S.S City of Milwaukee, Manistee, Mi

One neat place neat my in laws is the USS Milwaukee. It is a retired train ferry turned museum. Their website is HERE. Joey!

Batmobile... on a stick!

I was out running errands and waymarking (just trying to get the most out of the gas money) when I stopped off at the local military museum to waymark batmobile on a pole.I thought it was cool and the waymark is HERE. Enjoy!

DIY Ethic

With the economy being the way it is, I have become more and more of a DIYer and adopting the DIY ethic. What gets me, is the DIY ethic is on wikipedia and the article about it is HERE.I generally agree with the DIY ethic as stated in the article except a couple of things. the main exception is when it talks about the Punk ethic is against consumerism. There will always consumerism of some sort or another. I can not see how anyone can provide themselves so well with all their food, all their clothes, all the products they need that come all forms of manufacturing. You would have be be farmer, doctor, miner, manufacturer and all sorts of things or get those services from someone.
However, having said that, I think people would be far better off if they learned to do more for themselves and learn to do more with less. How much better people would be if they learned to do at least basic car maintenance, did most or all of their own cooking and learn to sew or knit? I can not do it all and it is a challenge to learn all the skills and have the time to do stuff yourself but I am the better for what I can do for myself. Saving money on what I can do myself frees up money for the stuff I can not do for myself. Maybe I should not say this but I dare Washington to try to tax the worth added by my DIY projects. (watch them try now that I said something) It may not avoid taxes completely but whenever my money does not go into the government coffers, it makes my little heart shine a bit brighter. For that matter, whenever I get to keep more of my money period it is a victory won.

I guess that is my soap box for the day.

Far Out Shirts

I was looking for some Cuthulhu pictures for wallpaper for my computer when I found this image. I followed the link to find the website it came from and found far out shirt website. I was hooked and since the presidential election is starting to turn on, i thought I would get the political satire going early this time. Guess what shirt I will be proudly wearing through the end of this year and next?

Matheny Family Mausoleum

As part of my going about and waymarking, I sometimes wind up in a cemetery and finding a mausoleum. Maybe it is because I love a good gothic horror story or it could just be I think they are a neat and sometimes very beautiful buildings. In any case, they fascinate me and through waymarking I can help share my love of them and see more of them at least virtually online.

This one is waymarked HERE.

Mad Anthony Wayne

This is a statue and historical sign in downtown Fort Wayne. the sign reads as follows:
Major general Anthony Wayne

In the early 1790's, the United States suffered two serious defeats at the hands of the Indians under the leadership of Little Turtle, war chief of the Miami nation. In response, President George Washington sent Revolutionary War hero Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne into the western frontier. He had earned the nickname “Mad” for his reckless daring in a spectacular attack on the British at Stoney Point, New York, during the Revolution.

A stern disciplinarian, Wayne rigorously trained his troops before he took his “Legion of the United States” into Miami territory in 1794. His forces defeated the Indian confederacy at the battle of Fort Recovery (July 2,1794) and then again at the battle of Fallen Timbers, near Toledo (August 20,1794).

Wayne moved his “Legion” up the Maumee River to the large Native American settlement of Kekionga at the confluence of Three Rivers. He choose a site across the Maumee River from Kekionga to build the first American fort and then handed command over to Col. John Hamtramck. On October 22,1794, the fourth anniversary of the defeat of the United States at Kekionga, Hamtramck called a parade together of the garrison, fired 15 rounds of the cannon, (in honor of each of the fifteen states of the union) and formally announce that henceforth to be called Fort Wayne.

Anthony Wayne left four days later never to return. After inspecting the other U.S. Garrisons and successfully negotiating the treaty of Greenville in 1795 with the Indians of the regions, Wayne returned to Pennsylvania where he died in 1796. "

The waymark I did for this is HERE.

A Year after taking Finiancial Peace University

It has been a bit over a year since my wife and I finished taking the Dave Ramsey Financial peace University Course. There are several upsides and a couple of downsides. The two big downsides is that it has not been easy and we are not done with debt yet. Mathematically we knew both to be true but there is a difference between seeing the numbers and then living it out. The big upsides are that we are still doing what Dave teaches (more or less because who is perfect) and we are doing that because we have rid ourselves of debt in the thousands of dollars. We are not done with that but we are well on the way. Other upsides is that we are not only able to get some nice things for ourselves but for better prices than we use to but we are paying cash for it instead of charging it. There is some frustration in this since we have to put things on hold either until we have the money or we or we can find things at the price we want to spend even if we have the money. the one upside of a down economy is that there are deals to be had if you are willing to be patient. I think there has always been deals if you are patient but some are more low hanging now. We are getting better at finding deals and taking advantage of when there are good prices on things. Learning to do more do it yourself projects are also helping. Never ever stop learning and trying.