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?

Wisconsin

Posted on November 2, 2013November 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Land of the Cheese. I’m going to say yes but I probably should say no. I didn’t get much sight seeing done as I was only there a few days. I think I may have touched on the visit when talking about Illinois and Chicago O’hare International Airport. So rather than repeat myself; let’s just say it’s the journey, not the destination!

My brother retired from the Navy at the base in Wisconsin. He was stationed there and living in Kenosha so I had the chance to fly in for the ceremony and visit his home and that was about it. I’m sure there’s so much more to the state so let’s see what I can dig up.

Wisconsin shares it’s shores with Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, 2 of the largest of the 5 great lakes. In size Lake Superior is #1, Lake Michigan is #3, right behind Lake Heron.

Seems to me Lake Superior deserves a visit. It’s the largest freshwater body in the world and a great place to visit would be The Apostle Islands. 22 islands strewn over 450 square miles, they range from tiny Gull island (3 acres) to 10,000 acre Stockton Island.

Heading south from the Great Lakes you’ll find the famous cheese country from Monroe to Mineral Point. Here the rolling hills and river valleys attracted dairy farmers starting in the 1800’s. Today it is the heartland of Wisconsin’s dairyland where cheese making remains a generations-old fine art.

In Ontario, Wisconsin you can explore the “Driftless area” all serpentine valleys, crooked rivers, craggy bluffs and limestone. The Kickapoo River best characterizes this geology. Sometimes called the “crookedest river in the nation”. One of the oldest river systems in the world, the Kickapoo winds for 120 miles to cover a 65 mile distance. It’s a lazy spring-fed river of easy paddling except during the spring run off.

Running from Prairie du Chien to Prescott is the Great River Road or at least part of it. The 250 miles is only a fraction of the whole byway running the length of the Mississippi River. This stretch slaloms between the Mississippi and it’s towering bluffs. The road will take you through sleepy river towns, past busy barge traffic, braided backwaters, wildlife preserves and birds, birds, birds. This is part of the Mississippi Flyway. More than 40% of the Nation’s waterfowl and shorebirds pass this way.

In the southern end of the state, not far from Chicago, Illinois is Lake Geneva. The area has a resort-like feel and attracts vacationers from all over. The lake is a pristine spring-fed lake 22 miles in circumference. Being only 10 miles from the state line you can see how it would attract city weary residents of Chicago.

There’s more, from the North Country to Circus World, Amish settlements to Madison’s Dane County Farmers’ Market but I’ll leave some of that for another time.

The count is now 21/ 28. Only one more state to go.

West Virginia

Posted on November 1, 2013November 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

I can’t say that I’ve been to West Virginia but if singing this John Denver song counts then I’ve been many times. 🙂 I even played it in the background while I was doing my research for this post. I figured it would put me in the mood.

One of the first things I ran across was Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. Nestled in the mountains of West Virginia, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park offers excursions that transport you back in time to relive an era when steam-driven locomotives were an essential part of everyday life. Now that sounds like a top of the list experience in my book.

For a scenic drive West Virginia boasts the 43 mile long Highland Scenic Highway. This was built for the pleasure of mountain driving. The quiet two-lane highway takes you into the heart of the 919,000 acre Monongahela National Forest. On the 23 mile section known as Rt 150 there isn’t a house, business, utility pole, bill board or traffic signal! There’s no plowing in the winter so unless you plan to travel it on your snowmobile, plan a summer visit.

In Wheeling, a winter trip will land you in the middle of the Oglebay Winter Festival of Lights. A 6 mile driving tour set in a spectacular setting – a 19th century ridge top resort that was once a “Gilded-age” tycoon’s estate. The estate is now owned by the city of Wheeling and every year more than a million people enjoy more than 5o lighted displays.

Adventurous souls should explore the New River Gorge in south-central West Virginia. Once the coal capital of the state today tourism rules the economy and the New River and nearby Gauley River have become top white water rafting destinations.

Plan your trip for October and you might see some crazy acrobatics on and off the New River Gorge Bridge. Bridge Day is the largest BASE Jumping event in the world. Every year some 450 BASE jumpers leap off the 876 ft. high bridge doing all kinds of flips and turns before deploying their single parachute.

At the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers you’ll find Harpers Ferry, the site of John Brown’s ill fated slave rebellion. But long before this historic event, Thomas Jefferson described it as “perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. ” Harpers Ferry is remarkably well preserved with narrow streets and a lot of history.

West Virginia is the only state completely contained in the Appalachian Mountain Range giving the state a hilly winding topography. Folks joke that if the state were pulled flat it would be bigger than the state of Texas!

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, Mountain Mama
Take me home, country roads

The count now stands at 20/28

Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2013October 31, 2013 by Dusty Roads

History of Halloween

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows’ Evening also known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve.
Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting “haunted houses” and carving jack-o-lanterns. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as of Australia and New Zealand.

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.

The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween.

Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them.

Trick-or-treating, is an activity for children on or around Halloween in which they proceed from house to house in costumes, asking for treats such as confectionery with the question, “Trick or treat?” The “trick” part of “trick or treat” is a threat to play a trick on the homeowner or his property if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating is one of the main traditions of Halloween. It has become socially expected that if one lives in a neighborhood with children one should purchase treats in preparation for trick-or-treaters.

The history of Halloween has evolved. The activity is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and due to increased American cultural influence in recent years, imported through exposure to US television and other media, trick-or-treating has started to occur among children in many parts of Europe, and in the Saudi Aramco camps of Dhahran, Akaria compounds and Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia. The most significant growth and resistance is in the United Kingdom, where the police have threatened to prosecute parents who allow their children to carry out the “trick” element. In continental Europe, where the commerce-driven importation of Halloween is seen with more skepticism, numerous destructive or illegal “tricks” and police warnings have further raised suspicion about this game and Halloween in general.

reprinted from HalloweenHistory.org

Now that you know a little of the history, remember that there are those people or individuals who take Halloween to a more sinister level. They use the pagan roots of the holiday as an excuse to torture and maim small animals, commonly black cats but also dogs, birds, rabbits and any other household pets. Please, to keep your pets safe, keep them indoors tonight, especially your black cats. Be a responsible pet owner and provide the safe haven they need.