November 22 - Where Are They Now? Wednesday - George

This week’s WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WEDNESDAY is a good friend and former roommate, George. As luck would have it I have solved a mystery of my June 7, Where Are They Now? I found George. First some background.

George joined NCR in 1985 after I had been there a year. George’s lasting legacy at NCR happened during a intracompany sporting event. George was the only person ever flagged for two personal fouls on one basketball play. George took out two defenders on a drive for a lay-up. Because he charged, knocked over, and hurt two players, he was assessed two fouls.

George had also graduated from The Ohio State University, so we hung together and lived in the same apartment complex in Dayton, OH.

We took skiing trips to Michigan, a white-water rafting trip to West Virginia and were part of group Halloween costumes for several years. Pictured below is one of our group costumes. We were part of a six pack of beers.

George, and another friend, Scott, and I also took a life changing vacation to California in 1986.

At the end of trip I professed that I would never live in California. George indicated that it was only a matter of time for him.

As fate would have it I was offered a promotion in the summer of 1987. I was given the choice of Memphis or Southern California. I chose warmly.

I offered any of my buddies the opportunity to join me on my California Dreaming adventure. No one said, “Yes.” I sweetened the deal and said, “Free rent until you find a job.” George took one large step forward.

I had a plan. I always say, “ Nobody plans to fail, they just fail to plan.” George just heard “free rent.”

The first nine months flew by, as George could not find employment in a land where people are climbing fences and swimming rivers to get to jobs that go unfilled. I believe the unemployment rate was actually the lowest in history, except in my household. George was exploring all options as he at one point invited the local Jehovah Witnesses in for a chat. See August 4 Friday Funny on Organized Religion.

Before George could land the job, he did close the best deal of his life. He met, dated, and got engaged to his future and current wife, Shannon. Shannon had effects on George that I couldn’t motivate. George got a job and moved in with Shannon. I moved on as well, taking a promotion that took me to Northern California.

See George work. See George get an MBA. See George buy a house. See George procreate. See George procreate again.

Through the years, George and I have kept in touch. I was in his wedding. He sent me a card for mine.

Scott, George, and I re-united in California (picture below) for the 1997 Rose Bowl when Ohio State beat #1 Arizona State.

We also saw the Sept. 20, 2001 game when Ohio State visited UCLA. Ohio State lost that game. It was the first weekend of sports after 9-11. Results didn’t seem as important as before.

George then traveled back east for the Ohio State football game when the Buckeyes visited Cincinnati at the beginning of their 2002 National Championship Game campaign.

We have also had family get togethers. My family would travel to California to see the in-laws every time a new grandchild would appear. We would meet up with George, Shannon, and their 2 kids, at a restaurant that neither one of us could ever visit again.

As we fast forward to last weekend, George, Scott, and I met for the 2006 edition of The Game, when Ohio State played michigan.

George updated us on his California life. All sounds good. Some thought that George and Kato Kaelin would be life long roommates. The only person to have greater, unpredicted success in California than George would be Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Jan. 4, 2011 - Ohio State wins Sugar Bowl

The 2011 Sugar Bowl will go down as one of the best college games this year.

Ohio State 31, Arkansas 26

The closest experience I've had to this game was the 1997 Rose Bowl. Ohio State defeated an unbeaten Arizona State team on a last minute drive 20-17.

I took my oldest son, Zack, to the game.


The AR-Kansas fans outnumbered the Buck faithful by a 5-1 margin.

I've been to many bowl games and away OSU games through the years. I have to say that the Razorback fans have been the most rude and profane bunch I have encountered. It didn't matter if you are in the hotel, the casino, or on the street, they wanted to get in your face.

Apparently, Will Rogers never spent time in Fayetteville.

At any rate, the last picture tells it all.


Go BUCKS!!!

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May 14, 2009 - Head East Young Man

Well, I made it back from California. With the passing of my Father-In-Law last month I needed to return to Golden State to sell a house and move household belonging back to my Mother-In-Law’s new residence in Ohio.

I kept a visual diary on my I-Phone of points of interest along the way. My brother, a 30-year armed forces veteran, accompanied me on the adventure. We rented a 17 foot U-Haul to move possessions through CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, AR, TN. KY, and OH. Below is a summary of the trip.

Wednesday, May 6 – We flew Delta Airlines from Cincinnati to LA at the height of the Swine (H1N1) Flu pandemic scare. I decided to wear a surgical mask and to toss in a few coughs and sneezes. There was a reason I was the lead in my High School’s rendition of “The Music Man.” Before long I had an entire row to myself.

Thursday, May 7 – We packed the truck and left LA at 8:30 p.m. We headed east on the 405 to the 605 to the 110 to the 10 to the 40. Amazingly there is still an LA rush hour at 8:30 at night. We deiced to take Interstate 40, which parallels the old Route 66 from LA through to Nashville before taking I-65 to Louisville and taking I-71 into Ohio.

Friday, May 8 - We spent three hours, from 4-7 a.m., at a motel in Needles, CA that rents rooms by the hour. After a Grand Slam breakfast at the local Denny’s, we continued on through Arizona and spent Friday night in Albuquerque, NM. We drove a total of 709 miles the first 24 hours.

We did stop long enough to acquire gas and to get into a traffic jam at the University of Northern Arizona’s commencement exercises in Flagstaff, AZ. As we trekked eastward at an 85 mph clip, I’ll never know if the Eagles were correct when they sang, “Winslow Arizona was such a fine site to see.”

Saturday, May 9 - We took off right after the 6 a.m. revelry. This was my Breakfast of Champions from a NM gas station:

We traversed through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas. This segment was 883 miles.

In Texas we saw what was titled the “World’s Largest Cross.” I think Ohio’s Jesus would beg to differ.

According to the movie, “An Officer and a Gentleman” this is what I expected to see in Oklahoma:

I was pleasantly surprised to see rolling hills, green space, and wind turbines.

When we stopped for the night in Little Rock, I decided to tour the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. I took the below snap shot from the library’s restroom.

Sunday, May 10 – We completed the final leg of our trip from Arkansas through Tennessee and Kentucky into Ohio, a total of 626 miles.

We arrived back in Ohio only 69 hours after our departure from LA. The drive was a mix of Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run, with a hint of Death Race 2000 thrown in to keep it interesting.

I wish I could have been taking this trip for other reasons and spent more time enjoying the scenery.

After listening to country music for 2160 miles, (and they say water boarding is torture), I think Lee Greenwood had it right when he said,

“God Bless the USA.”

This is a GREAT country with all of the diversity of people and geography. I met new, interesting people at every rest stop and gas station.

If I understand the new economic policies of Mr. Obama, I should be receiving several stimulus checks in the next 4 years. I plan to use the money to purchase an RV and return to the southwest in search of the World’s Largest Ball of Twine.

September 27 - Where Are They Now? Wednesday - Biosphere 2

This week’s WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WEDNESDAY is Biosphere 2.
Yesterday marked the anniversary of it’s opening and closing. The project conducted it’s initial sealed mission from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993.

Biosphere 2 is a structure built near Tuscon Arizona. It was to be an artificially closed ecological system. It was used to test if and how people could live and work in a closed biosphere, while carrying out scientific experiments. It explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and also allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's.

The name comes from the idea that it is modeled on the first biosphere, which is Earth.

The funding for the $200,000,000 project came from Edward Bass.

The inaugural crew of eight included a medical doctor, researchers and scientists: Roy Walford, Jane Poynter, Taber McCullum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling, Mark Van Thillo and Linda Leigh. Jane and Taber married a year after exiting Biosphere 2. It’s only a rumor that she gave birth to a “bubble boy.”

The original vision of the Biosphere called for sealing it up for 100 years, with two-year tours of duty for teams of bionauts (or bio-nuts if you prefer). But you know what they say about people in glass houses, they have faded furniture.

In January 1992, while at a company meeting in Phoenix, I drove the 250 mile round-trip journey to visit Biosphere 2. As you toured the facility you could watch the scientists work within the glass enclosure. It was like a surreal people zoo. As I ate my Slim Jim and Doritos, a sense of guilt came over me. These people could only eat what they grew. The guilt was actually caffeine withdrawal. It quickly subsided as I drank my Dr. Pepper.

During their stay in Biosphere 2, the crew found that they could not grow as much food as anticipated. Eventually it was learned that someone had sneaked in Burger King food.

Honestly, if you’re going to break a two-year fast food abstinence, would you select Burger King?

The Biosphere's headlines got more and more interesting. It was revealed that the bionauts had snuck an oxygen-generating machine into the sealed environment after they realized that the atmosphere wasn't going to be life sustaining after all.

But the most exciting part came after a change in management motivated a pair of the original bionauts to break a window in the Biosphere, ruining the whole sealed-for-a-century plan.

A second Biosphere experiment lasted only six months.

So WHAT IS THE STATE OF BIOSPHERE 2?

As of June 2006, the structure is no longer maintained in an airtight state, and the property is slated to be redeveloped for a planned community. Fairfield Homes is making a deal to buy the Biosphere's spectacular 1,600 acres to develop a master-planned community. Evidently, a three-acre simulation of the planet isn't a selling point for buyers of luxury homes these days.

For those of you keeping score at home : McMansions 1, Biosphere 0