In the corner of the yard Where the bushes are Where the weeds grow Where the flower tree is Where the bees go That's where my dad shined my bike Where I once did my homework That's where the shed is near-HB 2013Jan13
Sunday, January 13, 2013
HB poem 2013Jan13
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
New Year's Day
My son and his mother are in the kitchen at 8939 Turriff Houston TX on New Year's Day. The kitchen window looked out past the utility room door and past a large oak tree. It had twin trunks each about 18-24" in diameter.
Beyond the utility room door, on the outside wall was successively, the electric meter and the window of the bathroom for the "master bedroom" which was a converted two car garage.
There was a walkway of concrete pavers that paralleled the outside wall. Just beyond the electric meter, there was a gate to the backyard fence. The fence, six (?) foot chain link I had installed my self, was perpendicular to the outside wall.
After the gate, the fence turned toward the house at a 45 degree angle to the gate. The tree was inside the fence. Just beyond the fence on that end of the back yard, was a fig tree, a shed and another fruit tree.
The fence went to the back property line where it turned again to follow the line to the far corner of the lot. Later this part of the fence was torn down by the neighbors behind us (without my knowledge or permission) and replaced with a six foot wood fence.
It had been raining and the ground was soaked.
She is preparing black eye peas and telling our son that Southerners do this on New Year's Day for good luck in the new year. Whereupon the tree comes out by its roots. It falls away from the house. It rips down the electric line, pulling the meter partly off the wall. It damages the phone line. It damages the fig tree, the shed and the other fruit tree. It just misses taking out the neighborhood power, which lines ran along that side of the house.
Beyond the utility room door, on the outside wall was successively, the electric meter and the window of the bathroom for the "master bedroom" which was a converted two car garage.
There was a walkway of concrete pavers that paralleled the outside wall. Just beyond the electric meter, there was a gate to the backyard fence. The fence, six (?) foot chain link I had installed my self, was perpendicular to the outside wall.
After the gate, the fence turned toward the house at a 45 degree angle to the gate. The tree was inside the fence. Just beyond the fence on that end of the back yard, was a fig tree, a shed and another fruit tree.
The fence went to the back property line where it turned again to follow the line to the far corner of the lot. Later this part of the fence was torn down by the neighbors behind us (without my knowledge or permission) and replaced with a six foot wood fence.
It had been raining and the ground was soaked.
She is preparing black eye peas and telling our son that Southerners do this on New Year's Day for good luck in the new year. Whereupon the tree comes out by its roots. It falls away from the house. It rips down the electric line, pulling the meter partly off the wall. It damages the phone line. It damages the fig tree, the shed and the other fruit tree. It just misses taking out the neighborhood power, which lines ran along that side of the house.
8939 Turriff Houston TX
This house was purchased in 1971 while empty for some time for less than $30k. It was occupied late in the year (November?).
With a two car garage converted into a "master bedroom", it had more than 2400 sq.ft.
Starting in the summer of 1980 and finishing the following year, I reroofed this house myself. The roof being replaced was an asphalt roof over a rotting cedar wood shingle roof. The roof had four valleys and therefore four separate ridges.
After removing both roofs, I replaced about 25-33% of the 1x4s used to support the wood shingles. I also replaced one of the rafters.
It took about 100 sheets of plywood to replace the roof.
I moved to Pittsburgh late October 1986 to work at Duquesne Systems. The children came up January 1987 by Greyhound bus. Their mother came up in the middle of the year (May?) and we looked at houses. We purchased 3823 (?) Baytree around July. I moved the family and some household goods up August 1987.
Summer of 1987 S returned to this house and stayed beyond of the summer. She returned only after a discussion she and I had on the subject.
She returned to this house for several additional summers.
This house was sold 1992, probably at a loss.
New Year's Day
With a two car garage converted into a "master bedroom", it had more than 2400 sq.ft.
Starting in the summer of 1980 and finishing the following year, I reroofed this house myself. The roof being replaced was an asphalt roof over a rotting cedar wood shingle roof. The roof had four valleys and therefore four separate ridges.
After removing both roofs, I replaced about 25-33% of the 1x4s used to support the wood shingles. I also replaced one of the rafters.
It took about 100 sheets of plywood to replace the roof.
I moved to Pittsburgh late October 1986 to work at Duquesne Systems. The children came up January 1987 by Greyhound bus. Their mother came up in the middle of the year (May?) and we looked at houses. We purchased 3823 (?) Baytree around July. I moved the family and some household goods up August 1987.
Summer of 1987 S returned to this house and stayed beyond of the summer. She returned only after a discussion she and I had on the subject.
She returned to this house for several additional summers.
This house was sold 1992, probably at a loss.
New Year's Day
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Christmas in Ft Mitchell
When we moved to 219 Highland from Holman St in Covington, it was in the city of South Fort Mitchell. Later while dad was city clerk SFM merged with the much smaller Fort Mitchell, taking its name.
Gertrude Trimpe had previously moved to 115 Highland, where she lived with her mother, sister Emma, and uncle Hank (Henry).
Christmas began when the children were taken (by uncles?) to Gertrude's house. I seem to remember walking, but it is not a clear memory. At first dad did not have a car. He took the streetcar that ran along the Dixie Highway to Covington, and then the bus to work. He would bring bags of groceries back with him some evenings.
We ate dinner at Gertrude's. Meanwhile mother and dad would put up and decorate the tree, and place gifts around it. I don't remember them being wrapped.
One year we (or maybe me) received an American Flyer train. Since our paternal grandfather had been a conductor for the New York Central on the Covington to Cleveland run, it had a strong attraction for us. Grandpa Kuebbing had been the only male I knew until after WWII was over, and the troops came back - Dad from the South Pacific. Bill Trimpe had left for Europe upon turning 18 just after I was born.
When a call was made from our house to Gertrude's, all of us trooped down to our house and celebrated Christmas by sharing gifts. Gertrude made good money in the employment business and had a car before dad.
I started singing in the Blessed Sacrament choir in either the first or second grade. At that time, I would sing Midnight Mass each year. I can't remember who came along.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua
Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua dies
His tenure in Pgh spanned a bit more than my first yr there. I have only one memory of him. All pictures of him in the local Catholic newspaper showed him in full watered silks.
His tenure in Pgh spanned a bit more than my first yr there. I have only one memory of him. All pictures of him in the local Catholic newspaper showed him in full watered silks.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
rak pgh 0
The adventure that was Pgh started in Houston when my employer Printing Resources started the final struggle for survival. I was laid off in May 1986. It failed so successfully that the assets were sold and the company disappeared. Later I went back and the plywood used for shelving for sheets of film in the camera/platemaking department was stacked next to a dumpster
I tried to survive as a PC consultant. I made a little money but not near enough. This was the middle 1980s and jobs were scarce in Houston because the oil boom in oil services ended when the price of oil eased.
We had bought our house 15 yrs earlier and so payments were not outrageous. Relatively small balance, not outrageous interest rate.
But I also tried to get another mainframe job. There were very few interviews, less than one a month. Then, late in summer, a headhunter called me and said a person was coming down from Pgh to do interviews. I went. It was strange. She gave me a test on mainframe assembly language and on words. On the first, I suspect I got all the answers correct. The second test was of a type that I did well on, e.g. the GRE.
<<<>>>
But then I heard nothing until one day they called to say they wanted me to come to Pgh for interview.
I went to the airport. I think I drove my self. Arrived in Pgh. I was greeted by a Realtor!!! I can't remember if I stayed overnightor not but my guess is I did. I think I was there overnight. I think I stayed at the hotel overlooking the Point. She took me to the Duquesne Systems offices in Allegheny Center.
First good sign was that the first person I met after seeing the HR woman was Denis Burt, The VP of the group that owned TPX. It was at the time his only product. We was wearing blue jeans, a sweater and a tie. He had a full beard and looked vaguely like a college professor or even Gene Eichler.
The second person I met was Pat Pagano, the lead. Jeans and a plaid shirt. I could see this was going to be a relaxed atmosphere. I was mildly happy.
When I left, the Realtor took me around to see neighborhoods. I am going to guess she showed me townships like Ross and not Nor'side. Certainly not Baytree.
What was probably next day, I returned to IAH.
And then again nothing.
<<<>>>
What I didn't know was the product I was to work on was hot. But September was the end of the fiscal year. The venture capitalists wanted to see the year's numbers before allowing the funding for more positions.
<<<>>>
One day in October I get a phone call saying there was a job offer on the way by FedEx. When could I start work?
I signed the contract and returned it the same day. The terms were generous. A good salary bump from my last job, 3 wks vacation to start, a relocation allowance for a while, a moving package.
But my head was not ready to move. It took a week or so. About a week before the end of October, I filled the little old AMC Concord w/clothes and little else. It took about 10 min to get to I10. I drove east. Another 15 min to downtown. The about another 10 min to get to I610. It was very sad. I tried to sing one of the StLouis Jesuits songs to cheer myself up. I broke down and cried. I had to pull over to regain my composure.
I stayed the night w/Ruby and Jim. She was as gracious as ever and he was as crazy as ever.
The leaves on the trees in the southern mountains were beautiful in 1986. It helped keep me going.
The next night was at 72 Greenbriar. Mother had been a widow for 5 yrs and was still cleaning out Dad's things. I would not be surprised to learn we ate at Frisch's Big Boy.
The next day I arrived in Pgh. I79 to I279, down the Greentree hill, through the tunnel (Ft Pitt?), over the Ft Pitt bridge, past the Point, over the Duquesne bridge. The shot one of the TV stations used for a while as an intro/promo.
I stopped at the Post Office across from Allegheny Center where 6th St starts and got a PObox. Then around the Center to North Avenue. East, past the Aviary, to the WMCA on the corner of North and one of the Mexican War Streets, where I stayed for 2 wks while I looked for an apartment.
A culture shock. Doors to the rooms didn't lock. Communal showers. I had to take my suitcase with me when I went to work. I ate out of my trunk for two weeks. At that time, there was still a good sandwich shop in AC, which had daily specials. Giant Eagle had moved out of AC to a few streets east. Those were my two initial sources of food.
<<continued here>>
I tried to survive as a PC consultant. I made a little money but not near enough. This was the middle 1980s and jobs were scarce in Houston because the oil boom in oil services ended when the price of oil eased.
We had bought our house 15 yrs earlier and so payments were not outrageous. Relatively small balance, not outrageous interest rate.
But I also tried to get another mainframe job. There were very few interviews, less than one a month. Then, late in summer, a headhunter called me and said a person was coming down from Pgh to do interviews. I went. It was strange. She gave me a test on mainframe assembly language and on words. On the first, I suspect I got all the answers correct. The second test was of a type that I did well on, e.g. the GRE.
<<<>>>
But then I heard nothing until one day they called to say they wanted me to come to Pgh for interview.
I went to the airport. I think I drove my self. Arrived in Pgh. I was greeted by a Realtor!!! I can't remember if I stayed overnightor not but my guess is I did. I think I was there overnight. I think I stayed at the hotel overlooking the Point. She took me to the Duquesne Systems offices in Allegheny Center.
First good sign was that the first person I met after seeing the HR woman was Denis Burt, The VP of the group that owned TPX. It was at the time his only product. We was wearing blue jeans, a sweater and a tie. He had a full beard and looked vaguely like a college professor or even Gene Eichler.
The second person I met was Pat Pagano, the lead. Jeans and a plaid shirt. I could see this was going to be a relaxed atmosphere. I was mildly happy.
When I left, the Realtor took me around to see neighborhoods. I am going to guess she showed me townships like Ross and not Nor'side. Certainly not Baytree.
What was probably next day, I returned to IAH.
And then again nothing.
<<<>>>
What I didn't know was the product I was to work on was hot. But September was the end of the fiscal year. The venture capitalists wanted to see the year's numbers before allowing the funding for more positions.
<<<>>>
One day in October I get a phone call saying there was a job offer on the way by FedEx. When could I start work?
I signed the contract and returned it the same day. The terms were generous. A good salary bump from my last job, 3 wks vacation to start, a relocation allowance for a while, a moving package.
But my head was not ready to move. It took a week or so. About a week before the end of October, I filled the little old AMC Concord w/clothes and little else. It took about 10 min to get to I10. I drove east. Another 15 min to downtown. The about another 10 min to get to I610. It was very sad. I tried to sing one of the StLouis Jesuits songs to cheer myself up. I broke down and cried. I had to pull over to regain my composure.
I stayed the night w/Ruby and Jim. She was as gracious as ever and he was as crazy as ever.
The leaves on the trees in the southern mountains were beautiful in 1986. It helped keep me going.
The next night was at 72 Greenbriar. Mother had been a widow for 5 yrs and was still cleaning out Dad's things. I would not be surprised to learn we ate at Frisch's Big Boy.
The next day I arrived in Pgh. I79 to I279, down the Greentree hill, through the tunnel (Ft Pitt?), over the Ft Pitt bridge, past the Point, over the Duquesne bridge. The shot one of the TV stations used for a while as an intro/promo.
I stopped at the Post Office across from Allegheny Center where 6th St starts and got a PObox. Then around the Center to North Avenue. East, past the Aviary, to the WMCA on the corner of North and one of the Mexican War Streets, where I stayed for 2 wks while I looked for an apartment.
A culture shock. Doors to the rooms didn't lock. Communal showers. I had to take my suitcase with me when I went to work. I ate out of my trunk for two weeks. At that time, there was still a good sandwich shop in AC, which had daily specials. Giant Eagle had moved out of AC to a few streets east. Those were my two initial sources of food.
<<continued here
Monday, July 9, 2012
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