WOW

What can you say about last nights game - amazing. Not just the final minute but how the Packers REALLY were tough in the red zone!! And Cobb, pretty sure he is the 1st player to get fined for tying an NFL kick-off record! He said God told him to take it out. What would happen if you did not listen to God. What if God said take a knee. "God told me to take a knee". Well, God WOULD be the best offensive coordinator the Packers have right? And . . . .LORD KNOWS the Pack need help on Special Teams.

Brewers? Yea - why is it all the clips I have seen I see the back of Gomez's jersey! Seriously - you rarely want to see the back of a center fielders jersey.

Today is get the final things ready for the Sun Prairie Art Fair tomorrow - problem is I have to pick up 12 large canvas images and put the hardware on AND pack the UHaul and make sure everything is ready. Man I wish I had those canvas YESTERDAY!!!

The interesting thing about the Art Fair is that this will be the 1st time I've done a fair twice. I have the same spot, the weather is exactly the same, the Badgers are playing at home against a bad team (just like last year). It'll be nice to compare.

Then after being on my feet for 12 hours and setting up and down a pretty sturdy canopy I have to wake up Sunday early for 18 holes of golf for the leagues banquet, FORGETTING that I'll miss IRONMAN AGAIN. No league banquet for me next year - I have to get shots of the IRONMAN competition - ching ching!

Sunday is 911 and one thing that I have been hearing about that time was how sports were so so important to Americans. After 911 Americans needed some sort of normalcy and it was sports that help a lot of people.

I do not have a lot to say but felt I needed to say SOMETHING - now I'll get back to moving stuff into the garage.

Have a great weekend!

OH - this is so funny! I had tears in my eyes!

Louis CK Punches Dog In The Face To Save Her Life



Rod

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Hydro Street Brewing Company - Update

I met with Aaron and Sandye today at what will be Columbus's new Brewery - Hydro Street Brewing Company.

Aaron is shoveling through yards and yards of paperwork and (side note - 90 calories of Coke is like two gulps! - I need another one). . . . . . and Sandye was waiting for some sort of contractor who it seems keep showing up late or never.

There is no firm opening date but things are moving along at Island Speed. However I believe they receive their Liqueur License tonight, one of only a couple available (I did not know the Holding Cell went belly up, what a shame).

However I did get to look at the plans and talk about the process and frankly - I am totally pumped.

Here is what the place looks like RIGHT NOW!!

 

As you can see Mr. Frey is trying to sell some carriages and I'm thinking he is trying to talk Aaron into the idea that all seating will be in carriages (I think there is an ordnance stating all bar stools must now be in a carriages) . . . (you would not know that because the city website only gets updated once per decade).

  

BUT if Aaron holds his ground there will be seating for 49 customers, not 50 (there is an ordnance saying only 49, at 50 you get 25 penalty points (that is a new ordnance and if you would ever go the to City Counsel Meetings you would know that).  

Speaking of City Council Meetings there is one Tuesday night and I'm thinking about going there and suggesting we get a Town Crier.  I have a photo of what the Mayor would look like if he became the town crier.   At least we would know since THE CITY WEBSITE NEVER UPDATES!!

In fact on the website it says: Have you got a question for someone "at City Hall"?
   Got a suggestion?
      Or a complaint?
Well.... here's your chance....   Just click on Request Tracker
      to get in touch with someone in city government who can (and will) respond. 

Well - I registered over a week ago and am STILL waiting for my secret password so I can ask a question.  The website says they pick up brush every other Tuesday - STILL WAITING!!!  

Anyway - the small Brewery will be a 1 barrel a day system.  Hoping to have 10 taps with one of those taps being an R&D tap with experimental beer.  

A barrel is 43 gallons and a gallon is 8 pints so each day 344 pints will be brewed up (about).   All sorts of styles(Miller, Miller Lite, Bud Bud Light, Schlitz Light, Steel Reserve, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Natty Light, Gluek, Beer 30).  

mmmm Doesn't the above look good?  LOL

OK OK - I JOKE!!  

The actual brewing will be enclosed behind wrought iron gates (as per law). A brewing area can not be open to the public.  There will be a bar and some food options but I forgot to ask about that part.

Anyway - something to look forward too in the cold months ahead.

Cheers
Rod

 

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Giving the Cheif of Police A Way Out.

First let me say that the Chief of Police and I are good friends and I totally respect him and his authority (which actually means I've never met the dude and I'm hoping I don't get pulled over because my tail light is not bright enough).

This whole mess was caused by the fine officers in blue when they posted on Facebook "There will be some changes made to the parking restrictions near the elementary / middle schools this week. Watch for signs."

After a few comments/complaints there was a smack down from the Facebook police stating "The changes on Dickason Blvd. were presented to the council for approval last month - during a public meeting. Additionally, these restrictions were always in ordinance under Sec. 98-78(b). This is nothing new except that I have ordered signs." 

The problem is for the past 20 years residents on the EAST side of Dickason Blvd have been parking on the street and all of a sudden and without warning it is now NO PARKING.

Response was " Every ordinance has the potential to affect every resident."   Notice the word "Potential"  There is no "Potential" here  - it has a very LARGE affect. 

"People need to be more proactive and ask questions and attend meetings, etc.Take more of an interest and ownership and responsibility in what happens."

"We have a city website and we post notices in public buildings (which we all regularly walk into?)  and have a city cable access channel and advertise in the local paper. Additionally, I use social media to communicate as well."

I then proposed that the City Council hire a Town Crier so the citizens would be better informed and I believe at the next meeting I'll bring this up!  

I mean very few people have Charter, very few people read the Cbus Journal (I did and never saw the notice) and really - who goes to the website regularly.  I signed up on the site to voice a comment but can not as of yet because I have not gotten the magic return email that allows me.


SO - here is the deal - the actual ordnance 98-78 b. (1) states " On the west side of the west lane of South Dickason Boulevard from West School to Fuller and on the north side of the 200 block of Fuller Street except for school buses waiting for or engaged in loading or unloading schoolchildren.  

I believe the parking in question is on the EAST side of the EAST lane South Dickason.  So any tickets that have been given out (if any, I don't know) are in violation and should be ripped up.

I do not see any changes to the ordinances the website.

Since all of a sudden everyone is looking at ordinances (thanks to the Chief) I did see that ordinance 106-35 states: A beautification committee as defined in ordinance 78.33, shall consist of three citizens appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the council in January of each year, for three year terms, one each three years.

Who are these citizens?  I know Main Street Org had a committee but they were not "appointed by the mayor".

Just saying.

ANYWAY - I gotta get to work.  It's been a very busy week for me (seriously it has).

OH - saw Who'sIn on TV last night talking about the F&M Bank AND I have heard rumors of a big going away get together at The Kurth Wednesday night for Who'sIn who has one foot in Florida and one in Columbus (meaning I would not want to be in Nashville looking straight up!).

More on that when I hear plans.

Have a Laural and Hardy Weekend!

If you see me pulled over honk and wave

geez - is the new Hurricane hitting Columbus?  It's raining at .85 inch per hour at the moment.

Rod

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Mystery Solved

I tell ya! "A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One" is an awesome book. Few times in my book reading life have words had a physical effect on me. There have been a few times when I reach the end of a chapter and while the events were not exciting the words and how things transpired made something in me move. . . . .or it could have been that pizza I ate.
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The Columbus Fire Department and the Columbus Police Department have let the citizens of Columbus down this week. First the Fire Department tells a developer it's OK to burn brush for 4 days south of Cbus. Who cares if there is smoke drifting into peoples houses 24/7 for 4+ days straight. After all the Chief does not live there. Who cares that when you wake up a 4:00 in the morning you see flames from an unattended fires.

Then the Police Department decides on a whim there will be no parking near the elementary/middle schools. Of course they don't care about the city residents who park on the street and now must find new places to park.
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On the brighter things. I have watched way to many Brewer games this year and I have noticed behind the batters in the front row was a woman who was keeping pitch by pitch scores. She always had the same exact seat. Now I'll admit that the woman in question was rather good looking. The thing that got me was that she seemed to always be alone and at every game. Different people were always next to her. Who was she? A players wife? Someone working for the Brewers? She was always very "into" the game.


Mystery solved.

Adubya did some research and it seemed other people had been wondering the same question. She is referred to as "Front-Row Amy" on WisSports.net. According to WisSports.net "Apparently, she has had season tickets for three years, and comes to the games by herself. She was in the third row the past few years, but was able to move up to the first row this year. She also commutes from Oshkosh for the games...and the clincher as far as convincing me that this is "our girl," she said that likes to be there alone, so she "can focus on the game and keep score."

Her actual name is Amy Williams(42). She is on Twitter, where she describes herself as "the most passionate Brewers fan you will ever meet."

She also says there that she loves to dance and work out.

Here is a Twitter post - guess she is not a Cub fan

Amy Williams@BrewerGirl823Amy Williams@ Miller Park pkg lot. Sum cubs fans r blasting that stupid song..cubs r gonna win 2day..Really?? Think u just got swept be the 28 Aug via txt

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Last night of golf was last night (odd sentence there).  Hit the ball well, didn't score but I was making contact with authority (for the most part). 
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Big day in sports  Brewers Badgers and Packers.  I put $10 on the trifecta.  Brewers to win, Packers to cover 4 and Badgers to cover 35.  If all of those come in I with $56.

It's a very very silly bet but how often can a person play all three games! 

Don't worry about the Brewers.  They are playing like a NORMAL good team now, can't expect them to win 75% of all their games.  If they win today (they are huge favorites) the Cards have only gained 1 game.   Heck, if the Brewers lose all 6 games tot eh Cards they are still up by what 4.5?

Stay cool tonight!

Rod  

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USS Cobia

Mary mentioned the U505 in the comments yesterday. That was the sub that had the Enigma codes for WWII. Actually the whole Enigma Code thing is interesting as we had cracked Enigma way back in the late 1930s. But the Germans kept changing the way they used the codes.It was an excellent machine used stupidly.

ANYWAY - the U505 was mentioned a lot in the book "Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson . . one of the longest titles I had ever seen. Excellent book (I skipped past the personal "how we got to this point" section).

ANYWAY,  the USS Cobia was pretty interesting but was NOT built in Wisconsin but is "like" the 28 subs which were built in Manitowoc during World War II

The USS Cobia was a Gato-class submarine which formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.

USS Cobia 

Her first war patrol was bound for the Bonin Islands where she sank 3 ships one of them the Nisshu Maru, a troop transport carrying a Japanese tank regiment to Iwo Jima. Only two tank crewmen of the 26th Tank Regiment died but all of the regiment's 28 tanks went to the bottom of the sea.

Main gangway leading to the bow. Opening about 2x3 feet.

Second and third patrols were pretty non-eventful . .well OK I suppose it was pretty eventful for THEM at the time, attacked by Japanese aircraft and she rescued two Japanese sailors who had been adrift for 40 days.

 The Cobia carried 80 personal and patrols were normally about 2 months.  Of those 80 only 15 EVER got to go topside for fresh air - the other 65 never saw the outdoors for 2 months and stayed below in 80-90 degrees and 80-90 % humidity.  Showers were few and you COULD smoke on board!  Awesome!

Christmas Tree panel showing what hatches were open or closed

Her fourth patrol she sank two sea trucks. One of the targets resisted with machine gun fire which damaged Cobia's radar equipment and killed Ralph Clark Huston Jr., a 20 mm gun loader and the submarine's only casualty of the war.

The radar on the Cobia at the Museum is still operational and is the oldest working radar in the world. She also rescued seven surviving crewmembers of a downed Army bomber. One of the crewmembers, Jean Vandruff. You can read his account of the story here.  Here is a photo of him being rescued by the Cobia. 

After Engine Room (DJ in the middle).

Fifth and sixth patrols had some bad luck. She attacked a cargo ship, but was driven deep by depth charges hurled by minelayer Hatsutaka. I did not realize that depth charges were not meant not SINK a sub but to push it to the surface for capture. Sinking was just a plan "B". She could go to a depth of 300 feet.

Bow torpedo tubes

What got me about being inside was there was that like the above photo - not one part of the sub would have been nice to bounce off of in an attack.  STUFF everywhere and the above photo looks much more roomy then it really was.

There are parts of the ship I could not get into as they were too small for a tour.  The conning tower the actual engine room and many rooms were smaller then a bathroom stall.  The actual toilets, of which there were 5(?) had a process of 9 actions to flush.  Miss one of those things and the next guy got "freckled".    Showers were used to store food so no showers.

So that is my story - I'm hoping to get up close and personal at some point on the USS Cobia.

Have a great rest of the week, turning HOT and then turning COLD.  Your typical late summer heat up, violent weather, and then cool down. 

Thursday the Packers play, the Badgers play and the Brewers play, lets make it a trifecta!

Cheers!

Rod

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So So Close - uber long blog

Spent a couple days in Door County - sort of a business trip to get a few more photos for the Pumpkin Patch Festival in Egg Harbor. While my canopy is looking good for around the Madison area if you take out the big threee pieces of canvas that have the State Capitol I have some wall space to fill.

But first - I need to tell a story of Milo. As you all know Milo hates coffee, can not stand the smell and will go out of his way to rid the world of coffee.

Last Sunday I had made coffee and Milo was outside catching more mice (there is a shit load of mice it seems in the area as we get a present every morning.) With him being outside it was safe to have coffee so I set the cup on the little area above the couch so DJ could grab it.

I sat down and was reading the paper and DJ was reading and we here MEOW!!   I go let Milo in and go back to the paper.  All of a sudden a Netflix envelope drops on my head and we look up and there is DJ's full cup of coffee, literally, wobbling on the edge of the ledge a few feet above our heads with Milo, I swear smiling over it like a cheshire cat.    MILO!!!!

Since I'm on a Milo thought wave.  We left Milo and Sierra along to protect the house and left a huge bowl of food and water for them to munch on.  We get home and open up the door and there is the garbage on the floor (oops), empty bowls and the entire canister of cat food, upside down on the floor. 

Not only does Milo know how to open the sliding doors to the house (unless we lock them) but he has also learned that knocking food in containers off the counters, SOMETIMES, opens them spilling the contents (like a dozen cupcakes) onto the floor for any animal to eat.  Blake did not feel good the night of the cupcakes!
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Door County was pretty nice except for the complete lack of cloud cover. Clear blue sky which I loath for photography.  But, I made do. One thing that was brought to my attention was that "Vince" might not be a big seller.  Seems over half of the cars up there were from Illinois.  I need to make it down to Chicago.

We were only up for one and a half days so basically we just drove around looking for targets of opportunity.  Had a vague plan but many times it's the surprise's that make the best shots.  We traveled up to Deaths Door where the ferry takes people to Washington Island and took some shots but not really anything to get excited about. However at Gills Rock I saw a scene flash by and DJ commented there might be a shot so we stopped and talked to some fishermen.

Here is the results.

Gills Rock

 This looks MUCH better large - I tried several things and everything just looked like a photograph that anybody could take.  So I tried it out a little with the same technique I used on the wooden boat panoramic.

After stopping there for a while we went to Peninsula State Park so Blake could walk his favorite trail - the Hemlock Trail.  He LOVES this little hike as it's soft on his feet and he is just in heaven.  We let him go and with a huge grin on his face he leads the way.  If you know Blake he is like walking a sack of potatoes but get him on this trail and just takes off wagging his tail.  Well, it's a long trail (for him) and is downhill the first half mile.  We started the 2nd half and found a bench and were "resting" as he was huffing and puffing and we had him sit for a few moments. 

He would have none of the sitting.  He looked at us with a huge grin and happy sparkling eyes and  BARK!!    WOW - he never barks.  He wanted to GO GO GO.  Remember, he's 14 years old and according to the UK Kennel Club the average life span for a Cardigan Welsh Corgi is 11.7 years.

Well - we started again and he was a little trooper huffing and puffing and we made it.

Have you ever seen what the Iron Men looks like the day after the race?  I've always wanted to push them over and run because I knew they could not catch me.  Blake was sore on all for legs.  He had problems getting out of his bed, the sides were too high!  He spent the next day in the car sleeping and as of Monday morning he is still very sore and can not move a lot - I think I'll have to call the vet for pain pills.

We went to Cave Point as I had an idea for a shot but once we got there - it was CRAZY busy. Two bus loads of Japanese (not that I have a problem with Japanese), a biker gang, a group of knuckleheads swimming, and 4 or 5 large families, yea, not a great time for a serine scenic photo.

However - as luck would have it - the very first thing I did was stop at the entrance and snap off some photos. It was nothing I had not seen before . . . but maybe I just did not SEE it before.  Maybe it was the lighting (we went from clear blue to total blah cloud cover in like 10 minutes).

I had walked through that opening every year for the last 40 years but on that particular day something drew me to the scene. 

Opening to Cave Point

 
And as I was taking that shot (actually I ran back to the car to get a remote sensor of the camera) the cycle gang roared in, the buses can in, the knuckled head were looking to a place to swim in Lake Michigan and so forth.

OH - I forgot - another shot from Gills Rock.

I'm still trying to figure out how to crop this. In a 12x36 pano?  I don't know - it's vexing me - maybe a perfect square?   Here is the pano.

Maybe a vertical pano - I don't know.  I swear I took more shots but seems I didn't - the round bobber things are the stars!

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Seagulls - wanted to get a seagull perched on something - never happened!

So I took some shots of seagulls in flight - they looked like snapshots of seagulls in flight that anybody could take (like me).   Hey - I'm tossing things out there to hear any comments (good comments) - sometimes I stumble on something (Rainy Day in Madison was one of those).

 

Jonathon

 On the way back to Columbus we stopped in Algoma for a lighthouse shot - BTW - the temperature in Algoma Friday at 2:30 was 68 degrees!!

Also on the way down from Door we stopped at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum to tour the USS Cobia.  I have a bunch of shots on the website of the inside and will be making some posters but here is one of the outside of the ship.

I'll have more tomorrow - this is getting rather long!

Warm end of the week coming up!

Have a good one.
Rod

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doughnut shake down

The biggest news I can think of is that finally, FINALLY police have cracked the doughnut shake down that was happening in Greece. Seems two Bulgarian men and a Greek wrestling champion were using violence to bully their way into the doughnut bigness. Police had to pose as undercover doughnut vendors - WHEW!!!
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Anybody see the celebrations in Libya? Why can't we in America go nuts and shoot guns in the air with wild excitement - that would ROCK!!! Think about how a Green Bay Packer game would be so much more fun if after a touchdown we were allowed to fire indiscriminately into the air.

There was one scene in Libya last night where a group, looking a lot like Mad Max characters, were kneeling for a camera cheering and a group was standing behind them. All of a sudden the kneeling group started hooping and screaming and shooting their guns, INCHES from the heads of the guys standing in the back (who looked VERY surprised).

Celebrations are so fun!
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Game of Thrones - AWESOME book!   Seriously!!!
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Brewers are on the cover of Sports Illustrated and I have now heard a few national sports people at ESPN wondering if the Phillies are actually the favorites anymore. You know this little winning streak is looking less and less like a streak but more like . . normal. The second half plus a few extra has the Brewers 33-11. NOT too shabby. Can you call 44 games an anomaly? I've been putting money on the Brewers every game - not even carrying who is pitching. Just plunk it down like a monkey! Doing fairly well :-)

*******
Packers are 9 point favs over Indianapolis Friday night.
Packers are even money to win more then 11.5 games, the only other team to have an over/under of 11.5 is New England.

Green Bay is 2nd in winning the Super Bowl behind the Patriots. +650 (bet 100 win $650)

Wisconsin is -180 to win MORE then 9 games this season (meaning bet $180 to WIN $100, plus your $180 back).
The Badgers have a 25 to 1 chance of winning the BCS Championship.
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I just saw they opened a new Zip Line in the Catskills - it's 4.6 miles long and 600 feet above the ground at some points. THAT WOULD BE AWESOME. DJ and I almost went on a zip line in Squaw Valley - we were pumped but . . . . Closed on Mondays!! RATS!!!

Columbus should have a zip line - maybe from the water tower to . .UDEY Damn!!! 
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Walker Walker Walker - not a great week for the Cheesehead Pharaoh. First . . did you hear his announcement about how many jobs he created last month? hmmmmm I didn't either. Two moths ago he had a big presser and was touting 9,000 new jobs. This month all was quite. Move on.

OH - Wisconsin LOST 12,500 jobs! (damn liberal Democrat's are to blame).

Then with the recalls going badly for him (they went very badly, not catastrophic but very very bad) he is feeling some pressure. So he decided that it's time to talk to his socialist friends "and mend fences, let's all work together".

Well, his little butt buddy Fitz had to vacuum his dog and could not make it to the big meetings. In fact all of the Gov's buddy's had some other very important things to do . . . . geez, it was almost like they were distancing themselves from him.

I'm sure State employees will get a HUGE jolt today or tomorrow when they see the paychecks - NOT AS ADVERTISED!!! A TON comes out this check. Hundreds of dollars extra. Instead of $80 for Health insurance, $250!! SWEET, that will make people happy.



OH - interesting graph of the GOP hopefulls.

Lastly - you have all heard that Obama's approval ratings are declining.  No worries - they are well within the norms of a President.  The thing that is out of normal is that his likeability ratings are still very strong.

Have a great couple days!

Rod

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