Good-Guys All American Get Together next weekend...

 Next weekend my 1959 Edsel Ranger 2D Sedan will be on display at the Good-Guys All American Get Together (AAGT) at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds.  I will be there enjoying the weather, and all of the great automobile enthusiasts who gather for this "one-of-four" Good-Guys events held in Pleasanton (the original home of the Good-Guys) California.  

Stop by to see thousands of great American automobiles of all years, styles, both very custom, mildly custom and "bone stock" like my Edsel.

Purchased from Edsel Henry Ford, the founder of the Edsel Owners' Club twelve years ago, my 1959 Edsel has provided hours, days, weeks, months and years of enjoyment.  Parked in front of my 1950s house it is the perfect "Driveway Art".

This Monday, April 21st, 2022 is the first day of Spring (Vernal Equinox) so the event in Pleasanton is expected to have wonderful Springtime weather.  Enjoy every day and be safe out there...

Beware the Ides of March... March 15, 2022

 The Ides of March is the 74th day in the Roman calendar, which corresponds to March 15 on our calendar.

Romans used the day as the deadline for settling debts, and the day was also marked by several religious observances.

Each month has an Ides, relating to a full moon as the Roman calendar was lunar based.

The Ides of each month were marked by a sheep sacrifice to Jupiter, the Romans’ top god.

On the Ides of March, they held the Feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess whose festival marked the end of the ceremonies for the new year.

Towards the end of the Roman period the Ides also marked the start of a week-long period marking various festivals celebrating Cybele and Attis, two mythical gods.

The Ides of March is just a day in the Roman calendar but it took on much more significance when it became the day Julius Caesar was murdered in 44BC.

Such an infamous event solidified the day in history and became a turning point in Roman culture.

Where does 'Beware the Ides of March' quote come from?

While the Ides existed long before the Elizabethan era, the phrase "Beware the Ides of March" was not famous until William Shakespeare.

Renowned poet and playwright, Shakespeare, wrote The Tragedy of Julius Caesar which was first performed in 1599.

Shakespeare's plays were first published in Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, now known as the First Folio.

Julius Caesar is classed as a tragedy play in the First Folio, which was published in 1623 after his death.

"Beware the Ides of March" is uttered by a soothsayer telling Julius Caesar that his life is in danger in the play.

The soothsayer tells Caesar to stay at home on March 15 and be careful what he does.

The Roman emperor was assassinated on the day in 44BC.

Since being used as a warning to Caesar in Shakespeare’s play, the phrase has been used to foreshadow something bad happening.

Why is the Ides of March on March 15?

Instead of numbering the days of each month sequentially the Romans used three fixed points in the month and counted back from those fixed points.

The Nones were either on the 5th or 7th, the Ides on the 13th or 15th and the Kalends on the first of the following month.

The Ides were meant to be determined by the full moon and Romans based their calendar on the lunar cycles.

The Ides of March would have marked the first full moon of the year, according to their calendar.

In March, May, July, and October, the Ides fell on the 15th day.

What happened on the Ides of March?

Caesar was stabbed to death during a meeting of the Senate on the Ides of March in 44BC which may have involved as many as 60 conspirators and led by Brutus and Cassius.

According to the Greek biographer Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March.

On his way to the Senate, Caesar is said to have passed the seer and joked: "The Ides of March are come", implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone".

Shakespeare dramatized the assassination and its aftermath, with the words used as a warning to Caesar in the play.

Since then the phrase has been used as a warning in other situations and hence became superstitious.

The phrase "Et tu, Brute?" was popularized by Shakespeare in the same play, although he was not the first to use it.

Pi Day 2022

 Today is "Pi Day" 2022.  It's been an incredible year dealing with Covid-19 for the past two years and coming to grips with several (many) of my contemporaries who have died in the last eighteen months.  Some younger than me, some older than me, and some right where I am right now.  It makes one ponder and think.

A buddy of mine describes it as "The Fourth Quarter" which is a football reference and he says that the whistle has blown and the ball is in the air and the referee and umpire are ready to blow the whistle.  I'm just hoping that the two-minute-warning is later rather than sooner.

I have been trying to "downsize" however it is difficult and I've likened the process to "Sophie's Choice" as I really am having difficulty choosing what to divest.  I have been collecting an eclectic mix of possessions over the many decades that I have been here (on this planet) and now that I am well-within the eighth decade on this earth it becomes more and more difficult to choose what to "give up" or "give away".  

I've lived in the same house since 1953.  I have memories of seven decades within these walls and memories of countless people here.  I can spend hours reminiscing and that has become somewhat of a hobby (spending time).  

I hope to return on May 4th, 2022 (if I remember) "May the Fourth be with you".  

Be safe out there.  It's a wonderful world and a dangerous world.  Pick your choices wisely.

As 2021 Comes to a Close...

 As 2021 comes to a close, this being December 1, 2021, it has been an event filled year even with the restrictions of the second full-year of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Delta variant along with the now-current Omicron variant has made it a difficult year.  Adapting to wearing a "mask" in stores, restaurants, and places where others may congregate is aggravating however it has become commonplace and keeping a face-covering in all of the vehicles helps.

I attended an International Symposium in Tulsa Oklahoma in September and October however I failed to attend many gatherings normally part of my annual calendar of events due to cancellations, postponements and logistics.  As 2021 comes to an end, I have great expectations for 2022.

Earlier in the year I was gifted with a rescue cat.  My cat of fifteen years "Stanley" departed from this world on January 17, 2019 and I was not planning on replacing him (he was irreplaceable for sure) so I was destined to once-again live alone until "Artanis" was rescued in the neighborhood and I reluctantly (at first) agreed to assist in finding his owner.  Artanis was a very small kitten and weeks of posting notices in the neighborhood, knocking on doors asking if neighbors lost a kitten, posting flyers on the bulletin boards of local stores failed, I resolved myself to the possibility of fostering a kitten and ultimately giving him a "forever home".  Artanis is a "housecat" and will stay inside due to the increasing danger of being an "outside" cat with urban wildlife (skunks, opossums, racoons, owls, etc.) along with cars and trucks so, here we are as "roommates" for the foreseeable future.  A few trips to veterinarians have been completed and he has a clean bill of health.

Here's looking forward to a happy 2022.  I renewed my City Business License today, my membership in the California Law Enforcement Historical Society, and December is dedicated to continuing on with a positive outlook.

2020 has been a strange year...

 2020 has been a strange year for many if not all of us.  Sheltering in place, self-quarantined and self-isolated for the past nine months and having a year's worth of activities canceled or postponed has been a lot to adjust to for me.  My memorial project at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland has been put on hold, several excursions to places and people across the United States have been postponed until 2021, and fortunately for me, being in the high-risk group for Covid-19, I have managed to avoid infection (so far).  2020 has been a strange year.

I have however used some of the time being home for good use.  I have inventoried collections, tried to "downsize" without success, acquired a wonderful example of a fifty year old dentist chair to add to my collection (that I am supposed to be making smaller, not bigger), and I've been able to drive my 1959 Edsel Ranger two-door sedan at least once-a-week while social distancing.  

I have been memorialized in an engraving as well and I am very happy with the tribute work of art that I received in 2020.  My artist did a wonderful job creating artwork that describes me in steel and I am grateful for the thought and work involved in this tribute piece.  2020 has had its moments of positive and satisfying memorable occasions as well.  

It's soon to be 2021.  We've had a Presidential election this year and an administration change on the horizon.  I'm now in my eighth decade on this planet and the best is yet to come.

Be safe out there.

Stop by my Memorial site at http://www.WozMemorial.com 

Happy Holidays to Everyone during this solemn season... 2019-2020...

A very happy and joyous Holiday Season to everyone.  An update to my project is due.  There have been many advancements over the past few years.  I hope that you will visit http://www/WozMemorial.com for updates. 

Frederick Law Olmstead, the person responsible for the location of my "project".

Frederick Law Olmsted
(from www.FrederickLawOlmstead.com)

During the later half of the nineteenth century cities in America underwent tremendous changes. More people were moving to the cities than ever before. It became evident that cities needed to be transformed into more hospitable places, and not just centers of commerce. No longer could the leaders of society or the City fathers sit back and watch the Cities operate.  Towards the end of the 1850s city beautification became an issue that more and more leaders followed and explored. The theory behind this movement was that the more aesthetically pleasing you make a city, the more people will want to live in that city, and the happier they will be.
One of the greatest champions of the City Beautiful movement was Frederick law Olmsted. Olmsted was the leading landscape architect of the post-Civil War generation, and has long been acknowledged as the founder of American landscape architecture.
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822 - 1903) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was raised as a gentleman, and while he never fully attended college, he did become a very learned man. When he was 18, Olmsted moved to New York to begin a career as a scientific farmer. Soon after that career failed to take off, he toured Europe with his brother, served as a merchant seaman, and traveled throughout the southern United States as a newspaper correspondent, publishing several books as an outgrowth of that career.

Through several connections gained as a columnist with the New Yorker, Olmsted was able to gain the appointed as the Superintendent of Central Park, New York City, in 1857, early in the development of that park project. He soon met Calvert Vaux, who had been working on a design for the park with Andrew Jackson Downing. When Downing died, Vaux approached OImsted about collaborating on the project. Their plan, titled Greensward, was ultimately selected as the winning design.

In 1859, Olmsted married the widow of his brother, John, and he adopted her children. In 1861, Olmsted obtained a leave of absence from his duties at Central Park so that he could serve as the Executive Secretary (the head of administration) of United States Sanitary Commission, an early version of the Red Cross, which was responsible for aiding the well-being of the soldiers of the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1863, he was offered the position manager at the Mariposa Estate in California, a gold mining venture north of San Francisco, and he left the organization. He later returned to New York when the project failed, joining Vaux in designing Prospect Park (1865-1873), Chicago's Riverside subdivision, Buffalo's park system (1868-1876), and the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls (1887). In 1883, he departed New York City and relocated to Brookline, Massachusetts with his practice. Olmsted had begun work on a park system for the City of Boston, eventually he focused much of his time on the Emerald Necklace. This along with his work on the design of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago were among the last of Olmsted's projects. In 1895, due to failing health Olmsted turned the firm over to his partners, and soon senility forced him to be confined in the McLean Hospital at Waverly, Massachusetts. Ironically, Olmsted had designed the grounds of the institution.

Frederick Law Olmsted died on August 28, 1903. The landscape architecture firm he founded was continued by his sons and their successors until 1980. Subsequently, his home and office were purchased by the National Park Service and opened to the public as museum. His papers are now housed in the Library of Congress, while the Olmsted National Historic site preserves the drawings and plans for much of Olmsted and his firm's body of work.