Category: Observation

Snowmageddon ’11: When Accu Does Not Stand for Accuracy

Take a gander at this weather forecast from our local Peoria Journal Star on January 30th 2011.

Pay particular attention to the Monday and Tuesday forecast.  Just taking a close look at the icons (which is exactly what I do 99% of the time) you would think that it will be cloudy on Monday with a few flurries and a mixture of sun and clouds on Tuesday.  This seemed a tad odd based on a report I had heard a few minutes earlier regarding a large front that was heading our way.  Maybe a closer inspection is required here.  Monday: Mostly cloudy, a BIT of snow; colder (okay match with icon).   Tuesday: Mostly cloudy, snow or flurries possible (this does not match the selected icon seeing as how I see no flurry symbols).  Note, this forecast was in our Sunday paper making the Monday and Tuesday forecast slightly harder than looking at a rock on the days in question.  At worst case you could look to the West, see what is happening on the plains and assume it will be on top of Illinois shortly.  But how could this be wrong, it’s from ACCUWEATHER (tm’d none the less).  For the entire rest of the day the local news and CNN were declaring “The Big One”  was on its way and would be hitting Illinois starting Monday and then pounding the entire state into submission on Tuesday.  How can this be, I’ve got ACCUWEATHER telling me to plan a picnic?   To top it off, the TV weatherman literally told everyone he expected us to be trapped in our houses on Wednesday.

So, want to know how accurate ACCUWEATHER’s forecast was?  How should I put this?  Let’s go with “A Pile of Feces”.  Monday actually turned out somewhat right in the sense it snowed a few flakes, but essentially nothing at all.  That day was not the one I wanted to focus on.  Tuesday started out with a rain and sleet mixture around 11:30am.  Shortly thereafter can only be described as a polar bear’s wet dream or an Inconvenient Truth for the gloBULL warming clown Al Gore.  From that moment on until early Wednesday morning, Peoria was in the midst of whiteout rivaling records set back in 1967 (a fantastic year by the way).  Once the storm moved out, we were left with about 18″ of the white stuff.

Score one for the TV forecast and a big fat ZERO for ACCUWEATHER. Sure enough we were snowed in. The plows never even made it out to us in the country until late Wednesday afternoon. Concerned about the amount of snow we were getting on Tuesday, I decided to do a pre-emptive plow late Tuesday afternoon in hopes of leaving enough space to put the rest of the snow. After two hours of this, the driveway was relatively cleared, but filling up fast from the blizzard. A last look outside before hitting the sack confirmed that the early plow was a wise decision. Well, a wise decision until I woke up the next day to discover all my work had been humbled by Mr. Snow Miser. Crap!!!

Hit the jump to see more pictures of Snowmaggedon

Continue reading Snowmageddon ’11: When Accu Does Not Stand for Accuracy

Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 1 of 3

Guess what?… nope, guess again?  nope.. one more try?  Close, but the right answer is “it’s time for another Phoadtography post.”  Actually it is sometimes affectionately called a photo-bomb which is pretty accurate with this particular set since it requires 3 full posts to get through.  This series is brought to you via our Las Vegas and Zion trip we took over Thanksgiving last year.  That equates to two very photographic locations coupled with a road commute between them.  Translated, lots of Phoadtography opportunities.    For those of you who may be new to the blog, here are some guidelines I posted previously regarding one of my favorite means to pass the time trapped in the car.   Let’s jump right into the set!

Figured I would start with a quick sign shot.  That and I wanted to get a bad picture out of the way before getting into the good ones.  Clearly this one is not up to par in the Phoadtography quality scale.  The camera tilt is over 5 degrees and the trigger finger was a little quick on the draw.  However, at least I knew where I was on the camera card.

I’ll balance the previous shot with probably my favorite of the whole set.  This is primarily due to spotting the opportunity and patiently waiting for the perfect moment to take the shot.  It required taking into account the direction of the road and relationship to the fixed structure on top of the rock.  I have no idea what it is (maybe a weather satellite or cell tower).  With the clever alignment it really looks more like a deathray!

Hit the jump to see a lot more of the pictures!

Continue reading Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 1 of 3

My Value is Melt[ing]aways

It’s a new year and that means a new set of convictions (to add to my existing set of course).  Over the course of last year I would stumble on some food products that left a bad taste in my mouth.  Generally this was due in part to the ingredients or preparation.  However, every once in awhile something in the product marketing overshadowed how good it might have tasted or just put the experience even further in the hole.  This year I’ve decided to call attention to these situations for a couple of reasons.  If it is a deceptive practice, then you should be aware of it as a consumer.  If I’m just viewing it wrong or missing some aspect of it, I would like to know so I can adjust my opinion appropriately.  No surprise, this particular post is case in point.

hit the jump to see the details of the issue:

Continue reading My Value is Melt[ing]aways

A Lot to Ponder

An interesting thing happened on my way to the car last week.  Intriguing enough that I thought I would share the scenario with you and see what courses of action you might have taken in a similar situation.  I am still going to leave out some background details out of concern for information protection, but let’s just say a number of us were required to spend  time in an area that my presence may not have been appreciated by the some of the inhabitants.  Sufficiently vague?… perfect.

To help alleviate some of the issues, we were requested to leave for the day 30  minutes before the rest of the people in hopes of  relieving congestion.  This worked out great for the first couple of days with a smooth transition to the car and ultimately back home.  Unfortunately on the third day I was working on something that required staying to the normal quitting time.  A little uneasy about this, I headed out to the car validating that there was a lot more traffic than the previous days, but not overly concerned.  This kind of changed as I neared my truck.   The graphic for today is actually a guide to the event so feel free to refer to it as I relate the story.

About 7 vehicles from my truck I noticed 3 people talking in front of a vehicle parked a couple down from me – identified by the second set of purple ‘P’s as you look up from the bottom of the graphic (note, the other 4 people (first set of P’s) were not there yet nor the red car in the middle of the aisle.  Passing them, I noticed there was a person sitting in the car they were talking in front of as well as a person in the car directly South of my destination.  For those keeping track, that is now 5 people in uncomfortable proximity to my vehicle.  As I got into my truck (which was facing the lot fence) I looked to my right and saw another guy sitting in the truck directly North of me.  Now we are at 6.  While giving the engine a little bit of time to warm up (the temp was in the single digits and contrary to this Google Map picture, the lot was covered in snow), the silver vehicle comes up the aisle towards me and stops a few cars down from the first set of people.  The exact count is a little fuzzy, but let’s assume there were two people in the vehicle and at least two other individuals came out to talk to them.  The tally is now 10.  Seconds before putting the truck in reverse, another vehicle drives up the aisle and passes behind me.  The driver was probably in his late 50’s and possibly early 60’s and looked to be driving rather intently (shoulders riding high, double grip high on the steering wheel and eyes straight ahead.  Noting that this particular aisle was a dead end at the  fence line, I made an assumption that he was looking for the last remaining end spot.  In what appeared to be a confirmation of this, he  turned his car into the spot but not at the deep arc you would expect in order to properly hit the space.  Alert to the other people in the area, I started to back out.  Less than a quarter revolution of the tire later, I was on the brakes again because the car starts backing out of his end spot.  Maybe he just wants to fix that angle to provide some additional room away from the other truck beside me?  Another wrong assumption.  The dude proceeds to back up until there is a visible impact on the vehicle parked on the other side of the aisle.  Now my spidey senses were in full alert mode  so pulled back into my space.  All of the other people I could see were now also tuned into the situation and were staring at the driver.  A quick check of him revealed the exact same expression and physical position he had when he passed me, with zero concern for the fact he had just hit another car.  Instead he stutters the car back and forth until he gets his rear in line with his nose.  On the last back up he pulls the wheel to the left to complete the 3 point turnaround.  At this point the guy in the truck to my North gets a little concerned as the car proceeds to bounce off his bumper as it finally completed the 180 degree turn.  By this time, the guy in the parked truck looks over to me with a surprised look and this is now the center of conversation with the rest of the people pointed out earlier.  Expecting to get hit myself, I was extremely relieved when he successfully passed me, but that emotion was replaced by astonishment as the driver proceeded to drive down the aisle and turn left out of the lot with zero intention of taking accountability for his actions.  Just to complete the setup, the driver of the parked truck got out and started inspecting the bumper (that was hit) and then walked over to the rest of the people to join in the discussion.

Now time for some audience participation – hit the jump to read the rest of the story.

Continue reading A Lot to Ponder

Some Fails to Feast On

This has been a pretty physical week for me to the point where this is probably the first time in years (likely exactly 6 years) that I have come home from work and literally crashed out on the couch – actually let me qualify that a bit – came home, completed my training runs and then crashed out on the couch. I didn’t want you to think I was cheating out on my road to running injury recovery. This week will likely result in some future blog entries (depending on how much I think I can discuss about this week in a public forum). For now, just know this particular week I do not have a chair in my “office”. In light of my fatigue, I figured I would simply post a series of fails that I have either come across myself or obtained from my brother or friends.

I am going to start out with my favorite one. Linda actually alerted me to this one. She was traveling down Rt 91 in Dunlap/Peoria when she noticed this sign. Now keep in mind this is one of those things that has plagued me all my life. I was blessed with a name that really can’t be “cutesied” up which I have appreciated, but there is one very common mistake I still see on a daily basis. I have no idea if this sign is actually right or not, but my guess is this particular Brian has fell victim to this common mistake.

The odd thing is it has been up there for months (I made Linda drive by it so I could get a picture). So either it is right or he has also resigned to it. I always nicely respond with a “thanks for the compliment” when the mistake is made in person.

Hit the jump for the rest of the fail gallery!

Continue reading Some Fails to Feast On

Another Year another Restriction

My brother recently informed me that my rights as a natural citizen of the United States has once again been restricted via state legislation.  Somehow this always seems to result in limitations of my freedoms, yet do I ever get my desire for legal reform (translated ambulance chasers), reduced political term limits, or how about jail sentences for politicians who fail to pay their own taxes (especially those who set tax policies for others)?  Nope, instead I am subject to new laws that went into effect this year like:

  • You cannot use public money to fund a portrait of any governor that has been removed from office (apparently by impeachment or conviction).
  • Hair braiders have to register with the state
  • Driving instructors (family or professional) have to be sober while teaching someone to drive

I am not accountable for the day to day management of the State of Illinois, but I do know that my State is something like $13 BILLION below a balanced budget.  Call me crazy, but this seems like a serious issue worthy of some equal serious attention.  Instead, we apparently have legal concerns about someone wanting to make a portrait of Deputy Dog… I mean Blago.  So somehow this little bit of legislation was crafted, presented, lobbied, voted and scribed into law while our State’s credit rating was getting smacked around by Asian Carp.  As a result I sit in resignation as my income tax rate takes hits of helium (especially annoying seeing as how we also have a tax hit thanks to a new high school referendum that was passed which we will never benefit from).  But all of this was trumped by another new law (and the specific one my brother clued me into).  Apparently as of the first of this year, I can no longer own a monkey!  Chipping away at my income is one thing, but “chimping” me out of my primates is just going to far.

  • What’s going to alert me to bad dates?
  • Who’s going to throw all the dog poo out of my yard?
  • How will I be able to leave the house without knowing my hair is free of lice
  • and most of all, who is going to make drink runs while I am enthralled in a video game?

These are just some of the valuable things that I rely on my den monkey to do for me (pictured above).

This is absolutely the bitter end and it’s time to go dump some tea.  I beg all geeks of the world to stand up for their primate rights and end this injustice.  Hmmm wait just a minute, let me go read that law again.   Yada yada yada, no primates.. yada yada unlawful to own… yada yada yada unless for assisting disabilities yada yada.  Hey, it looks like I have at least two outs.  Clearly my monkey is assisting in a disability capacity (gaming flunky) but in truth, the law seems to only focus on primates and my monkey doesn’t fall into this category because in truth it is a ‘C’ monkey (bada bing).  I guess I’ll call off the tea raid, but politicians beware I’m watching you closely (especially those from Chicago).

    Phoadtography Gallery: Maine Trip 2010 Pt 2

    Time to close out this year’s posts.  With only the remaining year end summary left, this post essentially puts the finishing touches on the 2010 blog entries.  As with Part I of this Phoadtography Gallery this set comes with a healthy dose of photos as well.  The good news is this closes out all the road shots from the Maine trip allowing me to start fresh with the new year.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get through all the Maine photos (off the road) and now even farther behind with the recent Vegas/Mt Zion trip we took a month ago.   Oh well, plenty in the hopper for 2011 (should I choose to continue this activity for next year). Time’s a wasting, let’s get to the shots.

    This should not be a surprise, but I have an affinity towards bridges.  The exact reason is difficult to tell since it is difficult to pin down exactly when I started admiring these structures.  Having built one now, this appreciation has definitely increased.  If pressed, I’d have to say that the fusion of artistic characteristics and functional purpose entwined in physics and math is the compelling factor.  This might be similar to some people’s fascination with sundials seeing how ornate and complex those functional timepieces can be.  This particular bridge has all of the classic features of bridge with its arches, triangles (notice the vertical beams are not straight up and down) and the cross hatch underneath to keep it rigid.  With the height of this beast, there are probably large ships traversing this waterway.

    This particular bridge still confuses me in the sense I am unable to figure out the functional component.  It appears to go absolutely nowhere and the railing on the end suggests there was no plan for it to go anywhere.  The metal structure towards the middle of the bridge is interesting as well.  First thought was it rotated in some manner and connected up to another span allowing for easy traversal of the waterway.  This sounds good in theory, but there did not seem to be a pivot point or any span to hook up to.  It is a mystery and if anyone is near 194.75 and knows anything about this, please leave a comment.

    Hit the jump to see the rest of the Phoadtography gallery.

    Continue reading Phoadtography Gallery: Maine Trip 2010 Pt 2

    A Christmas Scorn

    Merry Christmas Everyone! Best wishes for a safe and happy holidays. Our plans for today were altered slightly due to a Linda’s mom coming down a little ill, so figured I’d make a quick post. In honor of the season, thought it would be a perfect time to post on a funny situation that occurred a mere two days ago. Linda and I decided to go out for our Christmas dinner a few nights early since the weather was looking a little iffy (ended up getting at least 6″ yesterday and even plowed for a second time today as it continued to fall well into the night). Electing to go with casual attire, we chose to eat at Bar Louie in our outdoor mall. Convinced that the wait would be extensive, it would also give us a chance to pick up some last minute gifts. The first oddity of the night occurred when we walked into the establishment. The wait time ended up being the length of time it took to tell the hostess whether we wanted a booth or a table. There were at most 10 people in the whole place with most of those sitting at the bar. If we had to guess there were at least 30 empty tables. We both looked at each other and both had a flash we had missed a health report or something. Committed, we sat down and made our order noting that it was special day so both our diets were out the door. In the end it didn’t matter since I only ate half of my food and ended up eating some of Linda’s instead (note, if the hamburger is too charbroiled for me to eat, it isn’t fit to be served – especially annoying since they didn’t even ask me how I wanted it cooked). The “lack of customers” mystery was quickly solved.

    It did allow us plenty of time to shop afterward. The ever-efficient shopper Linda was either feeling the effects of the supper or was just in a good mood knowing her shopping responsibilities had already been completed. This manifested in a night of sarcastic comments and humor as I desperately tried to find the perfect Christmas gift. I was also trying to get Linda to pick out few gifts for herself, since she gave me a wish list with a whopping 6 or 7 items on it that I was forced to give to others who were looking for gifts. I had threatened a Chia Pet or The Clapper if she didn’t give me any additional ideas. After a few stops we ended up at Barnes and Noble and by that time Linda was on a roll pointing out a number of gift options in jest. As we turned the corner Linda spots this:

    hit the jump to see the rest of the story.

    Continue reading A Christmas Scorn

    Phoadtography Gallery: Maine Trip 2010 Pt 1

    This year is quickly coming to a close, but the blog queue is still deep with 2010 photo collections.  I try to keep it fresh and maintain a balance of photos, interesting viewpoints, service complaints/rants and things that make me go huh?  Linda and I were lucky enough to go on some pretty nice trips this year which means our hard drives have been riddled with photos this year.  It is far easier to make comments on things if they are still in short term memory so rather than push this off to next year, let’s go ahead and dump the Phoadtography collection from the Maine trip we took in June.  There are a lot of them so be warned, your browser cache is going to get a workout.  For sanity purposes (yours and mine) this post will actually be a two parter.  For those who don’t know what Phoadtography is please check out my previous post… especially if you are preparing to unleash your fury on how bad some of these shots ended up being.

    Starting off this set is every kid’s favorite toys and more importantly, the machines that pay both our salaries.  Guessing due to the stimulus money (that actually got spent on job creating projects), we encountered a lot of construction on our way out and back to Maine.  Most travelers probably cuss the slow downs and stoppages, but in the case of my wife and I the sound of Caterpillar machines in motion is music to our ears.  As mentioned in the introduction Cat machines are always a good target for Phoadtography shots.  This vehicle is one of our articulated trucks that, if I remember correctly, are produced in Waco TX.

    Pretty cool machine if I say so myself.  Hit the jump to see the rest of the pictures in this post.

    Continue reading Phoadtography Gallery: Maine Trip 2010 Pt 1

    Beware the Urban Ninja

    Remember me, I’m the dude that is suppose to have 6 posts a month yet it is nearly Christmas and the tally is stuck at a lousy one.  Of course, there is another more “half full” way to look at it which is 67 out of 72 in the books already with another New Year’s commitment about to get the checkmark.  Truth is things have been busy as of late, but Friday was my last day of work this year which leaves me plenty of time to pound on the keyboard.  Which brings me to tonight’s quick post.  Linda and I were up in the Quad Cities yesterday to have Christmas dinner (actually to be more accurate, Christmas lunch) with her side of the family.  Linda’s middle brother lives in Bettendorf IA which is minutes away from our favorite place to take eagle pictures.  With the cameras all packed, we left an hour early to give us some time to see if this year’s eagles had made their way down yet.

    Unfortunately, I only saw two eagles.  One ended up flying over us and landing in the trees at the other end of the parking lot.  Creeping over there in my best ninja impersonation provided about 5 “bird on a stick” shots.  By the last shot, he was clearly staring at me rather intently before deciding his wings gave a significant advantage over the land dwellers and left for the safety somewhere out in the Mississippi River.  Stupid me didn’t have the camera configured to my preferred in flight settings making it difficult to get shots as he flew directly over my head.  Eventually another decided to check out the fish options nearby, but again, no shots worth bragging about.  I did walk down a little and say hello to another photographer that had set up along the river.  After some lens envy (always impressed by the $6K+ fast glass some people haul out there).  According to that photographer there were 10 eagles nesting in a nearby set of trees, but another photography couple had decided to walk directly out to those trees and scared them all away.  They were on their way back over while I was talking to the guy.  Guessing the dude wasn’t too happy about that since he literally stared at them the entire time they were walking back past him until they were in their car heading out.  Keep in mind, it was about 1 degree out and he was probably staking out that location for some time.  I always try to be conscious of other photographers in the area and respect their positions especially if they were there before me.  For the curious, I verified there were no other photographers taking pictures of the eagle I saw at the end of the lot, otherwise the approach would have been delayed.

    Guessing at this point that it is still a little early for the best eagle watching.  After about 10 more minutes I called it a shoot and headed back to the car where Linda and the dogs were waiting patiently.  Another car pulled into the area just as I reached the edge of the lot.  Something seemed odd about it, but had difficulty pinning it down.  Nothing really unique or special about the car, in fact, it was a pretty boring 4 door in a champagne or off silver color.  There were no stickers or ornate hangings from the rear view mirror that would interest me either.  As I started to turn back to our car it became clear why the brain alarm was going off.  The front license plate was covered in a camouflage cloth.  It was also done with care since it was perfectly wrapped and tight fitting like a package.  Although I was trying n0t to stare since the car was right next to me and the owner was still inside, it did seem like it was actually more like a shower cap of sorts that had elastic on the backside which held it tight to the plate bracket.  Okay, now I am totally curious.  Is this some kind of car ninja all decked out in clever urban camo?  Maybe he’s like a transporter and wants to remain stealth like or worse here to kill me, take my camera and throw my lifeless carcass into the frozen river.  Conscious of the latter option I headed back to our SUV.  Once inside I informed Linda of the interesting situation, but it didn’t seem to be as intriguing to her as it was to me.  Needing to get to her brother’s, she backed out and headed to the exit.  As we passed the car, the first thing I noticed was it had a rear license plate (Iowa) that wasn’t covered up at all.  At the same time the owner of the car got out revealing he was probably in his late 60’s early 70’s causing an internal chuckle since my own ninja skilz would have kept me safe and sound.  This whole things still interests me and still kicking myself for not trying to get a shot for you.  Linda’s conclusion was that he didn’t want his car being photographed by the traffic cameras in the Quad Cities and therefore put the cover on the front.  I’d almost buy this under the assumption the traffic cameras only took head-on shots, but guessing they also take a rear shot just in case.  Secondly, and more importantly, it is mandatory in Iowa (like Illinois) to have a front license plate, so actually he is putting himself in a more likely position to get pulled over and given a ticket by any of the local police forces.

    Probably reading more into this than there really is, but I’m all about the weird and this discovery fits the bill.  Any of you have theories on this you would like to share?  If not, I’m going with the discovery of an urban ninja using his clever skilz to live among us without detection (this includes the old guy disguise).  For what evil purposes is still unclear, but clearly lucky to be alive today to tell about it.