For Sunday, March 30, 2008                                      Drummer Column, Gibbs, 808 words

 

Into the Wild with accoutrements

 

     This summer has been dubbed Camping Summer by me just now. I haven’t been out in the woods in too long. As you know if you’ve been reading this column over the years, I used to be the backpacking club advisor at the high school. I spent every summer in the California backcountry, hiked 1,000 miles, rafted a dozen rivers, explored caves, endured countless bouts of poison oak.

     Then in October of 2000 I twisted my back carrying a table. All that wilderness jazz went right out the window. I spent the next three years unable to sit down without excruciating pain. I went through therapy, acupuncture, epidurals, exercises, Vicodin. I spent my waking hours coming to terms with my new future – a lifetime of chronic misery.

     Then the pain went away around the fifth year. I found I was able to work hard, tote barges, lift bales once again. If I overdid it, I got sore, but it was acute, not chronic.

     I spent the next few years catching up on my chores. I’ve been fixing things for three summers. We bought a couple of houses when the stock market went in the crapper, and now it’s my fate to maintain them or pay professionals.

     Happy to announce I’m caught up for the time being. Summer 2008 is mine all mine. That spells road trips and random left turns. Yosemite here I come.

     I can hardly wait. Here’s my idea of a favorite day in the woods: Get up. Go. Build a fire. Make coffee. Drink coffee in front of the fire. Socialize. Watch the morning sun rise over the campsite. More coffee. Eat breakfast. Wander off and do something – hike, swim, climb, explore, fish, ski, boat, read – return to the campsite in late afternoon, build a fire, cook, eat, watch the sun set, socialize with jokes and long stories, star gaze, turn in, flip my pillow to the cool side. No unique rituals. Just plain and simple leisure.

     Speaking of leisure. We camped with our children and grandchildren for a weekend last summer. Chad and Kristi had a huge tent with an inflatable mattress and fluffy pillows. Susan and I slept nearby in my 2x8’ stuff-tent on Therm-A-Rest pads with clothes jammed into t-shirts as pillows.

     Next morning, Chad gave me a hard time. “Dude. What are you doing sleeping on the hard ground? You should be nicer to your wife. Why are you making her sleep on that elongated pancake?”

     I explained, “We like to travel light. She’s comfortable. We’ve been sleeping on these same Therm-A-Rests for 20 years.”

     “Dude. That’s what I’m saying. Move up. Get an air mattress. Think of Susan.”

     To this Susan said, “Yea. Think of me.”

     “Hey, wait a minute. You’ve been sleeping in my thumb tent on these pads without complaint all these years. Now suddenly you’re uncomfortable? Thanks a lot, Chad.”

     “Face it, dude. You’re both getting older.”

     Last week I blew $500 at REI. I did not buy an air mattress. I bought a new sleeping bag and two nice latest-model Therm-A-Rests. They’re thick. Inches thick.

     Chad won’t like them. He favors his king-size floater with its electric pump. I’m hoping Susan will like them. Chad’s having an influence on her.

 

     On the way to the cashier, feeling ambivalent, I walked past a camping display in the tent area. There was a cot, and it caught my eye. It was six feet long, a foot off the ground, and firmly padded. Folded, it fit snugly into a small bag. I bought one. It’s not a mattress, but it doesn’t need a pump.

     If Chad starts ragging on me again in Yosemite about my poor suffering wife, and she decides to chime in, I’ll whip out the cot. That will put them in their places. Or I’ll look like an idiot.

     I can hear him now. “Dude. What is that? You bought your wife a cot? What, is she in the army? Come on. What were you thinking? Pamper your woman.”

     “Cut it out, dude. You’re blowing it for me.”

     Nice thing about REI: you can bring anything back for any reason. We’ll see how these new accommodations fair in the field. If Susan doesn’t like them, I’ll trade them in on a Serta.

     Besides Yosemite, we intend to visit Crystal Basin, Kennedy Meadows, South Fork of the Yuba, Dinky Lakes, and maybe down the coast to Andrew Molera Park near Big Sur. We will go other places of which we know not yet. Random lefts will determine that.

     We expect to be taking the grandkids with us as often as possible. I look forward to showing them the splendors of nature. I shall get many vicarious thrills watching them climb and jump about. We will all go barefoot and grow calluses on the soles of our feet.

     

     

For Sunday, March 9, 2008                                        Drummer Column, Gibbs, 789 words

 

If I were President of these United States

 

     If I were President of the United States of America, these would be the planks of my platform.

     Before I give them, be advised, I’m a liberal democrat when it comes to social policies, and a fiscal conservative when it comes to restricting the money flow. I’d have voted for a Ron Paul Dennis Kucinich ticket.

     I don’t want to restrict how people live their lives or shape their families. If gays want to get married, good for them. If people feel that medicinal marijuana helps them deal with their perceived illnesses, leave them alone in their victimless indulgences. If people want to visit Vancouver or Tijuana, I’d make it easy. If people from Vancouver or Tijuana want to visit America, I’d make it harder, but not impossible. At least currently, more people want to sneak in than sneak out. That may change if I’m not elected.

     One of the first things I would do is trash this nonsense about small government. I would trash the claim that deregulation is good for Americans. I would stop the move to privatize everything we do for profit. I will turn a deaf ear to the hollow claim that business can do anything and everything better than the government. Business needs profits. Governments don’t. Doing it right is all about hiring the best people and paying them well.

     Most say that a government’s core responsibility is to protect its citizens. The rest should be left to the open market. I agree with that. My lingering question is protection from whom? We all agree terrorists and invaders need repelled. However, I think the government also needs to protect its citizens in the open market.  We need a powerful law-enforcing guardian against price fixers, shortage makers, faulty manufacturers, careless providers, false marketers, rampant polluters, market corner-ers, scoundrels and other such flim-flam. There is too much of that going on.

     I would take back the voting process 10 seconds into office. All voting machines would become government property. Voting computers would be programmed by government technicians or through contracts with private companies who win their bids open and fair. The software and hardware would be thoroughly criss-cross-cross-criss-cross checked for accuracy. Every one of them would produce paper receipts. Those receipts would be dropped into sealed vaults in case recounts are needed. I would work to make voter math the exact science it was intended to be.

     I would bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Equal time for opposing viewpoints would be resurrected from its tomb. This notion that news corporations have the same first amendment rights as humans, and the right to squelch all opposing views, would end. No more could their amplified voices that reach millions be allowed to say, “My network supports one political ideology only, and we do world news.” They could have both. It is a free country. But news and opinions would have to be separated: objective reporting on one channel, philosophical debates on another, and a third channel for the detractors – sort of like Fox owning Comedy Central.

     I would take back the private prisons. I would repeal all bills passed by the lobbied efforts to increase prison sentences for lesser and lesser crimes in order to increase the prison population and turn a profit. I would release a lot of our victimless criminals, or lower their sentences, or send them to hospitals and therapy.

     I would protect and reward all whistle-blowers. I would provide them with witness relocation if it were necessary. I would encourage them to step forward through a series of posters that read: “Uncle Sam Wants You.”

     I would protect our public water system. I would push back the private interests that are buying up many of our lakes, reservoirs, and streams in preparation for controlling water. Water would forever be, during my administration, a public resource, safe, sound, and inexpensive.

     I would rewrite NAFTA until it fairly met the needs of the American worker and stopped its enticements for factories to outsource.

     Oil. What would I do there? I’d take the trillions we are spending trying to seize it from others and invest in the alternatives. Instead of sending 12 billion a month to Iraq, like we are now, I’d put 12 billion toward solar, 12 toward wind, 12 toward hydrogen, 12 toward conservation, a few million toward ethanol, and 12 for education. That would take me into the summer of my first year in office.

     I don’t hate big business, my fellow Americans. That’s not it. Big businesses are just small businesses run right. I only want them to play fair. That, too, is a battle I wouldn’t expect to win, but it is a battle I would commit to fight ceaselessly. If elected.

For Sunday, March 2, 2008                                        Drummer Column, Gibbs, 811 words

 

Taking time to stop and smell the contractors

 

     “O.K. We’ll go, but we’re not buying anything. Agreed?”

     “Agreed.”

     “Nothing. Not one solitary thing.”

     “Right. Nothing. We’re just looking. Window shopping.”

     “Exactly. It’s going to cost five dollars to park. That’s our limit.”

     Thus our conversation tumbled out last weekend as Susan and I drove toward the Home and Garden Show at the Solano County Fairgrounds in Vallejo.

     It doesn’t matter who said what in that conversation because we were in agreement. Our budget is limited to bills, food, and fossil fuels.

     Notice some tense shifting between past and present verbs. Ideals are eternal. Our resolve was adamant, initially.

     Keep in mind this wasn’t a craft fair. It was not about knick knacks, baubles and porcelain statuettes of painted ladies in hoopskirts holding parasols. This show was all about house and home, living quarters, daily comforts, daily needs. I would have called it the Mostly Essentials Trade Fair.

     We barely made it in the door to the first booth before I said, “Oh, honey, look at that. We need that. We’ve needed that for years.”

     “True. True. Let’s move on. We can always come back.”

     Twenty steps later Susan said, “Now, that I like. That makes a lot of sense. Honey, this would be a wise investment.”

     “Wow. Look over there. I’ve never seen anything like it. Follow me. It’s a new invention. We have to have it. It will save us money.”

     “Oh, isn’t that beautiful? Come here. That would really finish off the dining room.”

     “Hon, can you see that in our back yard? I can.” I said and went bounding off to the big back wall display. Susan turned right and disappeared down aisle two, where I heard her say, “Oooh. Oooh.” Then she walked quickstep back to find me, fluttering her hands, grinning, beckoning me to follow her. “You’ve got to see this. You won’t believe it. They’re using our exact kitchen as the ‘before’ picture.”

     “Um. Nice. That’s the look. We need that in time for Cinco de Mayo. Geez, oh, man, look down there. See at the end? It’s the thing, the thing above all things.”

     And so it went through the afternoon, from booth to booth. We fluttered about like honeybees in a flower garden, soaking up brochures and signing on for free home estimates. We became hypnotized with the practicality of the ambiance.

     I’ve had a string of estimators and sales people at my house throughout the week. All told we may be into this home improvement hysteria for about ten grand. Where does it come from? I guess it will fly out with the monkeys.

     Here’s what we bought. A company named LeafGuard makes an ingenious never-clog gutter. It has a solid aluminum cover over the gutter pan. This cover is curved at the outer edge and tucks underneath. Water follows the curve under, while the leaves fall harmlessly to the ground. I have a towering maple tree in my front yard that goes bald every year. “I’ll take one.”

     We hired Natural Light Inc to install another solar tube. We have two already. I bought one for this dark den. The new tube has an electric light and opaque plates inside. I can light up the night, or lower the plates and block the sun in the day. That’s perfect if my den becomes a bedroom again someday. I also bought two solar roof fans for cooling my attic air in the hot summer. Pay once and I’m done. They whir silently all day every day. I’m disconnecting my 30-year old, rumbling, rattling, electric bill-killer fans.

     Granite Transformations makes solid-slab granite counters that adhere to existing counter tops. No need to tear anything out. They just drop new tops over old tile. Slip, slap, slam, and you’re done. Theirs was the demo that had our white tile countertops in their ‘before’ display.

     In fact, the estimator for the counters called me while I was typing that last paragraph. What are the odds of that? She was parked in front of my house. I peeked out my den window and waved at her. She came in and she just left. Susan and I went ooh and aah over our color choices. We decided to go with a granite sink as well. What the heck, eh? As long as we’re in it up to our necks, might as well get our hair wet.

     You see, ten years ago I tiled our kitchen. It was my first tile job. It shows. It looks OK, but barely. The grout is too high, too wide and gets dirty. My contractor friends laugh at me when they see it. Laymen visitors don’t notice – or if they do, they are being polite. At last I’ll be able to cover over my daily embarrassment. There will be peace in the valley.

     I’m seriously looking at that artificial grass.

For Sunday, February 24, 2008                                  Drummer Column, Gibbs, 824 words

 

Put technology into your education

     It’s that time of year again, parents and students. It’s time for high schoolers to choose their classes for next year. The forms are out, the course descriptions are published, the presentations are being made, kids are running around campus gathering teacher signatures for electives.

     It’s time for me to speak on technology in education, by bailiwick.

     Note an odd paradox riddled with reasons and open for self determination. We have international technology standards, goals, and expectations (ISTE.org) that set detailed and specific guidelines for administrators, teachers, and students. We have national technology standards put forth by Washington, the department of education, and No Child Left Behind. We have state technology guidelines, and we have our own local district guidelines detailed in a ever-evolving 5-year plan.

     However, and this is the crux of the climb, when we get right down to the school site and the classroom, all involvement in curriculum-based technology is voluntary. There are no mandatory tech-centric classes. It is possible for a student to weave his or her way through four years of high school without every sitting in front of a computer.

     It is not mandatory that any specific teacher integrate technology into his or her classroom activities. Tech integration is all voluntary. A teacher can go an entire career here without ever doing a tech-centric lesson plan with students.

     There’s the rub. It’s up to you, boys and girls, moms and dads, to show a desire for better understanding of the academic applications of computers and software.

     What we do have is a plethora of tech-centric electives and a whole new paradigm for how they inter-relate. We are moving in a new direction with careers and technology. With guidance from the state, we have overhauled and rechristened our traditional vocational education program. It is now called Career Technical Education. Our electives are being daisy-chained to create pathways to careers. Interested in business, medicine, construction, art, broadcasting? Students can now participate in multi-year preparatory classes to better prepare them for college and their preferred field of study.

     We have nine (9) computer labs and a mobile lab at Benicia High. We offer yearbook, journalism, graphic design, biotechnology, architectural design, animation, photography, film making, keyboarding, virtual enterprise, web design, and a new and important elective for freshmen – Computer Applications for College.

     It is possible for a student to become a computer whiz kid at BHS. It simply requires personal initiative. It requires self-determination. And it requires an early start.

     Here is where I pitch the first class – a mostly freshman elective – Computer Applications for College. This course, though voluntary, is an essential gateway to proceeding to all the other tech-centric electives at BHS.

     In this class students will be introduced to operating system and network navigation, file and folder management, and the whole bouquet of top-flight software titles we have to offer. Students will explore to the advanced-feature level all of Microsoft Office and all of the Adobe Suite of programs. We’re talking Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, Word, MovieMaker, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, and so on.

     With the lessons of this class ingrained into a student’s skill set, they will glide easily into the more advanced classes that specialize in specific applications.

     For example, I teach a challenging and popular elective called Art Production, aka photography and film making. We go deep into these areas. The students who are best equipped to hit the ground running are those who feel comfortable with the basics - how to map themselves around our network to access resources, printers, and scanners; how to save, move, and submit digital work; how to structure folders to build multi-year portfolios of accomplishments, and so on.

     Students who come into my digital photography class as upper classmen without any focused technical experience have a tough go at it. They mis-name files. They lose files. They save in incorrect formats. They submit the wrong files for grading. Presentations crash and crumble because their multimedia resources are in disarray. It also slows the whole course down in the beginning as we address these issues. September through November are fraught with technical difficulties that could be remedied by taking the preferred prerequisite freshman introductory course. These same issues plague the other advanced technology classes.

     As a closing statement, I implore parents and students to plan ahead. If you want computers and technology to play a major role in your high school education, take the initiative to utilize our voluntary tech-centric electives and start early.

     I know many students feel like they are already experts because they spend so much time on their computers at home. Some feel an intro course would be beneath them. Ho. Ho. Ho. I know better from field experience. I see it every day. I know what teens do mostly on computers – they play games, listen to music, watch video, and communicate with friends. That’s important. Now, come play with Word. Come play with Excel. Come play in the major leagues.

For Sunday, February 17, 2008                                  Drummer Column, Gibbs, 800 words

Reno Nein Won Won

 

     My wife took me to Reno for three days to celebrate my 54^th birthday and nothing exceptional happened. You’re still going to hear about it because that’s what I’ve got.

     We had fun, but it was depressing, too. Reno, if you leave the Virginia Street Strip, is a ghost town. Somebody call 911. A lot of old casinos have shut their doors, mostly because the California Indian Gaming industry and the price of gas have put the city off its reservations.

     The Riverboat is an empty shell. The Comstock and the Sundowner are being converted to condos. I guess that’s the only way the owners will ever be able to sell the buildings. Imagine the expense and limited success of knocking down walls to turn two or three hotel rooms into a condo on a street lined with abandoned buildings. Who will buy and at what price? 

     The Sands is still holding on, but its hourglass is running. We walked the side streets for a couple hours reminiscing of the heydays when we were young and used to sleep in the car to save money so we could play blackjack and count cards all night. Blackjack ain’t what it used to be. Now it’s four decks, or 6 to 5 win on a blackjack. Why bother. We played Pai Gow for 15 hours.

     I needed to make a movie. I teach movie making at BHS and I needed some refresher practice because all the software has changed. So, I decided to film our trip. I haven’t transferred it from the camera yet, but I can assure you it will be real bad. We didn’t try hard. We just turned the camera on and talked into it, impromptu. There’s no script, no plot, no real beginning or end. We didn’t film anything until the second day, and the battery died in the middle of filming on the last day. That will be OK for my needs. I just need to practice cutting, splicing, dicing, and rendering. It may never see the light of day. However, if it is salvageable and not too embarrassing, I’ll post it on Youtube and let you know.

     I post a lot of stuff on Youtube, as do my students. It’s a great way to share. If you search for any of these keyword combos you’ll find all our films. “Steve Gibbs Benicia” or “Benicia Art Production” or “Steve Gibbs Ridgway”.

     We saw some bad live entertainment. We paid to see the musical Forbidden Broadway at the El Dorado, where we stayed for $57 a night. I didn’t care much for the parts I didn’t sleep through. It was four singers and a piano player. They’d come out, parody a Broadway play with a corny song and corny costumes, run off, change costumes and do it again. To bring me pleasure I imagined myself laying bricks.

     The over-priced Sienna and the area around the Truckee River are nice. Some non-gaming nightclubs have opened. We spent one afternoon at the movies. Saw Michael Clayton. Zowie. Great film. When the hired assassins killed off Tom Wilkinson’s character, it was so smooth and professional, it made me think that that sort of thing probably goes on in real life a lot more than people imagine.

     When we came out I noticed a butter stain on my good shirt, so we stopped in a nearby pub, the Sierra Tap House, to use their bathroom and soap dispenser. To be polite we had a cocktail. They served absinthe, so we gave it a try. $11 per. Pretty jazzy stuff this green fairy. In the back room they were setting up for a home-brew competition between 23 local competitors. Price to taste them all: $5. The winner in my book was a hefeweizen.

     We left 6 hours later. Stopped in the Nugget for an after-midnight Awful Awful burger and fries. Thank God that little niche has survived. We ate there twice.

     We never made it down to the Peppermill Atlantis area. Drove by but didn’t stop. It’s still thriving. Dealers say that’s where the locals go. Peppermill is generous with its comps.

     We spent the last day in lovely Yerington. That’s where I have my little 34-garage mini-storage business. When I bought it in 2004, there were four storage businesses in town. Now there are seven. A jumbo 240-unit storage facility just opened right across the street from me. Scoundrels. They charge $65 for a 10x20-foot garage. We drove up so I could hang my new gigantic road sign that says very simply: “$45 mo.” in big red letters.

     I’m still mostly sold out. Have 2 vacancies currently. Used the opportunity to have the doors serviced. Tumbleweeds are still regular tenants. I tossed them over the fence into the open desert. Filmed it.

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