Party time

Well, folks, I'm at the end of another work week and I'm certainly ready for the weekend.

Tonight is my party to celebrate my 35th year on the planet. My actual birthday was nearly two weeks ago, but we're celebrating with a group of friends tonight at La Paz. Oughta be fun.

I'll take pictures to post here next week. Have a good weekend.

I know I will.

Me Meme for Friday

Well, big sis tagged me, so I reckon I better do this one.

What kind of soap do you have in your bathtub/shower right now?
I've got some sort of Suave (I think) mango body wash that I thought was going to be good, but I don't really like it.

What color or design is on your shower curtain?
Tropical postcard theme Coll had her friend bid for on eBay.

What would you change about your living room?
I'd like to be able to change the arrangement, but I'm not sure how. New couch and chair would be nice, too.

How many plants are in your home?
One little African violet. The only thing we've been able to keep alive inside.

Are the dishes in the dishwasher clean or dirty?
Dirty, but it's only the plate and knife I used this morning for my English muffin. Other than that it's empty.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home?
Mostly plastic cups.

Do you have iced tea, made in a pitcher, right now?
No.

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
Nope.

So, what is in your fridge?
Condiments. Fish. Milk. Lettuce. Onions. Lemons. Limes. Various cheeses. Eggs. English muffins. Lots of other stuff. That thing is crammed full of stuff. Half of it could probably go in the trash.

What’s on top of your refrigerator?
Recipes. Ginger ale. The last bit of rum Coll brought me back from St. Croix last summer.

White or wheat bread?
Multigrain.

Comet or Soft Scrub?
Comet.

Is your bed made now?
No.

Is your closet organized?
Yup. Took care of that last weekend.

Can you describe your flashlight?
Which one? My blue Mini Maglight or my giant black Maglight?

If you have a garage, is it cluttered?
N/A. The carport could use a good sweeping, though.

Cooper Craziness

The serial number 30755 and the date Feb. 21, 1946, are stamped on a parachute found in North Clark County, Wash. as seen in Seattle on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. The FBI is working to find out if it is linked to the infamous D.B. Cooper case from 1971.

(AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey)

Some kids in Washington state allegedly unearthed a parachute that the FBI is examining to see if might have belonged to the infamous D.B. Cooper.

Supposedly the kids' father was grading a new road when and they saw the material sticking up from the ground.

For the uninitiated, D.B. Cooper became famous for hijacking a plane in 1971 and demanding $200,000. After he received the money, he parachuted out of the plane near the Oregon line.
Cooper is somewhat of a folk hero around that part of the country. The Ariel Store in Ariel, Wash., celebrates D.B. Cooper Days every year.

There is debate about whether or not Cooper survived the jump. His body was never found, and in 1980, a family found nearly $6,000 of Cooper's money near Vancouver. One theory is that the money was carried there by the Washougal River.

The AP story quotes a local saying, "I think he's out there enjoying his money. Most people here say they think he made it. We may never know."

To that I say: He would have had to have been an awfully good investor to be living off of $194,000 for 36 years.

Something tells me he was of a mind to spend.

Funny Sight

I was at Wendy's for lunch today, and a van load of young soldiers got out of a rental van in their class A uniforms.

They were all privates and PFCs and one of them was a specialist who looked like she was in charge. Anyway, it took them several minutes to get their service coats on and buttoned up before coming inside to order food.

They got their food to go, went back out to the van, took their coats off, got in the van and left. I thought it was the funniest thing. I didn't notice any of them go to the restroom and it took them longer to put their coats on and take them off than it did to get their food.

I guess they didn't go through the drive thru since they were probably each paying for their own meals. Which leaves me wondering why they took the time to put their service coats on at all.

Some instructor must have really drilled it into them about being outside in public out of uniform. I didn't notice if they had their rank and name tags on their shirts, which if I'm not mistaken would have been perfectly fine for them to be seen in, as long as they had their berets (covers) on.

Give 'em a few years. They'll be draggin' ass from their car with their shirt half untucked and no cover on to go into a store. Sergeants got no time for Army uniform regs especially so far from post.

But I've got to hand it to these kids. They looked pretty sharp.

Closer to Published

This is supposed to be "The Year of the Book."

Colleen and I declared it so just before New Year's Day as a challenge to ourselves to finish the book projects we've been putting off working on for too long.

I've got an idea book that I carry around in my back pocket now more out of habit than anything. I bought it to jot down the ideas that would always seem to come to me while I was driving or out and about.

I still get the ideas. I still don't write them down. I've got some good ones too, if I can ever get them out onto the page and get them organized I think I've got a pretty good story in the works. It's been developing over time and I can even almost see how it should end.

I sat down a while back and wrote some of it out in a book that Coll bought me, and later on I sat down and transcribed that onto the computer, but I still have a lot of work to do. I can't say I have an excuse for not writing more. It's just inertia.

I have to get over that. I think if I can get the office set up, I can start doing some writing. Who knows. I've always been good at coming up with excuses for not doing things. I can talk myself out of almost anything. Got to get over that, too.

So it's "The Year of the Book." Let's hope so.

Closer to a Header

I've got my second attempt at a header up now. I like it a lot better than the first one. I'll leave it for a while until I'm sick of it.

The photo was taken in the fall up on Max Patch, so I probably should go with something a little more spring-like. Maybe next week or after Charleston. I need a good shot of the ocean.

Weepy Wednesday Morning

I was at the Sheriff's Office this morning checking out arrest and incident reports and this woman comes in with what I'm assuming are her parents. She's on the phone with a bail bondsman and she breaks down crying.

I'm trying to ignore her, or at the very least not make her feel like I'm listening in on her. No one wants to be going through something painful and have people eavesdropping on you pain.

Anyway, from the bits and pieces of what I did overhear, I am assuming her son got into some trouble overnight. Sounded like it could be a good bit of trouble because I think I overheard her mother ask "What's 10% of $10,000 bond." Yikes!

There was nothing like that in the reports I looked at this morning, so maybe I'll find out what it was about tomorrow. I just felt bad for the woman though. I'm used to going to the magistrate's office and seeing people who are used to being arrested--or having friends and family arrested--and dealing with the system. They get arrested and it's not big deal for them. They know how the system works and they're not scared.

This woman seemed terrified for her (I'm assuming) son. I would be, too.

Who knows. If he was a juvenile, I may never know.

Interesting, sad morning.

New Header

I put up a new header today. Not quite happy with it, but it's a work in progress. I just wanted to get something up besides a box with the blog's title in it. I'll be playing around with it to see what I can do to fix spruce it up.

It'll work for now.

Sansa Sensibility

I am digging my new birthday gift.

It's a 2GB SanDisk Sansa Clip MP3 player. It's advertised to hold about 500 songs, but will realistically probably hold somewhere around 320. It also plays FM stations. I have 245 already uploaded to the little player now, and I love it.

There is some sort of hiccup whereby the player stops communicating with the computer every so often, but it's not a fatal flaw. I've read about some people complaining about it, but it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.

Anyway, my honey got it for me for my birthday. Aint' she great? I can't wait to take it Charleston and jam my way over the bridge. Last year I bought a cheapo arm band radio to listen to during the race. I got pretty good reception and jammed to "Pepper" by the Butthole Surfers. Odd enough song, but with a good beat for running. At least for me.
(By the way, the YouTube video I linked to for Pepper isn't Butthole Surfers, but it is a pretty creative video by kid who said he made the video a few years ago with a friend for a class.)

Now I can load the songs I think I would like to listen to the most the day of the race to keep me pumped up. Can't wait.

Are You Sirius?

I knew this was in the works. I'm just wondering what it means for subscribers like me. I'm already paying $13.85 a month. I don't want to have to pay much more, but I would like to be able to get baseball games.

Justice Department approves XM-Sirius satellite radio
deal
By JOHN DUNBAR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday approved Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s proposed $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.
The transaction was approved without conditions, despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.
The combination still requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited a merger when it first granted satellite radio operating licenses in 1997.
The Justice Department, in a statement explaining its decision, said the combination of the companies won't hurt competition because the companies are not competing today. Customers must buy equipment that is exclusive to either XM or Sirius, and subscribers rarely switch providers.
"People just don't do that," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett said in a conference call with reporters.
The government also appeared to endorse a central argument the companies used in pushing for their merger: that ample competition is provided by other forms of audio entertainment, including "high-definition" radio, Internet-based radio stations and even devices like Apple Inc.'s iPod.
"The likely evolution of technology in the future, including the expected introduction in the next several years of mobile broadband Internet devices, made it even more unlikely that the transaction would harm consumers in the longer term," the Justice Department said.
The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger will save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs — savings that will ultimately benefit their customers. The Justice Department also noted that argument in its approval.
The FCC had no comment on the decision Monday. In the past, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said any approval faced a "high hurdle."
Martin said last week that agency staff was "drafting various options" in preparation for a final recommendation. The five-member commission could vote against the deal, approve it or approve it with conditions. The agency could require the companies to freeze prices or make part of their satellite spectrum available for public-interest obligations.
Both XM and Sirius declined to comment on the decision on Monday.
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, said in a statement that the merger would create a satellite radio monopoly and asked the FCC to block it.
"We are particularly disturbed by this decision, given the Justice Department's record in recent years of failing to oppose numerous mergers which reduced competition in key industries, resulting in the Justice Department not bringing a single contested merger case in nearly four years," he said.
The companies have pledged that the combined firm will offer listeners more pricing options and greater choice and flexibility in the channel lineups they receive.
If the deal is approved, the companies have said they would offer pricing plans ranging from $6.99 per month, for 50 channels offered by one service, up to $16.99 a month, where subscribers would keep their existing service plus choose channels offered by the other service.
Despite the consumer-friendly promises, most consumer groups have opposed the proposed merger.
"If this is what our competition cops do, we might as well close shop and save taxpayers a few hundred million dollars because they're not doing their jobs," said Gene Kimmelman, the Washington lobbyist for Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.
Shares of both companies rose following the news.
XM Satellite shares were up 15 percent in afternoon trading while Sirius was up 8.6 percent.

Monday Missive

Well, it's Monday. Sometimes that says it all.


I had a pretty good weekend. Moved a dryer from Coll's old place to our house Friday after work (with the help of Andy B.) because the dryer that came with the house decided to kick the bucket. Good thing she hadn't sold the other dryer.


I also spent a little time enjoying the new spring flowers in the backyard. I guess these are daffodils, but this the only yellow one. The rest are white and yellow, except for one red flower I think could be an amaryllis, but I don't know. I'm not a flower guy.




I spent most of Saturday cleaning up the office/my closet. You know how it is. You have that one room in your house where all the crap accumulates. That's our office/my closet. I guess I should say our office where my closet is also located. You can actually walk in there now, and I organized my closet so that everything actually fits. It looks pretty nice. Now I just need to get a desk so I can get my old trunk out of there.


Sunday I vacuumed, and did some dishes, but that was about it for the housework. I spent most of the day reading E. Annie Proulx's "The Shipping News." It's pretty good.

Now it's Monday. What more can I say. What more needs to be said.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Sometimes I really love my job. Well... lots of times.

This morning I got to spend the morning with Spirit Augustus, a 15-year-old American bald eagle, and her handler Michael Skinner of the Balsam Mountain Trust in Sylva, N.C.

Spirit was gorgeous. And huge. She is the newest member of the trust's Birds of Prey Program, and is on permanent loan to the trust from the American Eagle Foundation out of nearby Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

She got a little agitated a few times and tried to fly away only to end up dangling upside down from Michael's arm. Not a very dignified position for our national symbol.

Michael also introduced me to Friday, a 2-year-old female broad-winged hawk. She was pretty cool as well and tiny compared to Spirit. In fact, in the wild Friday would be prey for Spirit.

No I didn't sniff the eagle. I like my face sans talon marks.

One-Word Meme

Found this on my big sis's blog. Sounds like a good Friday posting. Hey, it IS Good Friday.

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your significant other? Colleen
3. Your hair? Curly
4. Your mother? Tiny
5. Your father? Busy
6. Your favorite thing? TV
7. Your dream last night? Military
8. Your favorite drink? Pepper
9. Your dream/goal? Ireland
10. The room you're in? Office
11. Your fear? Taxes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Coast
13. Where were you last night? Elizabeth's
14. What you're not? Skinny
15. Muffins? Banana
16. One of your wish list items. Book
17. Where you grew up? Texas
18. The last thing you did? Coffee
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pets? Ivan
22. Your computer? Dell
23. Your life? Good
24. Your mood? Light
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Your car? White
27. Something you're not wearing? Boxers
28. Favorite Store? Book
29. Your summer? Far
30. Your favorite color? Blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? Elizabeth's
32. Last time you cried? Movie
33. Who will/would re-post this? Dunno

Not ready

Photo by Melissa Haneline, The (Charleston) Post and Courier

Colleen and I are taking our annual trip to Charleston next month, and I am not ready.

I am ready to get out of town and enjoy being in that great, old city, but I am not ready for the reason that we began going there.

The 31st annual Cooper River Bridge Run is April 5, and we've been going down since 2006 when the race crossed the Ravenel Bridge for the first time. Quite an experience running/walking over that bridge.

The first year we went, I ran the 10K (most of it). The second time I ran/walked a little slower time. This year, I'll probably walk it with Colleen and her friend Emily (who is really Kim, but we won't go into that right now).

I have been having some hip and knee pains that the doctor thinks may be from tendinopathy. Whatever it's from, I haven't been running since last year's race, after which I could hardly walk.

I would love to be able to run the race this year. It's so much fun being in the crowd. They call it the third largest 10K in the nation. I had such high hopes for my running career when I started off with the Maggie Valley Moonlight Race three years ago.

Oh well, at least we'll be in Charleston celebrating Curly's birthday. What better place? Maybe Ireland. Maybe next year.

Here's to spring

This is my first attempt at blogging, so don't make fun. I'm not sure how this is supposed to go, so it'll have to be a work in progress. Kind of like me. I just turned 35 on Sunday, so you would think that I would have myself figured out. Well, at least I think I should have myself figured out.

I think this can be fun. I'm not completely sure how I'm going to use this blog. I'm hoping it will take shape as time goes on.

And, no, I'm not a lesbian or gay or anything like that, if that's what you think from reading my blog's title. I was just listening to that song yesterday and it speaks to me.

I'm trying to tell you something about my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
The best thing you've ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously,
it's only life after all.
(Indigo Girls - "Closer to Fine")

It is only life after all. And I do want to be able to take it less seriously.

I look at the guys I grew up with and they all seem to be doing well. Some better than others, but they seem to be happy and have a lot going on for them. I guess I do. I mean I have my Colleen and a lovely little house to live in and a job and a car and a few friends. I'm happy. I guess happier when I'm not comparing myself to others.

But I shouldn't be sad. It's a beautiful day outside today. It's the first day of spring. Days are getting longer and slowly getting warmer here in the mountains. Soon, as I was telling Colleen earlier today, it will be warm enough to sit outside in the evenings and enjoy a beer or a cocktail.

So here's to spring.