Animal planet

Do you watch this cable channel? Every once in a while, they have something interesting, but usually when I have time to watch it they have mostly programs to promote their policital agendas. Makes me ignore them for the most part.

Anyway, when we were in Florida a couple of weeks ago, we went to Universal studios. I haven't been there in a long time and it was fun to see some of the new things they had there.

I liked the Mummy roller coaster. There was also a Blues Brothers act that just happened to start when we came out of the mummy ride. It was good too, if you liked that kind of music, but the guy playing saxophone was light years ahead of the other performers. Awesome performer.

Anyway, we had a good time wandering around there. My sister's husband really liked the animal planet show, so we went to see that. It's always very entertaining to see how they can train the animals to do fun little things. I was entertained by the little bits and pieces of agenda that came along with the show as it went along.

The best part is they got two female volunteers from the audience to come forward and they blindfolded them while they brought out this giant burmese python and put it in front of them and asked them to touch it. After they felt it they were asked to tell what it felt like.

One lady had a great answer: It feels like a purse.

That really made the MC happy.

When children rule...

A family getogether is always going to be entertaining in some fashion. We always take the dog and he provides for some comic relief. Even the kids can be funny at times. The few times that they aren't trying to kill each other.

It would seem that every Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter/birthday/[insert family event here] there's always the decision of what to do while dinner digests, or at least settles enough to not put you to sleep on the drive home. Inevidently, control of the tv set comes into play. Movie, football, home movie, and lately portable playstation.

This Thanksgiving day's selection was to watch a movie, more pointedly, a movie one of the kids brought with them. Charlie and the chocolate factory. That was a weird film.

Have you seen this? Johnny Depp is the walking-talking mirrored vision of Micheal Jackson.

Ugh. I just shivered.

I don't know who the old geezer was that kept doing bit parts of this and that, but he did a good imitation of an 80's hair band in one scene.

Still, it was a very weird film.

Did you hear that?

Just have to vent for a moment.....

Holidays are wonderful aren't they? I enjoy them so. Except the prep. That's usually got some hidden surprises. Take my phone system at work for example.

We are closed for the Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday as most businesses are. I remembered at the last minute that the msg must be changed to match this so people won't wonder if they happen to call. I changed it per the spec sheet. Didn't work. Called several people at phone support and they told me some other things to change. That didn't work either.

5pm came and they left. My phones started working a moment ago when the system went into night mode. But come 8:15 tomorrow morning, they won't be working.

Update: I finally got them working. I hate phones.

Did you see that??

The company I work for moved to a bigger building about a year and a half ago. We got bigger offices, and a bigger manufacturing floor, etc. It even has skylights in the shop area. I guess that's so the work force can keep right on working if the lights go out?

Anyway, it's really bright in here now. You don't need the big work lights they used to use in the other place. And the place is kept really clean. It's really nice.

That means we have to have a cleanup crew to empty trash, sweep, mop, wax, buff, etc. (They always forget to empty my trash.) Anyway, they buff the floors out about every 3 or 4 months, I think.

When we moved over here, one of my requirements for computers was they were not to be kept on the floor. They get too much dirt in them and knocked over, etc. But the GM overrode me and many sit on the floor.

One time the cleaning crew came to buff the floors out and never told anyone but purchasing (who was in charge of their contract) that they were going to do this. An eyewitness in engineering saw one of the workstations go flying across the office when the buffer driver ran over the network cable and wrapped it on the motor.

Unfortunately, they still sit on the floor. But it did make for a procedural change. The cleaning crew must give us notice that they will clean the floors this way.

I got a call an hour ago saying they're coming to wax the floors tomorrow.

I didn't have anything else to do.

Leadership

We could go on and on with books and dissertations, but some people can be summed up with short articles such as this one. Who voted for this moron?

The last paragraph sums it up perfectly.

Pelosi slammed Hunter's proposal as "a political stunt and should it be rejected by this House" - minutes before she voted with the Republican majority.

She must've stolen Kerry's shoes....

Friday Funny

A big corporation recently hired several cannibals in the interest of cultural diversity.

"You are all part of our team now," said the HR rep during the welcome briefing.

"You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any of the other employees."

The cannibals promised they would not.

Four weeks later, their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard and I'm satisfied with you. However, one of our shipping clerks has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?"

The cannibals all shook their heads no.

After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the shipping clerk?"

A hand rose hesitantly, to which the leader of the cannibals continued, "You fool, for 4 weeks we've been eating Managers and no one noticed anything, but Noooooo, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something!

You can too!

If you're tired of the relentless onslaught onto your personal freedoms by the ACLU, then here's a petition you should consider signing. I did and so far no spam in response.

Tis the season...

Yep, it's hunting season....no, not just hunting season, it's gun season! That time of year where I have to take the dog out on a leash so he doesn't get shot by poachers for his intruding on their hunting area. (Normally, the dog runs around the yard, does his business and comes back in...one of the advantages of living in the country).

Last year, the guy that's owned the land that completely enveloped one side of my land ever since I bought mine, sold the majority of his land to another guy. This guy seems to think all the surrounding land is his hunting domain for some reason. I don't know what ever gave him that idea. Maybe he can't read the no trespassing signs I've got along the border of mine, but then again who knows. (Maybe they need to be in Spanglish!)

I'm going to share a story that enhances this one. There's a guy that lives across the road from me who has a fair portion of land, even if most of it is flood plain. He managed to find a spot on there which he could build a house that with high enough foundation walls, technically the house is out of the flood plain. Figure that one out.

Anyway, this guy loves animals. He's got dogs, cats, dogs, goats, dogs, a pig, dogs, chickens and a few dogs. When other people drive past who decide at that moment they no longer want the dog in their car with them, they leave the little dreamboat for my nieghbor to care for. Next thing you know, he's got more dogs.

As time passes, he builds some dog runs to keep them in, but his kids think it's mean to leave them in cages all day, so they let the dogs out. (Ever hear that song "Who let the dogs out"? Well, it's my neighbor's kids, that's who let them out). Anyway, let's travel back to last September when bow hunting season opened up.

The neighbor kids let the dogs loose. Being pack animals, they decide to take a leisurely stroll across the fair tundra across the road (which would be my place) on up into the hills beyond (which would be the new neighbor mentioned at the top of the post). Well, said new neighbor is hanging out in a tree waiting on bambi to stroll by so he can drill a new body orifice in it. Well, up comes dog tour 04 and frightens off bambi. Let's say the new neighbor guy is a tad miffed at this point.

So, in his mutt induced frenzy, he decides he's gotta do something other than cool off. He can't quite work up the nerve to shoot the dogs (cause he might waste an arrow), so he does the next best thing. He comes over to my house. But he waits until after the sun goes down so he doesn't miss any daylight hunting hours. The only reason I know this is, I was outside earlier in the day and I heard the dogs barking up in the woods, because when I did, I put my dog back in the house because I didn't want him chasing them.

That night about 9:45pm, I'm watching tv, getting ready to go to bed and I hear a car horn. At first I thought it in the tv show, but then I heard it again and realized it was outside. So, I went out to see what was the matter. In the driveway was a Toyota turd with it's high beams on in my face with a heighth challenged individual standing next the door in an oversized set of coveralls. (Challenged because his head is about the height of the mirror on the door)

I ask if I could help him and he commences to cuss me out about some dogs spoiling his safari trip. I try to calmly explain that I only have one dog and he's been in the house with me most all day or under my supervision in the yard. Apparently this is immaterial because he simply needs to yell at someone for these dogs interrupting his safari.

I ask him to describe the dogs and he perfectly describes the dogs from across the road, so I gently remind him to go tell the actual owner "that next time he sees them he'll shoot them".

Later that week, I see the dog neighbor and tell him about my meeting with the great white heighth challenged hunter I had just met. He hadn't heard a peep.

So, since it's hunting season, I take the dog out on a leash.

Water water everywhere...

On the plane ride back from Orlando, I sat next to a woman from New Orleans. Her name was Debbie. She commented about having to go from Nashville to Cincy to get a flight to New Orleans, so I went ahead and started talking to her.

I asked her how things were going in NO. She said it was a mess moving at a snails pace. Power had been restored in a few areas and some businesses were trying to get back up and running. No greenery, just mud. Trash strewn and piled everywhere. And it stinks.

She said her house was only a couple of blocks from the levee break, even though the ground her house was on was a foot above sea level and her floor was 3 feet above that, there were still water marks on her ceiling. Her house had suffered no damage from the hurricane. The structure and roof were still intact.

However, she said she had gotten a phone call the day before from a contractor who had just finished gutting it. Turns out the coat of gunk left by the flood had invited mold and mildew and it wasn't leaving easily. She was waiting on health inspectors to tell her if the shell was usable or not.

She had said her daughter was going to college in Baton Rouge. She had just had back surgery when the hurricane arrived, so her daughter came and took her out of town. She returned to Baton Rouge as well as the company she worked for and they kept her employed. Her home insurance, which included a flood rider, paid her off already, but she's still waiting to see if she can fix the house or not.

Her house was more fortunate than her neighbors. One house was moved 15' off the foundation. The other was split in half. One neighbor's boat was in top of the tree in her front yard.

I asked her what she would do if her house ended up condemed from the mold and she said she wanted to stay, but didn't know if she'd get to rebuild or not.

The more she talked, the more she sounded forlorn. I felt so sorry for her. I offered to pray with her, but she wasn't interested. I was even sadder at that.

Please remember to pray for Debbie and the thousands of others in her same condition. It's got to be more traumatic than most of us can imagine. Especially since it's drifting from the nightly news.

Financial woes of Delta airlines

Ah, flying. It's fun! It's exhilirating! I enjoy it so. NOT.

I admit it. I'm overweight. Overweight AND 6'4" is not a good combination for flying in coach. On any airline. It's a recipe for aches, pains, and cramps of all sorts. My height assures me the seatback and traytable in front of me will never be adequate or handy. Unless I remove my kneecaps. And I have yet to find a seat on any airplane where the armrests were any where near the width of my shoulders.

I gripe about this because I can. I pay good money to be tamped into this high speed flying cigar tube.

Before you get the wrong idea, I like Delta airlines. Their pilots and crews always do a good job and you can get flights to most places you need to go via their partner airlines. Prices, well, um, not so good. I live real close to the Cincy airport and having a delta hub there is very convenient. Lot's of choice. But, I can go to Indianapolis, Louisville, or Dayton and get better prices. From the same freakin airline! Why is that???

And to top things off, I hear lots of stories about their financial woes. I'm sorry, but I can't believe they have money problems. Because if they do, then somebody is screwing up big time there. I haven't been on a lot of flights, but I've been on my share over the last few years and I have yet to be on a Delta flight with an empty seat. In 3 years.

Who's doing what with all that money?????

Where's Waldo?

I took Thursday & Friday off last week to go visit my sister in Orlando, Florida. See my post about the plane ride down there. Weather was beautiful, sunny 82-85, low humidity. My kinda weather.

Anyway, I got my laptop out to post the note about the cell phone and that went well, per se. Then I tried to preview the site and DNS wouldn't resolve it. What's the deal? I was in Buffalo, NY a few weeks ago and had similar problems, but with my company's webmail site. Again, DNS wouldn't resolve it. My wonderful ISP says "duh, they're blocking it".

I can load other blogger sites but not mine? I could also load the ISP's webmail site, but not my corporate one?

I get upset about this because I'm in charge of my company's email site, which we pay 3rd party to do. I don't have time to manage a mail server, so I pay someone else to. When it doesn't work, I'm obviously going to be concerned, but those kinds of answers baffle me.

I question my ISP, because this happens whether I'm using a local high speed connection or the ISP supplied dialup connection. As far as I'm concerned, I use the same ISP for DNS in my office as I do for the dialup network, so why do I see a difference?

Friday, the dialup would connect, but I didn't get any DNS help. Nothing would resolve.

Why am I using dialup you ask? Good question. The hotel we got said right on the reservations web page that a computer hookup was included in the room rate. Silly me, I didn't know this meant there was a modem jack in the side of the telephone. I thought maybe they had wired or wireless. The best part was when I went to the front desk to ask about it, the clerk said oh we don't have wireless. The motel next door does and if you walk over there, you can connect thru theirs.

Is that allowed? Is it included in my room rates?

Cell phone tip

Picture this...you're flying to your destination, instead of any number of other modes of transport. Recent legislative changes has allowed you to talk on your cell phone until the plane leaves the gate. So, you're really into your conversation with your business associate/aquaintance/friend and you enter the plane, find your seat, and continue your conversation.

I learned Misty's work number and cell phone number on a plane today. So did about 50 other people sitting around listening to her phone conversation.

Do yourself a favor. On a plane load of strangers, don't give your name and phone number outloud. Or do the perv's and single guys a favor and speak slower. (Don't you know how hard it is to find a pen and paper in that zoo?)

I didn't write them down, so I forgot by the time we landed. I was distracted by the miniature screaming meamie in the seat 2 rows ahead of me.

Welcome Carnival of Comedy gazers.

English vs. Spanish

Welcome Carnival of Comedy seekers!

Sometimes, articles like this just make you wanna bang your head on a steel door for a while and see which dents first. There's a bar owner in the Cincinnati area struggling with this.

Spanglish. That's what I guess someone came up with a term for someone who is bilingual in Spanish & English. Well, I'd like to offer another word.

Instead of taking the "Span" from Spanish and the "glish" from English, I'd like to make it the other way around and take the "Engl" from English and the "ish" from Spanish, leaving the word to be English. There, isn't that easy to remember? That way wherever you go in the USA, you can always remember what language is spoken here without a doubt as to anyone understanding you.

All you non-English speaking guys, how about it? Oh wait, you can't read english either. Bummer.

We have classes for that for a fee.

Immoral tax cuts

Read this article and try not to laugh. Seriously. I can't believe Clinton would have the gall to say such things. What the devil would he know about what constitutes immorality?

Road construction

Didn't you just cringe reading that title? I know I hate having to drive through it, especially if it's anywhere close to the daily commute to work. What's worse, nobody wants to wait their turn and it turns into a headache just to get past it.

There would be one welcome construction sign for me to see. That would be if the people in charge of Dearborne county development in southeast Indiana would wake up and do their job. Dearborne county has been the fastest growing county in Indiana for several years running and there seems to be a trend to continue that fashion.

The problem is they are doing absolutely nothing with infrastructure to help.

A few years ago, they discussed several options, for new roadways and bypasses. Some were good ideas. And then, you have the usual whiners: business owners, eco-nuts, etc.

We'll lose business....we'll lose endangered species. Yeah right.

Nobody stops at the businesses that are there now because you can't get back out in traffic once you stop. The lights thru the Greendale/Lawrenceburg/Aurora area aren't timed or controlled. (They have timers, but they aren't coordinated.) Traffic control is a total and complete failure. Boondoggle. Lost case. Nightmare.

Every day.

They talked of a bypass and somebody whined, so they stopped that. They talked of another roadway and somebody whined, so it fizzled too. However, the 2nd roadway wasn't such a bad idea and everyone knew it, so the eco-whiners came up with this brilliant plan.

Let's build a multimillion dollar bike path where they wanted to build the roadway. So they spend millions of tax dollars on a bike path that isn't used. Yay.

The other day, the development commission had a meeting with the state present. They were discussing ideas to fix traffic congestion. Guess what the state suggested? Yep, pave the bike path.

Well, DO IT ALREADY!!!!!!

The hidden problem here is that it will just move the traffic congestion from Lawrenceburg to Aurora. What a bunch of brainiacs.

Friday funny (a little late)

1. ARBITRATOR: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonalds.

2. AVOIDABLE: What a bullfighter tried to do.

3. BERNADETTE: The act of torching a mortgage.

4. BURGLARIZE: What a crook sees with.

5. CONTROL: A short, ugly inmate.

6. COUNTERFEITERS: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets.

7. ECLIPSE: What an English barber does for a living.

8. EYEDROPPER: A clumsy ophthalmologist.

9. HEROES: What a guy in a boat does.

10. LEFTBANK: What the robber did when his bag was full of money.

11. MISTY: How golfers create divots.

12. PARADOX: Two physicians.

13. PARASITES: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

14. PHARMACIST: A helper on the farm.

15. POLARIZE: What penguins see with.

16. PRIMATE: Removing your spouse from in front of the TV.

17. RELIEF: What trees do in the spring.

18. RUBBERNECK: What you do to relax your wife.

19. SELFISH: What the owner of a seafood store does.

20. SUDAFED: Brought litigation against a government official.

College bans breathing used air.

That's about how much sense reasoning such as this makes, when trying to curtail someone's personal liberties.

Your tax dollars were at work

Everyone just loves being in a traffic jam, right? No? Well, me niether. Every day to and from work has some sort of traffic jam. Why is that?

Too many drivers? Everybody takes your path to work today? Accident? Bad infrastructure design? I vote for bad design. Yes the others have their days, but bad design can cause a clog every day without fail.

If you live in the Cincinnati area, as I do, you've no doubt heard of the Fort Washington Way upgrade that sunk millions of dollars into a lane change. The sad part is the lane change was because if you were following interstate 71 thru town, you had to cross over at least 2 lanes of traffic to stay on your route. So, they reouted the onramps and joining lanes so you could stay in your lanes. Now, if you approach on US 50 and wanna go on I-71, guess what! You have to cross 2 lanes of traffic. If you're a truck driver, and wanna go over 40, better get your safety equipment because there's a good chance you'll be payin' to have somebody pick up your stuff off of the on ramp after you spill it everywhere. It's a no win situation.

Last year, they redid the northbound interchange on I-75 where 275 exits to it. They also added a lane to 75, but they also added 2 exits just north of the interchange. What a fiasco. Every evening, there was a backup on 275 (from both directions) to exit onto north 75. Reason was, the off ramps of 275 were merged into one lane before emptying onto 75. (These lanes both have a constant flow of traffic without much interruption all day.) During rush hour, traffic comes to a standstill because of too many cars merging into one exit lane, and that lane merging into the slow lane of 75.

So, they build a new exit just north of there. Move the merge point of 275 out about 200 yards farther out and merge it into the slow lane again. What brainiacs. Do road engineers ever actually drive on the roads they intend to fix?

Even if I don't have the description right of the new interchange, it still doesn't let traffic flow. I still sit in the high speed lane every evening waiting to get past the clog. I'm just glad I don't have to go on 75 any more.

When this sort of thing happens, I think the engineer(s) should be sentenced to stand on the side of the road (until they fix it) with one of those big sandwich signs on that says "If you can read this, it's because of me" on it.

Responsibility? We don't need no stinkin responsibility...

How do these people respect anyone, let alone themselves? We need some new judges in the 9th circuit court and I mean NOW. Read this and see if you don't agree. If something like this were to stand, you can write off any sort of control over your kids. What a bunch of morons.

We still need cowboys

I woke up early this morning, so I got up instead of trying to convince my body to go back to sleep. Now I wish I'd worked on the sleep a little more.

I commute a bit of a distance to work, about 50 miles. Usually takes close to an hour because it's interstate most of the way. Today it was a 2 hour commute. I've had to sit through some traffic problems before and this was similar. It's the minor differences that make it unique to me.

We've had tanker trucks overturn, drop loads of steel on bridge overpasses and close them for months at a time. As everyone is aware we've had them all over our nation.

This particular one, I first heard the radio report saying a stretch of interstate highway that joined onto the one I was on was closed right up to the interchange area, so I didn't give it any concern. They specifically said it was closed up to that interchange area.

But the radio was wrong. It was closed up to the next interchange, which effectively blocked my way to work. So, after I stopped and sat there for a few moments, I saw cars cutting through the median to double back, so I joined them to exit at the previous venture and drive the 2 lane roads to go around.

Little did I know that other radio stations already had the report right and I sat there for an extra hour with only about 3 or 4 cars at a time getting through the next 2 lane road interchange. But, at least it was inching forward. All in all, it took an hour and 50 minutes to come in today. It's always a problem because it seems to back your day up. (Not to mention I had to gripe about it in this post.)

Oh, I almost forgot. The accident was at 4AM that morning. A truck carrying 40 head of cattle overturned and the cows got loose on the interstate. Here, almost 4 hours later, they're still trying to catch them all.

Would've given a new name to dodge-em cars, huh.



I just wonder if they don't catch them all, if it's finders keepers? I'm thinkin' breakfast. Yeah, steak & eggs. Ummmm.

Yosemite National Park

If you ever get a chance to go visit Yosemite National Park, go check it out. It's a truly beautiful place that has captured the minds and hearts of everyone who sees it. It is just another one of God's visual treasures for us to enjoy.

And go see it before California gets annexed by Mexico, or you may miss out.

Anyway, that fiasco aside, we went there last year for vacation and it was a great trip. If you're a camper, theres a couple of huge campgrounds on site. Lots of wonderful things to see and do. Canoeing on the river, or tubing on it if you're really brave. (Water is ice cold)

Just beware that there are a few traffic hazards to be aware of. Obviously, pedestrians and wildlife are 2 big things to watch for. But there was one thing to make us feel right at home.

Construction traffic.

Just don't know what I'd have done without having to wait in line for my car to be able to move.