A week in Review

Posted on October 13, 2013October 13, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Strange things are happening in the world today.

Of course nothing is stranger or sadder than the government shutdown. I saw a FB post the other day saying they all should be fired. That is an understatement but I doubt enough “outraged citizens” will remember when it comes time to vote. Anyway, I said my piece about that so I’m not going to waste any more space on it here.

Did you hear about the groom that left his bride at a gas station? Yeah, it happened in Germany. Gotta watch out for those German men. (Just a joke as I have a good dose of German in me)

BERLIN (AP) — A German couple’s marriage got off to a rocky start when the groom forgot his bride at a highway gas station on the way home from their honeymoon, only noticing she was missing after hours had passed.

Police said Friday the couple was heading home to Berlin from France when the man pulled over near the central town of Bad Hersfeld late Thursday to fill up their van.

The woman had been sleeping in the back but got up — unbeknownst to the man — to use the toilets and he drove off before she returned.

Only after 2 ½ hours on the road did he notice she was gone and called police, who said she was patiently waiting.

Associated Press

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Ok so how ’bout the man who’s alive but declared dead?

Seems an Ohio man who was declared dead by the courts after he disappeared in 1994 can’t now be declared alive just because he showed up in court breathing and talking. He only had 3 years to let the government know he wasn’t really dead. Just in time for Halloween!

Hancock County Probate Court Judge Allan Davis called it a “strange, strange situation.”

“We’ve got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health,” said Davis but Davis also said the three-year limit was clear.

“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” the judge said.

Maybe he’s one of the “Undead”

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And all I can say is at least she’s off the road!

A Montana woman called 911 for assistance. When asked the reason for her emergency she said she couldn’t get out of her car. The dispatcher asked her if the reason was medical or mechanical. The woman replied…”Because I’m too drunk!” Prosecutors say her blood-alcohol level was 0.311 percent!

I hope she’s sleeping it off behind bars keeping the roads safe for the rest of us.

And that’s the week in review! 🙂

Government Shutdown

Posted on October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 14 Comments

As most of you know, I usually keep political comments to a minimum. The biggest reason is I don’t consider myself a “deep thinker”. I’m just your “Average Josie”. I go along with my business and leave the governing to those elected to govern just as I leave the police to do the policing and the firefighter to fight the fires. I study issues to vote and then keep my vote to myself. But this government shut down has me irritated.

Listening to the sound bites and news anchors make me think I’m watching a bunch of toddlers fight in a sand box. Where is the leadership? Where is the responsibility? Where do these people, who are our elected officials, get off making decision that hurt the public? The same people they owe their jobs to?

One recent headline said 2.1 MILLION federal workers could be affected! But do you know what really gets me? These “elected officials” who are causing this atrocity still get paid! Yes, a government shut down won’t affect their paycheck.

I didn’t know why. I was complaining on FB that Congress should get “docked’ first and one of my friends said “27th amendment”. So I looked it up. The 27th amendment protects Congress from changes in their salary.

“The Twenty-seventh Amendment (Amendment XXVII) prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of the Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives. It is the most recent amendment to the United States Constitution. It was submitted to the states for ratification in 1789 and was adopted, over 200 years later, in 1992.”

Now as I said, I’m just a simple, average person. I never took any political science courses and even living in one of the most political states in the union, I manage to stay out of most political discussion. But I can’t help but think that any amendment that took 200 years to get ratified can’t be a good idea.

I don’t think John Q Public is free of blame either. We elected these morons. So maybe we deserve what we get but basic negotiating skills are learned in the sand box. Maybe we need to send Congress back to kindergarten so they can learn to play nice together.

Comments are welcome. Is anyone else embarrassed and annoyed by Washington?

Gator Boys Memorial to J-Mart

Posted on September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Just a brief update.

At the end of last night’s episode (Big Croc Rescue) of Gator Boys, a short video clip, very short (10 seconds?) was played in Memory of their friend, John Martinez. The video was nice but short. I really thought they would do more. But maybe they just didn’t have time.

There were no still photos used so my pictures were not included but you can see those at www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com.

Rest in Peace, John.

Animals Gone Wild

Posted on September 28, 2013September 28, 2013 by Dusty Roads

It seems that animals are making headiness these days.

According to the AP there was a real case of Snakes on a Plane in Australia grounding a Quantas Passenger plane. The article , written by ROD McGUIRK states in part: CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A tiny Asian snake was found on a Qantas Boeing 747 airliner in Australia, leading to 370 passengers being grounded overnight.

Staff found the 20-centimeter (8-inch) Mandarin rat snake in the passenger cabin near the door late Sunday before passengers were due to board the flight bound for Tokyo from Sydney International Airport, Qantas said in a statement Monday.

Australia’s flagship airline said passengers were given hotel rooms and left Sydney on a replacement plane Monday morning. Qantas said the original jet would be fumigated before returning to service in case there were other snakes on board.

Then we have the case of the stinky city and I don’t mean smog!

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Residents of a Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood plagued by skunk odors now know what caused the stink: Trapped critters that were shot and stored at a shuttered police station.

The Buffalo News reports (http://bit.ly/18myscv ) that the city’s public works commissioner confirmed Monday that humanely trapped skunks have been taken to an old police station in South Buffalo, where they’re shot and stored in outdoor freezer until they can be incinerated.

Residents say they complained about the smell months ago but were told by city officials that skunks weren’t being killed inside the building. Later, they were told only a few skunks were killed there by lethal injection.

One neighborhood leader has dubbed the community scandal “Skunkgate.”

City officials say they’re looking for new locations for dispatching the nuisance skunks.

A bear walks into a bar….no this isn’t joke it really happened but he was a very well behaved bear and apparently left when asked.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — If only all unwelcome bar guests were this obliging.A black bear walked into the bar at the Alaskan Hotel in downtown Juneau on Monday night.Bartender Ariel Svetlik-McCarthy says she freaked out and yelled, “No bear! Get out! No! You can’t be in here!”The bear complied, leaving the bar within seconds.

And finally , It doesn’t pay to be anti social. Even animals can be “fired”. The Dallas Zoo certainly gave the cranky gorilla plenty of time to mend his ways, 18 years but finally it was time to hand the animal his “pink slip”. The story was reported by the AP this week. An excerpt from their report is included here:

DALLAS (AP) — There will be no rose ceremony for a 430-pound bachelor gorilla that failed to form any meaningful relationships with fellow apes during an 18-year stay at the Dallas Zoo.

Patrick, the 23-year-old Western lowland gorilla known for being gregarious with zoo staff and the public, while being ambivalent toward his female counterparts, has been handed his walking papers. The silverback will be transferred to the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C. where he’ll be allowed more solitude, according to a statement issued Monday by the Dallas Zoo.

And now we will return to our regularly scheduled postings. 🙂

The Good and the Bad

Posted on September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 by Dusty Roads

The ying and yang, alpha and omega, black and white….life and death.

Always a balance. When something bad happens something good needs to come along for balance. I’m not a philosopher but I know that many people much smarter than I am have spent many hours contemplating this very idea.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I am caught in a BAD/GOOD situation.

The Bad first because without that I wouldn’t have the good.

The Bad is that a very funny, gentle, kind man, a former marine who served his country, has passed away at the very young age of 30. I had the pleasure of meeting him. He was a celebrity of sorts as he was involved with the Gator Boys show on Animal Planet. On the show he went by the name of J-Mart and I saw him do his alligator wrestling show at Holiday Park . I even wrote a post about seeing the show and shared some of my photos.

I now know his name is John Martinez. From the comments and the emails I’ve receive as a result of my blog I know my impressions of him were right. The loss of such a gentle soul makes me very sad.

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2013/09/gator_boys_alligator_wrestler_dies_john_carlos_martinez.php

Now the good, for me anyway. Because I wrote the post and because I included photos that were at least half way decent, I was contacted by the Broward New Times, Florida for permission to use my pictures. In return they linked to my blog. They even took some of my comments from the blog and used them in their obituary. That is wonderful promotion for my blog and for my pictures. What’s the saying… there’s no such thing as bad publicity? I get really excited that my blog got found and is , in a sense, being promoted by a publication like the Broward New Times, and then I remember that someone has died and I wonder if I should be so happy. 🙁

I also got an email from the Story Producer from Animal Planet. He too asked about using some photos. I don’t know what, if anything will come of that but it’s all so exciting until I remember why my photos are in such demand. And then I get sad again.

The whole set of photos taken at Holiday Park on that trip are on my pro website: www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com I moved them to the opening slideshow as a tribute to J-Mart.

As much as I love the attention my photos and blog are getting, I would gladly skip the excitement if J-Mart was still with us. For those who knew him as a friend, his family and to his fans, I am very, very sorry for your loss.