alexandriacardinals

Wrapping up the grandson’s big day.  A lot of these photos are by his dad, including this one.  They will be so identified.  Noblesville High School had a 2012 graduating class in the 600’s.  Next year’s class will have over 800.  It’s a BIG school.  Noblesville has a population of 65,000, and this is the only high school.  It felt like a college campus.  Graduation was at 7:00, the school doors would open at 6:00, we were advised to be in line at least 45 minutes before then.  We were about 25 minutes early and were blocks from the doors.  By the time the doors opened, we were in the closer half of the line.

Graduation Day by The Lettermen:

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=-VRoHjiOuqs&feature=em-share_video_user

[Get the video started, minimize it, and listen while perusing the pictures!  🙂 ]

[Dad helping with a nip here and a tuck there.]

[It was initially a spontaneous moment – I asked for it again.  🙂  ]

[Proud parents.]

[The following close-ups by Dad.]

[Photograph, me; camera, his.]

[Down to Fran and Ed’s, the other grandparents who handily only live a block away.]

[(By Danny, as well as the next four.)]

[Now we’re in line at school.]

[One end of the large building.]

[We’re in the final approach.]

[The line serpentines for blocks behind us.]

[Landing gear down.]

[WE’RE IN!]

[Tom standing looking for us.]

[Receiving his diploma.]

And now a similar series from Danny:

[Tom checking the crowd for familiar faces.]

[The valedictorian – a young woman of great elevation, physically as well as mentally.]

[The hardware.]

[Only one other student – the valedictorian (?) – got a brick!  🙂 ]

[Graduation dinner – bison burgers at “Ted’s.”]

[One more gift?]

[Singing accompanied by Granny Fran (by me, again).]

Well, as long as we’re doing family graduations 🙂  :

[Jami graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a metallurgical engineering degree in 1991.]

[With her mother’s boyfriend and her mother’s mother.]

[Voted most likely to go through life with the bubble a little off-center.  As a result, his high school is soon to be replaced.  (Psst, it’s a fake tie!)]

[Laura and Larry McCoy subsequently raised their kids in this house.]

[One of the last known shots before the hair decreased and the pounds increased.]

[Either a toast to grandson Tom or an original ad for Hair Club for Men?]

[Either the supervisor on her 46th birthday . . . or Doris Day?  Well, it was in the vicinity of the graduation photos.]

Graduation in video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8SLBqCdWLU&feature=relmfu

Next up:  We return home for graduations and state tournaments!

We left Noblesville to visit Ruthie’s brother and sister, and their families, in Terre Haute.  And then it was on to Nashville, Indiana, where we would spend a few days with her older sister, and frequent traveling companion, Rita.

The view out Rita’s back window our first morning there.  Nashville is a historic artist community with a population of 803.  It is the county seat of Brown County.  Nashville’s artistic flavor and the “mountains” of Brown County make it a major tourist area.  It is 65 miles south of Indianapolis; and 17 miles east of Bloomington, home of Indiana University (IU) (and as the supervisor says, “Don’t call it the University of Indiana!”)]

[The backyard.]

[Rita’s neighbor across the street.]

[The area is flush with state parks.  This one for T. C. Steele, a famous artist who lived here.]

[Rita makes for Mr. Steele’s home and studio.]

[And the sign at the top of the page was at this studio entry.]

[Steele built this barn-size studio when the house became too small for work.  The wall of windows was distinctive for its time.]

[The view from the house.]

[Leaving the park.  The Biddies, both IU alums, were then nostaligic for a visit to ye ole campus – so it was off to Bloomington.]

[The first stop was on the far side of town for lunch.  The “quote” at the top of the previous blog story came from here.  Mmmmmmm!!  🙂 ]

[Catching up on things at Hinkle’s.]

[Bloomington, and the campus, leads the country in “brains.”  There is a story behind this – a woman doctor from here recovered from a stroke – but I’ll have to check with Rita again about the story and get back to you.

The brains are to mark the recovery and successful book of a neuro-anatomist at IU.  (She was at Harvard when she had a stroke in her 30’s.)  The title is Stroke of Insight.  Jill Bolte is her name.  I’m sure there are others who think that IU and Bloomington should be marked by brains!  ~ Rita]

[Campus and the media center.]

[The campus centerpiece is Showalter Fountain.]

[All over campus – does anyone know what time it is?]

[Another brain.]

[Student union.]

[More brains.]

[And here’s where The Biddies really got excited.  They both lived in dorms and worked their way through college in the cafeterias.  The dorms in their day were WWII barracks.  Now they have new apartment style dorms but they maintained “The Trees” – all the tree names carried over to the new buildings.  Here they are at “Pine Hall.”]

[And then it was on to my favorite Bloomington landmark for ice cream!!  🙂 ]

[And then it was back to Nashville.]

[And Chateau Thomas – well, the name was right!]

[We purchased some local product.  (We were home for a week and wondered what had happened to the wine.  The supervisor found it in the trunk of the car, where on several days it may have been cooked.  We may just have salad dressing at this point?)  😦  ]

[As so often happens on these adventures, a musician was practicing in their seating and performing area.  He was a “hippie” of our age, and we had a nice visit with him.  Turned out his mother was from . . . Kensington!]

[Meanwhile, back at the general store.]

[Then it was on to the Dale’s for a picnic lunch.  Cindy is an honorary biddy who has paid a visit to the shores of Lake Darling; and David is, what else, an artist.]

[All cars were parked in the open.  Surrounding tulip poplars were oozing yucking stuff from above.  It was happening in Terre Haute too.]

[The house from the barn.  I believe they have over 20 acres – with a swimmable and fishable pond.]

[An offensive tulip poplar, as I recall?]

[Here comes David.]

[A perfect day for a picnic.]

[Fresh produce!]

[The barn and David’s studio.]

[It was time to head back to Noblesville for Tom’s graduation.  Rita was with us and planned the route.  First stop was a WWII internment camp for Italian prisoners of war – Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, Indiana.]

[The prisoners built a chapel – the following photos tell the story.]

[This really was a place seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  But there were huge National Guard facilities in the area.]

[Coming into Edinburgh.]

[Home of the internationally-known “Not Just Popcorn” – which has over 240 flavors of . . . popcorn!]

[Rita checks out the largest popcorn bag, which could have held several of the Galapagos Islands.]

[Then it was time for lunch at the Pepper Mill Cafe.  The proprietor’s husband, Rick D. Wilson, is a local artist whose works are displayed on the walls – and in a gallery across the street.]

[So long, Edinburgh.  On the road to Noblesville . . .]

It’s always nice to begin with an inspirational message.  More on this later.  But now it’s time to get back to the issue at hand (after a couple of detours) – graduations.  So, we return once again to the fabled land of the Hoosier.  Grandson Tom’s graduation party has been chronicled – but the event itself did not take place for another week.  The supervisor and I decided to bide our time in the interim with side trips and visits with other family.  When last we left you, the girls were headed for the community pool . . .

While son-in-law Danny was taking me to Alexandria, Indiana.  Well, there were other stops before and after Alex.

[The other end of the lake from Tom’s graduation party.]

[Elwood, Indiana, once infamous as the national headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan.]

[Elwoodians (?) preparing for the Memorial Day parade.]

[As with most towns of this size, a church is the signature landmark.]

[Elwood is also the home town of Wendell Willkie, who ran for president against Franklin Roosevelt in 1940.]

[After our tour of Alexandria, it was off to Mounds State Park near Anderson.  Of course, we’re all familiar with Indiana mounds in this area.]

[Danny approaches Circle Mound.]

[As I’ve always said, when traveling . . .]

[On to Great Mound.]

[We had a nice chat with this family, but I’ll be darned if I can remember where they were from?]

[Having fun with the panorama feature on Danny’s new camera.]

[There once was an auto plant here . . .]

[Danny worked here in 2006.  A mile-long, up to 6 stories high, building that made lamps for GM cars in Anderson, Indiana.  Nothing left now – not even the asphalt parking lot.  Danny was just flabbergasted.  The whole operation moved to Canada – Anderson lost 30,000 jobs.]

[Back to Noblesville, Tom was checking out his haul!  😉 ]

[Mom was taking inventory.  I think the take was more than the cost of my first year of college! ]

And now four more of the same event by Danny.  Tom is famous even among his peers for his t-shirts.  Love “Coolige!”

[Including of the supervisor and Grandpa Ed buying pizza!  And we bid a short adieu to the Gaithers.]

When you come to the fork in the road, take it!  Thus, we take a mini-break from the usual indulgences of this blog – which currently involve such as graduations, track meets, music . . .  This involves a tour of an ecohouse in the far reaches of Southwestern Douglas County – the Holmes City lakes area (there are dozens and dozens of them in this most watery part of the county), specifically around Lake Rachel and Echo Lake.  And I think the blog is the most efficient way of passing on the experience to the participants.

This is Sue and Van Gooch’s two-year old house overlooking Echo Lake.  The energy costs to operate this house are . . . ZERO.  They are happy to explain how to any and all interested parties.  On this day, the Citizens Climate Lobby took the tour.

[This is clue No. 1.  Two southward facing solar panels.  The perspective provided by people in following photos will show these are rather high above the ground.  At the time, they had to be built at such height because of danger for kids.  And at that height, they have to be able to withstand 100 mph winds.  I’m not sure if the former is still a requirement.]

[Note the license plate on their car.  The supervisor said I had to get a photo because we always forget what it says. 😉  ]

[Gardens . . . in case you weren’t sure.]

[Let the seminar begin!  Van, a retired biology professor from U of M, Morris, said the panels produce enough electricity during the day that the excess is “sold” back to the grid.  At night, they have to dip into the electricity deposit, but it all balances out.  He noted the panels are actually more efficient in the winter – the cold and the clear sunny days are most conducive.  It was 90 degrees and windy while we were there, so we asked if he considered wind turbines.  He said he looked into them but since they having moving parts, unlike solar panels, there is a lot of maintenance involved.]

[Jeanne Johnson (hat), Citizens Climate Lobby person-in-charge, musters her flock.]

[A sample wall section – a 2×6, a vapor barrier, a 2×4, with insulation blown in.  Makes for an incredibly tight house.  The house has a steel roof, cement board siding, in-floor heat and cooling (including the garage), ceiling fans, triple-pane fiberglass framed windows, all one level (no steps or ridges), 36″ doors . . . well, you get the idea.]

[Van was concerned about exterior aesthetics – a square house is the most energy efficient but lacks in attractiveness.  He added extended eaves, a porch, and arches to break up the straight lines.  I think it’s cute in the cottage style way!  🙂 ]

[I think we all loved the interior – beginning with the tile compass as you enter the front door.  Thanks to Ken Howell for the use of his foot for perspective.]

[Kitchen and living room.]

[They did make some energy efficiency concessions.  These big windows face west – but as they say . . . the view!]

[Love to have that office!]

[The house was featured on the front page of the Echo Press just about a year ago.]

[Before we left Van had to show us his “all-natural” croquet field on the hill on the east side of the house.]

[I mentioned our cars should have been moved for the purpose of feng shui.]

[Time to go – there are graduation parties everywhere!]

We were early arriving (from a graduation party not far away), but Van had told us there was a cordwood house nearby.  So we stopped and got directions and went there first.

[And here it is.  There was nobody home – I hope they don’t mind.]

[Regular, and possibly even irregular, visitors to this site are aware that our Indiana kids are planning to build a retirement home in the cordwood style on their property just north of Itasca State Park.]

[Beautiful setting.]

On the way back to the Gooches . . .

[These small lakes, ponds, sloughs, whatever, are everywhere in this part of the county.]

[Echo Lake]

[Lake Rachel]

[A sea of white wild flowers.]

Speaking of our Indiana kids, son-in-law is in state even as we speak fleshing out their pole barn.  They had the pole barn built for storage and a place to live for when they eventually move there and build their cordwood home.  The following photos are part of his daily reports – just up the road from Lake Itasca. . .

[Because he gets up this way more often than we do, he provides updates on Wadena’s recovery from the tornado.  The new high school looks ready to go.]

[The driveway into their propery.  Yeah, it’s pretty wild but then they can only get up there a couple times a year now.]

[He’s framing and insulating the pole barn on this two-week trip.]

And we’ll leave you with some of his shots of Lake Itasca . . .

Well, that wraps up this puppy.  Just waiting for the supervisor to get home with lunch!  🙂