Awh, More Sunsets...

Snapped these pictures on the way home from the fire station. A little late for the photo challenge, but thought I would share them here .




Rule #1: Always take a camera with you!

Lack of Human Foresight!

I am sure you are all aware of the latest warning about cell phone usage causing brain cancer, but for those who haven't heard, yeah talking on the cell phone might increase your chances of brain cancer. Your increased chance hinges on you actually possessing the organ that houses thought processes and memory, so I am sure some of you will be ok and have nothing to worry about; but for the rest of us...

My concern at this point, since I am a hard headed Norwegian will I be okay? Does the extra thickness to my brain protector help shield it from the radiation that will eventually lead to the demise of my brain cells? Such things to consider and to research, along with if the radiation from the phone causes brain cancer, wouldn't it also cause skin cancer and cancer of the ear? If I remember my physics correctly radiation diminishes with at least the square of the radius, and maybe more like the quartic or the radius with some dependence on material density.

So whatever, I will take these 'experts opinion' and start to worry about this negative radiation coming off my cell phone, but I have a lot of questions. How does the radiation vary between talking and standby operation of the phone? Does wrapping the phone in aluminum foil ruin its reception? Should I wrap the side of my head in aluminum foil? What kind of radiation concerns should I have about this new fangled bluetooth headset? Should I resort to smoke signals and start to worry about lung cancer?

As you can see, I am very confused by all this opinion that has hit the news; so difficult to just take the opinion of someone who has less education than I do and accept it as being factual. Any person who has enough education realizes that there are no hard facts in the real world, just statistical probabilities of occurrences. Giving the experts the benefit of research, if having the phone next to your ear is bad for your brain, I would assume that any body part that is located close to the phone would also have an increased probability of some form of cancer. With that in mind, gentlemen where is you phone when using your bluetooth or waiting for a phone call? Your front pocket? Are you wearing lead lined boxers? I checked at Target and it seems they no longer carry boxers with the option lead lining, so I have been unable to find any. Now ladies, where do you store your phone? How often do you let the kids talk on a cell phone?

I leave you all to contemplate your usage and storage of your suspected cancer causing device...Until next week...

Why my blog doesn't work?

Have you ever had that awful experience of you blog links no longer working? The frustrating experience of trying to correct the things that have broken; trying to undo that change that made your blog a waste of Electrons. Well, lets get down to the root of the problem.

The problem is the 'edit html' button. Sounds so simple, but it is true. This little button allows everyone to dabble in places that they shouldn't be putting their fingers. Inside the land of html is a collection of <, > ,/ , {, } , ; and other special characters that have a VERY strong relationship with each other. Meddling in their relationships can quickly lead to complete chaos on your blog. The edit HTML button is like the door to a wood shop, a place where awesome works of art are created but exist a collection of tools that would just as soon lop a finger off as carve against the grain.

Why does this button exist? It is there so we can add cool effects and gadgets to our blogs. We can add bits of JavaScript and CSS expressions that make very interesting things happen. Awesome graphical backgrounds can be added to show case your ideas and opinions. So while some dabbling in this complex language will produce awesome results, others keystrokes will result in a mutiny.

When you find yourself on the receiving end of this programming uprising, here are a couple of hints. Undo what you did, to cause this political coup; unlike people computers are quick to forget that offensive misspelling. If you are unable to undo what you did either because you can't remember or don't know, change your blog layout back to one of the plain ol' layouts provided by your blog site. That should fix most offenses, but should that not work you might be in need of a 'html' relations expert.

Html counseling is available at a coffee shop near you...rates will vary but I tend to charge fuel (caffeine and gasoline) and a sense of humor to counsel and encourage the html relationships behind the scenes in your blog...

About time for another one of these...

This is probably the best thing to ever come out of my oven, well at least in my own mind. For those who trust my sense in the kitchen, here is my method of making banana bread.

Buy a bunch of bananas and forget to eat four of them, let them sit around on the counter until they have a nice set of brown freckles then freeze them for at least a week. Now that you have decided to make banana bread, thaw out the brown frozen bananas (should still be four unless someone in your house likes monkey tails). I have found putting the frozen bananas in water until the outside of the banana starts to thaw really helps them peel better, other wise just slice the end and squeeze out the banana guts. A very technical approach I know, but I have found this makes the bread taste better than fresh bananas.

Cream 1/2 C Brown sugar, 1/2 C Sugar and 1/2 C softened butter together. Add 2 well beaten eggs to the mix. Add 1 tsp Baking Soda, pinch of salt, dash of nutmeg, splash of almond flavoring and 4 tbsp butter milk and blend together. Mash the four bananas together and add to the rest of the batter. Work in 2 cups of flour. Pour into greased glass loaf pans (makes 2 small or one big loaf) and bake for an hour in a slow oven.

Of course, some of you might insist on adding nuts to your banana bread, but I am more likely to add a nut flour or flavoring than chopped nuts. And just for all you kitchen folk...

Banana Bread

1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Sugar
2 Eggs
4 Tbsp Buttermilk
4 extremely ripe previously frozen bananas
1 tsp Soda
2 C Flour
1 c Walnuts (typically omitted by me)
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Nutmeg
Splash of Almond Flavoring

Cream sugars and softened butter together. Add well beaten eggs to the mix. Add Baking Soda, salt, nutmeg, almond flavoring and butter milk and blend together. Mash the four bananas together and add to the rest of the batter. Work in flour. Pour into greased glass loaf pans (makes 2 small or one big loaf) and bake for an hour at 350°F .

Adapted from Orginal recipe belonging to Grandma Hoversland © C Thrasher 2008

Humor from down under

Hamish & Andy - Another clip of some Australian Humor...

Ol' Fashion Game of Tag!

• Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
• Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am a workaholic (Those who work hard, play even harder).
2. I am a Captain on a Volunteer Fire Department.
3. Caffeine is my friend, my compadre, my amigo, my partner in crime.
4. I am man enough to wear pink.
5. I need a vacation in a remote location, preferably a mountain cabin with a hot tub and a view.
6. I enjoy taking bumble bees to the face, wearing a leather jacket when it is 94°F outside, know it is easier to breath at 60 mph and know the smell of my own helmet.
7. I don't believe in Love at first Sight (so you just might want to walk by again).

I tag the following for the next one...

1. Tag Backs (Yes, I am sure it is cheating, but she didn't call no tag backs!)
   
2. Travelling S & C
3. Durk
4. Country Bumpkins
5. Not my Roommates
6. A time of her Life
7. 190 feet in the Air

Sigh!

For those that weren't there, a little video to share the wide spot in the road; some of you ladies might not appreciate the sound track, so hopefully the audio track won't be too distracting...

Just enjoying myself...

Sigh, I have absolutely been enjoying my evenings all week. The photo challenge for these two weeks has been incredibly fun and I have enjoyed getting out and seeing some of the God's handy work in painting the evening sky. He never does the same thing twice and each night there is always something incredible in the western sky. Hope everyone is enjoying the different sunset pictures. Feel free to rate the pictures with the star rating system below, really I don't mind... :)

About time...

Well, I have been a little remiss lately at updating my blog for personal content so I figured it is about time I post something. When all the family was here Savannah asked for a visit to the fire station; off we headed to visit the station and any station visit wouldn't be complete with out some pictures.

Makayla and Savannah trying out the firefighter seat on the structure engine. There was nothing quite like riding in a rear facing seat headed to the reported 'big one'. Unfortunately they just had to settle for sitting in the seats, but maybe when they get older they can feel the adrenaline rush.
Any visit to the fire house also requires that every rig gets a little seat time, they were more impressed with the air ride seats than how many gallons of water the rig hauled.
One must function check the sirens and the horns on all the apparatus as well. Lil M got the siren going, but was unable to shut it off in the brush rig as easily as the other apparatus. Unfortunately I missed taking pictures of them trying on gear and raiding the station fridge for water, but that was all part of the visit as well.
The new little nephew really fits into the family, not only does he resemble his Uncle, he also enjoys eating (another favorite past time of his uncle). While it appears that he is about to devour a taco dinner he actually had to share all that food, but he was still excited to see the plate appear. I should have taken a video of his excitement, but the restaurant was pretty crowded so the noise would have been less than cool.
Somebody has decided that Grumpa is a-okay; Just chillin' with his ballon and Grumpa while waiting for the next big event of the weekend.
Of course, there are always the funny books that need to have the pages turned at the Grandparents house, plus there is plenty of time to get away from the hectic events and enjoy a little reading time in the corner. Well, that is if you can get the corner as that corner is quite popular and difficult to steal some seat time.
Not only does family events present time for all the kids to bond and harass each other, the pets get plenty of 'love' from all the people as well.

The End is Near!

Do you know what the perfect end to a long week looks like? I think it looks something kind of like this....

Kittens are so darn cute...

Yeah I know it has been awhile since my last Friday Funnies post...



More videos coming next week....

The Inconsistancy of Time!

Have you ever wondered how many things you were conditioned to believe growing up as inalienable truths are actually just perceptions of reality? Is a gallon of gas really a gallon? Is a minute really 60 seconds?

Nothing is exact because we have been conditioned that nothing can be exact so we should learn to accept some variation in amounts. IF it is so difficult to dispense exactly one gallon of gas, than why is the statistical average less than a gallon? Capitalism has learned to take this perception of inaccuracy to mean if we can be off as much as three percent from the actual amount, how can we accurately provide 97% percent of what the customer expects?

We accept this error all the time without even thinking about it, but in reality we should be questioning these discrepancies. If your paycheck was 3% below what it was supposed to be would you just accept that as a billing system inaccuracy? If your watch gained 1.8 seconds every minute would you just recalibrate your watch everyday to adjust the time?

Now I know it is easy to find fault with something that we know to be true, but how well do we know the constants in our life? If we are unable to perceive the inaccuracies in the known variables in the equation of life, how are we EVER going to be able to recognize the faults with the unknowns? Is having faith that the unknown are no more inaccurate than the knowns a good assumption?

How long do you spend looking at your average blog? 30 seconds? A minute? I am going to say less than 15 seconds! So next time you are blog travelling, time yourself to see how long you are at any one given blog, and for those who like playing with numbers compute the average for your entire travels. I would be interested in knowing what you discover, for those who are not afraid to share feel free to post your results(how long you think you spend, along with your actual average) as a comment.

The real question becomes, "Does our perception match reality?"

Ponderings of Shortcomings

I was recently asked how many years of education do I have and sadly I didn't really know. Is that a bad thing? So I did a little calculating and digging up a few numbers and this is what I have determined. I have 10.5 years of post secondary schooling or about $80,000 worth, 2.5 years of technical schooling or about $8,000 and a mere 6 months of adult ed classes or $500...for a grand total of, just kidding. Not bad, only twenty-five years of schooling (excluding the University of Hard Lumps), but that number seriously concerns me. How did I manage to get that much edu-macation? Am I educated beyond my intelligence?

Another quick research of my life and there was a startling discovery. A failure in one sliver of my life would spiral me out of control until I augured into the academic community again. A community that I tend to do fairly well and put a lot of effort into my scholastic responsibilities. Is it just me, or does it sound like academia is my comfort zone, my teddy bear, my blankie, the one place that I have learned how to succeed in no matter the daunting task before me? Even with all those years of schooling, my grammar skills are that of a baboon!

Now I stand at a cross-roads with another degree at my back and wonder, where do I go from here? My career, for which I am over educated for, is established and developing, my scholastic resume is not to shabby, my hobbies exist but are atrophied and my personal life is in shambles. Yeah, that is what I thought, I need to exercise my hobbies! If we don't have our hobbies, what exactly is a person left with? A boring existence? I can't have that, that would not look good on my resume. I think I will start right away and what better way to start than a little mechanic-ing on the motorcycle!


What's that you say? Hang on a minute, I have a special request from the peanut gallery.
Maybe you should get a girlfriend?
Hum...I guess that could be a possibility for advancement in my life. I am going to have to check the book on this one....uh huh...hum...yeah...OH...uh huh... Yeap, I am too old for a girlfriend. It says so right on page 395 paragraph 6 Line 8. So with regards to my advanced age, I sadly have to report that a 'girl' friend is out of the picture. I might be able to find me a single lady, but I am afraid that a 'girl' would be much to young. The age difference is not so much the issue as the issue of maturity, not so much into all the dating games that get played. Been there, done that and now prefer the straight shooting approach.

Um, wow that is a lot of hands...This is not a press conference, I will take one more question from the peanut gallery than I need to move on.
What are you looking for in a woman?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha....That's all folks, I am out of time here. See you all next time...

Just goofing around...

I took a little time last night to get out and enjoy the evening, the only problem...I was forced to drive the car. Would have been so much better had I been able to ride the motorcycle while searching for the perfect angle...

Family Photo

Family photo from the open house, just got to love big families....

What a weekend..

For those that are looking for pictures from the weekend, they are going to be posted here.

The weekend was awesome and it was great to visit with family and friends that I have not seen in a long time! I was extremely appreciative for everyone who was able to attend the open house. I topped the weekend off with a minor lavatory plumbing issue at Dad & Moms. There is nothing quite like a new faucet and trim to rekindle an old sink. Sorry there are no pictures to share of me doing my best plumber expression. Knock on wood, it was easiest plumbing job that I have tackled at the 'rents house in a long time, hopefully they next one follows suit.

I apologize for the words only post and promise to get some pictures up later...

Technical Difficulties?

Anyone else having trouble viewing blogs? Oh wait, I guess if you are reading this than the answer would be no, eh?

Who can do your job?

WOW, just look at her do his job leaps and bounds better than him. Maybe he should get a cut in pay since he is obviously getting paid to much if he isn't even willing to give it a go...

The Tube

Here are the contents of the mysterious tube for those who are still trying to figure it out...

Delayed Post

Well, I promised y'all some pictures from the 3rd Annual Family Fun day and 25th Anniversary of GHVFD...Sorry it is a bit late, but life has been less than relaxing over here. I am in need of a cabin away from most rocks that people look under when I disappear, any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Hot tubs are preferred but not required.

Something New

What are we teaching our kids? Oh my...

This week I open my comments to YOUR rants on this music video. I do apologize for walking around singing the tune, kind of catchy actually...

Hum...

I received a VERY suspicious looking package in the mail yesterday. The package was tube like and wouldn't fit in my mailbox. What ever could it be?

July 5th

I know some of you are just chompin' at the bit to see some photos of the wedding. I didn't get very many photos, but I did get a few. You might even luck out and see me all cleaned up.
The wedding ceremony was beautiful, the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Congratulations Nate and Steph, may all life's turns bring pleasant changes.

Happy 4th of July

Well, here are some highlights of my July 4th, the station had it's open house, and that was quite the hit. I will try to get a slideshow posted of those highlights later (tomorrow). The rest of the day was spent running around getting ready for the wedding and the day was top off with big boys playing with matches.

When I was not busy playing I tried to get some pictures of the show and had a lot of fun playing around with the different settings on my camera. The 'red' picture are of the show trailer and the lighting crew. Was a lot of fun to help setup and watch the guys do their thing.

Cell Phone Etiquette?

Have you ever had some one just right up in your personal space? You know, violating your no fly cell phone zone? That bubble surrounding our inner core that NO ONE should EVER violate and especially not with a cell phone? Cell phones just get all up in your space and it makes me feel harassed and violated. A cell phone should not be able to alter my essence, they are a communication tool not a GPS equipped electronic monitoring and tracking device.

I am not sure, but maybe my perception of the no talk cell zone is slightly skewed; but I find it highly annoying when I am leaving a voice mail message and the person calls me right back. Maybe it is just the BIG RED V that has a problem with this, would be glad to hear comments from people on other networks, but it really tosses the cell routing centers for a loop. If I click over to the call waiting, the message keeps going but if I hang up the call gets dropped. Maybe I am wrong to expect the courtesy two minute wait to call me back when you just missed my call to see if I am leaving you a message; or is there a two minute courtesy wait? I really don't know. Time and time again I TRY so hard to not call someone when they are leaving me a message because it tends to really confuse the computers routing the calls; oh wait, maybe it just confuses the user. Hum, might be the 10% Rule coming in to play again.

Another one of my cell phone pet peeves is the quick text algorithm. Yes I know the solution is to spend $200 and get a phone with a qwerty keypad, but for the love of money I am too thrifty for that costly upgrade. I am a big text messenger, phone calls are good too, but a text message can usually suffice and get the job done. And the best part is someone else doesn't have to listen to my conversation; txt messages are the whispers in cell phone technology. Have you whispered sweet nothings in someone's ear today? (Word of caution: Nothing is more embarrassing than whispering sweet nothin's into the wrong ear!) For those who maybe don't txt message much, here are a few words you might like to try to spell on your phone with 'Q2': Bride, going, movies, um, logo, blog, scooter, etc. The list goes on and on, but what I find remarkable 'eh' is east to type but hum takes a while; think I must have a gaul-dang Canadian phone.

Sigh, well I hear my cell phone vibrating, must be ANOTHER invasion of my no fly zone, scramble the air wave jammers!

Half Over...

The second quarter results are in for 2008 and I present to all my readers the executive summary. First of all, I want to recognize the top blogs and thank them for funneling some of their readers to me. The top five referral blogs are as follows...

Number Five

Forever in Blue Jeans

Number Four

Starling's Nest

Number Three

My M&Ms will Melt your Heart

Number Two

Mike, Tracy and Boys

and the

NUMBER ONE

referral for the Second quarter of 2008
(Drum Roll Please)

Some Chicks Blog

A big thank you to all my readers (known and unknown) who have made it easy to keep, at least one, my 2008 New Years Resolution. I couldn't have kept the veracity of the posts going without all your supporting comments and signing of my guest book. For all the Lurkers out there, thank you for stopping by at least once and don't be afraid to drop in every now and again.

Other Statistics (2nd Quarter)
976 Visitors from 8 Countries
247 Visitors from 39 States
976 Visits resulting in 1492 Page Views
1492 Page Views from 166 Cities

Other Statistics (1st Quarter) 295 Visitors from 6 Countries 1085 Visits from 37 States 1095 Visits resulting in 1766 Page Views 1766 Page Views from 160 Cities

Year to Date Statistics
2,079 Visitors from 11 Countries
510 Visitors from 44 States
2,079 Visitors resulting in 3,264 Page Views
3,264 Page Views from 265 Cities

All for a total of
4 Days 5 Hours 25 Minutes & 20 Seconds
(4d:05:25:20.000)
of time wasted right here!

As they say, you can waste all your money and with dedicated effort, earn it all and than some back, but time that is wasted is lost forever! Hopefully all that time wasn't completely wasted.

Y'all want cheap gas?

I am issuing a call to arms of my fellow patriots! We need to stand together on this issue and demand change from our federal government. We need to make them listen to their constituents and remind them they have a duty to check the inflation rate.

The other night I was sitting on the porch pickin out a tune on my banjo while, my good buddy Earl was a swattin' misquitoes and the dog was hosting an evening social for the neighborhood fleas, when the mail man drove my in his little jeep. I gots to thinking that if hybrid/electric vehicles are such a good idear why is the United States Postal Service not using them as fleet vehicles? Yeah I know, I live in the sticks where the internet, running water and electricity are a luxury; A pocket of society that has not advanced enough to keep all their teeth, so maybe in the "real world" these electric cars are being used by the post office.

How much does a single penny increase per gallon actually amount to for the USPS? I would have to speculate that we are talking MILLIONS of dollars here; I think that instead of increasing the cost of mailing a letter they should be a little more energy minded. I would love to see UPS, USPS, FedEX and DHL using hybrid technology on their delivery vehicles. What a great example they would be setting by using this alternative fuels approach; not to mention reducing our dependence on the black gold.

I know politicians think the solution is drilling more wells in pristine locations and tapping all these virgin oil reserves, but maybe the answer is actually change. I know, I must be mad! Call the men (and women) in the pretty white coats, I have eluded that change can be good! Maybe if we can convert the local delivery fleet vehicles to high efficiency electric vehicles that get 150 miles to the gallon (based upon the Hopla Chevy says the Volt will get) maybe gas wouldn't cost us $4.39 per gallon. Maybe we wouldn't have to waste tax dollars to attack and 'stabilize' the Sandbox Countries. Quite possibly, the sudden surge in hybrid vehicles on the streets will convince the Ignorant American Populous (IAP) that they do not need those urban assault vehicles to commute through the urban jungle to get to work and compact hybrid vehicles really are the perfect commuting vehicle.

How many of you have ridden bumper cars? A great summer attraction, right? Well if we all drove compact cars wouldn't a fender bender be just a kick in the pants and an adrenaline rush? Compact cars bouncing off one another; making life a giant pin-ball machine (who do you think is playing the game?) If we all drove beer cans, coats with wheels, compact death traps, clown cars or what ever you want to call these smallish automobiles we would only be missing the funnel cake and cotton candy for a true carnival experience...

Author's Note:
No I am not calling all urban assault vehicles owners and operators 'Ignorant', I am calling the greater American Populous Ignorant and yes that does include me. I dream of having a vehicle that is big enough that I call haul all the essentials I need and still have room for passengers. Instead I take a 5 mpg hit on gas mileage consumption by hauling a ton of gear in a smallish car; So I am not the epitome of conservation and efficiency.