I believe that this is the most important link I will publish this year.  Wether you support the war in Iraq or not, it is very important, especially at this time of year that we let the men and women who are on the line defending our freedom and way of life that they are not forgotten.  Xerox corporation has set up a program called "Let's Say Thanks".  When you go to the Let's Say Thanks website, you can generate a postcard that will be sent to a service man or women overseas away from family and friends for the holidays.  You can go back to the site as many times as you wish, and generate as many cards as your time allows.  Please take part in this program and pass it on to your friends, and family. This is way more important then most of the other discussion we have here.  Thanks for your time.

I'm back after a week and a half of not having to get up in the morning and staying up late at night!  Vacation, what a wonderful concept.  Even though I did not go anywhere or do anything, just luxuriating in the freedom to do nothing was awesome.

I did get to watch the Space shuttle launch, docking, and first space walk to attach the new P-5 truss to the P-4 truss.  Heady stuff!   For more information, and schedules, go to the NASA website and look at the humans in space tab. I also got the watch the entire Firefly block on Sci-Fi yesterday.

Spent most of the time taking care of my wife, watching movies, and just de-compressing my mind.

Its great to be back. 

The storm missed!  GOD in his infinate gave us heavy rain, and high winds, but no snow!!!:D  Thank you God!  Today it is cold but very clear. a beautiful winter day.

Don't know how many of you had the opportunity to watch Polar Express last night.  If you missed it and you have cable, it is being repeated  next Friday on ABC Family channel.  I have to say, some great movies have been popping up between Hallmark Channel and ABC Family Channel.

Everyone have a great Sunday.  I'm on VACATION!!!  its been so long I don't even know what that means. :lol:. Well, i could only wish I was going here.  Maybe if I close my left eye, squint with my right eye, hold the picture a couple of inches from my nose and turn up the heat, I can make the dream seem real.  Oh yeah, lets not forget a frosty beverage.

December, the end of a year.  It has come exceedingly quickly this time around.   I can say that I am looking forward to the new year.  This year was not one of my better ones. My wife's illness colored the year, but as it goes on the prognosis is that she is doing ok.  At least she is still alive for me to write about. 

Anyway, as we move into the new year, all our hopes and dreams are renewed.  I look forward to a very busy year.  One of my friends is running for Mayor and I am the campaign HQ IT manager.  This is just one of the projects in the works for the new year.

Now the best news!  Starting Sunday I am actually taking a full week of vacation!  Because of days off and scheduling I do not have to go back to the grind till December 15th!!!! :D.  Do not dispair however, I will be online from where ever I am.  I'm to much of a junkie to be disconnected for that long. :lol:

PS; enjoy the pictures of snow and ice.  Better a picture then on the ground.

Temps here in NE Indiana have been in the mid to high 60 's for the last week.  Its obviously the fault of Global Warming and the big bad US! NOT!!! Tonight there is a winter storm watch in effect for the same area,  Temps are expected to not get above the high 30 's for the next several weeks.  Its called WEATHER, and for all of our great scientific achievement, there is no one that can accurately come up with a weather prediction more then a day or two out.  Climatology is more magic then science.  If you need some good information on Global Warming, read State of Fear by Micheal Crichton. 

Some other myths:  Bigfoot is my brother, I have a sister but no brother, and trust me she is not Bigfoot.

The Abominable Snowman lives in Fort Wayne Indiana.  This may be so, but definitely not during the summer months!

They are aways right.  Who is They anyway.

Enough silliness for today, although please feel free to comment with your own myths.

As part of Hallmark channels run up to Christmas, they premired March of the Penguins last night.  If you have not seen it yet, YOU MUST SEE IT!  The story is captivating and the cinematography is spectacular.  The struggle of these incredible birds is epic to watch.  The hype that surrounded this movie did not do it justice. 

Football time again, I am trying to redeem my team after yet another drubbing!  I am finding that following the call of the experts is just like rolling the dice in a crap game.  Sometimes you win, mostly you dont! :cry:  It turns out that they are trying to read tea leaves just like everyone else, and they don't really have an inside track on knowledge.

Looks like it is shaping up to be a beautiful weekend.  The sun is out and it may even get into the 60 's today (weird). At least it beats the ice fog ( a new experience for me) I had to deal with the last several days on my way to work!

After a crushing defeat last week, I am trying to get my fantasy football team back on track.  Being realistic, I am not overly optimistic about the rest of my season.  Even though on paper my team looks strong, it is just not working out that way.  Oh Well!

Everyone have a great weekend!

Hope everyone had a great Holiday.  As you slipped into your after feast coma, I can only hope that dreams of big bargins did not dance in your head! 

As I drove to work this morning at 6:00am, I was astounded by the number of people who absolutely felt the need to come out in a bitter cold, dangerous to drive in ice fog, in order to save a few shekels. 

 I realize that there are some deals to be had, but mostly its a sucker bet.  The stores are using loss leaders to get the suckers (whoops, I mean shoppers) into the stores, knowing full well that even if they cannot find the item they came for, they are not leaving without something.

I'm sorry but Christmas music, Extreme Shopping, and Christmas movies (White Christmas was on WGN last night), before December should be against the law!  I am not a humbug, but this stuff really gets me out of the holiday spirit! :(

By the way, anyone know what the Turkey emblem means?  Are they calling me a Turkey ( :lol: ), or does it mean I was silly enough to be online on the holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Please eat, drink, watch football, eat and drink some more, but please do it safely.  Those of you traveling this morning in the Northeast Indiana, and Northwest Ohio woke up to very unpleasent weather,  The dew point and the temp were the same at around 27 degrees.  The fog made visability aound 6:00am around zero! I'm writing this at around 11:30am and its not much better, although it has lifted a little visability is still less then 1/8 mile.  Please Drive safely, i want to be avle to read your blogs and submissions for a long time to come!

Have a great Turkey Day!

Star Trek till all hours of the morning is just not healthy, but like eating Pringles, I just cannot stop.  Oh, well, the marathon ends shortly, and then its on to its normal schedule, 11:00pm ET on Tvland.  When I first heard they were going to remaster and enhance the episodes, I was not happy, but after watching many hours, I can say that in my opinion, they did a good job and delivered what they promised.

Thanksgiving is upon us.  That means Food, Football, Parades, Christmas musac, and of course the biggie Christmas shopping!  I am not sure why the day after Thanksgiving has become the star performer and most important day in retailing, but out here in the land of stirp malls, and malls in general, the troops are already gearing up.  In my email today was my sneak preview of Thanksgiving sales from one of the large local superstores.  My thoughts are lower your prices all year and don't save the sales for now.  Ba-humbug...

Don't get me wrong, I love this season, I love the lights, the fellowship, the joy, and the sprituality (for some), that starts with Thanksgiving and ends at Christmas.  I can do without a month of Christmas Musac, reminders of how many shopping days to Christmas, and all of the commercial junk that has become attached to both holidays.  I just feel that if we got back to the meaning of the holidays, that we as a country would be in a better place.