2021

My Favorites of Dad’s Favorite Photos

by

If photo was found in that STI box of “his” then it must have been a favorite for him — that’s how I’m using “favorite.”

This is an STI box; this one via Helix Medical, late 1980s; 12″ rule for size comparison; approximately 13″ x 19″ x 8″ deep; volume 1.20 cubic feet.

Dad didn’t know about STI boxes, so I must have filled “his” STI box when sorting and boxing his stuff in my attic shortly after his death in 2000. I’m assuming most of the contents came from his dresser.

Sometimes I refer to him by his initials: Robert M. Lommen — RML.

In the descriptions of photos, below, our old house at 9250 East River Road is frequently mentioned.

Dad loved that place! He and Mom were forced to leave by the construction of Highway 610.

Brief description of his favorite photos 

I chose the 19 photos featured in this post from approximately 100 found in the box, and separated them into groups. Photos that showed people or places I didn’t recognized are not among my favorites.

#1 Henrietta Jackson Hough and Norman Hough (Mom’s father), about1930; this was NOT in Dad’s STI box, I don’t know why I included it in this collection, but I ain’t gonna change it now.

#2 Prints and negatives of trip to Boln’s house near Milwaukee; 2 are of Grandma Fedders, 1952;

#3 Mid50s; around the house in Coon Rapids; 2 1/4 in. negatives; did I take these photos with my camera and develop the film myself?

#4 several old colored slides in envelope; Grandpa Fedders may have been involved; my mother and me at when I was a baby, June Sandy and I in mid 50s;

#4½ three prints from dad’s trip on Santa Fe engine testing Cutler Hammer controls; I was six or seven at the time, late 1940s; he brought home an engineer hat for each of us;

#5 famous old family photos, 5 x 7, mid-1940s; one of me on my birthday at age 8; Janet Wiborg (WEE-borg), sitter, was practically part of family; June at 5 or 6 was flower girl at her wedding; Dad produced the enlargements in his own darkroom.

#6 Three nearly identical prints of whole family in front of fireplace at 9250 East River Road, Coon Rapids, Minnesota; , Middle of my high school years 1958ish;

#7 three large old negatives, 2½x 4¼; Lanesboro? Dog, woman (Helen? Dad’s mother?), group with old car; 1920s?

#8 fuzzy photo of dog and boy; I don’t recognize house in photo; I don’t think that’s me (Dad?)

#9 Christmas card from June to daddy; June is about eight here so that’s early 50s;

#10 Slides mid60s; Mom Dad Bolns; June, Jack Nist, Sandy, maybe at my wedding in 1965; 9250;

#11 Bunch of Polaroids possibly after I graduated from high school;

#12 Old 828 format negatives; may go with other roll (eight photos per roll), same house more people; booklet of 3”x4” prints of negs;

#13 Old828 format negatives; 1952; mostly of a house that I don’t recognize;

#14 33 2¼ inch prints from 1960; personal features of 9250 E River Rd; have scanned favorite 8;

1940s

  • Mom looks 17!
  • Famous June/chair photo; chair is now with Andrea; probably early 1945;
  • Mid-1945

1950s

1960s

After the 1960s?

I have hundreds of slides he took in the 30 years before his death. They are still to be sorted and selected, but I didn’t find any of them in his special STI box.

The next post in this series will feature items in the STI box that are not photographs.

Arecibo Observatory

by

My memorable 1990 visit; memorable to me, not necessarily to anyone else!

This post was prompted by two factors: the catastrophic collapse of the 900 ton, suspended platform, on Dec 3, 2020; and finding the photos from my visit.

In August, 1990 I visited Andrea at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico where she had a summer fellowship. She was working on pulsars and this was the premier instrument in the world for finding and studying them.

This enormous instrument was completed in 1963, about the time I began graduate school in Rochester, New York. It was very relevant to my field of astrophysics. I heard about Arecibo this and Arecibo that throughout my 5 years in graduate school.

Two of the more notable speakers I remember at the Friday afternoon University of Rochester Physics Department Colloquia were Frank Drake, Director of the observatory, and Carl Sagan, well known popularizer of science. They were both professors at Cornell at the time, about 90 miles away from Rochester in Ithaca.

The telescope itself

I won’t be saying much about the telescope — there’s a lot out there available.

A radio telescope detects radio waves, not light rays as a “normal” telescope does. Radio waves are millions of times less energetic, and their wavelengths are millions of times longer. Many astronomical bodies emit radio waves.

It was big, very big: 1000 foot diameter reflector dish in a natural sinkhole. The world’s largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years (1963-2016), it comprised 39,000 perforated 3′ x 6′ panels — an area of about 20 acres (about 15 American football fields). It was a fixed, spherical (not parabolic) reflector. In collecting data from the source of interest, the receiver was moved, not the dish.

The current mechanical troubles began in August, 2020; an important cable broke in November; catastrophic cable failure in December. Consult internet for videos and other information. Sad.

The telescope, top to bottom:

  • triangular platform,
  • circular track,
  • 328 foot-long azimuth arm,
  • 1000 foot diameter reflector dish.

The snaky feature at upper left was a catwalk for humans servicing the telescope and for those wanting to save (or rule) the world.

The azimuth arm was 450 feet above the dish.

All the electronics and steel structures suspended over the dish were to get the detection point to the right place. I’m sure it was made as small and inconspicuous as possible because you really don’t want to block any more of the incoming radio waves than you have to. But you also want it to be rigid and stable and to ever so smoothly compensate for the rotating Earth as you collect data. The final design, all 900 tons of it, was approximately equivalent in weight to two, fully loaded, 747s. It was roughly the same size, too, depending on how you stack them.

The azimuth arm, the banana-shaped appendage hanging from the bottom of the triangular platform, was suspended on a circular track 450 feet above the dish and was 328 feet long. Various receivers (the Gregorian dome and that long pointy thing, e.g.) move along the track of the azimuth arm.

Thus, to point the telescope at your star or galaxy or pulsar you would rotate the azimuth arm around on its circular track and move the receiver along the azimuth arm until you were pointed correctly.

In the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan was shot at when he was running up the catwalk on his way to save the world. Also, before he could complete his mission the entire dish was blown up. It has since been fully repaired.

More details on the platform, the reflective dish, 747s, my favorite peanut butter cake recipe, pulsars, and the Gregorian dome available on request.

Photos, impressions, comments

Andrea mentioned the Gregorian dome during my visit, and said it generated a lot of anticipation among scientists. It became reality 6 years later.

All photos in this post, except the first two, are from my 35mm film camera. (I wouldn’t own a digital camera for 12 more years.) Andrea and Owen (former boyfriend) took a couple of the shots.

Finding the observatory at night at end of looooonngg day was a challenge. Puerto Rico is 4 timezones east, so I left Santa Barbara probably around 5:30am my time, and by the time I got anywhere near the observatory it was very late and very dark and my brain was mostly oatmeal. I wonder how many times I drove by this sign that night!

I found it easy to imagine this freeway sign modification was made by some mischievous graduate students.

The three of us were allowed to go out on the platform one day during during a maintenance period. Our little trip up the catwalk was peaceful, unlike James Bond’s.


I remember Owen asking me how could you let her do that? He meant the waving both arms while sitting on the railing stunt. (As if I had any control!)

View from under the reflective dish

Suspended platform as seen looking up from under the center of the reflective dish; partly through the small, permanent rectangular opening, partly right through the reflecting surface;

31 year-old tee shirt from gift shop; another pre-Gregorian dome relic

Fourteen and a half years after my Arecibo visit, in early 2005, I was visiting Andrea again, this time in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when her twin girls were only a few months old. She’d been allocated some observation time on the Arecibo telescope that fell during my visit. She didn’t need to go to Puerto Rico — with appropriate passwords and software she could do it remotely from home.

I have photo in my deep archives of her, in her own house, controlling the movement of the 328 foot-long azimuth arm and data collection point along it, from her 5 or 10 pound laptop 1600 miles away, all while nursing one of the girls.

You should not be surprised to hear the photo will not be available on request.

=====End of post

Recent — February 2021

by

The 5th post in this sporadic series featuring the pandemic — 6th if you count the Christmas post.

Life continues to continue — no complaints from me. Like the Christmas post there is generally upbeat sentiment in here. My internet usually works just fine. The sun usually shines … and so on. The Washington Post header from Dec 15, 2020, as the first COVID-19 vaccinations were happening, is even more appropriate: “We interrupt your doomscrolling to bring you a glimpse of hope.”

One year on I still say my cataract surgery has left me with spectacular vision (i.e., my vision without glasses is “normal”). I use low cost drug store cheaters/readers for close up. My hearing aids, also about a year old, also are still wonderful. Excluding my house, they are the most valuable items I own. (Actually, now that you ask, more valuable than my car PLUS my computer!) It’s nice to know what I’m getting for my money. They bring my overall hearing up to mediocre, a big improvement.

Two additional huge improvements recently. (We’re using a plethora of big words today, aren’t we Paul?) My guys won the election in November, and I’m now two weeks past my second COVID-19 vaccination. Life looks better.

ABOUT IMAGES If I’ve followed my intentions completely, every image in this post can be enlarged by clicking on it. If the image is part of a gallery, what at first displays as a collection of thumbnails, then clicking on it enlarges it and puts you in slideshow mode. If there’s a caption for the image, it will appear or disappear when you click anywhere in the image.

Celebratory bowl of cereal

Oat crunch, peanut butter granola, banana, frozen raspberries, greek yoghurt, chocolate covered almonds, blueberries, chocolate chunk ice cream, soy milk

The election and inauguration

  • pearls for Kamela
I barely followed news for the last 4 years — too many knotted stomachs and clenched sphincters. I’m ready to pay attention again.

Vaccinations — Michelle 2, Paul 2, Chris 1

  • her hospital work put Michelle high on priority list for vaccination; this is January 11 in Seattle
  • my appointment, the hardest part of the whole process!
    a common experience as I understand things
  • entrance to the drive-through vaccination;
    VERY efficient! paperwork, verification, the actual vaccination, 15 minute wait, all happened within 25-30 minute period
  • local newspaper photo gives some flavor of event
  • my 1st shot; I was choked up through most of the event and barely able to answer questions
  • Chris’s 1st, in Santa Maria, a 75 minute drive;
    she has appointment for 2nd on March 12, same place
  • my 2nd, Feb 18, in same hospital parking lot in Goleta

… and finally:

  • face mask of the week; guy who did it drove up as I was admiring the installation; he liked his work being appreciated;
  • when Kate saw this photo she said it made her feel like a 3-legged robot!
  • this non-stick pan was no longer providing joy; we are improving our lives in many little ways;

>>>>>>>>>>End of post

Toss-It Tuesdays B — February 2021

by

Early progress

There has been some.

ABOUT IMAGES If I’ve followed my intentions completely, every image in this post can be enlarged by clicking on it. If the image is part of a gallery, what at first displays as a collection of thumbnails, then clicking on it enlarges it and puts you in slideshow mode. If there’s a caption for the image, it will appear or disappear when you click anywhere in the image.

Translated into a different direction, this grandfatherly comment may apply to my stuff in the attic:

There’s a lot of good stuff and memories in my attic; especially memories …

… only you don’t remember whether that item came from that little restaurant on a side street in Barcelona, or you found it near the beach in Santa Barbara …

… and actually, its origin is neither Barcelona nor Santa Barbara …

… and you’re close to throwing it out anyway and none of kids have any interest in it.

Messages from Marie Kondo and Ann Patchett

With a little translation some of Marie Kondo’s key ideas are useful to us, especially: does it spark joy? and thank you for your service.

Ann Patchett’s article in the New Yorker has some good suggestions. She says, “Making sure that the right person got the right things was no longer the point. The point was that those things were gone.” 

That’s me! I’ve been paralyzed if I don’t want something but: I can’t find anyone to take it, it’s somehow too good to throw in the trash, no thrift store will take it, and it’s not recyclable.

Overview

Many boxes have been removed from our attic already: 16 for Chris; 3 for Paul. Our parlor is more cluttered than usual but 5 boxes are about to be dropped off at a thrift shop, and 3 more will soon be shipped to children.

Attic inventory is completed for now — see previous post. There will be updates but it’s good for now.

https://kingmouse.blog/2021/02/toss-it-tuesdays-january-2021/

Outlines of plans have emerged:

  • having inventory list feels good and may actually be useful;
  • lot of stuff will go to recycling center;
    • small mountain of styrofoam;
    • unwanted cardboard;
  • thrift stores? Catholic Charities is very close; Alphas now accept donations only in at headquarters on Cathedral Oaks;
  • check with children to see what they might want; e.g., all those rackets are earmarked for transfer to Melrose (maybe even leaving here today);
  • make Zoom calls for boxes marked with each girl’s name; go through contents over Zoom;
  • Paul, do you really need to hang on to those old Valiant seat covers? You think any of the girls might want them?
  • I’ve learned those 2 mattresses can be dropped off at MarBorg Industries waste site just a few blocks from here;
  • We’ve come across very few items to sell:
    • chandelier;
    • that cat tee shirt (!);
    • C’s futon
    • we’re NOT doing this for the money anyway (so that’s fine);

Specific items

  • 2 squash, 2 tennis; I bought the tennis racket on the right in Minneapolis in 1956 or 1957
  • squash racket bought in Rochester, NY in 1964 or 1965
  • I already forget what the story is here
  • birthday present from high school girlfriend in 1958; patched, stained, repaired, buttons replaced, worn, worn, worn
  • bear that will be reunited with Andrea sometime
Items whose dispositions have been decided, whose fates have been decided, whose woeful moons have risen (you get the idea)
  • Kate’s prom dress from Spring 1990
  • Kate wearing the dress in 1990
Guy on the right holding the flashlight with the roll of duct tape around his wrist has just emerged from the crawlspace under the house where he was doing something that must have been important.

Still more specifics

  • Chris emptied this column of boxes
  • before Chris emptied the column
  • Anyone out there want this rugby shirt? I do … ehhh did. Too small. And that big window’s on the wrong side of the walll.
  • window looks much better now
  • Red cowboy boots! They’re in good shape — did I ever see Chris wear these?
  • Other clothing items daughters can thumb wrestle over

Some boxes have been marked pretty well

  • Only item I saved. Part of a cup holder.
Treasures from 2004, eh? Lots of old keys; white glove for left hand — I think that was from my 1st wedding in 1965; baggie of turkey wishbones; and on it goes … The Pickles comic strip was saved originally because several years earlier I’d use C’s colonoscopy pictures in the Christmas card I sent out. All those treasures are now gone save for the funky-looking item in the right-hand photo. I used 3 short, fat, sheet metal screws to fasten this goodie over a shallow tray-like spot in my early 1980s Toyota Tercel; it’s part of a funky cup holder (that worked very well for me) using left-over insulated 12 gauge copper wiring, some of my favorite construction material;

How ’bout that Special Graph from 1986?

In the last 20 years I hadn’t admired the graph that Bob ???? so carefully printed out and taped together (hadn’t even looked at it). Last week I took the photos, thanked the graph for its service and politely threw it away. (I hope I put it in the recycling.)

24 pieces of U.S. standard letter-sized paper taped together; wavenumber range from 600 to 1080 cm-1 (16.67 to 9.26 micro-meters); abscissa is brightness temperature; comparing predicted spectrum from Air Force Atmospheric transmission model FASCODE with experimental results of U. Wisconsin Fourier transform spectrometer instrument; … anybody care?

This question keeps coming up: what will we do with the things we keep?

I’ll let you know.

Just plain indisputable progress — stuff actually leaving our house

Photo of Catholic Charities drop off and entrance. Not pretentious — my kind of place.

Just this afternoon Chris and I dropped off 4 boxes of donations here. I have the feeling we’ll be back before long.

A few minutes later the first 3 boxes of goodies were shipped to the girls via USPS; there’ll be more of these shipments, too.

Of course shipping is way more expensive than we expected!

>>>>>>>>>>End of post

Toss-It Tuesdays A — January 2021

by

Chris and I have a lot of stuff to get rid of.

Would our children want to inherit a large (huge) attic filled with treasures (junk)? And a garage in a similar state?

Our commitment is at least an hour every Tuesday. We don’t want to emphasize finding items to remove from our lives, we want to emphasize finding the items to keep. Feels like there’s a big difference. And another thing: maybe think about what we’d be keeping them for?

The 50+ photos in this post give a pretty good idea of how the attic looks as we begin the project. I expect this collection mainly to be of use to Chris and me for comparison purposes. You know, in a couple of months, when it feels like we’re not getting anywhere, we can compare current state with the beginning state.

Our children, currently also our heirs, may glance through these photos and think SHIT! I’m not gonna have to go through all that stuff some day am I? I hope they’re also wondering if there’s anything they can do to gently encourage us. Actually, they’ve done pretty well so far.

Chris is able to pile in and start emptying boxes. I seem to need to mostly start organizing, taking photos, scratching my head, and documenting. I still think we’re heading ultimately in the same direction. Maybe we’ll be getting rid of half or three-quarters of this stuff.

ABOUT IMAGES If I’ve followed my intentions completely, every image in this post can be enlarged by clicking on it. If the image is part of a gallery, what at first displays as a collection of thumbnails, then clicking on it enlarges it and puts you in slideshow mode. If there’s a caption for the image, it will appear or disappear when you click anywhere in the image.

Attic floor plan — 25ft x 45ft

Red rectangle near center is folding stairway.

Shaded areas are plywood-covered walkways and areas to store some boxes. Porch area is not covered with plywood and one must walk carefully and step only on 2″x4″s of ceiling below.

Weight of most stored items is concentrated in areas over walls between rooms.

Darker patterned area is chimney.

OVERVIEW #1 — This is the view you get as you’re coming up the steps into the attic

looking toward “front” of attic. i.e., toward top of attic diagram

OVERVIEW #2 — Looking forward again, this time from way in the back

looking forward from the way back

Lots of details from here on. Lots. If you’ve seen enough already I’m not surprised.

Stuff at the back yard end of the attic, over C’s room and kitchen

  • Need a pair of crutches? No? How about two pair?
  • This area has been neatened up since this photo was taken
  • Last photo in gallery

Around the middle of the attic — Living Room side

  • Our nearby recycling center claims they take styrofoam now but I have yet to see for myself. I was saving all this stuff in hopes that it could be recycled some day, and maybe that’s gonna happen!

Around the middle of the attic — Bathroom side

Soledad Street end of attic

  • dollhouse roof parts
  • final photo of this gallery

Lists

>>>>>>>>>> end of post