Joe Cocker who???

So I was running around big box stores yesterday looking for a ChromCast to take down to ILL for my mom and brother (they are sold out EVERYWHERE).

As I'm talking to a dude I get an alert "JOE COCKER DEAD AT 70".  Wow - my first thought is that I'm glad they don't announce ALL deaths on my phone as it would get pretty busy.  

SO - then I'm looking at DVD/Blu-Ray players because my DVD player died and the "dude" is talking to a customer who needs an HDMI cable because his TV only has 4:3 ratio and not 16:9 ratio . . . . . and I'm waiting for the dude to sell him a HDMI cable which would really do nothing (it's a setting on your TV) but he didn't.  

ANYWAY - once I step in and explain things I comment  "Joe Cocker died".  

The dude looks at me and says "I don't know who that is".  sigh.  I explain Woodstock and yada yada and he explains that I'm old (not in those words but you get the idea). 

WELL - by that time there are customers all around waiting for help and I see someone my age-ish and say  "I bet you know who Joe Cocker is".   And they say yes and I say "He died". 

All of a sudden from every corner of electronic section   What? Joe Cocker died?  Joe Cocker? Who died? Joe Cocker?  Joe Cocker died!   Not Jo Cocker!   and I look and the guy is beet red not having a clue who Joe Cocker is.  Then everybody is trying to remember his songs and everyone has forgotten about shopping - it was funny - - - BUT WAIT.

I need to go to Walgreens in Columbus and am freaking hungry so I get a grilled onion Swiss burger at McDonalds and ask the manager - "you know who Joe Cocker is don't you"?  "Nope, never heard of him"  So I ask, have you ever heard of the Beatles?  

In Walgreens I'm picking up some tiny photos and I KNOW the girl has no clue who Joe Cocker is BUT the people at the kiosk will.  So I say, "do you know who Joe Cocker is?" and she says no and I explain Woodstock and she says "Oh, I try to keep up with the oldies but I guess I missed that one".  

WHAT?  Did you just call me old??  (I'm thinking).  sigh.  

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So the U.S. did or did not turn off North Korea's Internet for 9 hours. My question is, how can we tell it was "off". They only have electricity for 4 hours a day and only 10 people have the internet. 

In all seriousness though - North Korea is a freaking scary country with a nutball dictator and a finger on nukes (whether they could actually fire them with their Commondor 64s or not is not known).

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BUT - speaking of the economy.

FASTEST GROWTH SINCE 3QTR 2003!    5.0% GDP last month.
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WHO LIKES COFFEE!!

Want the most caffeine?  By Robusto coffee with the lightest color.  Roasting takes out caffeine. Grind your coffee fine to get the most caffeine, Brew your coffee between 195 and 205 (Keurig only brews at 192).

Best bang for buck at Starbucks - Double Espresso with fine lightly roasted Robusta.  BAM!!!

That's it - have a great Christmas!

Rod and Family!

Winter Solstice - yea, good one! More liberal lies!

So I woke up this morning expecting to throw open the blinds to beautiful sun bathing my skin and "The hills are alive" bursting from my lungs.  BUT NOOOOOO!!!  All I see is blackness.  Winter Solstice my butt.  OH - the days will get longer now I kept hearing - NOT AT MY HOUSE!!!  

I know I know - many of you will be shocked when I say this but I was raised as a social liberal and economic agnostic (I don't actually know what that means but it sounds good) but this "liberal" fallacy has been blown way out of proportion.    

Here are the facts!!!!    

Columbus will not gain it's first full minute of "sunlight" until December 24th!!  Yea - so lets not get all excited YET.  Columbus will be at 8:58 minutes of "sunlight" (another fallacy in my book) for 7 days. That's right.  God is on vacation and does not have time to give us what we need.  This sunlight train does not really get rolling until December 30th when we start to gain one minute a day.  

Which brings us to a question.  Where does God go when on vacation??.   Well, I Googled it and it seems it's the Bahamas or Saturn's Rings. 

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I'm only going to say this once, unless you are on Facebook (Melotte Photo Imagery) or on my email list  Rod's ever growing email list  but I can get a deal on calendars (2015) and if anyone wants' one for $16, email me and I'll order some. Rod's secret email   (I'll erase that in a day or two if I remember).

Order goes out Friday and I'll mail the calendar to you when I get them. Don't worry about $$ yet, I just need to know how much to order.  

I have no idea what photos I'll put on this calendar so it's a crap shoot.  I would love to make one every year but they are expensive.  SO - let me know BEFORE Friday when the sale ends.   

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Don't let Putin fool you. Russia is in full economic crisis!  Interest rates are now at 17%.  Major banks are thinking of downgrading Russian debt to "junk" status.   Compared to Columbus's A1 status we are sitting pretty and I have a plan.  I will talk to the Mayor about Columbus BUYING Russia since it's cheap right now and I think we could turn it around.  We could have a Mullins East! 

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Gun Control.   I'm not anti gun. I'm anti-needing a gun but not anti gun.  All this "I need a gun to keep my family safe" is BS.  What! do you keep the gun on a table ready for action?  No - if you are a smart gun owner you lock it away.  SO - a bugler enters your house and wants to kill your family. First thing you do is run to your locked gun locker, find the key or enter the combination if you can remember it, then run back upstairs where he is waiting and blast him (or her sorry that was not politically correct).  

BUT anyway - what tweaked this part of my brain was the old "don't mess with the 2nd amendment" argument and "'if you take away our guns only outlaws will have guns" and I say, if only outlaws had guns thousands of children would still be alive.    

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Amy and Maya

OH - a BIG BIG congratulations to Maya and Amy, two food scientists (actually candy scientists) from UW-Madison that after racing 26,000 miles through 8 countries in 30 days won the Amazing Race, what I consider the most physically demanding hardest non-scripted show on TV.  They were the underdogs all the way and the only leg they won was the final one.  The other teams called them low hanging fruit, don't worry about them.  

This race was the ultimate hare vs tortoise where the tortoise had the brain power and made very very few mistakes. They are the 1st all female team to ever win Amazing Race in 25 seasons and the 2nd team from Madison to win.  

It was interesting to watch because before the show CH3 interviewed them and asked if they would do it again.  The said YES, in a heartbeat. Which told me they did not come in last with a bad experience.  

Then in the first 4 or 5 episodes they were really not on camera much which told me either they are either REAL boring or will get more camera time later.  The later came true. 

Bethany Hamilton

Lot's of injuries this time from one woman getting stabbed in the foot in some nasty poop ridden area in eh Philippians, a sprained ankle, Amy almost getting heat stroke in Manilla, one contestant slipping 600 feet above the ground on a wire   

And I gotta say it. Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who had her arm bitten off by a shark, was AMAZING!!   OMG - there was not one thing she could not do better then two armed contestants.  All of the teams were in awe.  

In February Survivor Season 30 and Amazing Race Season 26 will be back to back.  Survivor will have three tribes,  Blue Collar, White Collar and No Collar,  Amazing Race will have 10 sets of couples, HOWEVER, these couples have not met each other yet. The ultimate blind date! 

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CHRISTMAS WISHES

May your house be full of Christmas

Long before the day appears.

May it's glow light up the season

And then linger through the years.

Make you wake to birdsong daily

Feeling blessed by morning light,

And know the peace of work well done

Before you sleep each night.

May your friends be always near you

When you need them by your side,

May your children bless their home

And life your hearts with pride.

May you walk the earth with pleasure,

May the skis be kind above,

May your hearts reflect your hearthfire

And your lives be warm with love! 

         --E.V. Melotte

Since I believe most people read this from work or find it in the spam email - have a very merry holiday season and Thank You. 

12,400 gallons of beer!

After my comments against North Korea it seems I have lost some valued readers in fear of reprisals.

I was thinking of what the U.S. could do in response but it seems North Korea only have WIN98 computers which are unhackable.  We could take down their electric grid but that is only up 4 hours a day anyway. Disrupt their food chain?  hmmmm 

North Korea only allows 14 hairstyles for woman and 14 styles for men - perhaps there is something there that we can mess with their lives.     

In other news Sony has decided that their movie "The Interview" has gotten such bad press they will re film parts of the flick and to ease international tensions instead of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un being the target it will now me Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

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The one sure thing on Wall Street is the Santa Rally. Happens every year like clockwork.  You can bet on it.  It's easy to explain.  Around the 1st of December all of the Mutual Fund managers start to dump their under-performing stocks so when their year end reports come out it shows only good stocks. This causes the Dow to take a small tumble.

Then, once all the the reports are printed they start to buy back all of those under-performing companies because they are now cheap and BAM - Santa rally!

If Santa Claus should fail to call
Bears may come to Broad & Wall

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The Marshall City Council has adopted a much more lenient snowmobile ordinance making everyone happy.  Only one state in America has more snowmobiles then Wisconsin and that is Minnesota.

A snowmobile traveling at 15mph emits 73db measured at 50 feet away. Far below normal city ordinances.  A lawn mower is 80 db.  Just sayin'.

OK OK - I'm in enough trouble as it is!!  :-)

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Of course everyone was watching the football games last night between Tennessee and Jacksonville  . . . .right?  Well the fun thing happened on the very final play of the game when Sen'derrick Marks sacked the QB earning him a $600,000 bonus for the year.  His contract said if you get 8 sacks you get an extra $600,000.   He was very happy.

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 NBA 36-22 now 62.1%

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I have issues with the National Christmas tree

Is that actually a tree??  Looks more like the National Christmas Cone to me. Seriously?

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It's not looking like Christmas at all.

The last time we did not have snow on the ground for Christmas was 2006, before that 2002 and then we go all the way back to 1982.  YET - we only have snow on the ground 60% of the time in the last 108 years!

The warmest high Christmas was 54 in 1982 (I believe we had a thunderstorm that day - I remember)
The coldest low was -21 in 2000
Largest snowfall is 3.5 inches 1950
Highest snow depth is 16 inches in 1985

Going to be close this year with a group of unsettled weather coming the middle of next week.  The problem is that it might be snow, it might be rain it might be slush.  It WILL be windy.  And after Christmas  . . .winter shows it's ugly head and we turn c c c cold.

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Things you never thought you want to know!

A sneeze travels at 100mph

There is more bacteria in your mouth then people in the world - on a side note people get all weird when they see a human and dog kiss (you know like a lick on a puppy or something)  YEW - dog germs.  Well, we have MUCH more crap in our mouths they dogs do!  It's THEM that should be worried.

Your foot can produce one pint of sweat a day!

Your eyes can have UP TO a 576 megipixle resolution.

And finally!

Want to see what 12,400 gallons of beer looks like fermenting  . . . . IN MY BASEMENT??

America, Land of the Cowards It Seems

Has Americareally sunken to hand wringing worriers?  Would we have caved in to Hitler because he threatened us?  Should we just stay away from any business that has a threat from any nutball dictator?  Should we make our schools prisons (wait, we have done that already).

HEY - if you play that movie we're going to blow you up.  OK OK WE GIVE UP!!!!  HANDS IN THE AIR, HIDE UNDER THE COVERS!

Good lord America has become weak.

YEA - TAKE THAT NORTH KOREA - you can' t shut down THIS blog!!  

Sorry - had to get that off my chest - I have angst this morning.  I don't know why! 

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NBA - 0-3 last night  (hmmmmmmm)

down to winning 60.3% (which in some circles is still freaking amazing).

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The photo above was taken while I was getting spoken too sternly for taking the photo. In fact every time I have taken photos of the mill a dude comes out on his riding lawn mower and gives me a lecture.  Well . . . .dude . . . .I'm on public property, I can take any damn photo I want.  MERRY CHRISTMAS  :-)   (I just made myself laugh).

Christmas Season - 1960

The house is a-bustle with holiday doings,

With baking and trimming and wrapping of toys,

Buying and trying and signing of Christmas cards,

Carols and laughter and secrets and noise.

The children are busily being mysterious,

They've bolted their doors and are late for their meals,

Soon they will appear bearing queerly shaped packages

Bristling with Scotch tape and hundreds of seals.

We think that our kitten, in sniffling the presents,

Got too big a whiff of her new catnip mouse,

For she's knocked over the little tree, climbed up the big tree,

And eaten the roof off the gingerbread house.

Our youngest is trudging upstairs with a ruler

To find Daddy's biggest and stretchiest socks.

Out little chihuahua is wild with excitement

And keeps falling into the ornament box.

So steady the ladder and hand me that angel,

Hi-ho the holly and mistletoe, too! 

All of us here in our family are wishing

The merriest possible Christmas to you! 

     ----E.V.Melotte

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EVERY 25 YEAR OLD SHOULD LOOK AT THIS CHART

Of course when you are 25 you are normally living pay check to pay check or less. But you should put SOMETHING in savings every check. ANYTHING.  Take it off the top, pay yourself.

It's all about compound interest and it works, trust me. 

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The Bears

You know if you have an iPhone and are typing something and want to start all over you just shake the phone like a martini and start all over?  That is what the Chicago Bears need to do!  So they benched Cutler who will now make 1 milling dollars a game sitting on the bench. The basic reason is Marc Trestman is trying to save his job and if he can win his last 2 games . . . . . . . .

In other news - Paul Chryst???  WOW - I did not see that one coming!!!

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Survivor - great ending to a very good season. According to Graph TV this was one of the best if not the best season ever. In fact the last 2 years have rated as the two best.

The interesting thing about this year was that it was Blood vs. Water where 8 teams of couples were

on the show competing against each other.  This year an Amazing Race couple were on the show, identical twins Natalie and Nadiya.  Nadiya was the very first contestant voted out and the two had never spent more then a few days apart for ANY REASON.

Natalie was forced to be her own woman for the 1st time in her life and she won!  She was awesome pulling the biggest moves in Survivor history and playing an amazing game.

In February the next Survivor starts,  Blue Collar vs. White Collar vs. No Collar!  Should be interesting.

Have a great day.   

Public Enemies Part Deux

I'm in the middle (and when I say middle I mean I have not really started yet) of writing an article about a new movie (film) that will be filmed in Columbus soon. This is being produced by NueveCine, an international film company based out of Guadalajara, Mexico.  They have done filming in US, Mexico, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Israel, and Palestine.  I'll have more once I put the words together and ask a few more questions.

It won't disrupt Columbus as that last little flick that was filmed here and I doubt the lead, Dylan Kleinschmidt, will be as big of a draw as Johnny Depp.  There is no Dylan Kleinschmidt Reads website. 

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Sad news for the Milwaukee Bucks, the most surprising team in the NBA.  Jabari Parker, ONE of the Bucks future stars tore his ACL and will be out for the year. Outwardly this is very sad as the Bucks had won 13 games after winning 15 all last year. They were also 17-6 Against the Spread.  HOWEVER - as an optimist is this a bad thing?  

Since this season had nothing to do about actually WINNING since it's basically a collage team, getting into the lottery for another good young player is not a bad thing.  just sayin.

BTW -   NBA = 35-20 AT$

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City Council last night was a long one but get this.  Unlike Washington, there can be compromise - so weird.  The snowmobile trail will have some tweaks to neither sides liking. I think we managed to disappoint all sides! Now THAT is compromise! 
++++++ 

Then there is the body cam thing.  I believe almost everybody is pro body cams and even though it won't solve problems it might mitigate future annoyances.  However, with 80% of communities struggling over logistics, cost, 1st amendment and so forth it was the will of the council to step back and watch and learn rather then to boldly go where few communities have gone before. 

I must compliment Chief Meister  in his due diligence on looking into body cams and I hope he keeps up to date on this emerging technology (like that was ever a concern) and I want to give an extreme thank you to the Columbus/Fall River Rotary Club for their donation that was turned down.  

I believe "I" just want to step back and let the dust settle a bit.  Even last night there were new questions about storage and so forth. 
+++++++

Careful on Park Ave, there will be a new speed limit sign slowing people down.  I was not in agreement as FOR ME this is the most frustrating area in Columbus for drivers and I see tickets in the future as this is a classic "speed it up going out of town" area.   BUT - I was not in a majority so that is fine.  We're all winners aren't we? 

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Christmas Window from The WorkShop

 This being the Christmas season I thought I would plagiarize some poems from my moms book "Snapshots Along the Way" which is now in the top 9,626,809 books on Amazon (not bad for zero advertising).  These poems were from my childhood. She would write a Christmas poem every year in the Christmas cards. 

She had compiled all of her poems from childhood to 65 and gave them to my brother and I.  I then compiled them into a book and published them and gave the book to her for Christmas about 10 years ago.

Windows Lights

We were walking home from church  
That cold and moonlit Christmas Eve,
While the chill slipped down a collar here,
And there crept up a sleeve,
Till we pulled our mufflers closer
And we pocketed our hands,
And the snow beneath our footsteps
Creaked like frozen rubber bands.

Our words made wreaths of frosty flowers,
December puffs of bloom.
Muted laughter made the sidewalk
Seem as cozy as a room.
Far away a dog was barking
Like a bell against the night,
When we turned around our corner
And we saw a window light

Window lights shine out a welcome
Far across the dazzled snow,
Shine out warmth and cheer and comfort,
Glimpse of tree and candle glow.
We all stopped and drew together,
There was something serene,
So warm and close and loving
In that simple Christmas scene.

The moment didn't last long.
Someone looked for Santa's sleigh,
Someone asked could we have cocoa,
And we hurried on our way.
But I think we'll all remember now,
However far we roam,
That the truest lights of Christmas
Are the windows of home.

            -E.V.Melotte

My favorite Christ house in Columbus

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Whole lotta news coming out of Cuba!  Major changes in the works.  Stay tuned and bring on the Cuban Cigars!! 

OH - Anybody watched Curb Your Enthusiasm?  GREAT show by Larry David the creator of Seinfeld.  He will not do a last season because of how Seinfeld ended.  "it taught me a lesson that if I ever did another show, I wasn’t going to wrap it up."

Sad.  

Water Water & The Tool gives out magazines

DJ and I win this weekend trip to St. Louis and we travel down there and are told to leave our car in this parking lot and are taken to this weird walled in fort that looks like a stockade on blacktop. Then we are told we must surrender all of our technological gadgets like iPhone laptops iPad and so forth as we sit on this black top.    

What is concerning me is that the people saying this look like some evil Quakers and I'm explaining that I have to have these things because I have daily updates for the NBA followers and blogs and so forth,   

I see that the large logs have gaps and we could make it through for help but we have no clue where our car is as we were not really paying attention.    

It was about this time when my underarm was having some sort of sensation that was both pleasing and disconcerting at the same time.  I tried to get up and move towards the logs but I was like in some sort of molasses and could not move.

It was at that moment when I realized Iggy was trying to suckle my armpit and Sophie had my legs pinned in bed.  I gave a sigh of relief that my gadgets were indeed not being taken away and then Iggy bit my pit and I was now fully awake at 3:30 and I was REALLY thirsty.

Good bye Sandman.    

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So my Keurig is all de-scaled for another month. I have heard that if you have problems with your Keurig you can call and they will replace your old one for free Keurig 2.0.  Here is the catch.  Keurig 2.0 will ONLY brew Keurig coffee unless you hack the K-Cups. They have a magnetic strip on Keurig coffee and if Keurig 2.0 does not see this - NO WATER FOR YOU!

Well#1 Columbus Water Works

ANYWAY - I was complaining about WHY I get calcium building in our softwater.   Well - I'll tell you.

Well #1 near the Antique Mall was built in the late 40s early 50s and is where our water is softened. Know one really knows why that decision was made but it's there, maybe not permanently though (more on that later).  

Softwater has less calcium then hard water and thus less problems with with scaling and so forth. But it adds sodium. 

In Columbus our tap water has 19ppm of calcium and 106ppm sodium.  Sun Prairie on the other hand has 66ppm calcium and 4 ppm sodium (MUCH better for brewing beer).  ANYWAY - You really do not want to completely take all the calcium out of water as it adds sodium.  Another BIG problem is super soft water eats metal and reduces effectiveness of chlorine. Columbus recently lowered the amount of sodium and upped the amount of calcium in water.      

Well #1 water filter - over 400 years old

I've heard people complain about how much our water costs in Columbus, well, that is because it's soft.  NOW - in 2004 there was a study done about Well #1 and it's aging and the recommendation was something on the order of HEY - THIS THING IS FREAKING OLD! And that was 10 years ago,

Columbus has another well that can be used but then there is no back up.  We have a LOT of water so there is no worry about that.  So we are in the preliminary stages of looking into options and if a new water well is decided on . . . do we soften the water?  Is it time for a change?  

And there was some discussion about fluoride in our water.  Columbus has the lowest legal limit on fluoride use and not a drop more. Many countries around the world have stopped the use of fluoride because you need stable water to add chemicals.  In many countries fluoride is added to salt or milk.  Some areas in Australia have naturally occurring fluoride in their water.

So - back to soft water - would you rather buy a water softener and soften your own water?  Or have Columbus do it.  Personally, The Tool, would like to make his own soft water.          

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OIL WATCH - dropped 4.1% yesterday!  Down to $58 a barrel.  

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our personal balcony on St. John

I see The US Virgin Islands are the 10th best Caribbean Islands, The average room is $262 a night in a hotel.  We rented a little cottage when we went on our poker funded vacation. I say this because I'M FREEZING! My office (room) is the farthest from the furnace. 

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OH - Have you ever wondered why when you go the to the doctor's office they have such crap for magazines?

There was a study and these guys rounded up 87 magazines, old and current, noted what kind of magazine therewere and distributed them in doctors offices.

One month later, only 41 were still there.  People steal them. And they steal the current ones, not the old ones.  I will confess, I stole one once (twice). Once a New Yorker that had an article about why the show Big Brother is so awesome (it really is) and another one that I can't remember.

HOWEVER - I make it a habit to never ever through out a magazine.  I have a stack that every time I go to have oil changed, dentist, doctor or whatever I take a stack and toss them on the tables.

With that said - have a great weekend

The Tool - OK OK you are all wondering about The Tool.

Here is some of the the quotes!

You still get the tool of the day award.
Rod is an embarrassment to all of the elected officials of Columbus.
Rod is an embarrassment to the voters in his district whether they voted for him or not.
Rod is detriment to the political stability of the city.
To block Rod for his indiscretions would only mitigate the detriment.

And THEN it went downhill from there - I believe this is yet another vote of confidence. But no worries, no one takes him seriously . . . except himself.  He's a lovable goofball.

Have a sweet weekend.

The Tool. 

Rotary Club Apology

I feel I must apologize to the Columbus Fall River Rotary Club for a comment on a blog last week because someone without a sense of humor cut and pasted the text out of context and sent it to individuals.  The quote was:

"The Rotary Club has decided to make Councils life slightly more hellish as they want to donate body cams to the Columbus Police Department"

Fair enough - The quote SHOULD have read

"The Rotary Club has decided to make Rod Melotte's life slightly more hellish as they want to donate body cams to the Columbus Police Department"

First I want to honestly thank the Fall River Columbus Rotary Club for their donation.

Second - I certainly did not intend to put my personal feelings into others council members brains and I apologize not only to fellow council members but the public.

My point was that "I" am basically a volunteer aldermen for a very small, quiet town in the Midwest that will now grapple with the same problems that professional aldermen in large, much more violent city's such as Madison and Milwaukee are grappling with and we are being asked to be the guinea pigs so we can show Madison and Milwaukee how it's done.  We have so much more information and experience in this sort of thing then they do you know.

That was my point. Maybe it's not always best to be one of the first, maybe it's best to see the mistakes others are making and learn from them, instead of making mistakes and having others learn from us.

Just sayin' my own personal view point.

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In other news y'all know I'm sensitive and delicate according to a test I took on facebook last night which is why it hurt me so much when some friends in Sun Prairie emailed me and said I was awarded the TOOL OF THE DAY by another facebook page.

YES!!!!   Another award for my mantel.

Rod Melotte - Tool of the Day

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With that said - I do appreciate the kind emails from readers. The one I received yesterday made my day.  If I could share my Tool of the Day Award with all of you I would.

I have gotten some very nice emails lately and I do thank you.

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So - Wisconsin lost another coach.  Maybe we can get Jim Harbaugh.

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Damn you temperature inversion.  Warm air is just a cloud layer away.

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Today I will be hard at work descaling my Keurig for the 3rd time.  It's a 6 hour process that needs to be done every 2 months it seems.  AWESOME!!     The odd thing is . . . . . where is this calcium coming from anyway - don't we have "soft" water?  Why do I get so much buildup??  Inquiring minds want to know (and it's not just me asking).

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Guess what!   OIL dropped another 4% in the last few days, it will dip below $60 a barrel soon.

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"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

That's all - had to get that apology in.
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NBA  31-19   62%

@grinder12000 if you want to follow along.

The Tool!  

Another Bombogenisis and Cookie Monster

First of all I am so glad "M" saw Cookie Monster,  it was one of the first things I saw in that image.
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Yet another Bombogenisis has appeared and I THINK it is a good thing . . . . . for Americans.  This time it's hitting the UK.  This image comes from a surfing website and shows a sea swell approaching the UK.  

Why is this good for Americans?  Because it's another blow off of weirdness which allows the rest of the world to be somewhat calm. . . . although the east and west coast are dealing with their own hell at the moment.

Check out this video from above of the Bombogenisis - rather intense 






Speaking of weather - maybe I can get a little disc golfing in this weekend!! Maybe 46 on Sunday?

Today WOULD be warm.  Lots of warm air around  ABOVE THE CLOUDS!!  Yea - these clouds are acting like a barrier, cold below and warm above.  No mixing!   

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STOP TAKING ASPIRIN!  

Yup - seems taking one aspirin a day has now been debunked and "they" are saying this could be hurting you instead of helping, hiding problems.

In other news -  eggs are OK to eat this week but fruits will rot your teeth unless you use special toothpaste.    Mountain Dew has been deemed better then Milk and should be substituted in school lunch programs.

 

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OMG - I just saw an article that has the BEST tourist attraction in every state.  

Wisconsin?  

WISCONSIN: Tour the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee, where machines pack 200,000 cases of beer a day. Don't forget to grab a sample on your way out.

OH MY GOD!!!!    ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  THAT'S THE BEST???

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A bunch of Londoners were asked to fill in the states in America.  Here are a few of the attempts.

 

 

Yea - well, lets see how good you are naming the England counties  - Quick, where is Oxshire!!

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Seems the Koch Brothers, you know, the guys that run Wisconsin (many believe it's Walker but it's actually the Koch Brothers who fund Walker) are in a bit of trouble overseas for Tax Avoidance.  Seems they channeled 100s of millions of dollars to get tax free profits.  It's called the Luxleaks Scandal.  I would say more but I got bored.

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On this day in 1967 Otis Redding's plane crashed about 200 yards from where I'm sitting at the moment. If it was 1967 I could look out my window to see them dredging but I have a large Frank Lloyd Wright building in front of my window now. 

OOPS - correction - a litle farther away then I thought!

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What is happening in Columbus?  Just wait - some exciting stuff is coming down the road near the downtown.  A new tourist attraction/destination is moving forward and will come in front of the planning commission this week I believe. I've had a number of talks on strategy and logistics with the people in charge and I think we have a good thing.  And sadly no - it has nothing to do with the Auditorium.      SIGH!!

 Here is a hint.

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Any my NBA update - 29-18 ATS 61.7%

Questions - why do so many people from Germany read this blog ????  So weird!  Guten Morgen meine lieben deutschen Freunde.

Jobs

I'm not as optimistic about the warming trend as the talking heads on TV - A few days ago they were all spouting 50s and blah blah and I was like, what?   Not seeing it unless you are trying to get people to tune in and watch the weather.

Above average, yea but 50s?   MAYBE high 40s on Sunday but we drop down to slightly above average after that. The problem is lack of direct sunlight on the land.  With no snow on the ground the sun will really help.  Not many sunny days in the future though. 

Our average high is 33 so upper 30's will be great. The RECORD for this date is 50 so . . . . .   I mean we were above average yesterday by 3 degrees and I thought it was rather dank! 

I'm just glad winter had a premature ejaculation in November and got that super cold air out of it's system. Looking around the world there are really no huge pockets of cold. Things have sort of averaged out everywhere.  Canada up to Alaska is MUCH above normal so nothing is coming our way.  East Asia and South America are cool but . . . . who cares LOL. 

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Oil dropped another 3% yesterday.  This is crazy! 

The November jobs report came out - BOOM!!!  That's what I'm talking about.  Holy Mackerel - CRUSHED IT!  50 straight months of job growth.  Longest streak since 1995.  The interesting thing about this report was that every sector reported growth. Even government.  The U-6 unemployment rate, fell to 11.5%, I think Republicans are HATING this news, damn you Obama.

Typically the jobs number will be revised in a month and on average the initial number is 70,000 short. The American economy is on hyper speed.

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I was turned on to this comedian this weekend - an Australian dude and is almost pee your pants funny (well, at times)!  This bit is on gun control and it is SO true and he has such a funny take on it.  It's 15 minutes and talks about how 10% of the crowd that REALLY HATES HIM at the moment.   He will be at The Barrymore in Madison.

http://youtu.be/fP3HJVp3n9c



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I was playing with an image of the Empire Builder and cropped it slightly differently and WOW - what a difference.

 
compared to

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Sooooooo . . .Wisconsin's offense Saturday night seem a little sluggish, or was that just me?

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OH - I have a number of friends in the IT industry so this might be of interest.  My forte' in computer languages are legacy languages -  only old or young SMART people are learning the crap languages that keep the world running.  Why young?  Because the smart young people know that NOBODY is learning these languages and the people who maintain million dollar systems are going away.

We have that problem where I work and  they are FREAKING OUT right now - seriously.

Everything REALLY important is on mainframes (such as payroll) and there is NOBODY to take care of those systems!   So if you are in school you can learn all the latest languages and when you graduate you can compete with the other 98% of students OR - get a job right out of school with ease with a legacy language.  

ANYWAY - here are the average out of school starting wages you can get for the top 12 languages . . . . if you can get hired ( and it's not with the State of Wisconsin).

12. PERL - $82,513

11. SQL - $85,511

10. Visual Basic - $85,962

9. C# - $89,074

8. R- $90,055

7. C - 90,134

6. JavaScript - $91,461

5. C++ - $93,502

4. JAVA - $94,908

3. Python - $100,717

2. Objective C - $108,225

1. Ruby on Rails - $109,460

I have never heard of Rudy on Rails!  all the rest YUP.

COBOL and SAS are not on that list but if you want a job . . . . BOOM!!  it's there waiting and there are very very few people out there.    

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One last thing - seems there are people REALLY upset that Santa was not on the Christmas Train last night!  Kids were crying and now hate Santa and so forth.  WHAT AM I GOING TO TELL MY CHILD!!

Easy - Tell the child that Santa fell under the train and was cut in half.  Make this a learning opportunity to not play around train tracks!

 OH - if only I would have been a parent - I would have been great!   BUT NOOOOO!!    

Have a great Monday!

RM 

AJ Hawk is looking for you

Good stuff "M" in your comment the other day.  I think there is more sex in TURN the TV show then the book.  OH - got the book at Costco.

I've been trying to find TURN somewhere to watch it again now that I have a clue what was going on.  BUT alas, not on Netflix or On Demand.   It took a couple episodes before I figured out what was going on the first time through.

History Channel had an awesome 10 hour (or something) special on the American Revolution that was fascinating.

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I know many people will hate this but I do like squirrels  (although they can be a little gamy at times).  Actually I lived in squirrel heaven for a number of years in Madison when I lived next to Sandberg woods.  There was a herd of deer and it was like a nature preserve. Never had squirrel problems and we had raccoons that would eat out of our hands . . . . not that I would suggest people do that but  . . HEY - we didn't teach them that. 

ANYWAY - we had our first critter at the feeder yesterday.  I'm thinking that this was the guy AJ Hawk was looking for the other day. 

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STOP FLUSHING!!  

We all know that the next resource war will be over water. Oddly this water world has a lack of clean water yet we waste it like there is no tomorrow.  

While we wring our hands over Global Climate Change and give the finger to fraking and how it is ruining our lands we continue to waste thousands of gallons of clean water by flushing when we pee.  

The average person wastes 1,200 gallons a year.  BAM, in 2 seconds we waste 2+ gallons of clean water.  A family of four can pour 5000 gallons of drinkable clean water down the drain a year . . . and for Columbus clean SOFT water. 

At least try to NOT flush EVERY pee. (I'll get a call from the Columbus Water Czar soon "ROD SHUT UP!!).  :-) 

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I read yesterday that an intense 6 minute workout is actually better for you then a long slow cardiovascular workout.  When I say intense I mean INTENSE, so your heart is racing and you are gasping for air.  It's RUNNING and not jogging.  

Well, I started this yesterday and I'm walking around like Chris Farley today, sort of sore and stiff.  I think it was the 32 burpees!  You know, squat, kick your legs back, do a push up, jump back to a squat and stand up.  Repeat, 31 more times.   HOLY CRAP!!!  I can't move. 

Both cats thought I was having gravity problems. 

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Iggy - who now weighs 12 pounds and is 10 months old decided to try to fly superman style.  I think he is STILL growing.

  

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Hay Madison dudes-  Trixies Liqueur on East Wash has really transformed themselves into one of the better serious craft beer stores in Madison.  And speaking of Craft Beer looks like Madison is going to get a HopCat - an amazing craft beer bar.  A REALLY nice one on W Gorham. It will be the 5th Hopcat with top of the line state of the art tap system.  Pretty sweet. 

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This February DJ and I are planning on going to Fish Creek for their winter festival extravaganza and I'm taking names and writing notes so Columbus can start planing for a WINTER FESTIVAL EXTRAVAGANZA. Fireworks, toilet seat tosses, Ice carving contests, ice bowling, winter disc golf, wheel the meat (I don't actually know what that is but it sounds intriguing) a fruit loop run . . . . 

I think a lot of people dislike winter because . . it's cold.   But if there is something to do we could really get people to come to Cbus and enjoy the cold.  The more the merrier. 

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Jonathan Livingston Seagull

DJ said I would never sell this image . . . HA!!!!   

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26-15 63.4% in the NBA.  Got 97 twitter followers and 46,837 hits on a forum.  I think I'm moving lines LOL 

   

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OH - weather - Westerly flow is still in the cards.  Pretty average now but as NOAA says

Significant Pattern Change

The three month prediction is very below normal precipitation and average temps but the next 2 to 3 weeks we will be slowly going above normal and I suspect we will have a snow-less Christmas.

Westerly Flow - Bring it!!  

Have a Laurel and Hardy weekend!    

I only regret that I have but one life, wish I had two.

I'm reading "George Washington's Secret Six - The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution" which is the book that inspired the AMC show  TURN.   Very interesting.  All about the Culper Spy Ring.

As Major George Beckwith - British Intelligence Officer in 1783 said "Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied us"!

Historians now know who all 5 males were but still cannot pin down who the female spy was in teh Culper Ring. No names real names were ever used.  They really did save the American Revolution. 

OH  Nathan Hale?  The dude that was hung saying "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."  or something on that order? There seems to be some controversy on the actual quote because it comes 2nd hand.

He COULD have said  "I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service."

Which to me seems rather wordy when you have a rope around your neck.

He also COULD have said "

How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country.

Which again seems a little too fluent as you pee your pants WITH A ROPE AROUND YOUR NECK. 

Whatever he said he really did not help the cause with secrets that much in the first place because he was one of the first official spy's and got caught pretty quick.  But he did inspire thousands to join the cause.

Currently the place he was hung is a Gap Store in Manhattan where clothes are also hung. His body was never found.
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The Rotary Club has decided to make Councils life slightly more hellish as they want to donate body cams to the Columbus Police Department.

I'm not against the IDEA of body cams but there are so many tricky little nuances and hidden costs down the road.  The argument is that if we try it and it does not work we can always do away with them?  Yea - good one. 

If the CPD can find a place in their budget to fund the continual software upkeep and so forth OK, but let's not start increasing their budget for something that is not really needed.  It would be nice in my book but unless they are basically free . . . . . is it needed?

I can see this taking a lot of time.  Madison is talking about this, it will cost them $1,000,000 and they are looking at 2016 MAYBE!! 

Madison - home of the Madison Police Department

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A new city website was talked about and Aldermen mentioned putting my blog on the site . . .  NO NO JUST KIDDING!!  At least he (or she) didn't give me a vote of confidence and say only 50% of my blog is correct like the Mayor (who shall remain nameless to hide his identity) did.  

Actually the Madison government website has a blog for every Aldermen - rather nice.  Think of all the trouble I could get in.   

But back to our website.  There are two avenues we are exploring.  One is a purchased site from people who know what they are doing and have sold thousands of sites. This costs $10,000 and $2,000 a year but are ultra stable and we could actually have a site up in months. 

 Or local talent where we would have to reinvent something and take much longer but for much cheaper.  I assume.  My worry there is stability, updates, technology changes and so forth. If he/she can offer the exact package with the exact lifetime guarantee and create a site faster and cheaper  - that's great.

Nuff said on that

 

I love this kind of stuff - this shows where your eyes go and for how long. 

Holiday Day Parade.

The weather - no worries.  It's one and done for this cold snap.  For the foreseeable future there is not

only no snow but temps will be in the thirties or near with 40s in the future.  Remember a few weeks ago when I said (and when I say I I mean NOAA) that the super cold was an anomaly in November and not a foretelling of the winter which is still predicted to be not hideous.

In fact NOAA Climate Prediction has Wisconsin as warmer then normal for the next 30 days with average snow and for three months average temps and below average snow.  In fact the next 2 weeks we have a solid chance for being above average in temps.  

November we had 19 of the possible 29 days below average and from the 14th to 21st we were 15 degrees below average.  This makes November the 15th coldest on record.  

BUT WAIT - Thanksgiving we had 3 inches of snow on the ground.  THE FOURTH MOST EVER IN RECORDED HISTORY. Who knew!  If you are wondering, in 2012 was the 2nd warmest Thanksgiving ever with a high of 62 (I could have gone out disc golfing). 

But the most wonderful thing happened Friday night for the Holiday Parade - Freezing Rain.

Santa Josh with the Princess and Princess of the Parade. 

I want to commend the actions of whoever was in charge for getting salt on the sidewalks and I saw wonderful interaction with the Police Department with holiday goodness* (more on CPD later - in a good . .ish way . . sort of).

P&P of the parade share a moment with Santa

The big concern was when Caydence and Sydney got to meet Santa close up for the first time. 

Not a problem.  

BTW - Caydence was playing with Play Doh and made the #1.  We are all complementing her when Sydney who is 3 in pre-school says  "one  uno"! We all sort of stopped talking and DJ says "two" and Sydney says "deux".  Jenny's mouth opens and Sydney says "three trois four quatro" and counts up to eight!  WHAT????  Where did she learn THAT!!  

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OIL prices continue to tumble.  One report says gas prices should bottom out at $2.50 but a few oil barons are saying oil could get as low as $30 a barrel because of the fraking in North Dakota although I see they don't say fraking.

For every penny gas drops, $1 billion goes into the economy. The thing the fed are having problems with is that inflation is not raising and actually they are worried about deflation.  

But here is the problem with fraking . . well there are many problems but . . all of this money being generated by low fuel prices are not helping "normal" oil production one bit.  Oil drilling is not getting cheaper around the world which is what is needed. 

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The Columbus Police Department on one hand did a great job with the with the first test of the new winter parking rules.  Of COURSE the first snow fall was 2.2 inches which is exactly what no one wanted!!  They gave out warnings which is wonderful. But on the other hand cars were ticketed and towed downtown - BECAUSE OF 2 INCHES of SNOW???  And DPW didn't even plow?  COME ON MAN!!  

The goal is to take away the bad reputation the CPD has and I'm seeing progress but blunders like that!  ARG!!  

OH - I have no problems with CPD giving out actual tickets in winter. Go for it with my blessing IF we are plowing.  But towing when we are not even plowing?. Hopefully it was just a hiccup.  Perhaps DPW and CPD can get in sinc. And a side note the towing problem was taken care of to everybody's satisfaction . . I think.    

I'm calling it a slightly aggressive hiccup which hopefully will not happen again.  BUT AGAIN - I saw officers Friday night being awesome downtown!! Well done department.

NOTE = Upon further review there are lots of fingers not pointing at anybody for the towing FUBR.   So it's a work in progress and will be corrected.  A little more communication - or correct  communication is needed.  No Worries!  Growing pains!   

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Coopers Hawk outside my window

 Funny true story.

This Coopers Hawk was sitting on a branch just outside my window.  He likes to have a little pigeon breakfast by our buffet feeder.  But I think this time he was looking for rodents. 

   

Anyway - He's sitting there for about an hour and birds are coming back to the feeder when a pigeon flies in and stops on a branch about 4 feet away. 

Pigeon is just sitting there bobbing his head like an idiot and hawk slowly swivels his head and stares at pigeon with a look of disgust on his beak. Like he is saying "what an idiot".

At this point I am wishing I had my phone handy to record what happens next. 

Pigeon, sitting there bobbing his head looking at the feeder going yummy yummy yummy looks to his right and spots hawk and freezes.   

Slowly, pigeon turns his head back and looks straight ahead . . . and very slowly, like a cartoon character, starts to side step, one step at a time, very slowly, step . . . by . . .step . . his way to the end of the branch . . . and flies off!  

It was so funny!!! 

Hawk finally saw no rodents and flew off.  

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NBA system 24-14   63.2%

Have a great Monday