And he's off...

Good luck to Ol' Man Kulka this weekend as he takes on the MS charity ride once again. If he makes it through the grueling 150 mile ride, I promise to run 1/4 mile.

For your perusal

Ladies' Home Journal of 1900: What will happen in the next hundred years

The Kulka Night School

Alright, friends and family, let's say you are looking at a listing of classes taught at the Kulka night school. Which of the subjects offered in the listing about subjects we could teach would you sign up for?

I'll get it started by mentioning that I am torn between two. Oddly enough, they are unclogging a toilet, and learning how to draw. The first, because it would be so nice to know that finding a toilet clogged is not the end of the world. The second, because I would like to know I could draw something in a way that other people could recognize. Now that would be fun!

Corporate Communications

These two emails circulated through our office this week. I just wanted to share.


Email one:

The Charlotte office will experience a power outage due to construction on Sunday, July 22nd from 8am-4pm.

During this time ALL network connectivity and phones will be down.

Please plan accordingly.

Please let me know if you have any questions pertaining to this outage.

Thanks,
Lauren


Email two:

Comrades,

Due to this power outage, I will be shutting down all of our servers in the Charlotte data center at 6:00 PM Friday July 20. I will be restarting them between 7:00 and 8:00 AM on Monday July 23. I have plans for the weekend, and to be brutally honest, they don’t include coming in to the office on either Saturday or Sunday.

If this schedule conflicts with an important project in which you are participating, please schedule a meeting to be held at the Longhorn Steakhouse at the corner of Harris Blvd. and Mallard Creek Dr. around midday of any day next week. My wallet will be in the shop for repairs that week, but if your schedule is important to you then I’m sure you’ll figure out some way to resolve that small issue.

Regards

Kind of quiet in here, isn't it?

Wow, who'd have thought that Emily's appendicitis would bring down the Kulka blog? Talk about weird side effects to surgery.

I was just reading Vox, and the question of the day (several days ago) was "What are three things you'd like to learn, and three things you can teach someone else?"

You can read the Vox neighborhood replies by clicking here, but frankly, they're not as creative as you'd hope. Besides, wouldn't it be more interesting to use this as an excuse to learn a few things about each other? I'll start.

Three things I'd like to learn:

1. Welding
2. Juggling
3. Fencing (Whipping people with a sword, not caging in the family dog).

Three things I can teach someone else:

1. How to drive a manual transmission
2. How to unclog a toilet
3. How to give a cat insulin shots

What is going on

My last three attempts to post a story have failed. Is anybody minding the store?

Darn it

I have put a new post in twice, clicked Publish Post, and nothing appeared. What's up?

Is there a Confucius in the House?

Is there a Confucius in the House?

When I was a child we had a wonderful apricot tree in the back yard. The taste of a freshly picked apricot remains one of my special pleasures to this day. So when we moved to our new house, it was with delight that I noticed the apricot tree already well established in our yard.

Alas, that first summer there was not an apricot on the tree come harvest time. There were several delicious peaches, though, on the other tree planted there.

Our landlord brought in a tree expert, who tended to our trees, doing deep feeding, spraying, and telling us how best to water them. Pruning was also done.

Next year: no apricots, and three peaches. The Norwegian Pine was looking much better, though.

Third year: apricots developing all over the tree. Peach tree full of tiny green peaches. Bonanza!

All of the fruit began growing larger, as it should. Heavier, too. We had to prop up one main branch of the peach tree, it was so full of peaches. Then, disaster. One entire main branch of the peach tree completely cracked off, in spite of the prop we had in place. Lost. Gone forever.

It was then that I thought to read our Sunset Gardening book. Well, it seems peaches should be culled so that they are spaced 8 inches apart on the branch. We quickly did that to the remaining branch of the tree. Apricots should be spaced every 6 inches: we quickly did that too. It hurt to pull off what must have amounted to 2/3 of the crop.

The remaining apricots were beginning to change from green to light yellow. It shouldn't be long now! A few were beginning to fall off, but the local nursery sent an advisory, telling us that this was normal for the tree to do. We were approaching an orange coloring when the drop rate began picking up. Squirrels were beginning to enjoy the ones on the tree. Squirrels! It was time for action.

Neill pulled out the ladder and began harvesting. We tasted. Hm, rather sour, and not much flavor. A knowing friend counseled us to go ahead and pick, then leave the fruit laying out on trays in the kitchen. It would be fine. Well, no, it wasn't. A little less sour, but hardly any flavor.

By this time, it was falling off the tree at an alarming rate. Neill would pick up 50 to 100 apricots at a time. None of them any good, of course, as they squashed upon reaching the concrete patio. I tried spreading out a bed pad beneath the tree, to cushion the fruit as it fell. No matter where I positioned it, the fruit seemed to have a different destination in mind.

By now we were collecting boxes full of bad apricots. the smell became more noticeable as they began fermenting.

We had had lots of sunshine, which seemed to have served to sweeten the fruit a little. Or was that just an expression of my optimism?

At our invitation, a local friend brought over 2 ladders and 2 strong young men. They picked all the rest of the fruit they could reach. Unfortunately, they had brought ladders the same height as ours, so the stuff on the top is still there. Well, that which has not yet fallen, anyway.

When I go by the little tray of apricots still in the kitchen, I dutifully eat one or two.

Today I washed the mattress pad which had failed at cushioning falling apricots. Well, it had not failed as badly as I had thought. There were squish stains in many places. I threw it in the wash with the sheets. It turned out the apricots were not done with me yet. When I lifted the laundry out to put it in the dryer, I learned that those "stains" were composed of skins of the fruit, which the sheets were now festooned with. Is there no end to my disappointment with that apricot tree?

So I call for a Confucius to come forth among you. There must be an adage or a moral or a teaching which is illustrated by this story. I trust this most valuable family to come up with an appropriate one. What should we learn from this?

P.S. The neighbor's fruit is lousy, too. We think it was the weather.

What is everyone doing this summer?

Five days from now, in between gasping for breath, I will be cursing my own stupidity for signing up for...


Before you ask, since this is my first year at this particular festival of suffering, I signed up for the shorter ride -- 50 miles. I may be foolish, but I'm not insane.

Wish me luck. No, better yet, pray that the medic van never strays far from my rear wheel.

www.bloodsweatandgears.org

Legacy

A few Sundays ago I was listening to a sermon on parenting. The pastor was talking about leaving a legacy for your children. I began to wonder what legacy I had left for my children. That really didn't go anywhere, so instead I jotted down the legacy I wish I had left for them:

1) First your pants, then your shoes.
2) "Shotgun" may only be called when all passengers are in view of the car.
3) You have to eat the green beans because the dog doesn't like them either.
4) When you get tired of license plate bingo, count nose-pickers.
5) I have been your age, but you haven't been mine. Consider that before you try to outsmart me.
6) Never eat anything bigger than your head.
7) "Paper" usually wins.
8) Never copy another person's paper in the back row. They're back there because they don't get it either.
9) I love you but I will fail you at some point. God will not.
10) Don't forget item nine.

Anyone else want to have a crack at their rules for life?

The Sleeping Giant

Our last entry was titled "The Sleeping Giant Awakens" I am wondering if it is now time to compose the last rites for the Kulka Sleeping Giant's final sleep. If so, what should the tombstone read? If not, WAKE UP, FAMILY.

The Sleeping Giant Awakens...

http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift

Well I'll try again just to see if it works. I wish I could have posted my two articles but it was not to be .

A little update

Hey family!

First of all, thanks so much for all of your prayers this past week/weekend. I am now at home recovering from the appendectomy (did I spell that right?). I had to have the surgery last night, and it was a rough night after because the Dr's did not communicate to the nurses that I was allowed to have my regular migraine medicine following the surgery.

My mom came and saved the day the following morning. She took one look at me (I was in very very bad shape) and took great pains to explain that I was not hurting from the surgery, I was hurting from the migraine. Anyway, after trying the morphine (which didn't ease the migraine at all) and the regular anti-nausea (which also did nothing) they finally listened to my mom and got me the regular migraine medicine. Within 15 minutes I was sitting up and talking. My mom actually said that for the first time in 2 hours I could open my eyes and communicate! Before that I could not do anything other than sign thumbs up or thumbs down because talking made me so sick.

So, the doctors and nurses all pointed fingers at eachother as to why I didn't recieve the medicine I needed. I did have one nurse named Mike who was really wonderful, he was the one who finally went and called the Dr so that I could get the migraine medicine.

I am now at home as I said before, and I am very pleased to report that the surgery did seem to fix the pain coming from my appendix. This was a big concern because the tests did not show that I have appendicitis, so it was a bit of a risk to remove the appendix and hope that it was the cause.

Please continue your prayers that I have a speedy recovery with no further questions, and that we all stay healthy! Cody is having to give up his bike trip for financial reasons, and I have to return my road bike that I just bought last week. I guess God has a reason for everything, and I am just so grateful that I have a wonderful family to pray over me and keep my spirits up!

On that note - rain check on the Pepto dance Uncle Matt?

Thanks again to all of you!
Love
Emily

Big weekend for Peter, then Emily got sick

Family, rally round.
Emily checked into the hospital in San Diego this morning (Tuesday) with abdominal pain. After much testing and no eating or drinking, she was finally operated on for appendicitis this evening. All seems to have gone well. The problem did not really show up on the CAT scan, so it was a bit tricky deciding whether to go ahead. Let us hope that she heals quickly and there is no further trouble.
This all began while the family was in Colorado for Peter's graduation. Hey Pete, congratulations! Another big life step conpleted - what do a few more summer courses matter? Happens to everyone who changes his major.

These details may be sketchy. Kathy filled me in on most of it, and I hope I got it right. (Thanks, Kathy, for keeping me posted as it went along.) I also hope someone will add details as they become available, as they say on the news programs. I talked to Emily just before the operation, and she was not looking forward eagerly to it, but convinced, I think, that it was the right move.

And all this when Cody's bike trip was to start next weekend in San Francisco. He, of course, spent the day at the hospital, as did Kathy. Not one of life's happiest surprises.

A Real Trip

Speaking for the family, I believe we would like to know about the bike trip that Cody is about to embark on. All I know is that he will be leaving San Francisco with his friends this Sunday morning, and they plan to arrive in San Diego in 5 days. (Talk about saddle sore!)
How about filling in some of the details for us, Cody?

Dear Old Mom

Here's an unusual way to commemorate Mother's Day:
Being a mother myself I am daring to suggest that we share a memory of our mom that she might not choose to have included in her biography.
In my case, I remember that there were occasions, say when the toast burned, or she discovered she had sewed something together wrong side up, that I'd hear her quietly saying "scheiss". Even though I was quite young at the time, it didn't take me long to figure out what that meant in English. As a matter of fact, to this day I seem to rely on it myself on appropriate occasions. Thanks, Mom.

An official request

Alright. I have noticed that there have been a few unofficial requests here and there for Kulka History stories. I am making an official request. I love hearing any stories of my relatives, especially those in the Czech Republic since I have been there. Those of you who have stories about Kulkas, please do share! (This is a nudge to Western Sage and Aunt Licy mostly, but anyone who who wants to share I would love it) I feel like I can never know too much about where I came from and who I am related to, and the best way for me to find out are these wonderful tales from the past. So please, let the stories begin!

Hi I am glad to join all the Kulkas as a blogger. I live in Arizona now which is a mixed blessing. The good thing is I am close to my son Mark the bad thing ids the heat. But I am getting used to it. David I read your piece about Leo. He never went to engineering school in Europe. Leo was a great guy but hardly the student of the year. That is about all I can tell you right now.Keep on rocking. Licy

Ludwig, Wolfgang and Joey

I've taken a little side trip from my usual Rock 'n' Roll/Americana/Alt Country/Surf Guitar music and am rediscovering Beethoven. I've taken a real shine to his sixth symphony (the first movement is my favorite), and I've also been listening to a long list of his Sonatas.

I've been a Mozart fan because I love a strong strings presence in classical. But I have to admit Beethoven's piano compositions are really interesting, and the perfect soothing background music as you sit at your desk and wade through piles of tax forms, bills and junk mail.

Anyone else care to share thoughts on music - favorites, new finds, recommendations, best Mariachi fusion band...?

To bathe or not to bathe

Looks like it's time for a new topic.
In our paper the other day they had one of those "man in the street" columns where the question was "What is the best thing that happened to you this week". Some people had some serious entries, like getting a new job, or whatever. The last one was my favorite. It ended with "and the dead mouse in the wall stopped stinking".
Does this inspire any thoughts in you?
My best thing was a meeting of some of the people on my Sonoma quilt show committee yesterday. We always enjoy each other's company, and learn from each other. A sewing topic led to my remembering that a client of mine had told me that when he was young, he was raised in one of the colder parts of the country - Minnesota or something. He remembered that as a kid he was sewn into his underwear as it got cold. When it was warm enough, a few months later, he and his brother were unsewn. (I guess part of the idea was that this was the best way for the underwear to keep the kids warm.) As I mentioned this, one of the women looked a bit appalled, until I mentioned that there was, after all, a trap door. And a fly.
My client had also mentioned that the process kept them from dipping into the creek for a swim before their parents thought it was warm enough. "And that's when I learned to sew" he told me.
This reminded someone of the well-known (but not to me) note Napoleon had sent to Josephine when he was on a campaign somewhere. We all had different takes on his reason for it, but the message definitely told her not to bathe, because he was coming home!

All committees should be this much fun!

Favorite Vacation

I was poking around looking at vacations (just in case - one never knows when a vacation might arrive...) and I started thinking about the wonderful places I have been blessed to visit.

I think that my favorite vacation was going to Prague with my immediate family, plus Aunt Licy. We had the most amazing time for two weeks, exploring places I had been before (I got to travel to Prague alone from Rome- scary! but fun) and places I had only heard about (such as Aunt Licy's old home in Brno) I bonded with my family - both those who I have known and those I got to meet out there - and we all have some wonderful memories and funny stories we still laugh about.

So, what were your favorite vacations?

Steal your parking spot, what would you do?

As usual, I went to shopping at Costco three weeks ago. My car and the other car were waiting for our parking spots. At that time I had been waiting on the other side of the alley about 15-20 minutes.

Suddenly, the older couple’s car came in and parked very close to my spot. The owner of the spot backed their car out and tried to block the selfish car for me. Too late, they got it. After they got out from their car. I honked and rolled my window down. I shouted at them that was my spot. The wife told me it was theirs ( Akulka - Am I right?) and kept walking. Until now, I still want to punch them in their faces.

What would everyone think and do if it happens to you?

Ah, spring

I started sneezing the other day for no good reason. It got me to thinking, "What am I allergic to?" I'll start with loud music from someone else's car, "and then I said, and then she said" conversations, a sentence started with "don't you think" and certainly news interview panels where one person talks only until someone else finds something to disagree with, at which point they loudly horn in, joined by other voices, and absolutely no careful listening.

What other family allergies do we have?

The Train of Pain

Hey family!

As most of you know, I am embarking on a 500 mile bike trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles May 19th. I'm so excited and I have been training vigorously. Last Saturday I did a 60 mile ride and the Saturday before I completed a brutal 71 mile trek through the outskirts of Alpine Valley. I wanted to share with you all the logo I created for the trip though. We're putting it on t-shirts and all that jazz. Right now there are 15 other riders on the roster. Carter, the guy responsible for putting the trip together, appropriately named our insane journey "The Train of Pain". He also commissioned me to do the logo. So here she is!

The Best Things in Life

Not long ago, Neill and I met each other in our little hallway. Neill said "How about a hug?" We both said "Why not, it's free." That got me to thinking about that saying: the best things in life are free.

What are some of these best things? For me, one is walking past someone's garden and seeing beautiful flowers. Not better than hugs, but one of life's little bonuses. Being told you are a cool grandmother, having a cat snuggle close, seeing a rainbow or a beautiful sunset. What would you add to that?

Part 2

"David, Jim Messina for you"

I think Dan and Matt will be able to relate to this, maybe Cody. Czech people? Mom or Neill???

I remember well when the Loggins & Messina "Sittin' In" album came out in 1969. I loved it, for both the music and the sound quality. There were many nights that Jay Perel and I listened to that album, not saying a word, just focussed on the words and music. We'd talk about the sogs after listening to them but not during. We didn't want to interrupt the music.

The "Sittin' In" album led me to the Poco records, which had come earlier. That great band, with Jim Messina as producer/singer/guitarist and Timothy Schmidt, was a forerunner of the Eagles. Jim also engineered and played on the Buffalo Springfield albums -- another groundbreaking lyric oriented country-rock band that ushered in the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young supergroups.

Anyway, I loved Loggins & Messina and Poco and played those records more times than I could ever count. Back when 8-track players were the big thing for car sound systems, I made my own Poco 8-track tapes with the EQ adjusted just right for the acoustics of the Pontiac Tempest that I bought from Uncle Leo.

All those songs burned themselves not just into my consciousness, but America's and truly, the world's. Danny's Song, Watching The River Run, House At Pooh Corner, Angry Eyes...all those others. They were a very real part of the fabric of the 70's and 80's, inextricably linked to so many memories and events back then.

So imagine my surprise when Joe answered a call in the shop and shouted "David, Jim Messina for you". He was phoning about having some older tube gear serviced, and wanted to know if I might like to buy some gear he was phasing out. Many long conversations resulted, must involving stories about the old days and discussions about gear and recording techniques. It was an incredible thrill to ask Jim questions about the old records and hear his enthusiastic answers.

Yesterday morning a Fedex truck pulled up with a package. We weren't expecting any overnight shipments so it was a little puzzling. Inside the box was a copy of the "The Best of Loggins & Messina, Sittin' In Again", along with a very nice cover letter.

Listening to L&M and Poco in the 70's, I would never imagined that Jim Messina himself would one day be phoning me and telling me the stories behind those albums, much less sending copies of his records to me. It amazes me, and is a great honor that I wanted to pass on to my family.

Thanks Jim - you made my week, and maybe my whole year.

an idea

Hey Uncle Matt - could you add the link for the pictures sites made so far to the right hand screen menu?

Unclematt made the comment that in the corporate world ther are no mistakes, just :"opportunities". That struck me as an ineresting topic to open. What mistake have you made that truly turned into an opportunity.
What springs to mind for me is way back when i first began teaching. I mentioned somewhere else how I had gotten to be a music teacher, the dream job of my life. I left out an important piece. When I graduated from UCLA, I was offered a job with LA City Schools, and with Burbank City Schools. I chose the second, as it was a much smaller district and would, I felt, be easier to fit into. I began my teaching in September of 1950 (talk about ancient history!) I was assigned to a first grade class. The principal seemed to feel I was doing OK, even though he had to point out some things that I needed to do better. Unfortunately my class was small, so small, in fact, that in the middle of the year I was assigned to a different school, and my former class distributed among other first grade classes.
In the new school, I was assigned to a class directly across from the office. It had been taught by a beginning teacher like myself. She was, however, pregnant when she began, and it was time for her to leave. At that time, the first graders had been assigned to classes according to their ages, and this was the youngest bunch. I found they did things like skipping on a row of table tops, ineracting whether it was appropriate or not. It was a huge chore to get them to get into a line and walk somewhere. In short, I was not up to the task. I began making mistakes in trying to teach them. I got a few notes from the office staff asking me to close my door because they were disturbed by the noise in my classroom. I did not teach well. At the end of the year, I was asked to resign.
Ever since I had been in the 4th grade, I had wanted to be a teacher. Well, actually, a music teacher in a school, but at least a teacher. Now I had failed. I could not even apply for a position in another district, because I would get such a poor recommendation from the Burbank principal.
After sloughing in despair for a time, I finally had the courage to try to think of a way out. That's when I realized that I had been accepted by the LA District. With some apprehension, I decided to call them and see if my name was still active on the list. It was! So I let them know that I was now available. Within a few weeks I got that call from a music supervisor, asking if I would like to be a music teacher. I was absolutely filled with joy.

ånd to think that if I hadn't made so many mistakes teaching in Burbank, where of course there were no music teachers, I would never have become the happy, confident, successful teacher that I did. Thanks be to God.

Candid Camera

Hello everyone - in case anyone is interested, I just opened a "flickr" account. In case some of you don't know what that is - flickr is being called the "photographic revolution" when it comes to photographers networking and sharing their work with the world. Anyone can join - and as a matter a fact - it's free! It's a great way to share your photos with everyone you know, all the while avoiding the pain of emailing them out to individuals. The great thing is too, if you like any the photos -you can simply download or drag them to your desktop - high res and everything - free! It's so awesome. I highly recommend that we all open up flickr accounts so we can share or photographic lives with eachother. Or we could even open a "Kulka" flickr photo account. Anyways - here is the link to mine and emily's:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/codysglasseye/

(side note - you don't have to be a member to view the photos - which is great too - it's completely open to the public, unless you mark the pictures private - in which they will can only be accessed via password.)

Enjoy!

Hey, check out this low quality screen shot. I just recently noticed something interesting: Notice in this picture how some topic titles are highlighted? I think that's how blogger signifies that new-ish comments exist.

I haven't figured out what exactly sets off the highlight, but I added a comment to an ancient topic, and it changed from dark to bright the next time I loaded the page.

Will wonders never cease?

What I learned at camp

In another topic, Western Sage notes:

"I can tell you right now that my mother went to work at a laundry, ironing shirts. I still use what she taught me about how best to do that, even though I have amended it a little. I can remember her starting me out ironing my dad's handkerchiefs, and how proud it made me to tell him that I had done that for him. Obviously it took few steps before we got to shirts.
An interesting follow-up to this would be for the rest of you to tell us something you remember learning how to do from your parents or someone else in the family. Any takers?"

I thought this was better as a whole new topic, so I moved it here. I'll copy eesmall's comment in here and add mine. Then, let's humor the old girl and add some more comments, eh?

A Question for Grandmama

Sasha and I were chatting about the family tree. And there was one important fact - okay two - that I can't remember. Okay, there's lots of stuff I don't remember, but you can only put so much in a blog topic before people start getting up for a sandwich midway, stop to feed the cat and then forget they were here reading this thing at all. In fact, see what I mean?

So anyway, we were talking about the family tree, and not that these are the two most important things about that branch, but it was what we were chatting about. And since I didn't know, I'm going to ask for our resident historian to fill in the blanks.

First off, what was Western Sage's mother's name?

Second, how did Herman meet Nanny?

if it ain't broke, don't fix it

I can't say I agree with the change over to the forum. I think you will find that with these multiple folders/topics going on, it's going to get more complicated to follow what's where and what is most current. What I love about the blog is everything is centralized ( prettier ) and linear, as opposed to folders inside of folders inside of folders. I don't think that the forum has any organization, everything is all over the place. Anywayz I suppose I'm a minimalist and always sway towards "less is more".

Kulka Forum (again)

It's gotten eerily quiet in here. Is there a boycott I'm not aware of?

There has been a thought to move this away from "weblog" software to "forum" software. I like the idea a lot, because the latter is designed to show you what new topics or comments came along since you last logged in. It also has some organization to it. That is, we can divide the topics up into categories as we see fit.

In case you missed it, click this link to Kulkablog, The Forum. Create an account, kick the tires, take it for a test drive. Then either post a comment over there or back here and let us know what you think.

And hurry it up for cryin' in the rain. I have an idea for a new topic, but I'm waiting to see which place I should post it in.

Ciao,
Matt

Good idea?

Uncle Matt, as you are the founding father of this project, would you take a look at the forum idea? Do you think it would augment the existing family blog?

Dusty's right...

Alright Alright, I agree with Dusty - it is a lot easier to track who said what on his little post, instead of spending all day scrolling around to see if anyone commented. For those of us that really don't like change I would say this one is worth it. Just go to the link he said, and then you can see how it is all organized. Signing up is about as difficult as remembering your own email address, and you don't even have to do that if you wish.

All together now...to the new site or bust!

forum

Ok, so Uncle David (or if your not as awsome as me, just plain David) suggesting making a forum. why? because it's alittle more orgainised. one topic one folder. not like ok so here's like a billion topics and you have none of the responces to them HAHA (evil laugh)

Plus it can be edited easier and it is more controllable.

yeah anyway i think i set it up so you dont HAVE to be a member to respond to things. it works better if you are but you dont have to.

ok so here's the site (p.s. if you dont like the forum, then tell me in the section devoted to that.)

http://kulkas.proboards62.com/index.cgi

Taking a risk

How about another new topic?
What was the most dangerous thing you ever did?

Not being the physical type, I think for me it was filling out an application for my first teaching job out of college. At the bottom of the form was the question "Could you teach a violin class?" As I had played the violin for years, it was easy to answer that "yes". Next came "Could you lead an elementary school orchestra?" This stopped me for a while. But then I figured I had played in an elementary school orchestra, as well as in several others, so I answered "yes". There was one more question. "Could you direct an elementary school chorus?" This took me very little time to answer. I figured if I could do those other two things, there was no reason I couldn't do that.

On that basis, I got a job as a music teacher in an elementary school. It was a dream come true for me. Before school started up in the fall, I took music education classes all summer, and even learned, among other things, to play the string bass. When I was assigned to a school, I was so lucky as to have a wonderful music supervisor, who helped me learn whatever I still needed to. I loved my time as music teacher, taught children how to play all kinds of instruments, led the band, taught music in each classroom, and led a chorus. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Sometimes taking a risk pays off.

Permettez-moi de me présenter á vous :)

Hello everybody. I am glad i can join you guys.
First i´d like to say that the title above is in french. There´s already been used czech and english to say hi so I decided to write it little different :). One half of you already know me but I should little introduce myself to others who don´t know much or maybe nothing about me.

So I am Filip and Krystof is my brother....goooosh :D. We are Michal and Hanas´ children and Michal is Vit´s older brother ( btw Krystof is also older than me). The rest wrote Vit already only thing is that our grandpa and Felix were grandcousins.....complicated huh.... but this is not so important. Important is that we are all Kulkas.

Okey so I am twenty and I graduated from economic high school last May. Now I study university of hospitality management. It´s wonderful school I like it so much. I just pass through all end-of-term examinatons.... tralalalala :)
I did some sports when i was younger but now I am just lazy university student.....I am trying to change it but no progress yet :(.

I´d like to say first Hi to uncle Matt and Stacy and Ashley. It´s a pity that we haven´t met yet. Also I want to say Hi to Valda we´ve already met at the wedding this summer but just for a while. I hope we will know each other little better now.

.....looks almost like essay what i wrote here huh :D. so that´s all for now. ;)

Filip - Rebell

To lighten your day...

Every once in a while, someone around us does something so incredibly stupid, you just have to share it. Peter and I have a little tradition where we call eachother and share very funny stories of annonymous people who have done/said things that were not of the highest intelligence.

For an example, in one of my credential classes, we were talking about recycling. The instructor asked us to name a few advantages to recycling plastic. We were all brainstorming things like saving energy, resources, etc, when one of my graduate level classmates rasies his hand and says "If we all recycle plastics then we won't have to cut down as many trees". Huh. Never knew plastic grew on trees! He immediatly realized what he had said (or maybe the laughter of the class gave it away) and laughed along with us - but it made a really good story to call my brother with.

You guys have any good stories that might bring a laugh? I know Peter has some good ones....

A short challenge

I was listening to NPR a month or so ago. I think it was "Weekend America" or some newsy show like that. There was a contest run by Smith Magazine (an online magazine). All you had to do is write a memoir -- but in six words.

I think the example given in the teaser was "Never really finished anything, except cake. "

Anyone game?


Edit: Here's the link to the radio article. It runs in RealPlayer. I don't know if that's a problem for Apple users.

Emily and Kulkas in Prague

Thank you all for those beautiful comments. I plan to reply to all of them (especially to those with question marks inside), but not now, because it is 1 AM of our time and I think I have a better idea what to do now :-).
So, only another link for your fun: http://homepage.mac.com/vkulka/kulkas/
Vit

Hello All!

Sorry it has taken me so long to add anything to the Kulka blog, I would like to blame it on classes but the good Lord knows I avoid those like the plague (Mom and Dad read Attend Class Often). Or it could be that it took me half an hour to figure out how to post something (you know they really should find something easier than the New Post button at the top of the page). I guess I do not have a good excuse so I will take whatever punishment is passed on for the delay and try to move on.

Other than being extremely cold (we apparently are running out of degrees here in Colorado as the temperature was averaging around 10, maybe you folks out in California could spare some?) things are going well. I would love to tell you all more but for your sake I will keep this one short.

Sorry it took so long

Peter

What they were playing in Baoshan in 1994

Mom asked me to post something from my travel writing. Here's a little piece I wrote after coming a trip through Southwestern China in 1994:

In the late 1990’s I spent some time exploring China - mostly the northwest deserts of Xinxiang, which borders Central Asia, and the mountains and tropics of southwestern Yunnan, near Laos and Burma. Like many other travelers, I found China maddening, but at the same time endlessly lovable and captivating.

Talk about music! Musicians and singers were everywhere in China. Everywhere! Troupes and bands played on street corners, grandmothers in costume played ancient instruments, blind buskers sang rambling story songs at the train stations, children walked hand in hand singing together in lovely voices. There were roaming tribal musicians. In a taxi the driver was liable to start singing ballads, and on a bus the passengers might take turns standing and singing a song or two. It was often spontaneous, and always unselfconscious. Sometimes it seemed like China was one big hootenanny. When was the last time you heard someone break into song, simply because they felt like it? In parts of China, you’d experience that every day.

Most of the time it was a welcome treat, except for karaoke, which could really wear you down. The sound of a drunk Chinese salaryman howling Tie A Yellow Ribbon, leaking through the walls of your hotel room at 1 AM, is not a pretty thing.

My strangest Chinese musical experience was in Baoshan, a midsize city along the old Burma Road. The streets of Baoshan had a feature that was common in China; propaganda loudspeakers. Bullhorn style speakers were fastened atop the power poles every 200 feet or so, apparently fed from a little studio somewhere in the town - probably at the main police station.

China awakens early, and the authorities would crank up the propaganda machine up at around 5 AM. It was usually long rambling commentaries, history lessons, and accounts of meetings between government officials. The propaganda was loud, it echoed all over the city, and it went on for about four hours. The locals seemed to respond by talking louder and making more noise of their own.

After the official programs ended, the loudspeakers stayed on all day, playing music. But it wasn’t just any music. They played Kenny G. Loud, all over town, all day long and into the night, over and over again. I think it was the “Duotones” CD. I first heard it coming through my hotel room window, and I figured it was from a music shop on the street. But the same songs just repeated all day long, and after a while I realized that Kenny had the entire city covered. Nearly anywhere you went in Baoshan, day or night, you heard Kenny G, over and over again. I’m not sure what effect this was meant to have on the population, but I was more than ready to move on after two or three days.

I made my way west on the Burma road, crossing into Burma about a week later. But to this day I think of China any time I hear Kenny G, and wonder whether his mind numbing “soft jazz” tracks are still echoing around the streets of Baoshan.

Ahoj!

Tak vas vsechny zdravim. V prve rade dekuji vsem za pozvani do rodinneho blogu, velice si toho povazuji. Je to pozvani, ktere se neodmita. I pres omezeni ve vyjadrovani vseho co budu mit na mysli, diky jazykovym omezenim, vynasnazim se zustat s vami v kontaktu a cas od casu prispivat novinkami ze vzdalene zeme.
Pro vsechny kdo me jeste neznaji, dovolte mi se kratce predstavit. Jsem mladsi syn Hanuse a Hany Kulka z Prahy. Muj otec Hanus a Felix Kulka byli bratranci (doufam, ze jsem to nespletl)
Jsem zenaty, moje zena se jmenuje Misa a mam dva syny - Ondreje (prave mu bylo 16) a Mateje (7). Ti kteri by se snad chteli podivat na nejake fotky, mohou se podivat na webove stranky: http://web.mac.com/vkulka/iWeb/Kulkovic/Home.html. Fotky nejsou uplne aktualni, ale slibuji, ze se polepsim. Je zde i odkaz na starsi stranky, kde je mozno videt i trochu historie.
To je prozatim vse. Jeste jednou vas vsechny moc zdravim a brzy na prectenou.
Vit

For those of you who does not read well in Czech yet, here is a translation;-)
Hello everybody. First of all, I would like to thank you all ( I do not know, who was the first :-) for having idea to invite also Czech Kulkas to your family blog. Invitation that could not be refused. In spite of my limitation on expressing whatever I have in my mind due to my language limits, I will try to stay in contact with you and time after time to contribute with some news from far country.
For all of you who do not know me yet, let me introduce myself shortly. I am a younger son of Hanus and Hana Kulka from Prague. My father Hanus and Felix Kulka were cousins (nephewes?) (I hope I did not make a mistake:-).
I am married with Misa and I have two sons - Ondrej (just 16) and Matej (7). For those, who would like to see some pictures, look link stated above. Yes, it is not too up to date, but I promise, I will update it soon. On those pages there is also a link to the older pages, where you can see a little of history.
I think that it is enough for now. Once more best regards to all of you and "read you soon".
Vit

Family sayings

I have been sitting here remembering some of the things my parents used to say. Now I may live to regret this, but I am interesting in hearing what some of the rest of you remember.
One thing I remember is that there were times when I was a child when the conversation over dinner became more interesting than usual. It might be a tidbit introducing the topic of what some neighbor had done, or something that happened to a friend. As I began to take more notice than usual, too often I would hear my father saying calmly and decisively, "Fortunately, that's none of our business". Oh, shucks.

For some reason, I was reminded of my grandmother as I wrote about my family. She was born in Bremen, Germany, and spent all her life there, even through the second world war. After the war, things were still very difficult in Germany, so my parents put their pennies together and offered to send for Oma. To their relief, she accepted, and at age 87 got on a boat and came to America.

Although she spoke no English, she turned out to be a very adjustable lady. We loved having her with us. And she was there when Felix and I got married, a few years later. The celebration was held at the club house owned by the German hiking club my parents were a part of. (Now, I'm getting there, I'm getting there.) Food was provided by the German ladies, so there was plenty. After we ate, all gathered in the dance hall. We danced to recorded German waltzes, polkas, and what have you.

At one point, some of us noticed Oma, who was probably 89 at this point, dancing with a young man. Bless her heart, I don't think I had seen her dancing before. When we had a chance, we told her how impressed we were. "Oh," she said, " no one was dancing with him, and I felt sorry for him, so I asked him to dance."

Kulkas in History

Several years ago, David sent me a great article about this. I was just browsing Wikipedia and stumbled on the story. There was much more detail in the article David found, but that was in print, not online. If I can find it online I'll throw in another link.

Until then, please enjoy...

Kulkas in History



Edit: Found the article that David sent me. (You really can find anything online.) This one's pretty long, but it's an interesting read. If you don't have time right now, read the Wikipedia entry above for now, and come back later for this one.

A Perfectly Understandable Mistake

-MK

Kulkas and others,
I am avoiding my accounting homework and it made me wonder, what is the worst class you have ever taken and why?

Sasha?

I can figure most of you out, but who the heck is Sasha?

The Large Hadron Collider

Well, time for another monologue...
I recently stumbled across a rather interesting new topic: THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER. It's the world's most expensive experiment, and could very well be the end of it. Doom and Gloom yes, but freakin cool!

The Large Hardon Collider is a giant particle accelerator: a 17-mile-long tunnel beneath Switzerland and France. With it, scientists hope to isolate the Higgs boson, the particle that could explain mass. Some worry that the Hardon Collider is too big and could create a black hole that would destroy Earth.

follow this link to a short film by Seed Magazine (no, it has nothing to do with smoking pot - its a prominent science culture publication):

http://www.seedmagazine.com/media/video/lordslow.mov

Although I do warn you, I could only watch it once for fear my head would explode from nerd-language overload...proceed with caution.

Life's lighter moments

A story eesmall e mailed me started me thinking about funny things that happened when I was teaching. I know that the family is not composed entirely of teachers, but many of you have been involved in teaching as in Sunday School, helping someone learn a new skill, teaching someone to drive, etc. I wonder if any of you will be reminded of something unexpected that happened to you.

Here's one of my stories:
For some years, I was a substitute teacher. I often worked in the schools where I had been on staff as a music teacher, in Kentfield and Greenbrae. One day I was asked to escort a first grade class to a nearby school. They were to be shifted from their present school assignment beginning the next semester. The administration wanted to get them acquainted with Wolfe Grade, their new school.
We walked together to the school, keeping the mood light. The sun was shining and it was a pleasant walk. We arrived at the grounds of Wolfe Grade School, and I began pointing out its features. "This will be your playground. Here's the classroom you will be in next year. This is the library. We call this lady the librarian." We had been serious just about long enough. So I pointed and said "We call this a book shelf." Laying my hand down, I offered "This is a table".
We walked out of the library into the quad. I waved my arm around, indicating the quad, and began "We call this a .."
But before I could finish my sentence, a little girl did it for me. "Hand", she said. It made my day.

New and old blood

Hey, Uncle Matt, how about finding some time to contact the other Kulkas? As Eesmall told them they would be hearing from you, they must be waiting with bated breath, whatever that is.

Hey Cody

Uncle Matt and I were discussing exactly what it was you did for a living. He thought you were a model, while I was sure it was something in the super hero business. I have a trip to Aruba riding on this, don't let me down.

Funny dining stories

I am suggesting a new topic - stories about unusual eating incidents. Here's mine:
Felix and I were having lunch in a restaurant. It was crowded, so we had taken two seats at the counter. We ordered our food, and it was soon served to us. Mine was something that had spinach in it.

As I was eating, I stuck my fork down and somehow part of what I was cutting into disappeared. I didn't know what had happened until I heard a customer 3 stools down complaining loudly to the man behind the counter that he had been given a fork that had spinach on it. I calmly went on eating, not wanting to stick my nose into other people's business.

What's your story?

Wild Predictions for 2007...

I'm a subscriber to Wired Magazine. It's quite an impressive wealth of information ranging everything from technology to culture themes to politics. Every time I sit down to browse over each month's issue, I'm astounded at the knowledge they compile. They literally are tapped in "wired" to this day and age...and even what we should be seeing in the future. I find it inspiring and sometimes altogether dumbfounding. Anyways, I stumbled on Wired's "Wild Predictions for 2007" and I wanted to share. I realize allot of these predictions are improbable and some altogether silly, but there are some that you may find quite haunting, and that may in fact, be closer to becoming reality than we think. Check it out:

The Predictions

Which ones you guys think are possible?

My choice is the one that predicts a big tele network releasing the first sitcom to be exclusively viewed on the internet. Watch for it, it's totally going to happen.

New Blogger?

So, Uncle Matt, I think I followed directions to get onto a "new blogger" thingy, I even signed in with my google gmail account. However, it says something about the original maker of the blog needing to switch over or something like that. Then whenever it signs me in I have a big exclamation mark and a note about how this blog still hasn't been swtiched over. Does this mean anything? Should I be alarmed? Do I have a virus? Oh wait - I have a Mac :) But seriously, have I done the right thing or screwed something up?

Potential problem

Help! I can't comment! It says I am currently signed in as EESmall, who is not a part of the team!

Hey, Cyclops54

Kulkas
So you are planning a 500 mile bike trip this year. I imagine there are several parts of you which will be sore as a result. Maybe Uncle Matt will share some of his experiences on his bike trips. Lord only knows what motivates you two.

Kulkas

Kulkas
Welcome, izkulka, whoever you are. Please don't be the strong, silent type. And don't worry about typos - we'll take care of that.

Kulkas

Kulkas

Sage,
It was 37 this morning and there is still snow on the ground from a couple of days ago. This makes morning practice even more fun. Since you slothful bunch of Kulkas can't get the ball rolling on conversation and this family is known for our heckling, I say we call out a certain person to start up some conversation. As I was the one to suggest this, I am volunteering myself. Heckle away.

Ever had one of those meals?

Shhhh

Kulkas
What is this - the silence of the lambs? All you hip people, and no new comments for what seems like days since AKulka chimed in again. Good to hear from you, A.
At least tell us how the weather is where you are, or something.
Here it is cold and forecast to be colder than ever. We have been covering our rhododendron and our Meyer lemon every night for what seems like over two weeks. Neill is, that is. Lord knows what we will use to keep them warm the next few nights, with temps in the 20's expected. Thank God for a warm house.

Kulkas

Kulkas
Well, that didn't work. I went to www.blogger.com and got "Not found". Next advice?

One More Thing

Kulkas

Do we have a topic or is everyone discussing distant family and making cheap shots at each other? Not that I would expect anything less from this family.

Muh..

Kulkas
Since last time I tried to use this blog I ended up posting a comment rather than a blog I thought I would give it another shot.
I didn't think there was anything odder on this site than "Stinky Homeless", then I saw your profile picture, Cholada. Reaaal nice.

Technical Difficulties

What's one thing you don't like about this Blogger software? For me, it's that it doesn't have a way to tell me where there are new comments. I have to go find them myself.

Honestly, I did try several different weblog hosts before I settled on this one. The others either had obvious shortcomings or were difficult to navigate. Blogger.com seemed pretty reasonable among the choices. There's probably something better out there, but I'm not an expert on this and I didn't find it.

Anyway, now here we are -- a dozen or so of us have created accounts and figured out how to work this thing and I'm realizing it has that one pretty serious shortcoming. One of us keeps a notepad with the number of comments on each topic so they can figure out which have new comments. Computers are supposed to be smart enough to keep track of that for us.

The good news is that Blogger has upgraded itself. I can convert this blog to the new format which uses RSS/Atom.xml. We can get free RSS readers which will poll the site and notify us when and where a new topic or comment shows up. It's just like an email reader. (Fret not, you don't have to know what RSS or Atom.xml is. I can help the Windows people set up an RSS reader and hopefully David and Cholada can help the Mac people.)

But in order to access the new version of weblogs, you have to have a "new" Google account (as opposed to an "old" Blogger account). I hope that when all of you signed up for this, that you created the new Google account.

How will you know?

When you log into Blogger from the main page, which link do you click: Old Blogger or New Blogger? If you aren't sure, go to www.blogger.com and give it a try.

Please drop a comment in this topic and let me know which account each of you have. Hopefully most of you are on New Blogger. If so, I can convert the blog and we'll be in better shape. If not, your old account can be converted to the new style. But we'll want to get everyone's done before the blog is converted.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

MK

More Kulkas

Ok I have looked up some addresses - Uncle Matt I nominate you to do the asking as far as inviting more people to this wonderful site (mainly because I haven't the slightest idea how to)

Vit Kulka (Prague) - vkulka@mac.com

Aunt Licy Rosenberg (Arizona) - rosenbergalice@yahoo.com

Kristof Kulka (Prague) - xkrtecek@gmail.com

Filip Kulka (Prague) - Filip.Kulka@seznam.cz

Alright thats all I can find for now!!

Patrolling the Border

Kulkas

Our visit in Czechoslovakia about over, we began to drive toward the border to Germany. As I remember, the road paralleled the border quite a distance before arriving at the border crossing point. The sentry boxes spaced out one after another made it easy to know exactly where the border was.

It was a lovely day, and we were in no hurry. We had gone some distance before we saw another vehicle on the road. It was ahead of us, moving at a steady pace. As we came closer, we could see that it was an ambulance. It was not signalling with its light, nor using a siren. Its steady pace continued as we drove behind it. This seemed very strange. What would an ambulance be doing just cruising along the narrow highway for miles like that?

I was really curious, and interested in learning more about it.
Felix, on the other hand, was uneasy.

After some miles, there was a wide place in the road, and the ambulance pulled over to let us pass. I didn’t want to, but Felix left no room for doubt. We dutifully passed the vehicle and went on our way ahead of it, leaving it behind.

I think both of us began speculating that this “ambulance” was actually a border patrol,. There was no way of knowing what was actually inside it. Of course they would not want to be observed by anyone, especially foreigners. Who knows what they would have suspected us of, had there been someone trying to escape across the border?

In hind sight I can see that my reaction was so American. I had been raised in a country where the authorities gave me nothing to fear. It never occurred to me that there could be any danger in the situation.

Felix, on the other hand, grew up in a country which had suddently been overrun by Nazis. He could remember walking along the sidewalk with a friend, seeing a Nazi soldier come toward them, and suddenly having his friend’s face smashed by the butt of the soldier’s gun. He and his sister had lived through an afternoon where there was a sudden commotion on the street as they were walking together, and in fear, they ducked into a movie theater for the rest of the afternoon to stay out of harm’s way.

Felix knew better than to challenge anyone in a situation like the one we were in that day on our way out of Czxechoslovakia, and we drove on to Germany without any further incident.

Nevermind Uncle Matt

Nevermind, I discovered the problem, please disregard my last comment to you Uncle Matt

Kulkas

Kulkas

I just wanted to say Thank You to Uncle David for the link to Leo Kulka information. Being the age that I am I can remember him, although not enough to really feel as though I knew him. It was very interesting to read the information Uncle David had posted, and to those of you who haven't gone to that site I would highly reccomend it. I think I remember his daughters - Claire and Lily? Did I get that right? I actually only remember them from when Grandpa Felix died - Pete and I ran around that mansion with them. (Hey Pete - I believe in Spooks. I Believe in Spooks!)

The linguist

Kulkas
Hey Uncle Matt. I've been wondering how on earth you became so familiar with Yiddish terms, and even German ones. I suppose you owe it all to your refrigerator. In any case, clue us in.

Where is stinky homeless?

Kulkas
Hello out there. We haven't heard from you in a while. Is it something we said? Actually, I would be interested in your opinion of the concert you and David went to. I doubt that you grew up with the music of Chuck Berry. So it would be good to get your impression of the show. Thanks.

Atten: Older Kulkas, from the oldest one

Kulkas
One of the members of my church recently mentioned in passing an intern who had served the church some years ago, by the name of Warner. That certainly rang a bell with me. I wonder if any of you remember the Warners staying with you when Felix and I were off on one of our trips. I couldn't remember their first names - do you? I don't know if we mentioned it to you, but we always used to call the Seminary, which is right next to the church I now go to, when we wanted a couple we could trust. They recommended several different people at different times, but the Warners stick out in my memory as probably the best.

Kulkas

Kulkas

How the Other Half Lives

It was the first time Felix had felt safe in visiting Czechoslovakia since he and his family had fled so many years ago. An international engineering conference was being held in Prague in the 1960’s. The country was under Communist control. Although Felix had done a lot of traveling as he advanced in his profession, he had never felt comfortable about going back to his home country while it was under Russian rule. He simply did not know if he could be detained there.

Attending an international conference as part of an American delegation seemed like a golden opportunity for him to safely return to visit the land of his birth. He made the arrangements and off we went.

Our plan was to go a few days early, rent a car and tour some of the country. Rather than going all the way into Prague for our last night before the conference started, we thought it would be nice to find a special place to stay, perhaps in the forested area outside the city. We checked our guide book and were delighted to find a lodge located right in the forest. Of course Felix spoke Czech, so he had no problem phoning and making reservations for us. We were all set for an lovely evening.

We found the accomodations to be quite as welcoming as described by the guide book. My guess is that it had originally been a hunting lodge belonging to some wealthy people. It was elegantly appointed, with a large gathering room on the main floor and a wide, curving staircase leading to the bedrooms upstairs.

We had a light supper downstairs, and retired to our room. Very comfortable it was, providing us with a restful night before the onslaught of the business of the convention.

The next morning I had gotten dressed and wandered to the stairs, ready to see what sort of breakfast was offered. To my surprise, there were several young ladies descending the stairs. They stopped, looking at me as I went past them. I felt I was being sized up.

I’m guessing that this lovely lodge was actually being used to provide a certain sort of recreation for gentlemen in the higher levels of the government. Felix and I had speculated about what life under communisim would be like. Somehow this was not the part we had pictured. Life does hold its surprises.