Next Stop - ONE MILLION plus The Fighting Finches Chpt #1

So I passed over the 500,000 mark yesterday in pages read. The next stop is ONE MILLION and looking at the stats I'll predict that goal will be reached Tuesday September 17th 2019. Mark it on your calendars . . unless another movie comes to Columbus, then I might move up the date.
----------------------------------
Brett Brett Brett - here is my prediction - Brett's ankle is holding out on him and he will not be able to start the season with Minnesota - HOWEVER - that bye week in week #4 will be just enough and with Minnesota playing Dallas, Green Bay, NY JETS and New England, Brett will come riding in on his white horse to save the day!

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune states that the Vikings offered Favre an extra 3 million to play this year! Here is the kicker - The Vikings want a new stadium and if the Vikings do not have a good season no stadium. However if they have a good season and make the playoffs there is a much better chance for a stadium.

Brett has Minnesota by the balls.
------------------------------------

Yesterday I had the honor of meeting my 3rd author, David Relin at the Homeless bookclub of Madison. David wrote "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" (again - a rather long title).  It was a #1 NY Times Best seller.

The book's title comes from a Balti proverb: "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family...

One review of the book  "Excellent account of one man's work to really make a difference. Instead of treating the people of Asia and the Middle East like enemies, he realizes the true cause of many of the world's problems (lack of educating women) and, unlike politicians and blowhard conservative talk radio propagandists, he actually does something about it."

In the interview one thing I remember was when David wrote "The best way to change a country is to educate the little girls" . Another thing I remember very well was that this was David Relin's very first book, he was a journalist before and his job was to interview stars who he said were always amazingly boring.   So his moto is "Listen to the stories of the powerless and tell those stories to the powerful". 

On a side note - while at the homeless bookclub one of the dudes had made curried deviled eggs!  WOW - those were the best deviled eggs I had EVER had.   Next time I make devilish eggs (which will be the first time) I will add curry.
----------------------------
Kim asked what had happened on The Bachlorette and as we all know Ali picked Roberto but the truly magical moment that you just can not script happened the day before the final episode. 

Ali broke up with Chris one day early, before their final date. She did not think it fair that they have one last date - she had made up her mind.   Chris was a very very family oriented guy. His mom had passed away 3 years earlier and frankly he was still getting over it.  Just before his mom died she said to him "look for me in rainbows" and then she passed. He told this story to Ali when they were talking about emotions and opening up and so forth.  It was pretty moving as you could see Chris still felt pain.

So - Ali breaks up, there are tears everywhere as Chris really thought he was going to propose the next day.  Ali walks to her end of Bora Bora for a cry and Chris is devastated in his little hut.  Then out of nowhere, a perfect rainbow appears!  

Ali says all she could say was Oh My God, she said the entire crew was stunned and many were in tears at seeing the rainbow as this was a very amazing event, a perfect, whole the rainbow.  Chris goes from intense grief as the love of his life had just walked out to feeling that his mom was there with him looking down.

Wow.
 ---------------------------------------

The Fighting Finches - Federal Writers' Project - I found a book written in 1937 composed entirely of stories told to W.P.A. field workers as they collected Wisconsin folklore about the Fighting Finches! It's outstanding if you are a history buff.   There were 200 mimeograph editions originally published and is out of print at this time.

Here is Chapter #1

More chapters to come. 

stay cool today - it'll be a scorcher!

I believe it was the Wood Fairy that asked about humidity this year.  A week or so ago I mentioned that while the average High temp was only like 1 degree higher then average the average low was 6.6 degrees above average.  I attributed this to high humidity.

Well - NOAA now says that June/July 2010 will go down as the most humid  EVER!  The average dew point was 63.1. The average dew point LAST June/July was 56.7.  63.1 is the TOP average dew point ever for a 2 month period beating 1978.

The dew point at this moment is 71!!

Have a great day!
Rod

Read More

The Fighting Finchs of Fort Atkinson

TODAY - the 500,000th page of this blog will be read  - I WIN!!!!!   I outlasted Truth in Columbus Politics!   !!!  
 ----------------------------------------
I was looking around for something on the net and somehow came across this old photograph of the Fort Atkinson bridge.  I believe it is from the 1910s.

Well one thing leads to another and I find myself reading an article that was printed in 1936 about the birth of Fort Atkinson as a town (as opposed to a military fort).

It's all rather mundane with sentences like "In the spring of 1837 E. N. Foster and Alvin Foster joined their brother, Dwight, at Fort Atkinson, bringing their families with them" and yada yada yada and "first year the pioneers knew marriage, and birth, and death", yada yada yada and "In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek succor, but of thee, O Lord,"  blah blah blah  (succor? I think they are talking about soccer).

But then it get's interesting and if they would have taught this stuff when I was in JFK Luthor Junior High I might have turned out to be a more responsible citizen.This sounds more like a movie . . or even a sitcom!

In 1932 the government made a call to it's citizens to "fight that redoubtable warrior, Black Hawk"  (redoubtable means "arousing dread" but that just sounds dumb) and a family named Finch, then residing in St. Joe, Michigan, immediately offered all its available war material--the father and twelve sons.  YEA PA LIKE GO KILL INJUNS!!!  WHOO HOOO!!  This sounds good already!!

Well - they got through the Indian war without a scratch and settled near Fort Atkinson, on the  east side of Lake Koshkonong actually.  It seems the residents of St. Joe viewed their departure with some great relief.

At there little Finch camp they would have periodic "war-dances", obliviousness to the existence of other settlers. A few days after they had setteled in they unmercifully beat a Norwegian who was a previous settler in their locality.
 

"Sheriff Bird, of Dane County, hearing of the affair, repaired to the dominion of the Finches, for the purpose of asserting his power as an officer of the law (I picture him as Barny Fife); but he found the belligerents to be so numerous that he wisely concluded not to make a single-handed attack. Returning to Madison for reinforcements, he met and informed Gov. Dodge of the situation.
 
"Exhaust the power of the county, Sir," said Governor Henry Dodge "and if that don’t do, I’ll call out the militia, by God, sir. If that Finch tribe is going to run this Territory, I’ll find it out mighty soon, now I tell you."
 
Sheriffs Bird and Cole arrested one of the tribe, by exercising much strategy, and got him to Fort Atkinson. Ben and Nat Finch caught up with them just as they were sitting down to a hot dinner, but the doughty officials (Andy must have been with Barney) got the drop on them and they departed for reinforcements. At Lake Mills they took a new road to Madison, but left instructions with the proprietor of the tavern to tell any questioners they had taken the old road.

"The noise of the wagon rolling over the frozen earth had scarce died away in the adjacent forest, when ten men, armed with rifles and pistols, each mounted, appeared in front of the tavern door at Lake Mills. It was the Finch brigade. Alighting from their jaded animals (the animals were jaded?)  they filed into the bar-room, and, by way of introducing themselves to the affrighted inn-keeper, called for "the best in the shop."

"Did you see three men in a wagon pass this way?" queried Ben Finch, diving into the inner recesses of a corduroy coat and bringing forth a roll of "wildcat scrip" with which to settle for the drinks.

"Yah! Tree vagons and a men--da old road py Madison," quickly replied the inn-keeper.

"The old road, eh? The give us another dose, and we’ll take the same route," replied Finch, drawing his slouch hat mysteriously low upon his weather-beaten brow.

"To the great relief of the inhabitants of Lake Mills, the Finch cavalry were soon in their saddles and galloping away over the hills in the direction of Madison."

And that is where the story stops!  You have to make up the ending or wait for Universal Studios to come out with the movie!    I'm still looking for more information - this sounds awesome!!

The Great Lakes Archaeological Research Center has actually conducted a dig of the Finch Site near Fort.

I'll continue looking for more wild and wacky Finch Family stories. 

----------------------------------------

PIZZA - we had the New Your Style and Neapolitan in the blog and today, Sicilian style.

Also known as a "square slice," because it's cut into squares. Sicilian pizza has "dough" over an inch thick. Similar to the dish known as tomato pie (I'll have more on the Trenton tomato pie this month).

Sicilian pizza are also known as Sfincione (meaning thick sponge) or Sfinciuni in Sicilian and instead of a "crust" like Rocky's it has a thick bread, baked on a sheet, not in a deep-dish pan, and topped with a sprinkling of leftovers, rather than coated thickly with anything.

The standard toppings for Sicilian pizza include bits of tomato, onions, anchovy, a few herbs, and a strong cheese like the Sicilian cheeses caciocavallo or pecorino, though Parmesan from northern Italy is sometimes used—in any case, an alternative to the mild mozzarella generally found on American pizza. The Sicilian pizza—like Greek pizza—is a distinct type of pizza, significantly different from American pizza.
--------------------------------

Now I'm hungry!

I went to the use to be "blight area" in Columbus but now it's "charred ruins area" which is actually BETTER looking.  These are from the site after I stepped over the Police barrier which seemed pretty easy to get across! (no yellow tape can hold ME). 

ya just can't beat a good fire to fix blight!  At least now the Amtrak people will say it must have been a nice place before it burned down. instead of - "WOW what a  skanky looking blight town, stay in the train".

BTW - R and R Construction who owns the blight have an annual revenue of about $372,000.  Let's see how long it takes them to unblight the area now. 


Have a great Tuesday!  


Rod

Read More

Flushing Beer Cans Down the Toilette

I wish I knew who the kids were that lit the R & R Construction shed on fire as I would like to personally thank them for ridding Columbus of yet another blight! I had taken a number of photos of the blight area in the past and commented to myself that it was a fire waiting to happen. Good riddance and well done.

I wonder if we could hire those kids for a few other places? I know "I" never played with matches when I was a kid!
--------------------------------------

I hope everyone has embraced the brand new crop of Flood Mosquitoes which hatched Friday night! They are so wonderful!
----------------------------------

I am loving the commingling of recycle stuff  - makes things so much easier.  Now I don't have to flush all my beer cans and bottles down the toilet.  I only have to worry about the old furniture and microwaves getting stuck now. 
 ---------------------------------------

Did everyone enjoy Maxwell Street Days in Columbus this weekend? Did you get down to the Brat stand Saturday in the boulevard?  You didn't? hmmmmm - I better check out the Columbus Chamber of Commerce website - they are the ones that put these things on!  Maybe they forgot to tell anyone! OH - they were probably way to busy greeting 800 out of town visitors . . . no no actually . . . . "I" did that!

Columbus was the epic center for the 400 mile SAGBRAW bike tour this year and I was the only one in Columbus that cared (well a few friends stopped my)!  Main Street provided me with some talking points and I thank Kim at East James Gallery  (or is it West James - it's more like North West James I suppose)  but besides Kim and I . . . . no one cared!

I talked to 4 separate couples from Canada, a family from Denver (they could not believe how humid it was here), a group from the coast group, a family from Iowa and Michigan, California and some from Arizona and all over the U.S.  They spent an entire day in Columbus looking around, riding their bikes and looking for things to do.  I believe the average age of the rider was about middle 40s.

Five times I had people come up to me and ask about the Chamber of Commerce (they had tried to contact SOMEONE from Chamber) and I had to explain that no one actually knew who they are and I was representing Main Street Org (even though I'm not actually part of Main Street). 

Having hay rides or some sort of transportation would have REALLY been nice as people could not get around the town once they were all set up!  Other smaller towns are really going all out to welcome SAGBRAW!  They see it as an opportunity.   Not Columbus!

The town to busy to welcome guests! 

However - I had a great time being the Columbus greeter.  I put up my canopy and spent 6 hours apologizing and talking up the town, telling people where to eat within walking distance (as there was no transportation) an so forth.

This couple in the photo rode in from Minneapolis. Took about 4 days. It's a cool set-up they have.  Each bike is a separate entity so each person can ride in whatever gear they want, lean into corners at their own comfort level.  And so forth.  They have had 6 bikes hooked up together at one point. 

 -------------------------------------

Now that we can pretty much forget about the Brewers and with Packer games soon one of the things I love is when the Madden ratings come out.  If you are not familiar with Madden ratings.  The computer football game is a simulation and they take every player and rate them in 49 separate categories. It's a pretty amazing system. Then they give an over all rating  from 1 to 100.  85 being a very good player, 90 or more is ALL-Star quality.  Anything below 80 is a replacement level player.

Below I have the Packer ratings. 

On a side note I was looking at some sports books and as far as the American Bettors are concerned - the favorites for the Super Bowl are Green Bay and the New York Jets.

Scott Wells C 76
Evan Dietrich-Smith C 65
Charles Woodson CB 97
Al Harris CB 85
Tramon Williams CB 75
Brandon Underwood CB 67
Will Blackmon CB 63
Jarrett Bush CB 63
B.J. Raji DT 79
Anthony Toribio DT 63
John Kuhn FB 73
Korey Hall FB 72
Quinn Johnson FB 66
Nick Collins FS 93
Derrick Martin FS 65
Ryan Grant HB 88
Brandon Jackson HB 70
James Starks HB 65
Mason Crosby K 71
Ryan Pickett LE 77
Johnny Jolly LE 75
Jarius Wynn LE 60
Jason Spitz LG 80
T.J. Lang LG 75
Daryn Colledge LG 70
Brad Jones LOLB 73
Chad Clifton LT 84
Bryan Bulaga LT 78
Nick Barnett MLB 87
A.J. Hawk MLB 79
Brandon Chillar MLB 72
Desmond Bishop MLB 70
Tim Masthay P 49
Aaron Rodgers QB 94
Matt Flynn QB 57
Cullen Jenkins RE 87
Mike Neal RE 67
Justin Harrell RE 62
Josh Sitton RG 78
Marshall Newhouse RG 64
Clay Matthews ROLB 86
Brady Poppinga ROLB 68
Mark Tauscher RT 83
Allen Barbre RT 60
Atari Bigby SS 79
Morgan Burnett SS 70
Jermichael Finley TE 86
Donald Lee TE 77
Andrew Quarless TE 64
Spencer Havner TE 62
Greg Jennings WR 90
Donald Driver WR 89
James Jones WR 73
Jordy Nelson WR 70
Brett Swain WR 66

have a great Monday - I have to get a hold of Kestrel Ridge Golf now as they have three Lin din trees getting killed by Japanese Beetle!

Rod

Read More

"Old" vs. Young - USS Indy get's bombed!

Mel pointing to the area where he was sleeping to DJ

On this date in in 1945,  DJ,s dad was sleeping on the tail of the USS Indianapolis when the ship was  torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.  The torpedo tore off the front part of the ship which acted like a huge shovel as if plowed through the water. The ship sank in 12 minutes.  300 men went down with the ship leaving 880 floating in the water facing exposure, dehydration and serious, hungry shark attacks. Mel says he could look down in the water and see sharks below their feet circling.  The Navy did not even know the ship was gone for four days and there were massive cover-ups and bone head blunders.  Of the 880 that made it off the ship only 317 were rescued 5 days later.

There is a fantastic book called In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors which has photos of DJ's dad.

I read a number of reviews and this one says it perfectly.

Mel - top right on the USS Indy

This is an outstanding book, very well written, on one of the most tragic events in US naval history, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. The book is a "page turner" and you will barely be able to put it down. The events following the sinking of the Indy, are in a word, terrifying! I highly recommend this book to those of us baby boomers who grew up hearing the stories of WWII vets, and were fortunate enough to know some of them. The shear terror and horror, the sacrifices these men made will bring you to tears! It is an emotionally gut wrenching story, so beautifully and carefully told by the author, that I can highly recommend it to all WWII buffs, and people who may have not have lived thru the era, and wish to experience the huge sacrifices and selflessness these men showed during the waning days of World War Two.

When I finished reading the book which really is a "page turner" I just said . WOW, amazing!  The interesting thing is was that the caption was court-martialed and made the scape goat, he committed suicide.   

When Hunter Scott (12) was watching JAWS he became fascinated with the story and and decided to do research paper for his school.  He found zero information about the USS Indy at his school or at the University library.

Scott continued with his research anyway, and finally finished his project. It went up to the state finals but was rejected due to his project containing a spiral bound notebook, including memoirs from the survivors. Despite this rejection, Scott went on to the US Congress with survivors of the USS Indianapolis to argue that Capt. Charles Butler McVay III was innocent.

IN 2000, 55 years after the sinking, President Clinton and members of congress cleared McVay's name.
-------------------------------
The NFL is thinking about expanding from 16 to 18 games for the season taking two pre-season games away and making them . . "season" games.   I understand their idea - money - unlike Green Bay many NFL teams only get 15,000 tops to pre season games and no one watch's them on TV.  Heck - Green Bay sells out PRE Pre season games and they get 40,000 for a meaningless scrimmage.

I would hate having two extra games because it would mean two more Sundays during beautiful fall weather where I'm "forced" to sit inside and watch football. Of course if they moved the season back two weeks so in late February when there is no reason to even look outside I would have football . . . . that is a different story.

balderdash is thinking of going to Philly for the 1st Packer game vs. Philadelphia IN Philadelphia.  I've always considered Philadelphia one of the strongholds for the Taliban as they do not let woman attend sporting events unless they prove they have a certain amount of testosterone.

----------------------------

Big Brother is basically just like Survivor, just indoors!  What happened last night is something that FINALLY happened on a reality show.  The guy getting kicked out, spilled all the secrets to the other contestants.  It is something I would do when I would have gotten booted.  No taking secrets to the grave, spill the beans and create utter chaos as you close the door behind you!  Too funny!  Hell, I would even make crap up as I left!

Speaking of Survivor.  This next season which starts Sept 15th is OLD (over 40) vs. Young (under 30) and Jimmy Johnson just got a little safer.  What guy would want to kick out Jimmy when he could talk football with the dude.

----------------------------------
New York Style Pizza - thin crust

The round, thin-crust stuff that most people in the U.S. think of as "pizza." It ,of course, originated in New York City in the early 1900s and it is wide, thin and foldable. New Yorkers generally fold it while eating. Also referred to in New York as a "regular" pie or a "regular" slice. The default regular slice is a "plain" slice, i.e., no toppings, only cheese. It is traditionally hand-tossed and light on sauce.

The most notable difference between New York style and most other American pizzas is its thin hand-tossed crust, made from a high-gluten bread flour. The flavor of the crust has sometimes been attributed to the minerals present in the New York City tap water used to make the dough. Some out-of-state pizza makers even transport the water cross-country for the sake of authenticity.

This style of pizza tends to dominate the Northeastern states, with many shops advertising New York-style pizza. It is sometimes also known as "Italian pizza" since it reflects the variety of pizza made most commonly in Italian-American-owned pizza shops.

Outside of the Northeast, many pizzas are described as "New York style" - including some by major pizza chains such as Pizza Hut. One large pizza chain, Sbarro, markets New York-style pizza, but cuts it into 6 slices, instead of 8.



----------------------


have a great weekend
Rod

Read More

mmmmmm Pizza Napoletana

I was watching a program the other night on pizza, one of my favorite subjects. It was a battle between Chicago style pizza and New Your Style pizza.   Deep Dish vs. Thin Crust. As usual they had fire fighters testing both kinds.

What's up with firefighters and food anyway. All the food shows always test out food on firefighters!

Anyway - I put a poll on a rather busy forum and thought I would include you guys! You will notice on the right side is a Poll. Click your favorite style.

Did you know there are 21 different styles of pizza? I'll start to list them on the blog to get your appetite going first thing in the morning.

The first style is called "Neapolitan"  or pizza napoletana.  It's a small (about 10-inch diameter), thin-crust pizza made in a wood-burning oven. They usually have a puffy "cornicione" (lip or end crust) and use of the freshest ingredients you can find which are applied sparingly for a careful balance.

If you want to really get serious - According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water.

The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a  905 °F stone oven with an oak wood fire. When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant.

WOW - talk about getting a little nit picky! I have a hard time getting my over up to like 800.  Maybe if I wanted to I could "CLEAN" my oven and make a pizza at the same time.  I wonder how hot "cleaning" gets.
-----------------------------------

I golfed last night and was never bitten by a mosquito! I had a couple land on me but they quickly went to mosquito heaven.   My game was not awesome for the first 4 holes and I knew I was in trouble when I managed to hit THREE DIFFERENT sand traps on the 1st hole.  That's never a good way to start.

It's funny because in golf you are with 3 other players but in reality, you are all by yourself in your own little hell!

My big thought process for the night was that I had to do better on par 5's, my course management was lacking because a month ago I was crushing my 3 wood from the deck 210 yards.  But, that seems to have been a anomaly.  So I was going back to actually being a smarter player. What did I do on the 1st par 5?  Hit a screaming line drive which hit a tree 140 yards away and landed 1 inch from the trunk.  I had to take a drop and lose a stroke!  So much for course management.

However - I recovered and while I took a 7 on a par five it was a good 7 (if there is such a thing). After that I was gold and was 3 over for the final 5 holes. 8 over on the 1st four holes, 3 over the last 5.
------------------------------

I was at the Farmers Market yesterday and took a photo of some very happy sunflowers!  An interesting experiment is that I have two versions. One I cropped to get the 6 main sunflowers and one is basically the entire photo. The big difference is that the BIG photo I could not do the same processes as I did not have enough virtual memory for that size of photo.

And since I had to change things up - they are slightly different,  SO what is better - another poll on the right side. Cropping  #1 or #2.   And in Detail  #1 or #2

#1

#2

Jenny sent this to me this morning.

A POTATO CHIP WITH A CROSS IN IT!!! OMG!

WHERE'S ALL THE OIL!! LOL

That's the 2nd big news story of the day - the BIG news is that it seems OPRAH was not invited to Clinton's wedding!  WHAT? How could this be!  OPRAH not invited?  it must be a mistake as I thought Oprah was invited to ALL weddings!

But then there is the oil!  Where is it?.  Like the other oil spills it seems that mother earth microbes have gobbled up vast quantities of the oil, and in tests 80% of oil it can be eaten naturally within weeks. Evaporation has also played it's part.  I'm sure oil will still wash up from time to time but from everything I have read is looking like the worst is over.
----------------------

Weather is looking mighty fine for the next 10 days!!!! 

Have a great Thursday
Rod

Read More

Bugs and BP

So you think mosquitoes are bad now? Just wait. According to the UW Bug guy we should have a new hatching of flood mosquitoes in about 3 days. Not the big slow not very hungry kind but the small stealthy hungry ones. SWEET!!!

So since I have to golf in a swamp tonight I went to Walgreen's to buy more bug spray and it seems they had a big sale and ARE ALL SOLD OUT!! OF EVERYTHING!

At least we had another 1/4 inch of rain last night bringing our two month total to 18.95 inches of rain.

I was in the garden last night and saw two monarch caterpillars.  I think my gardens, which were a few weeks ahead of schedule, are ending a few weeks early also.  I've been keeping track on when things have flowered with a spreadsheet (of course).  This way I can tell if things are on time or late or whatever from year to year.  I'm also going to mark where all my plants are so next spring I won't start pulling "weeds" to find out they are not weeds!  

No sign of the Jap Beetles but I'm sure they are regrouping.  I think I might make a FAQ sheet about how to combat them and distribute them to our little area.  If everyone used Milky Spor we would soon be rid of them.  They really chewed up a River Birch a few houses up the hill!
---------------------------------

Big fire in Columbus last night and you can read about it with some good photos at this link - Big Fire
--------------------------------

I tried a new App for my iphone called Dragon Dictation.  You speak into your phone and it types out the words, then you can email it to  . .whoever.   Not 100% perfect but I would say 90%.  I tried it today and it was pretty nice.  AND - it's free.

It seems a lot of people with iPhones complain about AT&T so there was a survey done of smart phone users.  The average rating of all smart phone users and their providers was 69% approval rating. AT&T was at 68%. So when you hear that AT&T sucks . . .don't be alarmed,   AT&T is not any different then any other provider. 
---------
On March 30th I predicted this blog would have it's ONE HALF OF A MILLIONTH page read on August 2nd.  I think it's going to be pretty pretty close. 
----------

There is a website called Baby Steals . com  and every day they have a new item for a baby at 50% off. Pretty interesting stuff (if you have a baby).

Also - I see that some of you get the blog emailed to you and you do not see the Youtube stuff. So I'll include the URL.

The one you have to watch is Tom Tom Darth Vadar which is hilarious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ljFfL-mL70

Yesterday was the airport madness at St Maarten

http://tinyurl.com/3xr5tzx
-----------------------------------
Did I mention that Josh and Jenny are EXPECTING YET ANOTHER BABY?  WHOO HOO!!! Soon Josh might have a son to help him bail the basement, dig trenchs, chop down trees and put up Christmas decorations.
-------------------------------------
I was looking through old folders at photos I had taken and then skipped over.  I have a lot of those folders.  And I found one I missed.  It's from the wedding in Chicago.

BTW - I'm lookin for a part time job early next year - if you hear or have anything for a retired dude that needs 10-15 hours a week - I'm your guy!!

On this day in 1943 Allied forces dropped 2,326 tons of bombs in 43 minutes on Hamburg Germany setting the entire city on fire.  I mention this as a friend of mine grew up near Hamburg and showed a book of photos of current Hamburg to me.  It is one of the most beautiful city's I have ever seen! 

----------------------------

An interesting thing is happening in the Gulf of Mexico - the oil is vanishing much faster then expected.  This is actually not a huge surprise. There was a "spill" a number of years ago in the Gulf of Mexico MUCH MUCH bigger then the BP "spill".  Americans did not really hear about it because . . well . . . it was of no concern to us but it was way bigger.  Anyway - what happened was that the oil actually evaporated in many places and while it did kill birds and fish at that time both came back as strong as ever.

The earth is pretty good at taking care of what man does to it.  Not that man should not be careful but it's not ALL doom and gloom.

The biggest problem I see with the BP spill was not environmentally but financially.  America  (and Obama) were/are in a pretty precarious situation. Economically teetering on the edge and just as things were about to stabilize ever so slightly, disaster hits the Gulf closing all sorts of businesses that would normally be pumping $$ into the unstable economy!  Bad bad timing.  It think it's the British that were trying to destabilize America because they still hate that we beat their ass's.

Just my Wednesday morning thought!  I could be wrong.

Rod

Read More