Summer's the Best!

It was marginally nicer weather today.  The rain is supposed to return tomorrow.

   

Surely, summer is coming. I've always enjoyed summertime.

A Different Space and Time

In this blog posting today, I have decided to share two scanned photographs taken at around the same time but in vastly different locations.  

The first snapshot was taken in Sunapee, New Hampshire during a college summer. I am leaning against a car. The picture was taken in front of The Harbor Gameroom and originally came from a copy that Bret took.  The old Ford Pinto was still on the road but it was in pretty poor shape after its roll-over.

 
The next photograph was taken in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  It was shot at the Hotel Janaki. The year was also 1979. Four employees are in front of a Sri Lankan mural in the hotel's restaurant.  Jay, who's standing second from the left, was working at his first job with these friends.

 

We didn't meet for another six years when I joined him by working at the same company in Taif, Saudi Arabia. Since then, we've been hanging around together in many different places for over 39 years.

Born on This Day in 1932

I just got off the phone with my dad. It's his birthday today. He's 84 and seemed quite happy with that.

I haven't got a lot of pictures of my father. I think this is one from the early 70's he'd probably like. He has a muzzleloader and an eight-point buck. He won't see it here as he doesn't use the Internet nowadays. Perhaps, I should have it printed on a mug. That'd make a good Christmas present.

A Week Early!

I usually call my dad two or three times a month. Last Sunday, I called and chatted with him for about 40 minutes. I wished him a happy Father's Day a week ago! I'm the one having trouble keeping dates straight, I guess.

Um ... Shouldn't I be the one able to keep track of the calendar? I'll have to get him later on the phone later today too and repeat my greetings.


I went through my photos to see what the earliest picture I might have on Flickr. He looks so young in this photo with my mom on their wedding day.

Why Only a Red Star? - Day 141

Lots of technological development has occurred in my lifetime. Yet, I believe one of the most important is digitization.

I was searching for a work-related document from 1987 so I could confirm some personal information. During my search I came across a folder of PDF files which I'd uploaded to my domain server years ago. In it, I found perhaps the first example of my academic achievement.

It's a little astounding that I located a copy of a first-grade worksheet corrected by Mrs. Pratt. Today, I can share it online from an apartment in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This type of electronic trail will probably not seem so special for kids who growing up today. They will take such things for granted.

Big, Brown, Plastic Frames

I just called to make an appointment with an eye doctor. I want to check to ensure my current prescription is suitable before ordering new glasses.

I value the chance to change my look every so often. Wearing a set of glasses is second nature as I've been doing it for a long time. I think I was in fourth grade with Mrs. Duke when I was first fitted. The earliest photographic evidence is this school photo in which I'm also wearing a cub scout uniform. This was taken when I was in 5th grade.

Imagine all the frames I've gone through in the last 45 years! There must have been dozens and dozens. Alas, I can even recall the frames during the 80's when each lens was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle's windshield. My current pair are about as narrow as one can go with progressive lenses.

Wait, next time I think I'll go retro. I rather like the looks of the ones in the picture. Maybe it is now the circle of life in eyeglasses fashion.

A 40-Year-Old Selfie

Today, I had a busy morning catching up on tasks for school. I just finished with a class on Monday, and will begin another on Friday! So, at around 2:00 pm, when everything had been accomplished, I needed a walk in today's crisp air. I walked up Fourth Street and as I climbed in elevation, I encountered deeper piles of snow. In some places the sidewalks were still slippery. I thought it'd be a great time to try a photo with my phone's front-facing camera. I have had the Nexus 5 for a month and a half but had never tried taking a picture of myself with the device. It worked and was very clear and detailed. Unfortunately, my facial expression was horrible. I couldn't bring myself to share it, even though I have high enough self-esteem to generally let all images venture "into the wild". That particular picture has now been deleted though.

This left me with nothing to share today. Then, I thought to comb though my collection to find a previous selfie on Flickr. Yay, success! In fact I found one that was taken about 40 years ago. Nobody would have known what the term selfie meant at the time.

At This Age, I Appreciate Getting "Carded"

I'm a lucky guy. For many reasons, I feel happy. One of these reasons arrived in the mail today with a return address from Bradford Road in Sunapee, New Hampshire.



I manage to get a birthday card in the postal box each year. One.

It came from Hazel Winn. (I scanned the cover to include here.) I have gotten her birthday cards for years and years. I'm not sure when it all started, but I'm appreciative that it's one tradition that continues.

Thank you, Hazel Winn! You're so sweet!

Caring about Cartography

Quick, what is the image below?



It's not the usual way of looking at North America, is it?

I have always loved maps. I partially credit Mr. Frank Hammond for sparking that interest. Frank taught us during junior-high and high school in Sunapee, NH. It might even be the case he used to come into elementary school classes when our all the town's students were housed in one building. Oh my, that place was the shining beacon on a hill, wasn't it? At least that will be the way I will always think of it.

Of course my love of cartography still exists, but no one in the early 1970's could've dreamt of something like Google Earth or Maps. We can now zoom in with any magnification and even drop into Street View in so many locations around the world. It really is amazing stuff and makes me rather happy I am alive in this Internet era.

It's been a while since I saw one of these though. Imagine 3-foot wall maps which cut most of the earth's landmass in two just to put the Americas in the middle of everything! I think I was always a little confused that India was on the right and the left.

I Share Only Miss Piggy's Temperament

I will have to re-donate these jeans to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop as they're now too big. So, it seems as if not eating in 2012 is starting to pay off. (Okay, I am prone to a wee bit of hyperbole.) Parting with favourite jeans is always sweet sorrow especially when they're headed to the great denim heaven in the sky. It is a little less difficult saying goodbye to a pair that one has yet to wear out.

Yet, I have to state proudly that I am also a customer of the organization mentioned. It fits right into my ideas of recycle, reduce, and reuse. This has been especially true during the last several years. Essentially, I've been swapping out clothes for those of a lesser size. I buy them and re-donate when I fit into smaller ones. The original pants were 40's, then 38's, recently 36's, and now at long last, 34's. The shirts have followed a similar story from XL's to M's. Yay!

I'm not yet done losing weight as I still weigh (naked, this morning) 181 lbs. I have recently discovered that 164 is the largest weight under current BMI calculators that'd make me "normal". That's not something I've much felt the compulsion to be, but in this case I'll make an exception. It will still take me a while to get rid of the final 17 lbs, but I think it'll be sometime this year. I want 2012 to be the year I went from 212 to 165.

The following picture is one of those taken with a cell phone in the mirror. I hate this type of self-absorption generally, but you'll have to forgive me as I'm trying to chronicle my slow climb down the bathroom scales.

The leather belt I have on sports a Kawasaki buckle and was made when my mom took up the hobby of leather tooling in the mid-70s. I drove a 100cc motorcycle with that brand to the Sunapee High School in NH during my junior year, up to the point snow prevented it. I think I can remember bike buds, Cynthia (Nicholes) Walker, Candy (Winn) Fuller, and I wearing snowmobile suits when it got really cold.

In this picture, I have it in a hole that was added sometime in the 1980s. The fact I can get it around me at all astounds me. I nearly thew away the belt a few years ago when I saw little hope of ever using it again!

Personal Quote #25

"I rather wonder how I would have turned out if I'd had the Internet when I was 14."

Dennis Sylvester Hurd (1959- )

In the spring of 1974 the Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor
was released and this Sunapee NH school picture was taken.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful

Yet, I'm not sure how I felt about it near the end of our front driveway in Wendell, New Hampshire 50 years ago.

Birthdays Aren't Just for Kids

Robert and Elizabeth Fowler, neighbourhood kids on a previous birthday in Wendell NH in the 1960's.

I had always felt that unabashed birthday celebrations should be reserved for those under 7 years of age. Simply managing to survive yet another 12 months had never seemed like that big a deal. Yet, I seem to recall an increasing number of days with today's date. I suppose that celebrating one's continued survival is a sort of accomplishment after all.

I admit, in at least four and a half decades, I haven't had as large a number of birthday wishes as today.  Thanks to Facebook's coaxing, it's easy to mark someone's passage toward infirmity with a quick message. Sincere thanks to all of you who sent felicitations. It is truly humbling.   All of this, as well as yesterday's cake from my students, have made me grateful to have lived a few more years than a half century.  I think I'm coming to terms with my middle age now.

Ancient History: The 1970's

I caught just a fleeting glimpse of a US television program called, Life on Mars when it was being promoted a year ago. I remembered that it was a New York City cop show but with some sort of 1970's twist.

I recently noticed the entire series on Netflix, so I put it in the queue for instant streaming. Today, I watched the very first one. I found it appealing enough to know I will watch the additional 16 episodes. Without going into the plot at all, the show is just fun. It's interesting to see the world of 1973 recreated on the screen. Of course there are many technological differences between that age and our current one. The main character looks delusional when talking about things such as cell phones and mp3 players. Yet there are also many social differences. The youth of the day, and women's place in society were quite different.

Of course I've become hooked after the 44 minutes I just completed. People, of a certain age, have throughout history always enjoyed looking back on things from their youth. This show does that for me, of course. I was 11 years old in 1970, and, of course, 20 by the end of that decade.



This was, I think, the first new car my family ever bought. I took this photo and developed the flim myself when I was about twelve years old. (It's rather neat that I can include it here on the Internet in 2011.) The Ford Maverick was introduced in the 1970 model year. The photo was taken in our front driveway in Wendell, New Hampshire.

Communicating Easily

It really is power to the people. I'm not even thinking about the current troubles in Egypt, but it is sort of related if you remember that one of the intial knee-jerk reactions was to shut off cell phones and close down Internet access in that troubled country.

Having access to the Internet means an individual can quite effectively communicate with many other people. Tools such as social networking sites can amplify a lone voice into a chorus. Of course this is scary for dictators. It's also scary for those with a vested interest in many areas of the status quo.

These thoughts were brought home today when I jotted out a monthly status update for a Facebook page. A former website I created in the 1990's has been re-established as a Facebook page. It's just a way for folks from my hometown to connect up with others they may have gone to school with. (Click the following image to visit it.)



I was able to add a little promotion for newly published book authored by a acquaintance known to many from the Sunapee, New Hampshire school system. It took me just a moment to add a link. Then, as owner of the page, I sent out a personal note to a targeted audience of 422 Facebook members. I pressed a single button, but know that the message will either be read or ignored by hundreds of people within a short time. That sounds as if it has the potential of making a larger impact than I may have had with the eleven students in my classroom this morning!

Holiday Wishes for Our Southern Neighbours

I first learned that Canada had a 'different' Thanksgiving when I went to work in Dubai. Before I immigrated here, I worked with a lot of Canuks in the Emirates. The October date (the second Monday) celebrated in Canada is probably a whole lot closer to the actual harvest season and, hence, the first feast. When growing up, though, I only knew Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November. That date works out to be much more commercially convenient, doesn't it?

I'm not sure if some members of the global audience fully realize the importance of these days to North Americans. Thanksgiving is probably one of the bigger holidays in the year. I guess that's backed up by the fact the Wednesday prior is the busiest day of travel in the United States. (I wonder how many millions of invasive pat-downs will be taking place at US airports today.) College kids generally head home. Often generations try to get together.



I can't speculate much about this scanned picture. Did my sister put on a Thanksgiving after mom passed on? Was I working in the Middle East at this time? Laurie?

The Smell of Autumn Dirt

It's Canadian Thanksgiving which always occurs on the second Monday of October. This is well ahead of the one I used to celebrate as a kid growing up in New Hampshire. Still, it must be that connection which prompted me to search for a Robert Frost poem today. I guess New England is neigh on to impossible to get out of somebody.

---

October


O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,


Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
one from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.


Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if the were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--
For the grapes' sake along the all.


--Robert Frost (1874 –1963)

Two Years Until Another?

I've have noticed how using Facebook has affected my blogging. Whereas, some bloggers have completely given up and moved over to social networking only, I maintain both. Honestly, if one only looks here only, one would get just a small percentage of the things I share. For example, I hardly ever share links here. I cannot keep ongoing conversations going in this area, either. This is a more sterile addition to my continually evolving online story.

I am, however, aware that every blog entry shows up on my Facebook wall. Therefore, this is always written now with the understanding it will soon be shared with my friends. This is not an ultimatum or anything, yet if you're not active on Facebook and never see my wall, then I really can't consider that you are an important part of my life. Unfortunately that involves a few close friends with whom I'm really perennially upset. It seems they cannot bother to maintain a more complete friendship.

I'm also aware that as many acquaintance may happen on my wall more often, I could add elements from my social existence here too. For example, when I was recently chatting with Candy Fuller about our next high school class reunion, I got to thinking back to our 25th. It is now more than eight years in the past but there are still new ways to share formerly impossible things such as photos with some of these people. These ladies, and former classmates, in this photo are all on Facebook. So, when this entry shows up on Facebook, I'll be able to share it for the first time with them.

Magic Marker Tatoos

On occasion, over these seven years of creating a daily entry at my eJournal and images, I have dipped into the old picture barrel for inclusion of something from my past. Obviously, today is one such day.

This photo is in honor of one from this group of derelict ruffians having finally joined Facebook! It was taken in Sunapee, NH before we headed out to a special "50's Night" at The Anchorage, or was the business called The Dock in the summer of 1981? I probably should've waited until next August to post this to commemorate the passage of a round 30 years rather than this rather awkward 29!

Duling, welcome to the new millennium, abet a decade late!

An Exercise in Vanity

In yesterday's entry, I rather undeniably bragged about having put over 7,000 pictures on the Flickr website. That is a sizable number, surely. Unfortunately, most of them don't include me. What the hell, this whole blogging charade at http://dennissylvesterhurd.blogspot.com is an obvious cry for recognition, isn't it?

In a bit more than a month, I will have been at this game for seven years. That means an entry every single day for seven whole years! Who in The Creator's name does that? My powers border on superhuman. Okay, there's no denying my egomania; it's self-documented. I may as well accept myself for whom I am.

Doing so will allow me to shamelessly include this picture from the summer of 1961. Gads, I was a cute tyke.