Back in the QC

Right after the conference ended I drove to the airport and hopped a plane to Denver then on to Moline. For once I was able to get into the Quad Cities on Friday night instead of Saturday morning. When I was in Denver I went up to the gate desk and asked how packed the plane to Moline was. I was worried because the day before they cancelled about 91 flights because of a snow storm and I was afraid that they would be over booked. The gate attendant told me that the plane was full and there were two people ahead of me but she said she would call them and then see what she could do for me. She called and the two people did not come immediately up to the desk so she called me up and gave me a ticket to first class. When I was boarding there was a pilot and a woman with a small child in her arms. He was asking that the woman and child get on with only one seat. The desk attendant asked him if he wanted to get on this flight also. He said, "Yeah, I'm the pilot! I'm flying this plane. This is my wife and daughter." I heard his name and the wife and child were the people that the desk attendant had called when I was waiting to see if I could get on. The good news is that they got on the plane but until I saw them board I was afraid that I was going to get pulled off the plane.

The reason I went back this weekend is that June had just had her knee replacement. She was released from the hospital on Saturday. I had rented a car so Cely and I were able to take her home. She still has a way to go but is getting better. It was really hard for her to get into the car because her knee was still very tender. She will be starting physical therapy this week. Cely will be helping her out around the house for the next couple of weeks. On Saturday we were able to get some groceries but she won't have a car when I am gone.

Now I start the adventure of standby flying. The flights look like each one has open seats so I am hopeful that I will get back to Corvallis with no big drama. I have the Miata waiting for me at the airport so it should be a fun ride home. I just checked the weather, though, and it looks like rain. Go figure. It looks like the weather was good yesterday. CNN was showing highlights from the football game yesterday. The Beavers beat number 3 rated USC so they made big news! Go Beavs!

Menucha

Today and Friday I will be at an Oregon/Washington ACRL joint conference at the Menucha retreat center in Corbett, OR on a bluff above the Columbia River. So far the site is beautiful. I will be adding pictures later. I need to remember to bring along the camera connector. At least I remembered to bring the camera.

Menucha is a Hebrew word meaning rest. The site once belonged to the owner of the Meier and Frank department stores in Oregon. He was the second Jewish governor of Oregon. Now it is owned by a Portland Presbyterian church. Funny how things go around.

Access 2006, Ottawa Ontario Canada

Early this morning, 1:30 am I got home from Ottawa. It was a meeting sponsored by the Canadian Library Association Emerging Technologies section so it was heavy on the technology. It was very exciting to see some really innovative new library applications. These people are really brilliant. I decided to blog it on another blog where I will be writing about library issues. If you want to read about the conference go to http://blogs.library.oregonstate.edu/jpollitz.

I had never been to Ottawa before and found it to be a great city. It is the national capital of Canada and our conference was in a hotel close to Parliment.









This is the Rideau Canal which runs through Ottawa. It was designed to allow freight transport away from the threatening armies of the United States.







On Friday morning I skipped out on a couple of presentations to take advantage of the momentary good weather to sightsee. One of the more interesting things was the Parliment complex. The architecture had a distinct European flavor you don't see much in the US. Parliment is located on a hill overlooking the Rideau River and the provincial boundary between Ontario and Quebec. As I was walking around the buildings I came across this little complex of what looked to be doll houses. As I approached them for a closer look I saw that they were small houses designed for stray cats that inhabit the grounds. There is a "catman of the hill" who takes care of the cats. Now the government gives a small amount to keep the cats healthy and visitors donate money and food for the cats. People also come by and feed the cats.

Friday night we went out to dinner with a group of people from around the US and Canada to a nearby restaurant called the Blackthorne. The food was great and the restaurant was not flustered by our request for separate checks. The two guys in the front are from Vancouver BC and had attended the Code4Lib conference in Corvallis last year. Going down the left are Jane, Jeremy and Anne-Marie from OSU. Then way in the back, at the head of the table, is Dan Chudnov, from Yale, who has been helping Jeremy and Terry on LibraryFind. Next to him is Terry then Roy Tennant from the California Digital Library.

Ottawa and Access 2006

It is interesting to be in Canada and experience the little/big differences with the US. Last night I smelled reefer on the corner of the street. This morning read a newspaper article about how the Canadian government had stopped funding research for the government run medical marijuana growing project in Manitoba. People were complaining that without the research, government marijuana would remain hard to light and not very potent. The smaller difference has to do with about (we all know about that) but also project which is pronounced with a long o. I have been hearing it a lot.

Ottawa

Yesterday I flew to Ottawa for the Access 2006 conference for Canadian librarians. It has been attracting some US librarians also and has a reputation of being a great conference around technological themes.

Ottawa looks pretty cool but I don't know how much of it I will get to see. The weather is cool and rainy. I guess I will be getting a touch of Oregon winter early here.

Hero Street USA

Hero Street in Silvis, IL got its name from the 8 Mexican-American young men who lost their lives in WWII and the Korean War. Someone figured out that this was more lost soldiers per capita for any street in the country. Through the years this small Mexican-American community has sent over 100 sons and daughters to the military. Cely grew up here and two of her three brothers went into the Army. The dead-end street, not even a ¼ mile long wasn’t even paved until the early 1970’s. Around that time the city of Silvis built a park to commemorate the eight soldiers from Hero Street with a commemorative grotto, basketball court, cement slides down the hilly slope, playground and picnic benches. Yesterday they had a rededication of the park commemorating the recent, much needed renovation of the park’s facilities. I walked down the street from my Mother-in-law’s house to hear the speeches and see who showed up. There were the usual American Legion contingents, the parents of people in the military, the Vietnam Vets and neighbors from the street. They also had a contingent of the Patriot Guard Riders. Recently this group has been formed to provide a barrier at the funerals of people killed in Iraq between the mourning families and protesters from the Christian religious group from Kansas who have chosen that venue to spew their anti-gay venom. The rededication was particularly relevant to me since some of the political races in Oregon have taken on a mean spirited, anti-immigrant tone recently. The families on Hero Street came from Mexico looking for work on the Rock Island Lines as a way to make a better life for their children. You can still see a couple of houses that began as boxcars and were moved from the nearby train yards. The commitment that these families on Hero Street made to this country is a great example of how immigration works here. It was a great way to spend a fall Saturday morning in the Quad Cities. The neighborhood is still predominantly Mexican-American but has become much more heterogeneous with a smattering of Anglo and African-American families. You could see it in the faces of the people in the crowd listening to the speeches Saturday.

Back to the QC

Its 10:20 pm. and Cely and I are in the Portland airport waiting to see if we can get on the 11:15 flight out to Chicago where we will have to wait for two hours and then hope we can catch a flight to Moline. If all works out we will get into the Quad Cities at 8:30 tomorrow morning. The flights seem to have some open seats so I am confident. Usually they are over booked and the wait can be nerve wracking. The elation of getting on the flight almost makes it all worthwhile. Well, I guess flying for free makes it all worthwhile.

The Portland airport is really a great airport. Everyone should go through it at least once. That means that they would be visiting us. The free wifi is terrific. I just spent 45 minutes playing the LA Times crossword. And now I can write on this blog. We are getting close to loading time so its time to close up the computer. More from the Moline airport which also has free wireless access. O'Hare is a bummer because they have wireless but you have to pay 10 bucks to use it.