Next came the ham radio and QSL cards for spreading the words. I sold my ham radio intending to buy a better one but instead purchased a CompuColor II computer based on the intel 8080A CPU and 32 kilobytes of memory. With a 300 baud modem we could have posted notes on the popular bulletin boards of the day but that was not exciting to us. Glen and I were both learning to program in Basic and Assembly languages. We were computer geeks with a capital ‘G.’

This all happened long before Al Gore ‘invented’ the world wide web and before anyone coined the term “blog.” These family legends are the stories of my youth and younger adult life experiences that I would have blogged had I the opportunity. Here is my first story:

You are welcome to comment in our blog web site or reply to this address:

gary@dinsmore-enterprises.com

This first story is about the CompuColor II computer purchased in about 1979. Ironically it cost about the same as the new laptop Lenovo 510 I purchased this year.

We had ourselves a CompuColor users club. The group included an eclectic assortment of members. One was ‘Phil-I-can-read-any-floppy,’ and another was ‘Larry-the-hardware-guy.’ One of our first group inventions was the ‘flippy-floppy.’ The five and a quarter inch floppy disks were a significant expense and they only held 53 kilobytes. By nipping a notch in the opposite edge of the jacket you could use both sides of the disk.

Compu-Color II Users Club Meeting

Everyone was busy creating programs in Basic and we would exchange programs at our monthly meetings. That is where ‘Phil-I-can-read-any-floppy’ achieved his popularity because often a floppy written on one machine wouldn’t read on another machine. Phil had dual drives and on one of them he loosened the stepper motor adjusting clamp. By fine tuning the stepper motor he could read the offending floppy and then write it back to a different floppy. If the new floppy wouldn’t read on another person’s machine he would then adjust to their standard and write another floppy that they could read.

At one meeting ‘Larry-the-hardware-guy’ came with a circuit diagram and instructions for a memory expansion board. Within a couple weeks I had purchased the required memory chips and hand wire wrapped the circuit to create my own 16 kilobyte memory expansion board. It cost $75 for the chips. My current computer has 4 gigabytes of memory. At the price I paid for 16 kilobytes, the memory for this computer would have cost $18,750,000.

For a bit more nostalgia check out this link to Old Computers.com. It almost brings tears to my eyes to read these posts from other old time users.

Glen and I both became hooked on writing programs for the CompuColor II. At one point I was teaching computer classes at the local community college, Portland Community College. I came across a program on the Apple II called Visicalc. It was a very kludgy early spreadsheet program in the lineage of Lotus 123, Symphony and Excel. I actually had the nerve to drive to Belleview Washington and call at the Microsoft offices. I got an audience with one of their managers and tried to talk them into letting me port that program to the CompuColor II. They thought it over for about 15 minutes while I waited and came back with a counter offer. They would sell me the rights to the program for $70,000. Now that was more than my house was worth, but think of it… So close, so very, very close.

I will close now, but before I go I must add one disclaimer. These stories have been told over and over again around the camp fires and in various gunkholes for many years. I will not be held accountable for slight embellishments that may have crept into the stories over the years.

Love from Hillsboro where we are still waiting for the new granddaughter. (but soon)

Gary and Judy

Now Carl marches to a different drummer than most. He guides white water rafts on the Wenatchee and Skykomish rivers. He is building a house for his family. Once before I said sure and I spent the day running a Bobcat Digger. You can check out these stories at [Life is a Journey] and [Horse Feathers and River Rats]

Carl and Melissa’s home is coming along nicely and needs some nice cedar siding boards and a couple long beams for lintels over the garage.

Carl is Cutting the Log to Size

We started by cutting a 21 foot chunk out of a huge cedar log and skidding it to the garage and the portable sawmill. Carl has an ingenious setup of winches and cables for bringing the logs to the sawmill and rolling them up onto the sawmill deck. It only took us an hour or so to nudge, pry, winch and roll the log into place and dog it down.

The internet indicates that the density of dry cedar is only 23 pounds per cubic foot. Our 28 inch diameter log figures about 100 pounds per foot of length or about a ton, if it were air dry.

The Bandsaw Starts the First Cut

We made our first cut just at the end of the taper and started cutting one inch planks off the log. When we got a 15 inch wide board off the whole length of the log we started cutting two and a half inch beams. After each pass of the band saw the big planks were a full load for the two of us just to move them off the log.

Saw at the Start of the Cut

At the half way point we flipped the log flat side down. I suspect the half log still weighed three quarters of a ton, and we worked very carefully. We continued cutting one inch boards and two and a half inch planks until the log was finally sliced and diced to perfection. I was awestruck at the ability of this portable sawmill. The mill is rated for a 36 inch log, possibly up to 22 feet long. I think we would have needed a couple more small boys to handle something that big.

Log is Sliced and Diced, Gary and Carl

Just for kicks I am including a track from a Dry Branch Fire Squad CD. This group is one of my favorite bluegrass bands and Ron Thomason has an interesting take on the portable sawmill.12 Guaranteed Forever

By the way, I can see no way to get a portable sawmill into my shop trailer, so there is no worry from that source.

So long from the lake

Gary and Judy

This is a somewhat convoluted story so I had best start at the beginning. In 1962 my roommate and good friend, Bruce Butler helped me get a summer job on the Northern Pacific as a relief telegrapher. As part of my job I worked in the stations at Cheney, Reardan, Wilber and Almira Washington. These were on a branch line called the Central Washington Branch, or CW Branch for short.

As many of you know I managed to get my Chemical Engineering degree and had a wonderful career in the paper industry. Over the years I still had railroading in my blood. I created a HO pike in the basement of the Warren Oregon home with my son, Glen. I often stop at railroad museums and have ridden on several excursion trains.

Bruce at the Controls of the NWIX 1617

Recently I made connections with my college friend, and we discovered that we both still had railroading interests. What’s more, Bruce has managed to become a certified engineer on a small short line railroad here in Washington. Yes, incredibly, it is the same CW Branch that both of us worked as telegraphers in the ‘60s.

When we arrived in Spokane to visit my sisters I contacted Bruce and was invited along on a day long switching operation in Cheney Washington. Naturally I jumped at the chance. We arrived at the Cheney yard about 11:00 am and spent about half an hour checking and starting our engine, the NWIX 8925. (1) Once we got 8925 running and extracted from the house track we switched out our two bulk-head flats of steel destined for Geiger Industrial Park.

I was expecting a four person crew like the sixties; An engineer, fireman, brakeman and the boss of them all the conductor. Bruce was all of these. I was soon climbing down off the locomotive with the switch key to unlock and throw the switches, hooking up air lines and helping with the brake check before heading out of town. I wasn’t totally new to this. When I was a telegrapher in the sixties I often rode the engine in my off hours when the crews switched the station where I was working.

Soon we were heading for the CW Branch with our Warrant Orders in our pocket, so to speak. In the good old days I would have been the operator that copied the Train Orders and delivered them to the crew. Today our engineer copied his own orders over the cell phone. In those good old days we would have rolled along at 25 or 30 miles per hour on a well maintained right-of-way. Today we rocked and rolled along at 10 miles per hour. Along the way we spotted a flock of white pelicans at Four Lakes and a coyote near Medical Lake.

In due time we arrived at MP-8 and rendezvoused with Greg in the NWIX 1617. This GP7 was going strong when Bruce and I were working the CW Branch in the sixties.

NWIX 1617 - EMD GP7 With Three Refurbished Locomotives

We spent several hours switching stored empties around then delivering our two loads of steel and finally gathering our train to return to Cheney. For these moves Bruce and I moved over to the NWIX 1617 and Greg did most of the brakeman chores. Our consist for the return trip was an empty steel flat and two additional refurbished engines that were heading for leased duty at a destination somewhere off the BNSF.

We delivered our train to the interchange with the BNSF in Cheney and tied up both the NWIX 8925 and the NWIX 1617 on the House Track just after six. Oh yes, a couple of times Bruce let me sit in the engineers seat as an Engineer-In-Training. We certainly looked impressive with four locomotives pulling one empty flat car, even if three of the loco’s were dead.

If you doubt that I was having fun, just look at this snapshot that Bruce took of me in the engineer’s seat. Check out the speedometer, I was running within the speed limit of 10 miles per hour.

Gary At the Controls of the NWIX 8925

Citations:

1. The NWIX 8925 is a General Electric EMD SD45 that produces 3600 horsepower from a 20 cylinder engine and was first placed in service in 1967.
2. The NWIX 1617an EMD GP7 built in 1953 capable of delivering 1500 horse power from 16 cylinders.

Barb’s folks live in the heart of the residential district of Puyallup, Washington. I am skittish about driving around narrow city streets anyway, but we agreed to drop by on our way through. We were then expecting to drive over to the campground at the Elks lodge a few miles away. We were thoroughly briefed on the best route and arrived without incident in front of their home. I managed to get all ten tires off the pavement, so we were set for a visit and then move along before evening.

After studying their curved driveway for a while with Ken I saw a glimmer of hope. With experts watching from every angle I slowly and carefully backed the trailer onto the driveway and then jackknifed it around the curve of the drive. It actually went rather smoothly. We didn’t ding up anything and there was even enough room to get their car out…well over the lawn, but at least it wasn’t blocked in.

Ken Judy and Christine in Front of Arcturus in Their Driveway

We picked an auspicious occasion to arrive. The Sheppeard family was having a family get together at Barb’s sister’s house to celebrate a birthday. There were grown-up children, grand children and great grand children everywhere. By the end of the evening we felt very welcome and a real part of the family.

Thanks to Ken and Christine for inviting us along. We had a wonderful time.

Gary and Judy

From Washington State

P.S. We are headed for my sister’s home on Newman Lake, near Spokane Washington. This is always a tight fit. She lives at the end of a dead end road overlooking the lake. I have to drop the trailer and slide into the RV slot she uses for her rig. Then we use their pickup to position the trailer so I can hook back up when we get ready to leave. It is either that or back in a crooked, hilly three quarters of a mile.

Gary

Hokuloa and Regal Jug in Reflections

On our original plan, Ed and Sarah were planning to meet us on the St. Helens city docks and we were to do lots of hiking and playing around town until Phil and Sue arrived on Thursday afternoon on Rendezvous. So far our plans were working just fine. On Wednesday we hiked out to Columbia City and we all had a great time looking over Pixie Park and the deep woods in-between. Then we took in the Columbia County Fair so we had a long day of walking.

Phil and Sue arrived on schedule on Thursday afternoon. Phil spent the afternoon trying to shame Ed and I into polishing up our boats. We were quite content to watch and point out little cosmetic blemishes. For our evening entertainment the city of St. Helens scheduled a “music in the park” event just a few steps from our docks. Renee, Neil and Georgia all came out to have supper with us and listen to the music. Judy and I met a remarkable number of people we knew from our earlier life living in this community. Supper was Sarah’s famous fish stew and Judy’s famous 5 bean salad that has about 7 varieties of beans. Don’t ask me why it is 5 bean salad. Georgia had great fun playing with the knobs and switches on the big boats; Ed and Sarah’s boat, the Hokuloa and Phil and Sue’s boat the Rendezvous.

Depth finder is locked out

Friday morning was bright and sunny with about 15 mph winds and a heavy chop coming from the north. I changed down to the small jib and arranged for a reef in the main. About then Ed calls over that he has a bit of a problem. A gremlin had gotten into the instruments and each of them boldly stated ‘CODELOCK.” We studied the manuals and looked for faults in the wiring for over two hours. We even studied the possibility that the gremlin was the button pusher, Georgia, but we were able to absolve her of any involvement. It appears the instruments had lost power for a few moments and all of them decided that they were now stolen. We would be required to enter a code to get them to display depth, speed and wind information. The problem is no one had the foggiest notion what the code number might be. We decided that it was unwise to tackle a trip down the Columbia River with all its sand bars and mud banks without a depth finder.

Alternate plans were debated and a leisurely trip up the Multnomah channel of the Willamette River back toward Ed’s moorings seemed the prudent thing to do. All three boats started out and we were all soon under sail. Now I don’t want to brag too much, but Judy and I got the last start from the docks and at one point we passed both of the big boats. Now if you talk to them they will have stories about only flying half their sails to make it fair, but fair is fair and we were behind and we briefly got ahead. That is a win and that is that. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to get the camera out to take the photo finish picture so you will just have to take my word for it.

We camped two nights on Coon Island, a popular boat only park in the Willamette River. We hiked around the island. We had to hike fast to keep ahead of the mosquitoes.

As usual for this group the week involved lots of eating. Menus had been drawn up long in advance so there was lots of gourmet food and tasty wines to sample each evening. Many times the leftovers wound up in the omelets the next morning.

Sarah, Head Chef

Chef Ed is Keeping a Close Eye on the Barbie

Finally on Sunday we all finished the trip to Big Island Marina on Sauvie Island. Phil and Sue returned to Portland and Judy and I were able to hang out for another day of gourmet cooking, instrument trouble shooting and hiking. Tomorrow we too will return to Arcturus who has been patiently waiting in St. Helens.

The Fence Post

First, cleaning Regal Jug’s seven acres of fiberglass is always a royal pain, but eventually we get through it. On the way to the launch we had a run in with a fence post. It didn’t survive. It was replaced on Monday. The sailing was really hot and really fun. The winds were about 10 to 12 mph and we were able to take full advantage of them.

Al Has a Spare Post

After the sail Georgia had a little nap on her Mommy’s lap. I tried to help Renee get out from under her and tried to scoop Georgia up in my arms. I was a little awkward and nearly dropped her.

With that rude awakening and a shortened nap she had a bit of a melt-down. Renee and Neil had to take her for a long walk around town to settle her back down.

Meanwhile Nana and I started sorting supplies and stowing all the gear from two families and we discovered that last summer’s fiber glassing episode had left plastic sanding dust in all the drawers and shelves. We had to wash all of the pots and pans, dishes and silverware before we could cook supper. By then we became aware that water was accumulating on the cabin sole. That was what last summer’s fiber glassing project was all about. See “The Smoking Gun.”

After munchies in the park Georgia was willing to put her PFD back on and return to the boat. We had a nice stew for supper and then joined a nearby dock party with the guitar and sang a few songs. Everybody got into the act for the “I’m a Little Teapot,” and I ended up with the “Preacher and the Bear.”

Reading Aboout Bugs by Flashlight

Sleeping five aboard Regal Jug takes some creative bunking. For those of you who have not been able to sail with us, Regal Jug is a 23 foot Aquarius Sailboat that was new in 1974. The literature indicated that she sleeps five. They neglect to tell you that they must be very friendly and it helps if you are midgets. Over the years we have developed a plan that works pretty well. Nana and Papa are confined to the vee berth in the bow. Renee and Neil get the pipe berths in the middle of the salon. These are augmented by placing the seat backs on the ice chest to widen their shoulder area.

Georgia with Neil and Renee in Background

That leaves about three foot between the starboard pipe berth and Nana’s pillow for a wee traveler to bed down on the settee.

A more apt description might be wall-to-wall sleeping bags. We all got a good night’s sleep and Georgia passed her trial sailing adventure.

Next will be a trip down the Columbia River together later this week. We will be joining Ed and Sarah on the Hokolua, a 38 foot Hans Christian and Phil and Sue on the Rendezvous, a 36 foot Beneteau. I will take the computer along, so we can update you on the “Grand Adventure” as we follow in the paddle strokes of Lewis and Clark to Astoria.

Bonne Aventure – Gary and Judy



Neil and I met with the gals at the clinic in Beaverton, Oregon just before lunch. After preliminaries we moved to the ultra sound room. This was a nice sized room with an examination table and a huge big screen T.V. A young lady, technician gooed Renee’s tummy up and started searching for the baby. We were shown the beating heart and watched the wave form for a bit. She is nice and healthy!

Georgia's Little Sister Waves At Us

Then she switched the machine into 3-d mode and soon we were looking at her face, hands and a foot. We watched for about 20 minutes while Georgia talked to her little sister through the tummy. It really did seem that the baby responded several times when Georgia called to her.

We still have something like 70 days to wait until we get to hold and hug the new baby. It sure wasn’t like this when I was an expectant father.

I know you all haven’t heard much from us this summer. We have been sitting still since May 19th, or about six weeks now. We came back to the wettest spring for the area in many years. It hasn’t rained every day, but we do make a big thing of a nice warm, sunny day. We slather on a lot of sun screen and head out for a long bicycle ride. My winter tan has faded terribly. The weather man keeps promising sun and warm weather. The July fourth weekend was supposed to be hot, but now a drizzle is predicted for Sunday. Perhaps the promised 80 degree weather for next week will come to pass. We hope to dunk our boat, Regal Jug, in the river for a cruise to Astoria in mid July. To be sure, we will have rain gear along.

Judy and I are keeping busy, however. I have upgraded my laptop computer and I am learning Windows 7’s idiosyncrasies. I have had to upgrade several programs, but everything seems to be working now. In addition we help with the diaper construction for Renee’s business. We are helping her keep her head above water while she contracts with a factory to produce these pull-up diapers for her. We do the finish work on a couple dozen diapers each day. She is getting lots of orders now.

We send hugs to all of our friends and relations. Bye for now.

Gary and Judy

In my youth I was drawn to airplanes and built many models over the years. Being from land locked Spokane Washington I had little exposure to sailboats. In college I took up railroading as a temporary occupation, so that explains my railroad interests.

I had to interrupt my college education with a hitch in the Coast Guard in 1963, and here is how I became interested in sailboats. Boot camp was twelve weeks on Government Island in Alameda California. In boot camp, as many of you will attest, you spend untold hours standing in formation waiting for something to happen. Government Island, true to its name is an island surrounded by water. Beyond the watery barrier, civilian life goes on at it’s own pace. It seems like every afternoon several beautiful one design sailboats would gracefully glide out of the moorings across the estuary under beautiful white sails. My imagination would follow them out into San Francisco Bay leaving my stiff, miserable body there on the “Grinder.”

A few months later on a date with Judy, my future wife, I talked her into joining me on Lake Washington one beautiful summer day. There I talked her into renting a small sailboat. Remember, I am an expert. I have graduated from the Coast Guard boot camp and I have watched sail boats for several weeks while I was there. I managed to sort the lines out and get the sails hoisted and got them to look like the sails on the boats I had watched. We even got a hundred yards or so out into the lake before the wind died. At the end of the hour we paddled back to the dock and cut our losses.

The next bite of the sailing bug was many years later after I had finished my Chemical Engineering degree at Washington State University and we had finished paying off my college loan and accumulated our two children.

Gary with Glen and Renee Sailing the Lightning. Sept 1971

We bought a nice foam core fiberglass “Lightning” class sailboat. For months I spent my spare time reading about and practicing sailing. We launched the boat and sailed most every weekend. We tried a little racing, but mostly we enjoyed piling all of our camp gear in the boat and motoring to a secluded beach on a lake or on the Snake River above Ice Harbor Dam. We often invited friends along. We would sail as the winds allowed.

The Lightning is a rather small open boat. It is 19 foot long, but it really doesn’t handle two couples and their children very well. I soon recognized that Judy often had the roll of baby-sitter while I sailed with the friends. We sold the Lightning and in January of 1974 we purchased a 23 foot Aquarius with a cockpit that seated up to 6 people and a cabin that slept five, (according to the literature.) It also had a miniature galley (kitchen) and miniature head, (bathroom.)

We spent our weekends learning to launch and sail the new boat. We selected the name “Regal Jug,” for the boat and painted a “Water Carrier,” style jug pouring water, on the stern of our new boat. The name is made up of the first two letters of each of our names, REnee, GLen, JUdy  and GAry.

Glen Checks Out New Regal Jug

Everyone Gets a Chance to Helm

We had decided to sail with the O’ Cassa club sailboat cruise of the San Juan Islands in August of 1974. I immediately developed a list of essentials including a set of proper anchors, stern pulpit, life lines, dodger curtains and nautical charts that we would need for the cruise.

Half of the O'Casa Cruise Fleet at Portland Is. August 1974

On that cruise we met many new challenges. We made several friends. We discovered that we were not fully prepared for the conditions we met. We also learned that almost every one else was not as well prepared as we were.

Almost every year since then, we have returned to the islands of Washington State and British Columbia. We have made many changes to the rigging of the Aquarius. We have sewn some of our own sails. Almost always we have sailed with friends and we have many wonderful memories from these cruises.

So what is the draw of sailing in this age of boats with high performance engines? It’s the power of the wind harnessed for your use. To me, it is the almost magical movement of the boat through the water into the wind. Power to me is not the acceleration of hundreds of horsepower forcing you back in the seat. Power is pumping the tiller to head the boat into a gust of wind to wring a few extra feet to windward and feeling the boat heel from the wind pressure and then surge ahead as the gust passes. It is also slipping quietly through the water and hearing the waves lapping against the hull. It is ghosting along on a breeze that is barely enough to get the sails to fill. It is watching the diving ducks, cormorants, seals and even Orca whales that barely notice your passing.

I have heard somewhere that those days you spend sailing are not deducted from your allotted days on earth.

“Ready ‘bout!…helm’s a’lee!”

Last night we were camped alongside the Kalamath River just a couple miles up from the Pacific Ocean. After supper I was practicing the guitar in the bedroom when the neighbors knocked and invited us to join them around their campfire. A young man, Trent, was playing a flat top guitar also. Our styles were not perfectly matched, but we still made some good harmony together. It wasn’t long before the camp manager came up with his flat top guitar and a harmonica to join the group. We taught each other licks and took turns leading songs. Trent had an interesting finger picking style and the manager was into down and dirty blues. I would lead my segments with country-western, folk or bluegrass. We had an eclectic jam. Before we knew it, the time was 9:30 and the wood pile was gone.

Today we were threading our way among the little towns along highway 101 on the North California and Oregon coast. Judy kept hearing a “banging” noise on her side of the coach. We pulled off the highway in Coos Bay and I discovered the hatch that accesses the leveling and slider hydraulic system was swinging open. The key lock toggle had come off and was gone. There was no way to lock it closed. With some trepidation I taped the hatch closed with duct tape. That lasted for ten miles and I had to stop and do it again. After getting parked for the night at the Elks campground in Florence I created a new toggle with the hack saw and a file. I have included a couple photos to document the event. Yes, the duct tape made a gooey mess of the paint around the hatch, but it cleaned up nicely with a little isopropyl alcohol.

Hatch Propped Up With My Hiking Stick

Pointing Out the Hatch Lock and the New Toggle

Notice the beautiful Rhodies in our campground. The Elks have created a rather stunning park here in Florence, Oregon. It is off the highway in a grove of trees and it is quiet. That in itself is unusual. Judy and I have determined in our travels that there are certain locations that are most suitable for RV parks. They need to have a freeway, a railroad or an industrial complex on one side of the camp; Even better if there are two of the three features available. Advertising for selling RV’s on the other hand show the coach parked on the beach just above the surf line in a secluded lagoon. The bait and the switch, right?

We are looking forward to summer in the Pacific Northwest.

Love to all,

Gary and Judy

Glen Preps the Cabinet

This project started at Christmas time, 2009. This link will take you to Glen’s, “Salty Geek” blog for commentary on the construction details. After waiting for a couple months for the paint to dry, Glen decided to strip the latex paint off and we have now opted for automotive paint. That brings us to the Prop Shop. Gary and grandson Patrick are volunteers at the Wings of History Museum. We got permission to use the Prop Shop paint booth and spray equipment to do the project over the weekend. The project started when Gary and Patrick drove to Hollister, CA on Friday and assembled the supplies to paint a primer and Raven Black Acrylic finish on the cabinet.

Glen is Priming the Cabinet

On Saturday Glen and I worked through the afternoon getting two coats of primer on. Then on Sunday we sanded most of it back off to get a nice smooth substrate for the finish coat.

Our quart of Raven Black was barely enough to coat everything. We spent most of the time Sunday afternoon watching paint dry. Even at that we rushed the last coat on the doors. We had used paper towels to protect the stool we were using to position the doors for painting. You guessed it; the paper towels stuck to the paint on the back sides of the doors. We saved the last of the paint in the gun, (about an ounce,) and we will sand the fibers out and blend the scarred area with a paint pen. (I hope) Our fall-back position will be to create a vibrant graphic in two panels detailing the operation of the filters. We will laminate them and mount them strategically on the backs of the two doors. It is cheaper than buying more paint.

If any of our readers are going to be in the Gilroy, (San Jose,) area of California this weekend we invite you to drop by and visit us. We will be helping out at the Wings of History Museum’s annual open house and fly-in. It is beside the South County Airport in San Martin, CA. Here are the co-ordinates, N 37 04.721, W 121 36.064. Yes, you can fly-in, but there is plenty of parking also. We will be glad to show you around the museum, even the Prop Shop and paint booth. Here is a link to Wings of History. After volunteering we will once again start moseying back toward the Pacific Northwest.

We will see all of our Oregon friends when we get there.

Gary and Judy