A Sad Day

Two posts ago, I described a book and a lecture by Randy Pausch that I had found so very compelling. Randy died today, and although there are many who pass each day and who deserve our respect, I feel an extra bit of sadness at his loss. I didn't know him personally, but I felt that I could relate well to him. Again, I urge you to read his book and to listen online to his last lecture. You can see many more interesting things about him here.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Kathie's mother's 84th birthday. Mom has been enjoying a vacation with us for the last few weeks here in Wisconsin. To celebrate, we took a boat ride over to The Landing for a birthday lunch/dinner.

The Landing is a restaurant we very much enjoy that is situated at roughly the midpoint of the Chippewa Flowage along a county road that bisects the flowage into its eastern and western halves. Last summer, at about this same time, Betsy, Pete and Henry (Clara was yet to be born, of course) also traveled there by boat with us for an evening meal.

We had casually mentioned Mom's birthday to the wait staff, and so they surprised Mom with birthday treats and sang Happy Birthday to her. I think you can tell that they are on the last "you" in their rendition. Strawberry short cake and carmel pecan ice cream! Yum!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Must Read Book

I've been aware of this book for some time and finally got around to reading it recently. As you may know, the book came about as a follow up to a lecture given by Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University. Of special incidental interest to me is the fact that he is a distinguished computer scientist. You can hear the lecture, which I strongly urge you to do, by going to this web site. Pausch is in the final months of his life as a result of cancer. He had been asked to give a "last lecture" at CMU, which is something faculty are often asked to do at their respective universities as a way of setting them up to think about what wisdom they would impart if it really was their last lecture. This particular lecture is so touching simply because it truly is a last one. This had not been anticipated at the original time of the invitation. I urge anyone reading this to read the book first and then hear the lecture, although spending time with either one is time well spent. His advice (really intended mostly for his children), the love he shows his wife, and the dedication and feelings he clearly has for family, friends, students, his university, and life in general are very touching and worthy of personal consideration. I very much wish I could have listened to this advice when I was still working and especially while I was still teaching.

It turns out that I was once invited to give a last lecture, I think back in the middle 1990s. The experience really does make one pause to think about so many things, both past and present. My lecture pales in comparison to the one that Pausch gave. Perhaps unfortunately for them, my children all have a recording of it.

Catching Up

We spent the last part of June and early July back in Iowa. Kathie and I did lots of yard work, including trimming several trees. Things looked pretty nice by the time we were done, although I guess you are never really done with this kind of work. The raspberries were coming out in force, and so we had some treats there. Another big treat was the opportunity to spend time with family, who were collected to enjoy Jazz Fest and to celebrate Eleanor's first birthday. Here are some miscellaneous pictures and stories about those days together.

Clara is getting cuter by the minute. She was six months old on July 8th and is sitting up without help now. Here she is busting her Dad's chops and showing off her 4th of July outfit.

We all enjoyed a breakfast at Amana together on the 4th, and then Will and Sandy came out to visit us before we all headed into town for Jazz Fest. Will and Sandy had brought their tandem bicycle along and decided to take a ride over to the reservoir area to see some of the results of the flooding along the Devonian Gorge. They have acquired a trailer for their bicycles too, and so Henry got to go along. Uncle Will bought him a cool new helmet, so he was a bundle of enthusiasm as they prepared for the ride. He ended up enjoying every second of it. Here he is getting ready to depart. Uncle Will gave Henry his Garmin GPS unit and assigned him the task of navigating.

About to depart....

And off they go.... (There is no stopping Sandy--seven months pregnant and still as fit and active as ever!)

For some reason, there was lots of video camera action at Eleanor's birthday party the next day (her birthday was actually earlier, but this was a chance for all the family to be together). So none of us got many still shots. I even used my video camera that day, which I have rarely done lately. I have some great video clips, some of which I may post at a later time. Anyway, here is at least one picture of the birthday girl. She has been walking for two months already. You can read lots more about her party at her parent's blog site.

Rob cooked some good burgers and brats for all of us. (Limited hair equals potential sunburn equals requirements for hats!)

Grandpa Dave checks in with his granddaughter, who was busy shoveling in bits of strawberry.

Here is Eleanor's pile of birthday loot prior to the afternoon unwrapping event.

Clara is now eating solid food. Some of it finds its way into her stomach, we believe.

Henry loves to play baseball. Here he is taking a mighty swing at a ball, which as I recall he blasted into deep right field. Uncle Will is very good at coaching Henry on batting stance and technique, so he was making real progress.

Before heading home, Henry and family spent a couple days at our house. So I had an excuse to unbox my electric train. Between the train and a list of other activities, we got in quite a bit of play time. So, now I'm back at the lake resting up!!