2010 Already?

Is it 2010 already?

Man it feels like it was just 1969...

Time goes faster when you start getting older. I will become 63 years old in 2010.

Thank you to the universe for allowing me to stay this long. My next big time-line goal is 2012. I want to be here all the way through 2012. All the way to New Years Eve.

There might be another date that comes along before then but 2012 should be a good time to be alive. (look it up on Google).

I have no plans for New Years Eve so I think I will go down to the restaurant and the wine bar on the first floor of my high rise building for midnight bells and whistles.

Avatar the Movie

I seldom go to movies but I did attend Avatar today. Good movie and worth going to the theater.

Please go to the 3D showing (with the glasses). I doubt that the 2D version would have the same effect.

Plase don't drink coffee or get one of those huge cups of Coke that they try to sell you before you go inside. The movie goes on for two and half hours and has no intermission break!

I never recommend movies but I do recommend this one.

Needle Boy

Stories like this take a long time to leave my life for some reason.
this kind of cruelty and evil are just incredible to me. I cannot imagine anybody doing something like this.

I am a volunteer in a school for special needs children for the past 16 years. I work with kids of all kinds of abilities and disabilities.

All children of the world belong to all of us. We truly are a village and it is our collective responsibility to protect children and to be outraged about things like this.
Maybe it is because this is the holiday season or something, but this seems especially heinous this time of year?

This is a picture of the boy I found on the internet and here is a clipping that accompanied the photo. The link to CBS News is below.

In this file photo, a 2-year-old boy, found with 42 needles inside his body, arrives to a hospital in Salvador, northeastern Brazil, Thursday. Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, the boy's stepfather, said Sunday in a jail cell interview that he intended to kill the boy out of spite for his wife and didn't think he would be discovered. (AP Photo/Arestides Baptista

What do you think? Perhaps the punishment for the perpetrator should be prison and 42 needles stuck into his body? Since he is a grown adult maybe he should get 84 needles stuck into his body?

Sorry that I posted about this issue two days in a row. These kinds of cruel acts stay with me for a while. I sure hope the boy recovers and is placed into a safe home where he is loved and protected.

"It was truly an unbearable suffering," said Magalhaes. "It was to get back at the boy's mother. I thought the needles would work their way through his body and kill the boy. It was a way to kill without anyone discovering." But the pain led the toddler to complain to his mother, and on Dec. 10 she took him to a hospital where X-rays revealed about 30 needles lodged throughout his body. The boy underwent a five-hour operation in the northeastern city of Salvador on Friday to remove four rusty needles that most threatened his life, near his heart and in his lungs. Doctors said Sunday the child is doing well and will likely undergo two more surgeries, the next one on Wednesday at the earliest, to extract needles up to 2 inches long from his abdomen and spine.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/20/world/main6003001.shtml

Needles Stuck into Boy

This excerpt is from the internet.

RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian man publicly confessed to pushing dozens of needles into his 2-year-old stepson, saying Sunday he intended to kill the boy out of spite for his wife and didn't think he would be discovered.In a jail cell interview aired on Globo television's Fantastico program, 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes said he mixed water with wine to dope the child before he and his lover held the boy down and stuck sewing needles into him.
"I did this two or three times a week during one month," Magalhaes said.


Here is a link to just one site that has the story. It is hard to believe that anybody could be this cruel? This is truly an evil person to do something like this.

Man.... An innocent two year old boy.


http://www.lipstickalley.com/f50/man-sticks-needles-stepson-revenge-215018/

Oregon State University Lost

The Las Vegas Bowl Game was played last night. Oregon State against Brigham Young. I couldn't watch the entire game because it was too disappointing. I clicked back and forth about every ten minutes to see if it was getting better, but nope. It was a disaster all the way.

BYU cleaned our clock. It wasn't even close.

I wonder if OSU was maybe still recovering from the Oregon v/s Oregon State game of a couple weeks ago? That game was indeed a good and well played game. Oregon won that one.

University of Oregon will represent our state in the Rose Bowl Game on January 1st, since they won the game two weeks ago. I hope they play up to their potential and clobber Ohio State. Oregon has a good team and certainly has the ability beat Ohio State.

But OSU has a good team as well, and I really thought they would win the Las Vegas Bowl. They just played poorly and lost.

Winter Solstice

Today is Winter Solstice 2009. Tomorrow the days start getting longer!

The weather has warmed up somewhat from the freeze that we had about a week ago. Normally we don't get freezing weather that lasts so long. This one lasted over a week and ponds and standing water froze over. Many people had frozen pipes and broken pipes. Everything was just fine at my home.

We are having normal wet and warmer weather now. Our best winter weather comes from the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday was over 50 degrees. Today is a little cooler but not cold. Quite rainy though.

The Big Game

Thursday this week is the biggest football game ever between the two Oregon PAC Ten teams. Oregon and Oregon State.

The Rose Bowl Game on January 1st generally has one of the California teams like USC or CAL to represent the West Coast in the game. This year it is Ohio State for the Big Ten and the Pac Ten part will be determined on Thursday evening right here in Oregon.

Oregon v/s Oregon State to be played in Eugene this week.

Isn't that something? Hard to believe. Oregon is some kind of backwater place where nobody even lives. The entire population of this state is very small.

Man this is wonderful for Oregon no matter which team wins the big game. Both schools have done a great job in the past several years. This game cannot be called at this time. It can go either way.

TVs in every home in Oregon will be watching football on December 3rd.

If Oregon State wins on Thursday, the Rose Bowl Game will see two teams from schools called OSU? Oregon State and Ohio State.

Veterans Day 2009

I cannot take credit for this image. I found it on the internet. But the face of a war soldier has not changed much from WWI, WWII through Korea, Vietnam and now Afghanistan and Iraq. My face looked like this in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968.

I am a severely injured combat infantry soldier from my service in Vietnam.

I am a few days late posting a Veterans Day entry but I think it is an extremely important day is our lives. We must remember those who serve in our armed forces. It would be wonderful if one day there were no need for armies and conflicts, but that day sure seems a long way off.

I was invited to attend a whole school assembly at my grandchildren's Elementary School in suburban Seattle, and then to speak to each of my kids individual classes. The entire program was done so well and with such respect that I felt honored to be present. 500 elementary school children sat quietly and respectfully on the floor in the assembly hall and participated in their part of the program and respectfully observed as adults spoke their parts.

After all these years of being a Vietnam veteran I finally felt like a part of larger America again. Vietnam veterans were so hated and despised for so long that it gets absorbed as a part of our personality and we are often outside looking in.

Thank you for respectfully observing Veterans Day this year.

My Car is Crashed

I brought my car into the service place last Wednesday to get the oil changed and they crashed my car. I bought the car brand new in this place 16 years ago and have brought it there for service every 3000 miles for the past sixteen years. The gas pedal got stuck they said.

Caught his foot between the brake pedal and the gas pedal. The appraiser called me yesterday and he said the car is totaled. Now I need to find money to buy another car.

Isn't it hard to believe how much damage was done? They crashed through the garage door and into the lift hoist. My poor little car is done for. I really took care of this car and kept it in great condition.

Insurance companies don't look at what the value of the car is to the owner, but just the book value of a car of the same vintage in Kelly Blue Book or something. I had 123,000 miles in this car and it had about ten years left. Maybe more.

Bad enough if I had crashed my car myself. But I was in the waiting area having a cup of coffee. I didn't even see it happen.

Road of Death

A friend sent me an email with these pictures of what is called "The Road of Death" in Bolivia.

I saw a television program about this very road last Winter on one of those cable channels. This road is a miracle of engineering, but I personally would not choose to travel it.

The program said that there are some people who find it necessary to travel this road every day. It is the only road connecting a part of the interior of Bolivia to the coast. The TV program said this road is 30 miles if I remember correctly.

Maybe later this week I might Google the road to get more information.

I-Phone!

I finally got a cell phone last week. It took me around twenty years to join the cell phone community.

I never really needed a cell phone, and I am not quite sure I need one even now. Everybody has a cell phone so I suppose I should have one. Now I need to get my cell phone number out there so people can call me sometimes.

I don't get many telephone calls even on my land line, so I don't expect that will change now that I have a cell. But it will be nice to have when I travel to Seattle or somewhere in case of emergency or something.

This phone has a lot of features. It can receive email and surf the web with a web browser. It even has wireless built in. Who would have ever thought that this kind of machine would even be invented. It is quite impressive.

My last post about the camera? I did finally receive a refund from the seller. He does not answer email but he did respond when I sent the entire package back to him in Connecticut. I will be more careful about buying things on line now.

Buy Carefully

I bought a Casio Camera like this EX Z-50 from a vendor who sells through Amazon.com. This was to be a gift for my brother.

I had the camera sent directly to his home in another state, and when it arrived the package contained a completely different camera and is broken.

The Amazon vendor said in his ad that the camera is "like new" condition. That was a total lie.

I had my brother send the camera to me in Oregon and yesterday I sent it back to the seller. I have emailed the seller several times but they have not replied. I enclosed printed copies of all the emails inside the package.

I was under the belief that Amazon.com checked out the vendors who sell under the Amazon.com name. I was wrong. Looks like they allow anybody at all to sell through their company.

I wanted to post this on my blog to vent some frustration. I do not expect any of the money I paid to this vendor to be returned. I did ask them several times for my money but no response from them at all. They are ignoring me.

The camera should arrive back in Conneticut tomorrow or Saturday. I wonder if they will even acknowledge receiving it? I plan to keep watch on Amazon.com to see if they try to re-sell it to another trusting person.

Amazon.com has an area where one can post feedback about sellers. I plan to post extremely negative feedback next week. I will give one more chance after they receive the camera to see if they might have a bit of honor.

Labor Day 2009

Tomorrow is Labor Day. Please honor and remember the workers of America. This is a day set aside to remember working class Americans.

I will be at my annual Labor Day church picnic but I will remember what the day represents. I grew up in Michigan. One of the primary states of unions. Mining industry, Auto industry and others.

Have a nice day tomorrow.

I-Pod

This is a joke I read in the Oregonian Newspaper September 3, 2009. In the"Uncle Edgster" column, page E6.

I do not take credit for authoring this entry, but I think it is worth sharing in my blog.

Here is the joke I am borrowing from the Oregonian:


"I was in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart. The music was really loud so I timed my farts with the beat. After a couple of songs I started feeling better. I finished my pint and noticed that everybody was staring at me. Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my I-Pod."

Big Moose

Wow... look at the size of this moose! How would you like to come across this guy while you are walking in the woods?

Wheelchair Day with The Mayor

On August 1st, 2009 Access Benton County in cooperation with Corvallis Parks Department is hosting a "Wheelchair Ride with the Mayor" from 10AM to noon.

This will be on Saturday at the same time of day as the Corvallis Farmer's Market.

We will have a specific route mapped out, with a handout and the route identified with sidewalk chalk all along the way. Not a difficult journey and only a few blocks long. Starting and ending at Jackson Street Fountain.

Twenty wheelchairs will be available for you to borrow when riding the route. We wish to just raise awareness of disabled access in a small way with this event. Kind of a small part of a typical day in Corvallis for a person who lives in a wheelchair.

The Mayor and other officials will be present and will ride the route in a wheelchair. City Council Members, Benton County DA and others. Various agencies who provide services to the public will be on hand, in addition to Access Benton County and Corvallis Parks Department.

Benton County Parks, CoHo Housing, Benton Health Department and others will be there. We will be giving away free information about many disability issues and we will even hand out some prizes as long as they last.

Please come to watch and to hopefully participate.

A route for kids will be in the area of the Jackson Street Fountain, so there will be no need for children to go out into the street and to cross traffic. The wheelchairs will all be adult size chairs and are somewhat big for kids to safely handle on their own.

Eat your Vegetables!

I have always liked cartoons. I subscribe to a daily cartoon site and this one really was funny for some reason.

I guess mother has trouble getting junior to eat his vegetables? I don't know why this is funny. Kind of sick cartoon in a way, but I found it to be funny.

Delete?

I see that all my old old posts remain on Google and everywhere else. Even though I mostly quit this whole blog experience?

By deleting all that old stuff from my blog I somehow believed I got rid of it. But now I see that I don't know how to get rid of anything. It just stays out there. Forever....

OK. .. I now see that everything just stays and stays.. Maybe some day I might figure out how to have search engines say that a page has been deleted? Right now I don't know how to do that.

Farmer's Markets are here

These trees are in the parking lot on 1st street @ Western Blvd. There are so many flowers on these trees that is looks almost impossible. The photo does not do justice to this scene. But this is about as good as I can do with the camera I have.

This is the newly relocated Wednesday Farmer's Market now held on 1st Street near the Corvallis Skateboard Park. It just now closed at 7PM today. This is relocated from the Benton Fairground, and it switched from a morning market to afternoon from 3PM to 7PM. I sure hope this is a big success in this new location.

This is the first day of the 2009 Saturday Market downtown. It was real well attended and even crowded. The temperature was in the 80's. Wonderful.

Swallows Are Back

Looking out my windows in the past week I see swallows flying around. A very good sign of Summer. Swallows wait until there are enough bugs around to eat before they come back to our part of the world.

The temperature for the past two days has been over 80 degrees. Wow! That is a temperature we sometimes have to wait for until July..

I have drastically cut back on posting to this blog. But thank you for those of you who keep coming back. I posted here daily for the first year but then got disillusioned for a while.

Last week I had terrible allergy problems, but this week it isn't as bad. What ever the particular tree or plant that I am allergic to must be finished blooming? Who knows. I am glad that I can now go outside.

Last week I had to stay inside a lot. I even drove out to the coast on two of those days so I could breath fresh air. Thousands of miles of ocean scrubs all the crap out of the air by the time it reaches our coast.

1944 Ford Ferguson

I have a friend here in Corvallis who restored this 1944 Ford Ferguson. He said he will sell it to me. Or anybody I suppose?

He did a complete restoration by tearing this tractor down to all it's individual parts and replacing those parts that are worn out and rebuilding all the rest.

This is a 1944 Ford Ferguson, exactly like the one my father owned where I grew up on our family farm. This is a rare tractor to find. Built during the war and all. Most American factories were converted to production of war machines back then. Planes and tanks. Guns and bombs.

I asked my family, especially my brothers if they would help me to buy this tractor and bring it to the homestead in Michigan. Well... the response was mostly silence.

Dad's old Ford Tractor is in really bad shape after all these years.. I wanted to bring this restoration back to where the original was. In order for that to happen I guess I will need to buy this restoration myself and hire somebody to transport it to the homestead in Michigan. Too costly for me alone.

Yeah. Ours once looked like this one. But look at it now. I would like to see if somebody might restore dad's old tractor some day but that probably will never happen. At least we have it under shelter finally. That white stuff on the tire is just snow..

We managed to build a pole barn on the old homestead this past summer. A wonderful addition. Sure took a long time to climb out of poverty to a place where we can do something like this. A lifetime....

2010 Camaro

This 2010 Camaro is supposed to be in Corvallis Chevy Dealer in June. I am going to wait for it before I buy a new car.

If it works out for me I am going to buy one. I drive a 16 year old car and have not been able to find something to replace it.

If General Motors and Chevy built cars like this one they wouldn't be going bankrupt. Build dependable cars that people want to buy. Just makes sense?

This is really a great car. About time you built a car like this Chevrolet!

Look this up on youtube.com. There are some great videos there. Just enter 2010 Camaro in the search box.

Republican Baby?

This is one of my morning cartoons that I receive in daily email.

How appropriate!

I removed my "Veterans for Obama" bumper sticker from my car shortly after the election. I placed it back last week after the difficulty the Republicans have been dishing out. Just plain old bullheaded idiocy.

The Republican party does not appear to get it that we are in trouble. What the heck? Maybe they have too much money in their bank accounts and maybe do not personally know any "normal" citizens?

Road Kill?

Don't you feel like road kill sometimes? I guess all of us get run over by events in life sometimes?

Here is a clever cartoon about it. Some of these cartoon writers do better at capturing life and it's complexity than actual photos do. Maybe that is why I like cartoons.

A lot of things have happened since I last added to my blog. Maybe I might get back to weekly postings or possibly even more often than that? I got so disappointed in the success of this blog that I almost deleted the whole thing. I needed time off from posting here for a while.

I have been looking for a new car for quite a while now. Man have I looked at cars! Just about everything that might work for a guy in a wheelchair. There are so few out there.

Almost all cars nowadays are four door vehicles. The few two door coupes made now are so tiny and they have no room in back for a wheelchair. Just no room. Four door cars are not an option for me.

All the manufacturers have some great concept vehicles on their web pages. But they just don't build those particular cars. All the car companies build almost the same cars as the others do. They seem to follow each other like lemmings?

If any one of them built something slightly different they would have people flocking to their businesses. There are many of us who need a slightly different car from the masses of vehicles made by everyone. Lemmings...

Tomorrow I plan to look at maybe the last two possibles in Corvallis. Or anywhere in America in fact. Looks like nobody makes a car for me?

President Obama

President Obama. George Bush has gone back to Texas!

Kansas City Library

This is the Kansas City Library. Isn't this something to see?

I once lived in Kansas about 100 miles West of Kansas City. It was a nice place to live and Kansas people are good people. Somehow though they have become farther right politically and religiously than they were back in the 1970's?

I have not visited Kansas since 1989, the year my father-in-law died.

I think it remains a good place as it was back then. Congratulations on an interesting new library. Cool..

Holidays are over

I received this cartoon in my Yahoo page this week. As has probably become obvious in this blog I like cartoons. Good cartoons can be found among the piles of those not worth the bother.

I like the odd ones better than the most popular ones. The best cartoon in our local Gazette-Times is Crankshaft. The worst one is Cathy. The G-T could do much better in the cartoon section. One I would like to see added to the G-T is Pickles.

This particular cartoon is timely for early January. I have seen some extremely dry Christmas trees lately.

I hope everybody had a nice New Years Day.

January 2009

I started this blog in January 2008, so it has been going for one year now. It has gone through an evolution of sorts. The biggest change so far is that I don't post every day anymore like I did through most of last year. I might get back to that eventually.

The big reason I stopped posting every day is because nobody really cares. It is quite a personal commitment to post something every day. People were not reading this blog, even though it looked for a while like they were.. Turns out most of those readers were getting directed here through Google searches. They stayed only one to two seconds. So my numbers were misleading.

I plan to keep blogging as long as it it makes sense to do so. I went to all the trouble of setting al this up so I guess I will keep doing this for a while.

See you soon.