Made it back to PA Tuesday and spent a few days with Sis. Now at Mom’s contemplating departure for my 40-year high school reunion in a couple hours. I’m afraid I can only vaguely recall little more than a handful of my old classmates never seen or heard from at all over the past 4 decades, despite carefully studying the reunion’s FB page. Should be interesting…
Protesting the National Anthem – WTF NFL?
Of course it is unfortunate not all special interest groups and minorities feel 100% totally equal and accepted in our society. Put things in perspective and ask yourself in what country anywhere does that idyllic paradise actually exist? Or even compares favorably to the USA on that topic? Then contemplate where we stand today, compared to 10, 20, 50 or 100 years ago.
What exactly are you protesting? Our flag and national anthem are symbols of the freedom and justice that allows you to protest and gives athletes of all colors and creed the opportunity to make millions of dollars playing a game. Are you protesting social injustice, or exploiting a hot-button to attract attention?
You definitely have the attention of this veteran who gave the best years of his life to defending your right to protest. But it’s not like you think. My attention to TV time watching pro football just went retrograde. What a shame rascism rears it’s head in one of the few places the actual playing field even approaches level..
2017 Plymouth State Homecoming
The volleyball team broke even, unfortunately getting beat 3-1 in close sets with their conference rivals from Eastern Connecticut. Then they sort of made up for it with a good 3-0 drubbing of the Presque Isle team in game 2. The football team romped 37-0. I was watching them warm up before the game and they are GOOD, with some really impressive young athletes throwing the ball around.
Then I spent a little time walking the campus snapping pics before the game. It’s easy to see why Francie wanted to come here – the whole campus is just beautiful. One interesting thing to me is that the school literally “is” the town. The Post Office and Town Hall sit on Main Street right in the middle of it, with University buildings and facilities of all kinds spreading out from there in every direction. I’ll have alot more pics to post after getting time to do that when I’m home next month.
PSU Trip Note
The car is performing phenomenally, as expected. Snapped a couple dash shots after last fill-up. That range number is accurate, and it had at least another 30 miles in the 15 gallon tank. Do the math. Yet at the same time it’s an honest mid-13s car with an open rear on street tires – that handles like it’s on Ohlins coilover rails.
Where’d the pics go???
Plymouth, NH
…is a very nice little college town! Even has a touch of touristy-resort feel to it, methinks. Small schedule change will have me here 4 days with just a day trip Acadia tomorrow. Francie is busy with a recruit, practice etc. But we had dinner earlier, and by all accounts seems to be doing remarkably well.
1,500 miles to Buffalo..
Staying in Buffalo tonight, after 2 days of driving from Denver – whew! I’m only 8 hours from Plymouth now, so the two loooooongest drives are done. Only real note from the trip so far would be: What the hell is up with Indiana? Isn’t our new VP in Washington the former IN governor? Hope he doesn’t contribute to running down the country and taxing the poor like the people trying to drive I-80 in his state appear to have been. The road is in terrible disrepair, service plazas run-down and filthy and they charge you $8.50 for the privilege. Wait – didn’t the Federal government build that road?
Jax the Athlete
Apparently this dog has me pretty well trained. I can almost put the frisbee where I want to, now that the shoulder is all healed up:
She's Gone (off to College!)
My little girl is all grown up and off on her own now in Plymouth New Hampshire. Her new coach is starting to learn what we’ve known for a long time now. She made the team as expected, so she’s all set to have a great time there at PSU. I must be having lots of fun myself, because it seems like time is not just flying, but gone supersonic. I suppose this will be the “before” college pic, while her and Michelle were feasting on fresh lobster in Portland:
New Guppy Tank
The live fish-food raising project is coming along well, albeit slowly after a year so far. Turns out attempting to raise shrimp, snails and guppies all in the same aquarium is not a great idea. Apparently the guppies eat the shrimp fry, so the guppies get a new tank. Also, the guppies seem to be not breeding very quickly. They have slowed down these past few months, with only around 2-3 new babies a month showing up lately. We’ll see how they do without the shrimp. Who knows, maybe the shrimp were eating the baby guppies.
Anyway, the really cool thing about the new 60-gallon is it’s an acrylic “Uniquarium” – basically a clear plastic tank with the filtration system built right in. Sounded like a good idea and seems to be working well so far after about a month in service. All the various pieces of equipment (air stones, pump, heater, etc.) are hidden in the tank’s rear compartment(s), giving it a much cleaner, un-cluttered appearance. Cleaning the filter itself looks to be pretty simple – just pull out the filter pads, rinse and replace.
“Man Cave Remodel 2017” project is now in full swing! Next phase involves some new sound equipment and rebuilding the audio portion of the basement entertainment system from scratch. It’s been cannibalized for amps and basically fell into disuse for probably at least the last 5 years.
Charlottesville, JMHO
I suppose maybe it’s time to get started bulldozing every Confederate-related monument and cemetery in the country and try to pretend like our Civil War never happened. Apparently that project is now underway, and the people pushing it appear to be naive enough to believe this approach might do some good. So, consider what just happened in Charlottesville, VA last weekend and try to imagine a positive outcome. Now we are obliged to talk about it, with the POTUS leading the chorus.
Despite actually knowing very little about the man himself, I hate the fuck out of Donald Trump – thought he might be a useful idiot in his current role, and the right idiot for the job, at this time in history, given the binary choice. From a politician or political perspective, at least he has the cojones to not always attempt being politically correct. Political correctness, whether it is being done to assuage special interests, coddle foreign despots or mollify the general social stratum is not now, nor has it ever been a “good” idea. It only serves to exacerbate and prolong the controversy it purports to address. Perhaps PC indifference even was/is a big contributor to getting us here in the 1st place.
The social issues subsequently engendered by slavery (and all forms of bigotry and discrimination, for that matter) will not be helped by attempting to block out history. Currently fashionable attitudes and responses to this state of affairs fundamentally constitute censorship from the left meeting hate on the right. There is nothing wrong with a historical monument or statue, whether you like or agree with what it stands for or not. There are some very popular monuments and historical sites in Germany and eastern Europe that represent dark periods of evil just as bad or worse than what our Confederacy and it’s heritage stand for here.
Statues, memorials and history itself set the stage. Those things are useful remembrances to bygone days. Painful as they may be, they’d be better served in a museum, pointing the way forward in law and and justice. The principles of social equality have been firmly established through our courts and legislatures. Attempting to influence the status quo by taking down statues or beating up skinheads is woefully self-delusional and a direct incite to violence. The reformers and haters have equal enmity for the other. That problem really only exists on a personal level. It becomes a completely different problem when institutionalized or combined in like-minded mobs. We solved the institutional part a long time ago.
The only way this gets better is after the individuals harboring it grow old and die. I say “Death to the Haters!” Preferably due to natural causes. Time heals all wounds.
Midsummer Pond View
Pond is looking nice after a slow start this year. I had major headaches getting it properly sealed during initial startup last spring. Then I made the rookie mistake of letting an algae bloom go too far. But, it’s an ongoing learning process. I took a video and a few night shots to document current progress. Maybe next year will be the first relatively trouble-free year for our backyard pond. Time will tell…
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So it Begins
It was bound to start happening sooner or later – old friends going away. But this was way too early:
Steve and Dixie got divorced a long time ago, but this is how I remember him – with Dixie and the most amazing big family. RIP Steve – we had a good run, back in the day…
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July 4th, 2017
Felt compelled to post something today, despite being rather depressed about the whole idea, for some reason. Not sure if it’s my sense of the country going to shit, freedoms being chipped away faster than ever, or some other thing or combination of things, but anyway, as far as what’s important and really matters on the topic:
Annual Camping Trip
Hiking Buddy Jax and me recently spent a week up in Rocky Mountain National Park. We got all the way up Lily Mountain and within about 3 miles of Buchanan Pass this year. But I paid the price for over-doing it and took a week to recover this time around. So it looks like the Buchanan Pass goal is going to have to wait until after a left hip replacement. Despite making it about a mile further than last year, drug-assist is just not cutting it anymore. But I think starting a little earlier with a new left hip will be the future formula for success on the Buchanan Pass quest. Lion Gulch along the Little Thompson river is the last dog-friendly trail in the vicinity we have yet to explore. I think maybe we’ll be doing that on a day trip with Michelle sometime soon. The hiking boots will just have to collect dust until we get the necessary hip repairs completed. Here’s a page of Photos for the week.
Pond v4
We’re on year #4 for the backyard pond. The biggest of the goldfish is probably close to 10″ after another long winter in their basement aquarium home with nothing to do but eat. The pond itself is looking pretty good now, after a few false starts throughout the month of May.
As expected, it was leaking badly, and unusually wet weather last spring hampered efforts to complete a major re-sealing and liner upgrade. This pond is obviously not your typical square/rectangular thing you can just throw in a liner, trim it up and be done. It’s very unusual shape extends into all 3 dimensions, 4 feet deep in the center with a straight line nowhere. Initially, this called for a thin, cheapie liner that worked well last year, and that was it. The thicker, higher-quality EPDM liners simply cannot be wrangled in effectively. Adding a new liner is also confounded by the fountain, plumbing and electrical lines. The long-term solution was simple, effective and difficult: Glue down all the folds and creases, apply roof sealant in the nooks and crannies, then re-coat the entire surface with truck bed liner – 5 times. I’ll put one more coat on it every spring until I’m satisfied it’s good to go – forever.
Here’s a link to the Photo page with all the 4th year pond pics…
Early Season Mt. Evans
I got antsy yesterday and decided to take a little drive up to Mt. Evans. It was 49F and blowing a steady 20-30mph wind at the summit. The last 1,000 ft. of the tourist trail was still snow covered. There seemed to be alot of cold people milling about under-dressed, having obviously overlooked the elevation temperature change. It was 95F down at our place. I saved a dozen shots of the spectacular views for this page.
