Three Years!

I had known it was coming, but wasn't sure to dread or look forward to the third anniversary of Melinda's passing this last 22 September. I decided to embrace it, and when a friend told me she had business in Puerto Peñasco, the die was cast! Melinda and I had travelled many times to the little port an hour south of the SW Arizona border, so invited myself along and retraced some of our steps there! PP has the closest beaches to Tucson, and the port on the Sea of Cortez is best known for its prized shrimp. Most of our trips down across the border were to visit our friend Margie, who spends much of the winter there, but have also made other trips with friends, so drew from that trip too. Shown here are a trio of my favorite photos of her there.

At left is an early photo, taken the day before my birthday (December 15, 2006), just a few months after we started dating. It is a spectacular photo - some thought it was taken in front of a mural, but is actually a live sunset from the patio of a favorite restaurant "Casa del Capitan" atop a large hill next to a lighthouse overlooking the port. It is often windy out there but this evening it was calm and spectacular not only watching the sun set, but seeing the stars come out as the evening progressed - a memorable evening indeed!

Fast forward 5 years and a few months, and we were down again with her good friend Carolyn. Margie wasn't available this trip, so Melinda found a 2 bedroom condo rental for a long weekend that was less expensive than a hotel at the still-under-construction Esmeralda. We only saw one other room in the huge building that was occupied, even though it was near the peak of the influx of tourists (4 March, 2012). At right is a photo of her relaxing on our 7th floor balcony overlooking the Sea of Cortez towards the west.

Finally a year and a half later we returned for the Christmas holiday (23 December, 2013) at Margie's. She has a beautiful place there, including this outside eating location when the weather is good (most of the time!). Margie has it strung with Christmas lights and the view of the post-sunset sky and scattering of colored lights was too magical to pass up! This was taken 5 months into the start of her cancer treatments, but the Melinda smile is still bright!


This trip I insisted on dinner atop the lighthouse hill where the top photo was taken. It was a nice evening - storms to the east, but a nice sunset. Dinner was at Pane e Vino Ristotante, adjacent to Captain's, a pizza place below and upscale Italian above. There was an excellent view of the sunset and port below from the high perch I'm guessing a couple hundred feet above the Sea of Cortez. The sunset shots here are handheld with a 200mm lens. It seems to set so quickly over the water. Distant mountaintops from Baja can be seen to the nearly due west, since this was taken nearly on the Autumnal equinox... When you click and enlarge them, I love the "crepuscular rays" emanating upwards from cloud structure or mountains, even after the sun had set from my location...


The natural lights of twilight faded quickly and the lights of Puerto Peñasco came up at the same time. Back to the kit zoom lens, the wide shot here is a 3-frame HDR, a combination of 3 frames of different exposures to record more light levels. At lower left is "the Malacon", the commercial center of Puerto Peñasco, including restaurants, fish and shrimp mongers, dentists, pharmacies and tourist trinkets - most anything you want in an over-the-border destination! Across the bay are the high rises and condos of "Sandy Beach, and the body of water leads to the right to the port where hundreds of shrimping boats are docked before heading out. You can see why we have loved the view from there when weather conditions allow a meal out there!

So it was a nice trip - not particularly emotional for me, though shed a few tears when I re-read my blog entries of her last days 3 years before - the first I've reviewed them since putting down those thoughts... Melinda will always be a part of me, our decade together among my happiest. I know all of you who knew her also have a special place in your heart for her.

The Season of Green!

Have been back at "Ketelsen East" for a couple weeks and have immensely been enjoying the Summer season here! The trip up was "uneventful", but then, how often do you have eventful flights?! The only time I can remember a flight I'd call eventful was when Melinda surprisingly upgraded us to first class - now THAT was memorable! So it was a dull trip, but at least I booked a window seat to watch the country roll by. And fortunately for me this time, the window was actually possible to look through! Often they are behind your shoulder and takes a contortionist to look thru, let alone try to take a photo.


It seems lately that the flights have initially been much further south than years past. A few years back, we almost always flew past the LBT Observatory on Mount Graham 80 miles NE of Tucson. This time I was able to look down on Willcox, a good 25 miles south of Graham, making targeting the LBT all but impossible. Similarly, instead of passing right over the Clifton/Morenci copper mine with a great view, it was again a good 15 miles to the north as shown here at left.  Even cropping the full zoom shot at right did little to get detail like the earlier version (see link).

It is always a challenge to locate the path taken along the way. Usually you can look for landmarks or unusual formations, even road or river intersections. Look for something that would stand out while perusing Google maps, while noting the time stamp on the photos so you can figure out where to start your search. We crossed the Rio Grande in north-central New Mexico - that was easy enough to spot the green ribbon of fields that must use wells pulled from the river. But which city was that? The railroad yards at center help locate it to Belen, New Mexico. The Rio Grande is the meandering little stream in the sandy channel in the lower right part of the frame.

Once past the Rio Grande and east of Albuquerque, I'm pretty much lost using landmarks. I figured we crossed up through New Mexico and eventually into Kansas. As a farmer boy, I could see the irrigated fields, yet, also saw square fields of golden yellow. My friend who grew up in Kansas confirmed that the golden fields this time of year was likely winter wheat, probably in the process of being harvested or about to be.

The chance to reorient myself presented itself when we crossed what I thought was the Missouri River. It seemed small, but was long and windy, so figured that was it. I shot the unusual twisty stream emptying into it shown at left and figured it would be easy to locate on the Google Maps, and I was right - took about a minute of searching to find the exact spot where the Nodaway River empties into the Missouri, about 15 miles northwest of St Joseph on the Kansas/Missouri border...

It got hazy and cloudy which made looking more difficult, so missed the Mississippi crossing. A few turns of the aircraft made locating more difficult too. I never spotted the Illinois River sometimes seen, and we were getting close to landing and me without knowing where we were! Finally another turn and I spotted one of the more striking landmarks - the twin towers of the nuke plant near Byron, Illinois. Evidently a storm had just passed and with the humidity, the cooling towers were belching a steam trail that could likely have been seen for a hundred miles! The towers themselves are 500 feet high and when trailing a steam cloud are quite apparent. I visited the place once, but never blogged about it - an eerie place at night!

The nuke plant told me we were going to head in straight east to O'Hare, likely over "Ketelsen East". The storm that passed through before we did evidently left a lot of rain - some of the fields of corn had impromptu lakes standing in them!

Continuing eastwards, sure enough, the urban areas started, and I was able to pick out Randall Road that traverses north-south on the west side of most of the towns our here west of Chicago. Even before seeing the Fox River, I knew we were near the normal path, likely passing about a mile north of "Ketelsen East" on the way in. At right, spotted in the Fox River to the town a few miles north of me was the Grand Victoria Casino - permanently tied to the dock from back in the day when casinos had to be on "boats", even though the Fox isn't navigable by something this large... So thus ended the flight - dull and boring, right? Well, not when you are paying attention!

So by the time I got by baggage, got
picked up, went to dinner w/the friend who drove me home and got out to the house, it was dark, and it wasn't till the next morning that it hit me - it was GREEN outside! You have to realize that when I'd come up, Tucson hadn't had measureable rain in 4 months, and it was dry, mostly sporting shades of brown and grey. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz stepping into the Technicolor world of Munchkin Land after a B&W existence! The daytime view out the bathroom window at left gave the first hint that "we weren't in AZ any more"! This is an HDR image, where 3 different exposures were combined to sample the extreme levels of illumination. This still life has appeared before in the blog, with the results of a blizzard outside the window from 2.5 years ago! Looked a little different then!

Stepping outside later in the day confirmed it... While I had been here a mere 6 weeks earlier, the trees had not fully leafed out before my departure, so the appearance was totally different. The shade under the 80 foot tall oaks and hickories was nearly impenetrable! And GREEN - did I mention the GREEN! It was dazzling to the eye it was so green. The shot at right above is looking out from my little stoop towards the north, taken with a fisheye lens stretched a little to look a little more normal.

The photo at left shows a shot towards where I just took the above image. The cottage is surrounded in several sides with plants, ferns shown here on the NE corner.

Taking an amble towards the river and looking back towards the house, you can see some of the trees still towering over the house - and of course, the American flag Melinda liked to hang while we were in residence, shown at right...

And of course, it isn't all green! There always seems to be something in bloom, and even as I arrived, the day lilies were nearing the end of their season. Here is a focus stack of 6 frames to extend the range of sharp focus.

Lots more to blog, lets see if I can start a trend and get more than one every month or so!

A November Surprise!

Today I had some spare time, so took my sister-in-law Maj to her annual physical, had lunch with our friend Carolyn afterwards, then ran a few errands. As we approached the Wal-Mart, with Resurrection Cemetery across the street, I suggested we "go visit Melinda" at her niche there. Didn't need to twist Maj's arm! As we approached, she smiled and said she had a surprise for me! She had taken a call the day before - Melinda's plaque, which for some reason was supposed to take months to arrive, had come and with the mild weather, had been attached. Now she has a labeled interment location!

We shed a few tears and shared a hug, happy in the satisfaction the site was complete, save for a small flower vase to be added later. I'm not sure when Maj was going to inform me, but evidently we were thinking alike and we got to see it for the first time together...

One Last Goodbye...

This last Saturday was the Geneva, IL memorial for Melinda, and today the interment of her cremains in Resurrection Cemetery. The former was very well attended by family, her wide assortment of friends and former co-workers. Today's event was just a couple close friends and immediate family for the brief ceremony.

The memorial was mostly a repeat of the Tucson event, though I included 2 images in the slide show I didn't have for the earlier version. Maj's remarks, as well as mine were mostly the same. The big difference is that nephew Rick, shown at right played "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes! He is now an active member of the Chicago Highlanders, and did a spectacular job. That is our niece Kathy (Rick's sister) along side of him.

After the memorial and reception in Malone's basement, Melinda once more got to come home and spend the weekend in the cottage we shared and loved. She again was on the mantle among the pictures of her family and loved ones...

Of course, my biggest fear was showing up at the interment across town this morning and realize I'd forgotten the urn on the mantle! But I jotted down the mental checklist and made sure she made the trip with me... Maj arrived a few minutes after me and at right indicates the niche of her mother, only a few feet away. Fortunately, when Melinda expressed her wishes to be hear her mother, one was available near enough to touch each with outstretched arms...


Before the formal ceremony with the priest started, we loaded up her niche with her urn and all the icons we decided should be interred with her. We were initially told it was a 9" cubical opening, but it turned out to be considerably larger, so there was lots of room. Included with her cremains were some turquoise jewelry, her "beads of courage" from her NICU co-workers in Tucson, a crescent moon for her love of the stars, and much more. At right Maj is placing the "three sisters" pin that they all happened to get for each other one Christmas!


A final caress at left and a silent prayer at right and the ceremony started. A few lines of ceremonial text and a sprinkling of holy water, a prayer and the final goodbye was over. Alice's niche is at Maj's shoulder to her left, so you can see they are only a few feet apart...







We stayed a few minutes to chat with our friends while the staff waited for our departure to seal off the niche. Our last view of the urn shows Maj's lip prints as she kissed it twice before the ceremony...

I'll get back to some "normal" blog programming soon now that the formal series of memorials is over. I'm still distracted by all that has happened the last few months, and life has certainly changed. I hope the blog will be a little lighter in tone than it has been the last month or so. I've gotten lots of feedback that folks are glad the blog will continue, and I'll get back to normal posting in a day or two... Thank you too for all your condolences on the Facebook and elsewhere - it has been gratifying to know she touched so many of our lives and will be remembered for a long time. See you on down the road!

Melinda is Back Home!

I flew back to Illinois the other day - the first time without Melinda in a while. After the memorial in AZ, my sister and her husband, who had driven down, offered to drive her cremains back to the Midwest. It saved a carry-on as well as the inevitable passage thru security even though I had the permits, so it was great Linda and Lauren could do that. Yesterday, with Melinda's friend Mary along for company, we drove west to Dixon, the halfway point between our house and Linda/Lauren in Morrison to pick her up. So last night Melinda got to enjoy her "Moss Cottage" (the alternate name for "Ketelsen East")once again. That is her in the golden enclosure at left among photos of her life - her nursing portrait, her sisters at Maj's wedding, with Dick and mother Alice in the rear. Even an angel statue seems to be welcoming her home.


The lonely ride back was made less lonely by an old coot of a rancher as my seat-mate. Shown at left, he at least dressed the part of a rancher with plaid shirt and 10 gallon hat. In our hours of chatting, while he admitted to riding a few horses (he explained at length the idea of the partnership of man and horse), I don't think he was a true rancher. But we did share stories of growing up on a farm - me in Iowa and he in Wisconsin. Amazingly, though we were a generation apart in age, we experienced the same work baling hay, cultivating corn, and chores with the farm animals. He was going back to visit his brothers and sister in Wisconsin - has been years since he'd been back...


The trip was uneventful. I thought I was smart by at least getting a window seat looking down-sun on the left side. Unfortunately, I was right over the wing, which limited the downward shooting. Other than a couple initial pictures of mountains near Tucson, I put the camera away. But as we circled over Lake Michigan for final approach to O'Hare, the Chicago skyline came into view and I grabbed the cell phone camera, taking a few shots. While not the sharpest views, at left the lakeside skyline is seen with the Willis Tower, tallest in the Midwest at top center. A few minutes later I shot again, catching another pair of planes coming in to land too. Nice O'Hare has enough runways that 3 planes can land at once! You can also spot that a few of the trees in the residential neighborhoods are just starting to turn...


With all the running around I've needed to do (funeral home, changing over bank accounts, insurance - STUFF), I've been trying to be good to myself too, so got the recumbent bike out my first morning and hit the local park for some pedal time. Amazingly, there was a quartet of sandhill cranes grazing right next to the bike path. Of course, if I'd been on foot, I'd likely not been able to get within 100 yards of them. But on my bike, I approached and stopped about 50 feet away! I was even able to "go wide" and get part of my bike in too...


I was out for a walk today, and while some trees are just starting to turn yellow and orange, it is peak season for sumac. They turn a stunning deep red or reddish/orange color and are quite striking against a blue sky or even remaining green vegetation. Looking back, I seem to photograph them nearly every year, but they are so pretty I can't stop...

So the plans are finalized for the final memorial at Malone's Funeral Home in Geneva Saturday at 3pm. I'm thinking we'll have a larger crowd than we had in Tucson. She had a LOT of friends and co-workers here she developed over the 50 years she spent in the Fox River Valley, so should be a good time to stop, reminisce and shed some tears. Meanwhile, I'll likely take a few pictures, and post some that might be of interest.

For a while, I'd considered stopping the blog. Melinda had started it right after our wedding in 2008. Even though she had migrated to Facebook and I took over the upkeep of the blog, I felt I needed her editorial support and approval that she gave reading each post. But even though most of you don't leave comments here, I've heard from many of you that it remains an interesting part of your internet reading. Plus sis-in-law Maj sez I've got to continue it. So the "Boss" has spoken and I'll guess I'll keep bloggin' if I can find things worth posting. In the meantime, I've also started a Facebook account, so if you haven't already, send along a friend request and I'll see you there too!

Another Memorial and a Task From Maj

One memorial down and one to go... The event last weekend was very nice - my approximate count was about 75 attending, mostly local friends, astronomy club members, and my workmates from the Mirror Lab. Unfortunately not many of Melinda's nursing co-workers attended, but my sister Linda from Morrison, IL and her husband Lauren drove down to spend a few days with me! It was followed by a reception at her favorite Mexican restaurant, where we all ate and chatted for a few hours (I'm finishing the last of the leftovers tonight!). Our neighbor Susan even had the energy to come play some background piano (she is also getting cancer treatments).

One of tonight's subjects is the memorial for our Illinois family and friends. My sister transported her ashes back to the Midwest, so she is already in Illinois! The memorial will be at Malone's Funeral Home in Geneva, Illinois, at 3pm on Saturday, 15 October, with a rosary read at 2pm. A reception at Malone's will follow. Her obituary is already listed on their website, and you are free to submit remembrances and images there.  I'll be flying up next week, so hope to see all our friends and family there...

One of the tasks sis-in-law Maj left me
was a religious pilgrimage... Melinda wore a Miraculous Medal on a gold chain that she never removed. That original is going to niece Kathy, but she also carried a spare medal in her wallet. Two days after Melinda's passing, I took Maj down to San Xavier Mission and as she sorted her jewelry later, she wanted me to return to pin the medal on the hem of Mary's garment at the Mission. So today was the day for that journey! The Mission, shown at left, is quite spectacular, and undergoing some interior and exterior renovations... The medal is shown at right. Around the border is the wording: "O Mary! conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!"



Shown at left is the statue of Mary in one of the niches of the Mission. There are a couple things to note - there are already a number of medals attached to her hem at the bottom of the image. Also on her garment is the "Man in the maze" image, a very common image on the Tohono O'odham reservation. Shown in close-up at right, it represents the decisions made in your life's journey. When you eventually reach the center, you pass on the next world.



It took just a few seconds to pin the medal on her hem, make a silent prayer and take a few images to record the deed for Maj. At left is the close-up and a little wider shot at right showing some of the other attached medals. The Mission was hopping for a Thursday afternoon, and folks were queuing up for a chance, so I moved along, moving outside for the wide exterior shot shown above. My quest finished, I returned to town to the mundane tasks of changing insurance, banking account mods and dealing with disability and life insurance claims. A trip to the local Social Security Office tomorrow, and the light at the end of the tunnel approaches...

3D anaglyph of San Xavier from Southeast

3D anaglyph of San Xavier from Southwest

And, full disclosure, as usual, I took a few stereo pairs of the Mission. Time to get out the red/blue 3D glasses! These are hyperstereo images - the separation was typically a meter or two - much wider than normal eye separation, amplifying the 3d effect for architectural studies. At left is a view from the SE, and at right is a similar view from the SW. I also took some stereo pairs from inside, but perhaps will save them for another day. Enjoy!

Melinda Tribute!

Rather surprisingly, Youtube accepted the slide show I put together for Melinda to be shown at the memorial today and in 2 weeks for the encore in Illinois. Without further ado, here is a combination of family photos off her phone, my collection off the blog, and little ditties she collected that meant something special to her. Music is also at her direction. Enjoy!