Adventures in Traveling: Part 2

It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in the Las Vegas airport waiting for our airplane to be deiced and wondering if the previous day’s snowstorm and airport closure was a premonition of what was to come. It was. We flew into wonderful weather, if you recall, leapfrogging our storm so we could experience it twice. During our stay in Iowa we were not disappointed by winter. We experienced snow, fog, rain, ice storm, sunshine (I’m not sure I remember sunshine), windchill down to a -30 F and a January thaw in December when it got to 51 F. Quite the swing. And of course the ice storm had to wait until the day we left. In terms of an ice storm it wasn’t a big one, but it doesn’t take much of an ices storm to mess things up.

So here we are at an airport once again, this time in Des Moines, Iowa waiting or our airplane. We are hopeful the delay will be short. Delay you say? Yes, not only was their an ice storm in Iowa, but frost on the planes in Las Vegas and we all know how efficient deicing is in Las Vegas.

An ice storm is not my favorite kind of storm, but fortunately the airport is functioning and our airplane is coming in from Las Vegas and won’t be on the ground too long - at least we hope. I just took a photo of a United Airlines aircraft with icicles on its wings. I later found out that one of the deicing trucks was broken and folks were waiting for another plane to be deiced before they were going to have their plane deiced. They had been waiting for over 4 hours. I even saw the pilots get up and leave, shaking their heads. Maybe the keystone cop thing is not reserved just for Las Vegas, but Des Moines has their own keystone cops.


At one point while I was in the restroom I heard from the stall next to me at the “little boy’s urinal” a small boy ask his dad, “Why doesn’t if flush?” (They were auto flush urinals).

Dad responds with, “Let’s not worry about flushing, let’s just get your pants up.” [That sounds awfully familiar. The boy was maybe 4.]

Boy, “Dad, I think you broke the toilet, it won’t flush.”

Dad,with just a touch of frustration, “Let’s go.” As they turn to leave the automatic urinal flushes. No response from either of them, Dad was moving too fast.


Home again, home again and how good it feels. Bright sunshine, beautiful red rock hills, our own home, a cat anxious to spend as much time on our lap as she can. It is always good to be gone, but it is also good to be home. We already miss the kids, but know we left a spoiled grandson behind as a reminder. It was a great trip.

Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas to all from a cold and beautifully white Iowa. We send all of our best to all of our loved ones and friends. It is a time for remembering, celebrating family, trusting in the Lord, giving thanks for our blessings, and pondering on the wonder of this special season.

In Honor of Calvin's 14th Birthday

Today Calvin would have been 14 years old. We were reminded by several daughters and encouraged to participate in a Mexican feast - one of Calvin's favorite foods. Of course I think any food was Calvin's favorite food.

Our oldest son, spouse, youngest grandson (and grandchild), JoAnn and I went to the Monterrey Cafe and had a great Mexican feast. We were stuffed.

A chip in honor of Calvin's love of chips!

The first time we took Calvin to a Mexican restaurant was in Boise, Idaho when he was 3 or 4 years old (I know I will hear from my kids telling me how old he really was, but when you get older age is less important than just remembering). We were sitting at the table, he in a high chair, and they brought chips. He took one look at the chips, his eyes got big, and in a loud voice, "Wow, Chips!" We all laughed so hard. The waitress was so impressed by Calvin's enthusiasm.

This evening's dinner was a little more subdued, but we enjoyed it nonetheless and fondly remembered Calvin. Happy Birthday grandson from Grandma and Grandpa.

Obviously, his wasn't taken at the restaurant, but the photo I took with my iPhone was just terrible and I couldn't share it. This photo is much better.

Good to be in Iowa - Believe it or Not

I sit here writing this post on the second floor and northwest corner of Tim and Lonita's home, listening to the wind blow; and blowing it is! Until you have lived in the midwest and participated in a northerner you have difficulty understanding just how much the wind can blow. As I write this post the weather channel says the temperature is 6 degrees F with a wind chill of -15 F and a wind blowing from the NW at 21 mph and gusting to 30 mph. Now that has all the beginnings of a true northerner and reminds us of the years we lived in Iowa, especially the winters.

The morning started pleasantly enough at 27 F and when I compared it at 8 am to our other families cities only Las Vegas was warmer. However, that has all changed. By the time 11:30 am got here the temperature had only dropped one degree, the wind was only 8 mph (see to the right), we had a light snow, and it felt 17 F.

I have taken a little effort to point things out on the graphic to the right to make sure everyone understands "how" to read it. Our kids used to tell us the weather channel was old folks "MTV" and I think they were probably right. Since we have moved to Las Vegas we don't watch it any more. Go figure! Actually the whole thing is really self explanatory, so read it for yourself. If you can't figure it out it's because you either don't live in the midwest or you aren't old enough.

The early mild temperature didn't last long, by the time 1 pm rolled around we had dropped 6 degrees in real temperature and 13 degrees in wind chill and the wind was picking up.

Three hours later we began to feel the real brunt of the weather and we had not even gotten to the cold part of the evening yet. A little after 4 pm we were down to a wind chill -10 F, in just 3 hours. We are just beginning to feel a real Iowa winter.

You have got to wonder how the early settlers handled this kind of weather. Some of Willa Cather's "O Pioneers". She writes, speaking of Nebraska (which is only 3 hours away by car), "Winter has settled down over the Divide again; the season in which nature recuperates, in whcih she sinks to sleep between the fruitfulness of autumn and the passion of spring. ... The ground is frozen so hard that it bruises the foot to walk in the roads or in the ploughed fields. It is like an iron country, and spirit is oppressed by its rigor and melancholy. One could easily believe that in the dead landscape the germs of life and fruitfulness were extinct forever" (pp 185-186). And so it does feel that way sometimes, but when you sit in the comfort of your home with your family you have faith and know spring will come again, the green will return, and this winter will be left behind as a receeding memory.

It is good to be in Iowa - believe it or not!

Western Iowa along Interstate 80 at 20,000 feet (or so) - Not quite what Willa Cather remembers, but things have changed in the last 100 years.

Making Joshua's Christmas Stocking

JoAnn just hung Joshua's Christmas Stocking on the fireplace mantle in Iowa. It is an old family tradition. Our (JoAnn and I) Christmas stocking were made 40 plus years ago by my mother. Since then JoAnn made stockings for each of our children. Our daughters have carried on the tradition with their families.

When Tim and Lonita got married JoAnn made a Christmas stocking for Lonita. Now JoAnn has added a stocking for our youngest grandson, Joshua. That makes 2 generations of family she has made Christmas stockings for. She used my Christmas stocking as a model for Joshua. They both have a locomotive on it, although mine is much smaller. When Tim saw the locomotive he was really excited. Isn't it interesting how mom's know exactly what to do.

As each of our children has left home they have taken their Christmas stocking with them and in their own way created their own family stockings. The tradition is now in its 4th generation. It is so much fun to see the kids excited by their new stockings and on Christmas morning to see them dig into the stocking for their goodies. Joshua is just the latest and not the last of the 4th stocking generation. So as it is an old tradition for us, it is a new tradition for each of our grandchildren.

The Iowa McLean's Stockings

At some point we may have photos of all of the Christmas stockings to share. It is always exciting to see how they have morphed (changed) over the years.

Below are a few shots of the construction of the stocking.

Adventures in Traveling

JoAnn and I sit at the Las Vegas airport encountering a most unusual experience: Flight delays due to snow. Yes, for the 2nd time in 3 days Las Vegas had a major snow storm. Major for Las Vegas. In fact, as we learned later, it was the biggest snow storm in recorded history - a whopping 3.5 inches. Wednesday afternoon the airport had to close because of snow. My thought was that the airport doesn’t have deicing equipment. They don’t have much in the term of deicing equipment as we are finding out this morning. More importantly, however, there are no snowplows at the Las Vegas airport. And even if there were, who would know how to drive them. The last time we had snow that closed the airport was 1979.

On the positive side, as we sit looking west towards our home, the Spring Mountains, Red Rock, and Mount Charleston are just beautiful. If we were home we would have driven out into Red Rock today - at least I would have - just to take photos. This is a special event that may not occur again for years.

Hopefully in a short while we will board our aircraft and wing our way to Iowa and that bone-chilling cold.

It wasn’t so short and it was like watching the keystone cops as the airport tried to get their deicing equipment to work. The deicer would fit in my garage - this isn’t Denver! It was a small container and it took 15 to 30 minutes for every aircraft. Then it broke and it was the ONLY one! At one point I counted 7 people around the deicer: 3 supervisors (what do they know?), 2 operators who kept pushing the same button, and 2 hangers-on. In the meantime the airline had a baggage conveyor truck (for getting the baggage into the aircraft) with a driver and a person on the conveyor and every time they get to an airplane the person on the conveyor would walk to the top, take his broom, and push snow off the aircraft between the engine and the aircraft body. I’ve got to tell you, my confidence level was not very high.

After some 60 minutes some guy drove up in a pickup, pulled out two tools, one being a wrench, walked over to the deicer, spent 2 minutes, and had the lift working. Of course it still didn’t go very high. As our aircraft pulled out and we went down the row of remaining aircraft at their gates, it didn’t look like any were going anywhere soon. There was snow on the wings, in the engines, and on the tails. The sun was out and slowly things were melting, but not very fast.

JoAnn noted the patrons were particularly relaxed. Many had spent the night at the airport. They were resigned to “someday” getting out of Las Vegas.

And we were finally off for a beautiful flight from Las Vegas to Des Moines. We are in the air looking down on a mixed white region and by all accounts flying into the storm that blew through Las Vegas on Monday. Well, it is Christmas, it is air travel, and yes, it is an adventure.


The payoff is spending time with our family and our new grandson - Joshua! It was a long day, but what a great ending.

It's what they don't tell you. . .

When we moved to Las Vegas we were prepared to experience, or as some locals say, endure the Strip; live in a beautiful desert; and expect moderate winters. Last winter was just wonderful. After 35 years of midwestern snow and winters we have really enjoyed our new snow-less environment. All these expectations were true, right up until this morning.

Today we got 2 inches of snow. That's the part they didn't tell us about. I'm really not upset, it just was a surprise to us. Now we know, it's what they didn't tell us we need to be listening for. Of course, we didn't ask questions either.

The snow was beautiful and the best part is that it will be gone tomorrow. Then we can get back to normal - dry and beautiful.

iPhones, Grandpas and Grandchildren

Who would ever have thought that the iPhone could also be a pacifier. I discovered this a few months ago, but was reminded of it this past weekend. The two almost 3-year olds were tired, maybe even exhausted, and parents and grandparents were trying to somewhat unsuccessfully visit. Then I remembered I carried a portable pacifier.

I whipped out my iPhone pacifier, popped open YouTube and like any good Grandpa I had previously bookmarked a number of cartoons. Among my favorite are Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and the like. It really doesn't matter much what I show as long as it is a cartoon or an animation. There really are some great ones.


The kids jumped up on my lap, or sat beside me and were enthralled for almost 30 minutes. They do get a little fidgety when the cartoon is over, so I have to be pretty quick about getting the next cartoon going. Bonnie got brave enough she figured Grandpa didn't need to hold the iPhone any more. However, when she took it little Danny couldn't see it, so I had to retrieve it. At that age it is still about "mine."


Pacifier in place, the adults went right on with their conversation. When the video got a little loud all I had to do was turn the volume down - on the iPhone, not the adult conversation.

So, next time someone gives you a "what do you do with your iPhone" you can say it's a pacifier for the under 5 crowd - especially when they are tired.

Watching and Listening . . . 2

I had a great and quick 24 hours with several of my grandchildren. JoAnn had been there for several days so while I had a great 24 hours, she had a great week.

With 4 families, including us, it was a bit of a mad house, but then it always is. In this group the children range from 11 months through 11 years so any notions of cohesion are not readily apparent. But then, I really wasn't expecting cohesion and I hadn't come to Idaho to watch and listen for cohesion. I wanted to enjoy my grandchildren.

One of the cutest moment came last night as we the dads (2 of them) and granddads (2 of us) were sitting in the basement with a group of the older children watching a loud movie. Back behind us was Donna's "baby" (almost 8) and he was playing a game on the computer and sitting at a short (I emphasize short) table of perfect height for him. It is a toy train table the rest of the time. Of course the room was absolutely dark except for the movie. I watched baby get up, go into his weekend room and a few minutes later he has a desk lamp, has it plugged in and is trying to move the flexible neck so he doesn't create a glare on the movie screen. Who says our kids aren't considerate? He was struggling. He had the cord as far as it would go and on the wrong side of the computer to do what he wanted to do. I walked over, sat down, asked, "Do you need help?"

The proverbial "No" came back to me.

So I watched him struggle and finally said, "Let's move the lamp to the other side of the computer." We did and it worked well. We got the light all arranged so he could see the keyboard and not create a glare on the movie. You see, as a logical Grandpa, I was sure that was what he was trying to do.

As I walked away I heard a "Thank you Grandpa, now I won't be afraid of the dark." I chuckled and realized I wasn't so smart after all. Later when I shared the story with his Mom she goes, "All of my kids sleep with a light on."

About an hour later I was back in the basement and baby was still playing his game and the movie was still blaring, but coming to a cataclysmic conclusion. I turned around and there was "Little Danny," almost all 3 years of him, standing by baby, his big cousin, watching him play the computer game. How cute.

But wait, he was doing more. As I looked a little closer I could see him moving his hands in front of the light. Not to bother baby, but to do shadow puppets on the wall. I was blown away. Here are two little boys, one busily engaged in a computer game and the second observing and simultaneously making shadow puppets on the wall. Both were having fun, enjoying themselves, and lost in the experience.

Those were precious moments. I was listening and watching. Fortunately I didn't take a photo, as in this case it would have ruined the moment.

Off to do a little listening

I'm dry, not a thing to listen to. JoAnn is gone, it's just me and the cat, and she didn't talk. I'm off to listen to 8 grandchildren this weekend. Nothing like new material.

Watching, listening, enjoying. . .

I have actually constructed this post over a period of several days, pondering as I went forward and trying to focus on content, intent, and outcome. That's a little academic isn't it. Sorry, let's try this, "When is the last time you just sat and watched and listened - and didn't do anything else?"

By training I am a qualitative researcher, and for those of you who don't know what that means I can provide plenty of books and references. But essentially, qualitative researchers don't try to prove hypotheses, but approach research from the perspective of observing human behavior through a variety of techniques and then creating meaning from the data gathered or what early on was called "grounded theory."


The photo above is of two of my granddaughters and is precious. It was their first time on the light rail and they thought it was a GREAT adventure. The idea that Grandpa was taking them out for a special ride was way cool. For me as I sat and watched them I saw excitement, joy, anticipation, impatience (are we there yet?), and most of all happiness. The photo radiates with fun, joy, and happiness. It makes you want to relive the moment again and again. I have thought frequently about the time we spent together on the metro that day and realize just how much I enjoyed the time with my grandchildren. It was special because it was something they had never done before. How often can a Grandpa do that? Probably not often enough.

However, as a Grandpa I choose not to function as a qualitative researcher. Rather I choose to be an observer where my focus moves from analysis to enjoying and experiencing the moment my grandchildren are creating for themselves. It helps if I take a photo to remember the experience, but taking a photo really can reduce the opportunity to watch and listen. On the other side, however, the photo enhances my recall of the experience and I can enjoy it more often. Take for example this photo of my granddaughter filling her bucket up with water. I sat and watched her for several minutes as she tried to get the bucket full of water and not get her dress or blouse wet. When she did get it wet she was a little frustrated and tried to wipe the water off. Finally she got the bucket as full as she could and was satisfied, but had no idea how to turn the water off. That is when she was ready for some big people help.

Watching is about observing. It is not like watching television or multi-tasking. Watching is a full-time task, especially if you want to learn something. And grandchildren, regardless of their age always are worth watching. It may be how they play, how they interact, how they relax. There are no inhibitions, no standards (except for those few imposed by us), no preconceptions of right and wrong. They know how to have fun instinctively and they can take any situation and turn it into fun, unless of course we are embarrassed, and then no one has fun.

When is the last time you just sat and watched someone have fun? Try it. Don't overthink it or preconceive what should happen, just watch and be quiet.

Next time let's talk about listening.