I have been avoiding politics for some time now. It ain’t good fur me. It gets my blood up.

Anyway, after yesterdays melee due to the head of NASA, Michael Griffin, casting doubt on the whole “Let’s do something, anything, to stop Global Warming” business.

Tree Hugging Sister over at the Coalition of the Swilling had a great post about how this guy has been treated by his fellow “scientists”:

“It’s an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement,” Hansen told ABC News. “It indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the implications of climate change.”

I love how when you disagree with these a$$holes, you’re ‘incredibly arrogant and STOO-PID’. Whatever happened to “I’d have to strongly disagree with my esteemed colleague’s opinion…”

See, the Global Warming business is at it’s heart a religion. Anyone who dares say anything contrary to “settled science” is called out as a heretic and calls go out to burn him at the stake. Ok, I made that last part up.

Think back to the days of Galileo. Everyone knew, KNEW the sun revolved around the earth just as God had intended. The Church said so. The Church’s “scientists” all toed the company line. After all, there was not much money to be made if you were dead, which is what you would be if you disagreed with the Church.

So why did these guys toe the line? Partly it was fear, but mainly it was because of money. There was money to be made if you were one of the Church’s pets. Money and power. I am sure many of these scientists figured out the earth was the one revolving around the sun, but in order to keep their commissions and their power, they toed the company line.

Today, want to know why scientists like Mr. Hansen react so forcefully when someone dares to question them? Follow the money. These Global Warming scientists are paid huge sums of money through government grants to investigate the causes, extent and impact of Global Warming. They have become powerful because of the money that is funneled into their research. Now they are celebrities, making the rounds of the news shows. There are books to be written and even larger research grants to be had. Money. Big money.

Here is my deal with Global Warming. You show me data from the past 150 to 200 years showing that the earth has been warming and you tell me it has accelerated since the industrial revolution. Somehow I am supposed to be alarmed by this and hand over my wallet and my way of life. See the thing is, hasn’t the earth been, well, you know, “warming” for the past 10,000 years since the…wait for it….last ICE AGE?

Hmmm…

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Just thought I would introduce myself again.

It’s been awhile…

Sorry ’bout that.

See, work is busy and life is busy and Dave at Garfield Ridge quit blogging. So, I guess I’m kind of in mourning or something.

Look, I have to blame someone for my lack of posting.

The sad things is, I have several great posts just floating around in my head, just waiting to get out onto my blog to begin their conquest of earth, but I guess they’ll just have to sit in there a bit longer. At least they can keep the voices in my head company.

On a totally unrelated note, I “started” my new position yesterday. How was it? Basically nothing different because they have not filled my old position. Until they do that, I will be doing both jobs, which means I will be trying to tie up many, many odds and ends.

Also, I have to go to the City Commission meeting in a few minutes and I may, MAY be on TV later. I will let you know.

Well…

I have officially de-linked Dave at Garfield Ridge.

He had his farewell post up for about a week, but now, the site is no more. Oh, you can go look at the sad remnants that remain, but it’s gone man. It’s all gone.

In de-linking Dave, I also cleared up my list a bit. No real reason to remove sites other than I do not read them anymore.

Yes, that is three, count them, 1, 2, 3 exclamation points.

I am not one to toss punctuation around lightly.

Today, I have great reason to be so distressed.

While shopping at my local Wal-Mart, I purchased my normal pound of hot wings from the deli. Wal-Mart hot wings are a thing of beauty. They are small, not to hot and the “hot wing” coating they use forms a spicy candy like shell around the wing.

But…

Today, something happened. It is so horrible, I can hardly bring myself to type it…

I noticed that the wings in the window looked a little different. They seemed a little larger and the coating looked a little wetter than usual. No worries, I thought, they must be the first batch of the day.

In the checkout line I noticed the smell…it was a vinegar-ish smell…kind of like Tabasco sauce.

Slow sinking feeling….

Then it dawned on me. Wal-Mart changed their hot wing recipe!

Son
Of
A
B*tch

Yep, I got home and they were about 4.67 to 5.10 times hotter than the old kind and the wings were too wet for my liking.

After downing my Mt. Dew and then a large glass of ice water, my mouth stopped burning, but my anger hasn’t.

Thanks a lot Wal-Mart.

Thanks a lot.

I know, I know, I am supposed to be working tonight…trust me, this will only take a few minutes to write. It is short and I am a fast typist. 40 words per minute fast? I don’t know, I will leave that to the professionals *cough* Jon *cough*

Anyway, CNN had a little story about bald eagles and the amazing come back they have staged in the past 30 years. The title of the piece is:

Bald eagle soaring ‘success,’ but at what cost?

They cover that when the bald eagle went on the Endangered Species List, “there were only 417 breeding pairs in the lower 48″ and now there are 9,789 breeding pairs. That is a stunning success.

But then comes the At What Cost? part of the piece.

But Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity conservation group said this victory comes at a price — loss of eagle habitat protection.

The bird’s nesting grounds were protected as long as the bald eagle was considered a “threatened” species. But the less restrictive eagle protection act does not put eagle habitats off-limits.

Suckling said he worries that without habitat protection, developers will move into critical bald eagle areas, push the birds out and reduce their numbers.

“There is big money to be made in cutting down and developing bald eagle habitat,” he said.

Boo Hiss! Evil developers! Big money! Dirty Capitalist Swine! Yeah, yeah, yeah, cry me a river.

I am sure that there will always be pressures on the bald eagle, as on all wildlife. It is just part of life, but there’re ways of co-existing and some sort of middle ground will be found.

The thing is, one of the main reasons for the decline in the bald eagle was the widespread use of DDT.

DDT was banned in the US and across the world, not just for the bald eagle but for some other unfounded reasons. Yay for the environment! Down with evil corporations who make evil chemicals! Yay!

But…

Do you realize that there have been millions of deaths due to malaria since the banning of DDT?

Yep, seems that DDT was God’s gift to man to kill mosquitoes. It works great. When DDT was in use, malaria was quickly going the way of smallpox in being eradicated.

But not now.

DDT used in limited applications could save hundreds of thousands of lives a year. It was good that widespread agricultural use was banned, but banning it for mosquito control condemned millions to an early death.

That should have been the At What Cost? part of the story.

Funny how that did not even make it into it.

Funny.

Some links on bringing back DDT:

National Review
National Reivew – World Bank
Baltimore Sun – Very good read

Bring Back DDT!

I forgot to write the standard “I’m heading out of town this weekend, will post pictures when I get back” post.

So yeah, I am out of town this weekend.

WunderWife and I are in Columbus, Georgia for our 12th wedding anniversary. Yay! I have fooled her for 12 years. My plan is working out nicely!

Actually, I have a post on Sunday in tribute to my wonderful, long suffering wife…with pictures! Yay for pictures!

As far as pictures of this weekend…Um…not so much for what should be obvious reasons.

Take it easy and try not to burn the place down while I am gone.

Check back Sunday.

Update June 10, 2010: This was originally written back in 2007. I updated a few pictures. I love you Jen!

Long time readers (you know who you are), know that I refer to my wife as WunderWife. Today, I want to introduce you to the amazing woman behind WunderWife, Jennifer…or as I call her, Jen.

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary.

Looking back, I do not even recognize the two 22 year old kids that said “I do” and started down the adventurous road of marriage.

Just kids

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Today is Madi’s (aka WunderKid3) 3rd birthday. In honor of her birthday, I decided to repost one of my many posts chronicling her journey from birth to now in regards to her clubbed foot. As you may remember, she was born with a clubbed left foot and had to endure countless castings and a surgery. The post below is a good run down of everything she has been through. This post is a must read about when she took her first steps.

She runs everywhere and shows very few signs that she ever had problems. Her left foot is about 1/2 to a full shoe size smaller than her right and her toes turn in, but it does not affect the way she walks. I imagine when she is a teenager, she will not like them, but oh well, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Happy Birthday Day Baby! Daddy loves you more than you know.

Enjoy

Original Post:

I have been asked recently how Madi (aka WunderKid3) is doing in regards to her foot, so I thought I would update everyone.

For those of you who do not know, Madi was born with a clubbed left foot. For a complete history of her progress as posted on this blog, begin here. The picture below shows how much it was turned. If you stood her up, she would have stood on her left ankle and you could see the bottom of her foot.

They put a cast on her when she was a day old.

Then she had to endure months and months of repeated casting

After the casting came a surgery to lengthen her Achilles tendon.

Once she was out of the cast from the surgery, she had to wear the dreaded bar shoes, 23 hours a day for 3 months.

Now she is walking and only has to wear the shoes at night. Not only is she walking, she is running and to watch her, you would never know that the day she was born I was worried if she would ever walk. I took a little video of her last night to show everyone how well she is walking now.

Click here for the video.

We have been so blessed that the Shriners have been treating her. WunderWife has to take her back down to Tampa in two weeks, but it is down to only having to go every 2 to 3 months. They do great work and if you get the chance, support the Shriners.

UPDATE:

The video above kind of stinks and is from a long time ago. This is a bit better and shows her foot and all the progress she has made. It is kind of dark…stupid cheap 60 watt bulbs…

UPDATE:
Well, we made it. You will probably notice that we got back early. Unlike last time, we finished our trip. We did 12 miles yesterday just taking it easy. So, we decided to push just a little bit today and we ended up doing 21 miles in 7 hours. I will have lots of pictures and what not in the next day or so.

BTW, it is so odd that at noon today I was in the middle of nowhere South Georgia on a river in a canoe and now, I just got back from getting take out from Outback.

My buddy and I are off on another adventurous canoe trip down the Flint River.

We should be putting in below the shoals at Albany, which are the only ones that pose a possible tipping problem. Last year we ran the shoals in the fully loaded canoe…but then again…we were stupid.

This year we hope to put in just below them and only make it to Newton. This is about half of the ambitious trip we tried last year. We plan to take it easy and to do more fishing this year.

Two nights on the river are planned, but depending on the current and how much fishing we do, I guess we could make it to Newton by late Sat. afternoon.

We shall see.

I am taking my camera this year so there will be an extended post when I return with lots of pictures!

I know how much you guys like pictures.

Until then, take it easy and here’s to hoping for no dueling banjos.

Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there. It is a tough job and I tip my hat to those who make it look easy.

To my Dad I wanted to say thank you for being my Dad.

I don’t think of the bad times, I only remember the good times. Do not dwell on the past, it is what it is, but I want you to know that I love you.

You have taught me more than you realize and I find myself passing along little tidbits of life I learned from you to my kids.

You are a great dad and a wonderful granddad.

Thanks for being my Dad, but more importantly, thanks for being my friend.

Happy Fathers Day.

I had a great idea for a post today…

But forces conspired against me and as you can tell, nothing got written…

I had to attend our City Commission meeting today because one of my guys had an item on the agenda and you always want to make sure all your bases are covered. I thought about live blogging the meeting, but I didn’t have a laptop or pda. So, I took notes and jotted down times and what not…

It is all in my notebook and seems a bit anti-climatic now, but hey, maybe I will get some time tomorrow to put it up.

Also, I promised ya’ll my canoe trip post. I may, MAY write it tonight. We shall see.

Until then, pretend this is an interesting site and discuss things amongst yourselves in the comments.

That is all.

As promised, here is my post about our recent canoe trip.

In October of 2005, my buddy Mark and I went down the Flint River with our ultimate destination being Bainbridge, some 60 miles south. Well, you may remember that we camped a bit too near the river and the water came up, almost flooding our tent. We cut our trip short and ended up in Newton which is only 35 miles from Albany.

This time we figured we would take it easy and only go from Albany to Newton. That way we could take our time, do some fishing, look for some arrowheads and have more fun than we did last time.

Our plan actually worked.

Here we are setting off into the great outdoors:

I’m the fat one on the left

My brother-in-law and his wife watched our kids the other day. They had to go to the store, so they let each of our kids pick out a cheap toy. He encouraged my two boys to get Flarp. Only WunderKid2 took him up on the offer and ended up with the best toy.

Behold Flarp!

This stuff is a goo that when pushed back into its container makes wonderful farting noises. My kids played with the stuff all day and you could not help but laugh. They would be in the next room giggling like crazy and you would hear the sounds…Very funny. It was amazing how realistic the sounds were.

It did make having any sort of serious conversation next to impossible.

Thanks Jon.

We just got back from a mini-vacation in Tampa, Florida. It was time for WunderKid3′s foot doctor appointment down at the Shriners Hospital, so I took two days off and we headed down to the Clarion – Busch Gardens. The home of the Pirate Ship! The Pirate Ship is a kid pool with slides and what not with a giant pirate ship as the centerpiece. The kids love it and talk about all the time.

We had a great time, but 5.5 hours in a van with three cranky kids on the way home was, as we say, NOT FUN! Actually, it was just a cranky WunderKid3, but she is loud enough for three.

WunderWife wanted a nice family picture of everyone dressed up for dinner Friday night. We figured we would get one of the hotel patrons to take the picture. There was a lady reading her paper poolside, so we figured, why not…Well, it turns out that she had been sitting there for quite some time sipping margaritas. When she stood up, she stumbled a bit and then took a few pictures. Considering how drunk she was, the pictures turned out great. But for some reason, it appears that I am missing my right eye. Either that or I am slowly turning into a pirate:

Here are a few random pictures of the big pool and the Pirate Ship.

If you are in Tampa and you have kids, go stay at this hotel. It is worth it.

Yeah, so like most people, I mourned the loss of the great Charles Bronson in 2003…

Yet it seems that, as impossible as it sounds, Charles is still alive and kicking and is the Commissioner of the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services:

They lied to me…

Again…

Is it just me, or are you as tired of Rachael Ray as I am?

I mean come on! So she can cook a meal in 30-minutes.

I can too. Step one: boil water, step two: add water to cup-o-noodles, step three: eat. Total elapsed time: 5 minutes.

So when do I get a TV show?

Actually, she has good ideas for quick meals, but her voice and her sneer…my God, it grates on me…really it does. Maybe I can watch her show muted with Close Captioning on.

This morning we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Tampa, Florida and what should my wandering eye see?

Even the poster makes me hear her voice.

Then again, I’ve been told that I have issues…

I took one geology class in college. I needed an elective and it sounded easy enough. The class was great and was taught by an old professor with a long, gray beard and all he did was show slides every class.

It was easy until the lab.

My gosh it got tough then. You were given a pile of rocks and you had to sort them and classify them. The part where you had to taste them put me off the most. Anyway, I am no expert, but I have always loved rocks. Every time I drive through a deep rock cut on the interstate, I almost run off the road or into the car in front of me as I try to look at all the cool features.

On my recent canoe trip, I explored a small island/sandbar and found a very interesting deposit of rocks. I took pictures in hopes that someone can enlighten me. I am looking at you Rob…

Anyway. They were very shiny, almost metallic looking. In fact, they look like chunks of metal. They are not magnetic and are definitely rocks, but they are odd looking. They break like glass if you throw them against other rocks. They have odd shapes in them and almost look like they have were melted and poured into molds.

Pictures below the fold. You know you want to see them. Come on, click the link…
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Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I live blogged one of our City Commission meetings. Well, not really “live blogged”, more of a “live note taking”. If I had pda or laptop I would have done it the right way, but as is such, I took notes and jotted down times and what was going on.

This will give you a little glimpse into part of my job. One of my guys had a contract to get approved by the Commission, which was next to last…

Anyway, here it goes:

8:30: Meeting starts. All Commissioners and the Mayor are present. They begin with the Police update. (those not in the know, our police force has had some serious problems over the past few years, lots of corruption and what not). The police chief spoke about a recent murder…that makes 5 murders so far this year. He also talked about some bogus e-mail going around that says there are gang roving the Mall…he says it’s not true…

8:33: Questions from Commissioners. Mainly deal with a local restaurant/nightclub that has been generating lots of complaints.

8:36: Drug unit update. 64 arrests and $71k in drugs seized. Marijuana is still tops. Some hot spots cleared up.

8:40: Questions. Several questions about the % of arrests made of individuals with prior arrests…around 90%…questions about going after the bigger fish. Most arrest are street level dealers, but some have been bigger traffickers. Interesting tidbit: Drugs once came Florida up, now they seem to be coming in from Texas to Atlanta and then down to Albany.

8:47: Funding for the Flint RiverQuarium. It appears that our new (2 year old) aquarium is running out of money. They need $600k per year for the next 5 to 6 years to keep the doors open. $31 million State funds and $4 million private funds were used to build it. Cost overruns caused them to dip into their endowments…now they don’t have enough money.

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Rob from File It Under has a great photo blog up. Go check it out.

In catching up on old posts, I stumbled across this one.

Having gone through some electrical issues here at work and having one of our people get stuck in one of those things….I totally understand his headline.

Tonight I had to unclog our master bath shower drain. I have to do this periodically because it seems my wife is somehow able to lose more hair in a year then most people grow in a lifetime…

After I got the boys out of the shower, I asked them if they wanted to watch Daddy clean out the clog. They both were excited.

WunderKid1 asked what the long, bent metal thing was. I explained it was my trusty unclogger…an undone clothes hanger.

Unscrewing two screws opened the drain screen and I lowered my unclogger down the drain.

The boys waited in breathless excitement…

Up it came…

Slowly…

The BIGGEST, NASTIEST hairball you have ever seen…It almost made me gag…

The boys, as if on cue, both let out a long, loud…EWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Back down the drain went the unclogger…

Up came the second biggest, nastiest hairball you have ever seen…The boys? Yep, same thing…

At least the shower drains.

And for a few brief moments, Daddy is a hero again.

I have stayed away from the Immigration Bill that is the talk of the town on the Hill and in the blogosphere.

The short version… I’m against the bill.

Chalk me up as one of those silly people that feels that the borders should be secured first, then we can talk about amnesty. I understand the reality of the existing illegal immigrant population and that something needs to be done to allow them a path to legality and eventual citizenship, but not until we can secure our borders.

As the bill is now, it is nothing but amnesty now….enforcement…eh, maybe some time down the road.

I have been following the debate over at Ace’s and it seems to boil down to corruption of the highest nature. The VAST majority of Americans are against this bill, yet it seems destined to pass without so much as a public hearing.

So anyway, that is all I am going to say about that.

Ace’s most recent post sums it up best. Well, the last line of this post.

Ace, he has a way with words.

Check out previous editions of “I Wish I Had Written That”

I took the family swimming last night.

I love to swim. Granted I suck at it, but I love the water. Playing games with the kids, playing with the little torpedo thing and generally floating around.

My wife likes to sit in a chair and read. Not me baby. I am in the pool the entire time. When it is time to go, she is almost as likely to have to talk me into leaving as she is one of the kids.

It’s just something about the water. I love to push off from the side and just glide underwater for as long as I can. The feeling of the water over you. It is strangely comforting.

I’ve got to get me a pool one day.

We are actually going to go see a movie today.

People that know us, know we never go to the movies. Not because we don’t want to, but mainly due to having three little kids and having to find a babysitter and finding the time and a bunch of other lame excuses. We just wait for the DVD.

Anyway, WunderWife’s Mom is taking the kids to see Ratatouille today. I decided to go with them. I love Pixar movies and it looks cute.

I plan on having my first movie review up sometime later today after the movie. Keep in mind, my review will have nothing to do with the actual merits of the story, animation or cultural value of the movie.

Nope.

My review will focus on two things: 1) Did it keep my kids entertained the entire time. 2) Could I watch the movie 500 times in the next two years.

Why the second one? Well, if the kids like the movie like they have Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars, then we will be buying the DVD and it will be viewed 500 times.

500 Times.

So, it’s pretty simple to me.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.