Tall Ship Festival

I have a lot of disconnected thoughts (more then normal) all on the same subject as I have been sort of obsessing over tall ships, pirates and so forth.  So I'm just going to blast them off as opposed to making some story that included everything.  So if I all of a sudden I go off on some odd tangent  . . . . .

SO! - We are in Sturgeon Bay at the Tall Ship Festival with my super duper new 150-600mm lens that I'm still trying to learn how to get the best out of it.  There actually is a learning curve to this behemoth. It's not one of those awesome white len's you see real photographers have.  OH - no - those cost more then my car.  This one costs less then my car. About what I would get from selling 4 large images.

Anyway - We scoped out some places to view the ships.  Quarry Park where the ships were mustering about a 1 mile out was packed.  So we went to Sunset Park in the shade of a Weeping Birch tree (oh yes, it seems there is such a thing) and waited.

There were tall specks on the horizon so I played with the tripod and the lens and really the best way is to use a monopod.  Which I did.  Left hand on top of the lens to steady, don't use the full 600mm but bring it in JUST a tad for a sharper image.

This first shot is the U.S. Niagara - a replica - it was big in The Battle of Lake Erie and was in this battle where "Don't Give Up the Ship" was coined.  The War of 1812

On September 13 1813, 9 small ships including the Niagara defeated a British squadron of 6 British Navy ships.  A very big deal in 1813 that led to regaining Detroit from the British. This was a huge lift to the Nations moral and helped the entire war effort.

And it's about 5 miles out.    BAM - drops the mic!     LOL 

   
110 feet long 32 wide crew of 20 and 20 "volunteers".

The ship on the right is the Barque Picton Castle (179 x 23)

Typically "volunteers" and especially in the British Navy were people they just took off the street without their will. Kidnapped basically.  The British Navy was almost always undermanned by 30%

In the British Navy a seaman was literally lower class then a prisoner and they could drown.  typically 30% of a crew were killed on tour.  In fact on slave ships the slaves had only a marginally worse mortality rate they the crew.   Crews were in the 50% range.

But let me digress . . . . 400 years earlier the Chinese were sailing ships 400+ feet long and 150 wide with over 750 sailors.  FOUR HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER!   Then they went all "China First" and the entire world missed that part of sailing. 

The Nao Santa Maria that "discovered America" was 62 feet long and 18 feet wide.  There were MANY Santa Maria's.

SO - back at Sunset Park we 're just hanging out.  There are people from all over the world and buses from other states and  OH YEA - outside our hotel room, maybe 30 yards away is the beer/mixed drink tent.  But they did not offer Busch Light "The Nectar of the Gods"
  
So we wait and wait and seriously - I have only really looked at maybe 10 of the 150ish shots and - boring.  What can ya do when taking shots of slow moving ships that do nothing but glide by!  LOL

Getting bored? OK - check this out

The show Black Sails - our Pirate heroes and another pirate ship have come in contact with a Spanish Man of War.  Pirate ship =  20ish cannon,  Man of War = 124.   I do love this show  LOL

https://youtu.be/hXoUa5j0FKs



OK - back to reality . . . . .

The first of first 3 ships are entering our area

FUN FACT - we all know voyages on tall ships were nightmares.  Literally rotting maggot infested food, water gone bad and many times the shipowners of merchant ships carrying passengers would short food supplies to save money.

In 1729 the Katharine left Londonberry with a crew of 123, 6 months later it landed in western Ireland with 14 crew left.   The Lothrop arrived in Philadelphia arrived with 90 survivors.  On the trip 70 adults and 30 children starved to death.  (yea - I've been doing a lot of reading)

DJ believes in her former life she must have been on one of those ships. I will never get her on a cruise.

OK - gotta wrap this version of tall ships up with one more image.

This is "Windy" (took a long time to come up with THAT name I bet)  148 foot 4 masted gaff topsail schooner.  The deal with this ship is it is basically a state of the art tall ship. It has EVERYTHING, bow thrusters for docking, a 300 horse power engine and it cal literally parallel park if it had too.   

Shot taken about 4 miles away

E Scows racing

Have I mentioned I used to race E-Scows and owned a Lazer at one point in my life. 

That is where I get my love for sails.

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Different subject

Before I forget - there was a comment a few days ago that maybe some of my programmer friends can answer - above my SAS/COBOL head

My coder is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he's trying none the less. I've been using Movable-type on several websites for about a year and am concerned about switching to another platform. I have heard fantastic things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any kind of help would be really appreciated!

Anyone anyone??

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Weather - WEIRD THING HAPPENING - yea - it's going to be awesome for a while as we have an Omega HIGH over us which will bring basically ZERO wind for 4 days.  Bad sailing weather.

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Gotta love the Baltimore Sun response to the yellow turd in office

"We would tell the most dishonest man ever to occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes,  the gleeful grabber of woman's private parts, the serial bankrupter if businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insists there are "good people" among the murderous neo-Nazies that he's still not fooling most Americans into believing he's even slightly competent ion his current post.

Better to have a few rats that to be one"

OH - BTW - Trump approval rating among blacks is 6%   

Two jokes that never need retelling -

1. Wisconsin has two seasons  yada yada yada
2. How do you know when Trump is lying - when he opens his mouth.

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See ya

Pampered Pooch makes Gus look like a retriever

There is this one hole at The Oaks that is in my BRAIN.  It's a gimmick hole where you hit over wasteland to the fairway that runs out into more wasteland 200 yards away.  Trees and wasteland on the left and another fairway on the right.  It's a par 4 and I average 6.7  YEA - it's in my brain.

Every freaking time I leak out to the right and am in the other fairway. The issue is that then you are blocked by one very large mostly dead tree and scruff junk to get over right in front of you and the hole 170 yards away.  OR you can hit the tree and bounce into the wasteland and take a drop and penalty stroke near the hole.

HOWEVER - the last 2 times I have played this hole I take a mighty swing with a 7W and I really nail it and my brain is high fiving myself and the ball hits a limb square and bounces STRAIGHT BACK AT ME!!   COME ON MAN!!  I'M IN THE SAME FREAKING PLACE!!

So now I'm STILL blocked and I'm one stroke worse.  Last night - Drive, 7W into the tree, 7W short into the wasteland, penalty, chip shot from the drop of shame area to 4 feet from the hole (great chip) and 1 putt for a 6.   VICTORY!

The next hole is a gimmick SHORT par 5.  Drive goes 170 yards straight up  in the air leaving me a LONG distance to the green.  I take out my 5W and RIP the ball perfectly and everybody is ooing and awing as the ball is tracking towards the hole, hits the fairway rolls to the green past the hole by a few feet up the second tear to the top and I have an impossible putt for an eagle. 10 feet away and 2 feet down which rolls past the pin by 10 feet and I 2 putt back.

PAR. 

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SO I raised a pretty good firestorm on a facebook page just before I left for golf.  So big was this firestorm that they shut off the comments with so many insults coming my way.  One woman said I was just baiting people and as Balderdash will say I never bait people . . . .do I?   (insert evil laugh).

I said that I felt that parents that make their child wear a bike helmet WHILE refusing to wear one themselves . . . were being bad parents.

WELL - this did not sit will with the bad parents it seems. 

I was told adults do not need to wear helmets, they had been riding bikes all their lives and never needed one.  Or they could not afford a helmet and I should stay out of their business.

HEY - I have seen personally what not wearing a helmet does to a brain.  Sorry for thinking your child would miss you if YOU had a brain injury  SORRY!!

Cycling is the #1 sport for brain injury and head injury was the commonest cause of death in cyclists  NUMBER 1.

SO EXCUSE ME FOR BEING CONCERNED.  If I can change ONE parents view on wearing a helmet - VICTORY! 

I do love seeing so many kids wearing helmets in Columbus.  Sadly I see parents riding with them with no helmet.  They probably make their kid wear a seat belt but don't wear one themselves.

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When we take Gus for a walk cars drive by and people yell HI GUS!   The other day we were walking and a car pulls up to get mail  HI GUS.  Another car drives up to get mail (I guess that is how you do it) HI GUS.  We go to the farmers market  HI GUS!!

So this happens on facebook  LOL

Before and after

Gus is not as controversial it seems.

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Slowly getting more humid - HOWEVER the wind will really kick up Friday and Saturday. Heat index near 90 so no big deal.  Sunny and about 80 all next week - nothing abnormal with summer-like conditions.

Have a good Thursday

  

Republic of Pirates / Black sails - NOT ranting about Columbus industry

WELL - I have a long page of rants about Columbus businesses and how they are not coming forward with REAL donations for Christmas decorations  - an EXCELLENT rant.

I won't post it as I have HEARD there is a plan B.  We shall see.  What set me off was seeing APC donate $100.  $100?   DON'T GET ME STARTED!!    I feel it I feel it   . . . .. LOOK AWAY ROD LOOK AWAY

Why would anybody move to a small town that does not care enough to have Christmas decorations.  BAA  HUMBUG.   We might be a small town but we don't care about Christmas.

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I took Gus for a walk and saw a new homeowner watering his lawn in disgust. It was a new lawn and I could see there were issues.  I started talking to him and he was having a fit with "weeds".

I asked if this was a brand new lawn with grass seed and commented that the wide leaf he was obsessing over was NOT an actual weed.  It was crab grass which is an annual and will take over where there is no grass like in a new lawn. It dies in the winter and and will disappear  . . mostly when the new grass fills in. 

He was SO happy as he felt he had to keep up with his neighbors.  "This is my first house and there are no instruction manuals".

My job there was down.

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Then there is home depot.

As you might have heard we had 2 10x10 decks demo'd and a 10x12 screen in porch and a 10x10 BETTER deck constructed.  Started about Feb 8th and ended first week of April  Cost a shit load of money and took two months.

HOWEVER - the sun is blinding and we needed blinds.  Talked to a few places but Home Depot had what we wanted.  One was a a 12x12 blind and 2 smaller ones.

Started the process May 27th when we handed over our check book to them.   Picked everything out and even though I had VERY accurate measurements their contractor (Crew 2) had to measure.  They would call.

Seven days later they called and said they would send somebody out  . . . in 2 weeks.  We waited and got measured.

So now we had to go back to HD and actually order the blinds.  Seems the company ONLY ships to Home Depot so we waited.  2 weeks go buy and finally we get a notice the blinds have been shipped and they will notify us when they arrive so WE can pick them up.

And we wait. 2 weeks go by and we go in to ask what is happening.  OH they have been here for a week.  SERIOUSLY ?   THANKS!!! 

So we take them home and the contractor will call us to schedule.  And we wait.  After a week we call HD and they say they will contact Crew 2  . . . and we wait.  Another week goes by and and I call again and this time ask for the phone number. 

I call Crew 2 and they have no record of an installation and throw Home Depot under the bus - FU!!   So we schedule the installation - - - IT'S IN THREE WEEKS.

And then I see APC donating $100 for Christmas decorations  . . . . . And then things go completely sour in my little brain.

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Looking at my SOM team.  This year with real stats from last year my average OPS for my start 8 is .730

NEXT year so far with my starting 7 my average OPS is .910  FOR THE TEAM!! (wringing hands with glee)    Pitching sucks. 

If I don't make the playoffs I have 1st or 2nd pick for free agents.  If I do in the playoffs I get squat for free agents.  If I DON'T make the playoffs I could draft Anthony Rendon with his .399 OB and .603 slugging.  WHO NEEDS PITCHING  LOL

Not a bad lineup

RF Yelich 1.138 OPS  Gold clove
CF Trout 1.117 OPS  Gold glove
3B Rendon 1.003 OPS Gold glove
1B Mancini .867 OPS
Catchers .815 OPS
2B and SS two Gold gloves
Vacant hole in LF

and no pitching
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WOW   126 of Trumps advisers and workers contacted the Russian government during the campaign - NO COLLUSION

No, the report did not exonerate the president.

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So I finished book 3 of 12? of the Space Adventure Renegade series and I am not bored yet.  it's actually very very entertaining with great character growth and some very interesting space adventures.

HOWEVER - I've been watching Black Sails and now I must time travel back to 1700 and the golden age of pirates.

https://youtu.be/rT2Y5jjBNpQ


Republic of Pirates is suppose to be one of the better books about REAL pirates. They were very democratic actually and not as violent as they are shown in film.  They would vote on who would be captain

Nuff said for today 

Summer is Coming

Getting some pretty strong wind this morning as the warm front passes.  Look for clearing aboyt 1:00 this afternoon and then the humidity takes over.  75 degree dew point will take over the land an we will be in the 90s heat index.  Tomorrow by noon we will be in the 100s for heat index as  clouds from overnight storms move away.  Cooling 30 mph wind will calm down to 6 mph tomorrow.

GREAT week next week    Weekend is looking iffy on Saturday with scattered thunderstorms building all day as the cooler air mass battles with the warm air mass (and wins)  High Sunday of 79 and partly sunny.

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OK OK - I rarely talk about myself and nobody cares about my golf game . . HOWEVER - I did shoot a 41 last night on the front 9 of The Oaks.  Looking at my 9 years of golf data on Golfshot - it's my lowest par 36.  I had 41 twice at Glenway and a 41 on a par 35 at Door Creek.

I pared all three par 3s.  Had a double and three bogies!  NET 28 with my 23 handicap.

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Speaking of China and their AI.  In China they are far far advanced with electronics.  They don't use cash or cards and most of the time when you purchase something it's with your phone.  Since EVERYTHING is done online they asked citizens if they were worried about security - NOPE - they could care less about security it seems.  Weird.

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3.59 of all plate appearances in MLB wend up as a home run.   2.86 on my NL SOM league but 3.9% in the AL league  (I had to look)

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New Drug Enforcement Administration data shows that as more states enact legalization, federal agents are chopping down fewer illegal marijuana plants—as demonstrated by a nearly 40% dip in federal cannabis eradication in California last year.

Drug Overdoses declined in the US last year for the first time since 1990

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In politics the Klu Trump Klan is doing what they do best.  Spreading fear and anger and getting the far right zealots all yanked up against minorities.  It's the only way he knows he can make his racist old white people to cheer for him.

The blue wave has turned into a green wave as fundraising is VERY bullish for the left.  This is what happened in 2018 and it's happening again.  The DNC has raised 16% more then the GOP so far and is especially troubling for the GOP as incumbents are raising less then their counterparts while the DNC  incumbents are raising more then the GOP.

The blue wave is coming  . . . AGAIN!

Meanwhile the Klu Trump Klan is not gaining voters at all.  They have what they have.  Not going to be good enough and Dictator for old white males will go down as one of the worst Presidents ever 

One Term Trumpy.  Its sad seeing so many old white males so afraid of the future.

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She stock market volume has been declining in a typical seasonal pattern at the same time the reactions from the second-quarter earnings reports are seeing stocks pull back, even when those reports have been largely positive. This could all be part of a normal consolidation period and pullback after the market strength of the previous months that could see some more choppy action for the next few months.

The mixed performance of stocks that are outside of the S&P and DJIA have been suggesting to us that the overall market may not be as strong as the indexes, and a period of regrouping may be necessary to get the larger list of stocks back in position for some better advances, which could take some time to accomplish.

YumYum Thai Kitchen

LOL - Seems I struck a nerve with yesterdays quote from an unknown.  Yea - truth always does strike nerves.

The Klu Trump Klan don't seem to like me.

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NOTE - adverse possession is being looked into   - Thanks Clark 

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So I called my good buddy Craig Council a couple days ago and explained the issue with bullpenning and he said "Mr. Melotte I believe you could be right, I will pitch Woodward a little longer, after all he does have a 100mph fastball (as seen last night)."

My job here is done.  LOL

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MEANWHILE I ran into an age old problem in strat-o-matic.  If you have a pitcher with a IRL (in real life) 4.50 ERA pitching in Detroit BUT has a 1.57 ERA for your SOM team with 99 innings pitched and is 9-0 . . . do you take him out in the 8th pitching a shut out in a 1-0 game? 

I did and my bullpen Hadar'd it and gave up 2 HRs  I lose 2-1   WELL, my team did only have 2 hits so I can't really complain too much.

I'm still on the fence if I want to get in the playoffs or not.  If I DON'T get in the playoffs I will have the 1st pick for free agents and the 1st pick every round when their price goes down.  My team's offense looks GREAT next year but with no 3B or LF.   I'll be set for a few years and with me getting a new hitter friendly ballpark . . . . . . .

This year with 3 superstars and the rest . blah,   I'm just hanging on.  Bill James is correct.  It is better to have a line-up of 8 average players then 3 studs and 5 blah guys.   Just a giant hole at the bottom of the lineup.

If I do get in the playoffs I'll miss out on some outstanding free agents that wil lset me up for a few years.

Trout is 2 for 34 in the clutch which means he is hitting .373 NOT in the clutch.  And Kinsler is 1 for 42 in the clutch  WOW

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A study found that legalizing marijuana reduces illegal cultivation on public lands. “Outright, national recreational cannabis legalization would be one means by which illegal growing on national forests could be made to disappear.”
+++
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) tweeted, "I’m all about connecting the dots. It’s time to connect the dots between racial disparities and economic inequity by legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana."

It's been pretty proven that cannabis is used as a way for racism to go unnoticed.  The same amount of white and black people smoke cannabis - yet blacks are arrested at an ALARMING rate compared to white people.

Can't just arrest you for being black anymore so cannabis is used instead.   
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OK - this is still confusing a raging liberal wannabe moderate like me - psychedelic drugs??  Seriously?  I'm sadly familiar with psychedelic drugs from the long long past and don't understand why the rush to make them legal???   

A Berkeley, California City Council committee will consider a measure to decriminalize psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin on Wednesday. The move follows neighboring Oakland’s enactment of a similar resolution last month.

Perhaps it's this

A study of qualitative reports of psychedelic microdosing found "beneficial outcomes, such as improved mood (26.6%) (WELL YEA)  and focus (14.8%)" as well as "challenging outcomes, such as physiological discomfort (18.0%) and increased anxiety (6.7%)."

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Last night was a doggy game at Miller Park - we have to take Gus there next year if we hear about it. he would LOVE it

HELP - I'm in jail.  

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So DJ has been snooping around social media on the cooks at the new YumYum Thai Kitchen opening soon in Columbus. YUP, seems they did cook all of those meals**.  Let me say this looks like a REAL restaurant - not a hobby restaurant -
the menu looks OUTSTANDING 

Their lunch menu - a little light colored - all the other menus were outstanding and each item explained what it was - AWESOME - BRAVO!!   wish it was darker.

They have photos of their food and it all looks GREAT  - I have no idea what this is 

** - DJ had never watched Judge Judy and it came on.  A woman who made Christmas cookies was late and her facebook page cover had cookies on it . . .but she got that photo from Instagram - NOT her cookies it seems.  She saw no problem with photos of OTHER peoples Christmas cookies on her business page.

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The first prognostications are in for next years NBA - The 76ers are ranked #1, Bucks #2 in the east.

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Anybody else see China and their AI development?  YIKES  And people honestly think THEY are stealing technology from US?  I think not.  It's rather creepy.  You get good and bad marks from the government as they LITERALLY are watching you.  Don't walk in a crosswalk? - demerit  point. Pick up garbage you get a bonus point, get enough bad points and you can no longer use the bus or airport and if you hang out with people with demerit points YOU get a demerit points.

with facial recognition they watch EVERYBODY.    CREEPY.

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Crime pops up 2.2% more when the temps hit 85 or higher.

In america only 35% of all cardboard is recycled.  IN Europe 80% and Asia 93%/ 1.3 million tons of cardboard was consumed in 2018 up from 1.1 million tons.  Thank you Amazon

STAY COOL!
 

Elweed and the Case of the Stolen Trellises - Solved

First, you stoke hatred and fear of minorities.
Then you round them up and put them in camps.
Next, you send out raiding parties to get those who have been driven into hiding.

The armbands come next right?

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So remember a while ago when my buddy from kindergarten Elweed was having his trellises stolen?

A guy who basically has nothing as he is 300% below poverty but has been nurturing a garden for 10 years transforming the waste land of garbage into this.

Notice if you will the white signs that were posted - PRIVATE PROPERTY!  posted on that fence.

it seems the owner of that fence owns the fence and 3-4 feet on THIS side of the fence and is telling him NO GARDEN.  Elweed has lived there for 20 years and it's been a wasteland until he made it into a garden. 

The owner of the fence has been going out at night and has been ripping out the trellises and throwing them away.

So now he has an issue.  The guy is claiming 4 feet on THIS side of his fence that he has not cared about for 2 decades and anything there he ruins or takes.   

Everything there including the rocks were not there before he took over.  I's a 17x70 foot garden.  The landlord of the "motel" apartment (next to the VW place just off  The Wash near the Full House intersection - 151 and 51)  does not want to rock any boat and could care less - not going to get involved.

The world is full of the wrong kind of people.

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DJ and I are boning up on our pirate-speak as we are goin' t' a tall ship parade up nort.  We have hotel reservations and will head to Sturgeon Bay at the end of the month t' drink ale 'n loot photos o' tall ships.  ARRRRrrrrrrrr!

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A long while ago I was helping out in Madison at the Homeless Book Club.  Yea - homeless people read also you know.   The book of the month was The Art of Racing in the Rain.  A book from a dogs point of view. 

The author was amazing and he agreed to give the group of about 20 homeless people an interview and one of the amazing things was that the book is published in like 50 countries and every country had a different breed of dog on the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp2ufFO4QGg



This is an AWESOME heart warming story that begins with the passing away of Enzo the dog . . but in a very nice way as he looks back at his wonderful life and is ready for the next life whatever it may be . . . but the ending of the book/movie is heart warming spectacular.

ANY person that loves dogs needs to see this movie.

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Weather - COME ON TALKING HEADS - stop selling your wares and tell the truth.     Unlike what everybody has been saying all week - we will not hit 90 until Thursday - STILL hot but 90 brings fear and will make people watch the news - CLOSE to 90 will not, we will be close.

Thursday and Friday will be RED ALERT days as the heads are actually underplaying the heat - they don't want to be wrong.  Heat index nearing 106 with real temps nearing 100 (I say just below 100).  Then turning cooler next week with highs just above 80 and low dew points.  Weekend will be "cooler" with highs in the low 90s and a "cold" front will move into the area.

 Thursday  93, dew point near 73  heat index 102.   Good chance of early storms Thursday morning as the warm front goes by. Beautiful next week.

Cheers

Busch Light - The Nectar of the Gods - CW&L Water.

A few decades ago Bill James might not have "started" the sabremetrics revolution but was the one that brought it into the mainstream.   

He was one of the first that tried to legitimize bullpenning.  Pitch a starting pitcher for 4 or 5 innings and then go to a fresh bullpen. Do NOT let the starting pitcher face a batter more then twice.

Chacin on the Brewers, in his career the first time he sees a batter that batter has a .667 OPS, 2nd time he sees a batter .728 and the 3rd time he see's that batter .760.  If you look at MOST pitchers that is how it plays out.

THUS - bullpenning takes that away.

SO - when Bill James was hired by the Boston Redsox as a bullpen pitching staff consultant way back in the 80s? he went with math and used bullpenning and ALL other teams thought this was a horrible stupid idea because it was "out of the norm" and used numbers and not common knowledge handed down since the late 1800's  (or at least the 1950s).

It was a spectacular failure and and a laughing stock of the league. 

YET - It REALLY does work.  The problem with the Redsox back then is the problem the Brewers have now -  Bullpenning is great - IF - you have an actual bullpen.  Bullpenning will not fix bad pitchers.  Like any betting system.  If you have negative expectation, no betting system will overcome it. For the Brewers - If you have a bad bullpen, it will not be fixed by pitching them MORE and a capable starting pitcher less.

I really like Council as a manager but . . . . I think we need to get the starters to go a little longer and BURNS and of most of the bullpen  LOT less.

From my 40+ years of managing a virtual team with bullpens I know bullpens are pretty random year to year.  A great bull pen last year does not mean we will have one THIS year.

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Went to see YESTERDAY Friday and it is REALLY a fun happy movie with great Beetles music, a fun concept and Lily James  (Downton Abby, Cinderella) is awesome!!!   People clapped at the end.   Feel good movie of the year

https://youtu.be/Ry9honCV3qc


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WEATHER - the talking heads on TV are trying to scare you into watching THEIR weather.  yea yea hot and moggy but no 90s until Thursday AND - in an odd turn they are downplaying Friday when I believe we COULD hit 100 (more like 97 though).  I expect heat indices Friday to be in the 105 range.  Thursday 100 heat index.  Until then low to mid 90s heat index so yea - sucky hot. Cooling off NEXT week.

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I said my piece on what Trump did this weekend which is so distasteful that nobody can defend him NOT being a racist and anybody that still is devoted to him is also classified as a racist.  He can't hide and say he was joking this time. 

I am NOT anti Republican at all. I have friends that lean right and that is fine - I respect their opinions - don't agree but respect.  Trump is not a Republican.  REAL Republicans are smart people that just think differently from my views.

But Trump is just a low life mobster bully with ZERO clue how to run a country and is a 100% racist. There can LITERALLY be no doubt now.

MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN.

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I purchased a six pack of Busch Light this weekend - The Nectar of the Gods

Here is Busch Light Guy comparing Busch Light Nectar of the Gods to Spotted Cow

https://youtu.be/6WXDs713ouA



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Last week I took a LOT of shit from the "we gripe about everything Columbus facebook page and one person blocked me because I was just a troll (who tells the truth and corrects people on rumors).

I was defending Columbus Water and Light (Shared Strength through WPPI Energy)  
and FOR FREE they are coming this morning to replace my water meter with a BRAND new one. (call them and you can get one also).

WELL - the argument was a woman came on and said all of her indoor plants were dying because Columbus changed their water.  All of a sudden people are coming out of the woodwork saying their water NOW tastes nasty and is horrible now everybody believes that EVERYTHING CHANGED and "should we be drinking the water?" and yada yada.  I was literally teh public jumping on the anti CW&L bandwagon and fear was running rampant.

Well - I come on and ask them if they had their water tested and of course nobody has but plants are dying what more proof do you need ROD!! STOP TROLLING AND DISAGREEING WITH EVERYBODY!

So I contacted CW&L and asked for a few months of water reports NOT KNOWING I would get the raw data which was sort of meaningless unless you are a spreadsheet junky so I created spreadsheets and looked at the data.

I wrote this

WATER - Lots of talk about water so I felt someone had to get the actual facts - I contacted CW&L and asked them for a few months of raw data to see what has changed in chemicals.

Looking at the reports - and adding the columns and dividing by 30 and comparing and so forth - - - - - nothing has changed. In fact our water has been pretty stable for a few years now.

There is no spike in chlorine or any other chems. If you are watering your plants remember that our water could be lacking minerals needed because it's "soft" water out of the tap. That began in the 1940s for reasons nobody knows.

HOWEVER - to change it back "we" run the risk of Flint Michiganing it. Changing water chem's is NOT something you ever want to do because of unforeseen consequences.

We get MOST of our water from Well #1 which is near the Antique Mall and it's 80 years old and if you can get 90 years out of a well you are doing great.

We have another well as a back up but we will need a new one in the future.

Our water is deep deep down and we are very safe from toxic spills and so forth.

Columbus has basically has The GOLD STAR system when it comes to infrastructure. We have a very VERY good system. MUCH better then most communities. When people wonder why our water costs so much it's because we have a seriously first rate system

Most of the city has redundant lines so if there is a breakage you still get water. We can handle two MAJOR fires AND citizens can still have water.

You get what you pay for. Remember - drinking water is a secondary issue as water companies main focus is on fire prevention. Drinking water is a bonus and if you do not like it there are MUCH worse water conditions everywhere (Milwaukee)

So love the taste or hate the taste the water is good.

While it might not be 100% accurate it got the point across and I was back in good graces with the public whining facebook page.

What REALLY surprised me was how many thanks you I got - it seems MANY MANY more people were concerned then I realized that were silent.  Seriously. 

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MEANWHILE - DJ and I went to Art Fair on the Square yesterday and this actually happened. 

DJ is in a fresh porta potty and I'm guarding.  I have a Colorado baseball cap on and sunglasses.  A woman comes up and is picking out the best porta and looks at me . . . "Are you Rod Melotte"? the stranger asks. I say "why yes I am" and she asked my what booth I have.

I explain I no longer do art fairs and while I LOVE doing them and getting compliments for 8 hours a day and a ton of money (I did not say that part) - I was only there looking now.  

We walk and I see another friend and he asked me where I am and I say the same.  A half hour later I see a person that runs art fairs and he asked where I am and yada yada!  it goes on like that.  

I do miss the middle part of art fairs - the selling parts. Not the week running UP to fairs or the setting up and packing up part in 90 degree weather in the rain.  Yea - Art Fair on The Square costs $600 to get into (if you are accepted - if not you lose the $100 application fee) and the set-up and tear down are truly horrific . . . but making $70,000 in a good weekend is never a bad thing is it? (not that I ever made $70,000, a photography friend did make $85,000 a few years ago). 

Plus - everything photography is now on metal and everything I have is canvas.  

I really have to find another gallery - I do really well . . .and then they close.  

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I took this image last night from our porch - the storm is actually directly over Rockford 

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OH - at the art fair one booth had a while bunch of my images LOL   I won't say I invented it but . . . . . . 

    and one ALMOST exact copy was this one where I stopped and REALLY looked closely to make sure it was not mine. 

Just a unique photo of our train.  I posed this on a train FB page and was surprised I got SO MANY comments - not known of them saying "orange?"

A Sand Trap I could not get out of.

Gosse's or Charcoal Inn - thanks for the recommendations - DJ has always wanted a reason to go to Sheboygan.  I also should have mentioned The Bell outside of Beaver Dam.

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Last night I was having a so-so round of golf in VERY windy conditions.  Seems I was doing better then I thought when I looked at the final score.  During a round I never ever tally up my total score.  One hole at a time, I don't want to know how I'm doing - each hole is it's own game.

WELL - After messing up the first two holes and being +7 after only 3 holes my brain just figured I was in the dumper and just enjoy the walk and get through it not realizing I would par 4 of the next 6 holes with two lip out birdie attempts.

My ISSUE was sand traps which had no sand.  Just hard cement like dirt.  The kind you walk in, take a swing and looking back there is zero need to rack as I left no tracks.  THAT HARD

So after dealing with 3 of those traps already I came to the final par three.  Hit the trap once again (1), which was hard cement.  Open my club to go straight up and the ball fly's 45 degrees to the right into another trap (2). 

So I have a steep downhill lie in a 13 foot deep trap . . in ACTUAL SAND.  I swing and the ball hits the opposite side and sticks on a severe uphill slope(3).  I swing and it hits the lip and goes backward (4).  Now I'm in deep deep sand which is weird and I take a mighty swing and my club goes under the ball which puffs up about 3 feet forward (5).

This time I swing with vigor and the ball rockets forward 12 feet high but sadly the lip is 13 feet high (6) and is back on a uphill slope.

The crowd is silent as I line up my 7th attempt to reach the green and the ball fly's over the green to the other side 20 yards away(7).  I climb out of the trap of death and calmly putt my 20 yard 8th attempt to about 2 feet from the hole (8).  As I walk to the ball in shame Wade says "That's good" (9).

BUT that is the the end of this tale.

The 18th hole is next.  In my last 15 attempts at the 18th I have AT LEAST double bogied 9 times.  Not my favorite hole.

The wind is behind us and the two long hitters crush their ball  while I hit my drive well and it skitters up the hill into the rough.  But that is fine.  Here is what I had to look at

If you look REAL hard the pin is just on the edge of those black trees. About 265 yards away still.

    So I do the smart thing and almost drive the fairway laying up smartly.  MEANWHILE the big hitters are "going for it" and losing balls right and left and I'm sitting way way down my the stream watching the two swinging and swinging.

My 3rd shot gets across no mans land. I chip onto the green and par the hole and then wait for the big hitters who both took 8s.  VICTORY IS MINE.

ended with a 51 with a 9 on a par 3.

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72% of France's energy comes from nuclear power plants.

In the summer months 19% of America houses have their thermostats set to 69 or lower and 18% set the thermostats to 77 or higher.  typical is 74 to 76 (We are at 76)

Not much else to say at the moment

Headphones / TGC19 / Columbus water whining / craft beer

I was looking for some good wireless headphone cans. You know the ones that look like headphones and not ear buds.  Always looking for more base.   I have really good ear buds JLab Audio Core Hi-Fi Noise Isolating Earbuds with Mic and Cush Fin Technology,  which were only $20 so now it was wireless headphones.

I knew BEATS were way way overpriced and actually not that great if looking at frequency response, but you get the "cool" factor wearing them but wow - overpriced.

after looking and looking and looking I purchased a pair of  Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 Wireless Over-the-Ear Noise Canceling Headphones  that were refurbished and were half priced.  Got them yesterday and while I was a little disappointed at the packaging they sound GREAT for less then $100.

Lower base then BEATs for sure (20,000 compared to 22,000 what evers).  I have no clue about noise canceling technology. I can still hear things. Very very happy otherwise.

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IT'S SUMMER - WHOO HOO - Cold front going through today which will drop humidity substantially down to the low 60s   warm weather coming but humidity shout be in the normal summer range with upper 80s next week and upper 60s dew point.  Not "comfortable" but normal.

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This actually happened last night - We ordered pizza and were waiting and waiting and waiting - I finally called and asked "Where is our pizza?"  the girl looked and asked the delivery person.   Oh it was delivered about a half our ago.

ummmmm - not to us LOL  There is a pause as she is talking to the dude.  Yea - a woman paid and he got a nice tip . . . . ummmmm . . . . we paid by card and nobody here got a pizza.   Wrong House  LOL

We got our pizza 15 minutes later and had a good laugh.  Still wondering about who got our pizza! Ours was GREAT!!   

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So DJ had a wisdom tooth pulled last week and got a prescription for 600mg Ibuprofen.  OK - what is the difference between a 600mg Ibu and three 200mg Ibu's  Except the insurance company charging $50 a pill ???     a serious question.

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Do you REALLY need a building inspector in Columbus?  If people build a LARGE deck twice teh size of their house without a permit . . . does it really matter?  Are there actual consequences?  Seems not.

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and what about our water - everybody is whining online that something has changed in Columbus water and it's killing plants.  YET - nobody wants to actually have their water tested.  COME ON PEOPLE - if you eat bad tasting food do you just complain and do nothing?

"OH I can't even drink my water any more"  "OH My water is brown"   "OH the water is all of a sudden killing all my house plants"   YET - is anybody getting their water tested?  no! 

The world is full of all the wrong kind of people!   You never see ME complain  :-)

OOPS - a woman just said she is blocking me for complaining about everybody complaining and creating rumors without asking CWL about our water.  so sad

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OH - DJ said this is 100% me.  WHAT?  Seriously?   hmmmmmmm   maybe

https://youtu.be/Xt3TLxrFNnU



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 New course on TGCTours called Lake Sophie.  another user created tour course

can't wait to play it.   With a course design contest getting underway goign to be some sweet courses out soon.

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Seems if you take the stigma away of cannabis being illegal teens will look for something else.  Youth smoking in Colorado has dropped since cannabis became legal.

A new yet-to-be published study found that marijuana increases sexual functioning and satisfaction for men and women of all ages. "Participants reported increased desire, orgasm intensity, and masturbation pleasure. Results indicated that taste and touch were enhanced when using cannabis."

Well YEA (I heard).

Meanwhile - A study concluded that "medical cannabis implementation produces a reduction in the Medicaid opioid prescription rate of around 10%, which first appears about a year post-implementation and remains steady in subsequent years."

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Seems 35% of all Amazon reviews are fake.

Thanks to the very very hard work by the federal government drug prices have actually increased in the past year. In May 101 drugs increased in price and in April another 106 went up an average of 27%. One anti-diuretic increased by 909% in cost.

It's almost like most of the current administration have vast amounts of  stocks in Big Pharm.

Nuff said

In search of the perfect cheeseburger

I was a super picky eater as a kid.  I blame squirrels.  My soon to be mom took the dog out during an ice storm  when I was still inside her tummy and said dog saw a squirrel and took off.  she slipped and fell on the ice and I said LET ME OUTTA HERE! 

I was 6 weeks early and I'm told I did not have a fully developed stomach (which seems to have corrected itself).

ANYWAY - I was picky and when my parents went on a vacation I would eat cheeseburgers and I had a little book where I would write down my feelings in each cheeseburger.   THUS - you know where I am coming from 60 years later.  I'm still looking!

We went to The Old Rock last night thinking it;s been a number of months since the change in ownership - how were there burgers NOW!   

WELL - The texture is fantastic, juicy wonderful meat, the burger to bun ration is perfect, the cheese was melted to perfection.   HOWEVER - I SWEAR the new cook came in, saw the grill and with a sander ripped off all that ugly brown seasoning that had built up over the last decade to a brand new spanking clean grill . . . . with zero seasoning.

The burgers had EVERYTHING going for them  except . . . flavor.  Not a bad flavor at all  just a serious lack of any seasoning. ZIP, nada, none.  Was this fried on Teflon?  How utterly disappointing to have what could be the best burger in the tri county area to and ALMOST perfect burger with no flavor but truly outstanding everything else.

Does one bring their own seasoning to a restaurant/bar?  Is this uncouth? 

So at the moment the #1 burger is still . . .oddly . . Mooyah Burgers.  The Caribou Bar in Madison is pretty darn good, Mullins 1/4 pounders were pretty good, Eddy's in Sun Prairie are good depending on the cook.

The search continues.

I see Fast lanes is begging for workers along with most American businesses.  I wish there was a group of skilled, law abiding workers that wanted to come to America for work.  where can we find such a group.  How do we get people to want to come to America.

Democracy is actually a giant ponzi scheme where we NEED people to keep growing.  If population stagnates so does the economy.  Nobody ever said a city that is losing workers is growing.  Every  legal OR illegal immigrant that enters America grows the economy.  Its a fact.

WAIT - is it time for another market pull back?  seems so!

The markets are trading around their all-time highs and are potentially setting up for some pullbacks after their recent rallies. We think the support levels below the indexes offer clues as to how far they may pull back with the Dow Industrials having support at around 26,200 and 25,200 with equivalent levels of 2900 and 2750 for the S&P. Anything above those lower numbers would be considered normal and even expected, in our opinion, but we think breaking the lower supports would indicate some possible larger corrections that could be in the 10%–15% range,. The market indicators reached some areas of being modestly overbought, but not excessively so, which we believe implies that any pullbacks may also be more average and contained.

    

and BTW - anybody saying this is all Trumps wonderful economy . . . . no - it's not.

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DJ and I went on 12 mile 245 feet up cycle trip yesterday.  I love these apps that tell you how many feet UP hill there is on a ride. Who cares about downhill, it's the uphill that bikes worry about.

   
The CWCC (Columbus Wi Cycling Club) will have a ride sometime in the near future to Sassy Cow Cremery and will be joined by the Sun Prairie Club to come back to Cbus.  a 23 mile round trip ride and looking at Sunday morning the 21st depending on weather and other factors.

Anybody wishing to join up we meet at Cercis Brewing on Sundays about 2:00.  DJ and I will be at art Fair on the Square this coming Sunday.  The parade reaped at least 3 new members so far wit h4 more interested and were looking for a bike club in the area.

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I have to admit - the fireworks in Washington DC were fantastic.  Set to the 1812 Overture, my very first album my parents played on their new stereo council in the late 60s.  Great canons.

Tchaikovsky hated this work with a passion.  It's a work influenced with Russian folk songs and celebrates a huge Russian war victory over Napoleon.  Odd how a celebration of everything American is put to a Russian piece celebrating everything Russian.   How ironic.

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and BTW - who is in Mountain View CA - Welcome!!  a town about half the size of Columbus.

HOWDY STRANGER!  Sorry - just looking to see where people came from.

Columbus fireworks FUBR

WOW - The perfect storms pulled up to Columbus 15 minutes before the famous fireworks and it was a total  FUBR with a serious lack of communication on the city's part.  I had falsely assumed that SOMEWHERE down the road someone was in charge but it seems I was wrong.

Just when things were getting settled  down and the crowd was at it's biggest two tiny storms developed from outflows of larger storms and both were very very moist with a LOT of rain in both.

The first one goes through with plenty of lightning and from our house near HWY89 there was a constant stream of cars leaving Firemans Park.  People on Facebook were asking if the "works" were canceled?  still on?  Nobody knew.  Then a second larger storm was approaching but veered east just under Columbus.  Tons of lightning . . . and still know word.  There were loud speakers available but . . .who was in charge.  Anybody anybody?

Seriously - there has to be SOME type of hierarchy for an event of this size.  SOMEONE needs to make the decision.  Was there a total lack of leadership and coordination AND communication? 

The Mayor?  The City Administrator? Emergency Management?   I will be the first to defend "the city" because the people that run things are just normal people doing the best they can.  But there SHOULD be something in place for non-life threatening emergency's in major events that draw ten's of thousands of people to our city.       

and yea - this happens once ever 50 years - HIDEOUS timing for the storms. Half hour either way and no problems.

I was online telling people it was a small storm that was wet but not dangerous (for the most part). There could be a 20 minute delay but . . . . .nobody at the park had a clue and nobody was going to tell them anything.

They did go off as the highways were crowded with traffic leaving the park and they actually held my attention this year. 

I felt the last 2 years they had gone DRASTICALLY downhill.  I can once again say they were very excellent

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Wednesday night The Oaks had something very very sad happen.

Their signature tree was hit buy lightning.  A beautiful Hickory that was just off the putting green.  So so sad.

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What has happened to all the overpriced ball players - Bryce Harper who had 2 out of 7 great seasons signed for 300 million and is now WISHING he was as good as a hitter as Eric Thames?

Manny Machado has NEVER had a GREAT year but had a very good year LAST year has a .828 OPs which is in the "good" range but pretty pedestrian as a 300+ millionaire.

Speaking of Thames - nobody is noticing that he is having a pretty good year at the plate.  We won't talk about his fielding but for a first baseman there is only 1 ball every 3 games where skill is actually needed, you just hope it does not lose a game when that skill IS needed.

Thames has a .369 on base and over .500 slugging and he is not really letting down vs. LHP. 

Yelich is having an AMAZING year ESPECIALLY vs. RHPs. Against right handed pitching he has a .466 on base % and a .765 slugging - HOLY CRAP!!   BUT WAIT.

As I'm finding out on my strat-o-matic team.  Ballparks are everything for Yelich.  At HOME Yelich has a .896 slugging, on the road .559.

this is why I'm changing my ballpark in strat-o-matic.  You can change every 3 years and right now I have San Diego.  With Yelich signed for 2 more years and Trout for 4 more - it's time for a hitters friendly ball park.

Yelichs OPS at home is 1.371   WOW!!

Fun stat - when Yelich is in a 1-0 count (1 ball no strikes) he has a 1.666 OPS.

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The Independence Day Parade.  The Columbus Wi Cycling Club had 14 people in the parade this year

Our group was at the 36 minute mark   CWCC 

https://youtu.be/bBbkOXASAzY



zit for today - gotta run!   Have a great week!!

Storms and more storms coming

You know how the weather was yesterday?  Pretty much going to be like that for the next 6 days.

The cool news was MY reading in Columbus of a 52 mph wind gust was used by NOAA and CH27.  Seems I'm taken seriously by NOAA and last night COLUMBUS 52 was on the news.

The storms sure looked rather threatening.  #1 with the 52 mph winds looked pretty scary

and it was about this point where . . . . .

the kid mowing our neighbors lawn stopped mid row and ran . . RAN home.  I'm not even sure the lawn mower was turned off LOL  (note, the light pole is straight up - 10mm lens does that)

Then in round 2 a truly magnificent shelf cloud, roll cloud, arcus cloud rolled over us.  The leading edge of a gust front.

Cool, sinking air from a storm cloud's downdraft spreads out across the land surface, with the leading edge called a gust front. This outflow cuts under warm air being drawn into the storm's updraft. As the lower cooler air lifts the warm moist air, its water condenses, creating a cloud which often rolls with the different winds above and below.

In June we had 17 days with some sort of rain for 5.58 inches.

One year ago today we had a dew point of 78.8 and a heat index of 107.   SO . . . can't complain.

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Look for us in the parade Thursday - I thin we will have 10? 12? riders. We're working on a book of 20 routes.  We meet at Cercis Brewing every Sunday about 2:00 at the moment.

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Saturday the president of our home brew club FINALLY opened the brewery where he is the head brewer .  Ooga Brewing in Beaver Dam and damn he makes good beer.

He produced a coffee pale ale that I totally love.  Even with all the new equipment issues he had with his first bunch of brews this one was great.   He has 4 beers on tap and there are 3 or 4 more guests taps at the moment.

When I started brewing people kept telling me to open a brewery - NO!!!  That would be like work.  Jeff is working like 70 hours a week trying to keep up . . . and dare I say loving every second.  It's nice when you see a dream come true.

This whole thing about working for your self is bull.  Why would I want that stress.

It's also nice when someone who is a step above home brewing turns pro and is successful.

The odd thing is is that in the last few years many of us old timers that started home brewing a decade ago with pretty good success and many awards . . . stopped.   The issue is why brew now when you can go to a store with  SO MANY OPTIONS and just buy a 6-pack.

A decade plus ago there were not that many options of when you could buy.  I have two recipes that I will brew - My Double Chocolate Stout and my East Indian Porter.  But even then - if you want my Double Chocolate Stout  just go to HyVee and buy Samuel Smiths Organic Chocolate Stout.  I'ts truly my favorite stout and is as close I you can get to perfection in a chocolate stout.

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The debates - who won?   The first number is the likability AFTER the debate - (like - dislikes).
The second number is before the debate

1- Warren- 58.9% (49.9%)                 = +9.0
2- Sanders- 58.8% (56.7%)               = +1.8
3- Biden- 56.5% (60.4%)                   = -3.9
4- Harris- 54.1% (44.9%)                   = +9.2 
5- Booker- 41.9% (33.9%)                 = +8.0
6- Buttigieg- 40.8% (35.2%)              = +5.6
7- Castro- 36.1% (20.0%)                 = +16.1
8- O’Rourke- 31.6% (35.9%)             = -4.4
9- Klobuchar- 24.4% (19.9%)            = +4.5
10- Gillibrand- 23.5% (21.0%)           = +2.5
11-Yang- 15.0 (15.2%)                       = -0.2
12- Inslee- 12.4% (9.1%)                   = +3.3
13 (tie)- Gabbard- 10.6% (5.8%)       = +4.8
              Swalwell- 10.6% (9.8%)      = +0.8
15- Bennet- 9.6% (8.6%)                   = +1.0
16- Ryan- 8.7% (7.7%)                      = +1.0

17- Hickenlooper- 7.7% (7.5%)         = + 0.2
18- Delaney- 6.7% (6.8%)                 = -0.1
19- de Blasio- 2.4% (-2.1%)              = +0.3
20- Williamson  -2.3% (4.2%)           = +6.5

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Because of climate change (something republicans do not believe in) Alabama has seem 90+ super nests of wasps that contain over 15,000 wasps.  Normally they find one or two.  this year over 90 as their climate warms more then normal.  How awesome is THAT!

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Even though Kim Jong Un executed his staff for the failed Trump nuclear meeting last time El Presidente' loves the killer of families with more photo ops and then takes credit for saving America for a mess he created.

The average American female player in the World Cup earned $260,869, compared to $1,114,429 for a male player.  and what did the males do this year?  Have they played?  Did I miss it?

The stock market continues to run sideways

We think the markets are slated for a strong opening today as the recent news is causing an increase in the optimism, but as we have seen so many times this year, that optimism can be fleeting. The best technical pattern for the markets, in our opinion, would be to hold the initial gain through the day and then build on it further over the next few days. A reversal from the strong opening could signal some toppy action that would be more significant now that the DJIA and S&P are in their previous high territories. We still view the markets as a mixed bag, of different trends in stocks, groups, and indexes, that is not positioned well enough for a continued uptrend at this time, and regard the current action as more of a short-term peak.

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OH - I'm on The Twitter.  Rod Melotte.  Random comments normally about the Brewer games and odd facts about life.

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Big Brother is off and running and now you can tune in as the first few episodes are over where everyone is REALLY fake. it takes a week to really get going and peoples real personalities show up.

Of course an 8 person alliance is already about to fall apart (like they do) and a new Head of Household was picked last week.

Amazing Race ended and Colin and Christie were by far the strongest team.  They were in The Race in 2004 and he was just a total asshole to his wife and he vowed to get better. What a nice change 15 years later.

OH - you asked about LOVE ISLAND?   Just say no.  They are advertising it as a REALLY SHALLOW eye candy show.  YUP.   We really only watch the big 3, Survivor, Amazing Race and Big Brother.   

Have a warm  day - ENJOY   lol