Early March in Legacy

We went out to Legacy on the first day of March. This would normally be when you would be shovelling out your driveway from several inches of snow, but not this year.

This year we visited the place near the Shelter and Playground in the northwest corner of the park, next to the new Frisbee Golf Course, where there used to be a house on a hill. I remember the house, it was still standing about 12 or 15 years ago, and they didn't bulldoze the site, so you can still see where the fence posts around the house were, as well as some cinder blocks in what may have been a separate garage. A couple of years ago (adjust that to 4 or 5 years ago, knowing my memory of time) we went out there and could still see the gravel where there was a driveway, as well as boards nailed to a tree out back where the children must have had a tree house.

Now, you can still see where the daffodils come up where their garden used to be. The bushes and trees were beginning to bud out, and it just felt too nice and too early for this to be happening. There was a large hollow tree out back that was so open that Zach could fit in it.

I like visiting the time capsule of the old homestead in Legacy Park.

Leaf Devil

The edge of the building creates a swirling vortex that sucks the leaves around. Of course, for a small boy, it is an opportunity to run around and an occasion to try to exhaust Daddy.

Swinging with Mickey

Zach and his stuffed animal Mickey Mouse have become inseparable.

It's fun to watch all the things he will do with Mickey, including the action packed activities at the playground.

Mikayla's Second Birthday

We went over to Mike & Amber's to help celebrate their daughter's first birthday. They had this excellent Costco pizza they were serving. Everyone had a good time, including the dog, who ate all of my salad when it fall on the floor (thus saving us the need to clean it up). They had a small trampoline that the kids loved.

Mike and Amber had sold there house and delayed the move until after the party. So Mikayla's second was the house's last hurrah.

Photos by Andrea

In the Park with a Puppy Hat

Zach was thrilled to be out in the park when the weather improved. He looked really stylin' with his cool puppy hat.

February 21st, freakishly warm

This was one bizarrely warm and beautiful day. You know it's a pretty day when a smoke stack looks picturesque.

Glitchy Equipment

I spend a long week in the field jacking around with finicky equipment.

Lunch in the West Bottoms

During some industrial equipment testing in downtown KCK, I was treated to lunch at a fun little cafe in the West Bottoms (a few blocks from the Haunted Houses in KCMO).

Check out the fun mural on the side of the building.

Moonlit Docks

Zach and I stopped on the way home and ventured out onto the public docks next to the south marina at Lake Jacomo. It was just after sunset and pretty cool out, but Zach enjoyed running around the dock several times and throwing rocks into the lake.

Hospital Visit

Andrea had some complications with her foot surgery and had to spend the weekend in the hospital. He took it completely in stride, hopping up in the bed with Mommy and hanging out without a care in the world. Good therapy for both.

Goodbye Megan

Zach was fortunate to have a wonderful caretaker at Day care for the past two years, the wonderful Miss Megan. Zach started with her when he graduated out of the infant room into the toddler room, and she moved with him to the next stage. Megan was patient, funny, and smart and really seemed to get Zach. She is married to a diver that got a job offer in Hawaii that they felt that they could not pass it up.

Megan was always very good about getting Zach gently away from me when I dropped him off and he clung too long to my leg. She got misty eyed when I came to say goodbye.

Thank you Megan, you will be missed.

Lake Hyvee

There is a nice lake next to Hyvee that has geese and ducks in it. Zach and I always go look at it, and I've written about it before.

What I did not mention is that I know the bottom of this lake.

When I was a kid, until I was 10 years old, I lived across the highway from Hyvee on Orchard Drive. The creek that fills the lake ran behind our neighborhood and through a big tunnel under the highway. The highway was called 71 Bypass back then, not 291, like it is today. I guess people came all the way out to Lee's Summit to avoid taking 71 through downtown Kansas City.

We would go through this massive tunnel, it was squared, with a flat floor that was about eight or ten feet across. There was always a thin curtain of water on the floor, and a layer of grease slick moss grew on the floor of the tunnel. You had to walk very carefully to get through the tunnel.

Once out the other side, you skirted over a barbed wire fence, and then you were in a farmer's field with cows and a great little creek running through it. We would catch snakes and crawdads in the creek and once we followed it almost all the way to Prairie Lee Lake.

There was an old brick well in the field. I wonder if they knocked it down or filled it in when they made the field into a pond? One day a couple of kids, one older and smoking cigarettes, the other actually smaller and younger than us, sort of kidnapped my brother and I. Kidnapped is too strong of a word, it's hard to describe what really happened. They started bossing us around and we were doing what they told us to do, a little afraid that they were going to beat us up. They took us over to the brick well and told us to jump in. Instead, we turned to the creek and jumped down the embankment and took off running. I remember that the jump down the embankment was harrowing enough to give them the slip. I'm not sure what their deal was. Did they really want us to jump down the well? What would have happened if we had?

Despite this weird story, the valley mostly held happy memories. I think about the valley as it used to be every time I go look at the lake.

Silo Climb

I used to be petrified of heights. Planes were not so bad, it seems that something happens when it's ridiculously high, it doesn't seem real. My biggest fears were low heights. Heights where you climb or walk your way up to them, and the ground is nearby, but a fall would either be extremely painful or fatal.

One day, I just thought my way around it. I imagined that if I was in a virtual reality rig, or in some theater with huge projection screens around me, that the sights that give me such vertigo would be just imagination, and what was important was just whatever you are standing on or holding onto. So concentrate on that and anchor yourself with the knowledge of what is supporting you, and just enjoy the rest as a pretty view. This seemed to work for me.

But going out and climbing a 9 story ladder up the side of a silo was still a daunting prospect for me. It was job related, so I was expected to go up there. I imagine it would have been different if it had been the outside of a water tower, and it was trespassing. I think the added fear of possibly getting caught would have made it harder to climb, because then there would have been a voice in my head telling me not to go there.

In the end, while I did dread the climb, it was not as hard as I feared. What was hard was simply the physical challenge of it. Being out of shape does not help you climbing a ladder. Fortunately, there was a rest platform half way up, so I got a much needed rest. I started up the second half too soon and realized that I was too winded to make it and turned back after about 8'. After a couple of minutes to catch my breath, I was off and made it without any problem.

Once at the top, I thoroughly enjoyed the view.

Lost Kitten

We had a new kitten visitor arrive one day and she immediately found a home with us. She latched on to Zach right away, following him everywhere and completely unconcerned with the erratic motions a 3 year old generates. She found her way past the existing cats' unwelcome wagon, figuring out quickly how to not back down, yet not confront them. She figured out how to hook her claws in your pant leg without sticking them into your leg.

We figured she must have belonged to someone, but a big sign in our front yard yielded no response. She loved to play, and could attack your hand without scratching it up. Unfortunately, she also loved to play under the bed at 3 a.m., which was not a good thing.

We ended up giving her away to a friend, but it was a near thing. It was tempting to keep her.

Strange Foggy Morning

This mid-December morning was foggy and strangely lit. I played with the color settings on my new camera.

ATSF 999101

Out behind a factory in Gardner Kansas is an old locomotive and caboose that were unceremoniously shoved down to the end of a vacant rail spur. I think at one time, they were going to be used for a museum, but now, they are just deteriorating in place with the weeds growing up between their wheels and graffiti gathering on their surfaces.

The caboose once had seats that converted into bunks and a cool little split control cupola for two conductors. The engine had a wooden floor that is now falling apart. Much of the machinery appears to be intact, if unserviceable, and the big green reflector light on the front of the engine is still shiny.