Public Enemies Celebration - July 25th

The official name for the July 25th Columbus event is The Public Enemies Celebration. We had to get the name OK'd from Universal and we're good to go.

Talk about a huge day for Columbus. The Xplosion with softball teams from all over the U.S. and Canada with games in Fall River and Columbus, Maxwell Street Days, a wedding at a nearbuy church AND The Fireman's Thunder Run thingy (not the real name) with 500 Harley's coming into town for an hour.

Add TEN TV stations and 3 or 4 newspapers with reporters and then throw in 15-25 Pictures Cars PLUS we're working on a Model A group making a pilgrimage from the Milwaukee area and it should be a blast.

We will have loads of food, a live band and a group of Swing Dancers from Madison saying they would be interested in participating. Kids games are taking shape and the bars . . .well . . they are doing something but they never come to any meetings but like to make sure we won't hurt their business.

Personally I say screw them.

Robbie has been a superstar contacting all the TV stations and they are all pumped to attend. In fact one wants to have a lot of interviews and then for an entire week before the event run the news pieces daily.

And this is not even mentioning the Red carpet event in the works for the movie on July 1st.

ME?

Well - I'm not on the White Board at work so people are running around with their hands in the air wondering where I am. Hey guys, I'm taking the day off to kill grass and give a presentation at the Rotary Club (free lunch I think, maybe not, I don't know).

As Dennis was talking to me about the presentation after I agreed all I heard was blah blah balh as my mind was screaming at me WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!

Sort of like the presentation I attended yesterday for our new Time Reporting System. After 5 minutes the woman said "And that is 95% of all you need to know" so my brain went all "And now you only get 5% of my attention" and she was all blah blah blah for the next 25 minutes.

I strive for blah blah blah in presentations. I like giving people some time off from thinking. If I can bore people into a catatonic state I have achieved my goal.

DJ just left to go to work and was all "Good luck with you presentation" and I was all "I'm just going to be me" and she was all "that's unfortunate".
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Speaking of giving a presentation - on this day in 1912 the Titanic sank.

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Here is the feel good story of the month. Many of you have probably seen this as it is such a big thing it's been on the news. Over 4 million hits in the few days since it's been on YOUTUBE, but in case you have not seen it you really should watch this.

Youtube will not let me embedded this.

Have a great Tuesday. I'll be spraying grass killer this afternoon on the area I'm planting 13 Cotoneasters Acurifolia's, 3 cornus variegated , 1 Black Choke Berry and 1 Miss Kim Lilac.

That is this years addition to the back yard. There's MORE but that will wait until NEXT year.

Cheers
Rod

Not another bandwagon

How about those Brewers.

One thing you really should do if you are looking for an online website for seeing baseball that is not on TV is go to MLB.com. WOW - the information age is here. You can get so many stats including how many inches the breaking ball curved, a graph on fastball momentum, the batters favorite pitches, everything!! You can watch the Brewers walk batter after batter. I's great.
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I had the opportunity to drink Doug Caldwell's IPA last weekend and it was pretty darn good - just thought I would mention that and now I own him.

Crystal clear and tasty smooth. here is a photo of when I was sitting in the sun have a brewskie watching the pets get zapped.

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I have a new bandwagon I'm jumping on when it comes to Columbus and from what I hear it's a touchy subject. Getting LIVING plants growing on the downtown streets of Columbus.

I'm not saying we need THIS. And I'm sure that since the people in charge feel the downtown area is not worth putting money into which is the STUPIDEST thing I have ever heard. The downtown is the most important part of a city - without a doubt hands down most important. The downtown is the engine that all other parts of the city revolve around.

It is the money maker. It's where the highest income from property tax's are or should be.

I'm going to have to measure the width of the sidewalks. Watering is not a problem. We (we LOL THEY) can hire high school students on summer break to water a couple times a week. Large plants are much easier to maintain then tiny ones that dry out daily.

Another thing I would like to see if the City Council can get some balls. Start to put REAL pressure on downtown businesses to clean up their act. That store with the broken awning is embarrassing and HOW can they get away with that? Hell - I might rip it down myself in a few weeks.

Look at the 4th photo down in yesterdays blog. I had to crop away part of the photo because of that ugly crap! Why is this allowed??? WHY did "I" have to fix the flag on the City Hall. It's been ripped and hanging upside down on a nail for TWO WEEKS!!

Think I could have taken this photo with a ripped flag rapped around nail? Think the Department of Tourism and the Associated Press would have been able take nice photos?

The people of Columbus have to start SEEING their town. It's like people walk in a cloud of gloom no longer looking.

Notice how my photos are rich in color? - that is how outsiders see Columbus. In color.
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Blake and Milo Electrifried.

We recently had a Dog Guard fence installed and have been showing Blake and Milo that when they get to the yellow flags the warning beeps starts. Both were OK but Milo thought it was a dumb game. Put him in the zone and then shove him back towards home. Blake just thought I could not make up my mind on going for a walk.

So Saturday Brian from Dog Guard comes by and the rubber tips on the collars come off.

Milo was first to test zappation and Brian warned us it would not be pretty. Cats always react differently. He picked up Milo and tossed him in the zapping zone and Milo just plops over dead DON"T TAZE ME BRO!! His lifeless body is dragged out like he is paralyzed. We stand him back up and he's fine. We do this a few times and he gets the idea that he really does not want to be picked up anymore and continues to play the paralyzed cat when we do.

Blake is next and he get led into the zone and screams like a little girl and backs away. Those yellow flags are the devil. But he has learned that the buzz is a warning and he's all good. Sort of.

Sunday we do a little more learning/testing and then for shits and giggles we put both on a leash and let them wander around supervised.

Milo

The first thing Milo has to figure out is that damn leash. He keeps stepping on it with his back feet and comes to an abrupt halt. he looks at me like I'm doing something. Not understanding that it is HIM stopping himself. He is happy to be outside in the sunlight and with leash trailing tests the zone and goes running to Blake for comfort. He then decides to test the side of the house where he thinks he found a hole.

It's beside the house and he keeps a distance between him and the flags. He jumps onto the rocks and hugs the house. Then turns around backwards and starts backing into to zone slowely. ZAP!!! And he goes running to safety. Then he tries the left side of the house and finds that if the side garage door is open he can enter the door and go out the open front garage door.

He walks down the driveway where there are no flags and thinks he is safe. He then jumps through the zone ZAP ZAP YEOW and he is on the other side. This freaks him out because he knows safety is on the OTHER side and he wants to get back to the house. So at full speed he jumps BACK through the zone ZAP! and I can see him getting zapped in mid air like a cartoon cat.

It's all he needed. He learned. We were told that cats are pretty smart when it comes to avoiding getting zapped. He is fine now and I we have no problem with him being outside.

Blake.

Blake Blake Blake. sigh! We were not worried about him learning but more about him being so frightened he would not go outside (almost the opposite of Milo). He was wandering around the yard and snooping in the garden and took a poop. He did not realize he was so close to the zone and crossed into it and he was sort of stuck in the middle convulsing and screaming like a little girl again and falls out on the other side.

Here is the strange thing. He thought this was great fun. WHOO HOO!! WOW what was that!! Let's play. So he is prancing back and forth trying to get ME to go through the zone like it's a game. I get through (not wearing MY collar) and grab his collar to take it off but he lunges back into the zone ZAP ZAP and again he is flopping back and forth freaking out. He lands on the other side and he is fine. All smiles.

We still need to correct him a as he will just walk into the field, he does not have the fear yet. So he is still in supervised mode.
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This is going to be an interesting week.

Have a great day
Rod

The Photographer Groupie.

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www.FrontPorchColumbus Dot Com

Not sure how the photos will look on a REAL computer (this one I think was built in 1977 and is missing a few pixels).
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So you probably noticed I was absent Friday. That is because I had to get up early and get downtown to meet a few Picture Car Drivers and some dudes from the DOTourism for a photo session.

Even though I helped coordinate this little session I felt like a photographer groupie. Hanging around listening and trying to not get in the way. I did have a chance to take a few photos though.

We stood around waiting for the guys to show up so I was flopping around the street like a fish on his belly taking some shots here and there of the three Picture Cars at 6:30 in the morning!

SIX-THIRTY I'm normally still trying to relearn English (my native tongue) so trying to relearn the dials on the camera were a chore. I think I managed it though.

They showed up and I just sort of bebopped around trying to personality mirror and nodding my head in agreement with them and trying to look cool. Letting them do all the work while I steal a shot from time to time.

As "we" were waiting for the sun to creep across the street for a rolling shot the main dude was running all over taking shots of beautiful Columbus (except for one deadbeat store).

Finally the sun is in the right place and Mr. Photog tells the guy with the walkie talkie to roll'm and the three cars turn the corner about the same times the lights change and all sorts of traffic runs down the street.

Well - being the groupie and having a huge camera envy thing going on (his is MUCH bigger then mine) I ask if I can jump in front of the cars to slow them down and he say's YEA - he would really like me to jump in front of the cars. SWEET!!! They LIKE me!!


It's about 9:30 now and getting traffickie but the sun is wonderful. He (I think his name was Todd) lays down in the middle of the highway and the picture cars turn the corner. I am in the middle of the street with arms raised stopping traffic. Except one car does not understand the universal sign of STOP I'M IN YOUR WAY and decides that because there is a guy in HER lane with arms outstretched saying STOP, it actually means that the OTHER lane is probably empty so she starts to GO AROUND ME!

WHAT THE FUCK!

I slide into HER new lane leaving the original lane empty of a human speed bump. I'm hoping the drivers behind her are at least slowing down so they can call 911 when she wakes up and pulls back into the original lane BUT NOW I think she is trying to pass on the OTHER side but she is just maneuvering her two ton Chevy so she is all like "OH - I did not understand the arms raised deal, so sorry."

This is Todd doing scrunches to get in shape for the next shot.
These guys are so in shape!

The guys got their shots and I saved the life of a photographer. No thanks needed, we do that you know, it's part of the job.

Notice the rumble seat** on Car #1.
Cool . . no it really was cool - they were shivering.

** also called a dickey seat. Rumble is short for rumble-tumble which I suppose is what would happen if the car tipped over.

"this type of seating became largely obsolete in the mid-1930s when cars became too fast and streamlined for the comfort of passengers in such a seat. Their popularity was further diminished by the frequent injuries, including decapitation that sometimes occurred in accidents."

Can you imagine a rumble seat going down the interstate at 80?

I took this while waiting for something to happen

and this

After that was over I had some breakfast and took off to the train station for the 1:00 train. I got there about 12:15 and hung out until 1:00 when Rod (the station authority) came out and said the train was an hour behind! Awesome. hmmmmmmm

Finally I had my train and I asked Rod (the one that is not me) if it would be possible to not let the train run over me as DJ would be mad. He said he would TRY!!

Talk about a rush! I'm laying on the tracks, the engine is rumbling and rumbling and I'm just hoping everybody did not get on and the engineer did not forget about me. It's not like he can see me!

I survived.
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DAMN IT.

I had a big piece on our Dog Guard when MS WORD freaked out for some unexplained reason and BAM - my WORD page is now blank and the UNDO is all gray! AAAAGH!!!!

As any of you know once you write a blog and it disappears it is hard to recreate it. Perhaps tomorrow. I'll talk about Blake screaming like a little girl as he hits THE ZONE but he is fine and actually thought it was great fun. And Milo finding a hole in the network but learning NOT to go near The ZONE.

Damn - I just found it - well - tomorrow!!!

Have a wonderful Monday
Rod (the one that is me).