Road Trip

I took a road trip to Eagle Pass on Wednesday. I Left here at 0415 with one of my doctors to do access rounds. The trip was uneventful until the return drive. While on Hwy 57 I saw the biggest owl that I have ever seen. I looked to be about 2 feet tall sitting in a tree. I looked up Texas owls but I am still not sure which one it is. I also learned that there are lots of owls that live in the area. During my research I found a site that had instrustions for making an owl house. It would be so cool to have owls nesting in the yard. I have just the place for one in the large oak tree in my back yard. The article said that it can sometimes take several seasons to have owls move in. Once completed I will post pictures. I hope to have tenents soon.

Mass Killing

Pardon me while I wipe away the tears....When I got home after work today I saw that my Koi was up side down in the pond. Upon closer inspection I noticed that all of my small minnows were dead as well. What could have caused this I wondered? Did someone poison my fish? Who would have done such a thing? Then I saw the cause of death......ELECTROCUTION!!!! The hot wire that runs arround the pond broke and the end was in the pond. I have had that Koi for 3 years. He was 13 inches long and was just starting to come over to the edge for hand feeding. I will winter the pond and start fresh this spring with new plants and fish. Maybe I will try a different type of fence to keep out the wildlife.

Bad computer

A few weeks back I started up my laptop and and started to get dll errors. Oh joy, what fun! i could not get the log on screen to come up. So, I go to the desk top and look up the problem. It looked sooo easy. Just put in the recovery disk and restore the OS and you will not loose any data. Wow, even a caveman can do it. So, i put in my recovery disk and follow all of the prompts as required and then restart the system as asked to do. Everything looks normal, it looks like it is going to work...then it gets stuck in a resetting loop that i can not get it out of. Well, I have gone this far, I may as well look up that problem too.( Google is very dangerous) I found the exact problem that I was having and the geek went into removing a boot ini file and something else in computerese. I thought long and hard, but in the end I sent it off to my IT department. I got an e-mail saying that the hard drive is toast and they were only able to save 2 gig for files that they will send me next week. CRAP!!!! Well there goes my i-tunes and my pictures. I had most of my pictures backed up on CD so not all is lost. Lesson learned, back up more often. Oh well.

Vote, Vote , Vote

I just came back from the library where I cast my vote. The line was not too bad, about 50 people in line ahead of me. It took about 45 minutes to make it through the line and when I left there were about 50 people in line still. I sure did not want to be in line on November 4. I waited over 4 hours to vote in the primary and I really didn't want to do that again. So on the fourth i will be kicking back with my Shinner Bach watching all the people who didn't vote early wait in very long lines. I don't care who you vote for but make sure you make your voice heard.

My trip to DC

I made my first visit to Washington DC last week. I had a conference on Monday and Tuesday so I booked my flight to arrive the Sunday before. My flight arrived at 11:30 and the first function was a reception at 5 o'clock Sunday night. I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton (At $699 a night, no I did not pay for it, I shared a room with one of my doctors). I walked to Georgetown and looked at the store fronts and all of the different restaurants in the area. Then I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Mall. That was a nice walk as well. I saw the war memorials and took lots of pictures. I have some pictures in a slide show from Picasa.

You know you're a redneck.....

I was cleaning off the counter and I have three containers of coins. They have been sitting on the counter for the better part of four years. So I sorted out the coins and made some rolls of nickels, dimes, and pennies. When all was said and done I had 2 dime rolls and 5 nickel rolls and more penny rolls than I care to count. Ashley wanted a pumpkin pie from Bill Millers and Melanie wanted some coleslaw. I grabbed the rolls and told Ashley to head to the car. Only when we were on our way out of the neighborhood did Ashley realize what was going on. "Aw Dad, your not paying with THAT are you?" Why not, it's money isn't it? "But it's not real money. Nobody pays with change!" Not true, I do. "You're going to embarrass me" Well, we pulled up to the drive through and there were several cars in line. I recount my coin rolls that I brought with me, 10 dollars in nickels, 10 dollars in dimes and 7 dollars in quarters. I looked at the menu and placed my order, a whole pumpkin pie, 4 chopped beef sandwiches, 2 ice teas, and 2 orders of fries. I look over at Ashley and she is mortified. "You've got to be kidding me?" Well while we were out may as well get something for dinner. She was really trying to make herself small and disappear. I pulled up to the window and the lady said that will be 20 dollars and 91 cents. Perfect I exclaimed. I handed her the rolls of nickels and dimes along with a dollar bill. I heard the lady ask the manager, "Do we take these?", holding up the rolls of change. At that point Ashley rolled her eyes and avoided eye contact. "Sure do" the manager said. She handed me the food and gave me my change. As we were driving out I said CRAP. "What's wrong?" I should of told her to keep the change!!! "Dad, you're such a redneck!"

To HELL with the people

The American people have just been stung by the scorpion. It is in the nature of the politician to look out for self interests. The people spoke VERY loudly that we did not want this sell out of the American people. This bill is the same bill that congress voted no to before. So what was different.... About 150 billion dollars in ear marks and pork barrel spending on typical Washington bullshit. Congress had this bill for less than 48 hours to read through and dissect and digest. That is 451 pages of lawyer speak crap to sort out. How in the hell can anyone vote on a bill if they have not even read it. What the hell is wrong with these people? Every one should look up to see how their Senator and Congressman voted for this bill and keep that in mind when voting in November. The market spoke on the bill passing today. The DOW was up about 250 points before the vote and ended down 150 for the day. We the people can either roll over and bare our necks in submission or we can send a message to our ELECTED officials in this great country by firing each and every one. Time will tell. I for one will not take this sitting down. I will not vote for anyone who has proven will not vote the will of the people. A spending of this magnitude should go to a vote of the people. Raise your voice. Remind YOUR elected officials who is in charge!

I strongly oppose the sell out of the tax payer. We have been and are being treated like mushrooms. Kept in the dark and feed a load of crap. I have heard of several plans that put less burden on the tax payer and have more protection. This system did not break over night and it will not be fixed over night. Now is not the time to act with haste and then live with regret later. More time needs to be taken to explore all options and make sure that all angles have been taken into account. Make your voice heard. The market will rebound and retirement accounts will grow again but this debt will be hanging over my grandchildren for many years to come. Yes, credit will be harder to obtain because there is less money to lend but then people will not be able to over extend them selves and will be better off in the long run. Well, that is my 2 cents worth.

Summer in Kentucky

Musings from the back of my head

I woke this morning at 6 o'clock. Whats wrong with that you ask. It's Sunday. I tried to go back to sleep but was unable to comply. So I made my coffee, took a shower, turned on CNN, and read the newspaper. Same crap, different day. I had a 11:30 appointment with the blood bank so i decided to go in early to see if I could get it over with. Driving over there I was cut off by some idiot who doesn't know how to turn out of a double turn lane. This had me driving more aggressively until I started to think about it. I am early to my appointment and have plenty of time. I asked my self why am I giving that much control to that idiot. I made it to the blood bank and they were able to get me in early. While I was filling out my paperwork I checked out the number of donations that I have for lifetime. I am at 156 units of blood and blood products. Thats pretty amazing considering the human body has about 1 1/2 gallons. 156 units is approximately 156 pints which is over 19 gallons! I happen to be CMV negative, so my blood and blood products are used in infants. If that doesn't make for a great day I don't know what will.

The beach

A day at the beach

Day trip to the beach

This was our second day trip to the beach this summer. The first trip was to Corpus Christi by the Texas State Aquarium. We left San Antonio early and went to a Mexican food restaurant that had awful food and the bathrooms were horrid. That last comment came from me. I had to hold my breath while I was in there. The beach was just around the block from the diner. We found good parking and staked a claim on the beach. I could not find the chairs with umbrella so needless to say it was a bit warm. Actually, it was damn hot! The wind was blowing and the surf was rough. The kids did not play in the water at all. Ashley and her friend walked the beach and Christopher just stayed hanging with Mom and Dad. Needless to say we did not stay very long. We left the beach by 2 o'clock. This time we found a different beach to go to, Rockport Beach Park. We got up early and packed the Fit and were on the road by 7 o'clock. It was a nice drive down. We arrived at about 10 o'clock. Mary, my TomTom , put us right at the park entrance. It was 10 dollars for an annual pass and we proceeded to the first big pavilion and carted the chairs out to a HUGE umbrella that we had all to ourselves. Then I took the ice chest and food to a pic-nic table and we made sandwiches. That was so much better than the food last trip. We even had guests join us for lunch. The kids and I played in the water and walked the area. This is by far the best Texas beach that I have been to. It was very clean and it had everything I wanted at a beach. The bathrooms are very clean and they had showers. there is also a foot wash station by the parking lot. The water is still only knee deep three hundred feet from the shore. While we were out there, Christopher let out a blood-curdling scream. Everyone on the beach stopped what he or she was doing to see what was going on. Christopher managed to find a jellyfish. The jellyfish stung both legs. I walked him out of the water, Melanie cleaned his leg and put on caladryl lotion, it helped very little. I ended giving him a painkiller and he got very drowsy after thirty minutes. We stayed for about an hour longer and then packed up the Fit and headed to the fishing pier. We saw some hermit crabs that had gathered. Christopher wanted to bring some home but I put a stop to that idea. We saw lots of fish from the pier, and a crab that was as big as a dinner plate. That picture didn't come out . On our way out of the park we passed the fish cleaning station. there were several pelicans that had set up camp waiting for the catch of the day.

This may take awhile

Every now and then you see something that justs makes you smile. And every now and then you just might have you camera in your pocket so you can help others smile. This was one of those times. I am sure that I could have come up with a number of captions for this picture, some of which may not be appropriate for all audiences. I try to keep my camera with me for just those moments when a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Take time to slow down and observe the little things that are around you. Smile often, it will be contagious, if not then people will just wonder what your up to.

The house zoo is getting smaller. I still have the four dogs in the house but that is all. The hermit crab that Christopher won at the Halloween carnival three years ago finally died. Crusty wasn't too much trouble. I gave him his weekly bath, changed out his food every other week and took him for walks around the kitchen. We would watch TV together and we liked the same shows. I miss him terribly and cry myself to sleep at night. Well, not really. But I do miss the little guy.
The second critter that is no longer in the house is Teddy the Toad. This is another acquisition of Christopher. While we had one of the dogs at the vet, Chris asked if he could go look around the pet store. We finish up and as we are walking out Chris comes running up with a little box. I believe it was actually a Chinese take out box. Chris stated that he had 5 dollars and he really wanted it. Well, IT turned out to be a fire belly toad. That 5 dollar toad was eating 5 dollars a week in crickets. We had Teddy for almost 2 years. Thats a lot of crickets. Nothing bad happened to Teddy. I just decided that Teddy could catch his own crickets outside and it would not cost me 20 bucks a month. I moved his house out by the pond and put Teddy in it. The next morning I looked in the house and he was gone. I'm not sure what happened to him. I like to think that he is living it up at night and moved in with a girl friend. Who knows, in the spring I may see some sort of hybrid toad hanging out by the pond. Then I'll know that he survived being out in the wild.

Well, this is my first attempt at a blog. I saw Donnie's pond on Brenda's blog and I got pond envy. My pond was an experiment to see if I liked having a pond and how muck work was involved in taking care of it. As it turns out it is not much work and the water sounds right outside the window is very relaxing. I had three koi in my pond but the raccoons have it down to just one. What you do not see in the picture is the electric fence that runs around the pond to keep unwanted fishermen out. I also have several rescue fish in the pond. Last year with all the rain we had the low water areas in the park had small fish in them. As the water started to evaporate the fish were in danger of being mud puppies. Christopher and I went out to those low water areas armed with a small net and a Bill Miller tea bucket and gathered up as many as we could and now they keep my lone koi company. I also have a perch in the pond. I can only assume that one of the small minnows that we rescued was actually a small perch. He is now as big as my hand and he is trained to come up for food. I still haven't trained the koi to come up for food. He is probably traumatized the the raccoon attacks.