When told the reason for daylight savings time the old Indian said "Only the government would believe you can cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it onto the bottom and think you have a longer blanket".
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This coming Saturday there will be a fund raiser for Lori Compas who's running against Scott Fitzgerald. at the Fireman's Pavilion. Fitzgerald is the only person I have ever seen get booed in a parade!! Funniest thing I have ever seen (well, not literally but . . .)
OH - not sure I mentioned it here but there is/was a bill going through the State Government that would make it so Home Brewing was NOT illegal in Wisconsin. Right now if I take one of my beers off my property I could be arrested. Well the government said that is ridicules and wording was being changed. HOWEVER Scott Fitzgerald the Republican majority leader had amendment to what appeared to be pretty good legislation.
He wanted to have it so if you wanted to brew beer at home you would have to file and pay a fee for the right. His amendment would also limit homebrew events to licensed establishments to 2 times per year, that includes meetings, and no contest prizes for competitions.
LUCKILY - his amendment failed 32-1. Fitzgerald is a complete whore. The guy was being paid by the Tavern League who hate home brewers.
Anybody watch Justified (one of the best shows on TV)? He reminds me of that Detroit bad guy. All smiles while he screws everybody!
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So I'm looking to seen when they pick up yard waste and knowing that the Columbus City Website is a deadbeat site that never gets updated with stuff you really want to know (like when they pick up yard waste) I'm forced to look at the paper.
What I learned is that Ordinance 670-2012 (what happens when I dial that number) says that you can only have three dogs or cats per household. Also passed is the law where you can only have 3.2 kids! However if you have more kids and less cats you may apply to have a child listed as a cat but voting rights will be nullified.
I found nothing about yard waste.
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Saturday was the first day golfers were on our course and 50% of the golfers hit our house with their balls! First day out with a 30mpg headwind and you know there are slicers. We watched a foursome tee off and every time they hit the ball they would all look our direction!
Luckily I know all about those sort of mishits and when I purchased this land I paced off how far it was from the tee box and knew that MOST balls aimed at our house would be low screamers or high pop-ups ! No damage so far. One close one to a window though (according to some cracked siding).
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So all sorts of stuff on TV about the Japanese Tsunami (wow - spelled that right the 1st time). Interesting things. Seems they have this giant Tsunami walls that failed. The problem was not that the "walls" failed at all. But what engineers did not take into account was that the ground actually DROPPED 4 feet due to the earthquake. So a 20 foot tsunami was now only a 16 foot wall which was too low. WHO KNEW!!
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And here is something new - a blast from the past. Since Tradewinds Cottage is posting a bunch of my photos from our trip to St.John USVI I'll repost my blog from that amazing week.
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Where does one begin.
Because we had an early flight to St.Thomas USVI, DJ and I stayed at a Park & Fly in Chicago. Arriving early, we were bored so we decided to take a look at O’Hare to see what we were going to have to go through the next morning.
So far – no problems. Looking at the crowds we decided to catch the shuttle back to our hotel. HOWEVER – we quickly realized that the departure and the pick-up were in totally different zip codes and the fastest way to get from one to the other was to go through security.
WELL it's 2006 THAT AIN’T GOING TO HAPPEN.
SO – we did the smart thing and asked for help.
EASY - take that escalator over there, go down the hall, stay to your left, get on the elevator and go down two more levels staying on the right and go across the parking lot, then go though the double doors - and follow the orange buttons it'll be straight ahead, can't miss it.
OK!!!
I thought to myself "I hope DJ got all that" since as normal I phased out about halfway through the directions.
We quickly got lost.
One half hour later we stumbled into the right shuttle area, boarded the shuttle and were happy - UNTIL, DJ spotted a Krispy Creme sign. We escaped the shuttle, bought some donuts and got on the second shuttle and were relaxed . . . . . UNTIL, we had to stop to pick up 14 shivering vacationers that had been standing outside for 30 minutes. They looked at us like we were just going on a joy ride and taking up room (yea, well we were actually). They made some snide remarks about taking up space. I forgave them as they were getting back from Mexico. blah
Take off day!
Everything goes smoothly for the flight to St.Thomas – we land and step out of the plane to glorious, sunny, warm, humid air and we are all smiles. Filing our way down to the ground we walk past “the loser line” of an outgoing aircraft. boo hoo! You have to walk totally around to the other side of the airport to get your bags. it was all so surreal.
As we enter the baggage area we have our 1st taste of Cruzen Rum and it is fan
tastic AND has a small kick!!! The bags come and we head towards THE CABS!
WOW – it’s very crowded and we are herded into areas of destination. I yell Red Hook and we are on the Red Hook wall. Then we’re told THIS is the taxi to Red Hook (we had no choice) and 12 of us pile into a taxi. DJ is in the back with 3 other people stuffed and I am in the front next to the driver. No choice.
Then the crazies start, a woman starts asking insane questions. "How far are we from Cuba and can we get a ferry to Cuba how far are we from Cancun has anybody ever gotten sick in your cab is it always this hot if this is Charlotte Amelia where is St. Thomas and so forth. The cabby just takes it in stride.
We FINALLY get to Red Hook (about 45 minutes) which looks more like 3 ice fishing shanties and 2 guys help us with our bags to catch the ferry that is JUST getting ready to leave. As we approach the ferry a ferry guy is screaming at us saying
“DON’T TIP HIM, DON’T TIP HIM, THEY DON’T PUT YOUR BAGS ON THE BOAT” stunned I tip the guy $3 (hey – they helped us).
We climb up to the top of the ferry and it seems like only a 5 minute ride to St.John. DJ is nothing but smiles. It is WAY WAY TOO wonderful to get seasick.
As we near St.John our jaws drop at the beauty, We THOUGHT St. Thomas was pretty but St.John has the other island beat hands down. No comparison.
NOW – the adventure begins. With bags in tow, two carry-on's over the shoulder, and each hand has a bag, we start to look for Penn’s Jeep rental.
Cruz Bay is utter chaos. No urban planning in THIS town!! And no sidewalks where you think there should be. I know Penn’s is near the Lumber Yard and is on the left so I say TRUST ME and we move forward.
Through a small park we wander and then through an even smaller park until we get to a post office and, THANK GOD, an information booth. Well, the kid has never heard of Penn’s. I say it’s near the Lumber Yard, he points to the Lumber Yard and we gaze UP this mammoth hill. We will have to climb UP a VERY busy street and there are no sidewalks on either side.
We grab our bags and start trudging up the hill, DJ makes it 97% of the way but can not make the final hill into the parking lot, she lets out a yell and I can tell she is about to turn teary. I am in the middle of the climb and there is no level place to set my bags down. Long story short – we survive. But – STILL, no Penn’s! I get directions from a shop owner and leaving DJ I go looking, after 2 blocks I ask again (I’m now at Mongoose Junction, 3 blocks away from DJ in a strange and bizarre town and I'm sure I will never seem my wife again) and a jeweler tells me to look for a building under construction.
I know THAT building, it’s the OTHER SIDE of the street from where we were. sigh!
I get the jeep, rescue DJ, and our 1st instinct is to GET OUT OF THE CRUZ BAY CHAOS.
Driving on the left is easy as long as there are no intersections. Of course 20 yards from where jump in the jeep is a 5 way intersection.
The roads are exactly like a Formula 1 Computer Racing Game that I spent a good deal of my life playing, up, down, break, accelerate, turn while heavy breaking, turn while going straight up, it was a blast.
We make our way across the island, DJ is rubber necking while my eyes are glued to the ever-changing road. FINALLY we get to the TradeWinds cottage, open the door and gasp – it’s beautiful. I run to the porch and am floored by the view. We made it. That night we see the Milky Way, listen to music, relax, smile a lot and go to bed very very happy.
Views from our balcony. The first one looks east, the large hill is the island of Tortola and just in front of it is the "east End" of St. John.
The second photo is of what seemed to be the typical sunrise looking more southerly towards Norman and Peter Islands.
Join us tomorrow for Day 2 of DJ and Grinder's St.John adventure featuring Salt Pond, Bananaquits, Antillian Crested Hummingbirds Skinnys an Awesome lookout and a crazy steep road..
hmmmm - too bad the photos are not coming out better. I think all of my St. John shots are on a different computer. I'll have to redue them!
Cheers
Rod
