The 2005 trip from Florida to British Columbia (motivated by the family photo of Dave & Deb on the bike with Amy, Hanna, and Ella in the sidecar) was pretty good, but the traveling frame of mind was compromised by the desire to finish the Rambo genealogy book. My ice cream page is getting a few impressively delicious additions including Sandy's "gigantic, titanic banana split" in Columbia, SC. I was delighted to visit the home of Blue Bell ice cream in Brenham, Texas, although we missed the tour. Eureka!! I've "finished" the first volume of the Rambo Family Tree genealogy (although it is not yet delivered to the publisher) and Adobe will set me free. The Bankston book is nearly finished and I've decided to buy time by publishing a read-only Adobe Acrobat file of the complete book soon. As with every single step, creating the index took much, much longer than anticipated despite using XYWrite and vi programming scripts. I should be adding a web page describing the "on-demand" publishing process soon.

Since leaving Texas, I've return to my diet and resumed clearing my self-diagnosed clogged arteries. I'm feeling "lighter" and more energetic in general. My diet/ lifestyle (no meat fat, no milk fat, no sugar, and no white flour) isn't too obnoxious for me. Once every month or two I fall off the wagon for an ice cream or two. Dale says that lecithin is "Roto Rooter" for the arteries, and Roy reduced his cholesterol with 500mg of niacin daily, so I'm taking those plus garlic, fish oil, and a medicinal glass of red wine (read that "cheap red wine"). I'm eating blueberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and peas often. Following advice from Hugh (a retired cardiologist), I had another cholesterol test which showed HDL of 65; LDL of 92; triglycerides of 47; and total cholesterol of 166 ... i.e. terrific.

I didn't get a job in Santa Fe despite an "insider" recommendation, 1300 pages of J2EE, and Ed Mooney's evaluation that I can "talk the talk". However, I am closer to applying to Google, so here is the link to my short resume. While I was waiting to hear about the job in Santa Fe this summer, I began to wonder what was in this for me. I.e. Why did I want to sacrifice my idealic lifestyle to return to work? Ignore the facts that I enjoy programming in Java (or C) and that J2EE seems way too cool. The answer was Google Earth on a 60 inch flat screen monitor. My motorcycle won't carry it comfortably.

Glucosamine Sulfate with MSM is still my "drug" of choice to ward off joint problems. I've experimented with hyaluronic acid per Judy's recommendation and am pleased with the results. Silly me, I gave away both bottles and am now out. My shoulder pain has been minimal recently. The Cleveland Clinic examined me for a detached retina and found no signs of that. My weight did drop to the target 175 pounds, but rebounded once I started "sampling" ice creams in Canada. (Like tiger flavor - a licorice.)

Does anyone remember who said something like, "A happy man is not someone in a pleasant circumstance, but rather someone who enjoys a cheerful philosophy?" No answers yet. Please write, call or send money. My particular spin on that is that I always smile unless I have a compelling reason to be unhappy. Another phrasing is that every morning you can decide whether to start the day in a good mood or not.

It seems to me that the road to happiness is the discovery and pursuit of your individual passions. Just the other day I finally put it all together and realized that the advice to "know yourself" is better phrased as "discover your passions and pursue them." Another puzzle is that as we age "our selves" change.

My inconsideration diatribe is a pithy analysis of one of the major problems in modern society.

One of my genealogical "finds" years ago was a letter from a great-great-great Uncle to his nieces. In it he lamented that his "dear sainted mother" was gone and that they would never again in this life hear her beloved voice. My mother died on July 3, 2001. Now I understand his sentiments. Time may be helping, but I still miss her greatly and often. I've found that letter recently and will transcribe it here soon. I'm no longer sure that "time is helping" because some of my attitudes and enthusiasms towards other people seem to be permanently scarred.

Dated material from 15 Jan 2006:

Yesterday's mile run around the lake took 13 minutes despite pushing for speed. Cynthia took me to Brenham but we were too late for the Blue Bell factory tour. Today's plan is to run two miles before the rain starts.

My diet is in the trash since the local grocery has 20 flavors of Blue Bell ice cream on sale this week.

I've enjoyed visiting Cynthia this week. Stan is also a gem. The weather has become horrid with freezing rain last night. Good luck to everyone dealing with this cold weather.

I'm excited about seeing cousins Pat & Dorothy en detour to return to Eve's Garden to get to know Clyde and Kate better (and to learn to build with papercrete). The plan was then to continue to Arizona to see cousins Kay, Jim, Mary, Kenneth & Jewell, and to flirt with Julia again. After all that I intended to meander around the south looking for an opportunity to ride up to Salt Lake City to visit with Roy or out to Illinois to stay with my sister Carol while building a HO train loft in nephew Eric's oversized garage.

I always stick to a plan, so do indeed plan to see all these people, but I don't stick to schedules at all, so the plan stays the same and the dates change ... speaking of which it is time to post a plan on the website to see whether the future will unfold as planned this time (HA).

The 2004 summer travelogue runs to 22 pages, and a short version is now available. I need to add more to the travelogue about the trip to Hawaii that Mom and I made before her heart attack. It has been emotionally difficult to write that one, but I'm making progress. Several other good travelogues are still languishing. Hopefully I'll soon be expanding the other drafts and outlines of travelogues - and I cannot forget the 2001 motorcycling trip with those same 9 guys concerning the dangers of Cuervo Gold.

The Burton Third website is up, but has been neglected ever since. If you can offer any memories, I'd love to hear from you. The official BTB website is still useless for outsiders.

It continues to be a mild disappointment that my HO train layout is packed up instead of running, but I have big hopes that my nephew Eric will continue to have room to build a permanent train loft in his new, huge shed. I've come to realize the need to include several more words for Google to index: BTB; Zelmo (a basketball nickname from my days at MIT where I majored in hoops); Ronald S. Beatty (ten cents to anyone who knows what the S. stands for); 1973 BMW R75/5, my trusty motorcycle with 112,000 miles to date - finally realizing its heritage; model railroading; and my genealogy families of Argo, Briney, Camblin, Mechem, Overturff, Rambo, and Venus - plus a dozen more common names including the new Schenck/Hegeman website I promised cousin Jean.

Conch Computer Systems is defunct with Bill's death, but I have faith that Mary will find our business mission statement hilarious. Florida Keys scenery is outstanding and the Conch site links to lots of pretty pictures.