No lava here!

Interesting weather pattern of late. October in Wisconsin was the 7th (or was it the 9th . . . . let's say the 8th for accuracy . . you get the general point) coldest ever and the 17ht wettest and in fact much of the country has had a very wet September and October.

But now there is very little precipitation anywhere in the country and the U.S. as gone 3 days in a row with zero snowfall after a month of snow falling somewhere in the country on a daily basis.

I've been reading that Arizona CoCoRaHS observers (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network) are anxiously waiting El Nino to bring increased rain to their state. BTW - any readers in Washington and Oregon be prepared for very heavy rains and flooding later this week. BIG storm headed your way.
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I was talking to Adam and Sandy the head people at the new Columbus Family Dental and asked them about the whole geo-thermal thing that is going on with their office building. Very interesting and it's not what I expected (giant lava vain heating the building in the winter). What they have is something like 48 "wells?" pipes? something like that that go into the earth about 100 feet below the surface.

Fluid is circulated in the constant 55 degree temperature below the ground which then either helps to cool the building in the summer or heat the building in the winter. It acts sort of like my wort chiller when I'm brewing beer (sorry, I started to drift away to a new recipe I'm brewing).

On a side note - if you are looking into invisaligning your teeth (Having a confident smile can change everything . . . look at Anna in "V" last night, great smile and the world was her oyster!) they are having a special deal Thursday. Come on in and bring your teeth and they will match dollar for dollar a down payment and you can get a free consultation (Tell them Rod sent you . . . . unless I got this wrong somehow). Call for an appointment - Columbus Family Dental - Guiding you Through a Lifetime of Smiles.
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The Homeless Bookclub of Madison (blog is called Streets of Madison) is reading "Water for Elephants". It is so rare that someone can find a book that actually appeals to me yet in the last month I have found three books that I'm interested in.

Water for Elephants a thrilling examination of depression-era circus life. Here is an Amazon review:

"The main character is a cantankerous, still-sharp 93-year-old man, and his frustration at being trapped in an old man's body is palpable. The story of his incredible life and adventures with the Benzini Brothers circus unfolds in a way that is emotionally wrenching, and yet flashes of good humor pervade throughout. The characters are richly drawn, and even the animals are given complex personalities that make them a pivotal part of the story. There is something in the novel for everyone: it is equal parts adventure, mystery, fictional memoir, love story, and historical account.
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I went to the Capitol last week to finish taking photos of the murals. I had one (Liberty) but had skipped the other three. At the time I didn't know they would come out so rich and warm looking.

Looking closely I did not know each one is signed by Kenyon Cox 1913? Here is Justice.
Wait until you use see Legislation, the dude rocks, although he IS leaning on a dog with breasts! Not sure what that is all about and I'm not sure I have seen one like this at Westminster (I would have remembered it).

KENYON! Bad Boy!!
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Until tomorrow - last Farmers market today - I hope there is sweet corn!

Rod

Not another pet peeve blog

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I think as I get older I'm accumulating more and more pet peeves and I rarely have one go away. When I was younger I didn't have any pet peeves . . . I don't think. Well . . . perhaps it was boiled cabbage but is that really a pet peeve? I would just hide it under my plate (didn't work) and my dog who was part collie part timber wolf didn't even eat it (which was unfortunate because now it was on the floor). Come on man, boiled cabbage? Who boils cabbage, WHAT was my mom thinking. Seriously!

Starbucks was a pet peeve but I'm over that so I guess sometimes they do go away. I was all anti-Starbucks for a while until it started to be a cool thing to be anti Starbucks. There are lots of reasons to be anti Starbucks but seriously (I've used that word twice not, is that a bad thing?), you could take all of those reason and just fill in the name of many large corporations that grew from nothing to mega businessessess's.

So in my twisted mind most people are just against small companies that are successful and grow. You have to pick your battles.

For instance, if you are talking about the environment I have friends that use a "real" lawnmower and sometimes I feel guilty for using my gas mower, but then again, if we use our air conditioner more then twice a year it's a rarity while they use it all the time.

You can't be politically correct all the time but as long as you know that what you are doing is not PC you can always offset it by being PC somewhere else.

What got me on this subject is what I think is the dumbest laws in Wisconsin. Crosswalks.

So much gas is wasted because politically correct people love to make cars and trucks come to a screeching stop by stepping into a crosswalk, even though there is not another car within blocks. Then I see confusion every day. I see motorists stopping on green lights, I see pedestrians walking out into traffic when they have a red light. I will stand 10 feet from the road waving cars to go by and they say no no you go. PET PEEVE! sigh

A new pet peeve I have is with a forum which will not post a response or comment if you have MORE THEN ONE "!" in a row. OK, perhaps it is not correct to have a !! or a ?? in a post but . . . . to not let someone post because of this? Is space really an issue?????

Fine Fine - I'm starting to Andy Roony-it so I'll step off the soap box.
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52 years ago today Laika, a homeless Siberian husky became the first space dog as he took off in Sputnik 2. So in celebration (or random luck) a new Science Fiction show premiers tonight!!

The new series "V" starts airs at 7:00 Central time tonight and I have read nothing but glowing comments, the USA Today gives it 3.5 out of 4 stars. The queen alien is played by Morena Baccarin who I kept telling myself that I knew her from some other show and in fact I did. Firefly (one of the best outer space movies of all time).

Here is the trailer for "V"


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I'd like to introduce a new blog for all socially minded people to check out called Streets of Madison. It's a blog about setting up a book club for the homeless right here in Madison. Welcome Suzanne to the world of blogging and I wish you all the luck in the world.
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Speaking of books I'm reading a veru good book at the moment called The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, a time travel fantasy. I've never read any of his works before but I'm an instant fan.

I'm stealing this from Amazon because I can nto say it better and - am still reading the book.

"'Anubis Gates' takes you back to the early nineteenth century in London, with a quick jaunt to the mid-1600s in the middle of the book. The main character, Brendan Doyle, is a scholar who is researching the biography of the poet William Ashbless, hired to accompany a group of paying passengers back in time from 1983 to see a lecture by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

I was very curious to see how Powers handled the paradox of changing a history that had already happened - and, to be honest, a bit skeptical that he would be able to satisfy me. I was pleasantly surprised. The paradoxes resolve themselves so neatly that it made me pause and think, "maybe this *is* what happened". The thread of Egyptian mythology that ties the story together makes the suspension of disbelief easy, since Powers isn't trying to convince you that the technology for time-travel actually existed in 1983, rather he is relying on a mysticism that has been around for millenia. And the ending was just perfect."
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Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Rod

Packers, Vikings and Milwaukee Beer

First a little football and chest pounding.
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I think Troy Aikmen said it best when he said "Let us all remember, it was Brett that did not want to play for the Packers not the other way around".

With that said here are my thoughts of yesterdays game.

1. The Packers are better off with Aaron Rogers

2. The Vikings are MUCH better off with Favre

3. The problem Thompson had was do you make the Packers a better team knowing that somehow Favre will end up on the Vikings? Do you look at the long run and play offense (play Rogers) or do you look at the short term and play defense (DON'T let Favre play for the Vikings and keep him). It was a no win situation.

4. The game. Two things stand out.

A. Jolly's dumb ass penalty. Sure it was only a 4 point swing but it was a huge momentum breaker. All of a sudden you are playing from behind and a "here we go again" feeling.

B. Special Team play. Packers SUCK. That is the difference in the two teams. I still believe "we" can match up with the Vikings offensively and defensively but wow Special Teams? Packers ranked 30th in the league and it showed. Vikings started on their 40 yard line how many times?? Packers started on their 15 . . how many times??

And finally. Every year balderdash and his buddies go to Las Vegas for an Animal House style gambling marathon drink fest! And every year they ask me for a list of teams to bet on and every year I give them "The List" and they bet thousands of dollars on the games (literally).

One year the chants of "Grinder Grinder" could be heard thoughout Harrah's as I had a lot of games and I think 7 of the 8 won (they play a lot of parlays and just go nuts).

Only 3 games this year and I was 3 and 0. Baltimore, Tennessee and Oakland all covered and I told them to BET THE FARM on Baltimore (easy win). I feel good.
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Most of the leaves are off the trees and on the ground but our Pear Trees are still hanging on. One of my favorite plants in our yard are the two 2 year old Red Chokeberries (Aronia arbutifolia). This plant is mirroring the Pear with color (a little better as of this morning) and is a wonderful plant.

Here is Blake looking somewhat nervous (as he tends to do . . . more on him in a bit) and one of our Chokeberries (or would it be Chokeberry's?) taken Saturday.

Speaking of Blane - sigh.

We had 3 cubic yards of mulch deposited in our driveway a few weeks ago and I believe Blake thought it was some ginormous poop pile left by a big dog or perhaps a heffalump. He now takes all is "dumps" in the driveway near where the pile was.

Now that the pile is gone he just goes on the driveway anyway being a dog of habit and I thought this was nice as it is easy to spot and clean up and looks like random mulch.

Except . . . . . . for when I drive over it in the car and it spreads all over the garage. sigh!

Poor Blake, this is the season of no sun. I think he gets Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). He never see's sunlight. He goes out in the morning and it's dark and we go to work. Then we get home and it's dark and he goes out again. No Sunlight!

I hope he is bright enough to lay in the sun i the living room. Probably not.

This is also the season DJ starts to get ready for bed about 6:30 so we are forced to start working out after we get home - off to the health club before it's too late and she goes into Nite Nite mode! It seems a lot of people have this happen to them.
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At our last Brew Club meeting we were talking about water and how this area of the country is fantastic for dark beer - the best dark beer water in the country and perhaps the world, but . . . . how did Milwaukee become the "beer capital of the world." with Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz being some of the biggest breweries by brewing light colored pilsners! The water sucks for pilsners.

Milwaukee has no huge advantage for raw material like barley and hops and while there
was a lot of wood for barrels, vats and casks it's not that big of a deal and labor was not cheaper for any reason.

The reason?

Milwaukee made a LOT of beer, too much in fact. So much that they were forced to find other places to sell beer, like Chicago and they were forced to think "nationally-minded" to sell beer. Chicago was an easy sell as they could use the lake to transport.

The #1 Big reason?

The Chicago Fire. Sales of beer for all breweries in Milwaukee jumped 100% with shipments to Chicago after the Chicago Fire. "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" slogan came just after The Fire. Milwaukee was famous for beer BECAUSE THEY HAD BEER! Not that it was a better beer!

Bottom like - Milwaukee was famous because their brewers were extraordinarily talented businessmen. Not because they made a superior beer.

Have a sweet Monday!

Rod