Ben Franklin was a kook! But a good one.

Wow - I get to work today an all hell is breaking out that I'm suppose to fix yet, it's not any of my systems and not even in a real language I fully understand AND I don't it's a problem on my end of things.  THANK YOU VERY LITTLE.


Now I have time since my email questions are going unanswered and I can't really do anything until someone actually tells me what the problem is in a language I understand (typically English).

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The Governor Lewis Mansion website is live and raring to go. 

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FIFA - not a huge soccer fan but I think FIFA was the worst case of trying to be secret about corruption in the world. I did not pay a lot of attention to the sport but everybody new FIFA was corrupt.

Bribes of over $100,000,000 to have the World Cup in Quatar instead of the US. Then seeing they would have to play their games at midnight because of the extreme heat and messing up the worlds schedules because all the leagues in the world are playing at that time and then seeing that workers building the stadium were dropping dead from heat AND not allowing workers time off to grieve.

Screwed.

Then there is the NBA where Cleveland has a chance to win the title and THEN they will fire their head coach.  Yea - win a Championship and fire the coach. Seems logical.


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I'm reading a book called Storm Kings - Americas First Tornado Chasers and it starts with Ben Franklin.  What a strange dude that guy was.  His first real invention was the lighting rod but not before there was a death.

He was what was called an electrician which was a stage show that would wow people into electric tricks which he had no clue how they worked.  But that was why he became fascinated in it.

One thing leads to another and he has this experiment he wants to try but there are no tall buildings in Philly.

His idea was to take a 40 foot metal poll.  Go to the top of a church during a thunderstorm point it at the clouds and collect electricity.  OH, there MIGHT be a small amount of danger so wear rubber gloves.

He sent this idea to England. England thought it was a great idea and sent the idea to all sorts of places.  WELL, in St. Peatersburg a guy erected a 40 foot poll to his the top of his house, then attached a brass chain that ran into his house and attached that chain to a metal poll suspended in the air, below the rod was a compass suspended on a spike and below that was a large bowl of water with metal filings in it.

What could possibly go wrong.      

It was a dry summer but finally there was a storm approaching.  He was teaching a class with his friend Sokolow. They ran to his house and as he was leaning over the bowl of water in amazement looking at the metal shavings tremble Sokolow writes" A little sphere of dazzeling light congealed in midair, a globe of blue and whitish fire, about four inches in diameter".

It hovered for a moment and BAM  right into the dudes forehead. BAM!!The room implodes.

Back the Ben Franklin - He hears of this and for his stage show makes a small wooden doll house. He attaches a wire to the chimney that has a small rod and a wire going to the ground and stands on the other side of the stage and directs a large static discharge toward the little house. Nothing happens.

He then takes off the rod on the chimney and does the same thing with a large static discharge.  BOOM! the house explodes.  Of course the house is full of gunpowder so when the static hits it . . . . He called it The Thunder House.

He concluded the show by telling people to attached a rod that is grounded on their house.  And thus Ben's very first  patent. One of many.

BTW - his kite thing?  Very unremarkable. In fact no body ever knew about of for years it was so unremarkable.  His son, NOT a child but more like 30 years old helped him.          

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SO - Lots of talk about the 30+ new STOP signs which for the most part are getting "good" reviews except for the people that live on W Fountain Ave (4 Stop signs in 4 blocks) or W Prairie (3 Stop signs in 3 blocks).  Although W Fountain actually turns into Sturges so it's not "technically" W Fountain.

I was reprimanded for emailing the problem to a couple aldermen with the problem and a solution because one thought I was creating a walking quorum*. Actually I did not create a walking quorum but he did when he replied to me saying I should not email informational emails on problems or solutions. His reply actually tripped the secret "walking quorum trigger", not me.  Yet - I am the Black Sheep of City Council, it is my role to play.  SOMEONE has too!  I was told I cause more harm then good. I feel I just make everybody else look better!

*Walking quorum according to the FOIC = A walking quorum is a series of meetings, telephone conferences, or some other means of communication such that groups of less than a quorum are effectively meeting and can arrive at a consensus or understanding regarding governmental business that, collectively, would constitute a quorum.) 

This basically says you cannot email another aldermen for ANY reason at any time if the person on the other end responds in any way.  You can only talk on the phone so you can then deny everything because there is no record of it.  Just sayin'

Gotta love anal governmental rules.

This means that Person A cannot email Person B who then emails Person C which would create a quorum of 3.  Or Person A cannot email Person B and Person A cannot email Person C on the same subject because once again that would be 3 person conversation even if B and C don't email each other.

Do you think this rule is ever broken on a National level? Congressmen and Senators talking to each other and coming to a consensus?  NAAAAAA!  
  
BUT - that is water under the bridge and yet another BLACK STAR in my permanent record.        

So much for transparency.  Perhaps we should let citizens rule government and government rule citizens.   

ANYWAY - moving on.   I'm over it.

weather whopatooli

It's going to be a beautiful day - once this upper trough tracks through the sun will come out and get up to near 80.  The stratus deck will yield to fair weather cumulus this afternoon. Dry tomorrow with above average temps which MIGHT produce some T-storms later tomorrow night from the mid day heating and more moister entering the state.

Very interesting weather story coming Friday as several LOWS and a cold front mix it up in a weather whopatooli over Wisconsin. A HIGH ridge sped up in the last 12 hours creating a dry but cool Saturday.

78 today, 82 and sunny tomorrow, 81 and who knows what on Friday, 61 Saturday and then slowly warming.

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Went to the new Palace Cinema in the Madison Sun Prairie metroplex. WOW.  They figured out how to get people to go to movies.  Finally a sound system that beats mine, and recliners for every seat. 

On Tuesdays tickets are $5 and a free 44oz popcorn.  A thing of water was $4.50, beer $7.50.  

We saw Tomorrowland. I'm still not sure what I thought of the movie but I liked the message.  All of the gloom and doom about the future is a self fulfilling prophecy.  We take all the "hope" out of our lives so no one really tries to make things better. Instead we should show how good the future could be so people work to get to it. 

We are feeding the wrong wolf. 

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We refinanced our house yesterday and should save about $200 a month.  rates are goign to start moving north soon with more good economic news.  

Oil - seems the US oil industry has found a comfort zone.  Last week the ALMOST the first time in a few years the number of oil wells stopped dropping (did that make sense?)  OK  last week the number of operating oil wells dropped by only 1.  Seems $60 a barrel is comfortable and next week there might actually be an increase in the number of operating wells.   

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The average age of humans keeps raising - however the average age of the oldest humans remains the same - normally in the 115 to 117 level. However, there are more of them.  

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Oh - not to stay on the marijuana theme but National Geographic has a huge article about it.  One thing I have always wondered is why scientists just don't take all the good stuff out of the weed for medical purposes. Just the GOOD chemicals. 

WELL - it seems that in 1970 the US government made it illegal to do ANY research with the weed that it deemed as bad as heroin.  Something that had been used for over 1000 years to cure people could no longer even be looked at by scientists.    

NOW they have tried to isolate the different compounds but there is a problem. it does not work because there is an "entourage effect". They all need to work together.  They have found that the same areas of the brain effected by marijuana is the same part that is triggered by runners when they say they get a "runners high" and they part of the brain plays a very important function in memory, balance, movement, immune health and neuroprotection. 

And I still have 20 more pages to read :-) 

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There is a pretty deal going on in the art world as a few larger shows are making photographers label ALL images "reproductions".  Well YEA.  A lot of photographers are saying "no" to those shows.

It seems the problem is that there are too many photographers that are selling scenic's and travel photos which are pretty pictures but . . are they art?   I have a lot of gorgeous images but it's only because I was there at the right time and with the right equipment.  It's nothing "I" did.  Just a dude with a camera.

Anyway 

Whacky Bonus photo of the day! 

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If case you have not noticed there is a new store getting ready to open downtown at 111 S Ludington.  Columbus Comics and Collectibles.  There are no comic and graphic novel stores in a large area. 

People in Portage need to drive to Madison.  Soon they can stop in downtown Columbus.

Facebook -  Columbus Comics and Collectibles

there is a good article to read - The Benefits of Comic Books and Graphic Novels - Discover 10 benefits your kids can reap by reading comics and graphic novels. 

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And finally - I want to give my heart felt condolences to our Mayor and his family for their loss over the weekend.  Kelly's dad passed away suddenly.  I met him a few times and he was a ball of energy and seemed like a really super guy.

Elwood and I were sitting on the front porch one Saturday evening and he drove by, stopped the car and introduced himself.  We talked a while and he introduced us to his game, Crombalia (sp?) and gave each of us a copy of the game. 

I'm very sorry for your loss Kelly. He was a cool dude and will be missed. 

Rod      

The Wallter Tower, disc golf, plants

So more and more people are using the Columbus Disc Golf course and it's a work in progress. A new facebook page  Friends of Columbus Disc Golf has appeared and with more and more people playing they are giving suggestions on how to make the course better.

One problem which I warned people about before it was installed was the swimming pool parking lot.  Until we actually played the course we were not sure how big of a problem it would be (well, I did but . . ).  No cars, no problem.  But as we play more and more AND as the golfers get better (oddly) it is becoming a headache.

We moved the tee once and I feel we need to move it again.  I was talking to a couple of golfers yesterday who tapped a car teeing off on #4.  I think if we moved the tee box further west to the other side of the #3 basket we might solve this problem.

For any of you that are wondering just what this sport is all about this is a wonderful documentary that most disc golfers are praising as it gives a real good look at the sport.  It's not what many people think it is. It's grown up!  

https://youtu.be/KTq42kg4qeg

On a side note. The golfers yesterday were wondering about trash baskets.  They had picked up a few beer bottles as they played but had nowhere to throw them. It's something DGers do,  pick up trash on disc golf courses left by non golfers.

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Did you know that the 10th President of the United States John Tyler  (Tippecanoe and Tyler too) who took office in 1841 has a two LIVING grandson's?  Well, he DID have 15 children after all and #13, Lyon Gardiner Tyler had 6 kids, two when he was 67 and both of those are still alive.

They can both say they are the grandson of the 10th President of the US.

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Read an interesting article exploring bike helmets.  Seems they DO protect you but are they really needed?  The argument is that with all the stats and numbers on how they protect you but really no more then wearing a helmet all the time.  If people that climbed a ladder wore a helmet there would be less ladder deaths. In fact it is 55 times more dangerous to climb a ladder then to ride a bike.  If people wore a bike helmet while taking a walk there would be less head injuries walking.

There is one biking death every 10,000,000 miles in America. The argument is that NOT wearing a helmet is 4 times more dangerous, so NOT wearing a helmet there is 1 death ever 2,500,000 miles.

Helmet makers make it sound like biking is an extremely dangerous activity.  Perhaps we should just ALWAYS wear a helmet, LIFE is a extremely dangerous activity.  Driving in a car which is MUCH more dangerous then biking.

I have always been a proponent of helmets as I have been on many 500 mile week long events but hmmmmmm.   Of course kids should wear helmets as they fall down and there is nothing ever wrong with extra protection but it's not JUST biking that causes injuries.

Speaking of biking. I WISH Columbus had more bike paths. I have heard this a number of times now from random people. I'm ready to jump on that band wagon if someone pushes me! :-)  There is always more room for another windmill to chase.

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OH OH - Elwood and I worked on the wall of the water tower (The Wallter Tower) Saturday and a number of you stopped by to say Hi.  Thanks for not calling the Police.

There was zero dirt between the rocks so people were stuffing the crack full of garbage. We spent the day with the help of the Water Czar who brought us dirt stuffing and filling cracks and then we planted an unknown sedum which is easy to grow, snuffs all weeds and is super drought tolerant.

 We planted the below sedum 2 years ago and then added more last year.  Little sprigs.  It flowers yellow and in the fall turns a pinkish.

Of course the boulders are MUCH bigger at The Wall but we are filling in slowly. We got 2/3rds finished with the dirt and will plant more in a few weeks.  If you would like some of this miracle sedum feel free to clip a few sprigs off the larger clumps. You really don't need much.  Landscapers use this one a lot it seems.  Does not like shade though.

If you have dark shade or dappling sunlight I suggest lamium.  Here we have the "battle of three armies" under my deck. The Lamium (light green) was the size of a shoe box 2 years ago. In the back is Sweet Woodruff which has a wonderful aroma and getting squeezed is blue flowered periwinkle which did not survive very well 2 winters ago.  The lamium has beautiful purple flowers. All snuff weeds in their own way and need very very little sunlight! In fact it's a little shy of sunlight. You can see it grows more toward shade. The original clump was bottom right corner.  Seems a little aggressive LOL.

  
     
Of course after working on the wall we toasted our manlyness with a beer and took photos of the back patio before it really starts to bloom . . it was a perfect weather day.

OH - and before I forget.

I stopped at Mary Arnolds house and took a few photos of their house and tree.  Here is one of those shots.  The bigger this image is the better it looks!

First art fair  Hilldale Madison June 13th

I'm on a facebook page about Fort Atkinson where I grew up and they have a LOT of old photos of Fort.  I've been cleaning some up and making them look better!

Nuff said!!

later!  Rod

Survivor and medical marijuana

Getting some passive blow back about the Water Tower having "Columbus Water & Light" on the side of the tower.  My answer was "Well, it IS their tower, not the cities tower".  Does is really matter?

It's not like it says "Columbus, brought to you by Columbus Water and Light"  "Weight Watchers Columbus" , "Waste Management Columbus"  

The word "Columbus" will be LARGE.

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As you all know I have applied for the show Survivor a few times and the season 30 final' was great.  In fact according to Graph TV this was the best Survivor ever. 

One of the jury final speech's will go down as one of the best ever after Susan's Hawks season one speech. 

 

 Another interesting thing happened in the reunion show.  Dan (the guy with the BIG beard) was a total ass who cut down woman ALL THE TIME (even though he said he didn't).  But after he was voted off the show he was going after the Survivor producers about "taking things out of context".

WELL - that did not sit well because Survivor does not bend the facts at all so they went after Dan publicly and called him out and showed the non-edited material and showed the world that he is, in fact, an ass.  Telling someone their mother is a whore was NOT taken out of context and it was NOT a joke among other jokes.

I only watch 3 non-scripted shows.  Amazing Race which is more travel adventure.  Survivor which is watching people spend 39 days of horrific conditions and actually surviving AND playing the game (you only get 1/2 a cup of rice a day along with anything you can find along the way)  and now in June the best strategy game in the world Big Brother which is like Survivor indoors.

If you have ever played a strategy board game in your life you really need to watch Big Brother. It seems weird at first but after a few days in the house people forget about the hidden cameras and the game begins.  Serious human strategy game play and once you see 3 shows and see how the personalities are interacting you will be hooked.

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I was watching a morning show yesterday and a segment came on about a new radio station in Colorado.  K-HIGH.   The station switched from sports talk station to an all marijuana talk station.  Here is the kicker, the station is owned by a far right winger.

They asked him about this and he said he would have never ever thought in a million years he would do this.  The question was about the profits?  He said, yes profits are extreme but that was not why he switched.

It seems his daughter had some sort of serious health problems.  The doctors, as a last resort had her try medical marijuana and he said within 12 hours she had shown a huge HUGE improvement. This completely changed his views.

My 1st wife had osteogenesis imperfecta a form of degenerative bone disease where you are in pain 24/7 every day of your life.  We tried everything to ease the pain and the only thing that worked and brought ANY reduction in pain was medical marijuana.

My dad died of lung cancer. You die gagging on your own phlegm and you spend the last 4 months of your life gasping for one more breath. Before he went to the hospital never to return home the only thing that helped his pain and vomiting from chemo was medical marijuana.

The use of medical marijuana is endorsed by among many others are

The American Medical Association,
The American College of Physicians – America's second largest physicians group
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – America's second largest cancer charity

I'm not saying marijuana should be legalized but I do say that AT LEAST people should be open the the thought that there is room in our culture to have a more serious look into Wisconsin becoming a Legal Medical Marijuana State along with 24 states.  From my personal experience with loved ones it DOES work.

OH - the station is K-HIGH  I believe. You can find it on the internet if you are not in Colorado.

Nuff said.

Weather - we have a really dry air mass over us which will really cool things off tonight. Tomorrow there will be a small trough moving our way that might give us a tiny shower but nothing to get excited. More cloud trough then anything else.  Air is too dry for much else. Clouds  will keep the temps lower then they could be.  

Sunday the jet stream aims everything at us with several rounds of showers during the day.
Nice and warm next week, 80s Wednesday and Thursday, chance of T-Storms an and off.

Have a GREAT 3 day weekend.

NFL, Wayward Pines, City Council

Well, the NFL has made sweeping changes in rules which will effect games dramatically!

If you are going for a 2 point conversion and you fumble the ball backwards and then because of your giant butter fingers both teams keep fumbling the ball 98 yards in the other direction and then the original team falls on the ball in the end zone 98 yards from there they started the defensive team gets a 1 point safety!   

A game could end with a score of 6 to 1. 

But the big news is that instead of kicking an extra point from the 2 yard line where there is a 99% possibility that you will make it.  You will NOW have to kick it from the 25 yard line where the completion percentage drops all the way down to 97%.  Maybe higher since you will have all the time in the world and will be from the middle of the field!  

WOW - it's going to be crazy!!  

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Wayward Pines - If you did not catch the 1st episode last week they are playing #1 at 7:00 and #2 at 8:00.  Pretty good. M. Night Shyamalan says there is a beginning, middle AND ending and everything will be answered.  I really liked the show!  Sort of Twin Peaky, Lost-ish but with an actual thought out before hand plot. 

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City Council.  

Many people are surprised when they find out that when your sewer clogs so dramatically that the road needs to be dug up, that YOU pay for road repair. Yea - you have to take out a $5000 bond, find a plumber that not only fixes your sewer BUT will repair the road and it's all on YOU!  

95% of all towns have an ordinance in place that says the home owner is responsible for the sewer line up to where it enters the sewer system WHICH is typically in the middle of the street.    

Water is different because there is a valve at the property line so there is a firm dividing line. Not so with sewers. 

WELL - Thanks to Alderman Thom and if the votes from the rest of council go through that is about to change.  

I contacted about 14 other towns and asked them what they do and there was another list that was presented to us of about 20 more and it was about 95% having homeowners spring for the road repair.

WTF!!  

Just because everybody else does it that way does not mean it's the right way.  There are many pros and cons. For instance, that is the price you pay for buying an older home. Personally that is exactly one of the reasons I would never buy an older home. I don't want all that headache of fixing things. Why should I have to pay for someone else to save money. That is the risk you take when you buy an older home. 

In fact that was my original thought on this subject. If the homeowner does not pay then it falls on everyone else to pay for it. SOMEONE has to pay right?

HOWEVER - this is something very few people even know about!!  When I was looking into this, my main question was, how often does this happen in a city.  It seems on a bad year maybe 5 times in Columbus. 

So my feeling was that the city can absorb this $25,000 (I have never been able to pin down how much this costs on average - it's like a secret) without too much pain while a home owner would have to, all of a sudden, come up with $5,000 to $10,000 on their own which in MY case - would totally blow my budget. 

Yea - why should I have to pay for someones else's problem, but then again why should THEY have to pay for fixing a road that they don't even own. Of course the home owner pays for fixing roads already sort of  so there is THAT argument. 

I feel it's sort of an insurance policy. I'm not totally on board with the new ordinance in question, perhaps 55% on board.  I will have to play a new yearly tax for something I will probably never have to worry about but it will help others so . . . it's a good thing.  

No one knows how much this will impact the average tax payer.  It's an unanswered question but if it helps people purchase older homes in older neighborhoods its a good thing.   

Raising city taxes responsibly  :-)  

NOTE - I am for this even though it sounds like I might not be,  There are a LOT of pros and cons but in case  I feel  the pros beat out the cons.  If there were  LOT of these cases I might not be so for it.  

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The street lighting design looks like it will go through even though some numbers were mis-spoken in the presentation. The final vote has not been taken but I'm caustically (LOL) cautiously optimistic.   

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New city website is starting to get traction. I really hate one company and their design as I believe they are not intune with how Joe Public looks at websites and the other I felt was MUCH more useful.  Images are good but they should never be the main thing for a city website.  City websites are about content, not photos.  Photos should be used to augment content, not a main theme. We shall see what is presented to us.
   

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OH OH - lots more STOP signs coming your way.  In the last four years their have been 16 accidents in this area so new STOP signs will be installed on S Lewis Street, S Charles St and a few on Hibbard St.  Don't worry, they will be installed with traffic flow in mind so it would take a half hour to go from on end of a street to the next.  

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Oddfellows River Clean up will be June 20th.

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The base of the Columbus water tower beautification project will begin this weekend in preparation for the new paint job the tower we will get early this summer. The current plan will look something like this. 

 KIDDING KIDDING 

Actually. the plan is to have the tower painted something like the Waunakee Water Tower.

But instead of Waunekee on the side we will have

Which if you think about it makes much more sense.  The blue on the bottom side actually has a reason. With a white tower that bottom side gets dirty and this hide the dirt.  The tower painted silver has been in place since the early 70s??  It's time for a change.

I TRIED to have Columbus be a little more forward thinking but we are stuck with our own backward thinking ways.  The "it would cost too much"  excuse!!!   But this would make a statement would it not?

Speaking of Water and Light.  Many of you have noticed that Tower Drive has a new bump in the road.

It was decided that with 151/73 bridge being smoothed out our quota of bumpy roads was shrinking so there needed to be more road repair.

ACTUALLY this was to bring new water to that area for new homes and more importantly this fixed a small logistical problem in our water delivery system to the area with more redundancy.

There was a problem where if a water main was, for some reason, cut off there was no satisfactory backup in case of a major fire at the Hospital. This creates a solid loop and alternate source.  

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Weather - we made it!!!  Highs in the 70's for at least the next 10 days, rain on Sunday.

Cheers
Rod

MGE

The biggest news out of City Council was that Micheal Clark agreed with me which put me outside my comfort zone a little.  I will have to say something controversial to rectify this situation - two worlds colliding and all that!  :-)

More on this in a bit. 

I attended the annual MGE Stockholder meeting yesterday.  Not that I have any stock in MGE but my father in law does and I was invited along.  I have finally become a 1%er. Actually I think I was in the 1% of the 1%  IN AGE.  Seriously, I was probably 15 years younger then the average person attending and just getting into the Marriott was a thrill ride.

The older generation was all over the place randomly walking in front of any moving vehicle they could find as other vehicles were trying to park their cars between the lines with very little success. 

There were buses transporting people 200 feet to the door where 20 people with wheel chairs were waiting and lines for other people that had misplaced their tags. 

All this was happening in a slow motion molasses like crawl.  Picture Pac Man in slow motion.  Once we entered the huge room we were escorted to the ALMOST front row.  The only table in front of us was maned by the CEO mucky mucks which seriously all looked alike.  If I backed up my chair fast  I could have knocked the head dude. TABLE 7 BABY!!  

So we sat down and I got up to try a muffin which was the talk of the car and we had a choice of 3 kinds of Blueberry muffins and 3 kinds of bran muffins that all looked exactly the same. . but I agree, they were good.

So then the presentation starts and there is something about voting for directors and blah blah blah and then the microphone is handed over to a new guy to talk about how great MGE is.  

WAIT - isn't that the SAME guy? is he clone? I'm starting to get freaked out a little. 

So Clone #2 is talking about an annual return of 22% in the last 5 years for MGE and there are some pretty cool graphs that our Water Czar would be proud of.  

Finally the question and answer period starts. One question is about all the protesters as we entered the parking lot. 

WELL - it seems 90% of the people attending had no clue there were protesters which is not surprising since 90% did not see the slow movers "darting" in front of their cars either.  There was a question about the Tesla battery and how that would effect MGE and the answer was a vague "we like all technology, new technology is always good" which coming from a clone seems to be the correct way it was programmed to answer that question.  

Somewhere around Table 800 there is applause for some unknown reason on this answer or perhaps Clarence finally made it back from the bathroom.  One of the two.   

The meeting is over and food is served which was pretty good even though it was full of vegetables  BUT, it was actually very good, but nothing will ever beat the Filet Mignon literally the size of my head that WE Energies served us when I went to that meeting. But I digress. 

It seemed I was the only one that ate most of my lunch as there were plastic baggies at each table and most people ate a nibble and then stuffed the entire plate into plastic bags for later. 

But then the real excitement started.  The exiting of the conference room which was sort of like watching door gravity take hold.  Each attendee was given two LED light bulbs (I'm pretty sure they got the idea from Columbus Water and Light on that one)  and a really cool pen. 

I made the mistake of needing the bathroom from all the coffee I drank (fantastic coffee - I had forgotten how good REAL coffee is - not the crummy Kurig coffee). The problem came when I tried to leave the bathroom and the crush came.  It seems everybody knows everybody and no matter where you are it is always the perfect time to stop and talk even it if just outside the bathroom door. 

You can't just tell two 90 years old's with walkers to "move it buddy" as they probably jumped out of a plane in WWII with bullets whizzing over their head to save your ass so . . . .

MEANWHILE - one of the people I was with has reentered the conference room in search for more pens because they were so cool and he forgot his. (Aldermen Clark saw how cool they were last night as I played with mine during the Sewer Utility Financial Report which I had seen once already a few days earlier).  

He came out empty handed and disappointed as some other guy was always a table ahead of him and had a dozen in his had. 

I drove the group home safely.  

I reality it was a very very good event and I gotta say it was handled very very well for something catering to so many elderly.  I'm not sure if the Guinnes Book of Records has this but the combined age of the attendees had to be near 100,000.    

And that is as much of the story I am willing to tell. OH - there is more LOL 

Well done MGE.

SO - I'm all typed out and have things I need to do today - I'll get the the good news City Council tomorrow.  At least the Council of the Whole was good and good for the citizens of Columbus. 

BTW - I talked to more people about the 96 gallon garbage bins.  Most say that size is ridiculous for weekly garbage but good for recycling. 

Warmer weather coming - last day of non-warm. Hang in there.

Rod 

   

           

What? is Where?

Where in the world is Napoleon's penis?  It's in New Jersey!!   WHO KNEW!!!

In 1821 a doctor cut it off as part of an autopsy.  The next time it was seen was in 1927, when FOR SOME REASON, it was on display in Manhattan.   In 1977 a urologist purchased it and stored it under his bed for 30 years until he passed away. His daughter, obviously excited to now be in charge of Napoleon's penis has it for sale.  So far $100,000 is the best offer.  

I wonder if it's on Amazon! 

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Yesterday - missed the rain by 10 miles.  Madison had between 0.5 inches to 1.5 inches of rain. Cloud cover, the hardest thing for meteorologists to predict, kept temps low and steady for us and the storms died within miles of Columbus.  We could see the rain from our house but did not get a drop, 

However - at 3:14pm the temperature was 79.5 and at 3:29pm the temperature dropped to 71.7

       

This week looks like a carbon copy of last week.  Cold tomorrow and warming up by the weekend.  Saturday looks good and in the 70s and a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday.

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The aging Well #1 at the Columbus Water Works.  This was built around the start of WWII and is now getting on in age. 

There was a system check up 10 years ago and now the question is should we spend $20k-ish on another 10 year check up.  Some say that it's fine and if it fails we have another well that will cover the Columbus water needs. . . . unless there is a fire and then it will be a little stressed.  

HOWEVER - If it fails we will have a few years to figure it out.

But some say that since wells age about the same as humans an 80 year old well should have a 10 year check up even if it does not NEED it.  At least we would know that it is doing well.  

Then the question is the actual building. As you can see it's now basically a large shell that needs to be heated (a little) since there are no offices in it anymore.

Should W&L spend money to fix the building? Even if the well only lasts another 20 years?  And then there is the problem of IF we finally move away from THIS well, should Columbus continue to be in the water softening business?  

One reason our water costs more is because it is soft water. Should that continue?  OK OK - I've mentioned that before - sorry.  Well #1 has been a talking point for a while now at meeting.

I say do the study, then we know!! 

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Don't hold your breath to have Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the Boston bomber put to death.  The average wait time is 15 years.  

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Zappo's - incredible company.  My wife ordered shoes on a Sunday night and they were on our doorstep Monday at 1:00.  WHAT?   But here is a cool thing.   Their business model is so concerned with making sure all workers are happy, if you get a job at Zappos and after the 1st week you decide you do not like the job . . .they will give you $2000 to quit. 

They do not want unhappy employees! 

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I was out measuring more areas on the Firemans Disc Golf Course yesterday and there was a LARGE branch down on top of the benches next to the playground!  YIKES.  

    

I'm creating some images for Disc Golf Course Review.

Hole #5 Fireman's Park  OOPS - no "e' on elephant!  It's a french elephante'

Not sure if the elephant/bear thing is a local urban legend but . . it's a good story anyway. 

Hole #4

What a beautiful park we have.  

Hole #6

Got my 1st Hole in One on this last year. DPW employees saw it (or me screaming like a little girl).

There were 7 players on the course Saturday afternoon.   I want to create a Facebook page for the course but am not sure if this is something I can do since it's a Muni Course (??) Can I make a Facebook page for a city park?  

My idea is that we could have times when the park is not open for golf because of carnivals, and events.  Weddings can be a problem also with cars so we could post times when the park might have issues.  Thinking out loud! 

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saw first humming bird at our feeder yesterday.  There have been reports of a Orioles in the area. 

Have a great day.

CSS Task Force and James Street

The CSS Task Force jumped another hurdle last night.

If you are wondering the CSS Taskforce has been meeting for the last year on the redesign of the downtown Columbus Streetscape and the entire look/feel of the James Street corridor. 

We have been going over plans and suggesting things and looking at pros and cons of so many visions and I think we are maybe 70% finish??  There are little details that we are leaving for the future hoping Columbus industry will chip in such as creation of benches and bike racks and so forth but the streetlights for the entire corridor was the current big ticket item.   

There are two plans on the table and now it's up to the City Council to give a thumbs up thumbs down on one of the plans on the lighting. 

The conservative plan which I have feel is underwhelming but it saves money.  The main concentration for unique decorative lighting is the 2 blocks downtown (Ludington also has plans but that is for the future AFTER the nightmare summer of 2017). The rest of the corridor would be basically what we have now but painted black to match the downtown lights.   

The other plan which I and the Taskforce have been pushing for and Water and Light agreed to last night is much more aggressive and will REALLY be nice looking BUT, more expensive.  We only have one chance to do his every 50+ years and something no one has brought up is how the aggressive plan will show future industry and business people that are considering Columbus that  "we care".

They can either drive through town and go - "WOW - this place looks great and they are proud or their community".  OR a smart businessman that understands the world will go "WOW - this place looks great and they must be financially stable to borrow all this money". (We are). 

Since Columbus will have to bond ANYWAY for the 16/60 reconstruction, why not add a little more and make the corridor look bang for buck REALLY nice and attract business.

The plan would be the tall "standard" black poles from the Walgreen's intersection all the way to Charles Street. 

Then starting at Charles street we will have onyx colored crosswalks with white outlining all the way through town. This will tell travelers that they are entering a downtown. Then we would have the unique decorative lighting polls which are closer spaced all the way through town with some variation "in" the downtown area (electric outlets, flag holders etc.).   

In my minds eye this will be stunning.  With the lack of overhead wires, new cement pavement with the colored (not painted) crosswalks and really nice streetlights will look so inviting. Many of the older trees will be cut down by the DOT (more on this in a bit**) so when you are on top of the hill it will look a little wide open.  So the new decorative streetlights will really stand out beautifully and create a wonderful flow into town. 

**The DOT will replace each tree with a new tree (as yet to be determined) so every tree WILL be replaced but they will be smaller. 

There are a number of nice changes downtown but those are still in the works.  Trees are still on the plan downtown and don't worry, they are not oak trees.  We really do know what we are doing here. It's not a bunch of willy nilly ideas.   There are many things we wanted but the cons beat out the pros on some great ideas.

People complain that our downtown is suffering. Well, one of the things that make our downtown unique ALSO is one of the reason it suffers. Old buildings are hard to renovate and people always say "I have no idea what is down there".  WELL, that is because of the sign ordinance where we can have no back lit signs for stores.  

No real signs and no one knows you are there!  RIGHT?  Looks GREAT, bad for business. 

SO - we need to find other ways to make people stop and "look" and that is the beautify the downtown area.  

I had a friend who is a city designer from Portland OR walk the town and she commented, "why is this city not vibrant, it's fantastic".  I mentioned the signage and she stopped and said "you are absolutely correct, no one knows what is here right?"

So, trees and flower containers will catch your eyes and make you look left and right AT the buildings and at the non-backlit signs. It's like artwork, you have to study and see where your eyes travel when it looks at things and adjust everything to make your eyes look where you want them too.        

When you drive through town now you look straight ahead OR you look UP at the tops of the buildings, the 2nd floors above the signs because that is where there is less clutter. When you drive you have clutter in front of you with vehicles so to rest, your eyes go north to the blank 2nd floors. The foliage on trees will stop your eyes from going so high and push your vision back down towards the signs.  BINGO! 

Plus adding shade for walkers, diverting sound waves from the cement, add color and softness to all the brick . . . . .but I digress.  

That is my spiel for today.  Now I must workout and write a piece about disc golf for the newspaper.  Aaron Adams and I are planning on some sort of free Introduction to Disc Golf in the future at Firemans park. 

Hydro Street now has 20 (25?) discs for people to borrow if you want to try out the sport.

OH - and please pray for Jose' from Motoclassico, he was involved in a rather serious car accident last week and I believe is still in the hospital.  He wants his privacy and I respect that but his place has been closed for a while and we need him back in the community.

Get well buddy!

NOTE - I got an immediate message saying KEEP the non-backlit sign ordinance.  I am in no way saying get rid of it. Just saying one of the problems WITH it.  I don't want Columbus to be Anytown USA. 

Rod       

  

Five minutes you will want back!

Learned a lesson last night/yesterday.   This ol' body needs to take it easier on Wednesdays.

Ever since Anytime Fitness opened I'm been a regular, working out pretty hard 4 times a week.  I figure that I'm PROBABLY not getting any younger and perhaps it's finally time I get into the best shape of my life . . .or at least try. 

So I worked out in the morning and then went to get some weed killer to kill weeds on the rock ledge by the water tower . . . .but heck I was driving past Firemans park and the disc golf course was calling me as the weather was beautiful.  

So I stopped to play a quick 6 holes but as I finished I saw Aaron Adams and 2 friends playing so I joined in for another round.  Disc Golf is a pretty strenuous past time (more then ball golf by a long shot). 

After that I climbed the rocks and killed weeds and THEN I went to Door Creek for 9 holes in league which my body seemed to be annoyed with me and it took 5 holes to stop hitting random direction golf balls. 

Oddly last week I was feeling on top of the world with 3 pars and a birdie but did not score that well overall.  Last night I was constantly scrambling and felt horrible after the round and scored BETTER then the previous week. So weird.

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There is a 22 year old that had a recurring role in the TV show Gilmore Girls which I never watched.  

I found this out when I was looking into a new band that I was hearing on of my Pandora internet radio stations called Pretty Reckless.  Who was this band that I had now heard three songs and really liked the band. 

So I looked it up and found the lead singer was Taylor Momsen.  She has been acting constantly since she was 2 years old and it seems she had parents who were making her work a LOT.

In fact she never had real friends as they moved around a lot getting her acting jobs. She was runner up for the Hannah Montana role as she was also a musician.

WELL - once she turned 21 she quit acting altogether and said she  could finally play HERSELF instead of someone else. 

WELL - she formed a band called Pretty Reckless and she is now a woman I would NOT want to bring home to meet the parents!

BUT - she totally rocks!!  I think she is having an identity crisis! 

I think I was intrigued by her because her parents seemed to really control everything as she was growing up and once she was let loose everything changed!

They never let her be herself. 

  

PLUS - her newest music was only $5 to download on Amazon.  Even better.

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OK OK - That red piece? SOLD FOR $81.92 million   COME ON MAN!!!  It's called #10

 #10?  There are 9 more?  AAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

My newest creation that I spent over 100 hours on.  It's called

Untitled-2

One anomalous reviewer writes

Melotte overwhelms and seduces the viewer with the totality of its sensual, cascading washes of vibrant green coexisting with Melotte’s vertical “Sign” of the human presence, his iconic and revolutionary “zip.

First person that gives me a check for . . . .$10,000,000 and it's all theirs.

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OFFICIAL OPENING OF SUMMER - Mullins is open today!!! 

WEATHER - It WILL rain tonight. Not so sure about early evening as the heads on TV are saying.  Air is pretty dry around here and it might suck the life out of the coming rain. Maybe some small showers but nothing big.  It will need to build up more BUT - it WILL happen.

Good size warm front heading our way Friday night and Saturday will have a warm muggy air mass over us with some scattered strong storms.

A cold front passes Sunday night and it looks like a carbon copy of last week will happen with a cold Tuesday and gradual warm up.

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I have nothing else to say to waste your time.  I bet you wish you have THAT 5 minutes back in your life.

RM

Caesar Art Thou YOU?

Back at home with Chrome.

I had IE9 at work for awhile as they installed ZScaler which blocks websites on Firefox.  It seemed to block ALL websites until they fixed it.  I loath IE.

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I hope everybody saw A A Ron on Jeopardy yesterday.

And of course we were all out looking at the Northern Lights last night right?  You could see them in downtown Madison from some of the photos I have been seeing

A very good friend of mine that I met on the art fair circuit shot this one.  He is one of the reasons I do not have many photos of the Union chairs.  A lot of people keep asking me for Union chair photos but I just send them to Cassius Callender who I can not compete with.

Actually we do not "compete" at all as his photography is totally different then mine. But there are some photographers that FEEL they compete.

Cassius Callender Photography

There have been some pretty big sales in the art market lately.  This painting was sold at an auction.

For $46 MILLION DOLLARS!!!  Seriously?  And do you really need latex gloves to handle it?  It does have a certain "otherness".

So I raised my prices a little this year and have been nailing down my art fair canopy.  I use Excel to make a mock up and here is my left side. I'm creating new price tags for each image and on that top left photo I'm (seriously) going to put $25 MILLION on the price tag  :-)

If nothing else it will be a talking point and a little funny to open a conversation.  As DJ said, I have never asked for $25 million so I can't complain no one buys one for that much.

*********************

My buddy and I were at Jungs Saturday looking for plants to put in under my Cotoneaster's and they had an entire row of Coral bells which are also called Heuchera.  When I said Hoochura I was corrected as it is pronounced Hookura.  OK  Then we started talking about pronouncing other plants and we came to clematis. WELL, the real way to say that is CLI-maa-tis.  I looked at the woman and said I felt uneasy saying the word that way as it reminds me of female genitals and that stopped the conversation right there. She did not correct me any longer.  

ANYWAY. I think we will "paint" that sunny to partly sunny to shady area with different coral bells. See which ones do well and replace the ones that don't do well (it's how we roll).

The tags all say they thrive in sunny to partly sunny to shady areas which seems like they are really picky on sunlight.

But before Elwood and I could get down to our landscaping plan the Columbus Water Czar** stops by and drinks all of our beer. Well, not ALL of it.

**Czar is from a Balkan origin etymologically originating from the name "Caesar."

OK, the story behind THAT.  Elwood and I are going to prepare the rocks under the Columbus water tower for planting sedum this summer but there needs to be a LOT more dirt between the boulders. Caesar will bring dirt to us and we will start to fill all the cracks in that giant wall.

I texted Caesar to say we would be there to make a plan but we missed each other as we got there early.  Once home and preparing the soil, our soul, with a beer we invited him over for one to discuss the logistics and in and seconds (when I say seconds it was like a half hour) he was sitting there with a European IPA in front of him talking dirt!        

The photo on the right above shows the sedum mid summer I believe. It's green and lush now, turns this color in summer and a pinkish in fall.  It smothers all weeds and needs very little water, a do nothing but plant plant.

We have a lot of experience with the plant. OH here is a photo of what it looks like 2 weeks ago.  Each one of those blobs were the size of your little finger last year when we planted them.

It will be a work in progress for a couple years. The below image is of my back patio which was 100% dirt and that rock wall before we started.  We like to experiment with seeing what grows and what does not in different areas.  

Elwood (last name) has a 10 by 70 foot garden behind his apartment that he created from filth and garbage 7 years ago full of experiments.  

So that is the plan.  If you see two dudes and a czar looking at the water tower that is probably us.  Come on down to the tower on the 23rd, bring a shovel. Dirt is good for you.

Weather.

Lots of moisture in the air starting drive home time Thursday through Sunday night!  Off and on with T-Storms on the weekend.

Today will be nice but "Temperatures may radiate out quickly east this evening".

warm air advection and increasing cirrus late should prevent widespread frost. However some patchy frost east is possible.

Saturday and Sunday

agree with warm sector airmass establishing itself over 
the region Saturday into Sunday...with south to southwest flow in 
the low levels. This will allow for warm temperatures and dew 
points to rise into the 60s...which will make for somewhat humid 
conditions.

Area forecast soundings suggest potential for severe storms with 
strong deep layer shear and decent mean layer cape. Storm Prediction Center has Sunday into Sunday evening in the day 4 to 8 outlook...which looks good for now. Certainly worthy of watching over the next several days.


Quiet weather and cooler temperatures are then shown for Monday 
and Tuesday next week...as cold air advection behind the cold 
front moves into the region.

6th Grade Smartness

I gave my two presentations to the 6th graders at the middle school and all went . . .pretty well. The funny thing is that it seems all middle schoolers know of Hydro Street Brewing. I didn't mention it but when talking about The Workshop and where some other downtown photos were taken they were always in the context of where they are in relation to Hydro Street.

I'm pretty sure it was because Cypress (Aaron and Sandye's kid) is in 6th grade.

I tell ya - smart kids. They spouted off some interesting questions about "2 point perspective" when I put this photo on the screen.  And they were the ones that said "is that a 2 point perspective?" 

ummmmm!  

One kid even asked me about CMYK and RGB color.    

 ******************

Firemans Park Disc Golf Columbus Wi is now Nationally recognized (see link)  It has a DGCR SSE rating of 16.1 which if you make it 9 holes would be 24.1.  DGCR SSE is Scratch Scoring Estimate and estimates what a scratch player (PDGA Player Rating of 1000**) is estimated to typically score on this course.

**My rating is currently is 799 (not bad for a Senior Grand Master - means I'm old).

Waterloo a very tough course is 25.4
Marshal is 25.8
Beaver Dam 19.8
Columbus 24.1
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Weather in science talk for tonight! The great thing is they stopped using all CAPITALS.

The main forecast concern will be frost potential. Expect at 
least patchy frost most areas...except the far east where winds 
will be a little stronger early and possibly become northeast off 
Lake Michigan. 

Expect areas of frost over much of the well inland areas...except 
maybe far southwest where return flow/high clouds may become a 
concern...along with some afternoon heating if stratocumulus 
clears soon enough. Otherwise it is the classic setup with clouds 
keeping afternoon temperatures down. Then clearing during the evening 
allowing temperatures to cool into the middle 30s. 

Short term...Wednesday through Thursday night...forecast 
confidence is medium. 

Short term models are in good agreement with high pressure sliding 
slowly east of the area Wednesday. This should bring quiet weather 
to the area. Mild temperatures are expected well inland...with 
onshore winds keeping areas near Lake Michigan in the 50s. 

Warm air advection starts to occur Wednesday night...though 
moisture remains meager as main moisture transport will be to the 
west of the area. Thus...kept Wednesday night dry as well. Clouds 
will be steadily increasing through the night. Lows should remain 
in the upper 30s east to lower 40s west.

 

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Break up the Brewers - they are HOT

 

Well.  PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm) NOT counting the previous 33 games has the Brewers beating Cincinatti the rest of the way and in fact have a 4.2% chance of makign the Playoffs!   YEA BABY!!!  

 

And get this - the Brewers have a better record then two other teams now! 

 

Nuff said - got to take off!

 

 

 

Big Bird

Even though I continue to terrorize children** I was invited to make presentations at the Middle School Monday.  The Columbus Library is donating 15ish(??) benches to artists to be creative with and they will distribute them around the city when completed.

Middle school classes will use some of my Columbus Photos to apply to one (or two?) of the benches (as learned from The Workshop - an art and craft studio for people of all ages in Columbus).

**  At the Columbus Crawdads game I sat down next to DJ and a family was in front of us with a big bag of Subway sandwiches.  I commented, AS A JOKE "hmmmmm  maybe I'll have a tasty sandwich" as I looked at the large open bag.

WELL - this 10 year old hears this and very very slowly moves the bag down a row and then very very slowly like a snail, moves in front of the bag!   Kids love me!

*********************

Read an article about athletes who will take over the world.

One was Giannis Antetokounmpo, also called The Greek Freak from the Milwaukee Bucks. The height of a center, skills of a guard and a 7'4" wingspan.  Also called many times this year the human highlight reel.

No one in the NBA has more raw talent then The Alphabet at age 20 and the nationally syndicated author says that once the Lebron James era ends the NBA will be ruled by Anthony Davis and Antetokounmpo.

If you watched any Bucks games this year, the guy is truly amazing.  As Dan Patrick said  "I watched a Milwaukee Bucks games last night and that is an exciting team".

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OH - one note on the garbage bins.  When we expressed our concerns about the mammoth size they said that if citizens had problems they would actually move the bins for the household.

hmmmmmm - I don't think this is a viable option as I believe many older people are too proud to have someone else do their work. They would rather struggle with it themselves and perhaps hurt themselves on ice or whatever.

Deforest had 96G bins and when push came to shove with complaints they were offered a one time downsizing.

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Just like when Dewey defeated Truman the closing of the southern ramps of 151/73 is a little premature. The plan NOW is for late June.  Well, that could be a problem with 4th of July celebrations so the people that actually run the city (unlike me who only complains about the city) are looking into this.

I say the ramp is perfect the way it is now.  There are so many patches it's become smooth. GREAT traction in winter.

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Unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%.  The lowest since May 2008. Another 228,000 jobs were added last month.

Something my dad  told me in the 1970s was that the best bellwether indicator in the economy was RV Sales.   For some reason this clicked in my brain (the important things seemed to have vanished) and I have been watching this for the last 40 years and yup!!  He was 100% correct.

A couple days ago there was a blurb on TV about how RV sales are hitting record highs!!  Disposable income, people wanting to travel which spreads money to all sorts of places. Where's George?  Everywhere.

BUT - if you really want to make money, buy a chicken. I think there will be a lack of chickens soon! Does anybody have the number for Tyson Foods?   Don't by land, by chickens.

Did you know the guy inside Big Bird is 81 years old and has been Big Bird FOREVER?  Big Bird was suppose to go on the Challenger but that plan was scrapped!  Talk about the horror of children if Big Bird would have been on the Challenger.  

I would love to see interviews of adults that were children when Challenger blew up to hear what they were thinking.  I was in accounting class and MATC 29 years ago.

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WEATHER - I'm not seeing any rain until Sunday and Monday when the front goes through!  There will be a humidity front coming through tonight but tomorrow will be above average at 71 (average high is 66).

Thunderstoms Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Rod
  

One Putt Twelve

Speaking of L.Ron Hubbard!  His science fiction book "Battlefield Earth" is probably the best Sci Fi book I have ever read. Seriously!  1008 pages of excitement.  I might have to read it again, it's been a decade.

"Over 1,000 pages of thrills, spills, vicious aliens and noble humans. I found Battlefield Earth un-put-downable." —Neil Gaiman

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Nothing to report.  I had what I consider one of the best rounds of golf in my life . . . . sort of.  Three pars and a birdie.  Almost 2 and 2 as one birdie attempt came up 3 inches short.  Of course the other 5 holes were a disaster but it was my 1st round of the year and really - the first time I laid hands on my putter (HEY - get your minds out of the gutter) I had a 6 foot down hill putt for a par that sailed past by another 6 feet.  

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We have a barn swallow in our bird house next to the house.  They make this alien sounding noise.  Little babies are inside.

**************

It's going to get crazy windy today - don't put your deck umbrellas up!   I think a lot of the rain will hold off until Sunday.

**************

Jenny now works for the James T Lewis Manson as they get closer for going "live"  - Follow this link  The website is still under construction and things will change but there are place holders.

One idea is that if/when this really takes off (there is a HUGE call for wedding reception venues) perhaps a wedding supply type business will open downtown.

I see AAA is getting ready to open and there will be another new business opening in September that will bring a younger (or young at heart) crowd to the downtown area.

Did I mention that the bowling alley was sold to . . . . somebody?

****************

The sound side of the exits on the 151/73 construction interchange will be closed starting next week I believe.  You will need to find an alternate route to get onto 151 south.

My suggestion of instead of installing 32 stop signs around town we just put in 12 roundabouts did not go over well.  I WAS KIDDING!  I actually LOVE roundabouts. They are so much better safer and easier then stop signs . . .but not great in side a city. Far far far less accidents.  But people resist change.  People did not like dial phones either .

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I'm bottling my One Putt Twelve IPA today in honor of my golfing buddy who has something like a 5 handicap but had a poor opening hole in a tournament.

  

Have a great Thursday.