Del Mar Races

Del Mar is celebrating it's 75th year and a few of the Mission Bells group went to see the races, win money, eat good food.  As usual the weather in Del Mar this time of year is perfect.  Sunny and just over 70.  I can say that we did bring a brain trust with us

There hard work paid off as Karen won her first exacta.  (picking the first and second place in a race.  I did not know what this was till today.)

Del Mar put on a great show.

And brought in a local camp group of kids to do a bouncing ball race.

If you have not been lately, going to the races offers really nice Del Mar views.

And here is the group.

A Poem To Travel

Ulysses is the World's most famous traveller.  Here is Tennyson's poem as to why travel is important.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I. 

Alfred,Lord Tennyson : Ulysses

It little profits that an idle king1,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades2
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy3.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

 This my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

 There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought
 with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles4,
And see the great Achilles5, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Volunteering

I would suspect that nearly all of us do some type of volunteer work.  I know this as I have talked about what you do at several of the camp outs.  If you care about your volunteer work and want to tell others about the opportunity you have taken please send information and pictures in to me.

Among other things I volunteer at the Zoo and Cuyamaca State Park.  Here are some scenes from those adventures.

I spent this afternoon at the Zoo.  I was stationed down at the bottom of the #2 moving side walk.  It was broken today by too many people getting on it right after one of the shows in the Hunt outdoor theatre.  And since up that side walk is the main access to the Elephants and Polar Bears I was VERY busy telling people the three other ways to get there.  All less convenient than the moving side walk.

If you have not been to the Zoo for a while, go.  I have been going there since I was a child and it is one of my favourite places in the World, and I think one of the nicest spots in our area.  Where else can you get lost in a forest in the middle of a big city and be surrounded by exotic plants and animals.  I never get tired of going there.  The reason is simple, I love smiling people and we gets lots of those of all ages in the Zoo.  And even grumps get a smile on their faces after an hour or so.  At least most of them.

I also work up at the Cuyamaca State Park.  Here is a picture of some of us at the Earth Day booth.  Cuyamaca park was substantially burned in the 2003 fire.  But it is still a wonderful place to get out into the wild part of San Diego.  Many of our visitors have little experience with wild places.  So we take them for nature walks and tell them the names of many of the native plants and an animal here and there.  Mostly what we see are birds and squirrels, but we do see deer, turkeys, and birds.  I have seen a couple of snakes, but never a poisonous one.  Rattlesnakes are all in our yard it seems as there is more food there.

If you like any of the pictures above join us for the 9am Saturday nature walk.  If you let me know you are coming I will look for you.
 

Ramona - Summer 2012 - Trips

OK - I did not take any pictures at Chuck and Carole's dinner.  My oversight.  However, Hansen's did send me this picture from the road.

They indicated this was the Salmon River in CA.  So don't hold back and send me some of your trips.  I know you are taking them.

Barbara and I are leaving for two months starting Aug 1.  We are going to Ohio and a wedding.  We hope to see a few things on the way to and from.  Our plan is to dawdle along Rt 66 from Chicago on back.  Taking our time doing so.  For a change I have only made reservations for two of the first stops.  I normally spend mega hours planning every detail down to a gnat's eyelash.  I am not doing that this time.  It is too much work and it takes the spontaneity out of the trip.  My years of business travel and Swiss German ancestry has tended to make me phobic in organizing things.  No more.  Maybe.  If lack of planning bugs me on the trip I will just start planning ahead a bit at a time.

Happy travels everyone, and come home safe.

Bob Nuttmann