The Blog Less Traveled

We just got back from a two-week vacation to the Washington D.C area. We were visiting our daughter. On Tuesday, August 23rd, we were on the 7th floor of an apartment building when an earthquake struck. I’ve been exposed to earthquakes in the past in both California and Maine. However, being in a high-rise is a totally different experience. The shaking was longer and much more pronounced. Also, earthquakes are not a very common occurrence in that neck of the woods so you’re not really expecting it to happen. There wasn’t any damage that we could see and when we looked out the window to the streets below, there were dozens of people running out of the various buildings and businesses in the area. We eventually came out of our building and walked around the area. Of course everyone was on their phone trying to call or text someone but the cell towers were immediately saturated and calls/texts weren’t getting sent. Eventually, things went back to normal and people reentered their buildings. We figured that would be the end of our excitement for this trip. We were wrong.

Four days later, Hurricane Irene struck. We were in New Orleans in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew struck. Andrew caused some damage in our area, but overall it was more of a really bad storm than a hurricane. Most of the damage from that hurricane was in Florida. Concerning Irene, the media sure made it seem like a catastrophic event was about to take place. The day before the hurricane, we went to the grocery store and bought a couple of meals that we could eat if things got bad. Of course I bought a half-gallon of ice cream. If I’m going down, I’m going to be eating something I like! Anyway, Saturday came and went and Irene only brushed alongside the D.C. area. There was some wind and water damage in places, but overall, things went pretty well. We easily survived natural disaster #2.

That takes care of the “Earthquake” and “Hurricane” in the title, but what about the “Lion”, you might ask? Well, while I was there, I installed the latest operating system upgrade for my daughter’s Apple computer, OS X Lion. Ha!

I have two general things that bug the heck out of me – rude people and grammar/spelling. Do you ever get really annoyed by the complete lack of respect that certain people demonstrate? It never ceases to amaze me how some people are so oblivious to their surroundings.

Texting – texting is getting out of control. I can hardly drive down the road anymore without seeing someone texting while driving. Recently, my wife and I were driving down the highway and there was a semi-truck in front of us constantly drifting to the side of the road. When I passed it, you could see the driver, a woman, texting away. Unbelievable. Sadly, the number of truckers who do it pales in comparison to the teenagers and young adults who are doing it while driving. I’m also not particularly enamored by people who have to text while you’re trying to talk to them.

Loud cell phone talkers – these folks are just plain rude. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to listen to someone yakking their head off in public, totally oblivious to those around them. I really don’t care what a twit their spouse is or how great their date was last night. Sheesh! Spare us the details and keep it private.

Grammar/Spelling Pet Peeves

First of all, I’m not an English major and make no claims to be an expert in this area. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you’ll probably find an error or two on my website. However, that being said, the following items make it on my list.

In order to – Why use three words when one will do? I can’t think of any sentence or phrase that benefits in clarity or meaning by using “In order to” instead of “To.” If there is, please enlighten me.

Irregardless – this never was a real word, but it has been used in error for so long that it has become one in many people’s minds. There is, of course, regardless, but what the heck does irregardless mean? Really, people, what were you thinking?

There, Their and They’re – I’m not even going to try and explain this one. THERE are plenty of websites to explain THEIR usage and THEY’RE very easy to find.

Your and You’re – Again, use YOUR fingers to google them and YOU”RE sure to find them.

It’s and Its – ITS correct usage can easily be found. IT’S not that hard folks. Look them up.

How about them Navy Seals? For you non-Navy types, “Bravo Zulu” is a Navy term meaning “well done.” This mission was executed to perfection and each and every one of the members of that Navy Seal Team deserve our everlasting gratitude. Their names will probably not be known for some time, but I can only imagine that there’s a great sense of pride and satisfaction among them and their fellow Seals.

First of all, as much as I dislike Obama for his complete lack of leadership skills, I’ll give him credit for making the right decision in this case. Also, the decision to go for the kill, rather than capturing him, was the correct one. If we had captured him, I’m sure that his handling and any subsequent trial would have been a drawn-out affair that lasted for years. It would have been a political circus both here and abroad and one that we definitely don’t need right now.

Between the great intelligence gathering by the CIA and the military, and the outstanding preparation and execution by the Navy Seals, this is one mission that was textbook perfect. You couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Getting the DNA match, and probably some forthcoming pictures, should quiet most skeptics as to whether or not it was Bin Laden. I think it was a great idea for the burial at sea. This gives the enemy no unneeded ammunition as to how his body was handled as far as Muslim burial tradition goes. It also gives the enemy no place to go to worship him as a martyr. Salutes to everyone who had a hand in designing this mission.

I hope that all the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 and all the military/civilians who lost their lives during this struggle can take some small measure of solace from his death. This was one evil human being who deserved not one extra moment on this earth.

HOOYAH!

Below are a few of my favorite quotes regarding Liberals. I’ve included the author, if known.

• The principal feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things–war and hunger and date rape–liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things… It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong, or even lucky to join it; you just have to be liberal. (P.J. O’Rourke)
• A conservative sees a man drowning 50 feet from shore, throws him a 25-foot long rope, and tells him to swim to it. A liberal throws him a rope 50 feet long, then drops his end and goes off to perform another good deed.
• A man with both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal.
• Those who call themselves “liberals” today are asking for policies which are precisely the opposite of those policies which the liberals of the nineteenth century advocated in their liberal programs. The so-called liberals of today have the very popular idea that freedom of speech, of thought, of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom from imprisonment without trial — that all these freedoms can be preserved in the absence of what is called economic freedom. They do not realize that, in a system where there is no market, where the government directs everything, all those other freedoms are illusory, even if they are made into laws and written up in constitutions. (Ludwig von Mises)
• If you’re a liberal, anything you say is protected. If you’re a conservative, anything you say is hateful.
• If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain. (Winston Churchill)
• Greed: A word commonly used by liberals, low achievers, anti-capitalists and society’s losers to denigrate, shame and discredit those who have acquired superior job skills and decision-making capabilities and who, through the application of those job skills, achieve success. (Neal Boortz)
• The principal purpose of the Democratic Party is to use the force of government to take property away from the people who earn it and give it to people who do not. (Neal Boortz)
• A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment. (Willis Player)
• Liberals tend to put the onus of your success on society and conservatives on you and your family. (Dennis Prager)
• A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man; a debt he proposes to pay off with your money. (G. Gordon Liddy)
• I can remember way back when a liberal was generous with his own money. (Will Rogers)
• Bigot-A person who wins an argument with a liberal. (Rush Limbaugh)
• Left has come to represent increasing government control. The extreme leftist typically seeks total government. Working their way toward total government power are the Communists, socialists, fascists, and modern liberals who advocate government solutions for every real or imagined problem. (John F. McManus)
• We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us. (Lionel Trilling)
• One difference between a liberal and a pickpocket is that if you demand your money back from a pickpocket, he won’t question your motives.

Last Summer we had a hawk that would periodically visit the back deck of our house. He would sit there, sometimes for a ½ hour or more, searching I suppose, for something to eat. Our presence there didn’t seem to bother him all that much. We would look at him from our dining room or kitchen. He didn’t flinch a bit but you could tell that he noticed we were there by the movement of his eyes. We get all sorts of birds, waterfowl and other animals in our back yard. As you can see from the pictures, we have swans, geese, egrets, ducks, turtles, muskrats, etc., but we’ve never had a hawk before.

Living on the lake definitely gives us a wide range of animals for viewing. About the only ones I don’t really care to have on our land are the geese. When a flock of them are feeding on the lawn, they leave a ton of crap on the grass and beach. They can also be rather loud, especially if they arrive early in the morning and you’re still trying to sleep. Other than that, I wouldn’t trade living on the water for anything.

I did something sort of unique last Saturday without even realizing it. It was a beautiful and sunny Fall morning and I decided to go out for a run. I was planning on doing a medium length run of 10-15 miles. I haven’t been doing much running or biking since the Boston Marathon. Prior to the marathon, I would usually get a half-marathon run in every week or so. Without any marathon to train for, I’ve been slacking off. I decided to try for a little longer run. I ended up running 10 miles. I didn’t really think anything of the distance until I plugged my GPS watch into the computer to upload the data. There it was. I had run 10 miles on 10/10/10. I started the run at 9:49AM. Therefore, I also happened to be running at 10:10:10AM on 10/10/10. The picture below is a screen capture from the Garmin program that shows the data from that run. Pretty cool, eh?

That little bit of trivia is pretty small potatoes compared to what happened to a local couple from the Grand Rapids, MI area on that day. They had a baby born on 10/10/10. Of course, you’re probably thinking that a lot of other couples had babies born on that day, too. However, the Soper family’s story is even more unique. They also had a baby born on 8/8/8 and one on 9/9/9. Can you believe that? I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that they’re probably the only ones that can claim that. It sure makes it easy for them to remember their kid’s birthdays!

Here’s a link to the story that was carried by the local news station.

As you know from an earlier post on this blog, I had hand surgery done on my left hand back in July. The graphics on the left are the before and after pictures. As you can see, the recovery is pretty much complete. There’s still a bit of a scar showing, but with time it should be less noticeable. The day after I had the stitches pulled, I was in my backyard raking the beach. I probably should have waited a few more days before doing anything because I slightly reopened the top portion of the incision. As you can see from the photo, the top portion isn’t quite as cleanly healed as the rest of it.

The surgery itself was pretty interesting. I didn’t have them put me under. I avoid general anesthesia whenever possible. Instead, I had them perform what is called an arm block. They basically just deaden the arm muscle. You essentially have no real feeling in your arm and it seems like a dead weight if you try to move it. I was fully awake in the operating room and talking to the doctors and nurses. I could feel the surgeon as he cut into my hand and started to cut out the extra tissue. The surgeon let me look at my hand while he had it cut open. The inside of your hand is a very amazing piece of work. The blood flow to my hand was cut off so you could clearly see the blood vessels, muscles, tendons and bones. He had me move my finger, and as I did, you could see the tendon sliding back and forth on the back side of the finger. It was really cool. It’s times like these that I wish I had gone to medical school and become a surgeon. I think it would have been a great and rewarding career.

All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with the final results. My hand is back to normal and I’m pretty much doing everything I was before the surgery.

As I noted in a previous post, we spent some vacation time in Washington, D.C. If you’re willing to drive a short distance from D.C., there are many other places to explore. One side trip we took was to Annapolis, Md. It’s only about 30 miles or so from Bethesda. We met some old friends of ours from Monterey, CA who live in the Annapolis area. We spent a little time with them and walked around the shops and sites in the downtown area. We had a nice lunch at Pusser’s Restaurant (photo on left). It had a great view of the Annapolis waterfront. Of course you can’t go to Annapolis without also visiting the United States Naval Academy. Fred and Cindy gave us a nice tour and we spent a little time in the Academy gift shop. I spent a few weeks myself at the Naval Academy back in the early 80s, but it was so long ago that I didn’t remember too much of it.

One final place we visited on our last day in Bethesda was the Georgetown Cupcake shop (photo on left). This is the store that is featured in the television series, DC Cupcake. I didn’t know that at the time, but my wife and daughter sure did. Normally, there is a long line of people waiting just to get in the door. Fortunately, this was a Monday afternoon and we were able to walk right in. As small as they are, those little suckers are expensive! $2.75 apiece or $29/dozen. We bought a few and took them back to our hotel room and indulged ourselves. We definitely had a great time seeing our daughter and visiting the sites. The time just flew by. The next day we were headed home and made it back in about 10 hours.

My wife and I recently got back from a little vacation to the D.C. area. I haven’t been there in about 20 years and it was interesting to see all the changes. Our main reason for going there was to visit our daughter. She’s in her last year of medical school and is presently doing some medical rotations at the Bethesda Naval Hospital (photo on left) in Bethesda, MD. In addition to being the hospital for U.S. Presidents and other Washington VIPs, it provides medical services for many of our military troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s quite an impressive facility and is directly across the street from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) complex. If you were going to be sick, this would be a good place to get some medical attention.

In addition to seeing our daughter, we were able to make a couple trips to the downtown D.C. area. On one trip, we took the Metro Rail. It’s actually a pretty stress-free way to get around. You can get an all-day rail pass and pretty much get to all the sites and attractions. We were able to see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, World War II, Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, Smithsonian Institution, etc. On another day, we drove into town and went to the White House, Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. You can easily spend a week or more trying to get to all the sites. Two days is definitely not enough.

I would definitely recommend using the Metro Rail to get around. You can pretty much get to any site you could possibly want and avoiding the massive traffic congestion is a major plus. The only bad thing about going at this time of year is the weather. It can get a bit warm, especially if you’re out on the National Mall for any period of time. I’m really glad we went, though. Besides getting to see our daughter, I think it’s well worth it to visit our National Capital.

Sometimes, I don’t really feel like being politically correct. This is one of those times. I got the following “plan” in an e-mail from a friend. The e-mail attributed the plan to Robin Williams. However, I was able to discover from snopes.com that only the 11th item can be attributed to him. The rest appear to have come from an old listing on a Harley forum in 2003. Anyhow, although it may not fully describe my sentiments with 100% accuracy, it’s close enough. I have a feeling that a lot of other Americans agree with it, too.

The Great Plan

I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of one plan for peace. “Books, not Bombs” won’t work. The head mullahs won’t let anyone read them. If they do, they poke their eyes out.

Here’s the plan:

1. The US will apologize to the world for our “interference” in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini and the rest of them ‘good old boys’. We will never “interfere” again.

2. We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don’t want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more sneaking through holes in the fence.

3. All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We’ll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them.

4. All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don’t like it there, change it yourself, don’t hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don’t need any more cab drivers.

5. No “students” over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don’t attend classes, they get a “D” and it’s back home baby.

6. The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient, energy wise. This will include developing non-polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7. Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don’t like it, we go someplace else.

8. If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not “interfere”. They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides, most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if any, anyway.

9. Ship the UN Headquarters to an island some place. We don’t need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10. All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us “Ugly Americans” any longer.

11. And lastly, “The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying ‘Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.’ She’s got a baseball bat and she’s yelling, ‘You want a piece of me?’”

Now, ain’t that a winner of a plan??