While playing with sphere making yesterday, I got thinking about the people I have known as sphere makers and their influence on me.  Two in particular come to mind.

Frank always called me "brat".  When I first meet him, he had just made his first sphere machine.  You would never know he was from a affluent family in Bakersfield, CA.  Cantankerous beyond belief.  He was responsible for finding my first saw to buy.  It was an ancient highland park that looked like it had seen better days.  Jim and Louis came with me to pick it up.  I was driving our Jeep pulling their beat up trailer.As we headed up the Grapevine on the I5, it was raining.  No problem there.  

We didn't stay and chat at Frank's.  I know he was upset and probably thought how rude we were.  Climbing the Grapevine to get back to LA, the rain had turned to snow.  Under it was a layer of ice.  For the first 2 miles we followed a snow plow.  The problem with that was it just scraped the snow off the ice and made it more slippery.  Doing what I thought best, I passed the snow plow.  Louis was screaming the entire time.  

By the time we got home, Alan was in a state.  Frank had sat down to watch the news after we left.  They were broadcasting blizzard conditions over the Grapevine.  He kept calling Alan every 15 minutes checking on us.  Pre cell phones, Alan had no way to know where we were.10 minutes after we got through, they closed the Interstate.

I will save Herm for another time.

Thanks for reading.......