She's new in town

As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.

GWB, 9/26

The White House 'corrected' the gaffe in the official transcript as they usually do, but their new press secretary, Dana Perino, insisted it be changed back to the way it was delivered. She felt that preserving the integrity of the transcript was more important than changing how it was spoken. I'm guessing she'll be out of a job fairly soon.

Calling Lee Majors

As you know, I'm rather partial to model railroading. A manufacturer called Rapido is releasing a model of one of the more unique trains that appeared in North America...
Called the Turbo Train (sounds like a new fall show)never got much past the research phase in the late 60s-early 70s, but a jet-engined train would that could do 170 mph would still be hard to beat today. Plus, it has that modern-60's look that manages to be ugly and cool at the same time.

And so it goes

Well, Maude and Claude, our wacky neighbors, are mad at us again.
Shortly after the tree crews began their work, Claude asked if he could have the wood they were leaving behind. They explained that they really couldn't give our wood away to somebody else. Claude stomped back indoors, and they spent the rest of the day glaring out the window at the workers, and yelling at them to close the fence gate and not loiter in their yard.

I spoke to Claude as the tree crews left that evening, and he made several comments along the lines of ' are you sure you want that wood?' etc. I expl that we are looking forward to using what was left of our trees in the fireplace. He then changed tactics and said that they're going to board theirs up, since using a fireplace wastes a lot of heat and probably causes hotdog fingers or something.
It's not like it's a gold mine of wood - if we burn a fire every night, it might stretch for 3 weeks.
I couldn't imagine if the roles were reversed how furious their response would have been if we asked for the wood from their trees.

It's not a downspout, it's a conversation piece

I found some roll-up downspout extensions last week, finally. Whenever I would ask someone at a store if they carried them, I got a look like I was out of my mind. I looked around last year, and was seriously starting to think I had imagined them.
But I have them, and installed them, and now watching the rain is fun at my house. The weight of the water unrolls the plastic sleeve, running the water away from the house. I wish they whistled like the party-favor type do, but I'm sure they're working on that version.

Mildly annoyed

I can't seem to find a way to have additional pages on this site. I guess I need to go back and create a new site, and jsut link to that. Whic, I know, is sort of the same thing. But I miss the idiot-proof 'create new page' tag from the old one.

Better than new

I've started a new page, with commenty goodness available. Older posts can be found at http://danharrington.googlepages.com/home

So our back yard is now minus 2 trees. We had been told (last year) by the 'lectric company that the large pine would be removed, because the way it had grown, it completely surrounded a utility pole. They finally got off their asses and took care of it yesterday, after some complaining by us about the long delay. They also removed a smaller tree on the other end of the yard that was also growing around the lines. So, the backyard looks a lot more naked, but we can now see most of the western sky, which was cool last night when the thunderstorms rolled by in the distance.
They didn't really offer any privacy form the neighbors anyway, but they did help to filter the view of their backyard somewhat. Now it's "kids, are you seeing all this plight?"
Time for.....another shrubbery!