Baseball Cards

I started collecting baseball cards in 1960 when I was 8. The Dodgers were my favorite team so I cherished getting their cards. I remember going to the store with my allowance and opening a pack with such excitement and anticipation. Getting a Dodger or some other star was the best. Getting a double of someone was a letdown.

I continued collecting in earnest through 1964, including some football cards. I think 1962 may have been my most prolific collecting year. I would sort the cards by teams, and even devised a baseball game using them to signify pitchers and batters, and kept statistics for the games. I would mimic Vin Scully announcing the games.

Fast forward to 1981. I had my huge card collection stored in a box in the garage. I remember cleaning out the garage one day and seriously considering disposing of the cards. With that in mind, when an advertisement appeared in the Boise paper soon after that someone was in town buying old baseball cards I considered it a windfall when I took my cards down and accepted $175 for the lot. I promptly turned around and invested that amount in silver coins, a fad at the time. For sentimental reasons, though, I had gone through the cards and saved a small fraction of them.

Fast forward again to 1987. Baseball card collecting was becoming popular again, and now I had sons who were also interested. I jumped back into my childhood and joined in the collecting frenzy with them. What agony I experienced when I saw the prices being fetched by old cards like the ones I had sold so cheaply. 1963 Pete Rose rookie cards alone were selling for hundreds of dollars, and I suspect I had one or more in my collection. And I took very good care of my cards, so they were in premium condition.

I sorted through the few cards I had kept and decided I would purchase cards to complete my 1960 and 1962 Topps sets, which I did, at a cost of over a thousand dollars. But it was a lot of fun and satisfying to rebuild what I had foolishly sold. Here is a photo of some of my more valuable 1962 cards:


Meanwhile, my silver coin collection? It dropped to less than half its initial value (though it may have rebounded some since).

Little League Baseball

I don't recall exactly what prompted my early interest in baseball, but I remember age 8 playing baseball with Barry in our front yard on Jurupa in Riverside. Sometimes our ball would escape into the neighbor's yard and he wasn't too happy (Mr. Wilson, we called him, after the Dennis the Menace character). Mr. Wilson would sometimes turn on his sprinklers to deter us.

When my dad returned from his one year overseas Air Force duty in Labrador, one of my first requests was for him to take us to a Dodger game in LA. This was summer of 1960. We went to the LA Colliseum and saw the Dodgers win (Frank Howard, Wally Moon, Johnny Podres, etc).

I remember going to see some local Little League games, and I rooted for the Dodgers. I even got a cap and ironed a "D" on it.

When we moved to Fallon, NV, the people on the military base constructed a field and organized some teams for summer of 1961. Barry and I both played. I was only 9 but I think I was one of the better players. We played two seasons there. One year I played for the Falcons, and the other year the Mounties. Here are some photos from that era:

We moved to Riverside and the Little League was much more competitive. We had to try out for teams, and I made the cut and played for the Braves (I think for both seasons, aged 11 and 12). In fact, I made the all-star team both seasons and participated in post season play. Our dream was to win all the way to Williamsport, PA, for the Little League World Series. We never came close. Here are photos from that era:

I have a couple of old Little League trophies in the closet, but here is my prized momento--my all-star cap with participation pins (and some moth eaten holes).


Good times, and the beginnings of life long athletic pursuits!

Photos from the Archives

Here is the "silly old car" that my kids enjoyed riding in when we visited Riverside in the early 80's. Looking at Bridget I think this is late 1982. Notice the Pinto and Narlodge in the background.


I need a little help with this one. I'm guessing this is Christmas at Barry's house in the mid-80's. But where are Bridget and Blair? Is that Ken bottom left? Whose are the black shoes on the right? Who is that on the couch with head thrown back?

Photography Bloopers

Have you ever taken a photograph and been so focussed on the foreground subject that you didn't notice intrusive backgrounds? It is a common blunder. Here are a few examples from a quick look at some of mine.

Here is a group shot of us at a "dead city" in Syria in 2005. Notice the guy standing in the background? Actually, we noticed he did that on purpose, as I believe he staged for subsequent photos as well. Jeremy is quite prolific with making backround poses for strangers' photos (I wish I had an example, like the one where he is stuffing his mouth with food at a restaurant table behind a photo setting).


Here is a shot from our 1976 trip in the Netherlands. Notice anything?


This was just last week in Verboort. Suzanne used this photo in her blog, but had to edit out the lady in the awkward standing position.

This photo is the crown jewel of such examples. I'm sorry, Barry, but I can't help laughing out loud every time I view this photo.

If I had more time I could find many more examples. I'm sure there is one of my graduation from BYU with a flagpole sticking out of my head, but I can't locate it just now.

Pics from the 70's

Here are some random pictures from the 1970's that I must have scanned into the computer along the way. Looks like a couple of Pam's kids joined in this one:


Anyone know what year this would be? 1974?


I see baby Blair, so this must be 1977.


Here is our home in Meridian, ID. Note the front of the '66 Chevy in the driveway. The US flag in the window was the fad at the time to give support for the hostages in Iran, so this should be 1980, plus or minus.


Our two boys, probably late 1979 or 1980. Anyone know the location? Perhaps Newhall, CA.

I think this picture was on Facebook a few weeks ago. The gang in Vienna in 1976.


Early 1977 in front of our duplex at China Lake, CA.

That's Eric in Germany, 1976.

Let's see, must be late 1973 or 1974. How old is Jason here?

A Most Beautiful Place

We love living in Oregon. One of the reasons is that there are so many beautiful, scenic places, and so much variety. If I had to pick one place we love to go, and where we have so many memories from over the years, it would be Cape Kiwanda.

We have stayed at the Thousand Trails campground there many times, as we are the beneficiaries of my parents' membership there. Here is one camping site we have used a number of times:

Here are a number of photos taken in the last few years:

Here is a link to a post Suzanne wrote about Cape Kiwanda: http://topomountain.blogspot.com/2010/06/cape-kiwanda.html

It's so nice that this place has not just the beautiful views, but wonderful memories associated with it.

European Delivery, 2010

I'd had past experience with diesel vehicles, owning a 1981 Rabbit Diesel (great mileage, but no fun to drive), and renting a Volvo in Europe in 2002 (which I loved). One reason I did a three year lease on the 2007 335xi was that a diesel version of the 335 might come out soon, and my financial models showed it just as cost effective to lease back to back as to buy and hold. (The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this post, but perhaps another time.)

I liked my 2007 335xi enough that I was prepared to just keep it, but before making a final decision I ran the numbers again and found that buying a 2011 335d would work out to cost less, due largely to an additional $4500 "eco credit", plus $900 energy tax credit. Bottom line, due to these incentives plus European Delivery discounts, I was getting over 20% off MSRP.

So we planned another trip to Germany on the way to visit Bridget and her family in Dubai. I'll give details of the trip in subsequent posts and focus more on the car for now.

We flew out of Portland on Wednesday morning, Oct. 13, and arrived in Munich the morning of Oct. 14. We would have liked more sleep but there were things to do and places to go, so we headed right to the BMW Welt via S-Bahn and U-Bahn. The BMW Welt is a fabulous, futuristic building on the site of the BMW Munich factory where they deliver new cars to customers. They really roll out the red carpet for you and we were pretty impressed with the whole delivery experience. We were provided complimentary passes to the BMW museum and a factory tour, plus vouchers to use at their restaurant and gift shop. Here is our first view of the car coming down the stairs from the premium lounge.


Here I am driving the car around the "victory lap" to exit the building.


We drove that afternoon to Austria, went to bed early, and got up early to continue on to Budapest, and then on to eastern Slovakia the following day. Lots of fun driving on freeways and rural highways.

We were worried about car theft in former eastern block countries, and had it parked securely in Budapest behind a locked gate. But in Slovakia there was no secure parking available. We stayed two nights at Hotel Alibaba in Humenne just parked in their lot out front. The hotel staff assured us not to worry, that they had never heard of a car theft in Humenne. Still, I was relieved each morning to see the car safe and sound in the lot.

We didn't get a lot of pictures of the car in scenic settings. But here is one parked by the cemetary in Poruba, where Suzanne has cousins and ancestors are buried.

While there were speed limits elsewhere, Germany is famous for its high speed autobahn. We did get a clear stretch of autobahn on our final day, and with the car now broken in we sustained over 100 mph for a while, and peaked at 125. Sadly, that experience is unlikely to be repeated in the USA.

Five and a half days ended all too soon, and we had logged over 1400 miles. Note the 34 mpg average, despite some spirited driving--love that diesel engine!

We dropped the car off at the designated location just north of Munich on Tuesday, Oct. 19, and took the train to downtown Munich, then the airport.

The car was loaded on the ship Maersk Wind in Bremerhaven on Nov. 6, will squeeze through the Panama Canal in a couple of weeks, and is due to arrive in Port Hueneme, CA, on Dec. 1. I figure I should have my new toy in our driveway as a birthday present around the 14th, inshallah.