Olympic Fever

Posted on February 9, 2014February 9, 2014 by Dusty Roads

The 2014 Winter Olympics are underway in Sochi. News coverage has been considerable. Does everyone have Olympic Fever?

Russia is using the Olympics to showcase its post-soviet resurrection and why not? Doesn’t every country that hosts an Olympic Games put their best foot forward? Too bad the Russians haven’t been able to accomplish that.

When the press arrived in Sochi to unfinished construction, toilets that wouldn’t flush and hotel door handles that wouldn’t lock, the Sochi Olympics got their first black eye.

The Russian response boiled down to this: Some reporters are sabotaging Sochi’s Olympics accommodations for splashy headlines. Russian officials know this because they have surveillance cameras in hotel rooms. And at least some of those surveillance cameras are focused on hotel showers. Oh Oh! Voyeurism at it’s finest!

You can’t clean your teeth because the security scare has you packing your tooth paste in your checked luggage if you get to bring it at all, so what’s a little body order to go along with bad breath?

I wish the Olympics had all star commercials like the Superbowl. Coke has a cute commercial with a Puffin and the Polar Bears. I liked that one.

Every year a new event gets tried out. This year an event called Slopestyle, a snow boarding event, was getting some exposure but before the first bell the competitors were backing out. American Snowboarder, Shaun White called the course “Unsafe” and withdrew. According to news reports he’s just one of the contestants to express concerns with the course for the new event.

I have no bone to pick with the Olympics. They all seem to have their share of problems and bad press no matter where they hold them. I wish all the competitors the best. Leave your tooth paste in your checked bags, avoid the showers and may the best man and/or woman win.

Clear Skies Ahead

Posted on January 21, 2014January 21, 2014 by Dusty Roads

I’ll be heading to San Diego soon. It’s just a quick business trip. I haven’t said much about it here because there wasn’t any planning. The company told me when to fly out, where I would stay, what meetings to attend and when to come back. I would have loved to extend my time there for some sight-seeing but I’m still squaring away my new budget and felt the added expense would be more stressful than the time away would be worth.

I will be flying Southwest Airlines out of Providence. Most of my colleagues are flying JetBlue out of Logan in Boston. I wasn’t expecting the reaction from my co-workers when I attended a recent meeting at my office. My boss made an announcement cautioning all to be prepared for anything from delays to getting snowbound but some of my friends chipped in with “Or going to the wrong airport”.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/13/travel/southwest-plane-wrong-airport/index.html

Maybe you heard about it. On Sunday, Jan 12 a Southwest Airlines Jet carrying 124 passengers landed at a little Missouri airport about 7 miles from their destination of Branson. The landing was without mishap even though the little regional airport isn’t set up for larger jets and the runway is only 3,738 ft. compared to the runway at Branson which is 7,140.

The pilots recognized the shortness of the runway and managed to brake in time to prevent disaster but to add insult to injury the flight attendant announced “Welcome to Branson.” Then, after a few moments, the pilot came on and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to tell you we landed at the wrong airport.'”

Whew…if I were that pilot my face would be so red!

To their credit, Southwest didn’t just apologize for the inconvenience, they put their money where their mouth is. Southwest issued this written statement: “We have since reached out to each customer directly to apologize, refund their tickets and provide future travel credit as a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience.”

I’d take a landing at the wrong airport when no one is hurt in exchange for free tickets and credits any day. I’d consider it an “adventure.” 🙂 Maybe I’m a little nuts?

Anyway, the pilot and co-pilot, both very experienced officers are currently suspended while the incident is investigated. Airline insiders say these things do happen but very rarely so I guess my odds of getting a free ticket for a landing at the wrong airport just took a nose dive.

The Week in Review

Posted on November 3, 2013November 3, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Wow! This week has been all over the place with snippets of news and some weirdness. I suppose that’s to be expected any week that includes Halloween.

Probably the most horrific event was the shooting in LAX. I’m not going to delve into that tragic event as that’s what I consider “Hard News” and I prefer to keep this as soft as possible.

So how about the Most Unusual Wedding Proposal. We’ve seen them on the Jumbotron at sports events, and the skywriters have become fodder for jokes but this week’s proposal was a first as far as I know. Very original.

It’s been reported that she said YES!

Dell laptop buyers make a stink over cat smell

Stop blaming poor Garfield. Your pretty kitty is not the culprit. If your new Dell laptop smells like a dirty kitty box it’s just part of the manufacturing process or so they say. Dell said Thursday that its investigation revealed that the strange scent is related to a manufacturing process, which the company has since fixed. But if your portable PC isn’t purrfect, Dell recommends contacting the company’s technical support team to have your laptop’s palm rest assembly replaced.

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And finally a note of caution to would-be burglars and thieves. Don’t leave any body parts behind less you be identified by DNA or, in the case of an Arizona man, his fingerprints, from his severed finger!

An air conditioning company employee told Glendale police someone tried to steal the wire from his truck on Oct. 7.

The spool of wire — worth more than $300 — had been pulled out about 20 feet from the truck, and what appeared to be a cut off finger was caught in the wiring. Police retrieved the finger as evidence, and forensic technicians were able to match the fingerprint to 29-year-old Joshua Allen Goverman. OOPS! Goverman says he lost the finger while working on a car and has no idea how it got in the spool of wire. Dismembered fingers – spooky!

And how was your Halloween Week?

Cracking the Bigfoot/Yeti Legend

Posted on October 20, 2013October 20, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Can it be true? Has science finally solved the legend of the Yeti?

A British scientist has told ABC news that he tested the DNA of hairs found in the Himalayas and it is a match to a prehistoric polar bear.

Bryan Sykes compared DNA from hair samples taken from two Himalayan animals — identified by local people as Yetis — to a database of animal genomes. He found they shared a genetic fingerprint with a polar bear jawbone found in the Norwegian Arctic that is at least 40,000 years old.

Sykes said Thursday that the tests showed the creatures were not related to modern Himalayan bears but were direct descendants of the prehistoric animal.

He said, “it may be a new species, it may be a hybrid” between polar bears and brown bears.

“The next thing is go there and find one.”

I guess the folks at “Finding Bigfoot” can relax and keep filming. The search will go on.

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In other news those sneaky felines are at it again.

CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — A cat has been busted for smuggling pot into a prison in Moldova.

Guards became suspicious about the feline, which routinely entered and left the prison through a hole in a fence, when they noticed its odd collar. On closer inspection, they found two packets of marijuana attached to it.

The Department of Penitentiary Institutions said Friday that someone in the village of Pruncul was using the cat as a courier to supply inmates with dope at the local prison.

Whoever the human was, this wasn’t a first regarding cat couriers at lockups.

In June, guards caught a cat carrying cellphones and chargers taped to its belly to inmates in Penal Colony No. 1 near the city of Syktyvkar in northern Russia.

Hmmm That puts a new spin on cat burglars.

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! 🙂