When the Garmin-Chipotle bicycling team was being formed I was not invited. Maybe it was my penchant to ride wearing Hawaiian shirts, or my refusal to purchase a helmet, or maybe it was the fact that I weigh as much as Lance Armstrong together with his bike, something must have prevented them from accepting me into their team. I wasn’t surprised, Garmin ignores two or three of my job applications every year.

I was not discouraged by the lack of sponsorship (sponsors are welcome to contact me with proposals) and participated in my own Tour De La Crique Indienne or as you Americans would call it – Tour of the Indian Creek Trail. I discussed the pleasures of recreational biking before so I will not repeat myself. Today the weather was nice and I rode about 37 kilometers (23 miles) round-trip from my house to 103rd st. and Metcalf. I wasn’t in a hurry and had plenty of time to stop and take some photos. So there, I can ride a bike and photograph.Take that, Garmin!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Continue reading →

Most religions start with some kind of revelation. Some guy while walking in the woods finds golden plates, next thing you know, two scmucks are knocking on your door asking strange questions. An old man walks to the top of the mountain, comes down with a couple of stone tablets, next thing you know I have to feel bad about eating bacon. A guy gets crucified, next thing you know….

I may be on to something too. Lately, I started noticing that Dove Chocolate Promises contain unlimited supply of chocolate wisdom and life directives. After eating several bags of chocolates I now have enough wrappers to cover most of life’s questions and daily matters.

The Promises can be divided into two categories: wisdom and directives.

Directives:

• Go to your special place
• Go against the grain
• Send a love letter this week
• Don’t think about it so much
• Follow your instincts
• Whisper in the dark
• Live your dreams
• Wink at someone driving past today
• Smile. People will wonder what you’ve been up to
• Love without rules
• Discover yourself
• Watch reruns, they replay your memories

Wisdom:

• It’s definitely a bubble-bath day
• There is a time for compromise…it’s called “later”
• Sometimes one smile means more than a dozen roses
• Age is nothing but a number
• If they can do it, you know you can
• When two hearts race both win
• Temptation is fun…giving in is even better

These pearls can be combined in an infinite number of ways. Try it:

Don’t think about it so much+Go to your special place+Discover yourself

See, it’s like a higher power telling you what to do.

OK, I am back from my “special place” where I just “discovered myself” and I am “smiling” so “people will wonder what I’ve been up to”. Get it?

I am on my quest to eat more Dove Promises to finally discover the secret of life. I found out that I can actually order my own Promises with old stand-by’s like “don’t pee against the wind” or “don’t eat yellow snow”.

Inspirational AND practical!

Continue reading →

Queue the soundtrack:

[audio:https://www.kcmeesha.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/21-Along-The-Santa-Fe-Trail.mp3]

Long time ago, when the native prairie didn’t yet need to be restored…

…and the Santa Fe Trail wasn’t a tourist attraction…

…the Barlow-Sanderson Overland Mail Company was operating a stage line from Missouri to California, stopping at the Mahaffie Farm in Olathe to rest.

150 years later a local sculptor recreated the stagecoach in a full-scale bronze sculpture “Going West”.

The sculpture stands out for its attention to detail, from the tackle on the horses, to the people in the scene, who were apparently modeled after some Mahaffie employees.

Free-standing figures add another dimension to the scene.


This sculpture represents Olathe  among the other cities with monumental art like Dallas’ famous Cattle Drive.

Continue reading →

Since the beginning of the school year my kid has spent a large part of her spare time participating in the First Robotics team. At first I was skeptical, since  I generally despise all after-school activities, clubs, girl- and boy-scouts and youth sports. But gradually, seeing my kid’s enthusiasm and her inexplicable desire to stay in school for 14 hours on some days, I thought that there may be something to this and it couldn’t be any worse than cheerleading. My work schedule and general laziness kept me from stopping by and checking on the progress of the robot the kids were building, but I had a chance to see an almost ready robot few days before it was shipped to Chicago for the upcoming regional completion.

This was one of the many times when I felt ancient. I thought about my technology-free childhood while staring in amazement at what the kids have built. I am pretty sure the first space station was launched with less processing power than this robot uses to shoot basketballs and drive around the obstacles, and that power is controlled by a group of 15-18- year old kids with joysticks. Many different skills are needed on the team  – from production, to electric design, to programming, to creative and technical writing, to safety, graphic design, team management and fundraising. Instructors and mentors practice hands-off  approach and let the kids take complete control.

These are the kids who will be this country’s answer to China and others who are rapidly moving ahead in the science and engineering fields. These are the kids who will take this country to the future, not you soccer and baseball-playing children, not competitive swimmers, and definitely not your cheerleaders, unless they are also doing this. Few people  remain baseball players into their adult life and even fewer find employment as cheerleaders. And while these activities are not without a benefit (whatever it is), they are completely irrelevant to the long-term future of this country, its position on the world technology stage, its prosperity and self-respect.

I had a chance to visit a First Robotics Regional which was conducted in Kansas City over the weekend. Several things there impressed me and managed to wipe out most of my usual cynicism. The sheer number of participants who traveled from 9 states to take part in the Regionals was beyond anything I expected going in. Most of the kids didn’t look like the characters from the the Revenge of The Nerds. The level of excitement rivaled any sport event. The level of creativity, both visual and technical was impressive. There was a large number of handicapped kids and not fake ones like they have on Glee. There were probably equal numbers of girls and boys. There were plenty of involved parents, mentoring, helping and cheering.

This wasn’t the first time my kid picked something the impressed me over my reservations and general whining. What I saw in the Arena made me feel good about the future.

Next year I might even write a fundraising letter or two.

Now for the visual part of this post. First, a short video to give you an idea of what the teams are trying to accomplish.

httpvh://youtu.be/nOXsdhZZSdM

Continue reading →

I guess I am closing in on the age when people around me start dying off. When I was younger these people already seemed old, now that I reached their age that seemed so ancient to me not so long ago, I find myself attending funerals more often than I’d like. And this is just the sad beginning, many of my relatives and relatives of my few friends are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. As the new immigrants these are the people who will be the  first in their families to be buried in the New Country. They had the courage to leave everything, including many generations of their ancestors buried in the old Motherland, and they will be the first to be laid to rest here. And we, the younger generation, will be the first to have our loved ones separated by the ocean, the old gravestones there will eventually be forgotten after we are gone.
The people we are losing now had truly legendary lives: they were born in the young new country, they fought in the war, they came home to rebuild, they raised their kids, they lived, they loved, they suffered, lost friends and relatives, lived through lies and propaganda, managed with very little and lived to see their children and especially grandchildren prosper in this country. Their eulogies will be said in the language they don’t understand, and Rabbi will pray to God they were taught didn’t exist. The Rabbi will talk about their lives, struggling to pronounce their names and places they lived in, knowing that most of the mourners do not understand a word of Hebrew, but still love the sound of it and a feeling that the same exact words were said for millions of people for thousands of years, for a moment bringing them in touch with all the generations before them.

Jewish Cemetery,
Brown dirt frozen
With millions of tears

Photo: Rose Hill Cemetery, Kansas City, MO 

Continue reading →