Mr. and Mrs.......

We are now Mr. and Mrs. And what a special day it was! The wedding service, mostly planned and arranged by Julie, was remarkably lovely. Ring bearer and Best Man, Jack, did a great job, I did not faint and Julie at the altar alternated between choking back a tear and a chuckle. Jack, Julie and I kept glancing at each other and grinning like cheshire cats. The woodwind trio was truly exquisite both during the service and at the reception. A wide circle of family and friends gathered to show their support. It just could not have been any better. I am blessed.

WebCam

The Perfect Christmas.....

If not the perfect Christmas, it was the very best one I've had in decades! Early morning present opening with a 10 year old and his grandparents, Christmas dinner with two sets of grandparents, lazy evening with just Julie, Jack and me, and all at our house. No running hither and yon to different activities at seperate locales. Christmas dinner was simple yet elegant and I'm very lucky to be marrying someone who has superior entertaining, culinary and organizational skills.

The gifts to all were not large but very well received and liked. Most went to 10 year old Jack of course. He received several PlayStation2 games [ones I like too......] some football equipment, clothes, and my surprise gift to him [and his dead eye Mom], a genuine Daisy Red Ryder BB gun**. I received some needed articles of clothing, a great DVD biography of Ansel Adams and becaused I whinned that I wasn't receiving any "toys" in the wedding gifts, the beautiful Julie surprised me with a WebCam, something I probably wouldn't have ever bought for myself. As of now it's installed on her powerful newer computer that will not be hooked up to the Web for another week or so. But when it is; watch out. We plan on live shots from the estate and even live interactive broadcasts.

It was a beautiful Christmas. So nice to have a beautiful bride to be and a great step son to be here with me!

**Warning: You may shoot your eye out.

Seven days and counting......

Not long now till I'll be a happily married man! Seven days and a wake up as we termed it in the army. We are making good progress about tending to all the neccesities including, the marriage license. I'm glad that Julie remembered it, it's rather important and in all the hubbub it was a thought very far back in my mind. If we had not gotten it today or tomorrow, our marriage would be in legal trouble. After tomorrow the good employees of the courthouse are not working for the rest of the week and in Texas the paper work has to be completed 72 hours in advance of the nuptuals which are Tuesday next.

But comply with the law we did. A rather good natured experience really.....once we got beyond courthouse security. The first thing that I noticed on the list of "services" in the county clerks office was that I could get a cattle brand registered while I was there, and also purchase an assumed name [I seriously thought about that]. I think that I'm getting a great deal though. A cattle brand costs $16 to register......to get a wife is only $27 more. And to have someone as sweet, beautiful and loving as the bride-to-be is definetly worth the money.

We filled out the forms, pledged that we were not married to any others, were not divorced in the last 30 days and were of legal age and we were done. An interesting thing in Midland County is that most services such as cattle brands, assumed names and the like can be purchased with a check, whereas marriage is a "cash and carry" commodity. When the county clerk presented me with a receipt for my $42 cash marriage purchase I asked her if I needed to save the receipt in case I wanted a refund. Without looking up, she said....No Refunds. Of course I was joking......no refund will be needed. Julie is as good as it gets, end of story!

PS: for our $42 cash purchase we got a really great looking certificate with a genuine embossed gold seal! Marriage is thought highly of in Midland County.

The Wright Stuff.....

It was exactly 100 years ago today that the world changed dramatically courtesy of the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville. For most of us over the years, the brothers seemed like two bicycle mechanics who got lucky with their amateur tinkering. As I've learned over the last several years, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Wrights were serious amateur scientists who were voracious readers. Not only did they "invent" the first succesful aircraft, in fact they invented the science of aeronautical engineering. They constructed the first workable wind tunnel that measured lift and drag which led to throwing out all previous work on wing design. Finding that translating naval propellers into useable aircraft propellers did not work, they designed the first aviation airscrew with the dimensions mimicking the wing shape.

It is stunning to consider the progression of aviation after 1903. Just 12 short years after the "first flight", aircraft had progressed to the point of usefulness in the military. 24 years after Kitty Hawk, Charles Lindbergh flew non-stop across the Atlantic. By 30 years hence, commercial aviation was in full bloom and just 36 years after man first left the ground, Hitler overran all of Europe with a massive airforce. All except England, which was saved by aircraft. 44 years into manned flight and Chuck Yeager flew faster than the speed sound and 66 years after, man landed on the moon. My Grandmother was 5 years old in 1903 and remembered the event......her grandson, my brother, helped design the space shuttle.

Aircraft and aviation has changed the world as much as any one single invention, both for the good and the not so good, but the pace of aerospace development signaled a new way of living, not only in the air but in every facet of our lives.

And I have to think that it was a good thing the Wright's developed their aircraft in the time period they did. It couldn't happen today. Government regulations would prevent such a thing. Think about it.

OSHA would have shut their shop down for safety violations. The EPA would have filed suit to prevent the pollution caused by their homemade engine, and for the destruction of coastal wetlands on the beach at Kitty Hawk. The IRS would have required advanced tax payment on the future earnings from their invention. Leftist PhD's would have filed lawsuits saying that, obviously, two bike mechanics lacking a college education could not have come up with this own their own....it was an idea stolen from some more educated man.

All I can say today is, "Thanks Orville and Wilbur", not only did you prove flight could work, you proved that through reading, study, and hard work anything is possible.

Mucho Dinar-o.....

As reported earlier, good buddy Joe Galloway was recently on a news fact finding trip to points East, the Mid East that is....including Baghdad. I had asked him to bring me a souvenir, such as perhaps an "I Searched for WMD and all I got was this stupid T-shirt", T-shirt. Or maybe a "Lion of Mesopotamia" gimme hat. But Joe did much better than I had hoped for. Knowing me, he sent cold hard cash. The 25 dinar "Bank of Iraq" note pictured above was enclosed with a letter from Joe informing me that this cash donation was both souvenir and wedding present and not to spend it all in one place.

But now my dreams are shattered, my illusions of war looted riches have been squelched today. I read some disturbing financial news on Omar's Iraq the Model. Omar say's, "The exchange price of the Iraqi Dinar improves a little more from 1750 dinar for each U.S. dollar to 1700 Iraqi Dinar for each U.S. dollar". Firing up my $3 [U.S.] calculator I found that at this new exhange rate, my precious 25 dinar note is worth the total magnificent sum of 1.5 cents. I'd be way short even trying to buy a $3 [U.S.] calculator with the note.

But the letter with the Bank of Iraq 25 dinar note arrived the day after Saddam was nabbed, so it does certainly have some historical significance. And I'll be able to follow Joe's advice about not spending it all in one place. No one place will take it.

'A dark era is over'.......

'A dark era is over', when I saw that headline on CNN, I thought that surely they were talking about my experience of the last week. Moving Julie's household out of her old residence and into the new. But no! The good news was that Saddam had been captured at last. There is indeed glorious news today. Saddam behind bars, and I'm through moving.

But as the picture above shows, Saddam's experience and mine were apparently very similar.....making us into haggard disheveled old men, downtrodden by our circumstances, defeated and lacking the will to go on. However while Saddam hopefully will be drowned in a vat of acid, or chopped up in a tree grinder, or maybe burned at the stake, I will recover and be living with a beautiful blonde. Ain't democracy and freedom great!

Reports from the front.....

As recently mentioned, my good friend Joe Galloway made a trip to Iraq to gain some insight into the current state of affairs from the military point of view. Joe has a few stories posted with some interesting comments. Such as.....

"Lt. Col. Chuck Williams of Sterling, Va., the commander of the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Armored Division, and his troopers are still shaking their heads over a recent incident at a Bradley target range they built out in the desert to keep their gunners sharp.

A troop of Bradleys was out firing on the range when over a small hill came trotting 20 lightly-armed guerrillas who inexplicably had decided to attack the American armored vehicles with their 25mm chain guns and machine guns. The gunners simply switched targets and blew away the guerillas in the blink of an eye".

Read more at: The many faces of war

While in Qatar, Joe had a chance to sit down with the CENTCOM Commander, Gen. John Abizaid. Read Joes interview at: U.S. general reaching out to Sunni minority

A long time ago......

We are getting married in less than three weeks. In a word I'm busier than a no arm paper hanger. The preceeding is a euphemism and not intended to demean no armed paperhangers.

While we're working our tails off moving, cleaning, planning and going half crazy, sit back, relax and enjoy another image from 40 years ago. This is another view of Mesa Verde, Colorado taken in 1963. I guess the Anasazi had a hard time with moving also....what with carrying furniture up the cliff face on wooden ladders.

Image of Mesa Verde, Colorado

A relationship mirrored........

Shortly before I met Julie, my interest in photography led me to The Mirror Project "a growing community of like-minded individuals who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces". A quirky photo site owned by Heather Champ in San Francisco the Mirror Project has become immensely popular across the globe and it is now approaching 20,000 posted photos. After Julie and I became an "item" she also got interested in this manner of photographic expression and since then both individually and together we have continued to send in photos of our activities taken in all manner of reflective surfaces from train windows to broken mirrors, front doors, art and cooking pot lids. In effect we have chronicled our time together on the Mirror Project.

Apparently Heather noticed this too for today, after posting a picture of Julie and me with mention of the wedding, I received a nice online card personally done by her. Heather works hard to make the Mirror Project a success and fun for all involved. Like all my online friends, I hope we can meet her sometime soon in San Francisco. We'd like to buy her dinner for all her hard work and for the photo entertainment she's brought to us and others around the world.

[all our photos can be seen by using the "search" function on the Mirror Project website: keywords Wallace or Julie].
Take a look at.........

Heather's wedding wishes card

Five Decades of Images....

It has occured to me from time to time while reviewing thousands of photos I have taken and stored in digital format, and while organizing the many more thousands I have in printed form....that I have been shooting photographic images for over five decades now. I intend to do a retrospective on a web gallery soon, but time is lacking at the present.

While going through an album of my early mementoes with Julie the other night, I came across some of my earliest photos. So from time to time I'll share a few of these with you. The first is an image taken with the first camera I remember owning....the time honored Kodak Brownie which shot in 135mm. format producing square prints. This shot was taken on a family vacation, driving from Midland Texas to the Seattle World's Fair in 1963. The shot is of the ancient Anasazi Indian cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde, Colorado. I was 13 y.o. at the time.

Five Decades of Images

New Tile and a second surprise.....

If you remember this story from last Wednesday you will recall that I thought that it was a great coincidence that the guy who came to install our new carpet was a graduate of the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program that I used to help run. Today we had our new tile installed in the hallways and guest bathroom. How much of a coincidence would it be to have the tile installer also be a graduate of the very same program?

A great coincidence, but it happened. Actually more than coincidence, for I believe that these things happen for a reason. Our chore is to try and figure out that reason. Am I being rewarded for a job well done years ago? Did these guys need help in their business or personal life and were brought to me for some sage advice or as a reminder of what their past was like? Do I need some reminder of what my past was like? I don't know, but as we say, more will be revealed later, I just hope that I'm smart enought to see it.

Randy, the tile installer, is doing quite well, owning his own remodeling business, with a family, a large house and has been clean and sober for almost nine years. He also had three young employees with him for our job, and he made the point of telling me that they are all drug and alcohol free also. Tattooed and piereced, but drug free. Maybe that's my reward. Seeing young men working for someone who will mentor them and help them avoid the pitfall of bad choices that we made. Or maybe I just needed to be reminded not to be to critical of the younger generation tattoo's and all. For I have to admit, the two 20 something young men who worked on our floors were two of the hardest working individuals I've seen in quite some time. They started at 11 A.M. and worked constantly until 10 P.M. taking only about 10 minutes to eat the lunch we went and got for them. One of them made the remark that he didn't want to quit until the job was done right.......and I believe him.

Me healthy? I can't remember...

Although a glass of wine or a mixed drink may be good for your cardiovascular system, a new study suggests that by the time moderate drinkers reach middle age, they may not remember if they are healthy or not.

The American Heart Association's long term study on low to moderate level imbibers showed an increase in brain atrophy in that group by the time they reached middle age. Atrophy as in brain shrinkage and loss of the use of portions of your noggin. Thank God I gave up drinking 10 years ago, although by the time I did certainly my brain had atrophied into negative territory. At least now though, I can smile whenever I see a moderate drinker friend give me that condescending little smirk when they say, "oh a glass of wine is good for me".

New carpet and a pleasant surprise...

The very effiecient Jon at Lowes had us scheduled for our carpet installation today at 9 o'clock this morning. I was disappointed as they arrived at 9:09. Actually I was pleasantly surprised. I've had scheduled appointments with tradesmen who showed up 4 or 5 hours late, without calling, as if the customer had nothing else to do but sit at home for half a day.....I won't mention names but does a cable company with Cox in their name ring a bell?

The pleasant surprise was not that the installation guys were on time but that the face at the door was a familiar one. It was one of those TV sitcom kind of recognitions, not instantaneous, but the kind that take several seconds and then the light bulb appears over your head. And without thinking I actually uttered a sitcom line, "hey I know you". John [named changed] said, "yes you surely do".

I knew John almost 8 years ago when, for a three year period, I was a drug and alcohol counselor working mainly with convicted felons. The people in our program had felony convictions involving drugs and/or alcohol and our program was their last chance to try and straighten out their lives through sobriety before they were carted off to the "bighouse" down at Huntsville. If they completed our 6 month program, they would be put on parole without being further incarcerated. Our program was a half-way house arrangement after these folks had already completed a lockup style 6 months of intensive drug treatment and "re-education" called SAFP, short for Substance Abuse Felonly Punishment.

John was one of the many who made it. I had not seen him since he graduated from our program, but I add him to my list of those I have seen over the years who are doing well. Instead of becoming a statistic of continuing criminal activity, John turned his life around and now owns his own flooring business with five employees. And...they did a great job and were in and out of the house within a half an hour.

Having "been there and done that" with substance abuse, SAFP was an initiative of Governor Ann Richards. It works, I'm proud to have had a part in it, and my Christmas season will be a little brighter knowing that one more person is doing well and won't be spending the holiday season in a cell.

The Retail trade.....

If at all possible I like to support our local small businesses who are in competition with the megastores that proliferate in the retail landscape today. I think that, especially in a smaller city such as ours, it is hard for the locally owned stores to compete against the Wal-Marts, Home Depots and the Lowes of the world.

We have been planning to redo some of the flooring in the estate in advance of the upcoming nuptials, so when I saw an ad last week from a local flooring company saying that, "The holiday season is the best time to get the best prices and quickest service for all your flooring needs".....I thought, that suits our plans just fine! So off to the local merchant I went and saw some samples that would work in our home. I told the salesman that I'd fetch the bride-to-be back and we'd make a decision. This was on Tuesday. We are working with a very quick timeframe but with Thanksgiving the earliest we could return to the store was Friday, which we did. Only to find a sign that read, "Closed for the holidays, back on Monday"! Back on Monday? Don't they know that "Black Friday" following Thanksgiving is the biggest carpet and tile purchasing day of the year.

So, off to Lowe's, the megastore competition, we went where we found a very suitable carpet for 1/3rd the price of the local store [with free pad], a tile that we liked, and Jon, a salesman who worked his tail off for us. Upon hearing of our time dilemma, he suggested the carpet that we ended up buying as it was in stock and could be installed quickly. This was on Friday, and today the carpet and tile installers have already been out to measure for the job. As I was waiting for the tile man to arrive, the phone rang. It was Jon checking with me to make sure his tradesmen had been there. Now that's service!

The point of this short story is that, at least to me, service is still king, whether you are a local company or the national megastore. When you're competing for business, closing your store for five days just doesn't cut it. Quite honestly, I'm not much of a shopper arounder, and if the local store had been open on Friday, I would have probably bought their carpet and tile if they had treated me like Jon did. I wish the local merchants would learn this lesson, either that or stop complaining about the national chains. This lack of consumer awareness is a bad habit in this town.

For my large format digital image printing I have been using a big firm in Dallas to which I FTP my images. I have been trying to use a local imaging firm here for several years. I have suggested that they set up an FTP portal on their server. Not a hard thing to do, but it has not been done yet. And last year in December I finally loaded some smaller images on disks to give them a chance to print these. When I arrived at the store the sign read....."Closed two weeks for Christmas". Two stinkin' weeks? I haven't been back since.

Dispatches from Iraq update: war news must be slow in Qatar where Galloway is today. The only communique I received from Joe were two jokes, which cannot be reprinted here. More later.....