That's Number Six

Here I am with my son, Steve, and my brand new, hot out of the oven grandson, Ethan. He arrived on September 23rd, weighing in at 8 lbs 9 oz. He is my son's first child, but my sixth grandchild. I love grandkids, so I hope they keep coming and coming and coming. However, right now is not a good time to talk about such things to Jodi, Steve's wife. She's still a little sensitive about the whole ordeal.

As soon as my wife and I got word about the new arrival, we were on our way to visit the newest Bremer. We got there the same day at which time this picture was taken. I am my father's only son, Steve is my only son, and, so far, Ethan is Steve's only son. hopefully, Steve and Jodi put an end to the "only" string. I was always partial to two sons and two daughters, but I fell short in the son department. Our nest may be empty, but Steve and Jodi's nest has just become occupied.

Steve and Jodi are going to be great parents. They are already being well trained in early feedings, messy diapers, and sleepless nights. But it wo be too long when Ethan's training starts, and this I know, this little guy will be raised to know the God of all creation and His son, Jesus Christ.

I am very fortunate to be able to see my other five grandchildren on a regular basis. Steve and Jodi live farther away, so we wouldn't be able to witness all the first time events. But I'm sure we'll find time to visit, and Steve and Jodi will keep us informed on their blogs, Steve's and Jodi's.

Here's a close up of number six, Ethan James Bremer.
He is about a week old here.
And, in case you were wandering, he really is this cute.

Don't you think he looks just like his grandfather?

Covered Bridges

We just returned from a bicycling trip on the Row River trail in Cottage Grove, Oregon. "Row" rhymes with "now" and it is named for a fight between a sheep rancher and a cattle rancher. "Row" is an old fashioned term meaning "fight" or "quarrel".
I decided to give our Garmin GPS a chance to redeem itself and asked it to plot a path to Cottage Grove that avoided as many freeways as possible. I'm happy to say that it did a great job! We had a fantastic trip through the country along nice highways with very little traffic. The drive became a wonderful part of our vacation, instead of that dreaded waste of time on the freeway required just to get to the vacation spot.
We arrived Friday afternoon, found a motel, and took off to explore a little bit of the trail. The trail is a 17 mile converted railroad and meanders along Row River and Dorena Lake. You catch a view of a couple of the covered bridges and several old barns as you make your way out into the country. Cottage Grove is nestled at the foot of the Cascade Mountains which provides for some stunning scenery. However, the first day we only went to the start of the lake which was about six miles from the trailhead.

On Saturday we rode to the end of the trail and back for a nice 30 mile ride. Since the trail is a converted railroad, it is a gentle slope (no more than 4 degrees). This worked very well for a couple of old people who are out to see the wonders of creation, not to determine the extent of our endurance.
We stopped to watch the fishermen and a Great Blue Heron on Dorena Lake, gaze at a few farms, and to eat some very yummy blackberries that populate much of the side of the trail. Here's a picture of one of the barns along the trail.
After the morning ride, we took a trip in the car to view the six covered bridges in the area and a swinging pedestrian bridge. Most of these bridges are not open to traffic, but they have been preserved as a reminder of the ways life used to be. They were all built in the 1930's and 1940's and are in very good shape, with the exception of a covered railroad bridge in the heart of Cottage Grove which is barely holding together.
On our trip home, we asked Garmin to plot a course through our home town of Lebanon, Oregon. That, too, was a nice quiet and relaxing trip. That is until I decided that I wanted to stop at Fry's Electronics which is along the I-5 freeway. The store was full of wonderful electronic gadgets and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and Lesley enjoyed watching me enjoy myself. She's nice like that. :-) But from there, it only made sense to make the rest of our trip on I-5 and I-205. We saw more cars in the first five minutes on the freeway than we saw in two days on the back country roads. However, I should be thankful for the crowded freeways which carry the traffic that would normally be on the country roads that I enjoyed so thoroughly.

Where is that stupid Best Buy?

I bought a Garmin nuvi 200 GPS a few weeks ago and I'm just getting used to it. Most of our trips have been around town, so that GPS has been more of a novelty than a necessity. I love gadgets that make our lives just a little easier. To think that I wouldn't have to ask for directions anymore... several times because I forget the directions after three turns. What freedom!

Yesterday, my wife and I decided to go to Best Buy to get a case for my HTC S710 cell phone (great gadget). I knew that Best Buy carried a case that fit the phone perfectly, but the local store didn't have the case in stock . I found a near-by Best Buy in the "Points of Interest" in the GPS and off we went. Everything went great. Turn right here, merge there, left than right, and so on until finally it announced that our destination was on the left.

We looked to the left, then to the right, but there is no sight of a Best Buy, not even a store that used to be a Best Buy. That wiz-bang gadget lead me on a wild goose chase. I was sad and disillusioned; my beloved new gadget was not to be trusted. To think of the sales pitch I told my wife so I could buy it, how it tracks our every move, how it has a massive data base with restraurants, stores, gas stations, and tourist stops, and how we wouldn't get lost anymore. There she sits, right next to me, seeing everything, what could I say? Will I ever be able to buy another gadget?

She says, "I think there is a Best Buy next to the Babies R'Us several miles south of here." She was right, the GPS was wrong, a total technology meltdown.

Alas, all is not lost. This morning in the Sunday ads there is a better GPS that has a bigger data base and announces the street names and syncs with my cell phone. The problem was that I didn't spend enough money to get the right gadget. I wasn't the gadget's fault, it was mine for putting such unrealistic expectations on the cheaper model. I feel better now.

Our Recumbent Bicycles

Lesley and I are proud owners of two Sun EZ-1 recumbent bicycles. These have proven to be so much fun that we have become quite the cycling enthusiasts. They are a relaxing way to experience the world, up close and personal. Because you sit upright, you can actually see all the scenery as it flies by. Okay, as maybe it doesn't fly by, but you do get to see it all.

The bikes did take a little time to get used to the way they balance, but now it is second nature for us. One thing we learned early on was to make sure that we are in a low gear before we stopped. During the learning process, we always gave ourself a lot of wobble room, especially when starting. If we forgot to shift down, we found ourselves unable to get up enough speed to balance within our wobble space, so we would put our feet down to balance. Of course, you can't peddle with your feet on the ground. There was more than one time that I pushed with my feet, like a toddler on his first trike, so that I would get enough momentum to balance. Or if I found myself trying to start uphill, I would turn the bike around and start it going downhill, shift down and turn around. Fortunately, that it is no longer a problem because we can now balance the bikes at a very low speed. If you decide to get a recumbent, I recommend that you practice in a flat, quiet neighborhood until shifting down before stopping is second nature and you feel sort of comfortable riding at slower speeds.

We have taken our bikes on a few riding vacations where we ride on some nice pave trails. We have ridden on the Vernonia-Banks Trail in Oregon, the Spokane Centennial Trail and the Sequim-Port Angles Trail, both in Washington. These rides were relaxing and the scenery was wonderful. We limit ourselves to less than 50 miles per day so that we can enjoy other activities as well. I've noticed that, the older I get, the harder it is to get into shape and the longer it takes to recover from over exertion. With that in mind, I try to stay in a motel with a hot tub so that my muscles don't rebel the next day when we hit the trail again.

We have ridden a lot of bike paths in the Vancouver area which is a bike friendly city. It is nice to be able to jump on the bikes early Saturday morning and ride to a restraurant for breakfast or to Starbucks for coffee. The other nice thing about Vancouver is that it is fairly flat so there is minimal huffing and buffing up hills. When we were just starting to explore Vancouver on our bikes, we were enjoying coasting down this nice hill in a residential neighborhood and looking at the beautiful houses. We soon learned that what goes down much come up, and the ascent was much less enjoyable. So now we are a little more picky about whether we really need to see what is at the bottom of that long hill.

When it is not raining, I ride the bike to work which is about 3.5 miles. Lesley will ride with me a part of the way, if she doesn't have an early morning obligation. When I am ready to go home, I give Lesley a call and we meet half way and ride back together.