Things That Go Boom In The Night Part 2

More information and an answer as to what caused "the event", that occurred on Sunday night, has surfaced. It appears that it was not a meteor but rather an exploding piece of space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth. There is actually someone at the Naval Observatory that keeps track of this type of space junk. According to document listings for debris that were expected to enter the lower atmosphere from their decaying orbits around this time period, a listing was found that the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched last Thursday was slated to hit the earth during a window that started at 8 p.m. ET Sunday. My only question would be...if they know that a piece of this space junk is coming down, why did someone not mention it and make the info public. It would have saved an awful lot of people from making and receiving tons of telephone calls not to mention any safety issues that could have possibly been involved. For more information about this event, please click on the link below:
Mystery Boom In Virginia Solved

Things That Go Boom In The Night

Last night Veronica and I were laying in bed watching tv. All of a sudden there was a big boom followed by a rumbling sound. I thought that something had blown up or maybe a jet crashed...we have quite a number of military jets that fly around most of the time. We waited for the sirens from the police, ambulance and fire department vehicles. We did finally hear one police siren heading up the road but wasn't related to the sound that we heard. We even went outside to see if we could observe anything that would indicate an explosion had occurred. Everything looked normal outside. This morning, on my way to a doctors appointment, I was listening to a local radio station and they were talking about "the event" that occured last night. From what I heard on the radio, the "event" was most likely a meteorite hitting the earth. People as far as Maryland and North Carolina heard the boom and rumbling sounds. People were calling this radio station telling the DJs that they were out driving when this "event" occurred. Some of the callers stated that the sky lit up as meteor shot accross the sky at a very low altitude...about 500 feet. There were several callers telling the same story. What is wierd about this whole thing...no mention of the "event" in the paper or on local news. Kind of makes you wonder, if what everyone saw was actually a meteor coming down or possibly something else. Hmmmm.....we may never know.

Not Sure What Words To Say

I have been doing this blogging thing for a little over a year now. I have people who seem to visit my blog on a regular basis. There are also blogs that I follow on a regular basis. And we leave comments on each others blog. We learn about each other from what we write and what we read on these blogs. Over a period of time, by reading each others blog and leaving comments, sometimes a bond is formed. A bond or friendship based on thoughts, ideas, likes, dislikes and just plain sharing things about ourselves and our lives. And to think that we have never personally met nor actually have spoke to each other. All of our feelings towards each other are actually conceived through the written word. Kind of amazing when you really think about it. And all of this brings me to this evening...this evening when I read on one of the blogs that I visit on regular basis, that someone I "met" in this world of blogs, got the news today that he has esophageal cancer. I found myself flooded with emotion. Strong emotions for someone I have never actually met but someone I feel a kinship to because of the written words that have been shared. After reading the news on his blog, I left a comment for him. It was a short comment that should have been longer but the words were hard to come by at the time. I wanted him to know how I was and will continue to be thinking of him and his wife, hoping and praying that all will go well for him. I wanted to thank him for sharing parts of his life and stories with me and the rest of us fellow bloggers that frequent his blog. I wanted him to know, that I know how scared he probably is, because I have been there before. I wanted to let him know that I am here for him, if he should ever need another ear to listen to him. I guess I just wanted to let him know that......I care and that he is not alone on this latest journey. I won't mention his name here or his blog...if/when he reads this, he will know this is for him.

Big Money On The High Seas Part2

Last night Veronica and I watched the show Cruise Inc- Big Money on The High Seas, that was shown on CNBC. I found the show to be interesting. I got a few good looks at the Pearl, the ship we will be going on to Alaska. The ship looked very nice. The show was mainly about how the cruise lines try to turn a profit and what goes into achieving that goal. There are many ways the cruise lines get your money or at least try to. Some of them include art auctions, jewelry sales, internet service, higher quality specialty restaurants that require an additional surcharge per person...sometimes a 2 for 1 special is offered, bingo, photographs, numerous bars and lounges for liquor sales, spas and of course a casino to name a few. After watching the show, Veronica and I knew that we would come home with a few of our dollars still in our pockets. About the only thing that will cost us extra, while on board, would be trying a couple of the specialty restaurants. I think that the worst thing for us is that we are not really "crowd" people. But I am sure that with the size of this ship, we should be able to find some crowdless areas and if not, we have our balcony to find refuge at. I will be journaling our daily events and taking plenty of photos and video so that I can share it with everyone.

Big Money On The High Seas

As I have mentioned a couple of times, Veronica and I are going to Alaska on Norwegian Cruise Lines ship...the Pearl. Our cruise will start May 10th. I have been doing as much research as possible about both the ship and on the port of calls that we will be at during our 7 night cruise. Well tonight, we should be getting quite a bit of knowledge about the ship. On CNBC at 9PM EST there is a show called Cruise Inc - Big Money On The High Seas. A travel expert by the name of Peter Greenburg will be doing an on board report on both the ship and the inner workings of the cruise line in their attempts to raise their profit margin. Not only will we get a close look at the ship but also things that we will most likely want to avoid...especially if we want to come home with at least cab fare in our pockets. So pop up some popcorn and joins us in front of the tv. Should be a good time to be had by all.
If you would like more info on both the show and on the NCL Pearl, here is a great link with slide show and photos and some good information:
Cruise Ink- Big Money On The High Seas

Ice Fishing Up In Canada

Here are several photos that my friend John Jakobs took of he and his wife Silvia ice fishing...I believe it is on Eagle Lake in Ontario Canada. It looks like they caught some really nice Lake Trout. Veronica and I have been out fishing with John, on Eagle Lake, several times. I remember last September, Veronica and I were out on Eagle Lake fishing with John and it was one of those really nasty days. Dark clouds, cold temps, windy and on and off rain. It was a tough day of fishing to say the least but John made it fun to be out there in that lousy weather.

I Won An Award- Words of Art Award

I recieved an award this afternoon from Toni at Seaweed And Gardenias It is the Words Of Art Award. Thanks T...I appreciate it.

I Think That I Can Remember When

I remember the days when I could wake up each morning feeling invigorated and having my body feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the events of the day. You probably can remember those days too. The days when our bodies were young and before we had to purchase the extended maintenance plan for it. There once was a time, where this machine that I call my body, would work smoothly without any hitches and pain free. Yes I can remember those days but I have to really strain to bring them back up from the depths of my memory banks.
I remember being involved in sports and being very fleet afoot. But now I am only fleet afoot when running to the bathroom, because my irritable bowls are acting up.
I used to be able to lose weight quite easily. Now the only weight I seem to be able to lose is when I take off my clothes and my shoes and then take a good healthy dump.
I used to be able to spot a coyote on the Kansas plains from a mile or two away. Now I can still see some sort of outline of him but not without the use of a pair of high power binoculars and my trifocals on.
I used to be able to bend my joints without any pain at all. Now I am mainly able to bend my joints just enough to slather on some kind of mentholated soothing ointment.
I used to be able have my hair blow and move freely in a breeze. Nowadays I seem to be more aerodynamically formed in the head region...I can now stand in gale forced winds and not one short gray hair on my head will move.
I remember the days when I liked all of the colors in a rainbow. Now my all time favorite color is blue.......give it a second...
I remember a day when I could pass a football a fairly good ways. Now the only thing I can pass easily is when my finger is pulled and that something would be gas.
I used to live a pill free life. Now I wake up to take a good 8-10 pills on a daily basis and I can call it breakfast.
I remember when I could get down on the floor and do lots of push ups. I just tried to do some the other day...the only thing I accomplished was getting up close and personal with the dust mites that are in our carpet.
I remember when I could write my full name in the snow.....in cursive writing..... with laser like precision.....while peeing. Now I am lucky if I can miss my knees while dribbling on my toes.
I remember when I could lift and bench press 240 pounds. Now the only thing I want to lift, is another slice of pizza to my mouth.
I remember a day when I had enough motion in my neck, that I could turn my head completely to one side without any pain. Now in order to turn my head to one side, I need to turn my whole body in that direction while keeping my head straight.
My skin used to be firm and tight. Now my skin is so loose, that when I go on a roller coaster, it looks like I have an extra set of floppy butt cheeks slapping the back of my head. And forget about crows feet...I have turkey claws.
I used to have an excellent memory, now I have to leave crumbs just to find my way back to the bedroom.
I must have missed the inter office memo that claimed that 54 is the new 95. Maybe I did read it...I just don't remember doing it.
There used to be words that might have applied to me in my younger days:
Studly, handsome, smart, well toned, hunka hunka burning love, logical, keen eyed, analytical, savvy, adventurous, shy...just to name a few.
But now words like the following seem to apply more:
old, old fart, gray haired old fart, ancient , decrepit, forgetful, out spoken, crotchety, gimpy, shriveled, droopy, floppy...just to name a few.
I think that you can get the picture.
I have to laugh nowadays, when I look in the mirror. What the heck happened??? Where is the me that I can barely remember. I think that I have been "punked"..."punked" by life itself.
I want to apologize for anything written in this blog entry that might come across as crude and tacky. I hope that no one takes offense by it.
I just wanted to make a point and that point is......
geesh.....
damn....
crapola....
hmmmmm......it really wasn't important anyway

Photos From The Past

I found a couple of more photos from way back when:
Here I am with my Mother and my sister. This was back in the late 50s, in Carmel, IN.
My Bubby and Zady. Not sure exactly when this was taken but I can tell you it was a long time ago.

Another picture of my Bubby. Take a look at that stove..they sure don't make them like that any more.

Here is my 3rd grade class picture. I am the one right next to the teachers...can you say "Teachers Pet"

This was our house in Wickford, RI back in the early to mid 1960s.

Here is a photo of our living room in the house. The furniture wall hanging is pretty wild.

Hope And Dreams

Hopes and dreams for the future are a very important aspect of life. When times are tough, when you are having health problems, when everything that you read or see on tv about our economy and our current problems are getting to you, or maybe you are just feeling a little low on any given day, take a couple of minutes to daydream and hope for something better. Allow yourself to be transported to a period of time or a place that is welcoming, comfortable and much happier than the place in your life or a time that you might be currently at. And even if you are happy and content where your life is right now, but want just a little more, then take that mental journey utilizing your minds eye....hope and dream of more...or something better. I find that I can daydream doing yard work, while on my walks or even while cleaning the bathroom...yes I honestly do that...sorry guys. I often dream about a myriad of places and things that I would like to do in my future and I hope that they will all happen. In all of my hopes and dreams, I am always physically sharing them with Veronica. Where I go, she goes. Here is a small sample of what my dreams are and things that I hope I can do in the future. For this blog entry, I have narrowed them down to travel and I would be here for weeks trying to list them all, so I kept the list short. During all of these adventures, I would be taking photographs and journaling our daily adventures so that I could write them down in my blog upon my return home.
I would like to spend quite a bit of time driving around Alaska in a RV. During our travels in Alaska:
I want to go fishing in Minto Flats for Northern Pike
I want to go fishing for Halibut
Watch the Northern Lights
I want to visit and spend time in as many towns and cities in Alaska as possible
I would visit each and every National Park along with all of the tall mountains...from ground level of course...no desire to mountain climb
Cruise every nook and cranny of the Alaskan coastline..which would cover all fjords and glaciers
Watch the bears feeding on the Salmon trying to go up stream
View as much wildlife as possible and especially Moose for Veronica
Stay at some of the rustic lodges within the national parks
Learn about the people, their lives and their culture
Take a train ride in Canada
Drive across Canada
Visit the Canadian Rockies
Visit Banff and Lake Louise
Go to several fly in fishing lodges in the upper northern portions of Canada
Spend a whole Summer at Andy Myers Lodge on Eagle Lake
Visit Slovenia
Visit Austria
See the Alps...no skiing though...bad balance and my ole joints could not handle it
Take a river cruise in Europe
Visit Italy
These are just a few of the things that I dream about doing and seeing and hopefully one of these days I can do some that are on this list. Only time will tell.
I realize that this list might seem really silly, especially with our economy and all of the negative things that we keep hearing daily.
But my list isn't the real point of this blog entry.
The real point is this...when you are at your lowest low, even when you are at your highest high....allow yourself to have hopes and dreams about your future.
Your hopes and dreams are as important as the blood that flows through your heart. They keep your soul energized. They keep you wanting and yearning more for yourself and for your life. It keeps you thinking positive thoughts about the future. It can help you through poor health and it can perk up the tired soul. Hopes and dreams can have amazing healing qualities. The can keep you going through the toughest of times.
Even if I don't get to do one thing that is on my list, those hopes and dreams have still served a purpose....because...
Life without hopes and dreams means that I am merely existing.
And I want more out of my life than to merely exist.
I want to live my life.....
And in order to do that...I will keep on clinging to my hopes and I will keep on dreamin' about my future.

My First And Last Taste Of Lead

Back in the late 60s - early 70s, I was a long haired teenager living in Tampa, FL. I had a few teenage friends that were my age and one that was a couple of years older. I forget his name but I remember that he had this old car that he had fixed up...headers, thrush mufflers, wide tires and nice rims. The body wasn't in the best of shape but it got him where he wanted to go and we thought that it was a "cool" car. Being bored teenagers that we were, we used to go out in the woods for a night of camping and general goofing off. My friend with the car used to go with us and he drove us to our favorite woods and camping spot. There were usually 3 of us, me, my friend with the car and one other friend. We probably went camping together maybe 5-6 times until one day when that all changed. The friend with the car would always bring a shotgun and a .22 caliber pistol with him because they had some wild animals around the area where we camped. They had very large wild boars and black panthers..which I never believed until I actually saw one myself. One morning we had woke up and had just got done eating breakfast. We were sitting around trying to figure out how we wanted to spend the rest of the day. So here we were, one friend and I sitting around the campfire drinking coke and the older friend fooling around with his pistol. It was around 9:00Am at this time. Originally he was taking target practice at a coke can that was perched on a tree limb. Then for some reason, he decided to point the pistol at the coke can that was sitting on the ground about a foot in front of me and just a little right of center in relation to me. I thought that he was just screwing around so I leaned back a bit. The next thing I know, he fired off a shot. The bullet ricochets off of the ground near the coke can and bounced off of the front/side of my right knee. The bullet travelled about 4-5" further up my leg from where it had originally entered my leg. I was rolling around on the ground and yelling in pain. When I finally settled down, I could see a bump where the bullet was lodged under my skin and a small hole where it had entered my body. Hardly any blood at all but my knee hurt like hell. We sat around for a while trying to figure out what to do. We all knew that our camping days were most likely over with especially once the adults got wind of what happened. We finally decided to pack everything up and head home. My friend with the car dropped us off at my other friends house and then he took off...probably scared and did not want to be around for the upcoming fireworks. My other friend lived right across the street from where I lived. We could tell that my parents were not home at this time because their car was gone and it was Saturday. Saturday they always went shopping together. My friends parents were also gone, so here I was with a bullet in my leg, trying to relax as much as possible until my parents or his parents got home. We had talked about my friend with the car taking me to a hospital but knew that the police would be involved at that point in time and he would have got into big trouble and no one wanted that....hey we were teenagers...what did you expect...intelligence and logical thinking. I ended up staying at my friends house the whole day just trying to relax through the pain. Around 4PM my parents returned home and my friend went and told my parents what happened. I won't get into all of the yelling and carrying on that ensued after that, but I will tell you that I finally ended up going to the hospital and having the bullet removed and x-rays taken of my right knee. Luckily there was no permanent damage done to my knee but boy was it sore for quite some time after that. The police showed up while I was at the hospital. Because of my age and because it was a shooting, the doctors reported it and the police came in to interview me. After much hesitation, I finally had to spill the beans over what happened. I told them that it was accidentally done and refused to give out my friends name to them, much to the officers and my Dads objections. Needless to say, I got in tons of trouble over the incident and I never did hang around with my "friend" with the car ever again. All of my physical wounds healed up nicely. I did have some problems though, when I joined the military and later on when I became a Police Officer. I was very skiddish and real gun shy especially when I was doing my firearms testing. I was just plain scared of the weapons that I was being tested upon. I would shake, get real nervous and I would jump when I heard gunfire at the shooting range. Eventually I got over it and was able to pass my firearms testing and actually became an Expert Marksman with the passing of time. I still carry the actual scars of the incident but more importantly, I carry tons of respect for weapons and the safe and proper handling of them.

When Will It End

We are working on our 4th straight day of rain here. It is getting old. With the Spring time weather quickly approaching, I am looking forward to getting outside and doing some yard and garden work. I was recently able to find some 10-10-10 garden fertilizer for the bargain price of $11 for a 33 lb bag. Last year and the year before, I could go to Home Depot and buy a 40lb bag of the stuff for about $7-9. This year it had shot up to almost $20 a bag. I usually use 2-3 bags of the fertilizer in the Spring, when I give the gardens a good helping of "food". This year I had decided that if I could not find the fertilizer at a reasonable price, then the plants would have to go hungry. Luckily with me finding this deal on the fertilizer, all plants got fed and it should not be long to see things starting to shoot up out of the ground. The daffodils have already bloomed but they will be gone soon. It will be nice to have some color in the gardens again.

Recession Game Shows Video

I just found this while cruisin around:

Recession Game Shows Video

Changing Blog Backgrounds- A Tutorial of Where To Get And How To Do It

I have had several readers ask where I got my blog background and how did I get it onto my blog. First off, I will give you 3 sites to visit. One is in
Finnish but by going to the bottom of the page, you can figure out which words pertain to going back a page. All blogs have lots and lots of blog backgrounds to pick from. Once you choose the background that you want on your blog, read the below listed instructions for installing it into your blog. Veronica, my wife, does these background swaps quite a bit so if you have more ?s, you can contact her at VRosenshein@aol.com. Here are the 2 blog sites that have the backgrounds:

Finnish Site With Beautiful Backgrounds

Cute And Cool Blog Stuff

The Cutest Blog On The Block

First you must have your current blogger template set to minima. I use minima ochre. This will give your blog page the 3 column style that you see on my blog page. In order to make sure that your template is set at minima ochre, you must go the customize tab and then go to "pick new template" tab and click on it. Then click on minima ochre. If you go to Cutest Blog On The Block....on the left hand side you will see a category for backgrounds. If you find a background that you want to use, then click on the background you like. AFTER you click on the background that you want, a paragraph will show up under the background picture and the code will be displayed. You will need to highlight and copy the code that is under the background you chose. Then go back to your blog and click on layout tab. Once on the layout page, then click on "add a gadget", then click on "add html" for the new gadget. Once you have clicked on "add html" a new box will open. In the top of the new opened box it says name or something like that...maybe title...anyway leave that blank. In the box under it paste the code you just copied from The Cutest Blog On The Block. Click save and then click on view blog..... and whatta you know? You have a beautiful new blog background.
If you go to the Finnish blog background site, the code is already displayed below each background. Pick a background that you like...copy the entire code shown and follow the same directions as described above. Go back to your blog and click on the "layout" tab, then click on "add a gadget" and continue on...
If you go to the Cute And Cool Blog Stuff site, you can do everything just as you would for the Finnish site.
I hope that this helps everyone out.

The Haunting

I have always tried to be very honest and open in my blog entries...."keeping it real" some might say. This entry is about as real as one can get. Some portions of this incident have become fuzzy with the passing of time but it is the best that I can remember of the event....an event that occurred well over a decade ago.
It was an early Spring day in Manchester, NH. I was working as an investigator with the Public Defenders Program at the time. The temperatures was in the low 60s. It was noon time or thereabouts. Myself along with 2-3 colleagues were going to lunch. We were walking towards our parking lot, where our cars are parked, approximately 3 city blocks away from our office building. We had just turned left out of the building in which we worked in and had walked for 2-3 minutes at the absolute most. They were parked cars along the street to our right hand side and as I was walking past a parked vehicle, I noticed that there was a child in the back seat. I mentioned it to my friends and we stopped at the car and looked in. The car windows were rolled up and the car was locked. We looked around and figured that the child's parent(s) had gone into the apartment building that this car was parked in front of and would return shortly. I remember that the child was a boy and was dressed in some bib overalls with a shirt underneath. The child looked like he was sleeping. We decided to walk up another 1/2 block, which is where the Manchester Police Department was located. We went in and told the front desk/reception person what we saw, gave them our names and where we worked at. We left and went about our business. Upon returning to work, we later heard that the babysitter who was taking care of this child, had run into the courthouse, which is across the street from where the car was parked and that she had left the child sleeping in the back seat of the car. We also learned that the child had died. The child was no more than 2 maybe 2 1/2 years old...possibly 3 at the most. An autopsy was done on the child where an approximate bracket time was given for this child's death and for the cause of his death...heatstroke. The bracket time estimated that the child died during a period of time prior to me first seeing him until around the time that I first noticed him in the backseat of the car. I have been laboring with the thought that it might have been possible, that I could have saved this child's life. That maybe the bracket time was off just a little bit. Although we lightly knocked on the windows and got no response from the child, leading us to believe that the child was soundly sleeping, thinking that the temperature outside was not warm at all....should I have just broke out the windows of the car or was going directly to the Police Dept, which was a 2 minute walk from where the child was and reporting what I saw enough...was our actions or should I say my actions...were they sufficient...were they proper...did I handle the whole thing wrong...was the child still alive when I saw him but thinking he was sleeping...was he actually asleep at that time or had he already died based on the autopsy bracket time. I wake up every day not knowing what the truth is...I will never know......this is MY inescapable haunting that I carry with me.

The babysitter was later charged with the death of this child...

Photos From Canada

My friend John Jakobs, from up in Canada, sent me these photos. I am not sure who took them but I would like to Thank both John and the anonymous photographer for sharing them with us.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is...might be a grouse.

A couple of photos of a fox

Smile for the camera

Magestic Eagle...we see lots of Eagles when we go up to Canada

Canadian Winter scenes

Moon over Canada

Slow Loading Blog aka Sloth of The Internet

I have been receiving some comments and emails about my blog loading up rather slowly. I just made a major change that should help with quicker loading of my blog...I reduced the number of posts on my first page from 30 down to 10. I recently added several features that you might have noticed. Some are on the right hand side bar column and others are at the end of each post. I also have many other features that load up...the music player along with all of the photos. I just went through and dumped some features in an attempt to have my blog load up quicker. I hope that this helps. If it doesn't, please subscribe to either a feed or get my blog updates via email...you can get it either with or without the pictures embedded in the feed or email...at least I believe so. If you have any problems, please feel free to contact me. PS- If you have dial up internet access...my blog will load up very slowly for you because of the amount of graphics and data that needs to load up...dial up internet is slower than cable or dsl, especially with the loading up of graphics.

SURPRISE!!!!!!!

Hi everyone...I decided that it was time for a change. I went fishin' for a new blog background and look what I caught. Veronica helped me get it on here. Whatcha think???

Ryan Who?

Some days I carefully browse the online news sites for some little tidbit that peaks my interest and provides me with a topic to be used as a creative outlet for my blog. Other days stuff just falls out of the sky, into my lap and onto me, like the bird droppings that just happen to find their way on my head or shoulders or onto my freshly washed and waxed car. These droppings always seem to have my name on them and find me or my car even though there are hundreds of people around me and plenty of freshly washed and waxed cars driving right next to me. This blog entry is about one of those large load of bird droppings that found its way onto my lap. It is about an airline, I use the terminology very loosely, called Ryanair. Ryanair is a airline company that is based out of Dublin and has numerous flights throughout the European market. They like to fancy themselves as a budget/discount airline. From what I have read online, they indeed fall into their desired catagory. Although they do charge little for their flights, it appears that they make up for the lowly flight costs with other "attributes" and charge extra for every little thing possible plus some. I could go on and on about all of the negatives that have been associated with this airline but I don't want to give them anymore publicity than they already get. I think the old addage that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all, applies here. This airline appears to be a huge believer in nickel and diming customers for every penney that they have. Today I am only going to focus on one of their more brilliant ideas that the CEO came up with to add to their profitability. It is the "pay to pee" concept that Ryanairs' chief executive Michael O'Leary came up with. During a press conference last week, O'Leary made a statement to the affect that the days of the unlocked potty are indeed numbered and that his next target would be coin-operated toilets. According to an article written by Shawn Pogatchnik, an Associated Press Writer..... It could also become the next serious money-maker at Ryanair, already Europe's most profitable and aggressively expanding airline. O'Leary estimates if 20% of passengers pay 1 pound (euro1.12, $1.40) to use the restroom, this would generate 15 million pounds (euro17 million, $21 million) annually — which he characterizes as future "fare savings to the traveling public." Pogatchnik continued by writing that....O'Leary said he has asked engineers at U.S. aircraft maker Boeing — which supplies Ryanair's entire fleet of 737-800s — to design toilets with doors that open only if you swipe a valid credit card through the locking mechanism. He conceded that his earlier idea, to make them coin-operated, wouldn't work in part because Ryanair operates heavily in areas using both the euro and British pound.
"We have looked into this before, and the problem is Boeing can't come up with a mechanism on the toilet door to take coins," he said. "We're suggesting they go back and look at a mechanism where you'd swipe the credit card for a quid (British pound) on the toilet door. They've gone off to look at that. ... We are serious."
He didn't seek to soften the impression that Ryanair was happy to make its passengers suffer.
"Most people would go to the loo (toilet) before they get on the plane, or they hold it until they land. You would only have to deal with the people who absolutely have to go," he said.
One positive effect, he said, would be to "reduce an awful lot of the unnecessary visits to the toilet that (expletive) so many passengers off."
What uncecessary visits to the toilet??? I have been on a few flights in my time and have used the planes bathroom once. Believe me..I was very hesitant on going to the back of the plane and doing my business in a little bitty room that wasn't the cleanest room that I have seen. I don't ever remember seeing any lines or people climbing over each other for the privilege of using any airplanes bathroom. As far as I am concerned, it is mainly used as a last resort....when one just can't hold it in any longer. And as far as the part about....(Expletive) so many passengers off?????
If the choice was having a passenger get up and go use the bathroom at the back of the plane versus having that same passenger dribble on the seat and floor next to me, I'll take the prior event every time.
And how did Ryanair come up with the total of 15 million pounds or 21 million dollars that this new rule would generate? Did they have attendents sit near the bathrooms and take a head count on each flight to come up with an average number of bathroom users per flight? Give me a break.
Based on all of the complaints that I have read online and how this airlines does business..... Mr. O'leary there are a couple of things that I can promise you...I will never step foot on one of your planes nor will I ever do any #1s or any #2s........in any of your flying loos!!!!!!
For more info on Ryanair and customer opinions:
Airline Quality Forum

Ryanair Campaign

Ryanair Customers Discussions Board

North To Alaska

For those of you that have followed my blog for some time...you know how I love for Veronica and I to go up to Canada for our annual fishing trip. Unfortunately, this year we will be unable to do this. Due to the economy and our recent need to purchase a new vehicle, we had to make some changes to our usual vacation plans. Please do not think that I am complaining about the changes that we had to make. With the way things are nowadays, any vacation no matter what it might be, would be a welcome break from the daily grind and we are thankful that we can go. As I had mention a while back in this blog, Veronica and I will be going on our first cruise ever and it will be to Alaska. The price of cruises have really dropped drastically due to today's economy. I was really surprised to see 12-14 day transatlantic cruises going for $1200-$1400 per person. I have also seen Alaska cruises for $399.00 per person for an inside stateroom. Our cruise will be round trip from Seattle and we will have ports of call in Skagway, Ketchikan, Juneau and Victoria, BC. As I did with our last Canada vacation, see September 2008 blog entries, I will be taking you along on our vacation. This time I will be doing things a little differently. Do to the outrageous cost of internet access on the ship (and slow access at that), I will not be taking our laptop. Internet access on the ships are $100 for 240 minutes... 40 cents per minute at the cheapest rate or 75 cents per minute on the pay as you go highest rate. I will be writing a daily journal entry in a composition notebook that we bought, so that when I get back, I can do daily blog entries telling and showing you everything about the ship, ports of call and excursions that we take. I will cover everything from food to whale sightings.....hopefully!!! This vacation will be one of many firsts for me. Usually when Veronica and I go somewhere, at least one of us has already been there in prior lives. Veronica has been to Seattle but I have not been there or anywhere on the West coast. Neither of us have been on a cruise or to Alaska, so both of those will be firsts for us. The plane flight will be the longest that I have ever been on. we leave Norfolk on Saturday, May 9th at 5:40AM, arrive in Houston at 8:00AM. We then leave Houston at 9:20AM and arrive in Seattle at approximately 12:00PM. You have to figure in the time zone changes too. It will be a very long morning. Once we get to our hotel, we will have them secure our luggage and we will head out to do some sightseeing. We will definitely be going to Pikes Place Market. I am sure that we will end up going to bed early that night. Last thing we would want to happen is having our ship leave without us. I also forgot to mention that we upgraded our camera and also got ourselves a new camcorder during this last Christmas season. So this vacation we will be able to get better photos and videos to share with you and share I will.

Daylight Savings Time and Age

Early Sunday morning we had to change our clocks and "Spring" forward for Daylight Savings Time. In years past, this change has had little to no effect on me, but for some reason this year I seem to be out of synch. I seem to be waking up earlier and getting to sleep a little later. It is nothing dramatic but my body seems to be more in tune to any kind of changes that go on. Maybe it comes with age. I just seem to be a step behind everything and everyone. Does anyone else out there have this problem when we have these time changes? I am sure that after a few weeks, my body will catch up to the time difference but for now, I guess that I will just have to deal with living in "sloth mode".
Veronica and I are going to Alaska in May. This trip will produce several time changes in a matter of 7 days...going from Virginia to the Seattle, WA and then any additional time changes in Alaskaand then back home again. I am sure that my body clock will need a vacation from my vacation.

Pole Dancing Northern Style

Here is another great video from my friend, Ken Gauthier, up in Canada. Thanks again Ken!!!!

I Have Been Presented With The Fabulous Blog Award

I just found out that I have been presented with the Fabulous Blog Award by Motor-Head Lady, who has a great blog that I totally enjoy reading.....Motor Heads Unite. Thank you so much for the Award!!!

The rules for the "Fabulous Blog" award are:
You must pass it on to 5 other Fabulous Bloggers in a post receiving the award.
You must include the person that gave you the award, and link it back to them.
You must list 5 of your Fabulous addictions in the post.
You must copy and paste these rules in the post.
My 5 fabulous addictions are:
1) My wife of course
2) Fishing
3) Photography
4) A great steak with onion rings
5)Music

Through my travels in blogdom, I have found many great blogs that I enjoy reading. It was a tough choice to pick only 5. I would like to pass on this award to the following blogs:
1) Seaweeds And Gardenias
2) This Crazy Adventure I Call Life
3) Always Budh.aaah
4) The Brick Street Bungalow
5) Art Hearts Place

Congrats to the winners. To put your award on your blog...just right click on the award picture and save it to your desktop...then upload it onto your blog entry.
Rick

Has Spring Sprung Already?

Just a couple of days ago I was writing about a cold, windy day with snow flurries flying around. Today it was in the 50s and the weathermen have us forecast for sunny weather and temps in the high 60s and low 70s. Our daffodils can't decide whether to bloom or run for cover. With the warmer weather, I plan on spending some time outside and getting into the flower gardens a bit. A little early for the flowers to start coming up but I need to go through them and get some growing grass out of them. Won't be long until it is time to put mulch throughout all of the gardens. Boy does time fly by. Seems like just yesterday that I did the last mowing of the season and here we are getting ready for a new season to start. I got real lazy over the winter months and it is about time to light a fire under my hiney and get back into the swing of things.

Bits And Bytes Are Now Flowing Through The Internet Pipeline Again

Guess what??? I am back on line as of a few minutes ago. Verizon expedited my my internet connection being hooked up again. Today's telephone call....yes just one of them...was vastly different from what I went through on Monday...quite a pleasant surprise. So 4.5 hours playing telephone hockey, getting smacked from one person to another like a hockey puck....a 1/2 hour call today along with being without internet service since Monday has garnered me the following:
1) free internet use through 3/12...no charge
2)an additional 3 months of free internet use...no charge
3)an overall drop of $20 a month using my new phone and internet bundled package
4)last but not least, a $100.00 pre-paid bank card after 31 days of internet service
Not a bad pirates booty at all. Strike up one big win for the lowly consumer!!!

Internet Is Still Out

Hi everyone. Both Veronica and I are still internetless...is that a real word??? Well it is now. We have been popping in once in a while, using my Dads computer. We will do this until Verizon decides to make us internetfull. I hope that it is soon. I am going through withdrawals here. I have that ole internet monkey on my back and it won't get off. Be back soon...I hope.

A Blog Entry About Nothing

My wife has told me several times that I should write more in my blog. Usually it doesn’t really work that way for me. Usually in order for me to write something in my blog, it has to be something that I have some sort of feelings about…something that means something to me, interests me or something that moves me. I just don’t want to write any old thing and have you waste your time reading it. That would be nothing more than writing and reading blah blah blah blah blah. So this morning I woke up, to a cold windy day, with a few snow flurries flying around outside. I asked myself…. self what would you like to write about in my blog today? What could I share with everyone out there that visits my blog. Nothing came to my mind at all…maybe it was a case of writers block…I just don’t know. All I do know is that there was a blank emptiness in my head. I decided to go ahead and take a shower and maybe something to write about would come to mind. And while I was washing my hair, a light bulb came on and I had an idea. Please understand that when my light bulb turns on, at most it is pushing out 40 watts, about 465 lumens of light, and that is on my best day, while others are easily pushing 100 watts, about 1480-1600 lumens of light, on their worst day. With that being said, I decided to make a blog entry about nothing. That’s right nothing….nada…zero…zippo….the big goose egg. I decided to respectfully plagiarize an old Seinfeld show from 1992…The Pitch…the one where George thinks he can write a show for the NBC producers and the show is about nothing. So here it is…nothing fancy, nothing eloquent, nothing deep…just plain nothing at all. Thank you for sticking around this long to read this blog entry about nothing. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a better idea of a topic to write about. And if I do, wouldn’t that be something!!!

Verizon Strikes Again

This morning I got on my computer and found it to be running real slow and then I totally lost my internet connection. I spent the next 4 1/2 hours being bounced around to different people at Verizon. Of course I had to go visit a few foreign countries and of course I had to ask them "could you please repeat that" numerous times before I was bounced back to the USA. What I found out was that there was a glitch in their system and/or someone at Verizon put in a work order on 2/24, to cut my internet connection, which took place today. It all depended on who I spoke to, as far as the reason for me getting shut off. As it stands now, it might be a week until I get my internet service back. I am currently typing this on my Dads computer. I did manage to accomplish a couple of things by having my internet service turned off. I will be getting 3 months of internet service free. My overall bill for the internet/telephone bundled package will be approximately $20 cheaper than it is now..of course this is after my 3 months of free usage. And last but not least, after 31 days of my new internet service starting, I will be receiving a pre-paid bank card in the sum of $100.00
Of course I will probably have to call Verizon repeatedly to get what they promised me. I must admit that I was at wits end talking to these people and getting bounced all over the place. There were several times that I called a certain number and after waiting in the secondary que ,before actually moving into the "real" que, that darn automated synthetic human computer voice told me that "all of our service agents are busy answering other calls and that due to especially high volume of calls, we are unable to answer your call at this time...please call again later"....click! Of course there were numerous statements like..."your call is important to us" and " we are sorry for your inconvenience"...the usual song and dance. The bottom line is that I won't be doing any blog entries until I can get my internet connection restored. I just want to let you know that your patronage of my blog is important to me...that all of my fingers are busy doing other things at this time and that due to the extremely low action of my internet connection, could you please return to my blog at a later date. I am sorry for this inconvenience.....click! Sound familiar???

My Days At A Public Defenders Program

Back in the 1990s, I spent about 8-9 years working for the New Hampshire Public Defenders Program as an Investigator. I am sure you have heard of this type of program..."if you can't afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the court". Well, I was part of that program. In our office, in Manchester NH, we had approximately 20 attorneys. There were approximately 4-5 investigators in our office at any given time. The attorneys were divided up amongst the investigators in the office so we each had 4-5 attorneys that we worked directly with. Our job was to locate and interview witnesses to crimes and victims of crimes, write down all of the info that we obtained from everyone we interviewed, writing up and serving subpoenas amongst other things. The crimes ranged from misdemeanors to felony murder. This job would have me dealing with the full spectrum of humanity and visiting locations that ranged from beautiful homes to crack houses. I excelled at doing the job because of my background but I really struggled with the reason for me doing the work itself. I had a difficult time dealing with the internal conflicts, during my time doing this job. Most of my adult life I was employed doing law enforcement related duties. I started by joining the military and becoming a MP (Military Police) and after leaving the military, I joined a police department at a mid west university. I had always been a "cuff'm and stuff'm" type of person. I prided myself in catching the bad guy, making an arrest and taking them to jail. I truly enjoyed the chess match of a good interview, especially ones that lead to a confession. Now I was performing a job that had the completely opposite effect and possible legal outcome. Most of our clients, I would guess about 99% of them, were guilty. I did my job well but I continued to struggled with my own personal moral and ethical feelings about what I was doing and why I was doing it. I really had a very hard time dealing with the fact that even though the client might be guilty, it was my job to try to help him/her get the charges dropped, lowered or some type of agreement made between the prosecutor and our clients attorney. As the days and years dragged by, my mental and emotional conflicts increased. I still did my job as best as I could and I used excuses to reconcile the conflicts that I felt inside. I told myself that although approximately 99% of our clients were guilty of the crimes that they were charged with, that I was really doing my job for the other 1% that might actually be innocent. The innocent were few and far between but I had to do the best job I could so that an innocent person did not go to jail. As time went on, I had to somehow find ways...rationalize and talk myself into continuing to do the job that I was hired to do. To be honest, I hated the job itself and it went against everything that I believed in. I would have been much happier doing work on the "other side of the fence", than where I was. But it did pay the bills and put food on the table and that has to account for something. After approximately 8-9 years of doing that job, I ended up quitting and moving out of state. Believe me...I was so glad when that day came that I could finally release all of those internal conflicts that were associated with that job. Never again.

Yesssss! I fixed It!!!!

Based on the comments I have been receiving, it appears that I fixed whatever was wrong with my blog not being updated in the "followers" section of those who follow my blog. I also added a new "Subscribe To My Blog" widget. You can subscribe to my blog via many more feeds now. I have no idea how I did it nor what exactly I did to fix it but I will take a "win" anyway I can get it. For those of you who follow my blog, you know much expertise I have in fixing things....lol. I am lucky that I did not accidentally delete my whole blog.

Please Note: If your previous feed to my blog no longer works, please subscribe to a new feed again. The upgrades that I made ended changing my original feed address.