Dear Family and Friends, December 31, 1986
Happy Holidays!
I have always disliked X-mas newsletters, perhaps it is just
an old bias created by listening to complaints, but I've de-
cided that it is preferrable to nothing at all. So, here right
on time (i.e. before January 1), I am attempting to get my
X-mas "cards" in the mail, with a short autobiographical note.
Thank-you for your cards and letters. A special thanks to
those who included pictures-maybe someday we will send some.
For family members, I have included two sets of address
labels. I hope you find them useful. This year has been
hard on the page of my address book dedicated to my parents
and siblings--there has been a change of some sort in them
all this year!
1986 opened with a trip to southern California, January 9-17
for the TeleXchange Users Group meeting and associated work
with Telefile. That was quickly followed by another trip
January 28-February 7 back to southern California to work
on porting some software (screen editor and C language
compiler) developed at Andrews University from the CP-V
operating system to run under TCP-R. WMATA, the subway/train
system in Washington, D.C. wants it. The trip was somewhat
unsuccessful, but further progress was made later in the year.
A high point of the trip was a pleasant hike on my birthday
up a mountain stream (East Fork of the San Gabriel). The
stream was swift and deep. The trail also crossed it dozens
of times. Later that month I managed to get my drivers
license renewed - maybe next time I won't drive expired
as long...
On January 18 I helped level-tube (vertical survey) the "Third
discovery" in Reeves cave. That was my eleventh trip into
that wild cave. On March 22 I helped extend the compass and
tape (horizontal) survey a miserable 200 feet from I75 to I85
in the same section. I still want to crawl out there again
and extend that known going lead. Upon returning from the
latter trip, I found the computer at AU very dead and provided
an educational experience for all on how to deal with such
nasty situations.
My brother Bruce and his three children stayed at my house
March 26-April 9, giving Bonny a rest between their visits
there. The trip to Potawatomi Zoo (South Bend), climbing the
sawdust mountain, the Lemon Creek crossing, and the Easter egg
hunt will long be remembered.
April continued with a pathfinder caving trip (Harbor Lights),
staying at Timber Ridge campground in Indiana. Terri enjoyed
the horses, even if she didn't enjoy the tree they introduced
her to. Fred passed through late in April with Jephthae and
a borrowed truck seeking a relief driver. I obliged and we
loaded Grandmother Fern's piano in Cadillac. Terri provided
waffles in Berrien for breakfast with little warning.
May was plumbing month - or lack thereof. Much preparatory
work (One Thing Leads To Another Syndrome) was done - but I
was hesitant to cut off the vital services. The course I took
last fall was very helpful, but one never knows what will be
encountered in some jobs. I had decided to replace almost all
of the plumbing from where it entered the premises. I was
without everything but cold running water (including drainage)
at some point in time. The upstairs bathroom has yet to
regain its tub. The new downstairs bathroom/laundry room and
associated plumbing room were added at the expense of raising
the driveway several inches as well as burying much dirt (?!)
in the garden - that Michigan basement shelf was a pain.
After raising the garden several inches, we also raised a
garden. It had been several years since we had one. Terri's
cucumbers got pinced out in a race between the sweet corn and
the zucchini. We also had parsnips, carrots, lettuce, egg-
plants, onions, tomatoes and peppers. In June I started a
long-term tree trimming ritual to decrease the shade of the
garden and rid myself of a soft maple. In seven years the
tree may be gone (except for a tree-house??). By then, my
three white pines and birch clump should be well established.
May also saw the acceleration, at AU, of work toward ANSI
certification of the FORTRAN 77 compiler. Telefile found the
original designer and principle author (Rob Langsner) and we
moved on the project. The federal test suite arrived in June
and Rob made subsequent visits in June, August, October, Nov-
ember, and December.
In June Terri moved back in with her cat Nightskye (and hus-
band Keith) at "610". The basement toilet was the only really
functional plumbing fixture. The hot water pipes had to cure
over the weekend, but the bathtub was functional the day we
got back from the Orchard (Terri's folks place). She left for
the next weekend also so that I could get three sinks plumbed.
Terri joined me on a trip to Dallas June 20-26 for the Tel-
eXchange Users Group meeting. She enjoyed meeting all my
friends and business associates. A special part was the
Executive board/Author's dinner, that is, except for the
peach cobbler... Another good part was the ride in the
Americal Airlines full-motion flight simulator run by
Telefile computers. Terri gave us quite a bump with her
hard landing (and seasick).
The Fourth of July weekend found many of my family at the
Farm (Home Harbor). For me the most memorable part will be
Jephthae's "five more times uncle Keith, five more times"
followed by my "Geronimo". Since many had walked the beam
and swung down earlier, the rope breaking on me was quite
a surprise. Nine days later I had my ankles x-rayed. The
doctor stated that it was evident that they had suffered
"severe trauma" and felt it well to have a record on file so
that false conclusions would be less likely to be made in the
future. Others will not forget the softball game or Fred and
Bonny's dog which departed. Fred(85) and I(75) had our trad-
tional hike "in" the pines (25 feet off the ground). Bethany
(20) and Mathue(6) also participated. The food theme was
traditional foods we remembered from our childhoods. I some-
how found time to play intramural softball in July in spite of
my ankles.
Terri's graduation with her Masters in History in August was
a real celebration. I spent all of Friday on the lawn - it
was perfect. It rained Sunday - forcing the party inside -
something Terri had assured me wouldn't happen. I missed the
Fox-Bullen reunion since it was the same day.
I helped Fred and Bonny move in August. Since he had arranged
to have me pick up the truck in Louisville on Monday, I spent
the weekend caving - level-tubing Goodes and visiting com-
mercial caves. Moving a farm is hard work. The first load
only took a day to load. The second load took all of two.
And Fred said "build me an ark out of my van" and I built
him an ark - and the animal were brough forth: a cow and
a calf after her kind - four goats and five kids after
their kind and 4 geese. I wasn't sure if it wasn't old
man Noah himself or Old McDonald. I only had 30 chickens and
a dog in the 24' Budget truck, in addition to the rest of the
"dead" weight. On the way back I return the truck in Louis-
ville, visited another commercial cave and finished the level-
tube survey of Goodes. The next week I recouperated at work.
A week later was an unusual caving experience. We had a
group of five people, but soon were joined by two SOBs.
Persimmon and Licorice belong to the son of the cave owner
but these male dogs have made frequent forays into the depths.
Garre was not pleased that I helped them past a point that it
seemed they needed assistance, but he forgave me after we put
them to work pulling the 1.5" tubing through a low wet spot.
The tubing is to siphon the Blue Pool to aid in further ex-
ploration.
In September I purchased a one-way ticket out of the country.
Andrews had purchased a used computer (Sigma 9) from Carleton
University in Ottawa, Canada. Some jerk who had been sitting
in my seat activated the emergency door opening after the
jetway attendant gave a good-bye rap. It was my first ride in
a Boeing 757, I also missed my flight in Toronto, but you get
used to that (as well as lost luggage). I rode back with the
truck and had fun at the border - life is such a wonderful
education.
Terri and I made a quick trip to South Carolina and back via
Fred's new place in September. I returned with Grandpa
Finck's 1971 Dodge dart. It was incredible to look at the
odometer at 24000 or so and realize it hadn't rolled over!
The fuel pump left me near Lexington, but I made it back
to Berrien early the next morning. The car arrived at the
farm a few weeks later. Terri couldn't understand why I kept
pulling to the right when putting on the brakes after getting
back into my own car, but such are conditioned responses!
September 26-October 6 found me once again in southern Calif-
ornia. This trip resulted in a salable screen editor under
TCP-R although further enhancements are highly desirable. I
had the opportunity to rehike the same mountain stream in a
little drier conditions. We went much further. I also
climbed Mt. Baldy - 10064 ft above sea level. It was VERY
windy.
The family gathered once again in October for Grandmother
Fern's "celebration". We inherited her cat Beauty and had
fun integrating her into our household. It was amazing what
Fred was able to pack into that van for their return trip!
The sewer-line between my new plumbing and the street main
appeared to be plugged in November. I rented a router and
cleared the obstruction. Unfortunately I also got the snake
stuck. After much deliberation, consultation and destruction
of my plumbing I gambled against breaking it, wishing to avoid
replacing the line out to the middle of the street. A come-
along brought out the wad of roots just when I had about
given up getting it out in one piece. I quickly returned
the router to avoid further rental charges. In December I
had to rent it again since it had obstructed again. I again
got out a lot of roots, but brought the router out regularly
to clean them off!
We had a pleasant Thanksgiving with Alice, Gary, Alisa,
Mark and Florence at Alice's. I left directly after dinner
for Bloomington and met Fred at Carlson's. We spent 13.5
hours caving and were joined by Licorice. I established
a cache deep in the cave and we dug on a potential remote
entrance. Early in the trip I stumbled and hit my chest on
a rock. I didn't think much of it at the time, but ...
November 29-December 4 found me once again in southern Cal-
ifornia. It became apparent to me that my chest was bruised
more than a little. Upon my return I visited the doctor and
he diagnosed "suspected rib fracture" and suggested that the
lung was also bruised. Since no x-ray was performed, and dis-
continuities were thought to be felt, a second opinion was
sought a week later. This time the doctor said "your rib is
not broken, nor was it broken two weeks ago". He suggested a
torn pectorial major as the cause of the pain and bumps, etc.
I, personally don't believe either is completely right (ob-
vious since contradictory), but would agree with a combina-
tion. I'm hoping for an easy caving trip to start the new
year, to get that Blue Pool siphon flowing. That CA trip the
weekend after Thanksgiving was very hectic! My luggage was
even later than I was (a day). I was tired enough that
I declined the $200.00 offer for rerouting. I waited
while 5 people got off the plane. I was the last one on.
It was also my first ride on a Boeing 767.
X-mas was spent at the Orchard with Terri's folks and bro-
ther's family. We played lots of games like Password and
Probe. I skipped out Christmas evening to work on the house
but came back after church for Sabbath dinner.
We also got instructions last week to move our stored
computer equipment back to where we moved it from last April.
We had all of a week's warning for this two week task!
Well, that's a quick review of all the letters I should have
written this year.
Love and Prayers,
Keith [and Terri]