Christmas is coming!

I can tell that Christmas is getting close. Not only is Thanksgiving over with all the unbridled commercialization but the local radio stations are starting their playing of Christmas music. As least my favorite station isn't doing it constantly yet and has a mix of funny stuff thrown in so you are not totally turned off when the week of Christmas really gets here. I think my favorites are the Twelve days of Christmas by either the muppets or The MacKenzie brothers. Brian Seltzer also does a good mix of non traditional music.

I am not sorry to say I despise a traditional Christmas. Unless you can guarantee a an easy drive, I want a green Christmas. Play the holiday music 24/7 at your house. I don't mind sum but nothing but is going to tick me off. Don't even start with planning the perfect holiday meal with family all getting along. I have not seen it yet. It might require a 911 call but show me one family gathering where someone isn't getting annoyed or one part of the meal doesn't turn out quit right. Shoot for close enough. Call me jaded. I don't mind. Just pass the eggnog.

Web Radio and Memories

I got an FM transmitter for Christmas so I could all radios in the house slaved to one audio device so I could hear cd's, mp3's or the computer throughout the house. On e thing I wanted to do was to listen to radio stations via the internet in case propagation really tanked. In my search for links to listen to stations, an idea to look for Edmonton radio stations came to mind since I went to college there. Little did I know it would be a time machine. Time and space just warped again.

I think I am now on a quest. It might result in another blog. I think I want to start net surfing to listen to as many web radio broadcasts as I can. Since I really can't QSL them then maybe doing a blog post about them will do.

Somebody help, I am being sucked into a cyber existence. Just call me Tron.

Van Wert Reprise

N 40° 52.282 W 084° 36.448


I think with this post, I will be done with our visit to Van Wert, Ohio. We found this one while looking for a geocache in Woodland Cemetery. I am so glad that I am in the groove of looking around instead of just looking at the task at hand. It was placed by the Scott Relief Corp on July 4, 1901. I think it is interesting that there are some Civil was soldiers moved nearby from a mausoleum. It's a neat spot. I am so glad we stopped by. This is one of those spots where it is not about the numbers and all about seeing something I would not have seen otherwise. Ok, I will get off my soapbox now.

Family is an F Word

Thanksgiving has come and gone and once again I got reminded that family is most certainly an f word. The people that are the closed to you and love you the most are also the ones that have the ability to annoy and hurt you the most. They have had to most time to map out everyone of your button sand know exactly the how and when to get the most out of every button pushed. It is not even always deliberate. What they think is a stone riot, you are left thinking "when are you going to grow up?". I often think we spend more time trying to give a good impression to complete strangers than we do to those we love or should love the most. Familiarity definately breeds contempt.

I wish I had the solution to this. For some people, I have lost my patience for.. That leads to hurting even more people because of family ties. If it wasn't for family ties, I would have written them off a long time ago. It really sucks that the best I can do is insulate myself from their bad behavior and walk away from people I want to visit with and things I want to do just because some can't be arsed to grow up. Some of it is not even that what they are doing but the level. I don't a mind a comment during a TV show but the constant chatter and commentary is very annoying. I am tired of asking to shut up. Where do you draw the line for amount of chatter during a show when you are doing some of it? All I know is I am tired of being patient.

Van Wert, Ohio again

some more of the waymarks we found this day. It was really neat looking around and seeing Wan Wert. Funny things is, is that i Have been using the Thanksgiving holiday to catch up. I am still not all the way caught up them. I don't think I will ever be. BalyEasts had some really good food. The courthouse and cannon were neat. I do not think I will ever be cauaght up on waymarks. There will always be more ideas and submissions. The more wew do this, the more there are possibilities. I am tired and want to rest for a while.

Van Wert, Ohio

WE got to see some neat things while in Van Wert. One was a garden in the middle of the business section of town. Their library was actually the first County Library in the United States. There is also a water tower that has been there since 1929 and actually has a sign on it to testify to the fact. The water tower is also a benchmark. Really neat town with some really old buildings. It also has a very yummy mom and pop restaurant in the downtown. I will trying to waymark that sometime in my cyber catch up from the weekend. I have all the logging for waymark and cache visits and discovered logs for all the trackables but the waymarking submissions by their nature is going to take longer. If I don't get it done before Thanksgiving then maybe I can do some catch up over Thanksgiving weekend. It all depends on how much I get done and how the visit goes. I also need to get going on a D&D character. One good thing about the inclement weather is I won't be waymarking as much and maybe I could get caught up on some other things. ( My fault for paying too muchattention to one hobby.) We will see how things go.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here and they are collecting thank you postcards. It's free and easy and does not take a long time. They are away from their families as we gather with our families. The least we can do is give them a word of thanks.

N o Tresspassing on Roof

I was off geocaching in Van Wert, Ohio when I saw this sign. I was stunned into laughter. I realize it is a low roof and kids and skateboarders are wanting to do their tricks off this but lets get real, respect other people's property. It is definitely one of those cases where I had to laugh that you had to be told to stay off the roof. Well, DUH! It had to be an issue or they would not have gone to the trouble of putting it there.

Do us all a faor, when you go to Van Wert, don't trespass on the roofs.

Winter is starting to knock

Late fall weather is showing itself. With Thanksgiving so close, the winter weather can not be far behind. The only thing I can complain about is the cold and wet. It sinks in worse than dryer and colder and makes everything ache. As Mark Twain said, every one complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it. There are windows of perfect weather for everyone but unfortunately it is not the same window for everyone. I guess we will be doing the cold weather slow done for caching soon enough.

Benchmark Along the Tracks

Kim and I were looking for benchmarks again. This one was fun. I am use to just easily or fairly easily walking up to the benchmark. This one I had to climb for. The arrow on the first picture shows where it is. Benchmarks are very similar but there is always something enough different to keep the hunt alive.

Lest We Forget

I want to thank ATmouse for drawing my attention to this. Now hereit is.

Let us remember not just our US veterans today, but the for a moment, recall the sacrifices of not just our military folk, but our allies - especially our brothers and sisters to our North, for today is Remembrance Day there.

This song was written about WWI by an Irish folk artist, back in 1975. It's one of my favorites. I found this verson by John Mc Dermott on youtube, too.


Green Fields of France
Well how do you do, Private William McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?
And I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916.
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart are you always 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Forever enshrined behind some glass-pane
In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Chorus

Well the sun's shining now on these green fields of France,
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance.
The trenches are vanished long under the plough
No gas, and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand.
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

Chorus

And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
You really believed that this war would end war?
But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame -
The killing and dying - it was all done in vain.
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Chorus


John Mc Dermott's version on youtube

Geo-Historian

I am really starting to think that waymarking is making me a bit of a geo-historian. What I mean by this is that I am putting the local history I find down to a set of coordinates. It's linking the history with the geography. I am learning a lot in the process. It's forcing me to research and look for things both in print and in the world.

One thing I learned is that the cannon at the DeKalb county Courthouse was actually mounted in its present position before the courthouse was in place and was put in place in 1909. I have that cannon numerous times and did not know the history. I have to read more of the local history books I have. There is just so much neat local history.

The weird thing is that I love local history. Anyone's local history. The History channel and textbooks cover the global events. What you don't always see is what was happening on the local level. I have read local histories for a couple of places am getting a flavor for an era and how localities are similar and different.

Election Results

Boo, we get four more years of our "beloved" mayor. Dave Wiant. Someone one must like him even if he did only win by 40 some votes. I think Tonya Hoeffel did a good show considering how deeply democrat Garrett is. It's very blue collar around here. The democrats around here are the moderate and conservative democrats.

I have to feel sorry for Fort Wayne Mayoral Candidate Matt Kelty. He lost and lost big. The finance scandal plagued his campaign from the primary. Tom Henry was a good candidate which did not help Kelty either. Just a crappy way to lose. It will really irritate me if the charges against him all have nothing to it. I would rather see him lose on the issues rather than some trumped up charges. I don't know if they are but the timing of them makes me think they stink. I could be wrong but right here, right now it does not smell right.

Waymarking and Benchmarking

While visiting friends down in Lebanon, Indiana. We did some caching, waymarking and benchmark hunting. I think the neatest benchmark was an incinerator chimney for an old milk factory. The aging and distress in the chimney was very easy to see and can be seen in the above picture. We finally got the disc at the Boone County Courthouse. We got the benchmark that is the courthouse dome but missed the disc on the pillar because we didn't look at the info sheet close enough. Oh well, it's not like they are going anywhere.

NSFW

Nothing about this is safe for work or kids so don't even start to get offended. You have been warned.

Election Day

It's election day and it looks like this years local mayoral elections are more interesting than the upcoming presidential elections. There are some local happenings that are causing a stir. The other problem is that I have not seen one good presidential candidate yet. No wonder people are not going to the polls. The people who don't vote are probably the ones that squawk the loudest about government. Get involved or shut up people. I had to laugh this morning. They were talking about how the colder weather would drop turnout. It's not that bad out. I think the weather is an excuse. I have seen people go out in the worst weather when they want something. People are out fighting and dying so the people back home can be free and vote. Don't let them down because the weather isn't perfect. Get off your butts and vote.