Where is Summer!!!

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I'm really not in love with the summer temperatures so far. I like it HOT and having the coldest July EVER is not what I call summer. In fact we will CRUSH the old record set in 1891.

There has never been a July where we never hit 84 degrees.

So the question is WHY have we been so cold lately??

The basic reason is that air masses follow the configuration of the jet stream. The jet stream is like a giant fence keeping the large air masses penned up. NORMALLY Jet streams meander around but the last month or so the upper level jet stream has been pretty still.

The below graphic shows this.



It's not uncommon to see this but this pattern has been in place since Mid June which is unusual.

Another interesting thing is this photo from OUTER SPACE showing the hail damage from Mondays storms.

You can see the damage on the corn crops which were sheared off at the 2 foot level. Because of the lack of foliage the surface heats up faster which is causing cumulus clouds to form over the dead areas. You can't see the dead areas in Wisconsin because of the cloud build-up.

The surface temperature (temp of the ground not the air) between the hail and non-hail area is estimated to be 22 degrees.
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At home brew club last night we had to guests from London (Wisconsin) who are running the 6th Annual Home Brew Festival on August 15th. This is something I have been thinking about for a while now for Columbus. This festival has grown from a couple guys firing up a grill and inviting friends to having nine home brewers, a band, church's selling baked goods and a $15 donation with all proceeds going to the London Community Center.



Check it out. We have to get something like this going in Columbus.
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Also at the club last night we learned that a couple of people from Madison had been looking for locations in the area for a Brew Pub and were in the process of buying a gas station in Sun Prairie in the middle of the town for the pub. Just down the street from Cannery Wine and Spirits. It would be the closest Brew Pub to Columbus.

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AND ALSO at Brew Club they talked me into teaching a Brewing 101 class at Cannery Wine and Spirits. So if you are interested talk to Pat of Kathy and express interest. No date has been set yet.

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I was putting some Columbus Carriage Classic photos on a disk so I would not lose them and found a shot from the incredibly large woman category.


This is a single shot HDR photo which I don't think I'll be doing much of as it's just a little . . .too out there. Sort of experimenting that day.

OK OK - maybe I'll try it again sometime - I did learn a bunch on what NOT to do.

===================

I know where I was on this date 19 years ago. At the Milwaukee Brewer game watching Nolan Ryan win his 300th game. The weird thing I remember was in the 8th inning the Brewers were rallying from a 5-1 deficit and the crownd was rooting AGAINST them!

Have a nice weekend.

Rod

I'm stalling actually!

I'm lovin' It!

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I don't know why I find this . . . interesting but today on the drive to work I heard a song by the Cowsills (Hair). They were pretty popular in 1969, one of the biggest draws on the concert circuit. The REAL Partridge Family.

So I thought for shits and giggles I would look them up to see what the deal was with these guys and what I found was the typical blah blah boring stuff but there were some things that stood out.

The original group was Barry, Bill, Bob, and John Cowsill and with success they were joined with siblings Susan and Paul and their mother, Barbara.

In 1969, Bill was fired from the group by his father after he was caught smoking marijuana. The rest of the careers was a boring read but then it came to the death part.

Barry Cowsill was living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. HE was spotted by news cameras at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on August 29, but was not heard from after leaving phone messages for his sister on September 1 and was never heard from again.

Bill Cowsill apparently died from a long history of problems associated with drug and alcohol abuse.

I think ever since I watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" the stream of life has intrigued me. What happens to people as they move through time, the randomness and how one thing leads to another and you never really know what adventures life will bring.

You can do all the planning and positioning but a butterfly will flap it's wings somewhere and all of a sudden things will move you in a direction you never saw coming.

. . . let's move on.

On this day in 1945 DJ's dad was blown off the USS Indianapolis by a Japanese torpedo and spent the next 5 days treading water watching his buddies get eaten by sharks. Of the 880 that survived the sinking ship only 317 survived the 5 days in the water.

The USS Indianapolis carried the worlds first atom bomb to Tinian Island and unloaded it a week before. a VERY good read is "In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors" in which there is a photo of DJ's dad.

Again - life for me would be so different if he had not survived. He would have never had DJ, I would have never met her (who was not there), there would be no Jenny, I would not be living in Columbus, I would be writing about . . . . . . taxidermy or something, who knows.
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Remember maybe about a month ago I had that photo of a mutant gaillardia in my garden?

Here it is after it has bloomed.

And remember all the way back to yesterday with my Globe Thistle photo. Well today something is happening on that very . . .globey thing.

It's getting little candles - I wonder if it's going to have a party!

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Noxema - WTF!! Now I know how they made their shaving cream empire. The shut off valve seems to be stuck open. That is 24 hours of snail like leakage. I used it this morning and 15 minutes later I see a 1/2 inch of cream creeping out!

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When I was in Pats barn with the tower of glass I took the opportunity to take a few photos.


====================

OK - what else can I think of.

Sunday night on ABC is a show that MIGHT be good call "Defying Gravity". a 6 year mission in 2052 to explore the Galaxy. Like BattleStar Galactica ( which I consider the best Sci Fi show ever) the storyline is all plotted out. It stars one of my favorite guys from Band of Brothers (Capt Nixon). It's called a mix of The Right Stuff, Grey's Anatomy and a little bit of Lost thrown in.

Sundays show will have a FIRST for Network TV. A gravity-defying simulated sex scene. However - from the reviews I have the script and characters are pretty good.

One review says "

The really weird thing about "Defying Gravity" is that it is oddly intriguing. C'mon, we're talking about what amounts to Soap Opera In Space, and yet — if you give it a chance — it might actually reach out and grab you. Even if you're not a big fan of either soap operas or science fiction.

On the other hand, the first hour is better than the second. That's never a good sign.

But — as hard as it might be to believe — "Defying Gravity" is actually worth keeping an eye on.

============================

I'm stalling actually - I had something that was the Thursday piece but I thought of more stuff to collect so I have to hold off until next week.

August 13th the Firemen will host the Carson and Barns Circus and they STILL have weather radios available for $25.

August 4th is National Night Out at Fireman's Par. . . . Not a clue what that is.

ENOUGH BLABBERING

cheers Rod

Seriously - you have not seen this?

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I was not going to even mention this video because I thought everyone in the country and the world had seen it. It's been on ALL TV stations and they are even interviewing people that WATCHED the event now. But then I see it's in the USA Today and I mentioned it and some coworkers who said "what are you talking about?"

This took place in Saint Paul, Minnesota and has received over 13 million hits in 1 week along with 60,000 comments. They rehearsed it once the night before just for fun.

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Japanese Beetles.

After much research the best way to handle this problem is sort of easy. You don't want to spay toxins because this kills all the GOOD bugs so the best way is to get a bucket and fill it with a few inches of water. Add a squirt of dish soap. Then go hunting.

These critters have to be the stupidest bugs on the planet. How many times have you been hit by one that just flies into you. DONK!! Just brush them off the leaf into the water. They are so dumb (or into their HOT bug on bug action) they just drop.

The idea is to kill the little fornicators before they hatch their little larvae which will be seen next year.

Another thing you can do is give your neighbor a Beetle trap. This is filled with some yummy thing that gets them all horny. Give it to a neighbor because YOU don't want it in your yard because it will attack party bugs for miles.

Starlings LOVE Japanese Beetles and I read in the autumn you should turn over your soil to expose the larva for birds.

One trick is to get them early. The first ones you see are laying the path that will attract more. Get those advanced scouts.

Also they do not like ageratum, arborvitae, ash, baby's breath, garden balsam, begonia, bleeding heart, boxwood, buttercups, caladium, carnations, Chinese lantern plant, cockscomb, columbine, coralbells, coralberry, coreopsis, cornflower, daisies, dogwood (flowering), dusty-miller, euonymus, false cypresses, firs, forget-me-not, forsythia, foxglove, hemlock, hollies, hydrangeas, junipers, kale (ornamental), lilacs, lilies, magnolias, maple (red or silver only), mulberry, nasturtium, oaks (red and white only), pines, poppies, snapdragon, snowberry, speedwell, sweet pea, sweet-William, tuliptree, violets and pansy, or yews (taxus).

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An explanation of Sundays photo.

This is a wall cloud which is caused by the ascending (up) and converging inflow of air. This updraft consists of moist, rain cooled air from the normally downwind downdraft.

Since temperature tends to decrease and dew point is increasing as the updraft entrains this air, saturation occurs sooner as the air rises (as opposed to when it hits the rest of the cloud base) . Wall clouds may form as a descending of the cloud base (as this was the case) or may form as rising scud consolidates and organizes.

Also of note is the Shelf Cloud also called a arcus cloud. A low, horizontal cloud formation associated with the leading edge of thunderstorm outflow.

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Other random Wednesday thoughts.

1. Lets not have another Maxwell Street days in Columbus. We just do not have enough businesses to have a "Maxwell Street Days". We can have sidewalk sales or some other buzzy wording but I feel "Maxwell Street Days" is misleading.

2. This is one globe from my Globe Thistle. I took it this morning and think I have to go back and take a little more time and do it right but . . . . here it is! Looks cool blown up - hope it comes out in blogger.

3. GET YOUR RED HOT T-SHIRTS

Many sizes are still available. You can pick them up from Julies Java House, Napa Auto Supple and Sharrow Drugs for ONLY $10. They are nice and thick and good quality made with ULTRA Cotton from huge caterpillars (Don't tell me cotton does not come from caterpillars, of course it does. Cotton caterpillars make their home in potato trees.)

4. I hope y'all received the City of Columbus FUN GUIDE put out by Columbus superstar Megan the Rec Director. Just taking a random page . . .hmmmm lets see what sort of fun we can have.

There is a Blood Pressure screening. I know whenever I see one of those machines I'll stand in line for hours to feel the tight grip of the pressure thingy (105 over 68 the last one).

Here one, the Holiday Lock-in. Not sure what that is but I have to think it has something to do with kids behind bars (formally called Parents Night Out). So check it out. Looks like some interesting stuff this fall.


5. I talked to the local Sweet Corn farmers. Slow crop this year. The problem is not water but heat. The three I have talked to all say we need a week of warm temps to get the crops going. Record cold July's are not perfect for Sweet Corn.

6. Less than 100th of an inch of rain and 10mpgh winds causes disaster.

THE HORROR!

This was enough to knock out power to several neighborhoods and to damage the roofs of 4,000 precarious dwellings in Santiago, Chile. Schools were closed Tuesday so that officials can repair the damage. There were no reports anyone was injured.

The city of 170,000 people in northern Chile is in the heart of the barren Atacama Desert and received more then one half it's annual rainfall in one day.

"Roofs in this region are to protect people from the sun, not from rain,"

THE HORROR!

Cheers
Rod

EVERYBODY SING: Fourteen Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Truck . . .

Yea - you know that photo I had of the storm (see yesterdays blog). Everyone said I should send it to various local news agency's. That was my goal but I could not find any email addresses on ANY of the TV websites.

Finally I was sent the addresses and as I was going to send the photo the TV was covering tornadoes and other activity and well . . . . my photo had become yesterdays news. Who cares about a wall cloud when they can have fuzzy grainy almost tornado photos.

According to Tony Laubach a tornado chaser "That block of clouds is probably a wall cloud, but definitely scud tags underneath. The striated clouds above the block is/are a shelf cloud, usually associated with severe, gusty thunderstorms. They rarely do produce tornadoes, although its not terribly unheard of."

===========================

What's that song? fourteen-hundred bottles in the truck, fourteen-hundred bottles of beer!

To continue the story that I began yesterday . . . . .

. . . we left the warehouse with the bombers strapped to the truck and all was going smoothly. Our first real excitement was a quarter mile away as we had to crest a rise to the railroad tracks.

As Pat drove over the tracks we had our first bit of bottle music as the bottles swayed back and forth chattering to each other.

We stopped tightened the straps and moved on at 35mph.

The drive from Randolph to Columbus to Marshall to just outside Sun Prairie was for the most part trouble free, except for a few hidden and unexpected dips that were exciting but we made it to Pat's barn.

As Pat drove up to where he thought he would store the bombers he said "I severely underestimated the height" (as did I).

So it was on to barn #2. Pat backed up the truck and our original plan was to just stack some skids and drag the bottles onto the skids. Although this was now going to be somewhat dicey as the height/weight issues were causing some minor stress.

I, of course, lightened the stress by saying that at least we could salvage most of the bottles.

After attaching a "Come Along" and bending some pretty large steel bands on the silo we attached the "Come Along" to the barn hoping that we would not bring down the barn. Pat backed the truck up to the "not the most solid stack of skids" I had ever seen and we started, 2 inches at a time, to move the tower of glass towards the end of the truck.

As the tower neared the dreaded rock off point the truck started to dip which was expected but . . . . it was not dipping enough. We would have about a 2 inch drop which would only be a worry at the very end. SO - why worry about it now!

Things were going smoothly with various small tweaks to the process and we were pretty pumped until only 5 inches were left on the truck. We had run out of winching room.

There was only one thing we could do. The ol' pull the tablecloth out from under the dishes act.

After saying some prayers and nervous laughter Pat jumped into the truck and with me standing next the the tower ready to steady the 1000 pounds of glass with my bare hands Pat started to move the truck forward.

Five inches I yelled.

Four inches.

Three inches.

Two inches.

And then we took a few breaths and Hail Marys.

Pat moves the truck three inches.





You have seen the films of when a brand new battleship slips into the water for the first time and how it rolls and heaves back and fourth?

That is what the tower of glass did. Like a drunken sailor lurching down the street. Like Ahman Green dodging tacklers down the field. We held our breath.

It stood solid!!! Pat went to unhook the Come Along and I said "NO ! I think that is why it is still standing. Don't unhook it.


And there you have it!! Phase One is complete. Planning for Phase Two is under way.
===================================

Back to being sane!

I'm calling the PE Celebration a success. The downtown streets had people roaming and it looked like the shops that were open were getting customers. There were street singers and all sorts of action.


I talked to a number of families that were traveling through Columbus avoiding the Interstate that stopped and were enjoying the festivities. Dave on the Hay Wagon also talked to travelers that stopped out of the blue. This is VERY important to people to know.

They were just traveling through and STOPPED!! This area is a serious gold mine if we can get events on the boulevard. The City Hall is a beacon. All eyes catch the clock tower and then travel down to events in the boulevard. This is where a farmers market SHOULD be. To this reporter, fixing the boulevard is a long term no brainer. Then tie it to the whole street to the Train Station.

The two hay rides were always packed and turning people away. What we should have done is have the T-Shirt stand where they would disembark the wagons. T-shirt sales were not as expected but MANY people did not even know we had T-Shirts. There are many still for sale and I'll have a photo of them and info tomorrow. We needed more people out selling them.

Crossing guards would be a good idea and many people had problems finding the children games.

It was awesome having two bands on the boulevard. It was like it was meant to have music. The acoustics were great.

I was very pleased to see people on the parade route and I hope the Picture Car Drivers will spread the word and we will have more next year. HOWEVER - NOT having the cars on or VERY VERY near the boulevard is a deal breaker for most of the drivers.

And I hope The Fireman have their ride on that date also. Or some other cool ride. Have a multitask event was really a kick of fun for both groups.

Have a day.

Rod

Photo Heavy - Storms and PE Celberation

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What could possibly go wrong with transporting 1,400 shrink wrapped glass 22 ounce empty beer bottles 35 miles.

It's not what you might think.

I'll speak more on this tomorrow - so much other stuff to talk about!

======================================

Anybody that lived in Columbus had a slightly exciting night last night as a train of storms cruised through about 7:30ish.

The first set of storms produced a nice 0.65 inches of rain in perhaps half an hour and when it exited we were a wonderful full (not photographed) rainbow. Here is the beginning of it.

Did you know that in Greek mythology, the rainbow was considered to be a path made by a messenger (Iris) between Earth and Heaven? In Chinese mythology, the rainbow is a slit in the sky sealed by Goddess Nüwa using stones of five different colors. In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is called "Indradhanush", meaning the bow of Indra, the God of lightning, thunder and rain.

After Noah's Flood, the Bible says that the rainbow gained meaning as the sign of God's promise that terrestrial life would never again be destroyed by flood (Genesis 9.13-15).

Scientist now believe it is light that is first refracted as it enters the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop, and again refracted as it leaves the drop. LOL - right, good one!! phhht! Like THAT is believable. I'm going with the Chinese on this one!

BUT - let's move on to the exciting stuff.

So things calmed down and DJ ask if that was it and I said there is another blob coming in about an hour.

About an hour later it was getting darkish and DJ says "Rod, look out the front window" and I get up and HOLY CRAP!! I run back and get my camera.

UNREAL!!!!! (but is is).
And I'm in front of the house look at the monster and I look behind me and
HOLY CRAP!!! I run to the backyard and snap these!

This storm only added about 0.11 inches of rain but Josh calls and says their power is out (they live under the 1st photo).

And the night ends uneventfully!
=========================

Then there was the very successful Public Enemies Celebration.

I gotta say that I believe it went off with only minor glitches. Got a little testy on my end in the beginning when some of the drivers found out that they would be a few blocks away from the main activity and when I explained the logistic problems we were having they were about to take me down and tar and feather me (not the first time that would happen in my life).

One said that being in a parking lot was unacceptable because it would be WAY too hot. Of course once we said they could park in the boulevard (which is all asphalt) that problem seemed to vanish.

But they all ended up happy and we had crowds.

My first job of the day was to get a driver to the Poser House. His car is featured for 4 seconds of the movie (not 7 as he originally thought). We got in touch with Mary and in the early morning we had his car in the exact spot where it was filmed.

Of course me being me I took a photo and touched it up a little.


Back on topic (I'll get into other stories of the event this week - OH - My cell phone was NOT lost - only misplaced for a few hours so the two year count on Rod's cell phones is still at four (1 mulched, 1 dunked, 1 stolen, 1 in use)).

The Fallen Fireman's ride in the middle of the "Celebratin" could not have worked out better. As one biker told me "I was looking forward to seeing the cars" and on driver told me "I was looking forward to seeing the bikes".

Here are the bikes coming in. You can see the lime green STAFF PEOPLE making sure the Picture Car Drivers do not pick fights. We did not want a brawl or anything.

Here's a shot of about two thirds of the bikes. Look at that one guy. He is saying "What did that guy in the Stetson just say?" I think Robbie is telling him to leave.

Seriously - it was great and I hope next year we can have both events at the same spot again. It worked out great.

Of course I took this opportunity to try to get run over for insurance but I scared them and they all hopped of their bikes not wanting to cause trouble.

That's it for today. Lots to talk about but this is getting photo heavy.

More on events this week and this is going to be a great blogging week with lots of good fun stuff on hand.

Rod

Rules Rules Rules!

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for a complete list of Public Enemies Celebration events go to

www.FrontPorchColumbus Dot Com

The very first thing I want to point you to is this video of the Ross Sisters from 1944. Now I was watching this and like the Andrew Sisters I thought it was a catchy little tune but saw nothing "amazing" . . . . . . until the 1 minute mark. Keep watching for the entire video.

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Any photoshop CS experts out there?

I shot some normal NON-RAW photos but when I open the photos in photoshop CS I get the following screen ALL the time.

Besides my brain cramping up as I kept trying to save my screen capture using the wrong buttons, why does Camera RAW 4.6 - jpg keep popping up. It is a normal jpeg, NOT RAW.

This bothers me because I can not to a "batch" because this screen opens up first.

Is there a button I have to find so this screen does not auto-pop up?
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I'm not sure how this will look on YOUR screen as the one I work on only has 2 colors and is very dark. This is my butterfly garden (being used by the bees actually which is OK).

I think I'm going to replace the tall Milk Weed which is more suited for the wild. I'mm become Johnny Mild Weed spreading Milk Weed everywhere. It seeds the garden with hundreds of Milk Weed seeds which are constantly needing to be plucked up.
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Rules.

I've never been a big fan of rules. Rules are a lazy mans way of not having to make a decision. People make rules so they don't have to think. I'm not talking rules of a game but rules like, you can only have your grass a certain height or rules that come under the "we have always done it this way" type rules.

Not laws which are different but instead of rules we should have guidelines. With rules to many times people think a certain situation is black and white. The rules says this so we must abide by them even if this particular situation does not really fit or there are circumstances where the rule does not really apply but . . . . it's an easy way to not have to make a decision.

This is why I hate rules. The people that make or enforce rules are normally falling back on the easy way out.

My feeling is that every situation has it's own inherent circumstances and if you are the person in charge, well, deal with it. If you were put in a situation where you are the decisionator, make what you think is the common sense right thing to do.

OK - I had to get that off my chest.
=======================

I hope to see you guys tomorrow in Columbus. Look for me - I'll be wearing my sombrero and . . . . . .what? This isn't the yearly Columbus Dia de los Muertos Festival? The day of the dead? In some parts of Mexico this is the most important celebration of the year, when the dead return to celebrate with their living family members. I thought Columbus had a larger Mexican community! Perhaps I was wrong. What am I going to do with all of these Juanny C. Bus T-Shirts now.

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So what is this one? Gangster Days? OK - So I'll be wearing my Johnny C. Bus hat instead (better on windy days anyway).

See ya tomorrow!

Rod

Madison Hand Wringers

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Find info for the Public Enemies Celebration at

www.FrontPorchColumbus Dot Com

What has happened to Madison and it's "liberl-ness". Seems now Madison is run by a bunch of hand wringing social workers.

Case in point. Concerts on the Square. If the ground is wet (or dry actually) you can no longer have a nice lunch sitting on a blanket in the Capitol lawn. DJ and I were kicked off and a mom and 2 kids were kicked off as we were having lunch. NO BLANKETS BEFORE 3:00 before Concerts On The Square. That is crazy, WE'RE HAVING LUNCH. I guess it is OK to put up 40 lawn chairs to save spots for 6 hours but NO BLANKETS FOR LUNCH.

Then I see in the Isthmus today that the city came down hard on a business ($172 fine) because instead of having dead grass or cement they spent a ton of money making this garden in front of their business.

What is wrong? CAN'T YOU SEE THAT HIDEOUS SIGN? Signs are forbidden. Pay up law breaker. The owner is now worried that someone might complain that the flowers are going to get in the way of their dog urinating freely and he will get fined again.

For the full story of THAT analness check out Bill Lueders article in the Isthmus.

Then I hear that Madison wants to ban sales of beer in gas stations. It seems that because of the economic downturn gas stations are trying to make money with more beer sales to cover their bottom line.

Don't want THAT to happen. The person on point of this new rule says he wants to keep beer and driving separate and really, if you want beer you can just drive to a liqueur store. . . . . .what? Did that make any sense?

Rules like this is what ruins civilizations. I think the Incas had rules and look where the are now.
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Well , the voting thing never took off but I like LHL's name of Johnny C. Buss.

Speaking of the Celebration July 25th. There will be Auditorium tours from 3:00 to 5:00 Saturday.

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On this date in 1885 Vice President Thomas Hendricks enjoyed a fresh trout caught in the Brule River in Ashland Wisconsin. And why you ask is this important? Not a clue but the source of this fascinating story is in a book called "B" Book I, Beer Bottles, Brawls, Boards, Brothels, Bibles, Battles & Brownstone by Tony Woiak.

==========================

Apple's super secret secrets.

Seems a Chinese iPhone worker killed himself when one of his prototype iPhones went missing. Most Apple products are made in China to get around American laws so they can be cheaper and Apple has a huge cone of silence around their products. I was "talking" to 1st Asst Bob Wagner (Public Enemies) a month ago and I asked him what he had been up to. He said he had just gotten back from an overseas project with Apple that was so secret that he could not even tell his family who, what or where he was going.

I'm glad he did not have to kill himself once he was done.

================================

Anybody out there own a Growing Up Skipper doll? Barbies flat chested little sister that was made in 1975? You remember the one where if you twisted her arm she would grow bigger breasts and her waste would pinch in to impossible proportions.

Just curious. They are worth a pretty penny now.

The company that made Growing up Skipper also created Earring Magic Ken. Yet another flop. The world just was not ready for the shirtless, earring-wearing pretty blond boy doll who wore a round metal ring around his neck. Go figure.
=====================

Our golf League was canceled last night because at 4:30 Door Creek received over an inch of rain. We golfed anyway and the night was beautiful.

Have a great Thursday.

Rod

The Day of A Thousand Cream Puffs

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of making a date is forgotten.

Final meeting of Year One Public Enemies Columbus Celebration was last night and I spent part of the rest of the evening answering and calling Picture Car Drivers.

From what I was told THIS celebration is the King Pin and the one the drivers have been looking forward too. I'm always asked how many cars are coming and I tell them I have no real answer "what do you think" is my typical response.

Well they say. At the Portage Columbus was talked about and the Iola show Columbus was talked about and "they" would not be surprised if we get 40 cars.

Can the Middle School hold 40 cars? Louie?? You are across the street aren't you? I've never looked at it in this way.

Here is a list of events.

Maxwell Street Days
Maxwell Street Days will be downtown beginning at 9:00 am

Picture Car Parade
The parade will start at 11:00 all at the Columbus High School, down Farnham to Park Avenue, ending at the Middle School.

Games, Food & Drink, Live Music
Fun games will be held from 11:00 to 2:00
Live Music can be heard between 11:00 to 2:00 and live 30's style music will be from 3:30 to 6:00

Fallen Firefighter Ride
A fallen firefighter ride of 500 motorcycles ill be on Dickason Boulevard between 2:30 and 3:15

Wagon Guided Tours
Wagon guided tours of Columbus will be available between noon and 5:00

Public Enemies Display
he Antique Mall will have "like" items from the movie on display. Photos of the making of Public Enemies" will be displayed at businesses throughtout thwo.

30's Style Contest
Sign up for the 30's costume contest beginning at 6:00pm at Jodeeo's, 200 E. James Street.

Bowling Special: Cardinal Ale House & Bowl
From 11:00am to 5:00 pm: 30 cent bowling, 30 cent show rental, $1.30 mugs of draft beer, AND old time photos can be taken and purchased (maybe).

And not to be ignored are 74 woman's fast pitch softball teams in the 2009 Columbus Xplosion tournament.

For more details call
920-623-5540

Looking for the interview from Madison CW? With Robbie, Karen and little ol' me!

Go to this link.

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Julie from Julie Java House is making 1000 Cream Puffs (which scare me) and there will be all sorts of food that the fireman are cooking up.

Plus 300 great looking dark red/burgundy T-Shirts with the little PE guy on the front. Robbie said 500 and after thinking about it I agreed. For $10 each they will go fast but the powers that be did not want to pull the trigger on 500 so they went with 300. So if you want one you better get it early.

At 5:04 this morning I woke up to rain and Milo whining and an idea came to my little brain.

We need a name for our little PE guy. What we need is a large cardboard cut out of "PE Guy" and we need to think of maybe 10 names and then have people can VOTE for their favorite.

Since this will be a yearly event (Gangster Days?) we should give him a name and get people involved.

Ideas????
==========================

Big Brother spoiler - sort off.

Is anyone else watching Big Brother? If you are make sure you watch Thursday. Something is happening in the house that, from people that have seen it all, say is the KING of all confrontations. Never has one person taken so much abuse and, he brought it all on himself.

RONNIE! ARE YOU CRAZY???

NOT, backdooring Russell was in effect backdooring ALL the other players in the game ON BOTH SIDES and I believe this is the biggest bonehead blunder in the history of Big Brother and he is paying the price. I wonder how much they will show on Thursday night. I heard it got rather ugly (like having 11 Evil Dicks?).

Seriously - you tell people you are playing both sides and position yourself in a good position and then when you talk EVERYBODY into backdooring a bully and PROMISE everyone on both teams. . . . . and then change your mind because feeble minded Jesse?

talk about stabbing all 11 players in the back all at once!!
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BTW - did I mention that the old rusty mill will be torn down and a new huge warehouse will be erected in it's place. This and perhaps lengthening the railroad corridor in the industrial park area will bring in new business.

I don't know the exact facts but body language and the words coming out of mouths had people pretty pumped up about major industry coming on.
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On this day John Dillinger was gunned down a 10:40 p.m - perhaps you have head of him!

Sadly - Anna Sage (Ana Cumpănaş - real name) only received half of the $10,000 reward AND was deported to Romania anyway.

Rod

Columbus is Going to Need Sunglasses Soon.

There's never enough time to do it right first time but there's always enough time to go back and do it again.


How is Public Enemies doing at the box office you ask? Not bad, not great. Universal is the only major studio that does not have a $100M film yet this year and PE has a good chance to break into the century club and is at $79.8M domestic.

The BIG news was Universal's Bruno. It crashed and burned dropping a "disturbing" 73% which is the worst 2nd weekend of any film this year.

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Photo alert. Seriously - how hard is it to take pretty photos of flowers! It's like saying "here is a sexy swimsuit model, can you TRY to take a nice photo?"

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I've been saying this for a few years and I'll repeat it. I'm pretty optimistic about the direction Columbus is going and I'll be the first to say that so far I totally approve of how new Mayor Bob Link is preforming (not that anybody cares what I think but . . . ). I've been in a few meetings and have heard other reports and dare say "I was wrong?"

The City Council of Columbus seems to have it's act together also and it also seems that everyone is interested in the downtown situation and how can we make it better.

I was at the CDA (Columbus Development Authority) meeting last night and a few things sort of perked me up a little (BTW - this is an open meeting and I urge others to attend if you are interested in Columbus.

When playing SIM City you zone areas and raise and lower taxes and all the little City things to make the SIMs happy. But the one thing is you need business to bring people. Built it and they will come. Could this be backwards?

Sort of, maybe a little.

The Mayor and some CDA people visited Burlington IA which has a population of about 25,000 and has lost almost 6% of it's population since 2000 and has an unemployment rate of 7% (compared to 3.3% for Columbus).

Burlington ripped down 33% of their downtown and one of the BIG redevelopments was a 150 unit upscale apartment building right next to the downtown.

Now you are going to say that you hope THAT does not happen in Columbus and I agree. Columbus has people that live near the downtown already. But my point is that those people that live in those apartments in Burlington (most unites are occupied) have spurred downtown growth naturally.

Instead of finding business and THEN getting people to the business. They brought in people and business followed.

. . . . . . . .

OK - the above got a little boring so I erased it.

BTW - Columbus is really making some waves in magazines of late. The biggest "green" magazine will have an article on Columbus. Corporate World (I know we all can not wait for that one to arrive in the mail) has an article about Columbus and how it is becoming pro-business and RV World had the following story that has already brought travelers to the town.


The Public Enemies Celebration is this Saturday and hopefully this is the beginning of a yearly event. If it is it is just another reason the Wisconsin movie incentive helped a town.

Without Public Enemies this event would not be happening and people would still be inside with their windows closed not talking to each other. Now we have a community that seems to me has turned a corner and is heading in the right direction.

Get your sunglasses - the future is bright if we don't let it slip through our fingers.

Rod

Record Breaking Weekend

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Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it.
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If it's going to be cold it might as well break a few records. Friday and Saturday we broke the coldest maximum temperature records for those days and the 1st 19 days of July are the 2nd coldest on record.

Saturday morning sure felt like Door County in October.
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Saturday afternoon I was with my buddy Elweed and we were going to check out the Malt House but it was closed yet again (I guess it's always closed Saturday afternoons?) so I was driving to Woodmans (best beer selection in Madison) taking back roads and had a surrealistic moment.

Having almost 20,000 nights to have dreams in my life there have been some repeat occurrences. One of them that is just part of a dream is when I'm going somewhere (in my dream) and there is a long row of warehouses, or one big one that I remember. I've always appreciated that part of the dram for some reason. It's very cool looking and when I remember those dreams I remember those warehouses and wonder where I know them from.

Saturday we turned a corner and of an instant I felt I was in a dream. There it was - the exact warehouse and I was traveling down that exact street. I had goose bumps, I almost stamped on the breaks.

The Theo Kupic Iron Works on Waubesa Street. Why do I remember this?? What happened here that I should recall this street more then a few times.

But then, I turn onto St. Paul Avenue and am astounded by what I see. The entire length of St. Paul Avenue is one huge garden. Perhaps four blocks along the railroad corridor. I would estimate it's a 200o square foot flower garden. It blew me away. I could spend all day just walking that street taking photos. Be a fun project. I have to go back for several reason.

Speaking of gardens. I'm finding it hard to get good maxi photos of gardens. I can get "flowers" but trying to get a large garden is giving me underwhelming photos.

But - I did take a couple shots Sunday morning of a few flowers.





Did you know that the noise a bumble bee makes is not from his wings but is caused by vibrating muscles in his body?

And take a look at this mutant Gaillardia flower I have.

==================================

Of course today is the 40th Anniversary of Mans supposed moon landing which I feel was a clever rouse. If we had really landed on the moon wouldn't cheese be a lot cheaper? I mean like HELLO!!

Friday was also an anniversary. The 177th anniversary of the last log being put in place at Fort Koshganon. Fort Koshganon was abandoned later once General Atkinson slaughtered the Black Hawk Indians in the Bad Axe Massacre.

The logs from Fort Koshganon were used to build the first homes in what is now called Fort Atkinson (never a fort) named after the blundering General Atkinson. Zachary Taylor stated he believed that if Atkinson's troops would have met with Black Hawk before the war's first battle the war could have ended without a single shot being fired.

And speaking of American Indians. Today in 1881 Sitting Bull surrendered. He was the leader of the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of General Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn in what the Indians called the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek.

AND, on this day Operation Valkyrie, the overthrow of the central government in WWII Germany took place in 1944. Stauffenberg's plot failed and in the coming weeks 7,000 high ranking German officials were executed leaving the "not so bright" ones left to run the show.

The Allies won.

Have a Monday and try not to have a heart attack. Mondays are the #1 day for heart attacks - BE CAREFUL!!

OH - funny things from Jennys blog.

" Babies are very slippery when wet."

"Josh and I under estimated the amount of sleep deprivation that happens when caring for a new baby" "Sleeping is a sacred luxury that many people take for granted."

Since March 2009 these are the Countries in which people have read this blog.

Brunei Darussalam?

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Rod

Transformers

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Scene: NASA Conference Room

Topic: How to Digitally Enhance the Apollo 11 Moon Landings

Things to Bring to Meeting: VCR Tape of Apollo Moon Landings

Director: I'm glad you could all make it today. I've called this meeting to discuss ways to digitally enhance the Apollo 11 Moon Landings for our 40th Anniversary of the event.

Floyd, did you bring the tape?

Floyd: Yes sir Mr. Director sir it's right here sir. We had a hard time locating it and it's the only one we have. It's been a number of years but, DIGITAL - GO! (laughter from committee members).

Director: Excellent, let's pop that puppy into the VCR and take a look at what we have.

Floyd: Right away Mr. Director . . . . . . . . does anybody know how to work this machine? (laughter).

VCR: clack clack whir whir

And then to every bodies shock the scene being played out on the TV is not the Apollo 11 Moon Landing but the 1979 NASA Christmas Party.

OOPS!

That's right ladies and germs. It seems NASA has accidentally recorded over the only tape that they had of the Apollo Moon Landing. The good news is that they located four tapes from around the world in various conditions and have digitally remastered from the various tapes.

Actually the tapes were erased in a cost cutting measure to record satellite data. I guess they should have been labeled? I know all my tapes are labeled. Well . . . . one of them is at least. Not sure what are on the rest.
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When I watch a movie I like to listen to the sound track. Some of my favorite music is from the movies. Lawrence of Arabia turned me on to classical music and Apocalypses Now had fantastic 60's music to name a few (the only ones in my brain at the moment).

But how often does a song make you want to see a movie??

This is the case at the moment with me. One song has been in my head and now I'm sure I'll join the millions to watch TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN which now has a world wide gross of over $700M.

So if you want to see what is in my head check out this music video by Linkin Park. It is a GREAT song and really makes me want to see the movie.

It's a foot tapper.


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And speaking of transformers this ride at Mr. Ed's looks a little like it's from the movie!

I can't find the name of this ride at the moment. grrrrrr


If you want to see the 2010 Camero that stars in the movie take a trip to Frank Porth in Columbus (or Frank Porrth as their website has if you bookmark the site).

COLUMBUS TRAFFIC ALERT JULY 21 through July 23.

Please be advised that the official map and route for Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in Waterloo will bring statewide travelers to this event directly through Columbus on Highway 16 (James Street) to Highway T from Highway 151 and Interstate 90 and 39.

This will result in significantly higher traffic volume in Columbus along James Street/Highway 16 on July 21, 22 and 23.

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days is the largest agriculture exposition in Wisconsin--a three-day outdoor event that showcases the latest improvements in production agriculture. Each year, it is held in a different Wisconsin county--on a different host family farm.

There are Six hundred to ONE THOUSAND exhibitors (depending on what newspaper you read) attending this event! It's HUGE!! An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people will attend this thing.
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From LipsRSealed

The John Dillinger Died For You Society will be recreating his death. (Yes there is such a group) Here is the info about this year's event.

JOHN DILLINGER DIED FOR YOU!

And I quote "I went last year and it was kinda funny in a strange way. If you go the guy who runs it is a real snake oil salesman and will try to have you "pony up" some money to pay for the bag piper. (I bet the piper does it for free) Just go by the Biograph around 10 pm and you can participate without paying anything."

Have a great weekend.

Rod