank Charles Rusan the fifth.  I don't remember if I met him at the table or later when I visited him in his dorm room.  Frank didn't introduce himself as Frank Charles Rusan V, I just remember his middle name because it is also my middle name. 

Frank started attending a Bible Study I was leading.  He and I became good friends during his time at WIU.  Before I met Frank I knew very few people who lived in Chicago even though I grew up in the Chicago suburbs.  Frank was the first black person I really got to know.  Frank and I both had a vision of breaking the color barriers of our campus's Christian ministries.  In his freshman and sophomore year, I visited the campus black church with him on many occasions.  The services were much longer and had so many different types of worship than I was used to.  I remember singing songs like Jesus is on The Mainline (Tell Him What You Want.).

I remember one day I was in Frank's room after a bible study and I don't remember exactly what he said but the gist was "Dave,  you love people, you treat them with respect.  You could be black.  He meant it and I took it as a compliment.  It reminds me now of something that happened a few years after that during my first year as a missionary in Russia.  I was in the home of my friend Vladimir.  His dad who was also named Vladimir was sitting with us at a table drinking tea with family.  Vladimir's dad commented something along the line that with me sitting at the table with them enjoying fellowship with them it was like he had another son.  Both those comments reminded me that even though blacks and whites and Russians and Americans have a history of mistrusting each other, true Christian fellowship transcends race and nationality.  

Frank graduated from Western in 1991 and we lost track of each other soon after that.  From time to time over the years I would think about him and our times together and wonder what he was up to.  Every few years I would google him without any success.  

Yesterday, my wife, oldest daughter, and I  were volunteering for Compassion International by handing out sponsorship packets at an event in Rockford, Illinois.  The Event was the 2023 Soar Awards a gospel music awards show.  We were about the only white people in attendance.  

When you volunteer at an event like this, there is a lot of downtime between responsibilities.  During those times I listened to the music emanating from the stage, and started thinking about Frank.  I thought this might be the exact kind of place I could run into him.  Perhaps in an act of symmetry, he would be manning one of the many ministry tables set up inside the atrium of the theatre.  I decided to google Frank and see if I had success locating him this time.  

This beautiful tribute page is what alerted me that Frank had died almost 5 years ago.  Frank is the third (as for as I know) of friends who I met during my first year at WIU who have passed away. I wish I had reconnected with Frank before he died but I don't feel any deep regret.   Reading all the tributes I realized that Frank had continued to be the same type of person he had been in college, faithful, available, teachable, and a person who radiated Christ.  There are many testimonies of him caring for people, praying for them, and being genuinely concerned for others.  This is the Frank I knew and loved and it brings me solace to know he continued to walk in that way for another quarter of a century before passing on to eternity with God in Heaven.

P is for Prokofiev

Last year in my A to Z challenge on my blog Random Acts of Roller. My theme was State Capitals.  I stated in my introduction ...

My Theme will be Capitals. Due to the random nature of my blog, and specifically my mind, each entry may only be somewhat related to the capital mentioned. For example, it is entirely possible that Friday April third's entry will feature the Krispy Kreme themed love song I wrote in 1995 because I wrote it while living in Columbia, South Carolina where I encountered my first  Krispy Kreme.

I mention that here. because today's post about Sergei Prokofiev will tell you probably a lot more about me than Prokofiev. But let's at least start with Prokofiev.

Sergei Prokofiev

Years lived before 1921: Thirty

Years lived after 1921: Thirty Two

Sergei Sergyevich Prokofiev was born in April of 1891 in the Ukraine. . Sergei and I have something in commo that we both share the first name of our father but not our grandfather.  The way you can tell this with Prokofiev is that according to his Wikipedia page his father's name is Sergei Alexeyevich  Prokofiev. In Russian the 2nd name is the patronymic name which means it is derived from the father's name.  Boys names end in -ovich or -evich  and girls  patronyms  end in -ovna or -evna.  So Prokofiev's Dad's name was Sergei and  his paternal grandfathers name was Alexei. The way you can tell it with me, is cause I'm telling you. You'll have to take my word for it, as I don't have a Wikipedia page. 

I first became aware of the music of Prokofiev was when I was a kid watching the Disney version of Peter and the Wolf. It is narrated by actor Sterling Holloway best known as the original voice of Winnie The Pooh. Different instruments play different characters in the folk tale.

                                                    Sterling Holloway

                                                    Years lived before 1921: Fifteen

                                                    Years lived after 1921: Seventy-one

                                                    Winnie The Pooh aka Edward Bear

                                                    Years lived before 1921: zero

                                                    Years lived after 1921:100+

My family watched a lot of Disney, but we also listened to a lot of Alan Sherman also to a lot of the Boston Pop's conducted by Arthur Fiedler. In 1964 Sherman, Fiedler and the Pops produced an Album called Peter and the Commissar which is a parody of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.  This was a family favorite and I was overjoyed to see it available on Spotify.  

The next time I encountered Prokofiev was in the early 1990's I was living in Russia as a Southern Baptist missionary.  My job was to teach English classes and help start a student ministry.  In that capacity I got a lot of invitations from my students to experience traditional Russian culture.  I got invited to a a concert one afternoon and it was some sort of adaptation of Rome and Juliet.  As I watched the performance I realized that the instruments were kind of telling the story not exactly like Peter and the Wolf but there were some similarities.  At the break I looked again at the program and read in Russian that the composer had also writeen something called Peotr y Volk which in English is Peter and the Wolf.  

Here is the London Symphony Orchestra playing a famous selection from Romeo and Juliet ...

Well that was a more random look at Prokofiev.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Tomorrow we'll have to mind our p's and q's as we are dealing with royalty.  For more of the A to Z challenge click here.  

Comedian By Steve Taylor

 I lived in Russia between the end of 1992 and the end of 1994.  During those 2 years abroad, I missed many things.  By missed I don't mean longed for, although I certainly did miss Mountain Dew and Lou Malnatis's pizza by that definition and was glad when my brother brought those along when he visited me.  I also don't mean by miss that I wasn't there for it, yet heard about.  While I want there for the Bronco chase , Nolan Ryan's pummeling of Robin Ventura, Michael Jordan's retirement announcement , or  the birth of my first niece,  I was acutely aware of all 4.

No, what I mean by missed is there were some events that I did not hear about until I was back in the states, sometimes for several years.  Some of these were deaths of famous people, others were books, movies, or music that came out during that time.  It wasn't uncommon to hear someone talk about a movie I had never heard of, only for me to ask if it came out in 1993 or 1994 and quite often it had.  Finally, I had to come to grips that due to my decision to leave the U.S. and plant a church in Russia in the early 1990's that there would be indeed certain things that I left behind and missed entirely.  I never regretted that decision and certainly experienced many more things that I would have never experienced in the states had I stayed put.

Over the past few years I have realized that I have experienced another gap without leaving the U.S. for more than a fortnight every 10 years or so.  I experienced it today when I was playing with my Spotify account in between classes.  There was a recommended song by Steve Taylor and some band he was in and I had never heard of the song or the band.  Now not to be confusing Steve Taylor uses to front for a band called Some Band.  So, I am not referring to them.  The name of the band is The Perfect foil,  and according to Wikipedia it is an alt. rock supergroup featuring artists from 2 more of my favorite groups (Peter Furler from Newsboys & Jimmy Abegg from (A Ragamuffin Band).  What was odd is this super group was formed in 2010, and I was only just hearing about it 11 years later.  Not really odd when you think that in 2010 I was homeschooling my 3 children all under the age of 11.  Listening to old music on c.d.s is something I did when I had the occasional spare time. Keeping up with music was  not something I invested much time in.  Again, I would not trade that time in my life for anything but it does explain how a song like Comedian stayed off my radar for so long.

A nice thing about discovering something you missed from long ago is that when you do eventually discover it, you also  discover many other things alongside it.  In finding out more information in this missing chapter of Steve Taylors musical journey I discovered a blog that writes an awful lot about Christian Music and other topics that interest me.  It is a blog by Keith Shields called Thirst  and he does an entire post about this song.  I encourage you to do what he suggests in his post which is listen to this song (I have put the Spotify link below at the same time you read the lyrics to the song and then read how the song affected him.  (The link to his post is here.) 

I enjoyed his interpretation of a song from 11  years ago that I only just discovered this morning.  Still in all I'm glad I didn't miss it.  

Keith for 50

Today is my brother Keith's birthday.  He would have turned 50 today. He died in April of 2009 at the age of 38.  Over the years I have written a lot about his life  and death many of those posts can be found by clicking here.

Over the years I have also written about a musician friend of mine Allen Levi.  He also lost a brother and chronicled their story in an excellent memoir called The Last Sweet Mile. I mislaid my copy a few years ago when we moved into our current house.  It is probably in a box in the basement some where.

I found 2 posts I wrote about Keith that I wanted to share.  One was written on 11/11/11 which was a birthday he has been looking forward to as it resonated firmly in his mathematical mind. The other was written a year earlier than that when he would have turned 40.  I will reprint it here as it is also features the aforementioned Allen Levi.

Big 40 minus the birthday boy

My brother Keith would have turned 40 today. He died 18 months ago so he never quite made the milestone. When My Mom turned 40, my Dad put a banner across our garage that read "Jeanne's 40 today. But don't tell anyone!". We lived across from the local library at the time and man people people became aware of the event. When I turned 40, Amy had a surprise party for me and had one of my favorite musicians, Allen Levi, fly in from Alabama and sing at my party. He performed the following song among others...

 

 When Amy turned 40, relatives teamed with me so I could give her 40 rolls of quarters. (Amy loves quarters) Keith died 18 months ago, so he never quite made the milestone. Keith was born on Veteran's day and loved that his birthday was celebrated by many people even though they might not be aware they were doing so. Today as you reflect on the men and women who served our country in the military. Reflect also on the men and women boys and girls who left the party before we had a chance to throw them one.

Meanwhile back in 2020

On occasions like this I really want to say something profound about Keith.  Instead I'll just say this...

There really has never been anyone exactly like him.  .  I find it fitting that Keith's 50th birthday falls on the heels of the death of Alex Trebek.  He loved Jeopardy and even auditioned for the show, easily making it to the 2nd part of the process.   Keith excelled in trivia but there wasn't anything trivial about him. Keith was Bi-polar but his mental illness did not define him.  What defined Keith was a world class mind, a kind and gentle spirit, a quirky and quick sense of humor, a simple but abundant faith, and a love for his family and friends.  

Keith visited me when I was living in Russia, teaching English as a Second Language and working as a Baptist Missionary.  One day Keith and I were on a bus on the way to visit a family I knew.  Keith heard someone speaking Spanish and started talking to them in Spanish.  I didn't realize how much Spanish Keith knew.  He studied it  a little in High School but picked it up mostly working at McDonalds.  The Person Keith was speaking to was a  Brazilian missionary who had only been in the Russia  for about 2 weeks.  He spoke very little Russian no English,  ,some Spanish but mostly Portuguese.   Keith invites him to visit this family with us. We get to the families house they have never met Keith or this guy before. The family consisted of a high school girl that I was tutoring in English, her college aged sister and their mother. Their English ranged between somewhat fluent and none at all. This family loved foreigners and were really interested in getting to know Keith and this Brazilian betters.   The guy from Brazil  would speak in Spanish, Keith would translate it into English and I would try to  translate it into Russian.  Then we would reverse the process.  Keith would get off on these crazy tangents and try to explain an idiom or a pun  and I would have no way to translate it with my limited Russian.  

Everybody had a wonderful time.  When I would see that family or that missionary after that they always commented on how much they enjoyed that evening. This is not surprising.  Keith made life an adventure. When I hear Spanish, I sometimes remember the day Keith turned a bus ride into a party.  He may have left the party early but he certainly made a lasting impression. 

B is for Bibimbap (Thing)

Day 2 of nouns.  Did a person yesterday.  Today a thing is on the docket.   Tomorrow, we will do a place, but after that it will be up for grabs. We might go place, place, thing, person, place, person.  Who knows?  All I know is that there will be nouns and there will be plenty of them.

Today's thing is bimimbap.  Which up until a few minutes ago, I had never typed, or printed, or wrote in cursive.  I had eaten it.  Boy, had I eaten it.  Bibimbap is a Korean dish and looks like this ...

I first fell in love with bibimbap at first sight as it is a multisensory treat.  The texture, the taste and the look all meld together.  I used to frequent this Chinese/Korean restaurant in Evanston, Illinois back in the 1980's.  The owners were Korean so I always ordered the Korean fare rather than the Chinese.  In all the times I went there, I think I only got the Bibimbap, it was so wonderful there was never a reason for me to branch out.  I have to tell you, I'm the guy who loves to get new things on the menu.  I once had fried pork brains while waiting for a train at a Memphis dive.  I ordered them because they were the most unique thing on the menu.  So when Mr. Pork Brains has a go-to dish that is high praise indeed.  I realize that I have major league digressed as well as not yet told you what Bibimbap is.  So, click here to see what Food Republic says about it.

About 10 years after I first ate this Korean wonder food, I found myself serving as a missionary in Russia with several Korean Amercian Missionaries.  Once they found out that I loved bibimbap, they would make it for me every time I was over.  This of course was awesome.  Now in the past 20 years I have not eaten a lot of the aforementioned dish.  But when I think back about it, I celebrate the memory of every morsel.  If I have made you interested in this fantastic dish, check out this recipe from  Bon Appetit.

For more A to Z blogging click here.  Be sure to check out my Boring A to Z  post from 4-2-12 

Lessons From A Train

X as in Xenophobe

One of my favorite stories I like to tell from my time in Russia has to do with waiting for a train.  I used to travel from the city I lived in to a neighboring city twice a month.  I would leave by train at about 5:00 A.M. while it was still dark and get back into my town by about 8 P.M. 

One morning I was waiting in line to board the train.  It was January and about 20 below outside.  I lived in an area that had large populations of Russians of Korean descent as well as Chinese peddlers.  Both types of people were often looked down on by the "white" Russians.

On this particular morning, there was an Asian man in front of me who the train official   was haggling with for not having the proper documentation.  While I couldn't fully hear or understand their conversation it was clear by their manner the Asian man was not being treated with respect.  A second train official started getting into the act and then noticed me waiting and said
something like don't  worry about that foreigner go help that man he is one of ours.  By ours I was pretty sure she meant Russian because I was certainly dressed like one and as long as I didn't talk I sounded like one.  I got on the train.


Dictionary.com defines xenophobe as a person who fears or hates foreigners, strange customs, etc.  It always struck me funny that the Asian man was possibly a Russian citizen and at least no less of a citizen than myself , but it was I who was treated as the citizen because I looked the same.

Encouragment

 AS IN ENCOURAGEMENT

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity and emotions for me.  Tuesday morning I woke up at 3:45 a.m. drove to Michigan and picked up my friends the Lebedevs  (Vladimir and Tonya) who I worked with in Russia almost 20 years ago. 

It was a wonderful trip culminated by taking them to Chicago and going to the top of the John Hancock Building.  It was also a stressful trip.  The kids were well behaved much of the time, but the long trip and the early hours did seem to be getting to everyone.  After a fantastic dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, on the first floor of the Hancock Complex, I drove the Lebedev's to where they would be staying for the night and Amy (who had met us at Hancock) drove the girls home.  Since the family they were staying  with lived in the polar opposite suburbs than us, I did not get home until 12:30 a.m. 

After such a long day on Tuesday, I was wiped out physically and emotionally on Wednesday.  Wednesday night I was supposed to again travel about 50 miles to see Vladimir speak.  This would be their last night of their trip and my last opportunity to see my dear friends for some time.  Yet, I was still very weary and not looking forward to the meeting as much as I had one day earlier.  Still I went and am very glad I did.

Vladimir shared about his work in Russia as a church leader and Bible College teacher and gave an excellent talk on Colossians.  It was so encouraging.  It was especially amazing that he gave this talk in English which is his 2nd language. 

While I was there, I saw Dwayne King who was a missionary in Khabarovsk, Russia at the same time I was.  Dwayne is a missionary pilot from Alaska and a book was written about his life recently.  Dwayne gave me a copy of his book, which had this inscription:

"David, I have great memories of working with you in Khabarovsk.  They remember you and still appreciate your ministry."

That inscription, Vladimir's message and time spent with all 3 of my fellow co-workers meant an awful lot to me.  Words (written or spoken) and acts of encouragement are so vital and important in thriving in this life time. 

In future posts I hope to share more about my visit with the Lebedev's and also to review Dwayne's book

Come back tomorrow for some fragments about my first week of Blogging from A to Z. 

How to say Marshmallow in Russian

 AS IN CAR TRIPS

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

I mentioned yesterday in my Boring post that I would be seeing my dear Russian friend Vladimir today.  He would probably be somewhat hurt if I left it at friend, which he is.  He is my Brother, not only in Christ but I was practically adopted by his family when I lived in Russia and Vladimir and I even lived together in my last months in Khabarovsk, or the Big K, as I grew fond of calling it. 

As you read this, I am probably driving from Illinois to Michigan to pick up Vladimir and Tanya or I am driving them to Illinois where Vladimir has a conference to attend tomorrow.  Do you have a friend that you would drop everything for?  Vladimir is such a friend.  Home schooling the kids makes travelling to Michigan on a moment's notice much easier.

All 3 kids are travelling with me and we will all meet up with Amy once we get back into Illinois. 

Since I am spending the majority of today in a car, I thought I would blog about car trips and some of the things I have done on them.

Marshmallow - 3 years ago a cousin of Amy's graduated from high school in Kentucky.  A large contingent of family members from Illinois travelled to Kentucky for the ceremony. Another of Amy's cousins who is just a few years older than our kids decided it would be fun to shout marshmallow each time we crossed from state to state.  It is now a staple of all interstate travel.

Alphabet Game - Amy and I play this more frequently w/o the kids than with, so it will probably not come up today.  We are getting the kids more interested in playing and sometimes they will "throw a letter" out the window if we get stuck. 

Play-A-Ways - A play a-way is an audio book in it's own mp3 type player.  They are available at our public library.  When we go on a long trip (like this one to Michigan) The kids and sometimes the adults get some Play-a-ways from the library.  Our kids love books and listening to books in the car is one of their favorite ways to pass the time,

Madlibs, Random and other word games.

Random is a game I was taught in 1986.  I have been a devotee for more than a quarter century now.  Here is a previous post about it.  Mad Libs and Random are great games because they are both fun and educational.  I guess mostly fun.

Kid Directed Play.

The kids create games that they play on car rides.  The ones they play most often are the frowning game, which is very similar to Make me Laugh and the Dolphin Game, where they pretend they are workers or animals in a zoo.  Amy and I can entertain ourselves just listening to them.


We do lots of other things on car trips, but that's a pretty good list for now.  I'll be back tomorrow with some Donuts. 

Boring, a nice place to visit.

 AS IN BORING

Monday April 2, 2012

I was a Southern Baptist Missionary in Khabarovsk Russia from late 1992 to late 1994.  I have been thinking about that chapter in my life more frequently recently, as a dear Russian friend of mine is in the states with his wife and I will see him for the first time in nearly 2 decades tomorrow.

Being a missionary, I spent time with other American missionaries when I was in a Russia.  Some of them were from an organization that was headquartered near Portland, Oregon.  The actual name of the town was boring.  No, not as I wasn't interested in the name.  The town's name was Boring. 

I had a lot of fun with that nugget.  I would talk about going into the Boring office.  Maybe settling down there some day and  meeting a Boring girl and making her my Boring wife  having some Boring kids and sending them to the boring schools.  Interestingly enough, I never got bored with the joke.

A few weeks ago I was watching the T.V. show, Homicide: Life on the Street.  In the show Alec Baldwin's brother Daniel plays a Detective who is partnered with a female detective played by Academy Award Winning (The Fighter) actress, Melissa Leo. 

In one episode Baldwin's character is telling Leo's that his wife is from Boring, Maryland.  He then goes into the same kind of Boring jokes that I used to engage in.

Check these out . . .

•   Website with some interesting facts about Boring, MD.
• Website describing Boring, OR as an exciting place to live.

Well I am done with this Boring Post.  Check out some other B posts in the A to Z Challenge by clicking here.

Fragments of photos Ipod Edition

I am at a waiting room, cleaning out the pictures from my i-pod.  many of them were for blog posts that I haven't quite got to yet.  So here's a few fragments about them.

Photo Fragment 1

That's no majestic sunrise/sunset.  It's just a lamp post over spider droid working on snow board moves on his sled.

Picture Fragment 2

Many libraries offer a read to a dog program.  My oldest kids have done this.  But puppy, our resident dog lover never had before this.  Here she is reading to Samson, who is from a Sox fan family and paid a lot of attention to me because I was wearing my White Sox jacket.

Here she is in action . . . 

Photo Fragment 3

This pic is already on the blog.  I show it here to illustrate that it is generally not much of a problem to get all 3 kids to pose for a good photo.  But when you try to add an adult in, like when Amy and I took the kids to the Brookfield Zoo in late December, you get something like this.

Amy and Bunny look great.  Puppy and Spider Droid look goofy. 

Photo Fragment 4

I lived in Khabarovsk Russia for 2 years in the early  90's. Khababarosvsk is located  on the Amur River.  So when I'm at the zoo I always like to see the tigers and leopards that hail from that region.  Hers is  a picture of an Amur Leopard.  

Well that's enough fragments for one day.  For more fragments, join Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time.

I do, however, have time for one more photo.

NEXT TIME: DARE TO DREAM

Two Questions Thursday: Things I've always wanted to do edition.

I am participating in Self Sagacity's Two Question Thursday for the first time in a long time. Here are my questions:

# 1 What have you always wanted to do, but never have done?

One of mine is go to the Ringling Brother's and Barnum Bailey Circus. I never have been. Sure, when I was a kid I was part of the audience at the Bozo Show. I even was one of those foolish kids who stood up thinking the arrow was pointing to them so they could play Bozo Buckets.
It was the kid next to me :(

I have even been to one of those travelling circuses that come to neighborhoods throughout the summer. But Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey. Those are they guys that do this

and this . . .


My wife and kids went a few years ago but I had to work.

Question # 2 What have you always wanted to do and did?

There are so many ways that I can answer that question. Tomorrow night I will be able to answer, going to the Ringling Brother's Barnum and Bailey Circus!

Yes, my dream is coming true tomorrow! Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Feld Entertainment is proud to present. . . Starting tomorrow, November 3rd and ending November 13th, the circus will be at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Il. Then the circus rolls into Chicago proper November 16th through the 27th at the United Center. If you are in the Chicago area this month I hope you can make it! But wait, you say, the circus is expensive. Well here is a special offer that I can pass on to you. All weekday shows: 4 tickets for $44.00. weekend shows $4.00 off. Here's the skinny.

Until tomorrow night, my answer will have to be running to and hopping on a train as it is moving out the station. This is one of those scenes you see on so many movies, A River Runs Through It, and A League of Their Own, just to mention a few that start with A. I had always wanted to do it and when I lived in Russia, and used to travel from Khabarovsk to Birobidjan, I accomplished that goal on more than one occasion. I never missed the train, and that's good, cause missing a train was never a thing I always wanted to do.

Speaking of trains, did you know . . .

That The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® circus train that brings Fully Charged® to each city on tour has a total of 59 cars, and has a total length over a mile long?

and . . .

That The 59 cars on the Blue Unit Train include: 4 animal stock cars, 30 coaches for living, 2 concession storage cars, 19 flat bed equipment cars, 1 pie car (diner), 1 generator car, 1 shop car, and 1 auxiliary generator/shop car?

So that's it for me and my questions. I am looking forward to your answers. I'll be back on Friday to talk about our time at the circus. For more of this week's questions click here.

Joplin Trip Day 1

Last year, when our familywent to Washington D.C. I ran a daily journal entry one week after we returned. I am going to attempt that here, for the Joplin trip Spider Droid and I just finished. The main difference, is going to be that on the D.C. trip, I actually had/made time to journal each day. So, when I came back, I was just typing in what I had already written. Due to a number of circumstances, including but not limited to being absolutely wiped out at the end of each day, I did not journal on the trip.

I did take some pictures and videos. So, I will try to incorporate those here.

August 1, 2011 DAY ONE

Early A.M. wake up and head to Faith Acres. I had packed the truck the night before so Spider Droid and I just got in the truck and headed off. 15 of the 19 of our team members met at Faith Acres, the organization that was sending us to Joplin. Faith Acres is run by a family that attends the same church as my family. They are an organization dedicated to meeting the spiritual and physical needs in McHenry County and all over the world. This trip to Joplin, Mo was their second such trip since the Tornado hit. Several of the team members including our team leaders went just weeks after the tornado hit. The remaining 4 members of our team had left a few days earlier.

As the 15 travelers got to Faith Acres we packed, prayed and parted for JMO.

The first few hours went wonderfully. We were all excited about the trip that we thought would bring us to Joplin sometime that night. Many of us did not know each other well, or at all, and we took the opportunity to become acquainted. Before you knew it we were taking the first of many scheduled gas and bathroom stops. Soon after near Bloomington, Illinois we had the first of many unscheduled stops.

One of our 3 vehicles, a bus lent to us by a local church, had a tire basically fall off. Because of God's great mercy, the driver got us safely to the side of the road. This was around 9:30 a.m. and we did not get back on to the road for almost 6 hours. The majority of our team spent most of that time at a nearby McDonald's.





We had 3 children on the team driving with us under the age of 10. They were such a blessing to us, because instead of being whiny, complainy and downright miserable they showed remarkable patience and understanding. Yes one was my son, but the two others were younger than him, and behaved just as well as SD.

In fact one had this experience of joy while we waited . . .








So after the bus was fixed we got back on the road and calculated that if nothing else occurred we could possibly make it into Joplin late that night, early the next morning. It was hot out, we were tired, but we were ready to roll.

Of course this was not the end of our trials. Another one of the vehicles began to overheat a little, we were cussed out by a mechanic, who we were told would rotate our lugnuts. Not long after that the tire we thought was fixed started smoking. So there we were, not even yet in Missouri, maybe 5 -6 hours away from Joplin, stranded, and it was past 7 p.m. We had been on the road in the plus 100 degree temps for more than 12 hours. Some of the team members had gotten little to no sleep the night before in anticipation of the trip.

To use clothing metaphors: No towels had been thrown in, but the other shoe had certainly dropped. What we needed, was to be blanketed in the grace of God.

That blanket turned out to be a horse blanket.




A man I lived and ministered with in Russia, nows lives in the Illinois side of the St. Louis area and we "happened" to break down on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area so I called him up and told him of our troubles. Soon after that, he and 3 of his children drove up to the truck stop we were at. He offered for us to stay at his home which houses a horse ministry. Also, the people who had fixed the bus the first time drove several hours to my friend's house and corrected their work at no additional charge.

Horse Lessons were still going on in the darkness as we rolled/limped in.Everyone went from beleagured to refreshed as they experienced the calmness of a horse farm. It was especially great for me to spend time with my dear friend. Their home/faciility easily housed all 15 of us. SD and I stayed in one of the familie's rooms and Droid was down before I could finish 2 pages of the Star Wars book I was reading him. I fell asleep shortly after that.

Next Time: One journey ends, Another begins.

Friday Fragments Pics & Video Edition

Friday Fragment Time again. I am waiting for a Skype Call from Russia at a little after Midnight on Friday. It is 4:15 p.m on Friday in Khabarovsk where I am expecting the call from. That is a fragment for a different time but explains why I am up so late on a school day.

Just videos and pics in today's fragments.

Fragment 1. Fun at the dinner table





Fragment 2. Baseball at the Zoo

When we go to the zoo we expect to see bears like this . . .


And This . . .

But at the Brookfield Zoo this weekend there were a number of human cubs. Chicago Cub fans like my son, players and former players like Milt Pappas who my sister had on a poster in her room when she was growing up.

I had a cool video linked up of Spider Droid doing a pitching game but I called him by his real name and I can't get the edited version to upload. SPider Droid had fun playing baseball games and we all had fun at the zoo.

Fragment 3: Blue Ribbon Robotics

Earlier last week Spider Droid competed in the Kane County Fair. No pig in competition or anything like that. He participated in a virtual robotics challenge where among other things he completed a cd-ROM curriculum on robotics, entered his findings in a journal, made a PowerPoint presentation including a video (which is really cool but uses his real name are you sensing an overprotective dad theme here?) and made this poster for display at the fair.

He also overcame his shyness and had an interview with the judge where he showed his video and explained what he learned.

The result of all his work: A blue ribbon. For those of you who don't speak County Fair, A blue ribbon is as high as you get w/o being the winner or runner up of the event. We don't speak County Fair so when we saw the ribbon we both thought (me silently, I have some tact) that it was just a participation ribbon. (We both have won those before). It actually means that he met or exceeded all of his objectives. Win, Place or Show we are very proud of his accomplishments.

Fragment 4: Leave them Laughing. (I hope.)



A few hours later back at the dinner table . . .

‪Dave roller finally catches a chip‬‏ - YouTube

For more Friday Fragments drop what you are doing and head over to Half Past Kissin' Time. I have a Skype call to get, so I'll catch you later.

Post Card on the Edge (of 500)

I don't want to be one of those bloggers who checks in once a week or less often and comes back to tell you how busy I've been to blog. When I lived in Russia my roommate used to call me the post card king because each Sunday as we would write home. I would generally turn out post cards promising a longer letter in the future. By the moniker bestowed by my roommate you can tell that the longer letters hardly ever came.

This is my 499th post and one of the reason why I have not been posting as regularly is I have been promising some big doings for #500 and I wasn't quite ready for it.

I am nearing completion of the 500 preparation and should have that post for you on the tails of this one.

After that I hope to me less post cards and more actual correspondence with my loyal readership.

Next Time: 500

Postlee Sobranya

Amy is off school for the week which gives her the opportunity to post observations like this . . . When Dave was in Russia, back in 1992, he used to send me tapes of himself talking. He would also tape other people around him. He was working hard, learning the language, and he would often practice his Russian on me. I used to listen to the cassettes several times while driving in the car. So, there are still several Russian phrases that pop into my consciousness from time to time. Postlee sobranya is one of them. Not that it's spelled correctly, mind you. But it means, "after meeting." Dave was talking to his friends in church about going sledding with some of the youth, and the person said, "postlee sobranya." So, every once in a while, I'll just say, to whomever is listening, "postlee sobranya." It happens with other phrases as well, and in other languages. I took French in high school and college. Then, as a senior in college, I badly needed an EASY class, as I was QUITE burned out. I took Spanish. BIG mistake. HUGE. (Name the movie I'm quoting here.) Funny thing, Spanish and French are similar...I get them mixed up, a lot! But every once in a while, I remember how to say the "Hail Mary" in French, and the other day at work, I sat through an entire parent meeting in Spanish, and I knew what they were saying, for the most part. I should use this affinity for languages for good...but usually I just fling random foreign words around for anyone who's around. And the response I get, "huh?" doesn't seem to stop me. See you later, or, as I like to say, postlee sobranya.

A Poem from a Train

I lived in Russia from late 1992 to 1994. I lived in a city in Far Eastern Russia called Khabarovsk. For about a year of the time I was there I would regularly travel by train to a neighbroing city about 3 hours away called Birobidjan. Here is a poem I wrote on the train in March of 2004.

The Melting Snow of the Infinte Plain

Written on a train from Birobidjan to Khabarovsk

Dusk inserts contrast to the endless white before me

Small patchs of forest punctuate the crystalline desolation

Brush and barren soil testify

That the Herculean winter is mortal after all

A days journey nears completion

A circuitous route

Ends like it began

Thoughts of far and near

Of important and trivial

speed through the minds eye

Occasionally stopping.

At the stops

The view becomes clear and definite

Then slowly

Movement begins again

The everyday life becomes a blur.

Night has come to the winter plain.

Morning and Spring inch closer.

And the train rolls on.