Rest in Peace

Back on Top

First off, I don't want to hear anymore about the devastating collapse in the last minute of regulation play against Boston University in the national Championship game last season.

Now that we're past that. I am proud to announce that Miami's hockey team is back on top of both the USA Today poll and the USCHO poll, as well as the not so important INCH poll. Not to give a lesson in English, (as if I could) that's defined as a consensus!

Well, I must admit that it is early in the season, however it is tough to overlook Miami's team based on their returning players and their ridiculous depth. Not to mention they have the highest winning percentage of ANY division I college hockey team over the last FOUR YEARS! That's saying something, really it is.

Exclusive eye witness report:

Miami sweeps #13 St.Cloud State in dramatic fashion. Friday's game was a come from behind thriller that culminated in a 3-2 overtime decision in favor of the good guys. Junior forward Carter Camper slipped the game winner into the onion bag ending the stalemate. Camper was a Hobey Baker award candidate last season and is expected to have fantastic appeal in this years race for the award. For those of you that don't know, the Hobey Baker award is the Heisman trophy of college hockey, in other words, it's awarded to college hockey's MVP.

Saturday's rematch was expected to be another fantastic showdown based on the previous night's extravaganza. It turns out that it was another great one, although, not quite as dramatic as the prior contest. This one was summed up in 20 seconds and two shots. That's all it took for Miami's high power offense to make the two game match-up a sweep. Both goals were scored about 5 minutes into the 3rd period. St. Cloud never really had a chance to make a comeback. Miami's one-two punch of ballistic offense and stifling defense tucked this two-bager away into the win column and didn't look back.

Overall, Miami's special teams were fantastic in both contests combining to score two power play goals out of 9 chances and stopping all 10 opposing man advantages. Sophomore goalie Connor Knapp recorded the shutout in Saturday's 2-0 victory, while equally capable Cody Reichard etched the "W" Friday.

Of course, there were a few scary moments that warrant some coaching attention, but that's to be expected while the rust is being knocked off during the season's onset.

The upcoming weekend takes the Redhawks to the University of New Hampshire for another Friday-Saturday double header. If I get inspired, I might blog about the results.

GO REDHAWKS!!!

The MPO Chronicles...

So I was watching some Law & Order SVU (Tracy's show) and it jogged my memory of an interesting story, and more.

Here goes.

Some background: Back in High school I had a job as a telemarketer working for a company called "Midwest Publishing" A.K.A. "MPO" I have no idea what the "O' was for in the acronym. It was probably there to confuse the Russians, which was the catch all excuse back in the day. Yes, I said I was a telemarketer. Yeah, I know but many of my best friends worked there as well. We worked from 5pm till 9pm Monday through Friday. We mad $5.00 /hour, that was actually pretty good for the times. After all the alternative was that we could "go flip burgers for $3.25 an hour" down the street at Burger King. That was true, and they never let us forget it.

The pitch: we called people "on behalf of the Ohio Patrolman's Benevolent Association" yadda yadda yadda... A gold pledge is only $45, you get everything plus a... blah blah blah... Oh, then maybe a silver pledge would be a better fit for you Mr. Jones, it's only $30. Wait, wait, don't hang-up, I really feel that you have it in your heart to make a difference for the men in blue, our Bronze pledge is only $15 and and you still get the sticker to post on your rear bumper... Well, I can't guarantee that it'll get you out of any tickets, but it can't hurt can it?

Well, the way it worked (remember, computers were still expensive in the late 80's) is that we took pages from phone books and "called them". One day, my boss "jumpin" Joe Niesch gave me a page out of a criss-cross phone book to call. Criss-cross books are organized by address, not alphabetically. So the first guy I called was some ancient codger that didn't know what year it was. The second (the first guy's neighbor) wasn't much better, and he made sure I knew that he was on a "fixed income" and couldn't afford anything. Based on the addresses in the listing, I knew I was going to be calling codgers for a while. So the codger calls went on for a while, prompting me to complain to Jumpin Joe that I was stuck calling a "fogey farm" and that my days results would suffer because of it. He didn't care and said call it anyway. Dejected and annoyed, I went back to my phone and started finishing the list of codgers a page and a half long. At that point, I really didn't care if I got any pledges or not.

The call: Still working the codger list I get a hold of this old guy on the phone and it went something like this:

Me: Hello Mr. Old Codger, I'm calling on behalf of the Ohio....

Old Codger: Hello?

Me: Hello, Mr. Old Codger...

Old Codger: I can't hear you can you speak up?

Me: YES, MR. CODGER, I'M CALLING ON BEHALF OF THE...

Old Codger: My name isn't Mr. Codger

Me: OH, I'M SORRY, WHO AM I SPEAKING WITH?

Old Codger: This here's peanut.

Me: OH I'M SORRY PEANUT... I'M CALLING ON BEHALF OF...

(at this point I start cracking up laughing as all my buddies around me are watching me work the phone with this relic, screaming into the phone, I just couldn't take it.)

After much discussion with my buddies about the codger call, I made my way back to my list and continued calling it without incident (other than the fact that there was no way I would get a pledge from this page of old fogeys)

Finally, I was through the codger list. Whew! Now on to some real phone numbers.

Maybe not. Not just yet anyway.

Instead I decided to call peanut back. It went like this:

Ring Ring Ring...

Old Codger: Hello

Me: HELLO, IS THIS PEANUT?

old Codger: WHO IN THE HELL IS PEANUT?

Me: (hang up) rolled on the floor laughing my ass off along with my buddies that were listening in on the call. Maybe you had to be there.

Our latest visitors

We've had some visitors...

Two days ago we had a visit from this guy, or gal in our garden.
This is a Eastern Box Turtle.


We have no idea how the heck he got in, but he did.


He wasn't alone. just outside the garden were a pair of cohorts. They were both roughly the same size shape and color. The markings on them were all different, but they were obviously all together.

Today, I was mowing the lawn out by the garden and had to mow around one of the turtles. After doing a little research on the web, I'm pretty sure this little lady was laying eggs. I will check it out a little closer later tonight. If in fact she did lay eggs, I will need to build a cage around them to keep predators like raccoons out. As you can see, I'm totally fine with opening my property to wildlife and the preservation thereof.

More on the turtles later.

Now on to the baby fawn I stumbled upon as it was bedding down up against my garden fence (on the outside of the garden)

She's rather cute, don't you think?


Her's a close-up


And now even closer. Oh, the dramatics.


Now, Tracy, Cammy and I are wondering if this fawn still has parents around. We'll be watching closely. If no parents, I guess we'll have to try and help it. We saw a news story just last night about a fawn that was abandoned. Some family took it in and was feeding it baby bottles full of milk. I'm not sure we'll be partaking in any activities that extreme, but I can assure you we will try and get some help for the little guy. My guess is we'll never see it again, but we'll see.

Updates on the turtles and fawn forthcoming.

Okay, by popular demand here's a post

So I haven't posted in a while. Shoot me.

Here's what's been happening...

Work has been busy. I have a ton of estimates I'm working on, several proposals out and several jobs in line. As far as I can tell, people around here haven't quit spending money on their houses. Not to mention, everyone that wants windows knows all about the energy tax credit. There's no doubt in my mind that the tax credit has definitely encouraged people to spend money on their houses. That means work for me. Thanks Barack. Yep, my vote counted and is working for me, unlike the previous two elections. Need I remind you the name of the scum bag that people actually voted for. I mean really, what the hell were they thinking?

The garden was planted a month ago give or take. Then it proceed to deluge all over my fragile seeds. The carrots and potatoes made it well. The lettuce and spinach, didn't come up at all. Not one plant. The beats, turnips and chard were okay. They were a bit thin, but not terrible. Since then, I replanted the lettuce and also planted popcorn and beans. They are up and doing well. Later I planted peppers, zukes, jalapenos, tomato's, cukes, watermelon and cantaloupe. Then it proceeded to deluge on my fragile seeds again. Damn clouds. Again some of the seeds sewed roots and some rotted and became decomposing plant matter. The failures included tomatoes, cukes, peppers and jalapenos. I plan to replant them with starter plants from the local feed and seed down the street.

One of the continuing successes of the garden is the asparagus. last year a couple of the plants that we let grow out at the end of the season produced tons of red berry like seeds that have resulted in tons of nice little volunteer plants. This year I have let several more of the mature plants grow up so I can harvest the seeds and plant a large area with them. The current plants are in an area about 4' by 12' long. I plan on finishing off the rest of the row to make a 4' by 60' patch. That should keep the bathroom stinking if you know what I mean. The only down side, is that it take 3 years for asparagus plants to grow big enough to harvest. I can wait.

Enough about the garden.

Cammy has been great so far. Most of the time she is a perfect little girl and cute in every way. Then there's always "the ten o'clock meltdown". That's when the pitchfork and horns come out. They usually subside within an hour. Sometimes much less but occasionally and less frequently much more.

Grandma and grandpa have been called upon for lots of babysitting, affording me the ability to go make money. Yay.

Along with Cammy came the screeching halt of the restoration of my Datsun 280zx. Actually, it's hasn't totally stopped, but it has slowed substantially. I did get a new battery for it the other day and proceeded to drive it around my property a little bit. everything still seems to work just fine.

Okay, that should get ya up to speed.

Garden Time!!!

The weather has cooperated this spring. At least enough for me to till the garden for the early crops. My garden gently slopes from the northwest to the southeast causing it to have a dry end and a wet end. This is actually a good thing because some crops need more water than others. For example, I like to plant my melons and towmaters in the wet end and onions, lettuce and such in the drier end. This seems to cut down on the amount that I have to water. Luckily, water here is really cheap and plentiful.

It's still pretty early to plant in this region so our options right now are limited. So here's the plan for tomorrow's planting:

Onions: scallions, yellow, white, red

Lettuce: Simpson seedless

Potatoes: red & white

Radishes

Beets - if Grandma and Grandpa want them

Turnips - if Grandma and Grandpa want them

I may take a chance planting some zucchini, since i rarely use all my seeds and if they don't make it, I'll just plant some more.

Here's the garden prior to tilling. The yellow things on the posts are insulators for the electric fence. We have tons of raccoons around here and this is the only way to keep them out, other than siting there all night with a 12 gauge.

Here's my garden barn. 2/3 is storage, 1/3 is relaxation.

This is my Troy-Bilt Horse model rototiller. I highly recommend this tiller to anyone. I really does all the work. They are commonly available on Ebay, but don't be shocked at the price. Mine is a 1982 model and is built really solidly. These tillers are still available new for around $2,800. they are essentially unchanged in their design after all these years. No, you can't buy one of these at Home Depot or Lowes! Anything at those stores with the Troy-Bilt name on it is junk, since MTD bought Troy-Bilt and trashed the name by sticking it on all the garbage they build.

Here's what I do in my spare time. I make heat.

More Cammy Pictures