Saturday, July 26, 2008
The Gadsden Flag:
Monday, July 14, 2008
Boyscout Canoe Trip (By Richard)
Last Friday we (my Boy Scout Troop and I) went to Morgans Canoe and Livery. My Troop had rented a total of five canoes and eleven kayaks. For a fifteen mile trip down the Little Miami River, it took us about nine hours to reach our campground.
During that time this what happened, Chrisna (my good friend) in his kayak was acting as if it was impossible, while having trouble with every little thing you could think of from paddling to turning to capsizing which he did in two foot water. When he did when when no one was looking, we were shoving off the bank. Then for a quarter mile he slowly chased it over rapids and four feet deep places in the river.
After he got the hang of kayaking people started to tip or should I say capsize. Soon after wards Patrick was the second one to tip over very dramatically I might say with a scream from him (horribly loud I might add). It took him forever to dump out the water and get back in.
After a few hours, we hit some rapids which wanted to turn you around really fast. The rapids tipped a canoe, then a few hours later the havoc began. Three more canoes tipped because they tried to finish a merit badge requirement. Afterwards we had a couple of kayaks tip over and we finished the trip. We slept that night through a storm and a lot of fireworks from across the river. The next morning we woke up, packed up, had breakfast and left for home.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Murder at the Boy Scout campout!
Apparently, one of the newer scouts (neither of our boys were the one) threw a life frog into the campfire during the boys weekend camp out. It was apparently done in an attempt to hide the fact that the frog had a broken leg or something like that. The boys were not very descriptive on this one because they didn't want me to be upset.
I have to commend the Scoutmasters. The one part everyone knew and expressed was they handled the situation immediately. That is one reason I trust the Scoutmasters in the troop. They are understanding, responsible and vigilant.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Dispair in the grocery line (and other places)
I saw a lot of worried faces today in the line at the grocery store. People talking about how they can't afford to buy all the things they 'wanted' or things of that nature.
We went out to dinner last night. It was the first time in three months where we actually sat down and had dinner in a restraunt that didn't have a drive through. The wait staff were all discussing gas prices and how they were truely concerned for their jobs. I over heard this because they were congregating around the front of the restaurant and our booth was the first one up close. They didn't know I was listening in, but the concern was too deep to keep the discussion down. When the nice kid served our meal, she said in a rather broken voice that "If you need anything, you can see were not crowded so just say if you need anything."
At work,people who never had a cause for concern have started to discuss how much it costs every day to get to work and back. Some of the guys have a $20 round trip every day. This literally comes to working the first hour plus just to get to work.
I am not sure where this is going, but when I was at the grocery, I literally had tears welling up because I am so distressed that things are going to get so much worse, it might be the downfall of so many people.
I guess time will tell on how bad things will get.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Life is not fair
Sunday, March 09, 2008
The snow factor
As you can see in these photos, we had a little snow. About 8+ inches to be close. It was nice to be able to hear the snow once again. Snow makes a very loud sound when it is coming down wet and heavy. It is a peaceful sound that will blanket the others sounds you normally hear in a community.
We are lucky so far in that the river has not risen too terribly much. It is supposed to crest at MELDAHL DAM at about 48+ feet by the NOAA RiverWatch forecast. The normal flood stage of that damn is 51 feet so as the neighbors have been saying, "don't worry, the river won't even make the street in front of the house."
Saturday, March 08, 2008
OK, finally free telephone calling
I am one of the biggest purveyors of free services on the net. I have always been frustrated that there was now easy to call people anywhere for free. (I am starting to sound like a 'Pocket Fishermen' commercial) Well, I stumbled across GrandCentral on the blogger website front end.
All you have to do it mouse over and tap on the "Click me" button to call anyone Absolutly free! Even on a stinky dialup connection you can do this. All you need is a microphone and speakers.
No, there is no 'catch' or fees later on. Google is the owner of this process / website and you know they want you to use their sites for free. Why? Because it makes them money, that is why!
Whether you believe me or not is my problem. I like free stuff as much as the next guy and am always looking for things like this. There are some sites out there where they want you to download their application and install it on your machine. I don't like that because it gives someone I do not know access to my computer.
The major advantage of this setup it that it is totally web based. Nothing to install or give access to your PC. When I tried it, I first took the time to call a dozen people I know in various states around the country. Hey, I even called my own house several times to test it out first. You could not tell I was on my PC when I called. OK, the only exception was that the call sounded better than a squeaky cell phone that sounds like you calling from the bottom of a well.
Hey, you don't have to believe me. go to the GrandCentral website and look for yourself. Then, once you see what I am talking about, give me a call. You don't have to setup an account with them to call out, just receive calls (which is easy enough the kids fixed a setting I missed. Well, I have my cell around 99% of the time. That, and you know I barely sleep anyway. Give me a call on the link either on this post or in the left frame of our blog. It gives me a reason to think.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Webconnect icon now available (again)!!!
I have realized that I didn't post the nice little icon I created for The CSX Webconnect for terminal (web) access to the CSX Mainframe. I really like this little icon. It is pretty close and at least it shows what your supposed to see in an icon. Well, actually it shows a graphical representation of the application your going to use.
If you like the icon, you can either e-mail me with a request for it or download the little jpg and convert it to an icon (if you know how to really do it. I can not upload items besides graphics to Blogger anymore. Thus, the problem.
Just send me an e-mail or instant message and I will get a copy of the icon to you (as well as a set of the instructions on how to use it). Shoot, I can probably do it myself from home if needed. It is not difficult.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Parking Wars
The parking around the Bethesda Oak building is terrible and since I can't see paying $5.00 for a one hour stay, we found a space on the street down from the Doctor's Office. The morons that actually live around that area are rather (let me say it nicely) ineffective in the way they park their cars on the street and in the driveways. I should have snapped a photo or two to show you how bad they are, but I didn't take any (for some strange reason) at that time. If I can describe it in quick terms, they covered every part of the sidewalk with either their cars, trucks, or garbage cans.
You know, if there had been a person in a wheelchair or on crutches, they would never have made it to the medical center. The local "You gotta protect the '__________' [fill in the blank with what ever downtown minority group you wish] radicals", would have been all over this.
(I personally would have to say the group in this case would be considered the 'transportationally challenged' or 'people without a vehicle', but that is just me.)
Calling the police, a press conference, and informing everyone that someone was ".... repressing them for not allowing them to have access to the city sidewalk with their 'Tyrannical parking and blocking actions!"
I can see how the press conference would be televised on the 10 o'clock news where the City of Cincinnati would kowtow to the oppressed sidewalk consortium and start a new police patrol whereby a set number of the cities finest would be strategically positions to make twice daily patrols of the cities sidewalks to combat the degenerate miscreant horde, that has blocked our access to the sidewalks created for the citizens and especially the oppressed and perambulationly challenged among the downtown area residents. This is one time I really would have enjoyed calling the police to have them come over and write a ticket for this.
Yeah, I am being a jerk on this one. On the other hand, these residents should be able to follow the law just like everyone else. I just hate going downtown anymore. Everyone feels they are 'entitled' to do whatever they feel is easier for them. No pride in anything. Just make everything look like a big pile of crap and an annoyance for everyone that passes by. Stuff them and their pissy way of doing things. I can't stand the downtowners any more and I doubt anyone could blame me.
Now to the point of this thread! The Television Show on A&E.
I don't know if you have seen the television show 'Parking Wars', you will understand that I would love if Cincinnati (or even New Richmond) would adopt the strict parking enforcement that they use (on the television show) shot in Philly. They do not take any grief from the people who are incapable of abiding by the law. Your in a restricted parking space that prohibits parking at 1600 and your there at 1601, you get a ticket. If you haven't paid your tickets previously written, they boot your car or even tow it away and impound it. I could do that in any of these little towns or even Cincinnati and it would generate tons of money and keep the streets safer for everyone.
That is not a bad idea. I think I will bring the idea up at the next village council meeting!
If you go to the A&E television web site(s) for "Parking Wars", you might not be able to get there if your antivirus blocks phishing websites. Apparently, the website owners (or the webmasters) are attempting to draw down information from your browser (which is know as phishing). I know that Trend Micro blocks it as a malicious website for phishing. That is all I need to know to stay away. Hopefully it is just a misunderstanding by the software, but I don't mess with sites my antivirus blocks. It is not a site I would have just popped over to for kicks (without needing information). It is just not a smart thing to do.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Snow day again!
All the kids were bundled up and ready to go play out in the snow. It was nice to see that they wanted to go out. The temp is about 12 degrees and they were trying to build a fort or igloo or something. I had to laugh at the inability of the three of them to pick a common theme for their blocks of snow. It appeared to be more like a short wall of snow than a fort, but I was apparently not using my imagination enough to see it.
I know this will be short lived because the temperature is supposed to climb up into the 40s in a few days and all this fun will be a memory.
At least everyone is coming to realize that they have to play when the time is right. Everyone jumped at the opportunity to get out there as soon as they had their homework finished. It is always nice to see smiles on the kids faces.
I really do hope that they kids don't have school tomorrow but I can't think that they will not plow the streets. But, after all, we now live in a small town and the roads have over an inch on them already. Confidentially, it took them a whole day to get it done the last day. Maybe dreams can come true.