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Subscribe to blogWaiting for the ladybugs
Posted
Well I don't really have any earth shattering news to post here. I have just been enjoying the entire experience of living.I don't know how many people know about the migration of Monarch Butterflies but I remember reading about their remarkable travels. It seems that Monarchs travel northward from Mexico in the spring and spread out in the USA to reproduce. About this time of year, the next generation, born here, then flies back to the same local area of Mexico where their parents were born before migrating north. Neither those born here or those born in Mexico ever make a return trip.
I wonder if Ladybugs do the same thing. Last year, about this same time, this area had a sudden appearance of more Ladybugs then I have seen in all my years combined! According to a local lady, this happens every autumn. I wonder if they do the same thing as Monarchs... does anyone know?
Rural Living
Posted
After spending the majority of my life in the 'burbs, I finally made the move to rural living. I always wanted a piece of land in a rural area that I could make into a small farm... there were just a few things I didn't give much thought. I never really thought about things like registering a vehicle, calculating and paying taxes, along with the dependability of internet service. I had thought about such things as possible extended loss of electricity, the convenience, or should I say the inconvenience of running down to the WaWA for a late night snack or where to get good pizza. There are pluses and minuses no matter where you live.When I sold out and left New Jersey for a rural life, I knew that FiOS and DSL were not commonly available this far out. After having upload speeds of 2 M and downloads of 5 M, I would just have to learn to live with plain old dial up. I didn't really know that a good connection speed would be anything over 26.4 K, I thought you would get at least a steady 31 K. I had also thought about the loss of electricity, but for some reason I never really thought about phone service loss. Well... welcome to rural living.
As if getting used to 26.4 K was not difficult at best, I just got my phone service and, thereby, my internet service back on after almost four days with a dead line. There are a few things I would like to have brought with me from the city life!
YAY!
Posted
Well I know you have all been pensively awaiting my next post with the greatest of angst, so I will no longer keep you all sitting on the edge of your collective chair.
Today... finally... after waiting an entire year... I have purchased a printer/copier/scanner!!
The incredible truth is it is virtually identical to one I purchased over two years ago... yeah, one might think... "why buy an identical printer/copier/scanner that only lasted one year?" unfortunately, the first one failed its initial fight test
Well that little side note isn't the incredible part though. The incredible truth is that I paid exactly one hundred dollars more for the old one!
Here vs There
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Most of my life was lived in New Jersey before my move last year to West Virginia. I've often said that New Jersey is THE best state in this country... except for the extra 7.5 million people that live there! Yeah, New Jersey sucks the big one... taxes, property costs, insurance, the latest fads and toys which every person simply MUST have and even just dealing with the extra 7.5 million people can really be a downer.
It used to really bug me when I would get run off the road by an H1 Hummer rushing to the Post Office two blocks down the road... the driver with cell phone pressed to ear not bothering to wait until I passed the intersection. Driving at twilight was bad, between watching out for the Hummers, BMWs, Mercedes and Jaguars at rush hour, you also had to watch out for all the joggers that just can't seem to run on the sidewalks.
Rural life in West Virginia is like moving to a different planet. Most of the people are nice, the taxes are low, NOBODY jogs in the road, or otherwise, and the only people driving a huge SUV actually need one to manage the back roads in winter. The vast majority of jerks in Jersey that drive SUVs have no need for one whatsoever... its just a status kind of thing.
One day driving to the store, a route I took frequently, I noticed a nice new Hummer HII sitting in a driveway next to an older Plymouth. This one day it snowed close to one foot of heavy snow, the road crews could barely keep up with it. Late in the afternoon I had to go to the store despite the snow. Here I am, slipping and sliding to the store and wouldn't you know it... the Hummer was sitting in the driveway covered with snow... they took the old Plymouth instead! That Hummer sat there for 3 or 4 days until every last patch of snow was gone.
20 years too soon
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If there was one single event of my life I could change, I think I would like to have been born 20 years later. Either that, or maybe, I should have been born about 20 years sooner if not in an entirely different century. But being born just when I was, it has left me too old to really enjoy the internet of today. Sure it was interesting watching the whole home computer thing develop and the incredible advances made in electronics in general.When I went to school there was an actual dress code and teachers wores suits. You couldn't wear sneakers in school except for gym... Nike and running, walking, hiking, court, cross training shoes... none of them existed. It was sneakers, high top or regular.
How many people today know how to operate a slide rule?! When you learned to tell time, you used to have to know how to count to know which hand was pointed at what number. Now, just read off the time in digital... and you don't have to remember to wind it! When we played Monopoly we actually had to count out all the "money" and exchange cards when we bought property. There were no bar codes or automatic cash registers that even give the correct change. You actually had to put a price label on everything and the cashier had to manually punch in the numbers and then they needed to know how to figure out the correct change.
Wow, kids today have got it so tough, I just don't know how they manage to survive to adulthood!
In the news...
Posted
Yet another police officer has shot and killed an innocent civilian! Here a cop was shooting at a snake and killed a nearby 5 year old boy.If ANY civilian discharges a firearm in a residential area, they will be brought up on charges. If ANY civilian discharges a firearm without FIRST assuring a clear line of fire both in front and behind a target, they will be charged with, at the very least, criminal negligence. If ANY civilian causes the death of another, they will absolutely be charged with some sort of homicide.
Suppossedly, a police officer is only allowed to draw his firearm if there is a life in emminent danger. This guy was shooting at some kind of snake in a tree!! Why didn't he call animal control or simply leave the snake alone until it came down from the tree of its own accord?
But no... here we have a, suppossedly, trained individual. A person that will arrest, without hesitation, ANY person that has shot a child to death... one clean shot right through his head!
Who wants to bet not a damn thing will happen to this cop?!
Today in the news
Posted
Sometimes I really want to scream when I read the news.
A woman wants more laws to govern the internet after her 14 year old daughter had a relationship with a 27 year old man. On the surface this is yet one more case of an "online predator." But if you look at everything objectively, they are not telling the entire story.
According to the article, the girl started some form of relationship with a 27 year old man living hundreds of miles away. At some time he drove this distance, for what they ASSUME, was only to have sex. When he left the girl was so depressed that she hung herself TWO YEARS later! Of course the article would make it seem that she was so upset at having sex with this man that she killed herself out of some sort of shame very soon after he returned home.
Ahh yes, so neat and tidy... just blame everything on the 27 year old guy. NOT SO FAST!!!
The claim is she was "seduced" by this man. Yet there is no evidence given that this was anything more than a willing girl hooking up with an older guy... a situation that has gone on since time began. I ask...Where were her parents when she took the time to establish this relationship? What would make a girl seek such a relationship? How do they know she didn't lead the man on? Okay... he is the adult and should have known better, yada yada yada.
The parents only found out after they met and, apparently, had sex. It seems the girl was depressed not by some sort of shame, but rather, because this man she loved went away. Her parents response, take away her computer... yet this girl continued contact with this man secretly any way she could despite her parents protest.
If anyone cares to watch the video of her mother placing flowers on her grave it will be seen that this girl offed herself TWO YEARS later when she was 16. She hung herself after two years of contact with this man. She hung herself, at home, alone, while her parents went to church. Why were these "concerned" parents leaving a depressed girl home alone? Why did they not attend church as a family? It appears they did little as a "family" since the girl maintained contact for two years and they didn't even know until after the fact. They also don't mention the fact the girl killed herself AFTER the man she loved was sent to prison by her parents actions.
blah, blah blah
Posted
I have been a member here for two years, yet this is my first blog entry.
Kinda pitiful huh?
Who really cares what I have to say anyway?
I used to live in the armpit of the USA, The Garbage State, New Jersey... its a nice place to visit, but it really sux living there. I always wanted some land and a cabin in the woods. Well... I'm here... except I don't have a cabin, its a sucky double wide. Having to settle for this, it would have been better if it was a plain old single wide... it fits the image of "trailer trash" so much better.