Power of the Pen

I have one of those gel ink pens. I got it only two days ago from one of the guys at work. I had it setting on the desk at home yesterday when Cari saw it. In fact, I watched her use it. This morning when I was getting ready for work, I couldn't find my pen. When I approached Cari about this, she told me it was her pen.
"No it's not.", I told her.
She was defiant, "Yeah, it's my scrap booking pen."
"I stole it from someone at work, now where is the pen?", I said proudly.

I got my pen back from Cari and carried it off to work. While there, I had two separate people tell me it was their pen. They were asking why I took their pens. Neither one of them is the person that GAVE me the pen. With all these people coveting my pen, I now realize why he gave it to me. It's too much hassle to have this. Where is my .50 cent ball point?

Welcome to Georgia!

Don't drink the water in Mexico.
Don't breathe the air in Georgia (specifically Atlanta).

Here's a story about Atlanta going into "code RED" air quality.

Code RED means the air is unhealthy to breathe. Atlanta is on its third straight day of this.
How long can YOU hold your breath?

The article says Atlanta has exceeded federal clean air standards ten times this year. They did it eleven times all of last year. Guess they are headed for a new record.

Michael Halicki of the Clean Air Campaign says, "- the air that people are breathing today is not good for their health," He goes on to say, "We still have a ways to go before we can claim the right as a clean air city,".

Good job, Mr. Halicki, for that obvious comment.

Lessons from Mom

My mother asked me, "Did you just take that guy's picture?"

I smiled, "yeah."

"Well, you have to give him some money then.", she informed me.

As we walked past him I told her that I have no money.

"Then you can't take his picture, if you aren't going to give him something.", she tried to teach me.

"You should have told me before I took his picture."

You can't escape me now!

Ah! The elusive hummingbird.
We now have several of these visiting our feeder several times a day. I decided to sit on the front porch and capture one in action.

This was the result of my first attempt. The sucker came to the feeder and started to eat. SITTING AT THE OPPOSITE SIDE from me. In this picture you can see his tail on the back of the feeder. I did manage to capture his shadow against the post.



Then I watched him fly across and sit in a tree. Captured at last!




This morning I took one more try at getting him on the feeder. Picture was taken through the window and screen, but still came out with decent results.

First They Came for the Jews

Last nights bombings in Egypt reminded me of this poem:

First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

I don't believe any country deserves to by terrorized, and I don't want you to read my comments as such.

As the United States fights terrorism, some of the world does not support this cause. Obviously, terrorism can strike out at any place, anytime. It is not like a conventional war with defined battle fronts.
All places of the world, Arab countries included, need to support the war on terror because it effects ALL people.

Government hard at work

My mom sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me about a very busy stretch of road near her house. Apparently there are a lot of accidents in this section. I say that because she told me there is now a sign on the side of the road:

CAUTION : HIGH CRASH AREA

I'm a city official. I keep hearing about this section of road that has a high rate of accidents. People speeding, running red lights, not yielding to turning vehicles. I suggest to the board that we put more patrol cars in that area. I'm quickly laughed at. Another official holds up a sample of this diamond shaped, yellow, sign. He's proud. He also has a "baby on board" sign in his back window.

Hurricane force winds cause loss of sleep

No matter what the temperature is in our home, Cari must have the ceiling fan on. The coldest day of winter, the hottest day of summer, the fan must be on when she is sleeping. Sometimes, I will try to outsmart this. Cari will ask that I turn off the light (attached to the fan), and I will reach over and flip the switch. That is not an acceptable method of turning off that light because it kills the fan.

A month ago this escalated when Cari purchased a small stand fan. Now we have the ceiling fan on, and a fan to the side of the bed.

Last week, things got completely out of control. Cari purchased a small fan that sits on her night table. This one points directly at her face.

I AM SLEEPING IN A FREAKING WIND TUNNEL that even Nascar would be jealous of!

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and he was telling us that he must have a fan on when he sleeps. His wife despises this fan. He went on to tell us a story of coming in late one night. He showered and got into bed quietly, trying to not wake his wife. He reached over and pushed the fan on high. The hum of the fan calmed him, but he felt no wind on his face. He put his hand up to the noisy fan, but felt nothing. He jumped up and turned the light on. His wife had taken the blade out! She was laying in the bed laughing at this point. He wanted his fan fixed, and would not sleep until repairs were complete.

At least I now know I am not alone in my struggle. Perhaps I should start a support group.

The return to StumpHouse Mountain

Now it was the boys' turn to head to StumpHouse mountain. If you remember, last time week I took Meredith to see the waterfalls and incomplete train tunnel. She cried and held my neck the entire time in the tunnel.

Zack has been staying with us this week, he is nine.
Randy is six. These boys thought they were tough. The day before our trip, they were trash talking about hunting bats and finding the back of the tunnel.

So we visited the falls first. Next we walk up the road to the entrance of the tunnel. Randy told me he would NOT go in. Mist rolls out of the mouth of this tunnel, and Randy said it was haunted. I picked him up and tried to calm him a bit before we went in. Zack was also nervous, but he stood on his own. Good thing because I know I could not have carried him.

Once you go in a ways, you come to a brick wall with an iron gate. The gate is open, and reminds me of an old style jail. As we crossed the threshold, the boys wanted to stop.
I was holding Randy and Zack (pictured to the right) was holding my sleeve. Up ahead I could almost see light coming from the vent shaft. After a minute of persuading, we made it to the vent shaft. That's as far as I made it with Meredith. That's as far as the boys would allow me to go.


After leaving the tunnel we went for a hike. The rough trail goes up the mountain. Pushing our way through the brush was difficult at times. Zack asked if I would lead the way. Only because I was clearing the spider webs for him.

When we got to the top, we needed a bathroom break, but there was no bathrooms.
We improvised before heading back down the trail.We got lost coming down, but as we back tracked, Randy showed us the way out.
So much for having bat meat for lunch. Maybe my third trip, I'll make it to the back of this place.

SHARKS!

Cari and her friend, Heather, were talking the other night about the beach. Cari was saying that she does not like the beach, and certainly would not swim in the ocean. Heather couldn't understand that, because the beach is so great. Finally, Cari broke down and said that she was afraid that sharks would get her.

The next night, the remainder of hurricane Dennis was coming through our area. Cari looked out the window nervously, as she watched the dark clouds swirling above. Heather walked over and asked what was wrong. Cari said nothing was wrong, she was watching the storm.
"You do know there are NO sharks in a hurricane, right?", Heather explained. She continued, "It's not like a hurricane scoops up sharks and drops them around the country."

Cari didn't find it very funny and replied, "We are in a tornado warning!"
Heather promptly retreated and asked where a good interior closet is if a tornado presented itself.

Nascar on NBC

After the first half of the season being broadcast on FOX, Nascar has moved to NBC. That means different camera angles, different graphics, different commentators.

The commentators are the problem. One would think these guys have never watched Nascar before. For that reason, I excused their mistakes last week at Daytona. They would probably go and study their tapes and come back like super stars at Chicago.

Uh, no. These guys are horrible. I want FOX back!

My day off. . . from EVERYTHING

Cari went to the mall with her friend yesterday. They took all the children with them. I knew they would be there for a while, and I chose not to go. So, having the house to myself I had to take full advantage of it. Here is a run down of my day:

-play video games.
when I got tired of playing games I laid down on the couch to watch TV.
I fell asleep watching TV, and when I woke up, I watched a bit more.
Then I got bored with TV, so I went and played some more video games.
I was having so much fun I forgot to eat anything in the six hours that had lapsed. So, I spent thirty minutes eating snack foods until my belly hurt.
A little more playing of video games, and my family was home. It was after seven pm. We had dinner, I took the dog for a walk (my first time outside for the day), and it was time for bed.

Whew, it was rough, but I survived it.

Meredith in the tunnel

We are not buddies any more!

Meredith and I are buddies. That is what she told me BEFORE our trip to Stumphouse mountain. At stumphouse mountain, there is a tunnel. In the 1850's, the railroad was going to build a tunnel through the mountain. This was an attempt to connect Ohio with Charleston, SC. They used blasting powder and hand tools. More than a thousand immigrants worked on the project for six years. The workers only cleared 200 feet per month. At the end of the six years, the project was still not complete. Due to the lack of money and the civil war, work on the tunnel was never completed. There are no lights in the tunnel, so bring a flash light.

After seeing the entrance to this tunnel, Meredith decided she was not interested. She tried to persuade me away from the cold air, but it was too late for her. I held her in my arms, and told her to hold me tight if she was scared. She cried and protested during our walk in the tunnel. "Tunnels are not for little girls!", she informed me.
I'm told there are bats at the back of the tunnel. We did not walk that far, because I decided to end Meredith's torture. We went a bit past half way and then back out.

She was crying as we came back out into the daylight, and she told me I was not her buddy anymore.

Issaqueena Falls

Meredith and I got to spend some time together today. I thought it would be nice to go see some things. We drove out to see the Issaqueena Falls and Stumphouse mountain. Both are located in the same park. Meredith was a little nervous being around the falls. At one point on the trail, you could look over the top of the falls. They were beautiful to see. Several trails around the falls would achieve more views. Even one trail going to the bottom of the falls. These trails were rugged and steep, so I could not attempt them with Meredith.

4th of July

There were several events to attend last night. We chose to head over to East Pickens.
They had inflatable slides, bounce houses, obstacle courses, and other rides available. Also snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn, and lemonade. On the other side of the fields they had a large stage with continuous live music. It was setup really well, and we had a great time. On top of all that, it was all free.
Around ten o'clock, they had fireworks. This gave me a chance to play with some of the settings on my camera. Some of the shots came out kinda shaky. Some were a bit dark. I ended up with several good ones, this being one of my favorites. Holding the shutter open for about a second to a second and a half seemed to give the best results. Without a tripod, it was very difficult to hold the camera perfectly still.
Randy fell asleep listening to the music about fifteen minutes before the fireworks started. Meredith watched with her fingers in her ears the entire time.

I was going to meet a few people from work over there, but when we were walking around, I realized that my cell phone was dead. So dead it had shut off. Cari said I should use her phone and call my friend. Unfortunately his number was in my phone and I couldn't get the thing turned back on.

Hope everyone else had a great evening yesterday.

Do you know where your next meal is coming from?

That's a discussion we had in my house today.

This morning I was looking over some things at the computer. Cari came in and we were talking a bit.

That's when I felt something crawling on my back. I reached back and felt something. It was a tick! That tick was trying to figure out where his next meal was coming from. It would not be me! Cari disposed of it by testing it's swimming ability in our toliet. I had never seen a tick before, and how it just appeared at my desk, I'm not sure. Cari said it probably crawled out of my hair. Great. Now I'll be paranoid about every bug that touches my skin.

I can't count that high

I'm off from work on Friday. There are a couple of things I need to do. There are several more that I want to do.

Sometimes plans change.

There will be an additional FOUR children in my house when I wake up in the morning.
I'm scared to go to bed.

Wish me luck. I'll tell you about it Friday night.