Welcome to the website for Barbara and Erik Thomas
(and their two cats, Annie and Molly)
Here you'll learn a bit about Erik
and Barbara, what they're up to these days, and view some
photos they've taken since moving to the Colorado
Rockies.
To read Barbara's bio and her
latest news, click here. To read
Erik's bio and latest news, click here.
S A T U R D A Y, D
E C E M B E R
1 2 0 0 7
Donald Carl Pearson
February 17, 1921 — November 21, 2007
While we all knew that "Don" (Barbara's dad)
was dying of cancer, it still came as a tremendous shock when "Pat"
(Barbara's mom) called early the morning before Thanksgiving Day to deliver
the sad news of his passing.
Don was a wonderful man, a loving father and
husband, and his story could easily have been a chapter right out of Tom
Brokaw's The Greatest Generation.
To honor his memory, his eulogy follows, which
provides some great insight into the kind of person he was and the life he
lived.
— A very special thanks to Don's sister Vivian
Ogden for many details of Don's younger years I've included here.
Erik
Don was preceded in death by his
parents, Bernice and Carl Pearson, and his son, Carl William
Pearson.
Don is survived by his wife of
62 years: Laura Lee "Pat" Pearson, their three daughters: Donna Lee
Hanson of Eunice, Louisiana, Barbara Kay (& husband Erik) Thomas of
Boulder, Colorado, Jeanie Marie (& husband Mike) Knowles of Reno,
Nevada, his sister Vivian (& husband Wendall) Ogden of Red Bluff,
California, five grandchildren and one great-grandson.
 Don's
Military Funeral, November 28, 2007
Dear family and friends, we are here today to
say farewell to our beloved husband, brother, father, and friend, Donald
Carl Pearson.
While we all feel a great loss in our lives,
and that this is a time of sadness, it is also a time to celebrate the life
of this wonderful man, a man who lived a full and satisfying life, full of
love, adventure, good times as well as tough times.
Prayer...
Celebrating Don's Life
On February 17, 1921, Don was born to Carl
William Pearson and Bernice May Trenberth at the Los Angeles home of his
grandparents, John and Johanna Trenberth. Shortly after, the family moved to
Santa Barbara where Carl was employed as a tile setter in the construction
of the Santa Barbara Court House and other buildings of note. Don attended
elementary School there before the family moved back to Los Angeles.
At the depth of the Great Depression, 1932,
the family moved to a Gardena one-acre farm. A milk cow, farm birds and a
large vegetable garden were added and became an important part of their food
supply during the last of the Depression and on into World War II.
 Times
were hard during the depression so after high school, Don wanted to help his
family in any way he could so he joined the Civilian Conservation Corp. in
1938 where he fought fires and built bridges for $30 a month. He would send
home $22 of that amount back to his family each month.
Within a week after the Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor in 1941, Don enlisted in the Army Air Corp. Don felt it was his
duty to serve his country and he didn't hesitate. He would have enlisted the
very day following the attack but the lines were too long so he had to wait.
Don listed his sister Vivian (who is here
today), as a dependent and those funds help pay her tuition at college.
While in the service, Don soon volunteered for
gunnery school and after training was sent to England where he joined the
351st Bomb Group, 510th Squadron. Don was to be a tail gunner on a B-17.
His crew was flying their fifth mission when
flak brought them down over Cologne, Germany on February 22, 1944. The crew
parachuted from their plane and Don landed in a field near Düsseldorf and
ironically, was saved by German soldiers from angry farmers with pitch
forks.
 Don
and his friend (and crewmate) Bill Leach stuck together for most of the next
18 months in various military prison camps around Germany and in Poland.
At one point, Don was left with a man who was
shot in the leg, but there was nobody to help him so Don spent his time
scrounging up wire and cloth and doing what he could to help dress the
wound. Don never did find out what happened to that man in the end.
Of his experiences in Germany, Don said: "I
never thought a person could be so hungry. I had no shoes all the time I was
a POW, and the clothes we had were the ones we came with. I did not see any
medical or dental care in any camp. Breakfast was a pitcher of hot water for
six men. We used it to wash in. I never had a shower until the war was
over."
As Germany collapsed in the spring of 1945 Don
said: "the war went right past them and the tanks came up and knocked down
the gates. What a good sight!! The Army set up a kitchen and started feeding
us. White bread was like angel food cake, but the best thing was the
shower."
Don was honorably discharged on October 8th,
1945. He arrived home still quite thin even after being fed for several
weeks during the return trip and while at the hospital before discharge.
Don Meets Pat
It was in Gardena during the war (when Don was
in Germany) that Laura Lee Patterson (whom we all know as "Pat") met Don
Pearson’s parents because of Don's dog Sutt. Pat complained to a neighbor
lady about Sutt and was told in no uncertain terms that Sutt was “Don
Pearson’s dog” and had free rein of the neighborhood.
As Pat began to get to know the neighborhood,
she kept hearing about this man named Don Pearson who was a POW in Germany.
Pat soon became friends with Don’s family and even befriended his dog Sutt.
When Don was finally liberated and returned home to California, he was still
very thin but more importantly was also alive!
After a formal introduction by his sister
Vivian, Don and Pat started dating. It was love at first site and they
married on February 22, 1946.
 Don
& Pat’s first home as a married couple was in a make-shift apartment over
Carl & Bernice’s home in Gardena. They eventually moved to Imperial Valley
in late 1946 where Don was trained as a butcher. Their first daughter Donna
Lee, was born in Imperial Valley in January of '47.
The three of them then moved back to Gardena
where their son Carl William was born in 1950 and Barbara Kay in 1954. In
'55 the Gardena home was sold for a freeway easement, and they moved to
rural Sunnymead—now known as Moreno Valley—where they had horses, chickens,
lots of cats and other farmhouse animals.
Jeanie Marie was born in 1960 and they stayed
in Sunnymead until 1972 when they moved to Reno where Don and Pat (and
Jeanie) have lived ever since.
Don retired in 1987 after a 40-year career as
a butcher, the same year as their daughter Barbara married Erik Thomas.
Good Times and Bad Times
Well, as life would have it, Don and his
family experienced wonderful times as well as some difficult times over the
years.
One story Don told us a couple of times around
the dinner table when Barbara and I came to visit, was about an old "Banty"
rooster back on the farm in Sunnymead. Don always liked to keep Bantam
chickens, and there was this one tough little rooster who was the king of
the flock and would roost in a lemon tree, king of all he surveyed.
 But
the hens kept laying eggs and as the odds would have it, more roosters were
hatched and at one point a gang of 10 young roosters kicked him out of the
lemon tree! But Don, who always had a big heart for animals—and obviously
rooted for the underdog—felt sorry for the old rooster and decided to make
it right.
Pat made soup out of all 10 of those young
roosters and by that same night, the original old rooster was back in his
perch in the lemon tree, king of all he surveyed.
Don also loved dogs, and had several dogs
since Sutt. There may have been more, but the dogs I remember him talking
about over the years were Blue, Joe, and Chip. But Joe—a yellow lab—was his
all time favorite. Don told me the last time I saw him just a few months ago
that he and Joe bonded instantly. They just loved each other.
350X261.jpg) Don
loved to fish and hunt, and would often go out with his son-in-law Mike
Knowles (who married Jeanie Marie) and over the years they brought back many
game animals. Don would turn over his dining room coffee table that was made
from an old butchers block (Mike and Jeanie have that table today), and he'd
dress it out and package and label all the meat. Barbara and I were often
the glad recipients of venison steaks and other cuts.
But as life would have it, things were not
always so good. Don and Pat's darkest time and greatest loss came at the
tragic death of their son Carl in 1980. He was not quite 30 years old.
In preparation for today, I asked each of you
to share your thoughts about Don, the things you remember most about him,
and any special moments or experiences you may have had with him that you
wanted to share with the family. I'd like to read some of these comments
now:
Donna said:
"I remember him working all the
time. He would work 6 days a week and then work in the yard, on the
house, and on the cars. He did everything himself. The yard had a
natural, well-kept appearance and everything growing in it produced
a lot.
He really took care of his family
and everything around them. He didn't complain and he didn't brag,
and he didn't talk about himself much. There was a lot about him
that I never knew. He had his personal struggles, but he kept them
private. He was very strong, both physically and mentally. He was
kind-hearted toward animals. He couldn't stand to see anything be
hungry or suffer. He was a person with character. He respected his
wife and family, he had high morals, and he was a gentleman."
Barbara put it simply:
"Don loved his wife, his family,
and his animals."
Jeanie had this to share:
"Dad was a good role model and
father, and he taught the value of a good work ethic. But he could
still be scared of a little a tarantula!"
Mike said:
"It was always a lot of fun hunting
and fishing together. Even better when playing cribbage together.
Almost like a second dad the way he treated the kids and me."
Gabe mentioned these special moments with his
grandpa:
- Sleeping on a bear-hide rug
- Fishing at pyramid lake
- Burning out the break pads of his
truck because I forgot to take the emergency break off
- Cribbage (of course)
- Letting the cat on the dinner
table... and not shooting it!
- Wrist watch that he found on the
trip to Germany and gave to me (I still have it)
- Trips to the hills to target shoot
- Walking a couple miles to the
house and eating licorice
- Splitting wood
- Smashing cans with a log
- Having his dog Joe fetch his
slippers
Jess said:
"Don taught us all something
special, whether it was how to play cribbage or how to fish, how to
love and how to forgive. He was not a perfect man, but he loved each
of us in his own special way, as we each love him in our own way.
He was a brave man who had seen his
share of battles, and he always rose to the occasion to conquer
those obstacles whether it was at the POW camp, the house fire, or
the cancer that ended his life."
Rachel said:
"He always made sure that we had a
dollar from playing cribbage (usually one that he won off dad!) and
we were always picking on dad. We had fun with grandpa."
Gina said:
"I remember going fishing at
Pyramid and him being a good grandpa."
Jake said:
"I have many memories of grandpa,
from boyhood to adult. He has always given me someone to admire and
respect, I'd always hoped I'd make him proud of me. I hope that as I
face my own personal trials I can do it with the same honor and
tenaciousness as he did. He taught me a lot; of life, respect and
honor. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. I aspire that
one day I may grow to be as great of a man as he was."
And lastly, Pat had this to say:
"We fell in love at first sight,
and it lasted 62 years!" She also said that "Don was a good man and
had a good life. He was proud to serve his country both in the
Conservation Corps and the Army Air Corps. He provided for his
family; was happy with his life; and was not afraid to go."
Barbara has often shared with me little bits
about growing up in Sunnymead, and one common theme was always Don's love
and devotion to his family.
In the Bible, the apostle Paul said this about
love:
If I have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the
flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. For love is patient, love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is
not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps
no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with
the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres.
While Don is no longer here in the flesh, he
will always be in our hearts. Because while we still live, Don lives on in
our memories, and knowing this we can accept his passing.
I know we are all relieved that his suffering
from the cancer is at an end, and we are hopeful that he is now in a good
place, and that we'll get to be with him again one day.
Erik
S U N D A Y, J
U L Y
1 2 0 0 7
Happy 20th in Grand Lake(s)
 Barbara
and I have achieved a pretty significant milestone—at least that's what
folks tell us—in that we've reached 20 years of marriage!
To celebrate this wonderful event, Barbara and
I decided to extend the weekend of June 30th to 3-days and go up to Grand
Lake and do some sailing. We drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park
on Friday morning (wow it's beautiful this time of
 year,
and the Elk Herds are out in force) and we arrived at our destination in the
early afternoon, a very comfortable little hotel that was located right
downtown about 100' from the waters edge.
We spent the weekend on the lake either
sailing or put-putting around with our little 3.5 HP outboard motor. We
explored Shadow Mountain, Grand, and Granby Lakes and had a wonderful
time! We were also able to walk to restaurants and do some shopping when we
weren't boating.
Of the three lakes, we decided we liked Shadow
Mountain Lake best since it doesn't have any buildings on two sides and it
has several really cool little islands on the southwest side with picnic
 benches
where you can just tie off your boat and explore.
On Sunday, just before heading back through
the RMNP, we stopped in Granby to pick up my anniversary present to Barbara,
a very beautiful Aspen bench for our entry-way. It's a perfect addition to
our home and Barbara loves it. It was made to order by a very skilled
craftsman who turned out to be a super guy. We very much enjoyed meeting Tom
and his lovely wife Kris who own Aspen
High Designs, located in a very beautiful Aspen grove just above Lake
Granby.
Happy anniversary Honey!
Erik
T H U R S D A Y, J
U N E
1 4 2 0 0 7
Hook, Line, and
Yellowstone
Grand Teton range in western Wyoming (click
for 3840 X 1024)
Just returned from a wonderful—though far too
short—fishing trip with my dad, brother, and step-mom in south-eastern
Montana just west of Yellowstone National Park. It's become an annual
tradition for five years running, but this was my third year up there.
 We're
lake fishermen (shhhh!), preferring to troll with lures over standing in
rivers casting about with flies—we're not as young as we once were—but
 Lake
Hebgen is really just a wide spot in the Madison River which is considered
one of the best trout rivers in the country, and it's a major destination
for serious fly fishermen from around the world. The Madison flows through
Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, and feeds Lake Hebgen just outside the park
boundaries on the Montana side.
A farm alongside Highway 287 in the middle of
Wyoming
 One
of the best parts of the trip is the drive across Wyoming from Cheyenne
through the heart of the state and the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National
Parks. T he
scenery is just spectacular (click on any image to see a full size
version) so I made frequent stops for pics along the way.
Never saw a bear on the trip, but did catch
some Antelope, a Bald Eagle (sorry, I wasn't quick enough to get a pic),
some Bison and lots of deer. I also took a few shots of the beautiful
mountains, lakes, and rivers along the way, and my dear old dad (Bob at
right), and my brother (Paul at left).
 I'm
really impressed by a cool new tool in Photoshop CS3 (I just upgraded) that
merges multiple photos into panoramas. It's the most impressive new
technology to come along in years!
Each of the panoramas shown here were made
using our relatively cheapo 3 Megapixel digital camera. I simply took
multiple overlapping shots, sweeping across the horizon. But the most
impressive part is that
 I
did it free-handed, with no tripod to steady the camera or to ensure the
overlaps are lined up horizontally. Photoshop's Photomerge technology is
able to find the common patterns in each photo and line them up perfectly
both vertically and horizontally, correctly rotated and adjusted for light
and color to make it look like it was taken from a single shot.
 If
Photomerge could do so well merging photos together that were taken
free-handed using a cheap camera and automatic settings—where exposure times
and focal length can vary—just imagine what quality panoramas one can
achieve using a Nikon digital SLR with manual settings (so they don't vary
between frames)!
Stayed tuned to this site because I will be
posting more panoramas that I'll take with our Nikon D-70S that will make
great desktop wallpaper for folks using three monitors. If you don't have
three monitors, check out the cool new Matrox
TripleHeadToGo that lets you use three monitors from a single graphics
card, and it costs much less than multiple graphics cards! I've got one of
these amazing little gadgets and just love having three monitors! In fact,
this next picture of the Teton Range with the Grizzly sign is my desktop
wallpaper right now:
Teton Range in the Grizzly territory of
Wyoming
Of course, I make my living developing
software so I can justify the multi-monitor setup, but after using three
monitors for a week, you'll be addicted and will never go back to a single
monitor setup.
OK, I digress! Back to the fishing trip! The
first two days were not too productive, with Paul and Dad catching just a
couple—truth be told, I was skunked both days without
 landing
a single fish—but the weather was pretty bad. It was quite cold and damp
with a pretty strong wind across the lake.
We have found over the years that the trout
don't bite much when there's a lot of wind and chop on the lake.
But on Tuesday we had a record day! We caught
(and released) ten Rainbow Trout, one Cutthroat Trout, and a German Brown! I
personally bagged seven of the Rainbows and the Cutthroat.
 (Left:
Ingrid, Paul, and Bob in front of one of our comfortable little cabins)
My trip home on Wednesday was pretty
uneventful, but it was a long hard drive. Getting through
 Yellowstone—while
a beautiful drive—took an extra long time because of two traffic jams caused
by Bison or other wildlife crossing the roads.
Well, I have another set of great memories
spending time with family and fishing in some of the most beautiful country
anywhere.
Grand Tetons across Jackson Lake
I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed
taking them! Cheers,
Erik
T H U R S D A Y, J
U N E
7 2 0 0 7
Unusually Strong Storm for
June - Lost a Pine Tree and Satellite Dish!
What do you do when there are 100 mph gusts in
Florida or Louisiana? Declare a disaster!
What do you do when there are 100 mph gusts in
Boulder, Colorado? Shorten your cycle ride, but not too much because you've
got to get in that workout!
Our house shook something fierce last night,
keeping me up for most of it. But our house has withstood even stronger
winds from time to time during the 35 years it's been on this mountain.
 The
wind blew down one of the pine trees just below the house, but it was a dead
tree we'd been planning to cut down anyway, so this was a nice little bonus! We
also found a few sizable tree limbs around our
home this morning and I am thankful that none of them came through a window
during the night.
We also lost our DirecTV Satellite dish.
The wind ripped it clean off our roof!
Luckily we don't own the dish so DirecTV is going to replace it next week,
but will hopefully mount it in a more secure way.
According to a Louisville (Boulder County)
National Weather Service Lab, (using
Doppler radar), at 10:20 PM last night they clocked 142 mph gusts at 2000 ft above the plains just
east of Boulder. That would be our altitude here on the mountain!
Here is a map of wind speeds clocked along the
front range at low altitude that show winds hitting 92 at the entrance to
our canyon in North Boulder. We expect the wind was much stronger on the
tops of the peaks where we live.
This is from NOAA's National Weather Service
Weather Forecast Office:
Strong Winds Pound Foothills in Northeast Colorado
The Daily Camera also reported gusts to 100 mph
around Boulder county:
read the article here, and local folks with weather stations were
reporting 80 to 92 mph winds in and around Boulder.
We're hopeful that this will be our last big blow until
November or December so we can expect Boulder's beautiful, famous summer
weather to start very soon.
Here's to a mild, sunny, summer with
occasional cooling afternoon showers that keep the mountains green!
Erik
M O N D A Y, M A Y
2 8 2 0 0 7 - M E M O R I A L
D A Y
Summer is Almost Here!
 Now
that it's nearly June I guess it's safe to say that we will not reach the
all-time Boulder snowfall record of 142.9 inches—set back in 1909—unless we
get a big freak snow storm in June!
We did get a false spring in March and all our
Daffodils sprang out of the ground, just to get pounded with another snow
storm (click any picture here to see a full-size version).
According to the Earth System Research
Laboratory (ESRL) we received 122.2 inches (10 feet!) of snow in Boulder
this winter which makes it the 7th snowiest winter since 1897. The child in
me felt that it was really a blast having all those storms, but I sure did
get tired of digging my truck out of the snow!
 We've
seen bears in our backyard twice so far this spring. Our neighbors own two
big, beautiful huskies and these dogs announce the arrival of any bears by
making a major fuss.
Of course they don't get very close to these
huge animals, but once the bears get a few hundred yards off, these dogs
swagger around, feeling proud to have made our mountain safe for humans once
again.
 We
took this photo yesterday morning and shows a female and what appears to be
her year-old cub (looks too big to have been born this spring) on an
outcropping of rock on our next door neighbor's property.
The hummingbirds are out in force! We put a
feeder on our back deck which is highly visible to passing birds and these
tiny little creatures zoom in and out for a snack every minute or so
throughout the day. While the hummingbirds in
 California
were virtually silent, most of the hummingbirds here in Colorado make a very
loud clicking noise when they fly. We haven't figured out yet how they do
that, but they are so cute!
We have Lilacs planted all around our house
and for some reason they didn't bloom at all last year, but this year they
are just incredible!
 The
does are really getting heavy with their babies now and we expect to see the
first of the new fawns in a few weeks. Stay tuned as we'll be posting some
newborn fawn pictures just as soon as we can get some.
 Though
we took these fox photos a few months ago, we thought we'd go ahead and post
them. From our research we learned that
this is actually a Red Fox, which can be black and gray! He was friendly
little guy and came right up to us on a walk in our neighborhood.
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