The Difference of a Day

Thirty degrees colder from yesterday morning until this morning. Skies today are bright and cold compared to gray and overcast of yesterday.

The rains have passed, but the snow is coming the weatherman threatens. I wonder if there will be school on Monday.

What wonderful things will happen today. 

Time will tell. 

Perhaps the half cord of wood will be delivered soon and I can spend the rest of the day stacking that. And then we can begin to burn it to ward off the icy hands of the winter which seems to be arriving just a bit too soon.

Of course, winter's arrival is always too soon.

Brrrr. It will be cold as I stack the wood. 39 degrees at 11:30 AM.  Up a whole 6 degrees from the dawn.

Even Makayla wasn't too keen on heading out this morning.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

'Twas the Day Before St Nicholas Day

Unbelievable!

The weather yesterday evening can be described by that one word.

Yes it was overcast and cloudy, but with temperatures in the mid-60's, Chris and I did something that neither of us could remember doing ever before. Eating outside on the back deck under the Christmas lights in December!

Alright, we did light the fire pit for  bit of additional warmth, but we enjoyed a dinner reminiscent of our summer evenings to watch the end of the day darkness fall. Sadly, it was already dark when we dined, but still, the idea of eating outside in Maryland during December was an appealing way to hang on to the dying vestiges of autumn.

It was a quick respite from the hectic holidays right in our own backyard. 

I believe the memory of this dinner will help me through the dark and cold days yet to come. And it happened on the Eve of St Nicholas Day, a holiday not widely celebrated in the U.S., but a big event in many other countries of the world.

Did you remember to put your boots outside the door last evening?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Unintended Torture Device: Automatic Cat Feeder

Gus and the Automatic Feeder

I'm sure the title has your interest at least this far. It really isn't all that nefarious. I almost thought it funny. 

I was introduced to a really cool invention, designed to help our feline friends (in some cases they are more children than friends) who tend towards obesity living in our plush and opulent surroundings lose weight. It is an automatic feeder with metered and timed food delivery. 

Gus is one of my son's cats and he tends towards the heavy side. This really cool feeder was designed to help him find his inner and thinner cat. I was near the device one evening as it was about to meter out Gus's portion. His antics were hilarious as he waited for his portion to drop. Nothing in the world, I am convinced, could separate Gus from the feeder at feeding time. 

Why it is a torture device? Well, the device has no feelings, obviously, and so poor Gus in his enthusiasm does everything he can to get the food to drop earlier--to no avail. Gus is truly tortured while waiting for the food to arrive. He knows the food is in there, but he cannot get to it.

But the automatic feeder is good for Gus as he strives to become the leaner cat of his youth.

Great idea, unintended consequences.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Kennedy Krieger Institute Festival of Trees Review

At the Festival of Trees

Sunday, we bundled up and headed off to the annual Kennedy Kreiger Institute Festival of Trees. It had been over ten years since we went to the festival and I was amazed at how it has grown from a Christmas Tree focused event into a major commercial undertaking where viewing the trees is almost secondary to the sales and activities. I was not fully prepared for the blatant commercialization that confronted me after paying my $13 admission charge to enter the event, now held in the Cow Palace at the State Fair Grounds. 

The Gambler's Christmas Tree

Yes there were Christmas trees--and perhaps there were a lot of them clustered around the gigantic Cow Palace for me to enjoy. And I did. There were come very unique trees that delighted my imagination and the imaginations of my grandsons who accompanied me. But, the event is huge and almost unruly and out of control. 

Oriole Ornament made from Crab Shell

There were numerous vendors selling every variety of item imaginable and it seemed that they were the real reason for the season. The Christmas trees were clumped into manageable sections, but their glitter and creativity was overshadowed by the glitz and activity surrounding them.

Accompanying Decoration

As it was the third day of the event, most of the trees were sold, not that I would buy one. I found most of the trees on display to be sparsely decorated and lacking depth. There were a few outstanding one, but only a very few. 

The City of Baltimore Tree

I found the accompanying decorations around one tree to be very interesting. I was taken away to my personal beach by it. However, the thought of going to Tijuana for Christmas is not appealing in any way. 

The highlight of the event for me was the model railroad display which was huge. I could have sat and watched the trains for hours even though they just go around on the track. They were fun to watch and took me back to my childhood.

RECOMMENDATION: Sadly, I cannot recommend this event in the future. It has lost focus, becoming another overly commercialized Christmas-themed venture by a well meaning not-for-profit institute. The $13 adult admission and $7 child admission seems high. There is a lot to do once inside and many places and ways to spend money, but to call it a Festival of Trees is really stretching the point--a lot.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Where are You From?

Why is this a hard question?

Well, sometimes it is. 

While hanging out tailgating in the parking lots outside M&T Bank Stadium where the Ravens played on Thursday night with my oldest son, I heard that question about origins more than I have heard it spoken in a long time.


And it turns out I had a problem with the question. Sometimes the question is not clear. Really!

Did the questioner mean to ask about what community I am living in right now? Or where I drove into the game from?

Did the person want to know where I was born? Or grew up? Or where I call home? Or some other place that I may have an attachment to? Did they mean country? Or state? Or county?

For some people, I realized,  the answer is relatively easy--they are form the same place where they have lived their entire lives. Not so in my case.

I really started to think deeper about the question when my son answered it with a place name for a town where I had never lived and I realized that the question had potentially many twists and turns in the answers. 

In my mind, he was from everywhere. That is how his childhood was characterized, following me career around the world and moving every two to three years and therefore never really becoming deep in a community. 

I chose to answer the question more simply by indicating the place where I have lived for the past almost 13 years. But, I could have chosen to name another small town in upstate NY as the place where I was from--but the question seemed to be looking for a more local answer. 

There is a need to be FROM somewhere, I realized. 

The correct answer to the question may be "that depends" but that would be a definite conversation killer.

Where am I from? I am from a lot of places with a lot of experiences, but the easiest answer is that I am from Elkridge.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - December 2, 2013

1. December crept onto the scene over the weekend. There are only 22 shopping days left until Christmas. 

2. If someone says it's not a competition, it probably is.

3. Black Friday is black because people shop from before the sun rises until well after it sets.

4. The annual Black Friday family Axis and Allies game ended historically accurately again. My dreams of world domination were crushed by the Allies once again.

5. We visited the annual Kennedy Kreiger Institute Festival of Trees this weekend. My favorite tree was the Baltimore Orioles 60th Anniversary tree. How cool was it that I decided to wear some Orioles gear?

6. How awesome was the last play of the Auburn-Alabama game? Not in terms of who won, but in terms of how a tied score 28-28 factored into an ill-advised Alabama field goal attempt that led to Auburn's thrilling 109 yard run back win. I wish I had seen it live!

7. Read an interesting article about how root rot is threatening Christmas Tree production.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Christmas is in the House

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is our decorating day and yesterday was no exception. With the movie The Santa Clause playing in the background, supplemented by music of the season, we "Christmafied" the house. And somewhere during the day Chris also rendered the former Thanksgiving turkey into a soup.

Of course there was the obligatory trip to Lowe's for emergency supplies, new lights for the tree, when it became apparent to some that my attempt to swap out one string of lights for a non-functional one resulted in two different colors of lights on the tree: yellow-white and white-white. This, I was informed, was a major decorating faux pas. I admit, I never saw the difference. But it worked out because we purchased two Christmas gifts while we were out thereby contributing to the holiday retailer's profit margin.

But the best part about decorating this year was found in two new "toys." The Polar Express train circling under our tree is one and the new remote control lighting switches that we installed to control the lights is the other. No more crawling on the floor to turn on the Christmas Tree and all of the associated lights. 

Columbia Mall Poinsettia Tree

I am sure there will be more decorations to hang before the season is complete. We are undecided about setting up the Snow Village this year. While it will be hard to break an almost 30 year tradition, I'm not "feeling it" this year. Time will tell. 

I did have the chance to snap a quick photo of my favorite shopping mall decoration this year--the Poinsettia Tree in the Columbia Mall. Yes, I was out shopping with Chris on Black Friday for a few short, although seemingly eternal, hours. 

Another check in the holiday checklist is accomplished.

Next up? Shopping. Ugh! 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Riding the Polar Express into Christmas

The Polar Express

All aboard the conductor yells and with a clanging bell and a shrill whistle the dreams of Christmas begin and are fulfilled in a young boy's life--so the story goes.

Today is the day after Black Friday and the traditional Christmas decorating day for my family. Trees will be erected and decorated and the Thanksgiving turkey will make its last ride back into storage for another year. 

The Polar Express on the Rails

The Polar Express has become one of the iconic Christmas stories. We have been reading it on Christmas Eve for many years--since 1986 when the story won the Caldecott Medal. We ave loved the story and the magic which it recreates in our hearts every time we read it. Can you still hear the bell?

This year, I finally have my own Polar Express train set to set up under our Christmas tree. I also have these awesome images of a "real" Polar Express riding the rails sent to me by a friend from Colorado. This is the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad version of the Polar Express.

It is time to put away the turkey, make some soup with the leftovers, break out the cocoa and the Christmas decorations and get to work. The Polar Express is ready to ride the rails into my living room and my heart. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Surviving Ravens-Steelers: The NFL Needs to Clean up the Fans

M&T Bank Stadium
November 28, 2013

It was cold. Let me start there. I was prepared for the cold and for the most part, except at the very beginning of the evening, I adapted to the sub-freezing temperatures and enjoyed myself.

The game was good--I have to like the outcome because the Ravens held on, literally, by stopping a two point conversion to secure victory on their home turf. 

Me and Jeremy before the Game

I was lucky enough to attend my first Ravens-Steelers NFL football game in person with Jeremy--a rabid, but reserved, Steelers fan. He had been there before and knew how the evening would unfold. I wore my venerable Todd Heap, number 86, Ravens jersey and Jeremy wore his usual Ben Roethlisberger, number 7, Steelers jersey. 

We had an awesome time tailgating before the game and met up with many other great people who were looking forward to the game. 

But, once we entered the stadium,  things changed. I feel compelled to condemn a significant, but small, percentage of fans who feel that they must abuse those wearing gear from the visiting team. It bothered me a lot. The slurs I heard directed at Jeremy and other Steelers fans were uncalled for--whether children were present (which they were) or not. 

I admit that the slurs and the nasty behavior of a few fans put a damper on my enthusiasm for the game. In one sequence of uncalled for nastiness near the end of the game while the outcome was still in the balance, a man in front of us grabbed Jeremy's Terrible Towel, uttered words about his parentage and how by waving his towel he was disrespecting his wife, threatened Jeremy when he returns next year to the Ravens-Steelers game, and threw the towel towards the edge of the stadium where another fan helped it to fall down from the upper level into the stadium below. 

Jeremy displayed an awesome sense of composure and we managed to get out of the situation without being surrounded by police and thousands of other drunken fans. 

I know how I feel when Yankees or Red Sox fans come into Camden Yards--but I never will abuse them nor do I tolerate those who do. They bought a ticket and they have a right to enjoy the game. I just hope the home team wins and they go home losers. Nuff said.

The NFL needs to get control of the unacceptable behavior. In baseball, there are ushers everywhere who help manage the rowdiness. That may be the answer. I did not see an usher anywhere all evening. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Happy Thanksgiving - 2013

Turkey and the Snowman

The Holiday to begin The Season has arrived. Thanksgiving dawned with clear and cold skies. The season of the Turkey comes to a gut gorging conclusion later today with dinner and football and wine. 

Thanksgiving is the holiday that every American can celebrate--there are no overt religious overtones to divide us from the celebration and it truly is--not a memorial or remembrance type of day. Thanksgiving is the holiday to give thanks to God for his blessings and also say thank you to the ones you love for being there during the past year through the good times and the not so good times. 

Thanksgiving is also a time to remember those from whom we are separated--but to give thanks for them and their love and support.

Thanksgiving is also a transition point. The time when the turkey and harvest decorations give way to the winter and Christmas decorations. The snowman is already trying to push the turkey off its briefly held perch in front of the fireplace. 

Give thanks. Have a great day and don't forget to phone home.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD