Aliba
Mood:  happy
Topic: General
Spent the weekend in Aliba(sp) it is a seaside resort about 5 hours from Mumbai. 3 Datamatics engineers went with me. On the way up I saw monkeys by the roadside in a couple of places. The roads and driving are something else. The driver took things as a matter of course, but you have to watch for stray dogs and cattle wandering onto the road. Once we passed a motorcycle rickshaw and a motorcyclist came at us head on. the motorcycle went to the shoulder to avoid a collision. The bigger vehicle rules here. At times it is like a video game as you weave to avoid cows, dogs, motorcycles and people.

In the smaller towns the roads are narrower. I joked that we needed some butter on the sides of the SUV to squeeze thru a very narrow street. Oh and horns here are a way to communicate, not to express anger as they are used many times in the US. So a quick toot is a way for the driver to let another vehicle know that 'hey I am overtaking you on your blindside, don't change lanes.' Or get out of the fast lane, I am overtaking you. This weekends driver was very liberal with the horn. I'll bet we did not drive 10 minutes without the horn sounding at least once. So much for a quiet country drive.

On the way I also saw my first water buffalo and miles and miles of rice patties. Also saw a few poor people with grass huts. The majority of the population seem to have regular housing, but the poor are very lacking. Once at the resort we ate and watched some of the people dance. They played Indian music and also music with a disco beat. It was a family resort so there were not many singles for the Datamatics engineers to dance with. They stayed up until about 1:30am - I told them that I was old and tired, I went to bed shortly after 10, I am not a party animal any more.

At the resort, I noticed a higher percentage of Indians in western dress. I sat on my balcony and watched the people pass by. A boy got to ride on an Indian horse(about the size of a pony in the US), children with ice cream, a young couple collecting their bags to depart.

The next day started with a massage - 22 herbs according the massagist. They start at the belly button and work their way out. Then we went to the ocean. We played some beach volleyball, then went for a swim. I have now swam in the Atlantic, Pacific, and now Indian oceans. We ate before heading to the fort. I tried the mutton, and found it tasty. I remarked to the engineers that my grandmother would sometimes make leg of lamb. They told me that sheep are not very common in India and that mutton is actually goat. It was my first time eating goat - and it actually was not that bad.

The fort was about a quarter mile or so offshore. The town at the shore was a muslim town. I saw burkas, but also western dress - blue jeans. We sailed out on a 30 foot ship. they pushed us off with bamboo poles. Then when we got out far enough to catch the breeze they unfurled a triangular sail. The fort was made in 22 years in the 1500's, it had survived the Mongul invasion without being taken over. There were huge cannons on display. The bigger ones were a series of rings soldered together with lead. The biggest was big enough that a small man could crawl inside. There were 3 muslim and 1 krishna temple inside. A muslim holyman was buried there as well. There was a huge 60 foot well and in its heyday the well was covered with a dome made of pieces of various colored glass.

On the way home we visited a very nice Krishna temple made of marble. It was on top of a hill. Quite a walk up, but the statues with gold decoration were worth it. Sadly they did not permit photographs. We were hungry on the way back and stopped at a McDonalds. They do not serve beef, but only chicken. The fries were very similiar, the big mac was very different. It was had a sauce and lettuce, and of course was made with chicken, it reminded me of some of the Indian food that I had eaten - still it was rather tasty. Also in Mumbai you can find Domino's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Baskin Robbins, and Ruby Tuesdays.

When I got back to the Hotel I talked to Becky on the phone, then lay back in bed while watching TV - I must have dozed off and slept soundly, I awoke the next morning with the TV still on.

Week one
Mood:  a-ok
India has been a whirlwind. I went to a hindu Wedding reception. Very colorful and the bride looked like a princess. Visited a house that gandhi lived for like 17 years. Saw the gateway to India as well.
Oh and I did visit a Hari Krishna temple! Very nice, made of marble and the center was open to the evening sky. Went to the Indian Ocean, they have a regular nightly carnival at various locations along the beach. Bright lights, cocoanuts, sugar cane juice, rides for toddlers, and even a palm reader. I just took in the ocean and the scenery.

Jet lag has not been too bad. Todd said that I am handling it better than he did over the first week. The hotel will have turkey, virginia ham, and colorado beef for Thursday. So my holiday meal is set.

It is a land of contrasts. At one location I saw a chicken, a dog, and a man digging thru garbage. A block or so later we passed a shiny new 12 story office building. People everywhere, cars, motorcycle ricksaws, the city never sleeps. We saw as many people on Sunday midnight as we did during noon midday.

parrot
Mood:  hungry
Topic: General
Saw a bird out of the corner of my eye while reading the paper this morning. Looked up and it was a parrot. About the same size as a pigeon. Saw another Brahma bull this morning on the way in. On the first day there was a horse that must have broken loose and was trotting along in traffic. No body paid it much mind and it seemed to run along as if it knew where it was going. Todd saw an elephant in the city the other day. Dogs are everywhere, almost all are strays. Saw my first pups this morning. Cats are far fewer, but I have seen a few.

Cricket is very big here. Any where that there is a park, there will be a cricket field. Mumbai is known as the home of great cricket teams and youth will come here and pay coaches to teach them to become become good players. A match can last 8 hours, and a test is 5 matches on consecutive days. What a marathon. There is a big 30-40k seat stadium in Mumbai. Soccer (football) is a poor second on the sports scene here in India. The first night I watched the sports channels I saw a NBA game. But that has been the only one. There was one nascar, and one formula one race, but 90% of the time there is a cricket or soccer showing. I am generally too tired in the evening to watch much TV. But I can generally watch a movie on HBO, Discovery or History channels.

This weekend Datamatics is taking me to Gora. We drive 3-4 hours to get there and then stay overnight. Should be an interesting trip.

changes
Mood:  not sure
Topic: General
Well Chelsea has elected not to play basketball this year, citing differences with the coach. I think that she is just lazy. I told her that in the real world you are going to have bosses that you don't like, so you may as well get used to it. Anyway we told her that she has to get a job to pay for her own car expenses. She has an interview at Wendy's today.

Joe had some bad grades for his midterm report. So his computer time has been severely cut back. He is grounded until the end of quarter when we get his grades. We told him that he has to study every night whether or not he has homework.

Chad is unhappy with his work. They switched his position around and changed his work hours again. He is tired of getting the short end of the stick. He is working on getting his CDL for work, then he may start hunting for another position elsewhere.

Vanessa and Eric are excited about the baby. They are taking extraordinary care. Watching what she eats, drinks, etc. I think she maying be playing up the pregnancy thing a bit much. She is already ordering Eric around - get this for me, get that for me. I can see it when she is 8-9 months along, but not now.

I am going to hijack this blog to track my adventures in India. This was originally intended to track my kids. But I want to document this journey.

Driving home last night I flip over to country music because the talk shows are boring. The first song I hear is a new one in which the theme is, "I wonder what they will think of me when I am gone." Then on the news they are searching for a missing plane. What uplifting things to hear before departing.

Air India didn't inspire confidence when I attempted to sign up for their frequent flyer program. I kept getting unspecified error messages on their website. I called the NY office. I was on hold listening to Indian music for like 15-20 minutes. When they picked up, I was half way thru my sentance when I was transferred. When the next extension picked up I tried to quickly report my problem and click, the connection was closed.

Next I called during second shift to the Chicago office. The resolution was to fill out the form on the webpage. Lady, I've tried that form like 4 times and it won't work for me. So she gave me a number to call, a fax number... I finally discovered the problem by trial and error - it does not like the "ChrisT" part of my home email id. When I use my "Chris.Tilton" work id, it took it just fine. While I am working with software engineers in India maybe I should stop by their HQ and show them how to have their software show meaningful error messages...

Well the excellent adventure will begin in a little over 24 hours. It should be an interesting and enlightening visit. Who knows, maybe I will join the Hare Krishna while I am over there!!!

Pappaw Gone
Topic: General
Chad, Joe, Becky, Tom, and then Jessica & Jimmy were there at the trailer when Pappaw passed away. Jessica just got there for his last few breaths, it was almost like he waited for her to arrive before letting go. He was born on a farm and died on a farm, I'm glad that we were able to do this for him. Although it was a hassle sometimes having him there, it was also good for the kids and him - they got to be closer to their grandfather. Even Joe's friend Cody had a good time visiting and staying over at Pappaw's trailer.

It has been a trying time for the family. It has taken a lot of Becky's attention. At the funeral they asked for anyone who had any last words. Chad and Vanessa got up and had a nice little speech that Chad had written up. Chelsea also stood up and gave a last commemoration of their grandfather. They did a good job of capturing what he meant to them. Joe got to lead the horse drawn carriage to the gravesite. So everyone got to participate. Little Kaitlyn even got up to say a few words.

Glad to see the family come together when the pressure is on. Joe asked why we did so much - I told him that when something needs to be done, the Tiltons stand up and do it. When he asked why, I told him because we always believe in doing the right thing. I don't know if he bought in to it or not, but hopefully it will sink in.

Surprise
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Vanessa
Vanessa and Erica came up to visit the family this weekend. They visited the Deeters first then came down from Covington to visit us. They had a small gift to us from Eric's Mom and Dad. We were puzzled but Becky opened it up. It was a set of babies bibs, we both looked at each other - does this mean what I think it means? Vanessa verified that yes she was expecting and would probably have the baby in June! What a surprise, I had the impression that they were going to wait 2 years. Life changes quickly sometimes. It is an exciting time for us.

Joe got into a fight at school, but did not get into trouble as he was not the aggressor. The other kid started it. He held his own from what I understand. However he did have to attend a Saturday school for goofing off in class. Chad is down in Kentucky attending a rally for vintage cars. Sounds like quite the weekend so far. He got to attend a breakfast banquet sponsored by Auto Zone. Then got to ride in a pleasure boat on Lake Cumberland. His reaction to his sister's news, "Gee, and I'm not even married yet." Chelsea is in conditioning for basketball. So far so good. She should have a good shot at varsity this season. She had her best game in the fall league, scoring 6 points, getting some good rebounds, and making a few steals.I let her and her boyfriend take Joe and Cody out to the cheap theatre to catch a movie, then goto to a haunted trail.

Chels
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea is going thru another mood swing. She didn't want to play basketball. Then she decided to give it another shot after I reminded her about the deal. You have to play sports if you want your transportation take care of. No sports = no car. So for now, she is playing. She seems to be enjoying school so that is a plus.

Joe is maintaining. Seems to get taller everytime I look at him. Saw Vanessa briefly last weekend. Chad doesn't like his transfer to the Dayton hub. They have him on first shift and he doesn't like those hours. Plus his boss is a lot tougher. He misses being at Middletown.

Vanessa's wedding
Mood:  happy
Topic: Vanessa
Vanessa got married on September 10. The day got off to a shaky start when they arrived at the hairdressers for their noon hair appointment. They were a no show. After waiting for 15 minutes Becky made some calls and found someone to take care of them - thank goodness.

The rest of the day went rather well. The ceremony itself went just fine. I didn't step on her toes during the father - daughter dance, so that was a plus. I told the story about how Becky had bought Vanessa's wedding dress at a garage sale for a dollar. Then I related how Becky promised her a husband for a dollar. Then I gave Eric one of my silver dollars as payment.

A big highlight of the wedding was Chad presenting Vanessa with a car as a present. It was a nice 1995 Buick. He got it for $300 because the transmission was bad. When he was finished working on it. He had about $500 total in it and the vehicle was worth about $3000 to $4000 dollars.

School starts
Mood:  a-ok
Well school has started back up. We had to buy Chelsea Kakis(sp) for school, so we got her like 5-6 pairs. Teacher says they have to be tan. So we shall have to make a return trip to the store. We didn't know that color mattered - I thought it was just a style of pants. Joe can't play football because of his grades from last year. Hopefully he has learned his lesson about how making mistakes can cause problems in the future.

Amanda Brubaker got married to a fellow named Joe. She is the same age as Vanessa. She seemed real happy, I hop e that they have a good life together.

Chelsea has a new car after clobbering a telephone pole with her old one. She was lucky to escape with bruises; the car was a total loss.

vaca and crashin'
Mood:  lazy
Topic: General
Went to Cambridge for a few days of vacation. Well the first day we did go to grandma Susan's and did some work on the fence. We went fishing right before a storm. Joe got a big bite. We thought that he had a snag and told him to stop reeling, but the rod tip was bouncing around - he had a big fish on the line. About 5 minutes in to the battle, Joe relaxed because his arms were getting tired. The fish took advantage and threw the hook. We had to fly back to the dock as the storm approached.

Joe was able to land a catfish later in the week. We went out at night and it was a full moon. Salt Fork lake was scenic. We sat for a while with the lights out and the music off and just watched the stars. We were reluctant to go back but had promised to go in by midnight.

Chelsea gave us a scare after we returned. On her way home from her boyfriends she went off the shoulder of the road and over corrected and went into the opposite ditch. Then she flew over a drainage pipe and when airborne. Finally she hit a utility pole and splintered it. She finally came to a stop pointing back the direction that she had already come.

Luckily her seatbelt held her in place. She had a rope burn and bruised from the seatbelt but was otherwise OK. She did go to the hospital for checkout since she stated that her head hit the roof. I quipped that all they would find was rocks. Anyway 6 hours later she was released with a clean bill of health. The wreck happened about 10:45pm, we did not get home until daybreak, about 6am the next day.

The car is totaled. The passenger side front fender impacted the pole and was crushed back into the engine. It impacted at an angle indicating that the car was airborne and leaning forward. In a way it was fortunate that she hit the pole. The car probable would have flipped several times had it not.

She is grounded for 30 days. That is the standard for any accidents or tickets. We will search for another car soon.

Vanessa and Eric visited. They only stayed a short time because of his work. It is always nice to see her. Chad is back with April. A moth drawn to a flame. I feel that she will stay with him until someone better comes along and his heart will be broken again.