Fall Fest 2016 Zipline Action

Had to do it.

I think what irritates me more than any of the actual substance (or lack thereof) in the first Presidential debate of 2016, is the way a moderator can be so blatantly in favor of one of the two participants.  I decided to write down my thoughts on the subject....my kids would tease me for using the word "write" when I'm typing them on my computer.  Anyway, let's get to the first irritation.  I take the following citations from http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/19-wtf-moments-from-the-first-presidential-debate-w442029.  I am not advocating this site - just landed there from a Google search.

On the contents [of] Trump’s tax returns

Clinton: "You've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be.Third, we don't know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax."
Trump: "That makes me smart."
Clinton: "So if he's paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he's not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are, because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he's trying to hide.”

Addressing her points one by one...

1> Who knows.  I can't speculate how rich he is or isn't.  

2> I don't care frankly.  The underlying message I hear from this one is - because he's rich he should be giving a lot to charity.  I mean after all, isn't that what the Dems always push for?  Raise the taxes on the rich - they should pay their fair share?  What exactly is their fair share?  A percent is a percent.  To me that's fair share.  

Assume for a minute we live in a small community on a deserted island and our most valuable natural resource is coconuts.  We use them for food, clothing, hydration, suntan lotion, trading with neighboring islands, all sorts of things.  There are actually plenty of coconuts to go around .... the only problem is that the coconut trees are all on the far side of the island - about 2 miles away.  So several times a week, a bunch of our fellow island dwellers make the arduous trip to the other side of the island to gather coconuts.  Each trip yields only about 4 or 5 coconuts per person.  They sell some of their harvest to the other islanders and thus our economy is formed.

After a few years of this, one particularly smart guy had an idea - rather than make this difficult trip time and time again, only bringing back a few coconuts at a time, he decides to start planting some of the coconuts he gathers.  A few years go by and his idea has blossomed into a nice little coconut farm in his corner of the island and he's producing far more coconuts than any one person can bring back from the other side of the island.  Recognizing the struggle faced by his community to keep up with the demand for coconuts, he sells off a portion of his harvest, at a reasonable cost.  Even after selling some of what he doesn't use, he still finds himself with an ever increasing inventory of coconuts so he decides he can afford to give a few to people who are too sick or too old to gather their own.  

He is applauded by many of his neighbors.  They admire his innovative thought process and they too begin to plant coconuts on their patch of the island.  Unfortunately, some inhabitants get discouraged and cry foul - "it's not fair - why should those people have more coconuts than me!  They should have to share with me.....that's the fair thing to do!"  

And behold - the seeds of democracy are sewn on this hypothetical island.  Can you guess which people will be Democrats and which will be Republicans?  Hillary, and her party, would rather play Robin Hood and simply give to people than inspire people to come up with ideas and work for themselves which, as on the island, leads to a better society as a whole.

OLYMPIC GLORY (Manny Mendes) Performs at the Allentown Fair - 9/2/2016

My previous video was flagged for a copyright violation due to a certain background song that was played during the show.  The video has been trimmed to not contain the song.  All you missed was the diver, Manny Mendes, climbing up the ladder.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS FIREWORKS GRAND FINALE as seen from Coronado Springs -...

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS FIREWORKS as seen from Coronado Springs - 8/23/2016

SEVEN DWARFS MINE TRAIN - "You Lied to Me!" - 8/18/2016 Magic Kingdom Or...

Hockey Fights MS - Bethlehem, PA 2016 - Sunbury's Finest Game 1 victory.

Got off to a good start with a 3-1 victory.  This is the insurance goal we scored late in the 3rd period.

Hockey Fights MS - Bethlehem 2016

Tonight I played my first game with Sunbury's Finest...a team from....Sunbury, PA.  So far they seem like a good group of guys.  We won 3-1 over The Orange Team.  Extra fun for me because JT and Dylan came along to watch.  I got lost in my thoughts when I first looked over and saw them sitting on the bleachers.  I remember when they would be standing there yelling "Hi Daddy!  Hi Daddy!".  That was probably a good 6-7 years ago.  Now they're all grown up - mostly - and it just made me glad to see them there.  Thanks guys, it means more to me than you know right now.

And thanks Diane for taking some videos that I can shamelessly plug.  You can check them out here

Musikfest 2016

Not sure if anyone is even reading this blog anymore (or if anyone EVER read it) but I'm on a YouTube kick lately so I wanted to share out my newest playlist containing some videos from our trip to Musikfest this past Monday night.  We decided to stop and watch one of the street performances, "Her Majesty's Secret Circus".  Without further ado ......

I received an email from my dad tonight and felt I needed to post it here.  Ironically, tonight while I was coming home I decided to drive through the old neighborhood where I gre up.  One of the sights is always Granny's house.  Well, these days it's where Granny's house used to be -- they've since torn her house down and replaced it with a newer larger one but the lot and the memories are still there.  So the contents of the email I received from my dad was a letter I wrote to my grandmother "Granny" for her 75th birthday which was in Jan 1999.  I miss you Granny -


My fondest memory of my Grandmother


When I was first told about this idea of writing down my fondest memory of you I thought it would be easy. No big deal…just jot something down, right. But when I stopped to think about it there are so many special memories I have it was hard to pick just one. There are the obvious ones like going food shopping together or "Christmas Eve at Granny's" but probably what I remember most about you is simply spending time with you at your house be it on a sick day, a snow day or just in the afternoon until my mom came to pick me and Tina up. I think back now about how great those days were and only now can I really appreciate them for what they were. When I think about it I'm surprised I didn't go insane from boredom. All there was to do was color in the coloring books that were stashed under the coffee table and watch tv….that is if it wasn't wash day. Oh, and I can't forget about the daily trips to Geiger's for milk, bread and Raleigh's Plain. Sometimes I would actually do homework…other times I'd sort through my hockey cards. I think it was one of these days that I came up with my hockey pool that you always graciously participated in even though I think you really had no interest in it.  Remember the one where you picked a number from a cup and that number had to match the total score in the Flyers game? I remember you always let me watch tv most of the day until Sally Jesse Raphael came on. Then it was your turn to watch tv for a couple hours until Little House on the Prairie came on. I remember you making Macaroni & Cheese for lunch just about anytime I wanted. Plus if we were lucky enough to stay for supper you always had something great to eat…always with a slice of butter bread, of course!  There are so many memories I have of you Granny that I could go on for pages and pages. If you get anything out of this letter let it be that you know how much I love having you as a grandmother and that I hope to make many more memories with you in the years to come.

Which is worse?

Much to do is being made of a comment Wayne Simmonds made about Sean Avery during last nights Flyers / Rangers preseason battle. I don't say allegedly as many news sites are almost required to say - he made the comment - I have no doubts. If there is any doubt in your mind - play this video

Simmonds

For some strange reason, not much press is being given to this little tid-bit that happened seconds before.....

Avery

So I ask you - seriously - which is worse? Calling someone a name (remember sticks and stones growing up?) or threatening to kill someone?

And don't tell me Avery didn't really mean to kill Giroux. That would imply you were able to read Avery's twisted thoughts and say that he meant he was just going to beat him up or something like that...right? Well, I just so happen to have that same clairvoyant ability and I was reading Simmonds' mind at the very time he uttered those nasty horrific words that everyone is so shocked about. He wasn't saying anything about Avery's sexuality (as if there is any doubt) and how dare you have such terrible thoughts anyway...what's wrong with you for thinking that? Naturally when he called him a faggot he was referring to this -

Faggot

Someone who goes by the name Freudian put it best when he posted a comment on a message board that read "I'm sure some gays will be offended by being compared to Avery, but I think most don't care."

And there you have it. Case closed.....let's play hockey.

EDIT: Just as I was about to publish this post - I received an alert on my phone indicating that Simmonds would not be punished by the league.  Thank God.....there seems to be some common sense left in this world afterall.

20 - 17 - 18 >= 20


Carter scored last night … on a rebound … during a two-man advantage. Yawn. I also noticed he changed his number from 17 to 7 and is apparently once again suffering from a "bruised" foot. Naturally it occurred in the offensive zone - off a shot from his own player - Nash. Also worthy or mentioning, he's a -14 in his 5 years of post-season action with Philly. Time to finally put this guy down and put us all out of our misery.

As for Richards -

"Off-season acquisitions Mike Richards and Simon Gagne played with captain Dustin Brown on the second line and the three were a combined minus-6. "

In return, the Flyers acquired Voracek, Simmonds and Schenn and indirectly Bryzgalov.  All three have been having decent starts to camp with Simmonds probably being the most impressive.

I was going to say something about Jody Shelley but I already wasted enough time just thinking about him.  Last but not least - Jagr.  Very strange to see him in the Orange and Black but a goal and an assist in his first game with the Flyers?  Not a bad start at all.....not bad at all.

It's very early but at least so far the post-trade scales seem to be tipped in favor of the Flyers. So much hype is being made of the fact that 40-some percent of the Flyers goals were either traded away of lost to free agency with a good share of that going along with 17 and 18. I contend that when the other 18 guys on the ice are given an opportunity to handle the puck more - the goals will come - maybe even more than before.

Flyers / Rangers tonight 7pm. The lineup will be pretty close to what we'll see opening night. Don't miss it.

Tonight I was tidying up some of the images I have saved on my pc and stumbled upon something pretty amazing.  The guys (ladies too, I just HATE the word folks) have done it again.  I found this picture

 

that I had taken back on June 24, 2009.  I remember it clearly - this giant thing came out of nowhere and landed on my shoulder.  My dad was there and he bravely flicked the thing off me and onto the picnic table.  The monster was a good 3-4 inches long.  Neither of us had seen one before so we were both fascinated.  I tried a few times to look for it's name via the web but came up empty.....until tonight that is.  I pointed my browser to http://images.google.com and before I even had a chance to type anything in I noticed a message:

"New! Now you can use an image to start your Google search."

Really?  Ok....I'll give it a try.  I drag the picture from my Windows Explorer window onto the Google Images search page - wait a couple seconds while it uploads and ...... awwww.  It found a lot of black and grey pictures but not of my bug.  Not even of any bugs....mostly rocks.  But there's still hope - in the search box at the top I'm instructed to

"describe image here"

so I do just that - I type in "bug false eye"

And BAM - I now know that my shoulder was attacked by a pretty large EYED CLICK BEETLE.

Thank you Google.

Aug 12-14, 2011 was the 6th annual Hockey Fights MS tournament held in Bethlehem, PA.  I played for the "Free Agents" team - a rag tag bunch of guys (and two girls) thrown together for the sake of playing hockey, raising some money for MS research and just having fun.  For the first time, I was on the winning side!  That's right, we won our division.  I played defense for all four games...not sure if that helped us along our journey or if we won despite that fact but I had a good time.  Not as fun as VT but fun nonetheless.  Details of this and previous tournaments can be found at Hockey Fights MS website.


This first set of pictures is from the championship game against the Black Holes:

 

 

 

Time to shake hands

 

 

Holding "The Cup"

 

Group shot

 

More shots from earlier in the tournament

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago we decided (the kids were begging) to take a rafting/tubing trip down the Lehigh.  We drove up to Treichler's bridge and floated down to just a little north of the power lines that cross the river from the Northampton sub-station....I think it's called Seigfreid?  Anyway, the kids had a great time, Christl was cold and we ended up walking back to the car in the dark because....no surprises really....it took longer than we expected.

 

 

The kids got a little excited when this happened.....