June, 2005

2005.06.30 — Alfred, Ohio. Finished with work for a couple of days. Our Independence holiday weekend begins.

2005.06.29 — Alfred, Ohio. Joe and Angie stopped by this evening to visit with us. The weather was a bit warm but we managed by sitting outside in a semi circle facing the empty swing. No one is willing to sit on the swing preferring instead the little foldups. It was a very pleasant and relaxing evening.

2005.06.28 — Alfred, Ohio. The photo at right is of my paternal grand parents as I remember them as a kid. Aunt Pat gave me several to scan and have re-printed.

2005.06.26 — Alfred, Ohio. Joe and Angie are thinking about buying a house. We went to take a look this afternoon and I was impressed with the place and I really hope they are able to get it. I like everything about it. The yard and neighborhood are lovely and quiet. More quiet than where we live. They would have neighbors but none are very close. The house itself is cute and appears well built. It is a little older and would require a little TLC but that is what young couples are all about. They started a house blog for the place. The intention is to show pictures of it as it exists today and then whenever they make improvements, we will be able to see the before/after images. What a great idea!

2005.06.25 — Alfred, Ohio. An email appeared in my inbox this morning as if from out of the aether. It is right on topic. I’d love to publish it entirely but will get straight to the essence of it:

This is a pretty good start. Private property itself is a strange notion to me (more on that another day) but if we are going to have it, then it must be protected. All in favor, pass this on (email, blogs, etc), write to the newspaper, and to your congressman.

2005.06.24 — Alfred, Ohio. Congratulation to Joe and Angie! I’ve heard that they signed a letter of intent to purchase a house today. It is one of the bigger decisions a couple ever makes. Perhaps I should spring for a Grolsch celebration.

The old Minolta went in to the shop today. Turns out, it wasn’t the batteries. It will be out of service for two to three weeks. Ouch!

2005.06.23 — Alfred, Ohio. The U.S. Supreme Court made another 5-4 ruling today. This one makes my blood boil. They ruled that it is legal for the government to seize private property and give it to private developers. Read that again. Private developers. They are NOT talking about government use of property for highways and such like they currently do. This is madness! […many expletives deleted…]

Follow with me with this scenario. I own a piece of riverfront property that is undeveloped. Coolville could decide that it is an economic under developed area. They could then decide to take it from me and give it to the Bill Gates Development Corporation (sorry Bill, I’m just using you as an easily recognizable example). The friendly courts could then decide that since the property is currently so under developed, Bill would only have to pay pennies for it. Adjacent property owners would stand to see their property skyrocket in value? Who would come to my aid? This could happen today and would all be perfectly legal.

Bill could then go ahead and construct the Coolville Yacht Club. He and all his fellow billionaires could then enjoy the riverfront. My crowd, that would be those who wanted to have a picnic, carry in can of worms to go fishing, take a picture or two of a misty dawn or a beautiful sunset, drink a beer, or any number of wholesome activities, wouldn’t be able to pay our way past the doorman.

I’ve long resisted this but now I’ve become a single issue voter. This will be my litmus test. Work to overturn this nonsense and you will have my vote. All others can visit Hades!

2005.06.22 — Alfred, Ohio. Picked up new batteries for the camera tonight on the way home. The old ones were made in Germany. The new ones in the USA. When I saw that, I immediately figured that they were inferior and wouldn’t last so long as the German ones did. I’m pretty sure the old ones lasted about two years. We will have to wait and see. The moral of the story is pretty sad. I recall a time when made in USA was a sign of quality.

2005.06.21 — Alfred, Ohio. Today is the Summer Solstice and it so happens that we have a full moon as well. That seems a mite unusual. Ancient societies would have loved it.

I put up the new tripod in the driveway and lined up the old maple tree limbs with the full moon. The clouds assembled just so and what I saw in the view finder was spectacular. Nick was there and saw it. I carefully adjusted the camera f-stop, field of depth, shutter speed, and then slowly pressed the shutter release... the internal led went black. There was no audible click of the shutter. Nothing but silence. The camera batteries had perished. Ask Nick. He can vouch for the great photo that got away.

2005.06.20 — Alfred, Ohio. Back to work. Jeanie has about finished mowing the lawn so I borrowed the neighbors rototiller. That made fast work of an otherwise impossible job in the garden.

2005.06.19 — Cincinnati, Ohio. Dennis, Pat, Dad and I went to Mt. Healthy for breakfast. Wouldn’t you know it. Goetta is on the menu and Pat ordered some. Dennis went on about getting some from Glier’s. It is made right in Covington. The food arrived and Pat broke off a piece and let me try it. Wow! It is good. I’ll have to remember to buy some next trip to Cincinnati.

Pat came over after breakfast with some old photos that I had requested. I’ll get a few scanned shortly and let you see.

Finished reading Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit and gave it to Dennis just before Doug stopped in to visit with Dad. Ishmael gave me a few new thoughts about things. It had been a while since I had seen Doug but I had to leave for home shortly after he arrived. Next time.

Joe and Angie stopped by with a four pack of Bier op z'n Grolsch in the swingtop 16 oz. bottles. The bottles are as much fun as the beer. This brand of beer has been around since 1615 and with good reason. It is delicious. Jeanie and Angie split one. Nick had half a glass. Joe and I each drank the rest. It packs a punch and my boys thought it funny that I could feel it after only a beer and a half.

Nick got some arcade games for me including Missile Command. Again, they thought it funny that I could have ever been in a tavern long enough to get good at the game. Steve called. I’ve made a similar call to my Mom and Dad many times over the years. It is impossible to be everywhere at once. I appreciate that you thought of me even though you couldn’t be here Steve. We will be headed for Boston is a couple of weeks anyway.

Jeanie bought a tripod for me. Woo woo! Now I can take some serious pictures of everyone! :) In all, I had a really nice Father’s Day. Thanks everyone.

2005.06.18 — Cincinnati, Ohio. Mowed Dad and Pat’s back yards. It was a quiet day. Dad is still feeling pain and needed to keep his feet up so he cat napped on the couch today. I read a fair amount. Diane called and told me to get some goetta. I don’t recall ever hearing of it. She said I would like it.

2005.06.17 — Cincinnati, Ohio. Headed to Cincinnati to visit with Dad for a couple of days. Stopped at Borders and picked up Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

2005.06.13 — Alfred, Ohio. Allan sent in the latest issue of Thru the Peephole last Friday titled Chapter 9: Kindred Spirits? – Lake Superior “Biker” Brother. Lisa sent a note saying that she was working on the Nascar recaps. She went to a race so should have a good story and perhaps a picture or two.

Thought for today: “The violent search for certainty can sometimes close the very doors through which wisdom might have poured.” – found on an online forum. Let me put this in context. Accepting ambiguity is difficult for most of us. However, it is sometimes required in our search for knowledge.

2005.06.12 — Alfred, Ohio. What a beautiful day it was today. It was a little warm but I spent most of it outside mowing grass. It is growing a little slower so I’m catching up with it. This evening was the first bonfire of the year. Now I’m thinking about working up the garden before the weeds claim it.

2005.06.11 — Alfred, Ohio. Later today we plan to attend another graduation party. Congratulations Trevor!

I jumped a deer today. That really isn’t all that unusual around here. In fact, I’ve been closer before spooking them before. What made this unusual was that I was running the lawn mower. I was by the overflow in the pond headed towards Bradley’s property and it was just in the rough. The old thing must have been deaf.

Steve sent this photo in. I suspect it may be a photo of Times Square at night. He happened to register a person I work with at the conference. Small world.

Trouble in River City. I tried brushing my teeth with my left hand. Go ahead. TRY it! You won’t be able to. I was amazed and thankful that I decided to try that rather than holding a razor next to my neck with the wrong hand. Before giving up, I was feeling muscles I didn’t know about. This is going to be a much slower process than I thought.

More trouble… my resolution to use the metric system was not well thought out. It was more of an emotional outburst and a politically correct moment for me. I’d like to tell you why but can’t. Suffice it to say that a shy little birdie wrote in and provided some compelling reasons to NOT convert to the metric system and specifically requested that it NOT be published. In true journalistic fashion, the reasoning and source of this info shall remain confidential until the birdie is dead.

2005.06.10 — Alfred, Ohio. A member of a group of photographers I chat with sent some photos from Alberta, Canada. Ten years ago they had 300mm of rain in 12 hours around Calgary. Ten years later, to the day, they had 227mm of rain. The photos are from an unknown source and are just shots of the clouds… clouds like I have never seen. Well, I’ve seen some strange stuff out in Kansas long ago but these are really weird looking. You can almost feel the power of the storm in these photos.

In case there are any in the U.S. reading this and still haven’t figured out the metric system… 300mm is nearly 12 inches and 227 is just shy of 9 inches. RESOLUTION: From this day forward, I intend to use metric measurements on this site and in my life. Another thing that I intend to begin is making good use of my left hand. I noticed shaving last week was entirely right handed. Ditto writing with a pen or pencil and any number of other mundane tasks. I hope to always have the use of my right hand but should it ever be the case that I can’t use it, I wouldn’t want to be helpless.

2005.06.08 — Alfred, Ohio. Steve is in NYC for a couple of days. He sent a couple of photos of his hotel room. It was pretty neat. I received them just an hour after he taken them. It was as near to a live picture as I’ve ever seen in my email.

2005.06.07 — Alfred, Ohio. Happy Anniversary Joe and Angie!

2005.06.06 — Alfred, Ohio. This was a pretty quiet evening for me. Jeanie is away at a conference, Nick is away watching Joe and Angie’s house and dog.

Tetris news. Yes, I’ve found something that I didn’t know about the game. Perhaps I once knew it, and have since forgotten. In any case, it is news to me now. Here is the deal. You know that if you beat the “B” game level 9-5, you will see the shuttle blast off. You also know that if you beat the “A” game (over 100,000) points, that you will see a tiny rocket blast off. Did anyone know that if you really beat the “A” game (200,000) points that you will see a mid-sized rocked blast off. I’ve seen it. You don't have to fritter away the hours that I have to learn this secret. Trust me. It is there!

2005.06.05 — Alfred, Ohio. The news really disturbs me. Mr. Rumsfield is telling China that they are spending too much on their military? Amnesty International say that we are running secret prisons. Our State department published a list of countries that engage in “Trafficking in Persons”. Let’s examine each in a little detail.

The defense of this country is on the books at over 400 billion per year. The defense of China is estimated at $55 billion to $85 billion. Rumsfield made those remarks just days after a decision was made to send 15 F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters to South Korea for what the Pentagon called a long-planned training mission. What if they were Soviet planes being sent to Canada, Mexico, or Cuba for “training exercises”. I am certain we would feel compelled to defend ourselves. The U.S. in recent times has shown the world a level of aggression towards other countries that hasn’t been seen for a long time.

The Washington Post today wrote this about the Amnesty International report:

Finally, we have the report on Trafficking. Our own state department has this to say about:

• Australia: “Australia is a destination country for women from Southeast Asia, South Korea, and the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) who are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Some of these women travel to Australia voluntarily to work in both legal and illegal brothels but are deceived or coerced into debt bondage or sexual servitude.”
• Canada: “Canada is primarily a destination and transit country for women trafficked for the purposes of labor and sexual exploitation. Women and children are trafficked from Central and South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia for sexual exploitation. To a lesser extent, men, women, and children are trafficked for forced labor. There is internal trafficking of Canadians for the sex trade. The majority of foreign victims transiting Canada are bound for the United States. Numbers are hard to gauge, but in February 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimated that 800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually and that an additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States. Some estimate that this number is much higher.”
• UK: “The United Kingdom is primarily a country of destination for trafficked women, children, and men from Eastern Europe, East Asia, and West Africa. Women are trafficked primarily for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude, while men are trafficked for the purpose of forced labor in agriculture and sweatshop industries. The United Kingdom may also play a role as a transit country for foreign victims trafficked to other Western European countries.”

These are Tier 1 countries, our traditional friends. You should hear what we have to say about Tier 2 countries such as Japan and Mexico (Watch List). Tier 3 countries can’t even be described on Frogtails. Yet we find it convenient to exclude ourselves and find fault with Amnesty International or China. Judge for youself, exercise your next ballot very carefully.

* * *

Today I heard from the author of the email from the other day and was denied permission to publish it. The author did so in such a way that I was somewhat complimented. Here are portions of what I received today:

How about that! That IS a compliment. Yesterday while mowing the grass and attempting to murder a few biting flies I was thinking about the whole issue a bit and had already decided that I could NOT publish the email as written. It would have to be edited. A new MINIMUM standard for being published on Frogtails will be: anything published on the site may not contain explicit language.

Why? There are software programs that “read” sites and rate them. Finding a single obscene word or phrase may be sufficient to flag the entire site as obscene. Once rated as obscene, it could easily be filtered out of existence by other software programs except to those who specifically request it. Worse, anyone who would specifically request it could be placed on other lists. No thanks! All of that would conflict with rule #1, anything published on the site will be something I wouldn’t mind my grandchildren reading. Points can be made without using explicit language. You may not always agree with the thoughts found on Frogtails, but rest assured that they will always be stated in a civil manner. :)

2005.06.04 — Alfred, Ohio. Biting flies are bothering me more than usual today. Jeanie says that is a sign of rain. They are pretty resourceful little creatures. They are quick to notice which parts of my body my eyes can’t see. They have noticed that my hair is thinning. They must realize that my arms will not reach the center of my back. How they can bite through my t-shirt is beyond me. How I can swat at them with my hands and hit them in mid air without apparent harm is simply amazing to me. I prefer not to think of my fate should a 100 ton object strike me at any speed at all (an estimate of the relative size of my hand to their body weight in comparison to me). Normally, I’m appeased to just swat them away or stun them with a little whack. Today, they are out for blood. I am out to kill.

REQUEST FOR YOUR OPINION: I have received an interesting email that challenges much of what I wrote the other day (the “skip this one” link below). The email is a bit verbose, I think misses the point I was attempting to make, is a bit controversial or inflammatory, and yet portions of it did make me think a little.

My question to you is, should I publish it here? Let me describe it a little further for you. It states quite unequivocally that we should not be offended by perceived slights. It uses explicit language at times. It challenges the literal interpretation of the Bible. All that, and probably more…

Here is what I’m thinking of doing and what my fears are with each. Please let me know your preference.

1. Go ahead and publish it as is (with permission of course). I really don’t want to offend anyone who reads this site. I’m thinking that anyone reading this has an educated mind and is willing to, in the words of Aristotle, “entertain a thought without accepting it”. I also don’t want to end up like Salman Rushdie. There may be some lunatic out there that stumbles onto it. I know of people in at least a half dozen states and as many countries who read this site. Half are friends and family, the other half I have never met.
2. Go ahead and publish it with edits and a strong “R” rated links and a disclaimer indicating that it contains views not necessarily representing this site (with permission, which may be more difficult to obtain). My fears are many of the same as above.
3. Savor the email myself and spare the world its contents. By far the easiest path for me to follow. I’m not certain how much controversy to introduce into what I have considered a family site. My guiding principal has always been for myself and anyone I’ve allowed to publish on this site is anything is fair game so long as it wouldn’t offend my grandchildren.

Please send me your thoughts on the subject. Keep in mind that this is not a vote where a mere majority wins. I’m soliciting your thoughts to help me make a decision about what to do with it. Thanks.

2005.06.03 — Alfred, Ohio. Ever miss the Cold War? There are days that I do. You always had the sense and belief the Russians were sane. Our policy of mutual assured destruction (MAD) actually worked. Having a rival super power also helped to keep our own government in check. Today, it seems to me that our own officials are running amuck and obsessed with power. Terrorists do not seem altogether sane to me. All things are possible in such an environment. That may be a good thing… but it doesn’t have to be.

2005.06.02 — Alfred, Ohio. Today at work I had a couple of interesting thoughts that seemed unrelated at the time. Tonight I believe that I can tie them together. However, it is a mite strange and a little lengthy so you may want to skip this one entirely.

Additional writings:
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