Random pictures from my desk drawer

[dbattman 0]

So I have a contract on my house and I'm sorting out all the accumulated junk I've collected. With some basic ground rules (ditch anything in the basement [it's there for a reason] and clothes you haven't worn in over a year) I'm amazed how much is going to the Good Will. I have an entire file box full of socks. That's right- nothing but socks- that I have never taken the tags off.

In cleaning out my desk I've uncovered a file of pictures and postcards that I've collected. Since I don't have anything pressing early tomorrow (it's my 'office week') and I wanted to actually use my HP All-in-one for something other than scanning expense reports I will stay up late to treat you all to a hodge-podge of ' stuff.'

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I will begin with some post cards from my trip to Germany a few years ago. I was in Aachen near the Belgium border which was just a beautiful little city. Charlemagne had his palace here (that's not it in the photos).

The postcards I had since my trip and only now translated them from 'Babelfish' with my loose reinterpretation.

'At the tone the time is 7:30, but feels like 4:15'

'These are our anniversary and forgotten annixersary boxes of chocolates'

'It does not make sense to educate children; They will copy everything from us.' Very thought provoking I do say.

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Of course I squeezed in a skydive while I was touring the country. Nice little grass strip. Planes taxied out of the t-hangers by the FBO, turned onto the paved road they shared with cars and traveled a few hundred feet to the strip.

First trip I had an Audi A4 diesel and topped it out at just over 225 kmh. On the second trip I brought my helmet and alti with me (just in case I wanted to go do another one) and wore my bonehead while flying down the autobahn. Made for some interesting second looks from passing cars.

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Speaking of skydiving, I found my first stati-line jump picture. This is at Moorehead, PA near Erie when I was doing process work for International Paper. [date 10/12/96]

Andy and Kerry Hadsell were my fellow students in the class. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but Andy took down my address and sent me a copy of the picture. I was never a big 'picture' kind of guy but I'm glad he sent it.

Of course, I never sent him a simple 'thank you' note back (never been into those either- giving or receiving) so if you're out there Andy thank you for the picture and I deserve a line over for never saying so.

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Moving on now to Arizona. I went here back in 2000 or '01 visiting my parents as they were roadtripping around experimenting with trailer life.

What a beautiful area. We even dropped in on Eloy during some skydiving comp (before I took it up again) and mom loved watching the teams land. Many brightly colored parachutes and designs too. The Grand Canyon absolutely rocked. How a big hole in the ground can hold my attention like that is beyond me, but it did.

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We dropped in on the Biosphere 2 project (Planet Earth is Biosphere 1) and it was pretty darned impressive. We took the tour and spent about a half day there walking the grounds. A big resort sprung up around there with hotels and restaurants. Of course teh scenery is also amazing.

I missed the technical tour where they take you 'behind the scenes' and get into the inner workings and engineering. I may have to go back sometime and do that. The tower in the picture is the living quarters (bigger than it looks). The partially visible dome in the foreground is part of the 'lungs' for the Biosphere. That's a sealed environment so when the inside warms up it will pop out the glass panes. The lungs are expanding domes to balance the airpressure.

[dbattman 0]

Now we take you across the Pacific to the tropical island of Oahu. I was there in '92 after my first year of University with my family. We went to visit my older brother who was stationed with the 25th Infantry (Light) at Schofield. We stayed at Barber's Point in a nice little cinder block cottage a short walk from the beach. Pretty good for the little bit we paid. Of course, it turns out it was also at the end of the runway. Air ops kept Mom and Sis up all night, Dad and I slept like rocks.

These are a few pics of the older bro I had in the file. The one with the mountain is my favorite. He was, and will always be, one of my heroes for many reasons.

Somewhere I've got one of me in a grass skirt after packing on 30 pounds my first year (Miami U had an awesome dining program, in spite of all student whining theat went on) but no one really wants to see that.

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Since we're on the family thing now, I've got some pretty nice ones in the file that I didn't know I had.

The bro Mike and his long-time girlfriend Tina got married, oh, I guess eight years ago now. He had me preside as 'Best Man.' I managed not to lose the rings, trip on the steps, or do anything else embarrassing. With the extended courtship during his tenure at Schofield followed by serving in the ROTC, Army Reserve, pursuing University and holding multiple jobs (both of them did that part) I though the reception toast should be something other than a low-level roast of the groom and I put together a nice little ditty about the value of commitment in a relationship. Brought down the house. He married into a Polish-Ukie family which has some nice side benefits (Perogies and all kinds of other goodies come Christmas). The grandmother 'Chocha' has a tattoo from a concentration camp during the war- I forget which one.

Than there's the sis Laura and her husband Scott. Not much to say about this one. Nice ceremony and we the respective families all like each other very much.

I even found on of my cousin Kris and her husband Rock. Married over three years now with twins and I've never met him. I forget why I didn't make the wedding- I think they just wanted to have a small one out in the Rockies which might have been why.

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Yeesh! I don't even remember when this one was taken. probably sometime during University (early 90's) since I'm wearing one of only two suits I've owned in my life.

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Sometime a few years ago we managed to get most of the families together. I guess these are probably three years old. It's probably the last time we'll ever get this many of us together at one time again but I missed two of the gatherings.

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Every few years recently the parents and some of their sibs would take a cruise. Mom and Dad had a nice pic taken at the Captain's reception probably late 1990.

The grandparents would go as well and I found a few of them as well. I still miss them both very much.

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Well, aren't these one's nice pictures! This is like a treasure hunt.

Two of my cousins decided to adopt kids. Nici and Bobby brought home a little girl from China and I guess she'd be two or so by now. When they brought her home she could barely hold her head up. My other cousin Chris and Nancy adopted one from Guatemala.

My cousins Tom has three now and Cheryl has two. I guess these pics are all two years old by now.

Of course, I had to have some fun playing with my niece Mary at Christmas. She turned one this past May and I gate-crashed the party at my sisters in Syracuse. Kind of a spur of the moment thing and no one was expecting me to head up but I was glad I did.

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And we'll wrap it up with the funny stuff.

I spent an extended term (January to August) in West Point, VA working for Chesapeake during my schooling back in '93. We had an apartment that the mill rented and just sublet it to the students for the semester. Being that it was a rather small town without much to do we had to keep ourselves occupied. One weekend night things got a little outta hand and we ended up with the staged shot I will title 'Man Passed Out with the Roaches.' The guy on the floor went on to a pretty successful engineering career with GP. The other one I lost track shortly after the summer. Rumor had it he left a little present in West Point and did his best to vanish.

The other pic was a makeshift still we setup on the stove. We were using 'bubble tubing' since we never really intended to drink any of it (well, not much anyways) but one of the other lab guys teased us with stories of his homemade all-glass benchtop distilery. After playing around for a few evenings we did get a few inches in a Mad-dog bottle. It ended up in the other roommates suitcase going back to Wisconsin where one of his friends drank it. I'm pretty sure he didn't go blind.

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Well, this is the end folks. Thanks for listening and hope you get a chuckle or two out of my little slideshow. I can say I've actually used my scanner for something now, but with the scanning, rotating, cropping, compressing and such to get them uploaded I now remember why I was never big into this stuff to begin with.

These are a few of my favorites that I kept around for laughs. Not sure where I got the Nobel Prize Sweepstakes add, probably from one of those college rags that pop up. Boy, some of those had some really funny stuff over the years. One had a big article- 'The Lost Diary of Christopher Columbus.' Very amusing chronicle of the sea voyage ending in an island the natives called 'Jamaica Mon'. Smoked strange weed through pipe and am considering growing dreadlocs. Hah! I'm suprised I still remember that one.

[MF42 0]

That....
is a whole lotta pictures.

Yup.

Matt