Category: Family

My niece Catherine and my friend Dave are having a baby shortly and this is a very big deal in our family. My sister has three kids and this is the first grandchild. Catherine likes elephants so Steph put together this baby basket for the baby shower this weekend.

She’s very good at these things, and I’ve seen a bunch of them over the years…

I spent my younger formative years in a small town called Floriston, CA. It was located on the side of a Sierra Nevada mountain between Reno and Truckee. As best as I can recall it was between my fifth and eighth year of life.

My step-dad was a trucker and my mom a homemaker. We ran free and wild and attended school in Truckee, about 14 miles away. We had to walk almost a mile every day to and from Hwy 40 (now 80) across two major railroad lines. I learned to swim in the frigid Truckee River when I fell off a homemade raft.

The reason I thought about this place today is because I was telling one of my Com School kids mom this morning about attending school with Jimmie Heuga. She’s involved with the sport of ski here and had no idea who I was talking about. He was one of the first two members of the U.S. men’s team to win an Olympic medal in downhill, in 1964. He died from MS at 66.

We had a very nice family birthday sleigh ride dinner up at the Grand Targhee Yurt tonight. Today is Brian and Cats birthday, Lorelle’s tomorrow. Don, the kids dad was there, sister Liz and Cats husband Dave, Drew and Katie, Andrea, Anika with a friend, and a couple from Montana I never met.

Click the picture below to see a few shots, if you like…

We trudged several miles through the bitter cold tonight to visit my nephew and his clan. Ok, he’s my next door neighbor so perhaps I exaggerate a touch. Brian’s been creating an amazing musical experience in his music room above the garage. He’s wired a Moog synthesizer, along with an old classic synthesizer with a modern processor, and his new electronic drums into state of the art software with a touch sensitive keypad thingy. My description does not do this setup justice but as Brian was sliding sliders and tweaking knobs he was mad scientist at its finest definition.

This is an amazing setup and as I was applying my totally inept keyboard skills to it he was recording with his phone. We didn’t stay long tonight but this place has hangout written all over it. I just need to figure out how to wire my bongos in…

I’ve got my xmas shopping all done. Yesterday I walked into ACE and bought a device that allows short people to pick up things that are out of reach. Steph loves it. Today Steph picked up a gift card for Barrels and Bins that I’m giving to my niece Lizzie as my participation in the family secret santa event on xmas day at my sisters house.

There you go… Grabber thing: $25, gift card: $50, done deal. How’s your xmas shopping going? Here’s the note I included with my nieces card:

Dear neice,

I've known you for a long time but I have to admit, I don't really know you...

I wanted to get you some cool tech gadget to go with your computer or your phone but I have no idea what you own. I don't know if you're an Apple girl, a PC person, or an Android user.

So, I heard you like Barrels and Bins and I got you a gift card instead.

Hopefully you can take a moment this Xmas and show me how you tech?

Uncle Jim

Here’s some photos I grabbed off of Steph’s camera last night, with a cute shot of the Anika, Steph’s latest quilt project, and the new quilt project. Click the picture…

Steph just took off to watch Anika’s dance thing at the High School, and Piper and I are hunkered down at my desk writing code. She doesn’t compose it obviously, but she does inspire it. I recall more than one moment of code yeah! occurring with Piper on my lap…

I could be watching young girls dancing right now, but this is a small town and the dancers are for the most part the same ones acting out loudly on my bus during the afternoon drive to Driggs, so I’ll pass. My entire extended family is there and Steph has a camera so maybe some shots will make the blog.

In case you’re wondering about my desk, well, it used to belong to my buddy Greg who was the art teacher at Riley’s old high school. It has a lot of history, and character…

It was another great Thanksgiving at my sisters mansion at the foot of the Tetons. Sis finally has all of her kids living here in the Valley and everyone seems pretty happy about it. Crazy uncle Jim was also there with his partner Steph and he brought along his cool scanner and a great corn dish. Click the photo below to see more…

… and the dogs were kept on the deck until after dinner:

Steph’s daughter Melissa just had a baby girl and she’s off to the South tomorrow to hang out with the new baby. Mom and dad look pretty happy here, it’s just too bad that Michael had to sell the right side of his eyeglasses to pay for the whole thing…

Steph’s got babies popping out all over. Well, not literally from orifices or any such thing, more like new grandkids and nieces. This particular basket with knitted caps and blankets is headed to Washington for her sisters daughter Stasha’s upcoming baby girl.

Her daughter just gave birth to a girl and Steph’s on the way to Tennesee shortly to meet the new grandchild. Her son is also about to become a new father to a girl.

I suspect baby baskets will continue to make the blog for some time…

Steph’s been crafting out lately on Family Birthday boards. She’s making one for each of her families households, color coordinated to individual color schemes. Each monthly peg contains a birthday charm for a family members birthday so you can see at a glance who’s birthdays are coming up.

My simple little blog provides me the opportunity to express my wishes on how I want my friends and family to deal with my death. What a powerful thing this is! I have a lot of folks that read this, and it’s now date-stamped and real.

I have developed some interesting philosophy’s during my time alive. I don’t believe in cremation or organ donation, it’s a wrong way to enter the other side. My grandfather was buried in a simple box in a Sacramento, CA cemetery and I believe he could very well be my guardian angel. He didn’t have his organs cut out because he was a donor, and his physical body was not destroyed by fire and converted to a jar of ashes.

Please, set me up with a small little burial plot here in the valley with a view of the Tetons. A pauper’s coffin is fine and since I’m not religious, I don’t want any church involvement at all. If folks want to gather later at our house and tell my son Riley what a good guy I was, that’s ok.

There you go, these are my end of life wishes…

I used to live in a small studio apartment in Kent, WA. It was during the time I was transitioning from the role of burned out computer programmer to a bus driver to a transit supervisor to meeting Steph and ultimately moving to Idaho. During that time, I helped raise my boy Riley who lived with his mom down the road but spent his quality time with me. His high school was across the street and here he is doing homework on my old tower after school. Yes, I slept on the floor and my couch was an old bus seat.

We’ve all come a long way since then…

These are the others items remaining in the box: two of my grandmother King’s God’s Minute, one much older than the other with little notes scattered within the pages, a small bible that belonged to me when I was about 5 years old, the large flag from my grandfather Kings military burial and my daughter Becky’s Easter hat.

I am a spiritual, yet not religious man, so the Christian artifacts have no meaning to me other than they were important to my grandmother, who helped raise me. My grandfather’s flag I waved proudly on 9/11. My daughters hat represents a sad failure and combined with a teddy bear I can’t remember cuddling, the box sums up my past.

I also know I have an amazing guardian angel who has saved my life so many times and perhaps these items hold the key to that spiritual connection…

Update: I just kissed and hugged my teddy bear as I put them all back in the box, and I think I remember…

Today is National Teddy Bear Day. In honor of this special day, I’m going to share something with you that, other than Steph, nobody knows that I have.

Over the many years that I have been alive, possessions have floated into and out of my existence like thunder clouds rushing over the Tetons. I have one special box, though, that somehow I’ve managed to hold on to. It contains a few simple treasures from my past, such as Teddy.

This is my teddy bear as an infant and it’s older than I am. Thus, this sweet little one armed bundle of stuffed love is over seventy years old, I would assume…