Hike to Bear Rock in Durham

Hike to Bear Rock

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic"

I was looking for the Quote "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic" and found this blog. Since the blog says everything that I wanted to say, I am just going to point you to the blog. Thanks go to Chuck of Biting My Tonque.

http://chuck-bitingmytongue.blogspot.com/2008/07/when-people-find-they-can-vote.html

The Real James Herriot

The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anyone who has read James Herriot's books and loved the man and his stories should read this book. It is written by his son and follows the real James Herriot (Alfred Wight) from his birth to his death giving a great insight on the man that wrote all the great books and how similar he was to the fictional character of James Herriot.


View all my reviews.

Atlantic City Trip Report Day 3

Wednesday 2/18/09

I woke up feeling really lousy. I hadn't slept well for a couple of nights, I was tired, achy and my stomach didn't feel right so I took some drugs and we went to Bally's for some breakfast. The buffet wasn't open for breakfast so we hunted up the coffee shop. There was a line, but it moved relatively fast and we were seated after maybe 15 minutes, but no one came for order. Finally a busboy who was clearing the table told the hostess not to seat anyone else in that section, that we hadn't been waited on. We were very impressed that the busboy had noticed and took action. Shortly one of the hostesses came and took our order and everything went smoothly from that point on. On Diane's suggestion I ordered something bland, pancakes, I only eat about half. Diane had their breakfast special bacon and eggs, toast and home fries.

We went back to our room and finished packing and checked out. We headed over to the White House Sub Shop, another Roodfood recommendation. They have been in business since 1946 and serve as many as 1,000 subs a day. We ordered a large Cappacolla and Provolone to go. The gentleman that waited on us has been working there for 50 years and was very accommodating, he asked if we were traveling and therefore he cut one half in half again and marked it so we could find it and used extra wrapping paper.

Next stop the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge for some birding. We were able to see and identify some of the ducks. I have never had much luck with ducks but they were in breeding plumage and therefore more easily identified. We saw Canvasbacks, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, maybe some Green-winged Teal,and a couple of Buffleheads. There was also a ton of Brants, and 2 Great Blue Herons.

Then it was time for the drive home. This was rather uneventful until we got into Connecticut and started hitting snow. We got home around 5:30.

The photos from day 3 can be found at http://bobrich.smugmug.com/Vacation

Birding At Edwin B. Forsythe NWR

Birding At Edwin B. Forsythe NWR

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Atlantic City Trip Report Day 2

Tuesday 2/17/09

We walked up the Boardwalk to the Trump Taj Mahal for their breakfast buffet. The omelets were made to order and neither Diane nor I could believe how tender they were. Needless to say we both stuffed ourselves. On the walk back to our room I took some photos of the outside of the Trump Taj Mahal. We found that there was colony of feral cats under the boardwalk and found out from a man feeding several other cats that the colony is feed every couple of days and the cats have all been neutered.

Back at our room we got our stuff together and headed to Cape May. Diane wanted to go there to see all the victorian homes. Upon arrival in Cape May we hunted up the visitor's center and got some information on a walking tour and a suggestion as to where to park. Parking on the streets at this time of year proved to be no problem, not like in the summer. We spent a couple of hours walking around the area where the victorian houses were and I took lots of pictures. The house were just spectacular and there were so many. One of the houses was for sale, the house was 2800 sq feet on a 67X115 lot for a mere $1,275,000! And in my opinion needed work.

After we finished walking around the historic houses of Cape May we headed to the Cape May lighthouse. Unfortunately the lighthouse was closed, but I got some pictures of the outside. We walked over to the beach to see the remains of the WWII bunker, you have to see the picture to understand what is interesting with this. On the recommendation of the gentleman at the visitor center we then drove over to Sunset Beach to see the remains of a WWI ship made out of concrete. That just about finishes Cape May, on the way back to Atlantic City we drove through Ocean City, Margate and Ventnor.

When we got back to Atlantic City we headed out to get an early supper. Again we walked down to the Tropicana and found that their buffet wasn't open. We then tried Caesar's and found that we had at least an hour and half wait (I guess we weren't the only ones wanting to eat early). We decided to try the Trinity Irish Pub and Carvery in the Pier at Caesar's and had no trouble getting seated. I had a cup of Potato/Leek soup and Shepard's Pie, Diane had Fish&Chips, then we split the Irish Mist Chocolate Cake for desert. Went back to room and watched TV and read.

The photos along with day 1 can be found at http://bobrich.smugmug.com/gallery/7408918_HsKDT#P-1-16

Atlantic City Trip Report Day 1

Monday 2/16/09


We left home around 10am and arrived in Atlantic City by mid afternoon. Since it was a bit early to check into our timeshare, we headed over to the Absecon Lighthouse which would be closed during the rest of the trip. We paid our admission and proceeded to climb the 228 steps to the watch room and walkway on the outside of the lighthouse. The views were fantastic, but it was cold and windy up there. After we climbed back down we toured the keeper's house which had the gift shop and various displays. We also walked around the grounds.

Headed over to our vacation club facility to check-in even though it wasn't 4:00pm yet. Check-in went smoothly and they did have a room for us, room 609. The room was nice, the view could have been better, but at least it wasn't of the city, we could see the beach and the Pier at Caesars. Before we unpacked, I took pictures of the room. We headed out and walked the boardwalk south as far as the Tropicana Casino & Resort. On the way down we walked through Pier at Caesars. The 3rd floor of the Pier had restaurants, but they either didn't appeal to us or were too expensive. We also checked out a couple of the Fralinger stores, but didn't buy anything, did not want to carry around with us.

I had remembered that there was now an area of the hotel called The Quarter and that there was a restaurant there I thought would be interesting, but couldn't remember what the restaurant was. Once in The Quarter I recognized two names (Carmine's and P.F. Chang's). Once we realized that the meals at Carmine's were served family style and priced accordingly we crossed that off. P.F. Chang's looked more like what we were interested in. The entrance off The Quarter just leads to stairs that take you down to the first floor dining room. They had a special that night $39.95 for 2 soup or salads, 1 appetizer, 2 entries, and 2 mini deserts. The selections that went with this were pretty good. We both had the Hot and Sour soup, split an order of Spring Rolls, Diane ordered the Mongolian Beef and I ordered the Cantonese Shrimp. Diane didn't really care for the beef, so I eat most of that and Diane eat most of the Shrimp. For desert Diane had the Great Wall of Chocolate and I had the Tiramisu.

After diner we walk back up the Boardwalk and stopped in the Pier at Caesar's for their water and light show, we were a little late for that and only caught the very end of the show. We continued back up the boardwalk to our timeshare and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Photos can be found at my smugmug site

What was the hurry?

The Senate and the House of Representatives had to rush to vote on the stimulus bill before they even had time to read it. They then send it to the President to sign, who instead of signing the bill, immediately heads to Chicago for a 3 day vacation.

Hike at Hammonassett Reservoir

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

A Treasury of Guilford Places

A Treasury of Guilford Places by Joel Eliot Helander

My review

An excellent overview of the history of Guilford Connecticut. Lots of anecdotal information, plus an excellent section on the old houses of Guilford. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Guilford.


View all my reviews.

A very personal post

Let me start by explaining a little about me. When I was a young I went to Sunday School at the local Episcopal church. As I got older I was an acolyte. During this time I became friends with someone who went to another Episcopal church that was a very high church, it was very close to the old Catholic church in that part of the service was chanted, they used an incense burner, etc., I then went to church for a while. Then when I went to college I stopped going to church and became basically an agnostic.

Over New Years we took a trip to Hershey Pa, on the way we went through PA Dutch County. We made a stop at the Ephrata Cloister. This was an early religious community dating from about 1732. I won't go into the history of the Cloister, if you want more information go to their web site at http://www.ephratacloister.org/.

I don't know exactly what happened to me because of my visit there, whether it was something spiritual or just curiosity, they spent a large portion of their day studying the bible, what do they get from doing that? Whatever the reason once I got back home I started reading an old bible that we had. I also started looking around web sites for help in studying/understanding the bible. I found a site Christianity.com that seems to fit my current desires and interest. It has a section on the "Bible in a Year". I have started trying to read this every day. I am now trying to find a site and it may be on Christianity.com that explains what I am reading.

Just a few days after I started reading the Bible, the U.S.Airways plane crashed landed into the Hudson River. While I don't want to take anything away from the great crew, if there is indeed a God, he certainly had is hand in this miracle.

Let me explain the next thing that happened to help me believe in God and that I am doing the right thing in trying to understand the Bible. I went to northern Rhode Island on Tuesday to visit my nephew, his family and my late brother's widow. If you remember the day was snowy. I left Rhode Island around 3:30pm and reached I395 and found the road snow covered with what looked like clear areas where the wheels of the vehicles traveled. Well apparently the clear areas were not clear, but was icy. After several miles of travel the rear end of my SUV started fish tailing, I tried to recover, but it kept getting worse. I eventually found myself headed off the right side of the road. Fortunately there was a hill on that side of the road which I started to go up, I was able to regain control and bring the car back down onto the road. I was very fortunate that where I went off the road there were no guard rails, rock out croppings and the trees were far enough up the slope that I didn't hit anything and whatever other traffic that was on the road didn't hit me. When I got back onto the road I coasted to a stop on the shoulder and thanked GOD for saving me. I can't believe how lucky I was, just the thought of what happened still sends shivers up my spine.

That same night I couldn't sleep, probably because I was still hyper over the near disaster. My wife has the radio on all night and it is always tuned to WELI, late at night they have on a program called Coast to Coast AM. Even though I wasn't really listening but the show was about Angels. I don't know but that had to be more than coincidence.

So where is all this leading me? Maybe it is just a passing fascination, maybe it the real beginnings of understanding, only time will tell.

Create or Save Jobs

Am I the only one that is getting tired of the Democrats saying that the stimulus bill is going to "create or save" x number of jobs. How do you measure a job saved???? Is this just political speak, so that they can claim a success no matter what happens with jobs. We lose 100,000 jobs, they can say yeah but without the stimulus we would have lost 200,000 jobs. Who is going to chalange that, it just can't be proved.

How did we get into this financial crisis?

The current financial crisis started back in the 1970's when the Carter administration passed the Community Reinvestment Act, this was aimed at extending home ownership in low income communities. In the 1990's the government got the GSEs,Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, (do those names sound familiar?) to accept subprime mortgages. Once this happened the banks could increase lending to unqualified buyers. This resulted (in the name of affordable housing) in banks issuing more and more risky loans since they were backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This risky business was questioned by the Bush administration in 2001 when it warned that this could lead to financial problems if these institutions got into trouble. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan repeatedly warned that failure of the GSEs placed the entire financial system at risk. But Senator Dodd and Senator Rangel amoung others continued to (and continue) to deny that there were any problems. Meanwhile people saw the value of their homes increasing and either bought bigger more expensive homes or took out home equity loans. These mortgages were repakaged and repakaged into all sorts of securities that were sold all over the world. The price of homes contiued to go up fueled by this easy money and eventually after reaching unrealisticcally high prices, the bubble burst and prices started to come down. When this started to happen, because of legislation that required that assets be repriced at what they could be sold for, the lending institutions had to start marking down the value of these loans, many of which were currently vertually worthless. Also because of all the repakaging no one knew what they really had, all they knew was that they had a security made up many mortgages or even portions of mortgages. This meant that the lending institutions had no money to lend and credit dried up. This is where the government stepped in at the end of last year and started all the bailouts. We have yet to see if the government bailouts will work or what the long term consequences will be.

So this problem has been brewing for many years and started all the way back in the 1970's.

How does the government want to spend the stimulus

Please read this article from National Review Online titled 50 De-Stimulating Facts.

Walk at Hammo

After Diane got home from work, we went for a walk at Hammo, it was a little chilly because of the wind, but still a nice change from the cold and snow. They have done quite a bit more clearing of invasives on Willard's Island, will have to remember to take my camera next time we go. According to the GPS we walked a total of 1.35 miles in 32 minutes.

Went for walk at Chatfield Hollow

Yesterday Diane and I went for a walk at Chatfield Hollow State Park. The parking lot was VERY icey, I almost slid into another car as I was turning into a parking space. Even though they had plowed one side of the road through the park, it was covered with ice, so we walked on the un-plowed side of the road. We went all the way to the end and back. According to my GPS we walked a total of 2.72 miles in 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Best day of winter birds in backyard

Location: Backyard N. Guilford
Observation date: 1/31/09
Notes: I think this is a record for number of species and number of individuals for the winter.
Number of species: 20

Mourning Dove:11, Red-bellied Woodpecker:2, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker:1
Downy Woodpecker:3, Hairy Woodpecker:1, Northern Flicker:1, Blue Jay:4
American Crow:5, Black-capped Chickadee:1, Tufted Titmouse:1,
White-breasted Nuthatch:1, Carolina Wren:2, European Starling:1
White-throated Sparrow:2, Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored):13
Northern Cardinal:2, House Finch:3, Pine Siskin:14, American Goldfinch:2
House Sparrow:2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)