Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Well at least

Clinton was not lying about landing in Bosnia
under fire.....
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1808560

What we need is

a reluctant President.

Washington was a reluctant President.

Ford was also considered to be one.

We could do worse.

Actually we will do worse given the choices available.

Political Posturing? Who Me?

Obama seems to be angered by his ex pastor accusing him of political posturing to get elected.

Obama stated:
"And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me and anybody who knows what I'm about knows that I am about trying to bridge gaps and I see the commonality in all people."

We all know that politicians never engage in "political posturing". Especially Obama. He would never denounce NAFTA and the have his surrogates tell the Canadians that he didn't really mean it. Maybe that is not "political posturing", maybe it is just plain old fashioned lying. Maybe just like a good old fashioned polotician would do.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Los Angeles here we come...

sort of. For about 2 minutes on Saturday morning we contemplated going to L.A. This is on of the first 1 or 2 day trips we want to go on. Neither of us have been there before and would like to see it. We figured now was the time since gas prices only seem to be going up like a hot air balloon! Then we remembered that I was on call this week......Maybe we will go next weekend.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Fight or Flight

Most accident scenes I have stop at are routine. As routine as an accident scene can be anyways. Hysterical people....been there done that. I've had knives pulled on me at what I thought were accidents scenes that turned out to also be sexual assaults. Deceased people.... been there done that too. Its not pleasant, but if you stop at enough accidents you will come across about anything.

Driving down I-15 today I saw a motorcycle and a silver pick up, both sharing the same lane. The two drivers were talking back and forth having a good old time. The motorcycle driver then dropped back behind the truck(all of about 3 feet behind it) and they sped off down the interstate. I thought to myself, that guy(on the motorcycle) is asking to get in an accident.

As we drove another few miles down the road, my attention was elsewhere until Karen began to brake hard and I looked up and there it was. The motorcycle laying in the middle of the road. The truck smashed up, and another sedan smashed up!

As I have for many years I grab my latex gloves and go to see what is left of the motorcycle driver. As I approached the first smashed car I could hear someone screaming, not in pain but it anger. The family in the sedan were trying to fend off the driver of the pick up who, as best as I could tell, was trying to get at the young male driver of the sedan. I'm not sure if he was driving the sedan or if his mother was, but the ire of the pick up truck was squarely aimed at the young kid.

When I walked up to ask the family in the sedan if they were ok they said "yes" but you need to protect us from her! I looked up and saw, for lack of a better, more politically correct phrase, one pissed off bull dyke coming right at me! The family in the sedan were all now positioned behind me. In a nano second this girl, and it took me a minute to figure out that she was indeed a girl, was about 1/2 inch from my face yelling, screaming and threatening the family. She looked to be 20 years old....maybe. Ball cap on sideways, wearing a wife beater t shirt and blue jeans. Oh and an ear ring in each ear. I asked her to "calm down". To that she just stepped in closer to me and was like "You want me to calm down fucker?"

I was not the only one who stopped at the scene, but the rest were women who seemed to have little interest in getting involved with the lunatic lesbian. I swear our noses were 1/2" apart, but I did not move back not one step. Fight or Flight...I didn't want to fight(I'm too old for that anymore). I was a bit scared though because, although I new I weighed a good 100 lbs more than her, she also had several male friends with her.

Fight or flight......well I'm not about to flee from a 100lbs 20 year old girl (bull dyke or not)so I stood my ground. After asking her to calm down again and her trying to stare me down for what seemed like an eternity, she simply said "Somebody better get this big motherfucker out of my face!", turned and walked down the freeway picking up the motorcycle and the debris left in the road.

In the end, amazingly, the motorcycle driver appeared to fare well in the accident. Most of the other one I've come across have not been so lucky. He had some road rash on one arm, possible a broken foot/ankle/leg. His right shoe was knocked off of him, but it appeared that he is one of those people that don't really tie their shoes so it was not a very telling clue. I don't know if he had any other injuries because I never really got to examine him too much.

PADs




One of the many homless camps in Las Vegas.

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Even more PADs





If you come to Vegas and get in trouble
you can call these guys...lol I'm guessing
not to many of their customers skip bail!

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More PADs


I like this pic for the reflection of the
Wynn in the windows of the Encore.



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China town...


Las Vegas style. This is in the area of
Spring Mountain west of I-15. Its moslty
strip malls.

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PADs


Our new grill.


The new flower bed. There were just
some vines the before.

I hope I never have to work on that one!

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Who is weaker?

Obama or Clinton....Clinton or Obama. Perception is reality....or so the saying goes.....

Clinton is hounding Obama about holding debates. Now in the few years I have payed attention to national elections(about 27 years), asking for a debate, demanding to have a debate has always been the province of those who perceive themselves as on the way to losing the election. As such they have little to lose and much to gain by a debate. Another opportunity to take their adversary down another notch or two.

A the leader in an election, as expected, has a lot to lose and little to gain in a debate. The risk of saying something stupid, not having a good answer, or sometimes, just being on the debate stage with the weaker candidate which can be seen as "elevating" them to your level, is not worth what little a candidate can get out of a debate.

I would say that, if nothing else, the Clinton campaign perceives itself to be in a weaker position than Obama.

Clinton has a built a high wall to climb to win the primary. As I see her campaign, her problems are:
1. Her baggage. She has more baggage than pack rat on her way to a pack rat convention. Fair or not, it is still there.

2. She and Bill could have starred in the movie "Liar, Liar!" I do realize that all politicians lie, but she is PERCEIVED as a liar whereas the other two are not perceived that way to any great degree.

Obama also has some problems that will hurt him, albeit more in the general than the primary. Those are:

1. He is an eletist. His remarks in San Francisco leave little to the imagination on that issue. It may have played well in the primary, but it WILL be used to clobber him in the general election.

2. I think his lack of experience will also hurt him in the general election.

McCain also has issues. Mainly that he is seen as, instead of a "compasionate conservative", he is seen as a "part-time conservative".

The big one

is coming. Or so they say. Nevada is #3 for earthquakes behind California and Alaska. You may or may not remember that on Feb 21st, 2008 there was a fairly large earthquake(a magnitude 6) in the small town of Wells, in north east Nevada. Much of the town was severly damaged.

A week later it began in and around Reno which is located in north western Nevada.

Before I finish this I need to explain something about earthquakes. Typically earthquakes start a a large quake followed by several, sometimes hundreds, of aftershocks of decreasing magnitude. That is the typical pattern for earthquakes.

In Reno we have something quit different happening.....the earthquakes have started out small and are increasing in magnitude. There were over 100 earthquakes and aftershocks on Thursday alone! Friday Reno was hit by a 4.7 magnitude quake. The largest in the 2 month long period since the tremors began. Reno's last major quake measured 6.1 on April 24, 1914, and was felt as far away as Berkeley, Calif. That same earthquake in Reno today would be disastrous to say the least. Scientists are warning residents of the Reno/Sparks area to be prepared. Learn to shut off your gas/water/electricity. Stock up on food and water. Though they cannot say for sure, they fear the big one is not far off.

In other news about Reno, did you know there is also a serial killer there praying on young women in and around The University of Nevada-Reno? He has already taken the lives of 5(I think) young ladies in the Reno area that they are aware of. Although the police have a sample of the killer's DNA, there was no match in any police database. Thier only description is that of a 30ish year old white male. This killer is very brazzen in that at least one of his victems was abducted in the middle of the night from a house full of college students. I hope he is caught soon!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Crosswinds Marsh


06_Picture-0284, originally uploaded by rob_caughey.

Taken in the early spring of 2006, this is one of my favorite pictures.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Don't mess with

blind people. When an intruder broke into this 49 year old blind man's house he grabbed the intruder and pummled him continuosly, all the while dragging him into the kitchen where he put a knife to the intruder's throat He then dialed 911. I bet that scum bag won't make that mistake again!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_on_fe_st/odd_blind_defense

Sunday, April 20, 2008

As another week end

draws to a close I'm reflecting on the week that has passed. It was a very good week for me. I learned some things at work, which is always a good thing, and in the process I didn't even take too much of a beating for the lesson I learned.....lol It seems the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. I'm not sure if that is just a sign of me getting older or what! But I now realize that I only know 20% of what I did when I was 18 and I suspect that percentage is shrinking every year!

A few days this week it was kind of slow at work so the asked me if I've ever worked on a thingamabob. I replied that I didn't even know what that was. They kind of chuckled and said "Well thats about to change, we need you to go fix this thingamabob." 4.5 hours later it was fixed. Needless to say, I was pleased.

I also was sent to look at a unit that had been going through alternators.This thing was charging at 15.5 to 17 volts. Anything over about 15 volts and you start getting codes and the idiot lights come on.

Note: The term "Idiot/Dummy Light" is no longer acceptable.....When in school and my instructor asked me what would happen if x,y and z happened I raised my hand and said that the "Idiot Light" would come on. The look on his face was priceless. After as short lecture on political correctness I agreed to not use that term again....in his class at least!

When I called my service manager to give him the run down on this truck and to pick his brain for ideas(we had already replaced the alternator and regulator two times) he said that he had the factory service rep with him and they wanted to come help...that means watch.... me. So at this point I'm under no pressure what so ever....lol.
I decided to start shooting wires, for lack of being able to figure out what else to do. Not really expecting to find anything, I actually found a piece of, for lack of a better word, fuzz caught between two connectors. How a peice of fuzz gets in between to connectors that are in constant contact with each other I'll never know, but after removing it and thinking "That couldn't be the problem" I was happy to see that it was the problem!

My apprentiship at Fords taught me two valuable lessons for being a mechanic:
1. Keep it simple
2. If you can't figure it out, start over. You probably missed something.
This is my additional rule:
3. Repeat #1 and #2 as needed until fixed!

Cutting through the fog

This is one of the blogs that I read on a fairly regular basis:
http://cuttingthroughthefog.blogspot.com/

More Pics




Here are some pics from
Linsey's trip to Red Rock.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Weiner roast



We found yet another use
for our fire pit. Next up...SMORES!!!

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More Pics


The obligatrory picture in front of the
Las Vegas sign.

In front of New York New York.

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More Pics


This is one of the shipt at Treasure Island.

This guy on the right has a cool
motorcycle!

Unfortunately, it does not run too well!

Linsey is out for a visit. Here we are at
the local Rebel.

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Saturday, April 12, 2008

If true

this is a sad, sad story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080412/ap_on_re_us/the26_year_silence;_ylt=Ah2kZ0NBtylaWNEgpsEXXRGs0NUE

Its a pretty long read but the long and short of it is that a man spent 26 years in jail for a crime that two lawyers knew he didn't commit. They felt they couldn't reveal the truth because of attorney/client privilege. While I understand that attorney/client privilege is an impoortant concept, not imprisoning innocent people is an important concept also!

A street protest

While driving all over Las Vegas I in search of a "nifty fifty" I encountered this street protest on Sahara across from the Church of Scientology.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob702/tags/protestscientology/
With, for the most part, their faces covered it was reminiscent of some of the "anarchists" photos you see of protesters at WTO meetings and such. I must say though that they were very well behaved and just protested peaceably on the side of the road.

Wow

Not that I would have EVER voted for him, but I can not beleive he would be so stupid as to let these words pass from his lips:

“So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or antitrade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,”

Considering that he is entering Indiana and Pennsylvania for his next primaries I think he has dug himself quite a hole. In addition, his "explinations" of what he "meant" seem to me to be worse than what he said to begin with!

Monday, April 7, 2008

In case you


didn't know, Las Vegas is a "Drug-Free
Zone" so if you plan on coming out here
and smoking some crack, see the above sign
for all you need to know!

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In case your


wondering where to get some 420 when
you get to Vegas, here is the place.
For those of you wondering what 420 is,
ask someone under 30. They should be able
to help you :)

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New Addition

I've added a new gadget to the right that will show my latest pictures on my flickr site. The latest one are from our last trip to the dog park on Sunday.

We had a good time until "Buddy" showed up. Really though I blame the owner, not the dog. He was this big, and I mean big, old Chocolate Lab. In his apparently long years on this earth he has not realized that little dogs are not chew toys placed in the dog park for his personal amusement. His owner, realizing that he could be obnoxious, even had a radio shock collar on him. Instead of using this time to try to teach "Buddy" how to behave, and I don't mean by shocking him, she chose to socialize with the other dog owners there and let "Buddy" run around and torment every little dog in the park. Normally, the big dogs and small dogs are seperated into two different fenced in areas, but the park has been renovating the small dog area so it is closed for now.
We were a little hesitant to take our dogs in with the Dobermans, Rotties, and German Shepards, but after doing it a few times we have had no problems at all....until "Buddy".

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Goodbye Mr. Heston

As I'm sure your awareby now Mr. Charlton Heston passed away. Although I'm not a big movie buff, he was certainly an American Icon.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_en_mo/obit_heston

For happpier news a, now former Ford Motor Company employee, won $136 million in the lottery at the Ford Plant I used to work at. I was mildy suprised to learn that I didn't know him, but then again we had close to 1,000 employees who worked there. He apparently was in a lottery club with 4 other workers, and although the winning ticket was not part of the lottery club, he elected to give each of the other 4 members $1 million anyways. Thats a class act for sure.
http://www.thestate.com/nation/story/367057.html

In other news, Karen passed her Post Office exam. The exam consisted of seeing how late you could finish the test, and then you were given envelopes to put in mail slots. You were given 1 point for every envelope in the wrong slot! hahahahaha. Typical of the Post Office she was told to expect her results in 3 weeks and it took them nearly 8 weeks to deliver them.

We also had a bit of excitement here the other day. I was, for a change, sitting in my computer room being "on the computer", which everyone knows I never do, and I heard the LVMP helicopter circling our neighborhood. That in itself is not that unusual because you can often hear them flying by here and there. But after about 10 mins of this I realized that it sounded like he was circling my house. Looking outside I discovered he was indeed circling our neighborhood and our house. Then the sirens began. I then went and looked out the front of the house and there were cops at both ends of our steet and I could see them on the next street over also. They had K-9 units searching all of the back yards. I stepped out onto the front porch to see what was going on and was met by a K-9 team and told to go back in the house and lock my doors. You could hear them on the P.A. system trying to encourage someone to "come out with their hands up". Since it was close to the time for Karen to get off work I called her at work and told her not to come home just yet. Then I found out the whole thing started in the parking lot at her work where a car chase ended. There were three suspects in the car, 2 of which were arrested on the spot, and the third apparently ran on foot and ended up in our subdivision. Time to buy a gun!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

More sights


People out enjoying the weather.

One of the hard working people in Vegas.

A lady pushing the button to be able
to cross the street.She pressed that button
about 50 times in 1 min and yet I'll bet
she didn't get to cross any sooner than
if she never pushed it! They are probably
not even hooked up to anything....lol

A couple of F-18s parked at McCarran
Airport. When Nellis AFB gets full you
will often see military aircraft there.

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