what does that make this?
Cindy McCain's outfit worth estimated more than $300,000
http://www.azcentral.com/style/fashion/articles/2008/09/04/20080904mccaindress-CR.html

This isn't really relevant to much, but how many Habitat houses or college educations could Cindy have bought with this? This woman may put Nancy Regan to shame.

quotations courtesy of Thomas Paine.

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

I've been reading the most surprising things in the past 48 hrs. It seems Sarah Palin has sceered everyone else as much as she did me. It also seems that many people have thrown in the towel and are going to give up on democracy if the other guys win; maybe even leave for higher ground somewhere else.

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."


another good one:
"He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death."

i don't here no fat lady.

Even if the old guy wins, there is no where else to go, unless we give up.

great site:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_paine.html



i like this Tom paine guy!

Hot day again, everytime i predict we are through with summertime, nature shows me up! Still dry, it looks as if the remains of Gustave will go mostly North-West of us. Zinnias in the front yard were wilting from lack of rain.

A walk in the river on a hot day, a couple hundred feet down from the river ford of my earlier post.



Damn that stupid bobbing head!

I spent 3 hours in the dentist chair today. I am getting two(!) crowns installed, that are next to each other. This was a rear lower molar and the next tooth. Because it is hard to work around, the rear molor took the longest. My toungue strongly objects to two sets of hands and several tools in my mouth, so that slowed everything too.

My dentist is very gentle and seems to do everything right. My teeth don't hurt tonight as much as my jaw and gums.

Until Sept 22, i have to avoid sticky, chewy, hard, stuff on my right side, until i get the permanent crowns in.



a beautiful day today, the high in the upper 80's, with blue, blue skies. How many hot days do we have left?

Our county wide park system runs through three different river valleys. The Rocky River in the West, a small part of the Cuyahoga in the center and the Chagrin river Valley in the East. Much of the system was laid out in the 1930's with work done by the WPA. A low budget system of concrete river fords were built to cross the two smaller streams.

(I should note to myharry, who grew up within a stones throw of the Ohio River, the rivers of Northern Ohio are nothing but glorified creeks. Others may feel the same way, but to us who grew up here, our "rivers" that often run a few inches deep in summer, are just fine!)

Staring in the 1960's the fords were slowly replaced, with new higher bridges that never flooded or in some places a more substantial version of the old crossings; the replacement fords were built in the same spot as the old fords. I was wondering if anyone has seen this kind of structure anywhere else or if this was a unique solution to this area? Unique maybe because the rocky river has a stone bed instead of mud.


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Seems like the whole Democratic Party was in town today for the funeral of local Congress-woman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Obama, Clintons, Politicians Remember Tubbs Jones:
http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/17345919/detail.html

We were impressed by all the attention she got; 'harry noted that it was strange the Dennis Kucinich was about the only pol not in sight. The service was covered live on TV and ran over three hours, which seems a little much; i wouldn't want to make anyone sit that long for me.

Jones wasn't our district but i always liked to see her interviewed because she gave off a good energy.

for the rest of us:

Got your Chucks?
http://blog.cleveland.com/lifestyles/2008/06/everybody_loves_chucks_convers.html
I grew up wearing dime-store knock-off Chucks; of course it was back then, when nobody cared what the label said. Maybe that lead to me being not quite the purist, because i prefer the oxford to the high-top.

My sometimes misguided brother tells me, from time to time, that he won't wear Converse anymore because now they are made in China. As if whatever he is wearing isn't made in China, but i digress.

My current pair, past respectability, but not ready for the grave:


Favorite color? i like the classic red, black and navy.



EDIT: You knew it was going to happen some day, didn't you, a picture of his old shoes.

This one is for my friend eats_veggies "City Chicks: A chicken farm in Ohio City"
http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2008/08/city_chicks_a_chicken_farm_in.html
for clarity Ohio City is an old, old neighborhood in the City of Cleveland.

Hot today, the third day in a row at 90 or better. I went for a bike ride and it was just gorgeous, i didn't feel warm, maybe there was enough breeze, but it was very pleasant ride in the middle of the day.

We are in a real dry spell now, it has to be at least, six weeks without much rain. The weather said today that the total for August so far, is 1/2" while the average is 2 1/2".

I think that trees have a mechanism that drops off leaves from themselves when they are under stress like lack of rain. The walnuts here, have been dropping leaves for a week or two and in the park there were brown dried up leaves along the path.



The place i worked almost 15 years ago was robbed by armed robbers for the seconed time in a little over a month. The troubling thing is that this is just around the corner from us. There was an attempted burglary once, that i broke up when i worked there (not as heroic as it sounds!) but it is chilling that i could be there, or they here in less then two minutes. Yes waffleips up at Dunkin.

It's late and i keep getting knocked off the net, so short and sweet.

We celebrated #1daughter's 15th!!! birthday; talk about feeling older! We followed her request for hamburgers and pumpkin pie, instead of cake.

Maybe more tommorow.

'harry and i went shopping for a new machine tonight and we ended up going with cheap. We picked out a GE washer for $279.00. It doesn't have many buttons on top and doesn't save energy either. If this thing breaks in two years we won't be nearly as upset. If the factory wants to sell me disposable machines; i'm going to pay a disposable price!

Of course add 70 bucks for delivery and removal of the old machine and then another $27.00 with our over inflated sales taxes, and you're in the neighborhood of $400. but that would be with any machine.


SO ONE LAST TIME; i WAS AS SHOCKED AS ANYONE, BUT MAYTAG SUCKS!!! 35 YEARS OF A VERY SUCCESFUL MARKETING CAMPAIGN DUPED ME. MY MAYTAG WASHER WAS A LOAD OF CRAP.

ok?

Five years ago today, the lights went out and it was kind of fun!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_North_America_blackout

& it started here! http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2408583/detail.html

It was a warm evening and we went out and looked at the stars. If you ask me the power came on to soon, about 10:30 or so. I guess though, the fact that the water stopped running was a problem.

Look at some washing machines; nothing impressed me much. Not much in the mood to buy anything.

How about some pictures from some old slides?


this is an old railroad bridge in nearby Berea. The heavy Romanesque construction unintentionally creates an authentic atmosphere for the ruin.
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Our 4 years & 4 months, old Maytag washing machine just died while i was sitting here. This was the machine that needed major repair work when it was 18 months old. So what now? Do we spend $800.00 or more on a new energy efficient machine? Or if it is going to only last a few years anyway, do we buy the cheapest thing on the floor.

I don't think Consumer Reports gives the whole picture. I'm just tired of dealing with merchandise that is apparently meant to be thrown away after a year or two.

Thanks for all the suggestions on a new community. I like k2rider78 's idea of a general sort of "i made this" community; expanding on the scanner art idea. Yet could that get old like some other communities.."here is a picture of this" "here is another picture of this" where praise gets tired after awhile?

How about a salsa community:
1st) I ate salsa last night!

2nd) Yech i don't like salsa, but i went danceing.

maybe not.

lj'r almost wiped out in a storm*

I went for an evening walk in the woods around 8:00 PM. There was a little thunder from storms over the lake again. As i walked, the sky grew more ominous but i kept walking. Soon the rumble of thunder grew louder and i saw a few flashes in the clouds. After a particular close sounding rumble i stopped my progress.

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EDIT: 'harry thinks the orbs are a couple early hailstones

Hillary won't give up the fight to be; what?
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/07/1251817.aspx
What do they want other than to ruin their reputation in the Party?


& locally.."Cleveland On List Of America's Dying Cities" http://www.newsnet5.com/money/17101665/detail.html
That's DYING folks! Along with three other Ohio cities. Check out the survey; Cleveland agrees.

Welcome to the Rust Belt.

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OH, and Mom got her car back finally, three weeks after the wreck.

1. #1son came home from seeing Barak Obama, worn out with a headache. It was a long day; his friend picked him up at 9:00 and they went over to the hall at 11:00; it's in the area. The candidate was supposed to arrive at 2:00 but didn't make it until 2:30 and he spoke for around an hour. It was hot and close inside. I'm sure someday #1 will be more impressed with the day then he was.


2. Thinking about the heating season coming up and wether to get wall insulation. This 125 year old house has insulation that i put in the attic years ago, but nothing in the walls. But i will tell you something that will shock most of you: we do not have air conditioning. there is a large tree that shades the house a little more then half the day and we get a good breeze, if the air is moving.

Anyway, my thought is that if i insulate the walls to keep the house warm in the winter will it not do the same in the summer? Instead of cooling off at night won't  the house stay warm like an oven all night? If you have AC then you want to insulate in summer to stay cool, does my logic make sense?


3. #1son asked me why do spiders build webs around the outside lights on the house. I asked him the question right back and he answered: because insects are attracted to the lights. So far so good! 

But then i thought that, that is awfully opportunistic behavior; in fact it must be a learned behavior. It's clear that spiders do weave webs by our outside lights and that when spiders evolved, there were no lights on houses. So what is in a spider to know that if it puts a web by a porch light, it will catch more bugs?