chuck houston III

My Mom was born 79 years ago today. She died in 2004. Here's a picture of her with my Dad on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary on May 6, 2001

When my Mom died, my brothers and sisters and I prepared a eulogy which read, in part, as follows:

The greatest of the qualities that made Mom such a special person was an abundant and enduring love. It’s a love, as my brother Paul reminds us, that will last forever, through our love for our children, and their children, and so on.

One aspect of that love was her aura of acceptance. She automatically accepted any person that one of her children brought into her life – whether it be a spouse, a roommate, a friend, or a teammate.

She had an infinite capacity for love. Ma could make each of us feel that we were special. She had a way of giving and loving that said “you are wonderful, and exceptional, and I am so proud of you”.

Her love for our Dad was unwavering, and inspired us all.

My sister Kathleen felt Mom’s love as wind beneath her wings. My brother Rich described Mom’s love as limitless.

Here's the last photo of our family before Mom died. It was taken by Tracy on August 8, 2004, about 6 weeks before Ma died.



To even know my Mother, was to have your life made better. My siblings and I had the unbelievable blessing of receiving the greatest of all gifts, the unconditional love of Mom - and Dad.
Here's a photo dated 5-12-04 of Dad with Aunty Anna (middle) and my Mom (right):



Love is Mom’s legacy, a love that is still alive, embodied in my Dad, we children, grandchildren, the entire family and hundreds of others who have been touched directly or indirectly by her love.

Labels: Family

After it started raining 2 days ago, it got really cold, and then the falling rain froze upon contact. They call it Freezing Rain. What a fantastic planet we live on! Every so often, everything just gets coated in ice for a little while. Everything IS definitely covered in Ice. Then, yesterday we got about 1" of light snow, so all of the ice is dusted white. Everything is really gorgeous; albeit covered in ice.


There are a lot of branches bent over all of the trails. I guess it's better to bend, than to break, right? We will take away from today's hike, the metaphorical value of that idea.

Click or maybe even Double-click on these photos to see the ice up close. It's really weird how well it's coated with ice.


Ah - a perfect day for a real acid test for these much-ballyhooed Imperial Walkers or whatever they're called - the Yaktrax Walkers (see my Dec. 31 blog for overview) . Bottom Line? They ruled. I stomped all through the woods, on trails and off. Never slipped once, even on hills. These things are SICK ! !
In the photo below that's my footprint on the right. The one on the left is somebody else. I just stamped my foot next to his footprint with the Yaktrax Walkers on , you can see the criss-cross pattern of the steel ribs that grab the ice and snow - click on the photo to enlarge.

This next photo I took in commemoration of Robert Frost, who I admire. Actually for two purposes - two Frostian themes at this intersection - "The Road Less Traveled" - I love these intersections - you can see i can bear left or bear right in this photo, it made me think of Frost's poem. Also, with all this ice, it reminded me of the disturbing poem, "Fire and Ice."
Some say the world will end in fire,
some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire!
But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate
to say that for destruction ice is also great,
and would suffice.


On the way home, I drove by this Apple Orchard on the Nashua/Hollis town line, right near my house.

Comments, anybody?

Labels: Hollis

Dave LeBlanc and I went shopping today in Nashua, NH. We went to a Cajun place for lunch, a watch repair store, a small bookstore, Express (we bought clothes), Circuit City (Dave), Barnes & Noble (Chuck), and Best Buy (Dave). We also went to Borders Bookstore, because we both had Borders Gift Cards from Christmas. You have to give the big chain bookstores like Borders credit: what a great place to chill out on a dreary, misty January afternoon. Plus, you learn things........

Labels: LeBlanc

click to enlarge photos

What a totally awesome birthday present from Annie BanAnnie -

ANNE - U RULE !

Labels: Anne

Labels: Hollis

At Harvard, there is a building known as Emerson; it's named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, who graduated from here in 1821. After he began suggesting in his essays and speeches that God was within us and within nature in general (as opposed to Jesus Christ), he was ostracized by Harvard, but was honored by the College later in life.
On January 9, Sarah and I were hanging around Emerson Hall, where there is a bronze sculpture of Ralph, seated in a chair. Then, we started goofing around with my camera.......

Labels: Harvard

Labels: Hollis

WOW! I had to go outdoors today and celebrate in the sun - a record warm day with a high temp of 69 Deg F. I loved every minute of it. My "celebration" was tempered somewhat by the knowledge that I am part of that most egregiously selfish generation that is in the process of committing the most unthinkably gigantic breach of intergenerational ethics imaginable: Ruining the planet that we live on, providing a diminished, more hostile environment for our descendents who will wonder - into (hopefully long) perpetuity - what were they thinking? Are humans actually capable of squandering and exploiting the planet, while their own children are left to care for, say 10 million Bangladeshi refugees? I speak of climate change, of course, specifically - but also the environment in general including the biodiversity crisis. I think the best thing to do now is plan who to vote for, particularly at the national level, in the next election. Personally, I'm going to find out which candidates have the strongest position on climate change, and the environment, and vote for those candidates. We have to put people in charge who will work on this.

But HEY ! I'm having a great day anyway.....

Labels: Hollis

On January 3, my colleague and friend Mark Ouchida and I went into the studio at 53 Church St. and made a video broadcast for our distance students on various Statistical procedures and tests that our students are brushing up on for the final exam next week. Hey, that's my second video in two days. Thanks to Chuck IV for figuring out how to grab these screen shots of Mark and me.

Labels: Harvard

My present career is that I have 4 part-time jobs, all at Harvard University. One of the jobs is being a teaching assistant in Statistics in the Harvard Extension School, which is the night school for adults. I teach sections of the class, and give an occasional lecture on study skills, reducing test anxiety, and stuff like that. That's what I was talking about on January 2 in this photo, because the students have a final exam next Tuesday. This photo is actually a screen shot from a video tape, thanks to chuck iv, who figured out how to upload this screen shot. The lecture is broadcast over the internet to our distance students all over the world.

Labels: Harvard

For the record, it was about 53 Degrees F. today, sunny, gorgeous, no snow-cover. A perfect day for hiking around in the woods for 2 hours like Dave and I did today.
Did you wander around out in the woods when you were a kid? I did. We had this place where I grew up in Auburn, Ma. called the Nursery, which was a small wooded area on our street where we ran around and built forts and so forth.
I think that might be why it's still so much fun for me to traipse around out in the woods now. I like exploring around and checking out ponds, and old stone-walls, and stuff like that. This hike was in the Hollis Town Forest, which is only about 4 miles from where I live in Nashua, NH. Dave is still sick from his Filipino adventure, coughing almost continuously. That is, until Dr. Houston prescribed a walk in the woods. I think he'll get better now. I feel better, anyway! Hey anybody want to come up here and hike around in the forest with me? Post your note to "Comments" on this blog, or send me an e mail, or just call me!
hey l8tr
c iii

Wow Check out this gorgeous green blanket that Pam made for me for a gift! I love it.

We had a lot of fun bringing in the new year! This photo is (from left to right)

Don and Brenda Cloutier, and Chris and Pam DePaolo

[click on these photos to see the Yaktrax Walkers close up]


It is interesting to me that it is possible, in our culture, to do something for a 1/2 century or so, and not realize that there is a much better way, easily and inexpensively. My topic? The addition of Yaktrax Walkers to your hiking boots when hiking in slippery conditions.
One year ago, December 30, 2005, I slipped on ice in the woods and broke my left distal fibula (a small leg bone near the ankle). I want to hike in the winter, so I went to EMS and they recommended these Yaktrax Walkers for $19.95. I also bought some snow shoes to start hiking (or is that shoeing?) in when (if) the snow comes.
In the meantime, the Yaktrax were awesome yesterday! It was so much easier to descend slippery slopes, and to maintain traction when bushwacking through the woods.

I can't imagine why I haven't always had a pair of these. One downside was one of the Yaktrax (on my right boot), partially broke during this first use, so now I wonder if they can stand the beating, or if I just had a defective pair. Oh well, back to EMS, hopefully they will exchange them for a new pair.