Mid February thoughts

It has been cool to cold here in eastern Tennessee. We had snow flurries yesterday which stuck to the grass and trees, but melted on the road surfaces. Thank goodness for small favors. While we were in Florida a few weeks ago, there was one morning here with black ice everyewhere, and as a result, quite a few accidents on the roadway, including a multi-car that made the news.



The birds have been working the feeders hard the past few days, and we enjoy watching them. Red cardinals and their brown mates, finches, flickers, chickadees, and some grackles all working around the back yard. I took a shot of a half dozen of the birds that are more scavengers, perched at the top of our neighbor's dead tree.

I didn't have any editorial comments about them, but I'm sure you might think of a good caption for the shot.

I worked most of last week in Houston, building a proposal for the firm I help on a regular basis. The proposal should get submitted tomorrow or so, and if it gets to contract, will result in me spending a fair amount of time in the Atlanta area. I'm hoping it works out, as the work should be pretty exciting, as well as personally satisfying.

I hope it warms up again soon, I am looking forward to playing golf again in reasonable temperatures.

Pictures from Florida

As previously promised, here are a few shots from our recent trip to Florida. There is a view out the window of our room at the resort, the resort as seen from the beach, and a short video of the waves washing across some coral rock that has been exposed due to severe beach erosion this year. I also added a couple shots taken at a fly-in community where we stayed with friends for a couple days. One shows a Piper Cub fitted with pontoons and a cool old hot rod, and a front shot of an old Piper Cub J model.

Snowbirds in Florida

We just returned from a couple very pleasant weeks in Florida. It started with a visit to my brother Mic and his wife. We enjoyed a great dinner which was also attended by their son Andrew and wife and two children. It was a fun, family evening. Next on the agenda was a golf weekend for me with some of my old buddies from work, playing four different courses in Orlando.

Sunday afternoon, we drove to Jupiter and checked in to the Jupiter Beach Resort on the ocean. This was an exchange for our time share week at Tahoe that we had banked a couple years ago. We had fun all week, dining out and meeting old friends in the West Palm Beach area. Saturday morning, we checked out and drove south to Boynton Beach and stayed a couple days with friends Jon, Sandi, and Leslie. Again, great times good food, and a chance to see old friends.

Monday, we drove north to the panhandle of Florida, just west of Ft. Walton Beach to visit Mike & Joanne, friends we met in Germany. And finally we drove back home on Wednesday, after just over two weeks away. We are thankful for the warm weather we experienced, and the chance to see friends and family.

I'll publish a couple pictures within a day or so.

A cold morning in TN

It dropped to less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit last night. The heat pump worked hard to keep the house warm, and kicked in the secondary heat several times. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, a heat pump is simply a reverse cycle air conditioner. In the summer, it cools the air in the house by "pumping" heat outside, and in the winter it pumps heat from outside into the house. As it gets colder, it gets harder to pump heat, so the secondary kicks in. That is a series of heat strips in the plenum that produce heat while air is blowing across them. Just like having a toaster oven with a fan blowing across it as your house heat source. And of course this morning, everyone's power consumption was up, so the power failed a couple times. Fortunately, it seems to be fine now.

Here's a picture of our water fountain, taken at just before noon. Lots of ice formed last evening and this morning, but it is still running.

Pictures

I have been a bit lax in not posting some pictures to go along with my ramblings, so here are a few shots to go along with some of the last couple posts. Try clicking on the shots to see them actual size.

The first one is a shot of a bridge on the northern end of the Natchez Trace taken with some fall colors showing. The next one is me standing in the atrium of the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Following that is a shot of the exterior of the Nashville Art Museum, an exact replica of the Parthenon in Greece built for the 1888(?) TN Centennial Exposition.

The next shot is the exterior of our log home lit up for the holiday season.

And finally, a shot of the Christmas Tree from the second floor landing.

December thoughts

My last couple blog entries have been a bit boring, whining about politics. Transplanted Lawyer (TL) commented as did the Orange Phantom, and their comments were right on. Today, TL commented that Republicans seem to have forgotten what "conservative" principles are. Thanks, TL, that's a much better way of capturing why I have been so disappointed with the politics lately. No one is being conservative. No one is promoting a conservative agenda. The current administration's agenda seems to be focused on making the Presidency as autonomous and powerful as possible, and the sacrifice of our constitutional rights on the way is just so much collateral damage. Is there a true conservative candidate for president? If so, I would like to support that person.

On a more personal level, we have been starting to prepare for the holiday season. Last week, we drove to Nashville and met friends for a couple days of fun and doing touristy things. We saw the Radio City Rockettes Show at the Opryland Hotel. Good show, lots of fun, although a bit heavy at the end with an overacted Nativity scene. While in Nashville, we also toured the art museum which is housed in an exact as possible reproduction of the Parthenon in Greece. Very nice. We also took a luncheon cruise on a riverboat and were entertained by the country music show. The food was less than memorable, though. It was also great fun just to spend time with our friends who recently moved from the San Diego area to northern Georgia. Talk about a change in culture!!

We put up the outdoor lights and the tree, so our house has lots of Christmas cheer. There are a collection of Santas on display upstairs, and another collection of snowmen in the basement rec room. Strands of garland line the staircase. In a few weeks we'll take it all down again, but I'm glad its on display.

Where do they get their funding?

Before the current "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan, we were supposed to have declared war on drugs. I think we are missing an important thing that affects our country in a very negative fashion. I am especially thinking of heroin and those drugs related to the opium poppy production. We were supposed to be helping Afghani farmers come up with an alternative cash crop to opium poppies Instead, the Taliban is doing everything they can to encourage poppy growth and the subsequent opium and heroin production. Some of the money spent in the US on drugs ends up in the hands of organized crime, and much more importantly, some of it ends up in the hands of the Taliban. They use it to finance their terrorist activities in Afghanistan, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out they help support Al Qaida in Iraq. So in essence, US citizens are financing both sides of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How bizarre. Support our troops on one hand, and help kill them with the other.

I haven't heard anything from any of the candidates on this subject, but probably because its just not a fashionable thing to discuss anymore. They have touched a bit on the medical uses of marijuana, one even admits to inhaling. I don't have any substantive data, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that opiate sales are on the rise. Combating this trend has got to be better for us in the long run than many domestic programs being proposed.

Let's bring home our troops from some of the 170 locations they are currently deployed, and use their talent and strength to stop the flow of illicit drugs into our country. Let's also take a harsher look at the penalties associated with this activity. Do you know what happens to druggies, drug smugglers, and dealers in Muslim countries? Usually the punishment is death. They just don't tolerate it. We need to move in that direction.