Undaunted Courage (or at least canoeing)

Last week while still dreaming of sailing, but while watching the girls soccer game, I saw someone canoeing down the river that runs next to the field. Now we may not have an ocean, but we have plenty of lakes, rivers, and streams here in Tennessee. Traditionally we have run this same river, but always starting from a site many miles downstream that makes a big 5-mile loop. That start site has the advantage that the put-in point and the takeout point are less than a 1/4 mile apart, so I could drop off the canoe with the kids, drive the car to the take out, and then run back to the put in.

But this river is actually part of a much longer river park (I think roughly 25 miles of river) that actually runs pretty close to our house. Many years ago, we had a cub scout regatta on a creek in a big park that feeds into this river. Since then, I have had this notion of floating this river starting from this park, out 5 miles to the soccer fields, then another 5 miles to a decaying mill site that has a park, and then the rest of the 12 miles or so to the start place that we normally canoe on this river. Since it takes about 2 hours to go 5 miles on this slow river, I knew that we probably couldn't do it all in one day, but I wanted to see how far we could go. Occasionally, when I have been at the soccer games, or biked out to the mill site, I have made mental notes about where we might be able to put in or take out.

So today we decided to try it. Yesterday, JP scouted the park to see if there would be enough water. He thought there might be, but once we got there we decided that there just wasn't enough water to float our canoe. We have had bad droughts the past two years and I figured we needed two feet of water to make it. Although this disappointed me, I figure we will pick this leg of the journey up in the spring. So for today we started from the first official put-in site on the river.



Traditionally, we play a "I spy" game while canoeing, with blue herons and copperheads worth 50 points, turtles worth 5 points, and other wildlife having various scores. Whether because the upper part of the river doesn't have as much wildlife or because its fall, we saw only two turtles on the whole trip. Unfortunately, what we did see was a whole lot of old tires. So we started awarding 5 points for those. JA was doing really well in our game by spotting tires, and was way ahead until I spotted a blue heron to take a commanding lead.

Why people feel the need to dump their trash in the river, I don't know. Its a big problem here in the South. In addition to tires, we also found a football, which we picked up to play with. We would throw it downstream and then practice maneuvering the canoe to pick it up.
(Look carefully for the bridge in the lower picture. This bridge is in our Three Bikers Gruff video.)



I have never been on the river in the fall, but the fall foliage was awesome. Hopefully you can see this from our pictures. Even though we were essentially floating through our neighborhood, everything seemed so different when viewed from the river. For instance, we found this enormous fish I have never seen before. Most of the time, I couldn't really say exactly where we were until we would hit a landmark like a bridge. But some of you may recognize this foot bridge from our film "The Three Little Bikers".



It has always puzzled me why our city doesn't high light our streams and rivers more, making them the focus of our greenways and putting running trails or access points on them. Certainly, many of the people whose housed back to the river realized its value, as many had swings, screened back porches, or tree houses that overlooked the river.



After about an hour and thirty minutes of paddling, we reached the soccer field. We had already planned to drop JA off here, so I called AM to drive out, and then we tried to find my take-out spot. While I have been reviewing possible take out spots at the field over the years, but I had never really gone down to the water. So it turned out that my scouting was very inadequate. It was a good thing that JP and I had planned to go further down, because there is no way we could of hauled the canoe up the steep bank to the field and then it would have been a long haul to the parking lot. It was hard enough to get JA up the bank. I think some of the families at the soccer field were surprised to see us appear sort of out of nowhere as the river bank is obscured by brush and trees at the this point.

After the soccer fields, the speed of the river picked up. We found a little waterfall and there were smaller inputs at various places that must have added volume to the river. We practiced maneuvers, and worked on JP's paddling stroke, and this helped increase our speed as well. He paddled all by himself for a long section while I was trying to get a picture of the blue heron that we repeatedly were spooking downriver. (Unfortunately, I finally gave up after waiting for nearly 10 minutes for it to spook out again and then when I did, about 1 minute later it flew out again.)







After four hours of paddling, we made it to the mill site. By this time the sun was starting to go down and it was starting to get chilly. Unfortunately, when we reached the mill site, I realized that once more my scouting of take-out sites by memory had failed me again. I had remembered that there was a place a little downstream from the mill where the river was near the road, but when we went by the mill, I started to have my doubts. We paddle back upstream as far as we could and then beached. Walking back to the mill site, I called AM and asked her to keep on eye as she came in for any good sites. She didn't think she had seen one, but I sent JP with her to check a one possibility. It turned out that it was worse.
So then JP and I tried to paddle the canoe back up past the mill to a place that wasn't as steep, but was very far from the road. Even with many tries, we couldn't get up past the tiny "rapid" and finally had to get out and walk to pull the boat thru to this spot. From there it was a long and tiring haul back to the car, but we made it.

So we are undaunted in our exploration, but will probably need two more trips to say we have run the whole length of the river park.

Yes, we can...

It may not rank with Lincoln 2nd inaugural speech or Kennedy's inaugural speech, but it touches the right notes of hope for the weary and reconcilation for our much too embattled nation.

" If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain. Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.


I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."

A Historic Day

Forty-five years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a man stood and spoke...

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed--we hold these truths to be self-evident that all mean are created equal...

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character..

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true...
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Brother Martin, if you had lived to see this day, I think you would agree your dream has become a reality. How can we thank you?

SD pics

This little A's fan is thinking, how can I get down to the beach so my uncle can teach me how to body surf?


Someday I will be this close to a leopard shark in the actual ocean, rather than simply looking at it thru glass.


The little A's fan is thinking, "How can I slip away from my mom and go crank that machine?"


Perfect days always end at the beach.

Tagging

So apparently there is some sort of blog sport called "tagging". Younger persons might think that if you tagged someone's blog, that would mean that you sprayed paint something on someone's blog site, as that is about the only use of tagging nowadays. But it turns out that in the ancient past there was a schoolyard game, now officially banned in some schools, where a child would be "it" and then all the other kids would run away and this child would chase them and would try to touch one of the other kids. This touch was referred to as a "tag" and the game itself was often referred to as "Tag".
So apparently blog tagging works by the slowest blogger trying to catch the interest of several other nearly as slow blogger and convincing them to perform some sort of amusing task that relates to the number of people tagged. As pyramid schemes go, it seems pretty benign and gives rise to a wry smile or two.

So in response to HT's "tag" I am posting the fourth picture in the fourth folder of our picture album:


Can you guess if this is JP, JA, or ME?
I had to look at the date of the photograph, it turns out to be ME, only a few weeks old.

To perpetuate this particular tag 4 social experiment, I nominate the Alabama beekeepers (got to get something new on your blog anyway!), the Aggie engineers, Team Coke, and SJN.

I will let AMD respond for herself to EH's tag , but for fun will post some of what I might imagine her answers to be:

8 TV shows I love to watch:

Being a soccer mom, who has time for TV?

8 Favorite Restaurants:

We've only gone to 8 restaurants in our entire marriage because SD is such a cheapskate!

8 Things that happened yesterday:

Wow, that is really, really a long time ago, I can't remember exactly except that it involved driving kids around.

8 Things that I look forward to:

8 hours of sleep. Someday I'm sure it will happen.

A New Ward

For several years there has been a sense that our ward would likely be divided. But having survived one set of ward divisions with only a name change and then the stake division, we seem to keep dodging bullets. Until today...

The lines were as expected: with Beautiful view becoming its own ward and Verdant Hills keeping the central areas and students.

We are losing a lot of good friends during the division and will especially miss the vitality that comes from having the singles in the ward. Plus most of the scientist ended up in the other half. The upside is that the ward had become far too big to know everybody and our nursery was already in three classrooms and was looking to expand to a forth. Not sure if we will be much smaller, but at least a little.

For those of you interested... The old bishop of Verdant Hills became the new bishop of Beautiful View, the old bishop of the Andrew Jackson ward (Sonic Triathlete) became the new bishop of the Verdant Hills ward, and Lift the Earth became the bishop of the Andrew Jackson ward. BVB, the cycling Chinese expert, became the second counselor in the Verdant Hills ward and Music Man Adams became the second counselor in the Beautiful View ward.

Sun Beams

To continue the theme of reunions with old friends, another set that had moved to Logan came back to TN for a visit. We had a dinner at our house for some of their closest friends here. It was great to have them back. We had several lively discussions on the topic de jure, which is what I miss most since so many of our friends have moved away.

For reasons that I'm not sure of, we have never been able to spend the energy to rebuilt the "circle of ten" (to use MTN's phrase) that was the bedrock of our friendships for so many years here in TN. What had been for a period of five years or so that it takes to finish graduate school, etc... this strong and intimate group, rapidly got smaller as people finished and moved away. Meanwhile, we just haven't really made very many new ones to take their place. Maybe living in student wards for some many years have caught up with us and we just don't have the mental energy that it takes to form deep attachments anymore, I don't know. But I miss those times and having the Sun Beams back (a bit of play on their sunny disposition) if only for an evening.