da fox hole

Rocky Raccoon

2008-11-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

Now somewhere in the black minin' hills of Dakota
there lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon. . . .

- Lennon/McCartney

This entry doesn't need much from me. These are some of the photographs that I took while on my other Mineralogy/petrology class field trip. This one was out to the Black Hills. It consisted of two 12 hour drives, three days of mid-October camping, excellent weather, and good times. I think that my whole class enjoyed this trip, I know that I sure did.

Anyway, the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy! Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. The seventh photo down is of the above-ground portion of the world's most productive gold mine; the Homestake mine in Lead, South Dakota. Oh, yeah, and I didn't see ANY raccoons.

Going Up the Country

2008-11-02T06:24:00.000-08:00

I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go
I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go
I'm going to some place where I've never been before

I'm going, I'm going where the water tastes like wine
Well I'm going where the water tastes like wine
We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time

- A. Wilson

As you people (what, all 3 or 4 of you - you know who you are. :)) who regularly read my blog know, I'm currently a geology major at UWEC. The nice thing about that, as I've written before, is that I get to take field trips as part of my education. I like field trips. I get to go places and learn things at those places. This is a story about a field trip that our Mineralogy/Petrology class took to northern Wisconsin. I had a very good time (I think that my whole class did) and took a few photos. Without bothering you with the geological details (that I have to pay perfectly good money to learn :)) I'll provide you with a story of that weekend, which occurred sometime in the middle of last September.

Our trip centered in Mellen, Wisconsin, which has a few famous quarries for the local granite. It's also fairly well-centered to show the 1.1 billion-year-old failed continental rift area in northern Wisconsin. It was just the right time of year for color change of the local flora, as you can see from some of the photos. We stayed at a campground on Mineral Lake, and we were there for three days and three nights. The weather was decent most of the time, with only one day of rain (but a pretty full day of light rain) on the whole trip.

Anyways, I'll pretty much let you see for yourself what it was like. Below (as per usual) are selected captioned photos of the trip. Enjoy! I sure had a good time taking them.

This is a nice photo of Mineral Lake, taken the morning after the all-day drizzle, from our campground area. I like mist.

A nice photo from a location just south of Mellen. This view typifies the scenery we encountered throughout the field trip. Not that I complained. . . .

One of our stops was an abandoned iron mine on top of Mount Whittlesey, about
3-4 miles from Mellen. This is a view from the top, looking (roughly) east.

And this is what the banded iron formation at the top looks like.

This is a view of the Mellen granite quarry. The granite is supposed to be rather famous as excellent material for counter tops and the like. This stop was made on the day it rained.

This is a nice photo of part of the series of waterfalls of the Potato River, taken from a rock out in the middle. This late in the year the water was both shallow and slow.

This is a composite of two photos of one of our last stops, the most northern point of our entire trip. Yes, this is one big lake! :) Actually, it's the biggest lake in the world, in surface area. You can guess the name. :) After two-and-a-half days of looking at and learning about rocks, we spent some time here eating lunch and getting vengeance on those rocks by throwing them into the lake. It was a fitting end to a great weekend. As I wrote, I had a lot of fun on this field trip. I hope that all of you like the photos and story. Let me know how you feel!

Walk Like an Egyptian

2008-09-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

All the school kids so sick of books
They like the punk and the metal band
When the buzzer rings (oh whey oh)
They're walking like an Egyptian. . . . .

- L. Sternberg

As you may have guessed by now, I'm back at school. I'm currently taking three courses, a pre-calculus math course, an intro. to archeology course, and one of my core courses for my major, mineralogy/petrology (min/pet for short). I'm also working part-time in the university's sandwich shop, about 20 hours per week. I'm much busier now than I was during the summer, and things seem to be going pretty well, so far.

One of the major advantages to taking UWEC's min/pet course is that we get to go on two major field trips during the semester. We also take shorter field trips about once every other week, depending upon the weather. For the last two weeks, we've been going to a nearby location called Lake Wissota. This entry is about those two trips.

Lake Wissota was formed when the power company built a dam across the Chippewa River near Chippewa Falls. The place we've been visiting is located downstream of the dam, and formerly was under water most of the time, depending on the river level. Like our last semester's visits to the Jim's Falls and Big Falls areas, the rocks exposed are very interesting and are not the usual strata found in the driftless area of Wisconsin (which is basically Cambrian-era sandstone). The most interesting feature of this Lake Wissota site is that it shows an intrusion of basaltic magma congruent with the continental rift event of about 1.1 billion years ago.

Anyways, the place is pretty cool, imo. :) Oh, and the title of this entry comes from the song we all heard on the radio while we were on our way to our little expedition. I hadn't heard it in more than a decade. :) Below are captioned photos taken at the Lake Wissota location. We had to hike in about a 1/2 mile from the van parking area. The weather on both visits was excellent, about 70 F. with mostly blue skies.

I know that I learned a lot, and had a good time; and I think my classmates felt the same. Let's hope that our next field trip(s) are as good as these were!

Most of our group having just unloaded at the parking area.
Lake Wissota. The power dam is an extension of the road on the right, out of view in the photo. Our group turned even further right than that, downstream of the dam.

After a while, we had to cross a creek.

The water-weathered rock formation that we passed over.

And the main site itself. Note the darker color of the rocks on the left compared to the right. On the left is the intrusive basaltic rocks, the right are the much older parent rocks.

Our group at the main formation.

Another view of the water-weathered basaltic flow.

Yet another view of the basaltic rock. Note the differences in weathering coloration.

Another photo of our group at the main site. We're studying rocks in Wisconsin! :)

Summer in the City

2008-09-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

- M. Sebastian

I spent the better part of this last summer waiting for school to begin again. Most of my time was spent getting ready for my second semester at UWEC, and the rest was actually, for the most part, quite boring. I did take to walking around my new home of Oak Lair (not it's real name) and sometimes taking a few photos. That's pretty much what this article is about. :)

Many of you have already seen the only real excitement that I had this summer. If not, check out my previous entry. I'll remember the river float fondly, we all had such a good time.

Otherwise, I did watch quite a few Brewers games, and they tended to win. This now being late September, however, now they're not doing so good. It sort of doesn't matter, because school is now taking up an awful lot of my time. I've barely had time to process this blog and make any entries. However, I have to do this now, because I've already got two more posts planned; our first two field trips out to Lake Wissota, and our first REAL BIG field trip up to northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Anyway, this whole post is just to catch all of you up with where I'm at in life, right now.

Like any summer, it was hot here. However, it was an average summer; maybe a little on the coolish side, this year. We had a few thunderstorms pass through, but no real bad weather to note.

For the most part, these are just captioned photos taken this summer (well, one from late spring) here in town. I think that my digital camera sure makes my photography look good, but, understand - it's mostly the camera (and the subjects) - and not the operator that makes the difference here. :) Anyways, enjoy!

This one is taken from the top of a local high point called Mount Tom. Like most of western Wisconsin, there are a lot of whitetails in town.

Another high point in town is a place called Mount Simon. This is a photo from my climb to its summit.

This is what the summit looks like. Evidently, it's a fairly-secluded place for the local kids to party. :)

This is a nice shot of one of the views from the summit.

Not too far from Mount Simon is the small lake formed behind the Chippewa River dam in town. It's called Dell's Pond, and the fishing is supposed to be pretty good.

A nice 13+" smallmouth taken from the Dell's Pond dock. Decent. :)

This is a photo taken very close to where I live. The view is to the southwest.

Near the university is this building on Water Street. Gargoyles are cool!

Some elected official forgot that this was Wisconsin. :)

Another view of Dell's Pond. Sigh. :)

I Got a Line on You

2008-08-08T22:08:00.001-07:00

Let me take you baby, down to the river bed
Got to tell you somethin', go right to your head
Cause I got a line on you, babe
I got a line on you

- R. California

I've been spending most of my time this summer waiting and preparing for next fall's college term. In the meantime, I've been watching the Brewers do pretty well. Since I don't have a television of my own, I watch the games at the place where I also go to eat. That's handy for me, and this place also gives me somewhere to go when I'm bored. It's called the Amber Inn, and it's run by a very cool fellow by the name of Orv. One day, not too long ago, somebody got the bright idea to have a float on the local river that runs through town. This is the story of that fun-filled event, sponsored by the aforementioned Amber Inn.

Truthfully, in my opinion, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. I've provided a few captions for you. We had about a dozen people on the float, most riding on some sort of inner tube. Orv sailed a canoe. Myself, I had a brandy-new tube to float on, and I had a very, very good time. I think we all did. Anyway, here you go!

This photo was taken at the Amber Inn's parking lot prior to our group loading up in the van and shuttling down to the start-landing.

Most of our group getting ready to start. The shove-off point on the river was just out of view behind the trees on the left.

Most of our group in the water, just before I got in.

Two views from the river. The large mostly-yellow float is actually a kiddie pool.

Our only stop along the way was this tree-swing. Hoo haa lots of fun!

Another view from the river.

The end of the line. The trip lasted about 4 1/2 hours, so we were pretty tired at this point.

And here we are back at the Amber Inn parking lot. The first thing most of us did was make plans for next year. Count me in!!!

Rock and Roll

2008-05-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

Been a long time
Been a long time
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely
Time. . . .

- R. Plant

One of the nice things about taking a geology course at UWEC is that our class got to go on a field trip. This happy occasion occurred during the first weekend in May. It was an all-day affair and, in my opinion, ended up being a lot of fun. The day started out cool & wet, but, right about noon, the sun came out and warmed things up considerably. We went to a number of geologic sites in the Oak Lair (not its real name) area and got a good hands-on education involving the geologic history of western Wisconsin.

Our first stop was at the local landfill. Since the course's name was Environmental Geology, landfills and waste disposal were a part of the curriculum. Our bus actually drove around the site, and we got to view some interesting things involved in it's operation. One of these things is that of producing electricity from the methane gas produced by the breakdown of garbage products within the landfill area. The entire area was quite large, but the landfill takes in garbage from a large area and from as far away as Minnesota. We didn't get off the bus, but that was OK as it was cold and kind of raining while we were there.

Our next stop was at a very pleasant place that I'd been to before, a place called "Big Falls". This is a rather large whitewater area of the Oak Lair (not it's real name) River, in which the river has cut down through the local sandstone to the underlying (and much older) precambrian metamorphic rock. These rocks demonstrate a mountain-building event in Wisconsin, known as the Penokean Orogeny. They looked cool, and it was also nice for me to scope out a part of the river I plan on fishing later. (OK, OK, so I'm easily distracted that way. . . . ) We were also able to view, along the banks, the newer Mount Simon formation sandstone that I've blogged about before (because it underlies an awful lot of Wisconsin - it's more common than dirt here). All-in-all, this is a very cool place; I highly recommend it to anybody visiting the area.

After that, we proceeded to another river stop, this on the Chippewa River - a place called Jim's Falls. The geology there was similar but a bit more accessible. We ate lunch there and then did a bit of exploring. That's about the time that the sun came out and made for a pleasant day. One of the most notable things about the metamorphic rock in this area is how very deformed it is - often forming whorls and Z's - as shown in the photos below.

Next on the agenda was a gravel pit near Popple Lake. This was a stop that demonstrated what the glacial till of Wisconsin looks like. We all got to poke around in the sand and gravel for rocks, basically to see that there was quite a variety of rocks deposited there. The vast majority of these rocks were not from the local area, and many of them could be demonstrated to have been transported from far away to the north. These are the hallmarks of glacial deposition, and this whole area was known to have been at the glacial margin. On a side note - I did a naughty and I actually swiped a rock from this site. :) It's obviously part of a banded iron formation, and it looks cool too. Hey, now, it's not like it's going to be missed; and, besides, the officials that be can pry it from my cold, dead fingers. :)

The final destination of our trip was a place called Tilden. This was a sandstone/siltstone pit that was closer to Oak Lair. This is sandstone that is more recent than the Mount Simon formation; and, at Tilden, contained numerous cambrian-era fossils. We could also see, at the pit, that this sandstone/siltstone was laid down in a different fashion than the Mt. Simon stuff because there was no cross-bedding and the deposited material is much finer and smaller than that of the Mt. Simon formation. It was very easy to spot many fossils; however, I looked for, but didn't find, any trilobite fossils. Still, it was very cool to see evidence of critters that lived more than 300 million years ago!

Needless to be said, it was a very busy day. We saw a lot, did a lot, and, in my case, learned a lot. We got back to the university more tired than when we left, but I'm sure we all enjoyed it. I know that I did. Hopefully, all my geology field trips will be as fun and as cool as this one. Anyways, I figured I'd share all of this with you fellow blog-heads out there; so here are captioned photos for you to enjoy!

This is a photo, shot through the bus window, of the methane gas-powered electrical generator at the landfill.

This is a shot of "Big Falls". The river actually splits in half, this is the southern part. The other half is to the left of this view. The river is also very high with spring runoff.

Our group on one of the metamorphic outcroppings at "Big Falls".

Mount Simon formation sandstone (note crossbedding) along the banks of the river at "Big Falls".

Close-up of the metamorphic rock at "Big Falls", quarter for size-reference.

The view upriver from the Jim's Falls stop. The Chippewa River actually doesn't show actual flowage here, as there is a hydroelectric generation station just downriver; and part of the river's flow is diverted into that via a canal. Also, the bridge is blocked-off and derelict.

A good view of one of the granite inclusions that cross-cuts the metamorphic rocks at Jim's Falls.

This is a good view of how heavily-deformed the metamorphic rocks at the Jim's Falls location are.

One of my classmates (Aaron) obtaining rocks for analysis at the Popple Lake gravel pit.

The sidewall of the Tilden sandstone pit. It's hard to see, but note the lack of crossbedding in the sandstone.

Trace fossils in the rocks at the Tilden site. These are probably burrows made by ancient worms or worm-like marine creatures. These were the most common fossil I saw there.

Aaron's hand showing hyolithid fossils. These were also fairly common, as were brachiopods.

Perpetual Change

2008-05-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

And there you are
Saying we have the moon, so now the stars
When all you see
Is near disaster gazing down on you and me
And there you're standing
Saying we have the whole world in our hands
When all you'll see
Deep inside the worlds controlling you and me.

You will see perpetual change.
You will see perpetual change.

- J. Anderson/C. Squire

This entry is a project that I let ferment for a few weeks and decided to publish at this time. Basically, back about 6 weeks ago, I took a photo of the Chippewa River near the University that I attend. The photo was taken from UWEC's footbridge and shows the point bar on the north/west bank of the river as it passes through the U's campus area. The first photo is the same one I used in a previous entry. The rest are all comparison photos, each taken a week apart.

As you can see, the river goes through a fairly low period to a much higher flow and larger volume and then back. This is typical of Midwestern rivers in the spring, the only major difference this year being that we had an awful lot of snow and spring came fairly late - compared to the last 10 years or so.

Anyways, I thought that all of you might like to see these comparisons. The photos speak for themselves; so, without much further ado, I present the "perpetually changing" Chippewa River. Enjoy!

The Seeker

2008-04-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've looked under chairs
I've looked under tables
I've tried to find the key
to 50 million fables
they call me the seeker
I been searching low and high
I won't get to get what I'm after
'till the day I die. . . .

- P. Townshend

About a month ago, on Saturday, I had the opportunity to accompany one of UWEC's Geology professors, Doctor Grote, and her group of assistants on a project to find an old, abandoned iron mine entrance. This involved a trip to a site near Baraboo, Wisconsin, which is about 2 1/2 hours east of here. She sent out an e-mail to all the undergrads with geology majors asking for volunteers, giving a brief description of what was planned. I was interested because I'd like to get involved with some of the "hands-on" aspects of my chosen major as soon as possible. That, and I'd been through the area in question before and wanted to return - it's very interesting, geologically, and also very scenic. Plus, I thought that it would be fun. I contacted her and was told that I could come along with and help out any way I could. This is the story of that day.

We left Oak Lair (not its real name) in the morning in two vehicles stuffed with high-tech gear. It was snowing when we left but quickly cleared as we proceeded eastward. A few hours later we arrived at our destination without incident. We met the landowner for a preliminary information-sharing meeting. He had some old maps and some other reference sources. The maps were used to get a good "ballpark" area for what we were looking for. Then, we broke out the equipment and assembled the necessary machinery for the next phase.

What we did, for the most part, was use a ground-penetrating radar device to find the long-buried mine entrance. The GPR has the ability to "look through" the surface features and find the interface between the soil layers and the actual bedrock. Basically, what we were looking for was a bedrock/soil anomaly that would indicate the mine entrance. If multiple runs with the detector showed the anomaly in one specific area, and that area coincided with the map, we probably had what we were looking for. All that would be left would be to dig to remove the topsoil and uncover the entrance. That part would be left to some other group, at some other time.

The actual survey was done by first laying out some tape measures and then making a dry run to get a good idea of what the average topsoil layer depth was. Once that was done, we shifted our focus to the "ballpark" area found on the map. We made several runs with the GPR, sometimes switching jobs between the assistants and once taking a short break for lunch. After a few hours our electronic investigation was finished.

At the end, according to Dr. Grote, we think we found what we were looking for. There was a consistent anomaly in one area of our survey. This also jibed with the old map for the location of the mine entrance. We passed our knowledge on to the landowner, and the rest is up to him.

About the time we were finishing our search, the local geology club arrived, and we had an impromptu meeting with them. Doctor Grote explained how and what we were doing, as well as our success. Everybody pretty much hung out together for awhile, while our group from UWEC began disassembling the GPR and other equipment for our return trip. The landowner then took us all up to another area to show us what is thought to be an air/equipment/access shaft for the mine, currently filled with groundwater.

All-in-all, I had a great time, and I learned a lot. Plus, yes, it was fun. :) I really enjoyed the day; and, for all of my readers out there, I took a few photos of the event. They're captioned below. Enjoy! I did.

Shane, Brian, and Roseanne at the area in question. The anomalous spot was just to the left of Roseanne's feet in the photo.

The air/equipment/access shaft of the mine. The green stuff is algal growth on the groundwater now filling the shaft.

These next three photos are Dr. Grote, Roseanne, Brian, and Shane operating the GPR system on-site. High-tech work!

The local geology club that came to visit. Nice people!

Saturday in the Park

2008-04-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Slow motion riders
fly the colors of the day
A bronze man
still can
tell stories his own way
Listen children
all is not lost
all is not lost
ohh no no. . .

Funny days in the park
Every day's the Fourth of July
Funny days in the park
Every day's the Fourth of July
People reaching
people touching
a real celebration
waiting for us all. . .
If we want it
really want it
Can you dig it?
Yes I can
and I've been waiting such a long time
for the day. . . .

- R. Lamm

Hello once again! Yes, I'm still alive - I know that some of you were concerned. Well, maybe one or two of you. Maybe. :) Ya ya, I missed you all too.

There have been a few changes in my life once again. I now live in a new town - "Oak Lair", Wisconsin. I'm still unemployed, but now I'm attending the local university and studying for a geology major.

This winter, in both Black River Falls and here in Oak Lair, it snowed like a sunofabitch this year, prolly at least, oh, lessee, umm, 'bout 35-40 feet of the white shit, total. It's like it snowed every damn day! That made life a real pain in the butt for me and the others around here. However, it's now April, and all of that winter nonsense is now DONE WITH! Today was the first 60 F day of the year, and a Saturday, so I was one happy camper. :) :) :) :)

I anticipate doing a significant amount of fishing this year, so today I planned on getting a Wisconsin fishing license. The Wisconsin DNR is just down the road from the campus, so I figured I would walk over there and get one. This would also allow me to take photos of my relatively new hometown along the way. I guess that I wasn't the only citizen with cabin fever - it seemed like the whole city was out and about today. It was worth it.

I'm finding out that Oak Lair is a very nice place, and I'm enjoying myself here very much. So far, in college, I'm taking one chemistry course and two geology courses. I'm doing good in all three; but, as usual, I know that I can do better - so that's what I try to do.

The people here are really nice - both at and away from the university. In just a few months I've made a lot of friends. I also have a local tavern that I frequent (the burgers there are excellent) where I have even more friends. It helps that I cheered for the Packers when they made a pretty good showing in the playoffs and also pulled for the Badgers in the recent NCAA basketball tournament.

The only bad thing of late has been the absolutely atrocious weather this winter. There was more snow this year than any I'd seen since I was a wee teenager back in central Minnesota; circa ummm errrr, never mind. :) A while back, anyway. The point of this blog-entry is that that season has now passed on to something far more pleasant. People, it was a gorgeous day out there today and IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

To provide a little historical background, Oak Lair (not it's real name :)) was founded as a logging town on the confluence of two rivers, the Chippewa and the Oak Lair. The Chippewa is a pretty good-sized river, and it's a pretty easy run down to the Mississippi. Business was good, and the city prospered and diversified. It was one of the first cities in Wisconsin with a university. The city is also pretty close to the Minnesota border, so some of that good stuff rubbed off on Oak Lair. :) :) :) Anyways, it was recognized that this was a nice place way back when, and it still is today.

Well, that's enough verbosity. Like I wrote, it was a nice day, this is a nice place, here are some nice pictures. :) Enjoy!

A creek runs through the university campus and flows into the Chippewa, here. As you can see, there is still some snow and ice around. Hopefully not for long. :)

This is a photo of the Oak Lair River, looking upstream from a bridge downtown. The recent snow melt has really raised the level and flow of both rivers in town.

This photo is a close-up of the right-hand bank of the above photo. Notice how far the water is being pushed up the downed tree (about a foot, by my estimate). Quite the flow!

This is a picture of the Chippewa River from the UWEC campus. The confluence with the campus creek is just off the photo to the left. Notice the people in the boat fishing.

This is a shot from the footbridge over the Chippewa at the campus. The students like to make sculptures along the bank with the rocks, and you can see that some of that is covered up by the swollen river.

This is one of the residence halls on campus. In the foreground is a basketball court chock-full of students enjoying today's pleasantness.

Towards the end of my walk I encountered a nice lady who was busy making art with sidewalk chalk. We started talking and were soon joined by a few other people.

The next thing I knew there were about a half-dozen people busy making art while I spectated. :) Nice people, nice time!

Well, I sure did enjoy myself today. I do hope that I conveyed some of that enjoyment to you people out there in cyberspace! I am sorry that it's been awhile since my last post. Oh - and I almost forgot to tell you - that DNR place where I was going in the first place? It's closed on Saturday. Did that bother me? Not today. . . .

You Can't Always Get What You Want

2007-11-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well I could tell by her blood-stained hands. . . .

- M. Jagger/K. Richards

It took me a while to come up with a title for this article. After all, how do you introduce what was, by most military measures, a rotten piece of military hardware? Luckily for me, I have an extensive knowledge of popular tunage to suit just about any occasion. Still, this one took me awhile. :)

Once again, this is an article about one of the kits that I built. As I've written before, this is part of my fascination with world war 2 - and especially with the ground-based equipment used in that war. The subject of this article is an Italian-produced tank, called the M13/40.

Italy's military was not as well-prepared for war as Nazi Germany. Still, Mussolini was no slouch in the political sphere of things; and, like many politicians before and since, he knew enough to take advantage of opportunity when he saw it. What that means is that when Italy entered the war they did so without the same level of tank technology and/or doctrine as Germany. Mussolini, more often than not, picked/advanced military leaders based on loyalty versus military prowess. As a result, the Italian army's leadership (to put it bluntly) did not have the competency needed to fight a winning war in the modern age. These reasons go a long way in explaining the derivation and use of the M13/40.

The tank itself evolved from the M13/39 design of prewar Italy with only minor changes. It had a 2 man turret that housed a 47 mm antitank gun for a main weapon along with an 8 mm coaxial machine gun. The hull also had a double 8 mm machine gun arrangement to round out the tank's armament. It was powered by a 125 hp Fiat liquid-cooled 8 cylinder V8 diesel engine. The hull was of riveted construction of soft steel (read: CHEAP) that was, even by prewar standards, of fairly poor design. The vehicle carried a crew of four relatively unhappy individuals.

Performance of the M13/40 in the war was not impressive, unless you like losing wars. There were reliability issues in the north African campaign. Going head-to-head versus comparable British or U.S. forces more often than not resulted in the M13/40 getting the short end of the stick. The 47 mm main armament was not necessarily a bad weapon, but it's layout in the turret of the tank (and it's short-handed crew) removed any advantages the weapon itself had. The vehicle itself was often uncomfortable for the crews, besides being known as "death traps". I have read in reliable sources that the Italian crews of the M13/40 called them, "rolling coffins."

All of that having been written, I built one anyway. :)

Back when 1/35 scale tanks first started getting good (circa late 1970s) one company led the way - showing that plastic kits in that scale could actually attain a good level of historical accuracy regarding their subject. That company is Tamiya. They're still around, still doing what they've done well since that time. The M13/40 kit that I built is one of theirs originally produced back in the late '70s/early '80s. The cost is about $15.00, pretty inexpensive by today's standards. There aren't a lot of "frills", but the actual vehicle didn't have any either.

For my build, I only added a couple of items to the original. One was a turned-aluminum barrel for the 47 mm main weapon (there's no work with those and they're dead-on accurate - far better than plastic) and a set of metal individual track links (as opposed to the rubber tracks provided by the original). I also added a piece of wire for the radio antenna. All totaled, I spent more money on the add-ons than the original kit - but that's only because the metal track links are $40.00 a set. The aluminum barrel was $5 or $7, not that much. Wire, I have.

Most plastic kits this old have a nasty habit of "showing their age" by not fitting well in large assemblies and/or having overcast parts that need to be trimmed/fixed. Not so, here. Fit of the plastic was excellent throughout, and everything built up well. Even the add-ons went on easily and looked good. Overall, I would rate this kit as easy and would recommend it to any builder who wanted a nice example of a not-so-good and semi-obscure vehicle from WW2. Straight from the box, it's a good value. I think this one would be a good starter kit for someone interested in the era. I did like my result (with only a few small exceptions) and had fun building the kit.

The Italians did have some modicum of success with the M13/40 using them against partisans in the Balkans. The color and markings that I used are based on one of those particular vehicles. I just happened to have a green paint around that I had no other use for. This paint (kinda) came close to the color I wanted, based on my reference source. The green seemed a little on the light side, at first, but it turned out OK in the end. It was also a semi-gloss, but I always use a final overcoat of clear flat to seal everything on well. The markings are actually the original decals and not special items.

I'll call this one a "cute 'lil thing" for now. Below are captioned photos for all of you to see. Like my previous entries on kitbuilding, I think it turned out pretty good, but I could have done better (mostly with painting highlights and/or bringing out more of the rivet detail). Please, by all means, let me know what you think!

These first two photos show the completed build, just before applying the base coat of paint. Note that I painted the suspension items separately, as it is easier to paint the rubber of the road wheels as individual units and then assemble the suspension after that. Also not present are a few doo-dads that get painted separately and added at the end. These two shots also show the turned aluminum main armament barrel.

This is the view after the initial base-paint showing some of the separate suspension items. Note that I already added the also-separately-painted exhausts at this point.

Photo of the M13/40 after building the suspension and adding the decals.

The rest are photos of the completed kit. I wanted to show a very dirty vehicle, and I think I was pretty successful there. Like my previously-described builds, I applied an oil-based wash over the main color, then applied pastel chalks, (both rubbing on and applying them as powder) followed by a clear flat overcoat to seal everything. This not only darkened the green but added to the realism of the kit. The last things that I did were add the doo-dads, then the tracks, and finally apply a wire for the antenna.

Help!

2007-10-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

When I was younger so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone I'm not so self-assured
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors. . .

- Lennon/McCartney

Okay, OK, OK, calm down a bit now. Yes, I need help. I'll explain that. But, really, I'm not that desperate. :) I do really like the song, though. Really, who of us that grew up in that era doesn't? Anyways. . . . .

While I was trudging around Wazee Lake County Park this Saturday (see my previous blog-entries) I happened to notice quite a few late-season mushrooms and other higher fungi. This really surprised me, as I figured it was a little too late for them. As a result, I was not prepared to do anything but photograph them in situ. Next time I'll actually collect some, bring 'em home, and study them far better so I can get an accurate identification. That being written, what follows below are some photos of some of the fungi that I saw. If any of you out there recognize anything or have any corrections of what I've got here; PLEASE LET ME KNOW - my curiosity is very piqued on these, especially on the first set of photos.

So, let's get to the photos, shall we? :) Here ya go:

These two photos show something that has boggled my mind ever since I noticed them on the ground. Are these fungi? Are they plants? I certainly don't know! They look cool as heck, though; but I really, really would like an identification on these. This is where I need YOUR help the most. I've looked around a little on the 'net, thinking that these were some type of club fungi or something close to that; but I could not find anything even closely resembling them. There were about 2 dozen of these brown whorls in about a 10 foot by 10 foot area along a walking trail through a mixed-wood forest, predominantly coniferous. These photos show a good representative sample of what the rest looked like. Note the quarter for size-reference.

These two photos show a very common gilled mushroom that I saw on my walk. They were scattered all along the trails I was on in various habitats and were easily the most common 'shroom that I saw. I realize that these photos are not much to go on; but, like I wrote, they're all I have. The only thing I'll exclude is a Russula species, as the stipes were relatively soft compared to what I've read about Russula. Again, this is in mixed forest, predominantly coniferous. These photos were taken from a roadway, the road is no more than 10 years old. I saw lots and lots of different kinds of mushrooms in between the road itself and the actual wooded area of the woods (about 15 feet on average). The soil here, by the way, is almost nonexistent, consisting of sand with very little organic cover on top of that. In the open areas, grass takes a while to get growing well and still grows fairly thin. But, hey, I'm used to the very nice black clays/loamy soils of glaciated central Minnesota.

After a bit of research, I do believe that this is Suillus Luteus, aka "Slippery Jack". These caps weren't viscid, but were sticky. Again, photo taken from the roadway area.

This is one I'm much more certain on. Suillus Americanus. Everything I've read about it points to this species. And, btw, YUCK, what an awful mushroom. :) I will write that these particular samples appeared a bit greener than the texts said, and the photos don't really show that well. Prolly just a bit of regional color variation. There were about 3 dozen caps of this growing in a 5 foot by 5 foot area just outside the tree-line in the roadway.

The only easy 'shroom I found all day. A nice (but small) edible puffball. (Lycoperdon Pyriformes, but don't quote me on that.) These were also fairly common. This sample was split open by squeezing it between my fingers.

Easy Money

2007-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

Easy money - ain't it hard to find?

- D. Peverett

In World War 2, the U.S. Army's main battle tank was known as the "Sherman" or M4 series. Throughout the war more than 50,000 M4s were manufactured, and the series was updated continuously during its production run. One of the most well-liked variants in the M4 series was the M4A3E8. This upgrade came rather late in the war and involved a major change in the suspension system. This gave the tank a much smoother ride and better traction in loose ground. The E8 variant had the nickname of "easy eight". It was so well-liked that the United States Army decided to keep this version after the war ended, and up-gunned versions were used by the army in the Korean conflict. Some were also sold to other countries, like Israel.

Dragon is a model-manufacturing company based in Singapore (so I've been told). They make good plastic kits of WW2 subjects in the scale that I build in. Recently, I acquired their M4A3E8 kit; it's a scale copy of the tank used by Major Albin F. Irzyk of the 4th Armored Division in 1944. I liked the subject, but I didn't want to build this exact machine. I figured I would just change the unit designation for a more "generic" vehicle. This is the story of that build.

Straight out of the box, this is a pretty good kit. It's mostly plastic but has some nice doo-dads in brass and included a turned aluminum barrel and a metal tow cable. I didn't like the tracks that were included with the kit, as they were not quite the type I wanted to model - according to my sources. I wasn't sure, but I think the kit tracks are for a post-war version. I replaced them with metal track links that were more appropriate for 1944. I also replaced the decals (there weren't many) with dry transfers. This allowed me to model a different vehicle than Maj. Irzyk's.

Building the kit went well. Fit everywhere was very good, with the only exception being the upper and lower halves of the hull gapping at the left side of the front seam. This posed somewhat of a problem, as I figured I would assemble as much as possible, paint, and then add some interior doo-dads, and then put the hull halves together. To solve the gap, I used some spare stock plastic and created an extra glue lip on the inside of the hull halves and used a lot of glue. Then I clamped the gap together. As it is, I still have my fingers crossed that the gap hasn't popped open.

The first photo shows the kit ready for base-paint; a nice standard olive drab.

This is the hull and turret after base-paint and dry transfer application. I have a set of vehicle "names" in dry transfers, and I decided to use one of them here. "Hitler's hearse" looks cool, I think.

This is the view after I applied a black and then dark brown oil-based "wash" over the base-paint. I do this to give the appearance of generic road dirt and grease marks, plus exhaust soot. This also brings out textured weld seams and adds "depth" to small features, making them more noticeable. This looks overdone here, but it gets toned down a bit when I spray on the clear flat overcoat.

This is the view after applying pastel chalks and then overspraying with a clear flat. Making the tank dirty is very important - during the time these machines were in service they got dirty. The key is shooting for realism. Personally, I think that I overdid some of the pastel highlights a little here. Overall, the effect is good though. I can nitpick myself to death sometimes. :)

After painting, I added the suspension and the doo-dads. This is the kit almost finished, I only need to add the drive sprockets and tracks at this point.

The rest of these photos are of the completed kit. They show a good all-around perspective. Overall, I think it turned out pretty good. However, like the SdKfz 251 halftrack I built earlier, I think that I could have done a better job with some things. I did enjoy building this kit, and I would build another if/when given the chance.

I figure that this vehicle would easily fit into a scenario involving the 4th AD in early 1945; perhaps something like a street scene in a Ruhr city in March or April.

I hope that you all enjoyed the story of me building my little "toys". I wrote before that I have a keen interest in WW2, and these provide me with ways of actually getting into the history that I study. Some people might think that I'm a warmonger, but I'm not. What better way to avoid war than to study it? I don't build to "glorify" war, either. What happened in 1939 through 1945 happened, and there is no way I can change that - one way or another. I'm only trying to show others the things that I'm interested in, and I think that this is a good way to do that.

Please, feel free to let me know what you think, about either my attitude or a critique of the build. One of the reasons that I have this blog is to hear from others. 'Till next time. . . . :)

Mood for a Day

2007-10-21T13:03:00.001-07:00

As I wrote in my previous entry, I spent my Saturday (the first blue-sky day in 2 weeks) taking in the scenery at a nearby lake. The place I was at is called Wazee Lake County Park. It's quite unusual, in that it's a man-made lake formed from an old iron mine.

The Jackson County Iron Mine produced iron from taconite from the 1960s to the 1980s. It is located about 3 miles northeast of Black River Falls. When the market became unviable, the mine closed; and the pit filled up with water. A few years later, the area was reclaimed and turned into a park. It has about 10 miles worth of walking trails and another 10 of biking trails. The lake itself is the deepest in Wisconsin.

One of the interesting activities at Wazee Lake is SCUBA diving. There is a SCUBA shop nearby, and the lake itself has 3 areas specifically for putting-in of divers. It's also a non-motorized lake, but you can canoe it. I talked to a few divers who were coming out of the lake, and they told me that there are HUGE fish in the lake; and that nobody fishes it. That'll change. :) :) :) :)

There is also a very-fine-sanded beach at the east end. From what I understand, during the summer it's supposed to be the local cruise spot for the 20's-or-so year-old set. I haven't had a chance to verify that, yet. :) :) :) :)

There is also a link for the mine with more information and photos of the pit in operation here: http://www.uwrf.edu/~wc01/JacksonFe.html

Anyways, the pictures speak for themselves. It was a beautiful day, as I wrote; and we are in the middle of fall color here. For the most part, the photos show my progress around the lake, counter-clockwise, from the southwest end. One photo (third one down) also shows the clarity of the lake water - in it you can see an old tree that is now underwater. A cool place, and I had a great time there. Enjoy! And please let me know what you think.

Eclipse

2007-10-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

There is no dark side of the moon, really -
matter of fact it's all dark.

- background voice at the end of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album.

This post will seem a little odd, even for me. I want to get the funny stuff out of the way first, as I have a few other posts planned.

It has been raining here pretty much every day for the last two weeks. Very dreary, depressing weather; and my mood reflected it. I didn't get out much. Today, when I woke up, there was sunshine. I needed to go have some fun, so I did.

It's mid-fall here, and the trees are turning color. I decided to go a few miles out of town, to a man-made lake, and take my camera with me. I figured that I'd show all of you what a little fall color looks like around here. There were other things to take pictures of, too.

Well, there I was, having fun and taking more than a few photos. I was walking along a trail through the woods near this lake when, all of a sudden, there was a noise like I've never heard before. I looked to where the sound came from, and this is what I saw. I quickly snapped the photo:

What did I get? Nothing less than the ass-end of a porcupine! What I had heard was the little shit raising it's quills. Then it turned away from me. The SOB was mooning me!!! I guess that even the dumb animals here have figured out that I'm in exile from Minnesota. :( Prolly cussed me out too. And farted.

Believe it or not, this the first time I've ever encountered a porkypine in the wild. I've seen and/or been around most other Midwestern wild critters, but this was a first for me. Hell, I haven't even seen one of these as roadkill. I feel lucky that it wasn't drunk and didn't attack. I hear that their quills are tipped with deadly poison and also explode. I didn't even dare moon it back. Fucker.

Anyways, that was only part of my adventure today. The rest is on the way, keep an eye on the next few posts, OK? And don't sit on anything with quills. :) :) :)

Sugar Mountain

2007-09-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

Now you say you're leavin' home
'Cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out it's real?

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon
You're leaving there too soon.

- N. Young

I wrote, in the previous blog-entry, that I didn't go directly home from Wisconsin Dells. I made a little side-trip stop on the way back. About 20 miles west of Wisconsin Dells, on I-90/94, is the exit for the town of Camp Douglas. Right off the exit is Volk Field, a big airstation of Wisconsin's Air National Guard. If you continue along the road, less than 1/4 mile later is a rest stop that has a standing sandstone formation. I had stopped there once before, about a year ago. This time, I had my camera.

If you're westbound on the interstate, you can't miss this outcropping. My photos don't show the whole thing in all it's splendor, but anybody can see it from their car. As I implied above, it's easy to get to, and the rest area where it is has a trail that goes all the way around it.

Only a few miles west of here, along U.S. 12, is Wisconsin's Mill Bluff State Park. I also went there on last year's trip. According to the information I received there, these sandstone formations were once islands in what was once known as Glacial Lake Wisconsin. This lake covered a very large area of Wisconsin during the last ice age. Some time in the future, I'll get back to Mill Bluff and blog that park for all of you.

Below are some of the photos that I took. Some are captioned, but most of the images don't need words. Have a look, and I hope that you enjoy them! Let me know what you think, 'cuz I get a little lonely sometimes. :) :) :)

This is the view at the bottom of the formation - the character of the stone looks different in many respects.

This is a good view of some of the vertical faults in the formation.

A not-so-good view of the nonhorizontal layering of the sandstone near the base. Regarding my previous blog photos of the sandstone formations in the driftless area, I seem to be seeing a kind of pattern here.

A 3-photo composite image of the edge of the formation. (Well, an attempt at it, anyway.)

I have read that this formation is supposed to show Cambrian-era worm burrows; is that what these are? Or are these patterns from weathering? These were only on one part of the "back" of the formation.

This is a good view of a much larger formation just a little ways away, actually in the Volk Field ANG area (it's totally fenced in). The photo was taken from the parking lot of the rest area.

Dazed and Confused

2007-09-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

Been dazed and confused for so long, it's not true.
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you.
Take it easy baby, let them say what they will.
Will your tongue wag so much when I send you the bill?

- R. Plant/J. Page/J. Bonham/J. Paul Jones

Earlier today, I was checking out some of the blogs that I like to read. One of them, hosted by a professor from the university I attended, (circa mid-late '80s) is named "Pharyngula". His name is Dr. P. Z. Myers, and the university is the University of Minnesota Morris. The blog itself is mostly about biological science issues but also has a few other subjects tossed in. I like it, and lately I've been in the habit of visiting the blog daily.

Well, to make this introduction a little shorter, :) one story that caught my eye today was about a new "creationist" museum opening in Wisconsin Dells. I've read about other such "museums" and, to me, it's all a bunch of bullshit. Yes, bullshit. Bullshit and a half. :) I mean, come on, the earth is less than 10,000 years old according to these nutballs. I've studied too much science to agree with that kind of conclusion. Now, don't get me wrong, anybody can believe whatever they want to; but, myself, I'll go with the stuff that's supported by things like physical evidence and other conclusive lines of inquiry. In essence, reality.

So, anyway, I read about this place and I thought that it would be fun to go and see if I could find it, just for kicks. I had also planned on revisiting the Dells area, as I related in a previous post. Plus, I needed a good excuse to get out of the house and out of town for a little while. So I did.

My basic plan was to visit some of the state parks in the area around Wisconsin Dells, plus to drive around in the area and take photos for my blog - to show people. If I ran past the "museum" I was going to stop and take a picture of that, too. With that in mind, I fired up the foxmobile, hit the interstate, and nosed her eastbound. The local radio station was playing a lot of Led Zeppelin, the sky was cloudless, and I anticipated a fun afternoon.

A little over an hour later, I hit the first exit for Wisconsin Dells, aiming for Rocky Arbor State Park on U.S. 12/16. In just a few minutes I was there - only to find a gate across the entrance and a sign that said, "closed". I figured it was because they were doing maintenance or somesuch just after the summer season. Oh well, there was another park to visit and other stuff to see, so I drove on down the highway and into town. Less than 5 minutes later, I crossed the Wisconsin Dells city line whereupon I pulled off the highway at a gas station to get a local area map. I asked the attendant in there why Rocky Arbor was closed, and he said that the state parks in the area close after Labor Day. Suddenly I felt dazed and confused. :) :)

I recovered quickly and altered my plan. I checked the local map for anything I might be interested in seeing, figuring I would spend my time driving around and stopping whenever I felt there was something worth stopping for. From the map, it looked like a loop from where I was at, through downtown Wisconsin Dells, then across the river, go a few miles upriver, recross, and return would do the trick. That was pretty much what I did, with an eye out for any road that would get me close to the river. Along the way, I took photos of where I stopped.

That plan worked pretty well, except for one small thing. I found out that the vast majority of the northern (or "upper") part of the Wisconsin River is either inaccessible to cars or is privately owned - and closed. Off-season means something here. The only exceptions were both on the west side of the river. The first was the public access at a campground, and the second was a pullover on Stand Rock Road. Oh well, you learn something new every day. :)

After I made the loop (about 2 hours later) I hopped back on the interstate and headed back westbound. I didn't return home directly - instead I revisited a few spots that I had been to about a year ago. Ahhhh, but that's for the next blog-entry. :) Below are captioned photos of the Wisconsin Dells area for you all to enjoy. I did have fun, despite having been a bit disappointed. Please let me know what you think!

This is a view of the beginning of the "lower dells" area. Just downriver from the right-hand bend that you see was where the DUKW that I previously blogged went. Just out of view on the left is where the dam/power plant is. The fishing must be pretty good here. :)

Some early fall color for the area.

This is a view the river (well, a loop of it around an island, anyway) from the aforementioned pullout on Stand Rock Road. The previous photo is looking the other way, across the road.

While this isn't a sandstone formation that the area is famous for, this photo does show what the local bedrock looks like. The shot was taken at the parking lot of the gas station I stopped at.

Apparently, I'm not the only one dazed and confused. This sign wouldn't last 5 minutes in Minnesota. And they wonder why we call them cheeseheads. . . . :)

I couldn't figure out if this was a hotel with rides or an amusement park with a hotel attached. I thought it looked cool, though.

Not everything was closed, however. This amusement park, called "Pirate's Cove", was still going strong. Arrrrr, matey! Avast ye swabs! 'Tis the native stone I am 'ere to see, not this bilge!

Downtown Wisconsin Dells. This is the "shopping area". It also has a few attractions, I noticed. This photo was taken by me in the car while stopped at a stoplight. The car is facing east, the photo is towards the west. I still had time to partially roll up the window before the light changed. :)

Going Mobile

2007-09-14T04:50:00.001-07:00

I don't care about pollution
I'm an air-conditioned gypsy
That's my solution
Watch the police and the taxman miss me
I'm mobile!!!

- P. Townshend

The early successes of Nazi Germany in world war 2 were primarily due to their doctrine of "blitzkrieg" warfare. This concept is based, for the most part, on one thing - mobility. Mobility, as it implies, is the ability to move your forces to where they're most needed. To accomplish this, one needs forces that are capable of being moved quickly; and, as was shown in the war, the machinery capable of carrying them.

To provide their armed forces mobility, the Germans used a plethora of motorized equipment. One very common type of vehicle used was the SdKfz 251 halftrack. It was a versatile vehicle that could transverse most of the terrain that a fully-tracked vehicle could. This was nice (for the Germans) as it allowed the capability of infantry forces to stay with, and support, the tanks of the armored forces. Being mostly armored itself, it also provided those forces with some means of protection from small arms and small-caliber artillery fire.

The SdKfz 251 series was produced throughout the war with fairly few changes. The final version was classified as the "D" upgrade. The basic differences between the earlier "C" version and the "D" version were that the latter version was more streamlined-appearing externally and had changes in the rear hatch doors. Everything inside stayed the same.

The 251's also were produced in a number of variants. One of those variants was used as an engineer vehicle and carried portable bridges, as well as equipment for various engineering functions - minelaying, mine removal, portable flamethrowers, etc. This version was known as the SdKfz 251/7. Some of these vehicles also carried extra radio equipment used to coordinate forces in the field. These were known as "command" vehicles.

Dragon is a company that produces 1/35 scale plastic kits of WW2 ground forces. All kinds of kits. I have more than a few of them. :) Not long ago, Dragon released it's SdKfz 251 halftrack kits in several different variations. I obtained their "D" version engineer vehicle as a "3 in 1" kit. This meant that I had the option of building any one of 3 versions. The option that I chose to build was the command vehicle (I like radios :) :) :)).

This build wasn't like the 426 hemi I blogged earlier. This kit is for builders with at least some experience - preferably an intermediate builder. I don't consider myself an "expert" by any means, but I have built quite a few kits. I consider myself one step above intermediate. Every kit, to me, is a learning experience. That's what makes what I do fun. This one turned out OK, but I know it could have been better.

The box itself contained all the plastic one needed to build the kit, with a small fret of photo-etched brass for higher detail in some areas. There were also instrument panel decals and a really neat pre-cut aluminized paper disc for the rear-view mirror. The instructions are pretty complete and pretty clear, but after reading them I knew I was in for some "real fun" when it came to painting the kit. What I decided to do was (roughly) assemble the kit in halves, (top and bottom) paint the interior, assemble the halves together, and then paint the exterior. This led to a few small problems (gaps between the top and bottom halves) that I persevered through (amazing what one can do with good clamps and scotch tape). :) The tracks were built separately and added last.

Below are captioned photos of most of the kit's progress after the initial build (I didn't have my camera during the build process). I had decided earlier to try a tri-color camouflage scheme; and, except for the "hard-line" edges, I think that turned out real good. I also made the kit nice and dirty to give it that "used war equipment" kind of look. Anyways, take a look, and feel free to let me know what you think!

This photo gives some perspective on the actual size of 1/35 scale items. That's the front MG-42 with the very nice photo-etch AA gun sight, after painting. The fingers are mine. I don't have big fingers. :) :) :)

This photo shows the bottom-half interior after paint and thin oil base wash with added pastel "dusting", followed by a clear flat overcoat to lock everything in place.

This is the completed front firewall/instrument panel. The high level of detail here was the primary reason I built the kit in halves.

The interior after adding a few detail items, such as the seats, back panels, and the machine pistols (I think they're MP-42's, but don't quote me on that).

The top and bottom halves together with the base coat of sand yellow (sandgelb) applied.

The finished tri-color scheme. This was done by applying a silly putty mask and spraying the secondary colors, one at a time. Like I wrote, I think the edges are too hard.

This is the view after I added the vehicle markings, which are not decals. These are dry transfers, which I prefer because decals end up too "glossy" and leave a visible film in the clear areas. Note the division symbol on the front panel (Hitler Jugend division).

The rest of these photos are all-around views of the completed kit. Like I wrote, I think it turned out OK but could have been better.

Please note the rear-view mirror here. This is the best I've done in that regard - like I wrote, a very cool item provided by the manufacturer. Now, all I need is a scale radio operator for the inside. I figure this could be used to model a scene of behind-the-lines action by the Germans in the Normandy area after the allies invaded. Anyway, I did have fun building this kit. I hope you all like it too; again, let me know what you think!

Surfin' Bird

2007-09-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well everybody knows that the bird is the word. . . .

- Frazier/White/Harris/Wilson

Black River Falls, Wisconsin is about an hour's easy drive on I-94 from a very cool place known as Wisconsin Dells. "The Dells" is known as a huge tourist attraction for a couple of reasons. First and foremost are the outstanding geologic formations along the Wisconsin River. The area has also developed into the midwest's premier water park mecca - a Disneyland with a water-based theme. One fine day this summer, my mother, niece, nephew, and two of their friends, went there. We had decided that the day would be split into two parts; first we'd go see the lower dells on a "duck", and then we'd visit a water park.

People who know me know that I'm a world war 2 nut. I like to say that I "study" the war. I also like to build scale WW2 ground-based equipment as a hobby. Seeing the real thing, whether a rebuild or a reproduction, provides me with a major thrill. Wisconsin Dells is famous for its rebuilt WW2-era DUKWs, or "ducks". Needless to be said, a trip there (for me) was something I'd planned on a long while back - hence the first part of our day there.

During world war 2, the GMC corporation modified it's CCKW 353 6x6 truck (the infamous "deuce-and-a-half") into an amphibious version. This became the DUKW. The DUKWs were needed by U.S. military forces because of the requirement of putting troops and equipment ashore (and inland) from troop and supply ships in both the European and Pacific theatres. From what I've read and seen, the "ducks" performed this function admirably. By the end of the war, 21,000 DUKWs had been produced; and the U.S. military forces also acquired more of them post-war before cancelling the contracted builds.

After the war ended, it was realized that it was too expensive to re-deploy the overseas-employed ducks back to the U.S.A. Many of them were sold to the countries they were in, many others "given" to those countries. The DUKWs still left in the states were sold as surplus and/or scrapped. Shortly after the end of WW2, an enterprising entrepreneur from Wisconsin Dells bought some surplus machines and started giving tours on them. Thusly were the "Wisconsin Ducks" hatched. :)

Okay, now that the background information is done, on to the fun part. :)

When we got to the duck-ride area, we were pretty early. We had to wait for about 45 minutes before the first ride went out. We knew which machine we would be riding, so I took the opportunity to talk to the guys getting it ready to go out. One of them was our driver. I must have conveyed a keen interest, because he let me sit at the very front during the trip; and he also "popped the hood" (hey, I just asked for shits and grins) to let me see the original engine. He also answered the myriad of questions I hit him up with during the trip. The first three photos below are of the duck we rode, the third being the in-line 6 cylinder petrol engine in its compartment.

The round-trip tour itself lasts about an hour. It goes through part of town, then into Lake Delton. After that, it travels overland again to the Wisconsin River to see the lower part of the dells. Then, it goes overland back into town to where it started. All-in-all, it's very scenic. People in town wave at you. Ducks (the feathered type that goes "quack") swim by. The engine roars, the gears grind, and the damn thing shakes like a mofo at better than 35 mph - on land. In the water, the ride is smooth as silk at about 5-6 mph.

Some things about the DUKW that I didn't know until the trip: It is a chore to drive this thing. Like I wrote above, I sat up front, right next to the driver - he worked pretty hard. Each axle can be engaged or disengaged as desired for the various amphibious terrain (there are three driven axles - it's still a 6x6). The 3-bladed screw is 45 inches high. Fully-loaded, the DUKW can come out of or go into water at a 45 degree angle, even towing a trailer! On land top speed is just a little under 40 mph.

This is a photo taken just after entering the Wisconsin River. Only the 2 orange lights (required by Wisconsin traffic laws) are not part of the original DUKW build.

These next two photos were taken from the duck while we were in the Wisconsin River. This area is known as the "lower dells". The sandstone formation is Cambrian-era, known as the Potsdam formation. Note, in both photos, how the lower part of the formation is not flat-bedded, but angled, compared to the upper parts.

After our duck ride, we all got into the car and drove a few blocks away to a place called "Noah's Ark". The kids were very excited to go there, and I could see why. The place is chock-full of rides, water-slides, and other fun stuff. We spent the better part of 5 hours there, and everybody had fun (and I had the sunburn to prove it). Noah's Ark is a good family venue. For a family of 5, it'll cost a c-note; but, imo, it's well worth it. You can stay all day, or come and go as you please (they give you a wrist band at the gate). In the 5 hours we were there, not even the kids went on all the rides that they have there. I went on about half of them, because some are a little too tall for my acrophobia to handle. The place was full of people the entire time.

The place is huge, also. There are places to buy food there, and a bar or two. In short, it's got EVERYTHING. Two wave pools. More water-slides than you can shake a wet stick at. The roller coaster gets EVERYBODY wet. Floating bumper cars! You name it, if it can have water in it, on it, or through it, it's there. Quite the fun day, even for this 40-plus year-old who came to ride a duck. :)

These next three photos show what I mean. I put the camera back in the car after about 10 minutes (that's why there are so few photos of Noah's Ark) because I wanted to have some fun in the water, too. The first is one of the 2 wave pools. The next shows one of the many water-slide rides (many of which have more than one chute). The last photo shows the up-ramp for the 4-person rafts used on that particular water-slide (I got halfway up the stairs for that one before deciding it was too high for me). :) :)

My goodness what a fun day we all had!! I know that the kids sure enjoyed Noah's Ark (they couldn't wait to get there and didn't want to leave) and so did my mom and I. What a thrill it was for me to be riding in that fine summer Wisconsin breeze to the tune of that roaring DUKW engine!! The smile on my face couldn't have been bigger. The rides at Noah's Ark, for me, where merely gravy on an already fantastic day. Would I go back? In a heartbeat, and another trip is already planned. Stay tuned! I'll keep you all posted.

My Ding-a-ling

2007-08-30T19:38:00.001-07:00

Once I was swimmin' 'cross Turtle Creek
Many snappers all 'round my feet
Sure was hard swimmin' 'cross that thing
With both hands holdin' my ding-a-ling-a-ling. . . .

- C. Berry

This post has taken awhile to develop, mostly because I didn't quite know the name of the mound. I'm pretty sure it's called Bell Mound, hence the silly title. :) Hey, I like the song, too.

If one travels westbound on I-94 through this part of Wisconsin, there is a rest stop about 5 miles east of Black River Falls. It's pretty cool for a rest stop, as it has a trail to the top of Bell Mound, and a few other items of note. It's kind of weird, however, as the sign on the interstate just says, "Rest Stop" with an arrow - like any other interstate rest stop. In my opinion, it's worth stopping at, because I like to take the scenic route now and again, even if it means getting out of the car and taking a short hike. Judge for yourself, based on the photos below. :)

This area of Wisconsin is unique, geologically. Pretty much all of the rest of what is known as the upper midwest was covered with a glacier during the last ice age, except the "driftless area". Because there were no glaciers here, there are now isolated sandstone buttes or mounds throughout the area (simply speaking the glaciers would have leveled them). Bell Mound is one of those sandstone mounds. Just outside of Black River Falls, on U.S. 12, is another, called Castle Mound (that one's for a later post).

The trail up to Bell Mound from the rest stop is on the far side of the parking lot. It's a very short hike, all-paved and wheelchair-accessible, to a wooden-platformed overlook. Hiking that shouldn't take a normal person more than 10-15 minutes. There is also an unpaved, steeper, walking trail that goes all the way to the top of the mound, adding another 20 minutes, tops. Both areas have exceptional views, but the hike to the top is well worth it - you can see much more.

Near the gazebo of the rest stop are several signs that describe the area, with one commemorating a 1970s fire; as well as a monument to law enforcement (last photo of this blog-entry). These photos were taken sometime in late June this year. I won't caption all of them, I think the views speak for themselves. Enjoy!

The view of the mound from the picnic area near the gazebo.

The sandstone "backbone" of the mound, photo taken very near the top.

Fool for the City

2007-08-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

When I see my inner city child
I be walking on a cloud

'Cuz I'm a fool for the city. . . .

- D. Peverett

This is the story of the first "city" that I knew of. When I was just a wee pup, there was only one place that I had been to that could be called a city. Now, I know that most of you, thinking that I'm from Minnesota, would consider Minneapolis or St. Paul to be the city I'm writing about. Nope. I first lived on the iron range, and my first city is Duluth. She's a damned nice one, at that. This story also includes the city of Superior, WI; because, quite frankly, it's pretty difficult to separate the two.

This blog-entry also ties in with the previous two, in that it's part of my trip to the "our generation" reunion at Hoyt Lakes, MN. On Friday, after visiting Pattison State Park and then pulling into Superior, WI, I noted that I visited the Richard I. Bong WW2 Historical Center.

One very large interest that I have is in world war 2 history. I knew about the R. I. Bong Center for awhile, and told myself that sometime, when I was in the city, I'd visit. I just had to see his reconstructed airplane, Marge. On this trip, as I wrote in the previous blog-entry, it was right there on the corner where I had to make a turn. And I had the time. It's a very cool place, to me, and I had a good time when I was there.

Major Richard I. Bong was the U. S. A.'s ace of aces in WW2, with over 40 confirmed kills. He flew P-38 Lightnings in the Pacific, and received the CMH in 1944. He died while test-piloting a new jet-aircraft being developed towards the end of the war. He grew up near Superior, and that's why the Center is here. He also has a park and a major bridge named after him, here. The reconstructed P-38 is modeled after the P-38j that Maj. Bong flew in the war.

The only problem I had with the Center was a sign, just outside of the large display area, that said, "No video cameras - No flash cameras". Fine and dandy, until I realized that I couldn't figure out how to get my camera's flash to not go off. Grrrrrr. So I can't show you the stuff I saw there, just stuff outside. Sorry. I have since rectified that problem - I had my niece show me how to turn the flash off. :)

Anyways, to (kind of) make up for that, here is a link for the Center itself:
http://www.bongheritagecenter.org/
While browsing this site, I didn't see any photos of the restored "Marge", but there is at least one b/w photo of the original. I will also say here that the restoration is quite impressive, one can walk all the way around it and also view the cockpit area from the walkway above. Also on display there were about a dozen models of many different aircraft, some of the ones that Maj. Bong flew and some of the ones he shot down. They also had an original Norden bombsight (most of it, anyway - very, very cool) and an uncrated Allison engine used in the P-38.

The following photos are mine, taken where I could take them, without catching any possible hell for it. :)

This is the outside of the Center from the parking lot.
And this, well, this is something the sailor in me had to take a picture of. It's a ww2 floating mine - I had never seen one before. Kinda reminded me of an episode of Gilligan's Island. :) "LOOK OUT SKIPPER!!!!" :)

This is a photo taken from the parking lot showing Lake Superior with Duluth and the north shore in the far background. The line of dark green trees is a narrow spit called Minnesota Point.

The Richard I. Bong WW2 Heritage Center is right on U.S. 53, on your right if you're westbound, left if eastbound. It's easy to spot and even easier to get into the parking lot. Go visit. I highly recommend it. I sure had fun.

After I left the Center, I proceeded west on U.S. 53, because that went almost continuously to my destination. Little did I realize that, shortly after this, I would be facing a crisis. You see, I have this phobia of not liking steep ledges. This extends to bridges that are "too high". Basically, I know 'em when I see 'em, and the bridge over Duluth/Superior harbor that carries U.S. 53 is one. However, once I got going, there was no alternative but to continue. I fought my panic, and focused on the center of the lane, not daring to look over the edge or change lanes. I got over the bridge OK, but vowed "never again".

Also, as an aside, this phobia of mine has nothing to do with the bridge that fell down in Minneapolis. I'd been over that bridge more than once and didn't have a problem, and I've had this phobia for a lot longer than that recent (and tragic) news event. No, this is just me being me and having to deal with that.

After having had a very nice weekend at the reunion, I once again returned to Duluth on my way back home. Now, you're thinking, how am I gonna deal with the bridge problem? For me, that was easy. I'd driven through the Duluth area before, and I knew a few tricks. :)

Basically, I knew that the other major bridge, the Richard I. Bong bridge, would also be unacceptable for me to drive across. But I knew of another bridge, south of the main harbor area. That route also offered the chance for me to take the scenic route through Duluth.

I came into town, southeast-bound on U.S. 53. I missed the turnoff to Skyline Drive and had to juke around a bit in downtown Duluth. After regaining my bearings (I have nice maps in the car) I was southbound on that aforementioned Skyline Drive. As I wrote, it's definitely the scenic route. It has more than a few pullovers to stop and take a look. Here:

This is a slightly-zoomed photo of Duluth/Superior harbor. If you make it bigger, you should be able to see the aerial lift bridge near the left-center.

This photo is an unzoomed image panned just to the right of the previous photo.

And a further pan to the right. Both photos show the infamous U.S. 53 bridge.

After awhile, Skyline Drive turns from paved to gravel. This photo is a view of the local geology - which is quite interesting in it's own regard.

Just a little further on gives this view.

And the view of the bedrock directly behind the previous shot. Note the foxmobile's corner. :)

After this, Skyline Drive goes down in elevation, and, after that, I took the highway that goes over the St. Louis River at Gary, MN. It was wierd, because about 20 years ago, when I first drove that route, the bridge was a pretty unique affair of pounded spikes about 2 inches apart that I worried would tear up my tires when I crossed it. That bridge is now gone, and the highway goes over a double-deck bridge, auto traffic under rail. Cool bridge, only at tree-top level. :)

From there, I was on WS 105, which took me to WS 35 in Superior. I then retraced my earlier route to U.S. 2 and then to U.S. 53, this time going eastbound. U.S. 53 was a straight shot to I-94 near Eau Claire, which I took the rest of the way back to BRF.

I really had a good time on this reunion weekend, and I hope that I conveyed that in these 3 blogs. I know the photos can't match actually being there; but, for those who will never be able to go to see these things, I hope they'll provide a good taste of what these places are like. I hope you all enjoyed the photos and stories. Please let me know what you think!

Get Together

2007-08-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your tremblin' hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now. . .

- W. C. Powers, Jr.

This post is a continuation from my last post. At that point, I was just getting into Superior, WI, on my way to Hoyt Lakes, MN, for an "our generation" family reunion.

Wisconsin highway 35 took me into Superior, which had an awful lot of traffic lights. About halfways into Superior I turned right onto U.S. 2. About a mile after that came the lakeshore frontage and a left turn onto U.S. 53. Right on that corner I spotted the Richard I. Bong WW2 Heritage Center, so I stopped in there to see Marge, among other things. That's for a later blog-entry. I spent about an hour there and then moseyed back onto highway 53. From there, it was a straight shot up to Eveleth, MN. At Eveleth (Evlet in the native dialect) I took a right onto MN 37, then another right onto MN 135 just outside of Gilbert. That road runs to just outside of Aurora, then turns left. I went straight, into town, on county highway 100. In the middle of Aurora the road turns right, and at the end of town I made a left turn onto county 110. From there, it's a straight shot into Hoyt Lakes. The Fisherman's Point turn-off is on the right, just before you get into Hoyt.

The campground has a nice website here: http://www.hoytlakes.com/recreat/camping/campmain.htm

The first thing I did after I got there was hand out the sundry things that my mother had given me to bring with. Then, after saying "hi" to everybody who was there, I got my nephew's fishing pole out of the car. Boy, did he come a'running when he saw that. His name is Tristan, and he LOVES to fish. We couldn't go right away, however, as his tackle box was in my other sister's vehicle, and she hadn't arrived yet. So we made up for that with a snack to kill time.

My older sister, Suzy, has 2 kids - Christine and Tristan. My other sister, Jackie, has one, Shannon.

About the time we got done eating, Jackie arrived. That made any decisions about what to do later very easy. Tristan got his tackle box and nite crawlers ready, and the two of us set off down the path to find us a good fishing spot. It wasn't long before we were drowning worms. For most of the early evening hours, with a small break for supper, we were hanging together and having a very good time. Early on, we had found a nice sunfish nest and had a lot of action but no keeper fish, except for one of Tristan's moderate-sized pumpkinseeder. We fished until it was too dark to see either of our bobbers but really left because the mosquitoes got bad.

On the way back we stopped off at a nearby dock. There were a couple of older guys on the dock and 2 boats anchored about 25 yards out, just off to one side of the dock. The evening crappie run was on, and both boats and the guys on the dock were catching keeper crappies, one right after the other. I made a mental note that became productive later on, on Saturday night.

The sleeping plans were for Tristan and I to share one tent, Suzy and Christine another, and Jackie and Shannon and Jackie's boyfriend, Pete, to sleep in Jackie's pop-up camper. This arrangement worked fine. Before we went to bed, I hung out talking with my cousins and uncle and a few other people. From them, I learned that the morning crappie run was good at the "T" dock nearby, starting at about 5:30 a.m. and lasting about an hour. Tristan and I talked about that and decided to get each other up in time to hit the run.

Northeastern Minnesota is currently experiencing a serious drought. I talked to my cousin, Denise, and her mom, my Aunt Karen, (both live nearby) and they told me that there hadn't been any serious rain since early June. This is extrememly unusual for this area of the country and, as a result, most of the campgrounds and parks have burning bans. This meant no annual bonfire, or any other fire, for that matter (gas grills were OK for cooking but no charcoal fires - not even in the grilled firepits). Lucky for us, the nighttime temps only got as low as the low 50s F. Still, with the nighttime dew, it made for chilly sleeping. I didn't sleep very heavily on either Friday or Saturday night.

I don't wear a watch, and neither Tristan nor I had an alarm clock. Periodically during the night I would open the tent window and take a look outside. When I was able to percieve brightness in the east, I got Tristan up, figuring it's about 5:00 or so. We got dressed, and I got my fishing pole. Then we realized that Tristan's pole was in my sister's vehicle, which was locked. Ooops. We headed on to the "T" dock anyway, where there were about 4 people already fishing. About the time we got there the crappie started their morning run. Catching them right and left would be an understatement. The fishing was hot, and I could see Tristan was feeling kinda bad about his situation (my rod wasn't rigged for crappie so I couldn't offer it to him to use). After a little while my cousin Tim brought his son down to the dock. Tim put his jig in the water and inside of 2 seconds had a keeper fish. A few more fisherpeople joined in shortly thereafter, and, indeed, the run lasted about an hour before petering out. By that time, Tristan had had enough and went back to camp to see if anybody was up so he could get his fishing pole. He didn't get back until too late. Oh well, I thought, we'll have another go at it on Sunday.

After the morning fishing-fest, I went back to camp. Most everybody was up, and we ate breakfast. Then, more fishing. This lasted until about until 12:30 p.m., when I, of a sudden, ran out of steam. I took a nap until about 5:00 p.m. and then we all got together for a major smorgasbord of camp-cooking and breeze-shooting. Tristan pretty much fished all day, going between me (when I was awake) and Pete (who also likes to fish a lot) when I got a little tired or hungry or bored with fishing. :)

Towards dusk on Saturday, more than a few of us made our way out to the other dock for the evening crappie run. Christine started the show with a very nice 1 3/4 pound crappie, and Tristan caught 3 keepers. The guys in the 2 boats (my cousins and uncle and a few others) were there again, one boat hauling in 25 and the other 28 - all in about an hour's time. The boats then pulled in, and we all decided to call it a night and try the "T" dock in the morning. Tristan made sure his rod was readily available before he hit the rack.

Shortly after I went to bed, a few musicians started playing inside the campground shelter. It was nice music, not too loud for those who wanted to sleep, and they sounded pretty good. When they finished, we were left with the gaviidae sisters to serenade us for the rest of the night. Ahhhh. . . .the sounds of northeastern Minnesota.

Sunday morning started the same way as Saturday. When I got down to the "T" dock, there was nobody there, except for a beaver swimming around. Tristan got there a minute later, and I pointed it out to him. The beaver hung around us for about 1/2 hour. Tristan got his rig in the water and bingo bango bongo had a keeper crappie. Next thing we knew, he was catching them right and left. Before we knew it, he had a dozen keepers. By that time, both of my cousins, Tim and Brian, and thier sons, had joined us. Pretty much everybody caught keeper crappies before the run ended. These fish ran between 1 and 1 3/4 pounds. Again, a very hot fishing morning, only now Tristan was one happy camper. We labeled him the crappie slayer.

After that, we went back to camp and ate breakfast. There was a little bit more socializing and fun. My uncle, Russ, had this neat contraption that looked like a little wooden outhouse. He'd get one of the kids to open it's door and SNAP! a mousetrap was rigged on the inside which would make the whole thing fall apart. Hoo haa good fun for the kids, who would almost immediately think of somebody to get to come over and open it up, once it was re-rigged. Hey, I have that kind of family. :)

The fun ended a few hours later. My sisters had to go back to Hutchinson, MN, which was about as far from Hoyt Lakes as I lived. So we broke camp and rolled up the tents, picked everything up, and packed the vehicles. At about 11:30 a.m., I was on the road again, reversing my course back to Black River Falls, WI (with one noteable exception which will be detailed in my next blog). I sure had a good time this weekend, though. I think everybody did.

That having been written, here are some photos I took:

This is my sister Suzy (in the back) and her daughter Christine (back to camera) and my cousin Denise (on the right). The photo was taken just after I arrived at the campground.
This is the infamous "T" dock of the morning crappie run, taken on Saturday after the run ended.

Part of Saturday's catch. Yummy black crappies.

And a photo of Tristan with Sunday's catch of crappies.

Three photos of the campground area. Very, very nice place. It even has a lighted fish-cleaning station near one of the docks.

Yes, this one's mine. I officially hold the record for the smallest fish caught this weekend. This is a fingerling perch just a little bit bigger than a minnow. The cigarettes I smoke are longer. :) Needless to be said, he went back into the lake.

Up Around the Bend

2007-08-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

You can ponder perpetual motion
Fix your mind on a crystal day
Always time for good conversation
There's an ear for what you say

Come on the rising wind
We're going up around the bend. . .

Yeaaaaahhhh!

- J. Fogerty

Everybody has family reunions. Ours, too. I remember when I was a kid, and we'd go to these reunions. They'd be affairs where a bunch of the "old folks" would sit around and BS, eat tons of food, and occasionally fish or play softball or whatever. Sometimes there'd be kids my age there, and we'd play (those were the fun ones). Sometimes not (lots of kissing elderly ladies while mom coached, "You remember her, don't you?"). Well, about 10 years ago, my sister, Jackie, pretty much started the "our generation" reunion. I haven't been able to attend all of them, but the ones I've been at have always been fun. Now I get to sit around and BS, eat lots of food, and fish or whatever. :) Ya ya, it's amazing how things change when you get older.

This year's "our generation" reunion took place at Fisherman's Point campground just outside of Hoyt Lakes, MN. It's a very nice place; but from Black River Falls, WI, it's a pretty healthy haul of about 6 hours. I took a little longer than that this year, because I had a few spots to stop at along the way. This is the story of one of my drive, up to just south of Superior, WI. The rest is in the next blog-entry (Get Together).

About 9 a.m. on Friday, I pulled out of the local Hardees and hit I-94 westbound. The weather was overcast but not raining - we've had enough of that for the last 10 days or so. A short hour later I pulled onto U.S. 53 and nosed the car north. The clouds broke up and it was very sunny and nice. I put on my sunglasses and started singing along with the radio.

Morning shows were being broadcast on most of the local stations. Since I think that ALL morning shows suck (play the music, dammit!) I ended up playing station check until I picked up a station that I never come off. It was about an hour north of Eau Claire, WI, when my car radio finally latched on to a good signal from KQDS out of Duluth. Harrrrr, nothing like quality tunage for the whole weekend. DS rules!!!!

After a few very pleasant hours, just north of Solon Springs, WI, I found an itty-bitty county road that turned west towards Pattison State Park, my planned stop. About 45 min. later, I was there. Pattison SP is a very nice place, and has the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin - Big Manitou falls. It also has Little Manitou falls, much shorter but very, very pretty. Both falls are on the Black River, (no, not the same one as in my previous posts - there are 2 Black Rivers in Wisconsin) Little Manitou is just upriver from Big Manitou.

When I was done at the park, I turned the car loose and sped north on Wis. 35 into Superior. The rest of the story of the trip will be in later blogs. I spent about an hour and a half at the park - scoping out both falls, hiking a trail or two, and visiting the nature center. Needless to be said, I also took a few photos for you all. And me. :)

This is a photo from one of the overlooks, and quite the view, IMO. Of course, the foreground is Wisconsin, but the promised land, er, Minnesota :) lies in the background. Duluth/Superior harbor is obscured by the trees on the right. The platform is at Big Manitou falls' pre-plunge level.

This photo is from the same platform, looking at Big Manitou falls. It could have been a better shot, but I'm not good near steep, deep ledges, (I think it's called acrophobia) so I held the camera at arm's length, closed my eyes, and took the shot. :) Big Manitou falls is 165 feet high - the fourth highest waterfall in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains.

This photo was taken from another platform that was a little closer to the falls. From here, it was difficult to get the whole falls in one shot, this is just the upper part.

This is the best view of Big Manitou falls that I took. This is taken from an overlook on the other side of the river, only a short hike away. At the top left of the photo is the overlook that I took the previous shot from. Directly below that, at the left of the fall's pool, is an old copper mine test hole. Prospecting for copper was done here (and elsewhere nearby) about 120 years ago.

The trail on this side of the river wends for about a mile downstream of the falls, lowering down to river-level. This is a photo of the far-side embankment there. Notice the completely different nature of the stone from the previous photos. This is sandstone, while the falls drop over basaltic traprock that emerged during the great North American rift event (circa 1 billion years ago).

This is a picture of some photogenic fungi growing on a pine stump near the top of Big Manitou falls. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it sure is pretty.

About 3 miles upstream of Big Manitou falls is Little Manitou falls, shown here. This one is 31 feet high. Just out of view to the left is another copper mine test hole.

This last photo was taken up at the park's nature center and describes the life of Mr. Pattison, the reason why the park is here in the first place. He was born in Niagara Falls, NY; came to the Duluth/Superior region; got rich; and then donated the land for Pattison State Park to the state of Wisconsin. Thank you very much, Mr. Pattison - I found your park most enjoyable.

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike most of Wisconsin, the northwest region (as well as the northeast region of Minnesota) hasn't recieved any of the last 2 weeks' worth of rain (the stuff that's been in the news kind of rain). Very dry here is an understatement. One of the things that I noticed at the nature center was that, from photos, there appears to be only about 1/5 of the normal flowage over both falls. One could be disappointed by that, but I wasn't. They still looked cool to me. I hope that all of you enjoyed the story and photos. Let me know what you think!

Godzilla

2007-08-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Oh no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla
Yeah-a-ah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla
Yeah-a-ah. . . .

- D. "Buck Dharma" Roeser

Back in the days. . .when a Detroit-built motor actually meant something. . . there came to be an engine so hot, so powerful, and so monstrous that every soul who knew anything about automobiles wanted one. Guys with two girlfriends would drop both to look under the hood of a buddy's car that had one of these powerplants. Without any modification of any kind there wasn't another stock mill that could top it. The legendary motor I'm referring to is the Dodge 426 hemi. Just those last four letters were enough to send any Corvette owner into cardiac arrest. MOPAR ruled the late 1960s and early 1970s, and this engine is the major reason why. The 426 hemi was the Godzilla of motors.

In the same year that Beatlemania started in the U.S.A. (1964) Dodge Motor Corporation designed and produced an engine for the racing circuit. This motor was so successful they quickly produced a "street" version for their regular production automobiles. The differences were slight - a lower compression ratio (10.25:1), cast iron (vs. aluminum) heads, intake and exhaust manifold changes, and valve timing changes. This stock version kicked out an incredible 425 hp at 5000 rpm!! The only bad thing about it was that you couldn't buy one - supply never came close to demand.

Those were quite the days, indeed. While I, myself, never owned one of these "big dogs", (the closest I came was the 383 in my '68 Charger) I would have given up a kidney just to own one of these critters. What's more is that I know I wasn't alone in thinking that way. Well, some detractors might say that they ate gas (well, um, yes they did - they had 2 carbs); but, hey, petrol was all of $0.25/9 back then, so WHO CARED? Ahh, but when the initial gas crunch hit in the early '70s, the hemi (and a lot of other hot engines) became extinct. Economics can suck sometimes.

:)

As you can see, by glancing at my "interests" section, I have a hobby of building kits. My main interest there is in WW2 ground forces, (tanks and such) but occasionally I'll venture outside of that realm. Not too long ago I was up at the local WallMart and spotted a 1/6 scale kit of the 426 hemi. $20. I bit. It was a good decision, too.

I'll call this kit very easy. It's half die-cast metal and half plastic, with a few rubber/vinyl parts. Every part is pre-painted or molded in the correct color. All the parts are also sprue-removed so there's no "clean-up". The only tools I needed were a fairly small phillips-head screwdriver, a hobby knife, superglue, and regular plastic glue. What's more, I could have done without the hobby knife if I would have superglued the chrome parts together. The instructions were very clear, and I had no problems with any parts of the build. My only recommendation, if any of you out there are interested, is that you pre-chase the threads on the plastic parts before you actually screw them together. That'll cost a little extra time, but it'll also make any "critical" fitting parts non-problematic.

If the kit is built correctly, one can turn the crankshaft gear at the back and it will also spin the starter gear and the vibration damper/water pump/alternator/power steering pump at the front. Neat design (mine works fine). This is a pretty good beginner kit, given a bit of supervision. For an intermediate or more experienced builder, it's a piece of cake.

This kit took me a total of about 5 hours to build, over 3 days' time - mostly because I wanted to give the glue time to dry before proceeding. The only flaw in the kit itself was that the rubber/vinyl part for the spark plug wiring on the left side was a bit too short to build according to the instructions. I solved that problem by swapping the #1 and #2 cylinder wires on the distributor cap. This would be a major problem on the real thing, but on a kit most people couldn't tell. The end product still looked pretty good to me. See what you think:

Not too bad, eh? Maybe I should have "dirtied" it up a bit? Nahhh. :)

Black Water

2007-08-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

And I ain't got no worries

'Cuz I ain't in no hurry

At all. . . . .

- P. Simmons

Well, I did write in a previous post that Wisconsin is scenic. This post is about the canoe trip I took down the Black River from Black River Falls to Irving Landing. It's about 7 miles, and took me about 6 hours of easy paddling. I made the same trip last year, in early September; there were very few differences in the 2 trips. I plan on going from Irving to Melrose on my next time out, eventually canoeing all of the Black from BRF to it's outlet north of La Crosse.

This is a view from the river of the landing (Cormyn Landing) in town, just after put-in.

And the first look downriver. My shoes came off right after this - the skin on top of my feet began peeling about 4 days later. :) One of the things I learned on my first trip was that there are 3 pull-throughs on this section of the river; I like to think ahead now and again. (OK, OK, so I don't like wearing shoes, either.)

Not too far out of town is my parents' farm. About 1/4 mile downstream of that, on the eastern bank, is this sandstone embankment. It runs for about 100 feet before leveling down to the river's edge. From what I have been learning about the geology of the area, this is cambrian-era sandstone; probably what is called the "Mount Simon" formation. Notice the cross-bedding over and underneath the more flat-bedding in the stone. Also of notice are the overhanging layers, cracks, and holes in the outcropping. This stone is very soft and fairly easily crumbles into its constituent sand.

This is an upstream view of Hawk Island, the largest island on this section of the river. It's about 1/2 mile long. The canoe outfitter told me to take the right side flowage, I guess because the left-side run gets pretty shallow. There are also a couple of other smaller sand islands on this section of the river.

This photo shows that right-hand flowage. See the rocks? This is the most difficult part of the entire trip, and includes the first pull-through. That having been said, the whole trip is still pretty easy. This section runs for about 400 yards after the pull-through and is nothing that a few zig-zags can't handle. Basically, the river speeds up from about 2 MPH to 4-5 MPH. It's not anywhere near "whitewater" but a person might get hung up on a rock if they canoe with their head up their ass. :)

This is a shot of Spring Creek's outlet into the river. There are 4 creeks on the west side and 2 on the right that feed the Black on this section of the river. Notice the sandy "bars" on either side of the outflow. The water inflowing the Black from these creeks is noticeably cooler than the rest of the river, which my bare feet can easily notice (aluminum is an excellent conductor of heat).

These last two photos are of a much higher (but shorter, length-wise) embankment near the end of the trip on the west side. Notice the color differences in some of the layers.

About a mile downstream is Irving Landing, my pull-out. It was, like my first trip, a very nice day. I enjoyed both outings very much, and I highly recommend this very easy canoe trip to anybody who likes to dip a paddle in the water and see life from a river instead of through a car window.

After Midnight

2007-08-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

We're gonna find out what it is all about. . .
- J. J. Cale

A couple of weeks ago an odd thing happened. I was sleeping away one night but was awakened by something. That happens 2-3 times a night with me, so I just rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. It was a very hot night, so I had my window next to the bed open. A few minutes after rolling over I heard this swhish swhish swhish sound, and I figured what woke me up was some owl or bat outside my window. No big deal, so I rolled over the other way and tried to go back to sleep again. The swishing noise continued, however, and I began to think that it sounded like it was a bit closer than OUTSIDE the window. Uh-huh. Even half-asleep like I was, I figured I better get up and see what was going on. I got out of bed and turned on the light. Lo and behold it was a bat, and here he was flying around in circles near the ceiling of my bedroom. By this time, I'm fully awake and trying to figure out what to do next.

"Hey, there, umm, Mr. Bat, ummm, ahhh, errr, can I help you?" I said.

"Name's Bubba" he replied.

"OK, ah, Bubba, ah, ahem, you look kinda lost."

"I ain't lost. Got any bugs? I love to eat bugs."

"Ummm, no, I don't have any bugs." I thought quickly. "I think I know where you can get some, though. You see that window over there?"

"What's a window?" he asked.

I realized that that was a little too much of a human concept for him, and that this was going to be a bit more complicated than I first thought. I also realized that I didn't want to hurt the poor little fella, because I really don't like bugs and bats do eat them by the buttload. If I could get Bubba outside, both of us would be happy. I thought some more.

"What about them bugs you were talking about?" he said.

"Working on it, Bubba, just give me a little time here, OK?"

"Can you hurry? I'm hungry."

I have a lot of books here in my apartment, but nothing about bats. So I did the next best thing and turned on my computer and hopped on the 'net. A quick search turned up a couple of sites about bats, I picked one and quickly learned a safe & easy way to rid my apartment of my "pet" flying mouse. Bubba kept flying 'round and 'round - once in a while eliciting, "I want bugs!"

"I think I got it, Bubba. Could you land over here where I can help you get more bugs?"

"Sure, anything for bugs, I love 'em."

He duly flopped down on top of my cupboard in the kitchen. I got a chair and climbed up where I could see him. Then, I quickly snapped a few photos, after which I carefully placed a small cardboard box over him. Another piece of cardboard was then slid under the box, trapping Bubba momentarily. "Bugs. . . .bugs. . . bugs," was all he kept repeating, so I knew he was OK. I grabbed the whole rig and carefully got down from the cupboard via the chair. Then, I placed the box on the floor and proceeded to open the 3 doors between the box and the outside world. Returning to grab Bubba, it was then an easy thing to get him outside and lift the box.

He must have been pretty hungry because he took right off and flew around the street light, scarfing up a few mayflies along the way. He turned and looked at me. "Thanks, there, umm, what's your name?" he asked.

"Jeffox." I replied.

"Well, thanks, Jeffox, you ain't bad for a human."

"You ain't bad for a bat, Bubba. Enjoy your meal."

Then he was gone. So were all the bugs by the street lamp. Bats are cool.

Now, there might be some of you out there that think I made up this story - but remember when I wrote that I took photos? Have a look:

And, to those of you who think that I might have "embellished" or "exaggerated" this little tale, you can just ask Bubba. Bring some bugs with you, and tell him I sent you.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

2007-08-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, it's me again; once again after too long of a period of time. I have my reasons.

Something happened yesterday that I just can't ignore here, though. My Minnesota roots demand it, I think. Besides, I'm of the mood to write about this. Life hasn't been good to me for the last few weeks, you see. Then, I get up today to go eat and read the newspaper and see this. Needless to be said, it didn't help my mood.

Yesterday, during rush hour in Minneapolis, the I-35W bridge fell into the Mississippi River; at latest count (I've been checking the internet) there are at least 4 dead and over 50 injured, some still missing. A total tragedy. My heart goes out to those who were injured and the families of those who lost loved ones.

Minnesota is a land full of water - be it numerous lakes or the creeks and rivers that join them. This, of course, also means that it has many bridges. These bridges are vital to the state's infrastructure, and directly contribute to every one of it's citizen's livelihood and well-being. The importance of these bridges cannot be understated. How, then, can something like this happen?

Readers of this blog pretty much know that I tend to stay away from political issues in here. That's not because I consider myself politically ignorant, however. I just don't want this blog of mine to be a "soapbox". There are plenty of those. I prefer to blog about light and humorous things, whether I make them up or just report them. This story, however, has nothing funny about it. This may be the only time I ever do this in this blog, but I'm going to pontificate now.

Back when I was in the Navy, I worked in the nuclear power area. It was very complex, complicated, and high-tech. By it's very nature, it was also potentially very dangerous. Basically, the way the system was run was that if anything bad (or even remotely bad) happened, a lot of people spent a significant amount of time figuring out what went wrong and then figuring out how to prevent it from happening again. The procedures (or procedural changes) that were developed from this were then re-incorporated into the system and everyone, from top to bottom, was made to know and understand them. Many in the system (myself included) considered this method to be a major pain in the ass, but it did work pretty well. From what I understand, it still does.

Applying the above logic to the bridge issue brings us this:

1. We need to determine exactly what the cause of the bridge failure was.

2. We need to use these findings to determine the safety of ALL bridges of this type.

3. We need to repair or replace, as necessary, ALL the bridges deemed necessary by the first two procedures, IMMEDIATELY.

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious here, but it seems to me that our society depends upon our infrastructure to such a great extent that we CAN NOT ALLOW this sort of thing to happen again. Whatever the reason for the bridge's failure, if we could have done something to prevent it, we should have. The alternative is unthinkable.

Again, my deepest sympathies to the victims, and their families, of this tragedy.

Every Picture Tells a Story

2007-06-04T01:56:00.000-07:00

I sincerely thought I was so complete

Look how wrong you can be. . .

- Stewart/Wood

Well, the last time I tried this it looked like it would go, but 24 hours later all the photos were GONE!! They were replaced with little "x"s in the top-left corners, nothing but the borders showed. Oh well, try try again, I guess.
Anyways, what I'm trying to do here is show people, graphically, what it's like here in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. As I've written, I do feel that I'm in exile here, but it's a pretty scenic exile. Here, take a look:

OK, so far so good. A long time to wait for the upload, but at least it's there now. We'll see if that lasts 24 hours. :)

Anyways, this is a shot of the Black River dam, right in the middle of town, from the town's main bridge. If you expand the photo, you can see fisherpeople on the left side of the river, just downstream of the dam. The Black River flows unrestricted from here to the Mississippi, near La Crosse, Wisconsin. That's about 60 miles, straight-line, but a little longer as the river flows. Within the next few weeks I plan to canoe downstream for a few miles; if the photos work in this post, you're sure to see some from that trip. :)

OK, I'm gonna go for the second photo now:

This is the upstream side of the dam, showing the pool (it's not a lake, as you can see). This shot was taken from the east side of the river, I live just a block away on the other side. The floating "restriction" markers go from the cement casing directly in front of the camera to an old bridge footing. At least that's what I think it is, but I'm not sure. This also isn't quite the photo I wanted, but it's getting late here, and I don't have enough time to "diddle" with this any more.

Well, that's gonna be it for this entry. I'll check back after a little while to see if the photos are still there. If they are, I hope all of you enjoyed them.

The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)

2007-05-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

DEAR FOXY
(advice straight from da fox's snout)

Dear Foxy,

I was, until recently, a media personality with a penchant for shocking my audience. My current non-employed status is now becoming quite boring. Do you have any advice for me regarding this condition?

D. Imustasaidsomethingwrong in Iowa

Da Fox replies:

Dear D. in Iowa - It seems to me you've been given a golden opportunity to explore some new paths in life. My advice to you is to drive north of the border, find a good lake, and do some fishing. While you're at it, ask if they are hiring at the bait shops you visit. Don't worry about any possible stigma from your previous life, neither fish nor fishermen care about shock-jocks, anyway.

Dear Foxy,

I'm a single lady who is currently dating a nice man whom I like very much. All would be fine and dandy except that occasionally I feel that he doesn't respect me as much as I need him to. If you could be of help here, I would greatly appreciate it.

Downtrodden in Detroit Lakes

Da Fox replies:

Dear Downtrodden - My advice to you is to have him take you fishing. If you catch more or bigger fish than him you'll almost certainly gain his respect. If you don't, well, at least you went fishing. If he won't take you fishing or doesn't fish, he ain't worth your time. There are plenty of other fish in the lake, if you catch my drift.

Dear Mr. Fox:

I've recently relocated to a very nice lakeshore house, my family and I moving there to escape the big city. Last week, a local developer approached my new neighbors and I offering to buy up our places and turn the properties into a shopping mall. None of us liked that idea, but he kept insisting that the local economy needed the boost. Since he's the town's mayor, he also threatened to use imminent domain if we didn't sell. I know that you can't fight city hall, but shouldn't the neighbors and I organize some sort of resistance to his bullying? We'd be grateful for any help, here.

Hot in Hector

Da Fox replies:

Dear Hot - Hmmm, I really had to think about this, but I believe that I can help you. Get your neighbors together and offer up this simple plan:

1. Plan a neighborly night fishing expedition and invite the developer/Mayor.
2. Get 2 pontoon boats and fill one of them with rocks and 50 feet of rope.
3. Take aforementioned mallplanner out with most of you in the other pontoon boat. Make sure nobody mentions the first boat.
4. Have the other pontoon boat meet you in the middle of the lake.
5. Grab the greedy bastard and tie him up, use the rocks as anchors, and toss his worthless ass into the lake.
6. Elect a new mayor who won't fuck with the fishing.

This plan not only eliminates one ding-dong politician, it also improves the quality of fishing in the lake because the leeches and minnows that gamefish eat just love to feed on the foolish. You can thank me later.

Yo Dere Fox,

Last year fer da walleye opener me an a few udder guys was up ta Vermillion. We was havin' a purdy good time and catchin' a lodda good fish. I had just hooked a nice un when, all of er sudden, my koddamn cell goes off, an a course it's da ol' lady. She sez dat her dad hadda major sunovabitchin stroke and kakked rite den and dere and we hadda go to da funeral. So I hadda leave or she was gonna come up an git me. Anyways, wit da opener nex' week, I was wonderin' if you could gimme some help so's dat don' happen no more, eh?

Callstopper in Coleraine

Da Fox replies:

Dear Calls - Sorry to hear about last year's fiasco, I know how good Lake Vermillion can be for the opener. I think I can help you. I tried this a few years ago, if it worked for me, it'll probably work for you, too. Bring along an extra minnow bucket half-filled with water. When you get ready to go fishing, put the cell in the minnow bucket. That way, if the damn thing goes off, you can't hear it. Best of luck to you this year!!

To Mr. Fox:

Lately, I've noticed that there is somebody out there imitating me with a newspaper column that gives advice to people who write in their problems. My problem is that this imitator (who shall remain nameless) always gives the same answer no matter how serious a problem it is for the letter-writer. Whatever the problem, this 'advice-person' tells them to go fishing. I don't get it.

Abby Lander in Atwater

Da Fox replies:

Dear Ab in Atwater - Of course you don't get it, obviously because you've never been fishing. Go fishing, and you will know. 'Nuff said.

DEAR FOXY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FOXYCORP, TM, INC., LTD. - THE MAKERS OF FINE FISHING BOATS, MOTORS, LINES, LURES, ANCHORS, AND SUNDRY FISHING EQUIPMENT. THE SPONSOR AND THIS LOCAL BLOG ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT BECAUSE THEY'RE OUT FISHING

Yellow Submarine

2007-04-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

And our friends are all aboard
Many more of them live next door. . .
- Lennon/McCartney

The last two days have been pretty exciting for me. I was web-surfing, looking at sites and photos of my old submarine, SSN 705, the City of Corpus Christi, when I ran across a crew-list that contained some of the names of the guys I was on her with, back when we were all part of her PCU. I took a shot and e-mail contacted a few of them; and, lo and behold, I got responses!!! They were nice responses, too - after all, they were all a great set of sailors (the best of the best). After that, I went back to the webpage I found and e-mailed a few more. Hopefully, I'll get even more responses; at least that's what I'm looking forward to.

In my life, I've never been with a finer group of people than the ones I served with on the City of. My only hope, with these e-mails, is that I can thank them for letting me serve with them and let them know that, even after all these years, I still think they're the greatest!

And now, for something completely different. . . :)
(or how to wax poetic and be really, really bad at it)

I was a young man when we first met
but she was a lady I'll never forget

Big and black she was with a skin hard as steel
love and hate coming together is how she made me feel

I helped make her go and she went like a band
bringing me safely to many a land

We hid in the ocean and swam with the fish
she gave me all that she had and more than I could wish

Quite quiet she was - never making a sound
even while bringing me all the world 'round

Taking me tither and yon, then taking me back
I'll never forget her, my lady in black

Back in the Saddle

2007-04-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

I'm ridin'. . .I'm shining up my pistol
I'm ridin'. . .I really gotta thistle
- Tyler/Perry

Hello again, everybody! I am truly sorry that this posting comes so long after my last one, but I've had a few life-changes, many of them large ones. These changes were brought about as a result of my loss of job in Rochester, MN. Not long after my last post, I pretty much ran out of living money and (after asking, of course) moved in with my parents in Cheeseheadland, er, I mean, Wisconsin. :) I am happy to report, however, that I am now again among the gainfully employed and doing quite well, thank you.

It will be a very, very hot day in Minnesota before I wear a wedge of cheese, however. I make myself feel better by considering that I'm currently in exile. :)

No, really, I've been able to get out and about a little here, and, I must say, overall, Wisconsin is very scenic. The area in which I live has quite excellent whitetail hunting, and I was able to get out and do that for the first time in many years, this last fall. There are bears and 'yotes here, and an occasional timber wolf and cougar (even though the Wisconsin DNR denies it). Wild turkey (no, not the whiskey) and ring-neck pheasant are also in abundance. Oh, and trumpeter swans are native to the cranberry bogs just east of here. Yes, I think it's nice, and you'd think that I'd be happy here; but it's just not like that. It's just not home, to me.

Shortly after my last post I attended my grandmother's funeral in Babbitt, MN. For obvious reasons it was a somber affair, but it was very nice to see so many people there that I hadn't seen in years. We, as a family, drew together again to mourn her passing. Right after the funeral, one of my sisters invited me to spend some of her vacation with her. By some calender fluke, her vacation was planned for the weekend after gramma's funeral - she and her daughter and my other niece and nephew were going to use her pull-up camper and spend some quality time on Lake Superior's north shore. The decision took me approximately 5 microseconds - there was a bit of consideration/guilt to the fact that I was basically "freeloading" on my sister; but the words "north shore" are the ultimate arm-twist, for me. :) And, somewhat needless-to-be-said, I had a ball. While sad, my gramma's passing brought me back in touch with family and friends and my home.

One other thing that came of the funeral event was that I talked to my parents about my current life-condition and asked if, if I couldn't find another job soon, I could move in with them to try to get my life back together. They're wonderful people, the best parents anybody could have had - and they understood. I spent the next few weeks flailing about in Rochester, alternating between job hunting and watching the Twins. The end was near, however, and by the end of the month I, with dad's help, moved to Black River Falls, Wisconsin.

A little more than six months ago, my life began to turn around. I got hired at my current job, which is at a place called Regal-Beloit Electric Motors Division (Leeson). The work is hard, but it pays fairly well. I had my six month review today, and, like my previous reviews, it was above average. Evidently, I'm being successful there - which always makes me happy. Most of the time I work on one of their assembly lines, but they also trained me to be a painter, and I also do that when they need me to. As I wrote, it's hard work (the motors are heavy) but I do like it, except for a few things (work is work, you know).

I stayed with mom & dad for a few months after being hired, to build up some money. Now, I live in an apartment in a small house in town. I had a bit of difficulty finding an internet provider (it's like dial-up limbo here) and getting the 'net to work for me. It also took me a little time to get a few other things arranged (like this blog) but, now, here I am. :) I should be able to be a little more regular in my blogging now (yeah, right, Jeff, like you are regular at anything) and, hopefully, all my friends can come and see my posts in here.

Thank you all for being patient with me. Also, thank you all for supporting me when I was having a rough time. Keep an eye on Da Fox Hole - you never know what you'll see in here next.

Photographs and Memories

2006-08-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

Like everyone else in this modern age, my family has always kept a photographic record of it's major (and many, many minor) important events. These things are always kept in prominent view within the various family households as part of our living tradition; recording births, celebrations, graduations, and the like. In my life, one family photo stands out more than any other. It's an obviously posed studio shot that shows 5 people. In the back, standing, are two very stately-looking women, both wearing dresses of tiny white polka-dots on black cloth; the one on the left obviously the mother of the one on the right. Seated in a chair in front of them is a smiling, somewhat youthful-looking woman with a large smile, again, wearing the same style dress. Kneeling in front is a 20ish man with a very proud smile and flashing eyes, dressed in a late-1950s style suit; hair close-cropped and dapper. On the seated woman's lap is a child of about 2. He's wearing a sailor-suit, complete with hat, his eyes agog and his mouth, with just a few teeth, wide open in obvious child-glee. There is no caption - our family didn't need one. I will provide it here, however, because you people don't know who's who.

Of the standing women, the one on the left is Great-great grandma Simonson, to the right her daughter, Great grandma Van Vickle. The seated woman is Grandma Olson, and the handsome young man is my father. I think you can guess who the puppy is. Five generations!! What a celebration of life.

I write this because one of those photographed is dying. I was just informed of this today. Grandma Olson has been in 'the home' for a few years now and has had Alzheimer's disease pretty bad. The last time I saw her, at Grandpa Olson's funeral, she did not even know who I was. According to what I heard, she hasn't taken sustenance for over a week - the family pretty much expects the worst.

I remember when she and Grandpa took me to the Duluth zoo - right down to how bratty I was at the time and my somewhat-obtuse fascination with a dead duck. I remember how her house was full of useless knick-knacks, all carefully arranged for visual effect. I remember her taking me with her to her part-time job of cleaning the bank in Babbitt. All of these things happened before I was five years old - my memories of her are some of my oldest and sweetest. You see, my friends, I was her first grandchild; and she doted.

She was ever the sunshine lady, to me.

Humans are unique creatures. Like all the other animals, we live and then we die. Unlike the others, however, we know about it. My sister, at a previous funeral, once blurted out (in obvious pain), that she hated death. I'm not like that - I realize that the cycle of life is what it is. That doesn't mean that I like people's passing, I just don't hate what I can't change. When people that are close to me die, I miss them - and that hurts. The pain can be strong, but, eventually, it gets replaced by the memories that they left - thier love, thier time spent with me, and the events we shared together. In essence, I replace the grief with a celebration of the memories - for those memories tie us together, even across the gulf of death, and make me a stronger person.

We are all like this, I think.

Highway 61 revisted

2006-07-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

Oh Howard just pointed with his gun & said, "That way." down highway 61
- Dylan

US Highway 61's northern terminus is Duluth, Minnesota, but state highway 61 continues north from there to the Canadian border. That bit of highway is arguably the most scenic in the entire state, running alongside Lake Superior. If any of you all ever get the chance, run it in the early fall; and, well, you will know. :) The last time I did so, I saw a cow moose standing along the highway, just south of Grand Marais.

Ahhh, but now the joke. I've worked this one a little in the chatroom, and it seems to go over pretty well. All it requires is a bit of knowledge of a certain 1960s cartoon. :) I may have a previous post with this joke in it, but it bears repeating, imo. (I'm too lazy to check right now bwah, nyah, pbbb)

Recently, some unnamed fellow was driving his small German-manufactured car on a road through the northern Minnesota woods. As he rounded a tree-lined curve, he ran smack into the rear end of a very large bull moose. The moose looks back to see what happened, then turns to a buddy off in the woods and exclaims, "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit outta my ass!"

Drive the highway, people, and watch out for the twig-eaters, ok?

Dear Mr. Fantasy

2006-07-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Fantasy play us a tune - something to make us all happy. . . .
- Winwood/Capaldi/Wood

DISCLAIMER: The following story is total fantasy. Any resemblence between it and any other movie is purely coincidental. :) Also, this may not be suitable for nonsubmariners because you probably won't understand an awful lot. (No offense) Sub sailors, however. . . .

Oh, and it has a lot of naughty language.

THE COB OF THE COCC

I
Once upon a time, in the land of Minnesota, there lived a fox. One day, the fox and his bud were scoping out the local chicken coops for dinner. It was a bright, sunny day, and very hot.

"Sure seems hotter'n a vixen's tits, bud," said the fox; and his bud nodded and panted, "Yeah, damn right. We better wait until it cools down a little before we go after them chickens, eh?"

"Ya ya, pretty much." replied the fox. "Say, what the hell is that?"

Just then the sky darkened and a large, nasty-looking cloud began to form. It grew and grew and seemed to be coming straight at the fox and his bud. They contemplated this for a little while before the fox said, "Say, bud, you don't think that's one of them there piece-of-shit tornadoes, do you?"

"Fuck, I hope not." said his bud, "We better keep an eye on this." The cloud kept growing and getting darker as they watched. Suddenly, the air got very still and quiet. Then all hell broke loose as a funnel came out of the cloud and right at the fox and his bud.

They both screamed, "Run!!!!" and they did, as dirt began to fly and the grass laid flat as a pancake. The fox ran as hard as he could but the twister kept coming closer and closer and the wind roared louder than he'd ever heard before. "Shiiiiiit!!!! Heeeeeeelp!!!" screamed the fox, as the force of the wind began to lift him into the air and fling him about like a rag. He looked for his bud, only to see him get hurled into a nearby silo and then fall to the ground, unmoving. "Nnnnnoooooo!!!" screamed the fox, "I don't wanna die!!" But he couldn't even hear himself above the tempest. He had never felt more helpless and scared in his life. He closed his eyes and felt hard things crashing into him, a brief moment of pain, and then everything went black.

II
The next thing the fox knew, he was standing on something much softer than Minnesota soil. Shaking his head to clear his senses, he checked himself. Except for a headache, there was no pain, and he noted four legs and a bushy tail - everything seemed to be ok. Something wasn't quite right, though. Looking around, the fox didn't recognize anything familiar at all. Looking down, he noticed that he was standing on something that looked like a human. Jumping off, he sniffed at it from one side. It didn't move, but just then the fox heard a noise nearby. He looked up and saw something coming towards him. Then he noticed that, whatever it was, it wasn't alone. They came nearer, and more of them began to appear, making the fox worry; but he also noticed that they seemed to be a bit afraid of him and weren't moving too fast or in a threatening manner. They looked like small humans, but not like human kits - more like mature humans, only about half the normal size. Except for their heads and forepaws, they were blue with white hindpaws, which was, like other humans the fox had seen, what they walked on. Then one of them spoke.

"You, you, you k-killed the evil Eoow of Er!" it said, as the others gathered about with their eyes very wide.

The fox thought quickly and replied, "Umm, ahh, well, that was an accident. What the fuck is an evileeyowuver, anyway? and who the fuck are you?"

The fox was getting more worried, as there seemed to be an awful lot of these creatures, and they were getting pretty close. He sidled a step or two for room and bumped into something he hadn't noticed before. It looked like a bunch of paper with pictures on it. The creatures were talking amongst themselves.

"You must be a very powerful wizard to have killed the evil Eoow of Er!" said the one who had spoken before. "We are the subkins, and we thank you for liberating us, oh great wizard!"

"Look!" said another, "It's the latest issue of AssMasters magazine!! For sure the evil Eoow of Er is dead, he would never go anywhere without that."

"Tis true tis true," said the first one, who appeared to the fox to be their leader. "The evil Eoow of Er always kept it under his cover."

"He must be a great and powerful wizard, indeed!" chimed in a third subkin.

"Well, ummm-" began the fox.

"This requires a celebration!" said the subkin leader, "in honor of this great and powerful wizard - ummm what is your name?"

"Fox."

"Ahem, Fox, yes," he continued, "in honor of the wizard Fox who has saved us all from the evil Eoow of Er!!!!!"

"Yes, yes, a celebration! Thank you wizard Fox." said another.

"Party time!!" said a third.

As this was happening, even more subkins had gathered around. They grabbed the fox and, rather clumsily, lifted him up into the air, and then they all began to sing:

Ding dong the Eoow is dead
was a prick
had no dick
ding dong the evil Eoow is dead!!
ding dong the Eoow is dead
was a jerk
made us work
ding dong the evil Eoow is dead!!
ding dong the Eoow is dead
was a snitch
and a bitch
ding dong the evil Eoow is dead!!
ding dong the Eoow is dead
gave us shit
now he's quit
ding dong the evil Eoow is dead!!
ding dong the Eoow is dead
he was so slack
now he ain't jack
ding dong the evil Eoow is dead!!
ding dong the Eoow is dead
made us dink
now we think
ding dong the evil Eoow is dead!!
ding dong the Eoow is dead
fucked us all
now we call
DING DONG THE EVIL EOOW IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!

While they were singing, the fox was assessing his situation. He no longer feared the subkins, as they appeared to be more Bozos than dangerous, to him. They were terrible singers, and he wondered if they'd taken singing lessons from Bob Dylan. The fox also realized that he was no longer in Minnesota - this place was just too strange - and that thought bothered him considerably. He'd been told, by other foxes older than him, about places outside of Minnesota, like Wisconsin. "No chickens - just cows," was what they'd said. The thought made him shudder. He was also beginning to get hungry. These thoughts brought up many, many important questions that the fox needed answers for. He realized that he had to get back home because he had chickens to catch and vixens to chase. Maybe these pimple-brains could help him out with all of that, he thought.

Just when it seemed as if the subkins were going to launch into another set of verses, the fox determined that he had had enough of this shit. "PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN RIGHT NOW, YOU SHIT-FOR-BRAINS!!" he shouted as loud as he could. This stopped them dead in their tracks, and he heard one of them whisper, "He must be a powerful wizard - he even speaks like my chiefy." They somewhat clumsily placed him back on the deck, and the fox turned toward thier leader. "Ya ya, now, that's better. Say, I've got a few questions, there, doofus, that I was wondering if you could help me with, eh?"

"Anything you ask, oh great and wonderful wizard Fox." said the leader, glancing at the dead evil Eoow of Er as the other subkins repeatedly picked up and dropped first one leg and then the other. "Dead for sure," they whispered amongst themselves. One of them began paging through the AssMasters magazine.

"Ummm, yeah," began the fox, "first of all, I'm not from around here - can you tell me where the hell I am right now?"

"Why, this is the land of Er, wizard Fox." replied the leader.

"Ahh, yeah, that's real helpful, there, dingus, can you tell me how far this land of Er is from, say, Minnesota? That's the place I call home, and I'd kind of like to get back - I got shit to do, eh."

The subkins looked at each other with quizzical expressions - it was a few minutes before the leader said, "We have never heard of this land of, land of, minnn eee soda. I, myself, am qualified in the land of Cocc, and that word is completely unfamiliar to me."

Shit, this is getting complicated, thought the fox; more questions than answers. He tried again, "Land of Cocc, eh, I thought you said this was the land of Er?"

"Why, the land of Er is a part of the land of Cocc, oh wondrous and savvy wizard Fox." said the leader.

"Verily, Er is the largest and most important land in the land of Cocc." added the subkin behind him.

"Deed 'tis," said the leader, nodding. Then, after a slight pause for thought, "You know, most worthy and honorable wizard Fox, I think I know a way that we can help you find this, this,"

"Minnesota," the fox interrupted, for brevity.

"Yes, this Minnesota-land." he continued nonplussed. "Within the land of Cocc, there are many wizards, some more powerful than others. Some, like the evil Eoow of Er, are," and he smiled broadly, "I mean were, very bad. However, many are good. Of all the wizards of the land of Cocc, there is none more powerful than the Cob of the Cocc. If anyone in the land of Cocc can help you, wizard Fox, it is he."

"Verily, verily, the Cob of the Cocc can do ANYTHING!" said the one behind him.

"Indeed," continued the leader, "What's more, the Cob of the Cocc should be very happy to hear of the death of the evil Eoow of Er. Here -" he grabbed the AssMasters magazine from the now profusely-drooling subkin, deftly thwacking him the head as he did so, "you will need this. This is the latest copy of AssMasters. Give this to the Cob of the Cocc, and he will know that the evil Eoow of Er is dead. He should be more than willing to help a fellow wizard like yourself, Fox," and he handed the fox the magazine.

"Tis most true," said another subkin, "the Cob of the Cocc holds any bringer of the latest issue of AssMasters in the highest of regard!"

Then, as if one, the subkins, again badly, broke into song:

The Cob of the Cocc! The Cob of the Cocc!
He's the one who rock! He'll fix the time on your clock!
The Cob of the Cocc!
The Cob of the Cocc! The cob of the Cocc!
He's made of sturdy stock! You better go talk!
To the Cob of the Cocc!

The fox had been thinking that he was finally getting somewhere with these geeks, but the singing was giving him more of a headache. Additionally, he had more questions. "JESUS H. CHRIST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he bellowed over their cavalcade. This they did, and about a half-dozen of them fainted at the same time, the rest cringing at his words. The fox addressed the leader again, "Ya ya, ok, I have this Cob of the Cocc fellow to see, I gotcha there. Just how the fuck am I supposed to find him?"

"Well," the leader began, "it is a long and perilous journey from the land of Er, but a wizard of your stature shouldn't have too much of a problem getting there. The Cob of the Cocc lives with the other chiefy-wizards in the land of Goat." Then, he pointed downward. "Just follow the yellow-gilt deckplate!"

"Yes, follow the yellow-gilt deckplate!" said another.

"Follow the yellow-gilt deckplate!" chimed a third.

"Follow follow follow follow," they all began singing badly again.

"SHUDDAP, GODDAMMIT!" the fox roared, his headache worsening. They did, a few more fainting this time. He tried the leader again, "Ahh, thanks for the help, but I have one more question. You see, I'm kinda hungry and was wondering if there were any chickens around here; or, for that matter, anything at all to eat?"

"No problem there, oh benevolent wizard Fox, you can find chow in Galley-land, it's right on the way to the land of Goat. Just flash the magazine at the cook - he'll set you up. Like I said before, just follow the -"

"Ya ya, tiddlywink, I got that part down already." said the fox, attempting to cut off any more singing. He looked down and noted a yellow line on the ground and thought that it can't be that tough. I better git before they start that damn singing again. Then he remembered his manners.

"Umm, hey, ahhh, thanks for the help, eh." he said, turning to address them all.

"No, thank YOU, oh humble and most respectful wizard Fox." said the leader, kicking the dead evil Eoow of Er in the head one more time to make sure.

"Indeed, thank YOU, wizard Fox." intoned another.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you" they began singing again. Too late! the fox had already amscrayed, leaving thier cacophonous din behind him.

III
The fox hadn't gone far down the yellow-gilt path before he came upon another of the subkin creatures. This one was alone, and looked very forlorn - clutching a piece of paper in one of his forepaws.

"Whassup with you, dickless?" asked the fox, trying to sound nice - his headache giving him quite the attitude.

The creature looked at the fox vacantly and replied, "I'm dink."

"Well, ummm, Dink, you don't sing, do you?" the fox had had more than enough of that.

"No, no, my name isn't Dink, it's Etnuke. I'm not qualified to sing - say, can you give me a checkout?" and he waved the paper at the fox.

"Ah, um, no, I don't have any of those," replied the fox, "but I do have this" and he showed him the AssMasters magazine.

Etnukes eyes widened. "My goodness gracious sakes alive! You must be going to see the Cob of the Cocc!" exclaimed Etnuke.

Works like a charm thought the fox.

"Why, I'm also on my way to see the Cob of the Cocc." he continued, "You see, my chiefy says that I have no brain."

Seems to be a common thing around here thought the fox.

"The Cob of the Cocc is a great and powerful wizard, I am going to see him to see if he will help me get a brain. Can I tag along with you? I would be greatly appreciative, ah, umm, ah what's your name?"

"Fox." said the fox.

"Thank you Fox, I would be greatly appreciative if I could go with you to see the Cob of the Cocc."

The fox thought about this for a bit, debating whether or not brainless here would be good company. Then he thought that Etnuke might actually know his way around here better then he did. That clinched it.

"Sure, Etnuke, you can come with me. No singing, though, eh." said the fox.

"No problem there, Fox; let's go!" replied Etnuke, quite heartily.

That they did.

Only a short distance later they ran into another subkin - again looking very sad and holding a piece of paper in his forepaw.

"Who put a crink up your ass, sunshine?" asked the fox, nicely.

"I'm dink." was it's reply.

"Me too." said Etnuke. "What's your name?"

"Mmnuke." it said, sadly. "Can either of you give me a checkout?"

"Sorry can't help you there," said Etnuke. "I'm Etnuke, and this is Fox, Mmnuke."

Thinking quickly, the fox asked, "You don't sing, do you Mmnuke?"

"No," replied Mmnuke, "My chiefy says I have no talent."

That also seems to be common around here thought the fox.

"Well," the fox continued, "we're going to see the Cob of the Cocc, maybe he can help you." and he flashed the magazine again.

With jaw agape, Mmnuke replied, "My goodness gracious sakes alive and a half! The Cob of the Cocc! Yes, I'm sure he can help me too. May I please join you?"

Etnuke looked at the fox, who answered after a short period of thought, "Sure, eh, what the fuck."

"Thank you very kindly Fox and Etnuke. Let's roll!"

And that they did.

It wasn't long before the trio came upon yet another subkin; again looking like somebody had driven over his puppy and holding a piece of paper in his forepaw.

"What the fuck's your problem, shitstain?" said the fox, again nicely.

"I'm dink."

"So are we." said Etnuke, indicating himself and Mmnuke. "What's your name?"

What is this dink shit thought the fox.

"Icnuke."

"Well, Icnuke, I'm Etnuke, this is Mmnuke, and this is Fox."

"That's nice." said Icnuke, "can any of you give me a checkout?"

"Now hold it just one minute, dammit," interjected the fox, "just what the hell does 'dink' and 'checkout' mean?"

All three turned to face the fox with amazed looks on their faces. After a few seconds, Etnuke answered, "Gee, Fox, dink is a condition that happens when one first arrives in the land of Cocc, especially in the land of Er."

"That's right," continued Mmnuke, "Being dink is a terrible thing."

"For sure," chimed Icnuke, "No movie, no racktime, and no liberty. Ewwwww." Icnuke started shuddering.

Etnuke began again, "And checkouts are what subkins like us need to get to get rid of the condition of dink."

"Yes," said Mmnuke, "checkouts consist of things like jumping required heights or finding sundry things for the various wizards in the land of Cocc."

Icnuke added, "If the wizards think that you've performed admirably enough, they bless your card; with enough blessings one can become qualified!" All three showed the fox the pieces of paper they had.

Way too complicated thought the fox - I guess I won't ask that again. "Umm, ahh, ya ya I get it." he said, even though he didn't. His head hurt worse now. That reminded him of something.

"You don't sing, do you Icnuke?" asked the fox.

"No, I really don't feel like it now. You see, my chiefy says I have no butt."

"Gee, that's rough," said Etnuke, "and I have no brain."

"And I no talent." added Mmnuke.

"And I just want to get the hell out of this fucking loony bin." interjected the fox, trying to keep the priorities straight. "We're going to see this Cob of the Cocc fella." showing Icnuke the fuckbook.

"My goodness gracious sakes alive and a half PLUS!" blurted Icnuke, eyes agog. "If anybody can get me a butt, it's the Cob of the Cocc. May I please join all of you?"

In for a penny, in for a pound thought the fox. "Ya ya, sure eh. No singing, though."

"No problem there," replied Icnuke, "Let's rock!"

And this they did, proceeding in their semi-merry way on down the yellow-gilt deckplating.

IV
It was some time later when the fox noticed his stomach growling. He stopped the group. "Say, fellas, before I ran into you dirtballs the other subkins told me something about a 'Galley-land' where I could get something to eat. How much further is it, do you know?"

"Why, tis not far from here," said Icnuke, "I'm a little hungry too."

"So am I." said Etnuke and Mmnuke in unison.

"Ya ya, then we'll stop in this Galley-land long enough to eat before we continue to see the Cob of the Cocc, eh." said the fox assertively. "By the way, what's this place like?"

"Oh, it's a wonderful place." replied Mmnuke, "It has a magic aura that keeps the evil wizards away. We'll be safe from them there while we eat."

"Sounds good to me." said the fox.

Shortly thereafter the fox knew they were getting close to Gally-land - he could smell the food. Maybe eating will get rid of this damn headache he thought.

They went around one bend and then another. "This is Galley-land." said Etnuke. The fox noticed that it was a rather large place with many platforms that held food. There were lower platforms that about a dozen subkins were resting thier hindquarters on while they used their forepaws to put food in their mouths. Etnuke, Mmnuke, and Icnuke all did likewise, and the fox noticed another subkin that brought food out and placed it on the platforms. That must be the cook thought the fox, and he recalled what the land of Er subkins had told him. He placed himself squarely in front of the cook and whipped out the AssMasters magazine.

"What have we here?" asked the cook. "You must be on your way to see the Cob of the Cocc. What can I do for you?"

"Well, twinkletoes, I'm pretty hungry right now. I was told that you could set me up with some food, eh."

"That's what I'm here for," replied the cook, "What would you like to eat?"

"Got any chickens?" asked the fox.

"Well, now, I don't have any chickens, but I can whip you up a chicken-salad sandwich in no time at all."

Close enough thought the fox. "Sure, eh."

The cook disappeared for a moment and returned with a round, flat object in his forepaws. This he placed down on the deck in front of the fox. There was something on the object, and the fox sniffed at it. It smelled like food, so he took a bite. Tastes pretty good he thought, and, with a few more bites he ate it all up.

No longer hungry, he figured he better gather up the three Bozos and get a move on. Looking up, he noticed that they were also finished eating. "You schmucks ready to get going, eh?" he asked.

All three nodded. "Lead on, Fox." Etnuke belched.

The fox looked down at the deckplating, found the yellow-gilt markings, and moseyed on down in the opposite direction that they had come. Icnuke, Mmnuke, and Etnuke followed close behind.

The fox noticed that he still had his headache, but he was glad that he was no longer hungry.

They had travelled no small distance down the yellow-gilt deckplating when Icnuke said, "We're getting close to the land of Goat, now."

"Indeed," continued Mmnuke, "we best watch out for the wizard Bullnuke - he controls access to the land of Goat."

Just then, as the fox looked ahead, he saw that the yellow-gilt deckplating led to what looked like a blocked cave entrance. In front of the blockage stood a creature that looked more like a real-sized human than the other subkins. The fox also noted that this one was brown, except for it's head and paws, the hind ones being white. And, unlike all the other subkins he'd seen so far, this one had hair on the lower part of his snout. In its right forepaw, it had a round thing that, from appearances, it was periodically sipping some kind of hot liquid from. The creature looked up and saw them.

"HALT!!," it roared, "WHO DARES APPROACH THE LAND OF GOAT IN SUCH A BRAZEN MANNER!!?? NO ONE MAY ENTER THE LAND OF GOAT WITHOUT MY EXPRESS WRITTEN SAY-SO!!!" it's face contorting wildly and eyes bulging.

"It's the wizard Bullnuke." whispered Etnuke before fainting dead-away. The fox noted that the other two had also hit the deck in fear. He was on his own, and began to realize he was a bit out of his league here. Then, the wizard Bullnuke began to stomp his way towards them, looking and sounding as fearsome as anything the fox had seen since the tornado. The fox began to backtrack trepidatiously but bumped into Icnuke's inert body, causing the magazine to fall to the deck in front of him.

"WHY, IF ANY OF YOU ARE DINK, I'LL, um, er, what's this?" the wizard Bullnuke bent to pick up the issue of AssMasters. Then, he looked at the fox, considerably calmer now. "Where did you get this?" he asked, beginning to page through it. The fox noticed him start to salivate heavily.

"Umm, ahh, well -" the fox started.

"Why, this is a special annual double issue available by subscription only copy of AssMasters magazine!" the wizard Bullnuke answered himself. "There was but one owner of such in all of the land of Cocc - the evil Eoow of Er. He would never give this up unless he was dead!" He looked at the fox, "Is that so, is he really dead?"

Whew, that was close thought the fox. Then he answered, "Ya ya, dead'r 'n a ding-dong doorknob, eh." playing it to the hilt. He saw Etnuke, Icnuke, and Mmnuke come to and begin to stand up.

"You must be a great and powerful wizard, then. What is your name?" the wizard Bullnuke's tone was more respectful now.

"Fox."

"Well, wizard Fox, you are welcome in the land of Goat. Who are the others with you?" the wizard Bullnuke eyed the subkins suspiciously.

"Etnuke, Mmnuke, and Icnuke." replied the fox, "We're here to see the Cob of the Cocc."

"Why yes, the Cob of the Cocc will need to know of the evil Eoow of Er's death." he handed the magazine back to the fox. Then he stepped aside, opening the blockage to the land of Goat. The fox noticed that the yellow path ended there. "You may enter the land of Goat now."

"Ya ya, thanks, eh." said the fox. Etnuke, Mmnuke, and Icnuke seemed to have recovered well, but all three were still trembling as the fox led the way into the land of Goat.

V
To the fox, the land of Goat seemed a dark and forbidding place, compared to the rest of the land of Cocc he'd seen so far. He could hardly see his forepaws beneath him. Off to his left, he could barely discern a large round thing that made a bubbling, gurgling kind of sound. The whole place smelled funny. The fox still had his headache, and he wondered how he was going to find the Cob of the Cocc in all this darkness. He could hear Etnuke, Mmnuke, and Icnuke behind him and was about to ask one of them what the fuck when a voice boomed out of the darkness in front of him.

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE RACKTIME OF THE COB OF THE COCC??!!"

Bingo! thought the fox, even as he heard his chump-change companions faint and fall to the deck once again. He heard a soft click and suddenly the darkness faded a bit. In front of him, sitting on it's hindquarters on some sort of soft-looking platform was a creature that looked very much like the wizard Bullnuke. There were small differences - this one had a larger round object in his right forepaw and had hair underneath his mouth as well as under his snout. It also seemed a bit larger and more frightening than the wizard Bullnuke.

"Are you the Cob of the Cocc?" asked the fox, just to be sure.

"OF COURSE I'M THE COB OF THE COCC!!" growled the Cob of the Cocc, as he leaned closer to the fox, "I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, WHO ARE YOU??!!"

"I'm the 'wizard' Fox; ahh, umm, here, eh." and he handed the Cob of the Cocc the special periodical.

As if to roar yet again, the Cob of the Cocc had taken a deep breath; but, as he opened the AssMasters magazine he let out a soft, low whistle. He looked at the fox, his tone and manner softening.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"From the evil Eoow of Er. I ahh, umm, well, I killed the dinglenuts, eh." The fox noticed Etnuke, Mmnuke, and Icnuke beginning to stir.

Looking back and forth between the fox and the fuckbook, the Cob of the Cocc said, "That must be true. The evil Eoow of Er would never have parted with this unless he was dead. I take it that I can keep this?"

"Ya ya, sure, eh." replied the fox.

"Why, thank you wizard Fox. Not only does this complete my collection, but the news of the evil Eoow of the Er's death is quite welcome to my ears." The Cob of the Cocc placed the magazine underneath a soft, fluffy thing on his left. "Are these three with you?" he asked, indicating Mmnuke, Etnuke, and Icnuke, who were now standing.

"Ya ya, pretty much, eh." answered the fox. "This is Icnuke, Etnuke, and Mmnuke." he continued, indicating each in turn.

Removing himself from the platform, the Cob of the Cocc stood up and walked over to the round, bubbling thing, placing the round object in his forepaw underneath some sort of orifice. A brown, aromatic liquid poured from the bubbling thing into the other round thing. The fox noted that that was what the funny smell was. The Cob of the Cocc took a sip and then addressed the fox and his companions.

"The whole of the land of Cocc is grateful to you for saving them from the evil Eoow of Er. I, myself, am quite happy to recieve your gift of this most excellent reading material. Tell me now, each of you, what can the Cob of the Cocc do for you?"

The first to speak was Mmnuke, "Oh great and wonderful Cob of the Cocc, if you could help me I would be most grateful. You see, my chiefy says that I have no talent."

"No talent, hmmmm." said the Cob of the Cocc. "I think I can help you there, come here and turn around for a minute."

Mmnuke did so, and the Cob of the Cocc promptly kicked him in the rear, sending him nearly across the whole of the land of Goat.

"OOOOWWWEEEOWEEEEEEOWWWEEE!!!" shrieked Mmnuke as he restood, rubbing his posterior.

"Like music to my ears." said the Cob of the Cocc.

"Music?" said Mmnuke, "You, you mean I have talent now?"

"Yes, indeed." replied the Cob of the Cocc.

"Why, thank you most graciously, Cob of the Cocc!!" said Mmnuke, smiling proudly.

"Twas nothing. Now back to the land of Er for you."

As Mmnuke was leaving, Icnuke spoke up, "Oh most powerful of wizards Cob of the Cocc, my chiefy says that I have no butt. Is there anything you can do to help me? I would be most appreciative."

"No butt, hmmmm," the Cob of the Cocc took another sip. "Yes, I think I can help you too. Come here and turn around."

Icnuke did so, and, like Mmnuke, the Cob of the Cocc kicked him in the tush, sending him only a little farther than he sent Mmnuke.

"Eyowch!!" screeched Icnuke, "That hurt!" He restood began rubbing his lower backside.

"I don't believe you," smiled the Cob of the Cocc, "where does it hurt?"

"Why, my whole butt is sore!!" said Icnuke, who then blinked a few times, realizing what he had said. "Wh-wh-why, thank you most kindly, Cob of the Cocc!" as his face broke into a very large smile.

"Again, twas nothing. Now back to the land of Er for you."

After Icnuke left, Etnuke started, "Oh kind and generous Cob of the Cocc, my chiefy says that I have no brain. If there is anything at all you could do to help me, it would be enourmously welcome."

"No brain, hmmmm," the Cob of the Cocc took yet another sip, "Yes, I think that I can help you, too. Come here and turn around."

As Etnuke did so, the Cob of the Cocc once again delivered a kick that sent him flying.

"Ow ow ow!" shouted Etnuke, "that hurt!"

"Didn't hurt me any." replied the Cob of the Cocc, "Come here so I can do that again."

"Fuck you Cob of the Cocc!" said Etnuke as he stood, rubbing his ass.

"See there, you've got half a brain already." said the Cob of the Cocc.

Etnuke blinked twice, "Why, I've never thought of it that way before."

"There's the other half." smiled the Cob of the Cocc.

"I truly thank you most graciously, Cob of the Cocc!" said Etnuke, beaming.

"Once again, twas nothing. Now back to the land of Er for you."

When Etnuke had left, the Cob of the Cocc turned to the fox. "And what can I do for you, wizard Fox?"

The fox thought for a few seconds and began, "Well, you see, Cob of the Cocc, it's like this. I'm not from this here land of Cocc. I don't quite understand how it happened, but I wound up here accidently. I live in a place called Minnesota, and I was wondering if you might be able to help me get back home, eh. You're not gonna kick me, are you?" he added, keeping his rear end well away from the Cob of the Cocc's volatile hindpaws. The fox still had his headache and felt he didn't need any more pain.

"All of the residents of the land of Cocc need a kick in the rear, now and again, for general good health." replied the Cob of the Cocc, "But, as you say, you're not from the land of Cocc. Wizard Fox, your situation is something that I've never dealt with before. This will require a few minutes of thought." he took a few more sips, obviously thinking hard. His eyes moved round and round. "Hmmm, hmmm, hm- " then he smiled, "yes, yes, I think I can help you Wizard Fox. Can you jump?"

"Ya ya, sure, eh, I consider myself rather good at it."

"How high? Can you jump up to here?" the Cob of the Cocc held his left forepaw up to his neck.

"Ya ya, sure, no sweat, eh." replied the fox.

"To here?" the Cob of the Cocc raised the paw over his head.

The fox nodded, wondering where this was leading.

"Higher?" asked the Cob of the Cocc.

"Well, now, I don't quite know, ya know, I haven't really tried; but I think so, eh."

"Here now, why don't you show me. Jump as high as you can."

Better 'n a kick in the ass, thought the fox. He backed up a few steps, mustered all the strength he had, took a small bound forward, and launched himself into the air. He was still going up when he felt his head strike something hard, and the last thing he saw was the Cob of the Cocc looking up at him and smiling.

VI
"Wake up, wake up!" the fox was being shaken.

"Hnnnnn, uhh, whaa, what?" the fox spoke as he opened his eyes. He felt himself lying down on the ground.

"Wake- oh, yes, there ya go." the shaking stopped. "You had me worried there for a minute, eh."

It was his bud!

"Bud! Goddamn! I thought fore sure you was a goner, what with the tornado-"

"What tornado? What the fuck are talking about, eh?" his bud interrupted.

The fox shook his head a little to clear it, then tried to stand up. He did, but he was a little wobbly, and his head still hurt. "What the hell happened?" he asked his bud.

"Damndest thing I ever saw." explained his bud, "You've seen how those human roadkill machines sometimes spit out rocks, haven't you?"

The fox nodded, slowly becoming less wobbly.

"Well, you and me were just standing there, and I just happened to turn and look as one of them did that - the friggen rock smacked you right on the noggin! Knocked you out pronto. I'd never seen anything like it. Here -" his bud reached a forepaw up and touched the fox right behind his left ear, "gave you quite the goose-egg, eh!"

"Eyowch!" exclaimed the fox, quickly brushing his bud's paw away from his head. That explains the headache and everything else, thought the fox. "How long was I out?"

"Oh, not too long. You did have me worried, though." said his bud. He paused, then continued, "You musta been dreaming - tell me about it."

"You don't wanna know, eh."

"Ya ya, I understand. You're looking a lot better now - howzabout we hunt us up a chicken or two, eh?"

The fox felt his head getting better by the minute, and he was a bit hungry. "Sure, bud, let's go."

As they made their way through the tall grass towards the nearest farm, the fox noticed the tops of the grass swaying lazily in the breeze. Above that was the blue sky with a few pretty white clouds. The air smelled sweet, and the Minnesota soil felt good underneath his paws. It's good to be home, thought the fox.

THE END

Down on Me

2006-07-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

I must apologize. I know it's been months since I last made an entry here. Please understand that it's not because nothing's going on with me. It's just that I lost my job back at the end of April and, here at the end of July, I still don't have one. Naturally, I feel pretty lame about the whole thing. I have been trying and trying but nothing's going down in this burg right now.

To explain a little further, I also have a mild bipolar disorder and, as a result, I tend to "retreat" from the world at large when bad things happen to me. That's also why my posts tend to be a little "spotty" over time; it's a mood-swing thing.

Anyways, enough of my whining. I have hope that things will get better in the future, and I'm working towards that end.

Of late here, the major stories are the weather and of baseball. To wit: this is the rare time of the year when even Minnesota here gets hot. Very hot. Also very humid. The kind of weather that Florida has all the time. :) Many people here are uncomfortable with that, but, myself, I tend to revel. (I almost died from cold once - when my car suddenly decided to retire on a very cold and windy night before Xmas - so I have a pretty good excuse for my opinion.)
As far as baseball is concerned, yesterday the Twins tied the Chisox for 2nd place in the AL central division, both teams 1/2 game back from the Yankees for a wild-card spot. Myself, I don't think this team is at '91 or '87's level, but they've been pretty hot of late - especially in the dome. We'll see how it goes, and I'll try to keep you all posted. Go Twins!!!

Regarding other sports, the Vikings training camp opens today. Now, I could rant for hours about how I think that the Vikes made huge mistakes in getting rid of Moss and Culpepper, but I'm not going to in this post. What I will write is that the local buzz is if Brad Johnson, the starting QB, will stay healthy this season. He's no spring chicken & has had previous injuries. However, he is a cagey veteran, a good team leader, and has always made few mistakes. The buzzline also carries the opinion that, once again, the Vikings drafted pretty well. As far as I'm concerned, I think that there are too many question marks to be able to predict how they will do this season with any degree of accuracy. If they beat the Packers twice this season, I'll be happy. :) :) :) Go Vikes!!

I have a couple of web-orgs that I need to thank in here, because they, and their members, have been some of the only good things I've had going for me in these past trying months. The first and foremost is AOL's "Oldies Music" chatroom. I've always felt welcome there, no matter what my social condition is, and the music trivia and conversation helps me forget about my problems for awhile. I can't thank them enough for that. The other org is a blogsite known as "Ultraquiet No More" which ties a lot of submariners and ex-submariners together. As one who lived that kind of life for a while, I can tell you quite frankly that these guys are the best, no questions asked. Hat's off (and my sincere thanks) to the members of both orgs - you all are what's keeping me going right now. Oh - and you submarine guys, stay tuned to this blogsite, I have a few ideas kicking around in my head right now that you might be interested in.

And, a little bit on the wierd side: On Monday nite last, as I was heading into my fave chatroom, I discovered that it was full. Since it's no fun chatting by oneself, I figured I'd check another room kwik until "Oldies" had an opening. Well, in this new (for me) room there was a member there who claimed that he was Malcolm Young of AC/DC. Naturally, given the nature of the internet and chatrooms in general, I assumed he was a poser/imposter. After a little bit of back-and-forth Q&A, I changed my mind. After a few minutes of me being the only one in that chatroom who was taking him seriously, he IMed me, and we conversed for awhile like that. He wrote that the band is currently in LA cutting their new Bon Scott tribute album and was surveying fans to see if they should tour after the album is released. Naturally, I was encouraging him in this idea as they are one of my favorite bands. He seemed a very nice fellow & we had a good (albeit too short) conversation. I did write to him that I was a bit awed, and thanked him and his mates for their music. Now, of course, I could be wrong about him not being a poser, but, if he is the real deal, then that's the first time in my life that I've ever personally dealt with someone of his stature. I hope the album sells well and that they do tour and come here to Minnesota. Best of luck Malcolm, and thank you for the time you spent with me.

Well, I guess that I had a little bit more to blog than I first thought, but I think that about covers all the bases. Till next time. . . .

A Day in the Life

2006-03-25T21:34:00.000-08:00

I sawr a film today, oh boy. . .

- Lennon/McCartney

I went to see the Larry the Cable Guy movie with a friend of mine today. I will now attempt to do a good review without ruining the story ahead of time for anybody. :) :) :)

I like to laugh. I like to watch movies that make me laugh. Larry the cable guy is a pretty funny guy. He's great in the movie. I laughed a lot. The story and the writing are top-notch, and the humor is very well-paced. One of the things that I don't like in movies of this type is that some humor is overdone or overworked. That is not the case with Larry.

A few of the other things I observed during the movie were that most, if not all, the other characters in the movie are umm, not too good, imo. This didn't seem to come from the writing, more the acting. The music track was also pretty nonexistent except for 2 songs, one of which I didn't think fit the scene. The film is also totally lacking in any political message, not that I'm disappointed. :) :) However, most of the people who like movies of this genre probably won't care about those things.

If you are a mother out there, the language and situationss sometimes may not be appropriate for the under 10 or so crowd, but I think any teenager shouldn't have a problem with this one.

In summmation, if you like Larry the cable guy at all, or if you like good whimsical comedies, this one's pretty good. While it won't go to Cannes, it's excellent submariner fare; worth every dime of the $5.00 I paid.

Your Move/All Good People

2006-03-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems that my blog here has gotten a little notice of late. :) My friends, I know that I say very little in a long way, but bear with me. I like to talk. :) :) :)

Ahhh. but what to talk about?

Well, the easiest thing right now is something akin to a brain teaser - again, maybe I can do this on a regular basis. Anyways, this one goes like this:

The answer I'm looking for is the band/artist's name and the name of the album. The list is a complete song list of that album. :) Willing to try? Here goes:

1. Brown Sugar
2. Sway
3. Wild Horses
4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
5. You Gotta Move
6. Bitch
7. I Got the Blues
8. Sister Morphine
9. Dead Flowers
10 Moonlight Mile

The best of luck to all.

Fox on the Run

2006-03-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

OK. Maybe these will be better if I try to keep the posts shorter. The fun stuff is at the end, anyway.

Anyways, to explain a little, about a week back I actually got contacted by another blogger - I am not alone!!!! :) It got me to thinking a little bit about blogging my own stuff on a more regular basis. Well, I'm not good at regular basis things when I'm not getting paid for it, so I spent a little time thinking. . .and I went into a few other blogs to see wtf works. :) (cheater, cheater) :)

I see a lot of lists, music lists. I like music. I like music lists. I also like to play games. Soooo. . . . .
Below is a music list that has a common theme. Take a look and you will see it's a pretty easy theme to pick out.

1. Horse with no Name - America
2. Fox on the Run - Sweet
3. Mockingbird - Simon/Taylor
4. Bat out of Hell - Meatloaf
5. Diamond Dogs - David Bowie
6. Crocodile Rock - Elton John
7. Fly Like an Eagle - Steve Miller Band
8. Rock Lobster - B-52s
9. Great White Buffalo - Nugent
10. Year of the Cat - Al Stewart

OK, ok, so I know some of you are thinking, "Whoa, 70s stuff, hey, cool!!", but that isn't quite what I'm looking for here. No, a lot of the stuff I know is 70s stuff. :) Now, if you said, "Hmmmm, looks like a critter list, to me" I'd tell ya BINGO! You win a whole e-prize. It's like that. Easy, huh? :)

The e-prize, in case you are wondering, is that of a sense of satisfaction in solving a silly, minor mind-teaser. :) Enjoy!!

Well, now that I've put my best paw in my mouth, I will try to send up one of these lists weekly. Or thereabouts. Maybe. Kinda depends. :) If nobody gets it untill the next posting, I'll provide the answer. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you, a good working knowledge of the song lyrics involved :) :) :) is very helpful.

Anyways, with no further ado. . . . .

1. Closing Time - Semisonic
2. Sunshine on My Shoulder - John Denver
3. Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
4. Summertime Blues - The Who
5. Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds
6. 1999 - Prince
7. Quinn the Eskimo - Manfred Man's Earth Band
8. All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
9. Knockin' on Heaven's Door - GunsNRoses
10. Tangled up in Blue - Bob Dylan

Best of luck :) :) :)

Northwoods Blues

2006-01-12T02:22:00.000-08:00

This blog was inspired by an article in yesterday's Mpls Star-Trib. :)

Birch Woods, Minnesota.
Federal authorities have siezed more than 50 truckloads of bread destined for domestic markets today, claiming improper labeling of ingredients. According to them, Northwoods Bakeries, Inc., the bakers of the allegedly illegal bread, were labeling their product as "nonwheat bread" when, in fact, it did contain wheat products. The spokesperson for the company disagreed heartily, however. According to Ella Embarrassola, the packaging clearly states that the bread is produced from smelt.

"How dese guys dere coulda thought dat smelt is a wheat product is clearly beyond my comprehension." she stated. "I mean, really, ya know, smelt is a fish, eh? Jeez.

The federal official, who requested to not be anonymous, responded by saying that spelt is on their list of wheat products and that Northwoods Bakeries had been previously warned that thier product was in violation of federal packaging laws. "What if somebody with a wheat intolerance eats this bread and dies?" he raved.

Ms. Embarssola countered by saying, "Dem goofy guys got it all mixed up, ya know. Ya ya, only a ding-dong would confuse a fish with a plant, no matter how it's spelt, ya know. We tol' 'em dat back when, eh?. And, ya know another thing, eh, izzat dem dere feds like ta go offa da deep end once in a while, ya know. Don' dey know how hard it is to get smelt outta season? (eh don' print dat, eh) Personally, our company could care less about da bread, but we would like ta get our trucks back, eh?

Birch Woods' mayor, Wallace Isabella-Lake, commented, "Ya ya, I don' zackly unnerstan da feds' case, here, ya know. After all, dis stuff ain't lutefisk, eh? Somebody down dere ta DC musta spelt it wrong, fer sure.

The case is set for trial in district court in Duluth, Minnesota, next February 22.

Oooohhh ya ya :) :) :)

New Year's Day

2006-01-04T01:46:00.000-08:00

Back about 25 years ago, I made the only New Years' resolution that I've ever kept. I resolved to never make New Year's resolutions. :) Boy, was that easy.

I wonder if I'm doing this right, I diddled with the system a little today; otherwise, I couldn't find my blogs with a search. Maybe this is just here to let me type and nobody pays attention. Who cares, anyway?

Enuff of that. :)

Last Friday, I went into my favorite chat room, Oldies Music, and I had some fun. Later that weekend, I found out that I had been "TOS'ed" for using the phrase "all tits are good". Wow, I think that's pretty tame compared to what I could have been TOS'ed for. Stuff like, "There ain't no fucking swearing in here, goddamnit." Just seems weird to me. The kicker is that tonite, as I try to go back into Oldies Music, I can't get there. Maybe it's just that the chat room's down on AOL, maybe it's from my TOS'ing, I dunno.

I still haven't heard anything new on my gold mine. If I need anything in life right now, it's to get the hell out of here. I need to go home, where I belong.

I had a nice xmas, went to Wisconsin to see family. I also had a fun New Year's, going over the Sheila's and watching comedy DVDs with her.

I'm out of sorts tonite. Don't know what it is. I had a good day at work tonite, I'm not hungry or tired, I'm just not feeling good. I get like this, good ol' cyclic disorder, you know. I recognise that, but it doesn't make me feel any better. Time is what it takes.

Awww, phoey, enough depressing all of you.

Sunday Boody Sunday

2005-11-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

LOOK OUT!! She's comin' down fast!! Yes, she is, yes she is. . . .
- Lennon/Mccartney

Well, well, well, who'd a thunk. Today, while walking downtown to get some cash from an atm so I could eat, I almost got hit by a car. I was crossing the street after the light turned to go to my bank; and, of course, I had my portable CD player on, listening to some Beatles. Next thing I know, I hear a car horn going off, which stopped me for a moment in the crosswalk. I turned towards the intersection and, whoa baby, there's a car running the red light coming right for me. Like a whitetaile i froze. Then, amid 2 cars squealing their brakes, another car crossing with the light went in front of the oncoming car and got hit. The poor lady had her kid in there, but there was nobody hurt, only a little damage to both cars. Still, it could have been worse. I finished crossing the street and got my money out of the bank; when I returned, the intersection was still a mess, with neither car moving and both drivers on their sell phones. I first determined that the car that got hit's driver and son were OK, then the oncoming driver. Everyone then parked alongside the street, out of traffic, and we waited for the cops. About that time, we were joined by another driver who was behind the hit car. After some time, the police arrived and took our stories.

The kicker here is, you know, guess what song I was listening to on the CD? You got it, Helter Skelter. Life can be soooooo freakin' weird, eh?

I gotta get out of this town. Yesterday, I bought the latest issue of BWJ - sometimes I just gotta get refreshed on what I'm missing soooo far from my home. I do not want to die inside these city walls. I'm getting old and tired of this shit; all I want to do anymore is go home.

Can I have my vision back
I'll live outside your city walls
You don't have to be afraid
Untill I come together
- Kay

Lightning strikes twice

2005-11-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Man, do I feel stupid right now. You know, you'd think that after last night's adventure with my frozen doorlock, I would have not locked the door today as I left for work, what with no working key and all. But I did, anyway. :)

So, I hadda jump thru all the hoops again tonite. At least it was a little warmer tonite.

At work, I worked on the cutter with a new guy from the Finishing Dept. He's pretty cool, and is in a band called Working Class Slobs. Cool name. Well, he gave me a CD of his band, and I'm listening to it right now. It's unpolished but has a nice demi-punk raw sound to it, kind of right in between Metallica and The Clash. It goes, and I'll tell him that tomorrow when I thank him.

I notice that I seem to be carrying on quite the back-and-forth with a blogger named Birdnow. I'll give him credit for addressing me, but he's a pretty hard-core right winger. I think I'll head there after this.

REAL FUN WITH DICK AND JANE

I. Meet Dick

Oh look.
Oh see.
Oh look and see.
Look at Dick.
Dick is a dick.
Dick thinks he is a big dick.
But he is not.
Just ask Jane.

II. Meet Jane

Oh look and see.
Look at Jane.
Jane is a looker.
Here comes Dick.
He is looking for Jane.
"Jane, let's go have fun." said Dick.
"Go fuck yourself." said Jane.
Jane is a bitch.
Just ask Dick.

III. Meet Sally

Look at Sally.
Sally likes Dick.
Sally likes lots of dick.
"Dick, let's go have fun." said Sally.
"Sally, Jane won't let me have fun." said Dick.
"You can have fun with me, Dick." said Sally.
Sally is a slut.
Just ask Jane.

(this stuff just writes itself, you know)

IV. Spot

Oh look.
It's Spot.
Spot is a dog.
See Dick throw a ball for Spot.
See Spot chase the ball.
See Spot run into the street.
See Spot get run over by a car.
"Oh no, Spot!" said Dick.
"You killed Spot, Dick, you dick!" said Jane.
Oh look and see Jane beat Dick.
Jane has balls.
Just ask Dick.

V. Puff

Dick is feeling bad.
Oh look at Puff.
Puff is a bong.
See Dick take a hit on Puff.
Oh look, Dick is stoned now.
"That's better." said Dick.
"Dick, what are you doing, now?" asked Jane.
"Nothing." Dick lied.
"Good." said Jane.
"Come here, Dick, you dick, and help me clean up Spot."
"Shit." said Dick.
Spot was a dumb dog.
Just ask Dick.

Well, that's about all of THAT tonite. :) :)

frozen hell

2005-11-16T22:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Minnesota, as I'm fond of saying. I went to work today, when I returned, about 11:15 p.m., my door lock was frozen. After careful work, during which it's about -25 F wind chill, the key froze and broke in the lock. I was livid. Of course, everyone is sleeping. Finally, the upstairs neighbor heard me and let me in, calling the landlord on the sell phone. :) I have to admit, I have a pretty good landlord and upstairs neighbor. The landlord came over and fixed the door so I could get in. All of this took about 45 minutes. Now here I am, all nice and warm (finally) and able to relax a little. I am coming to despise the cold winters here, even though I otherwise love it here in Minnesota. Anyways, that's my adventure for today, and I'm glad it's over.

Egad, I'm thinking, this is just the start of winter. I'm also not in a very good mood right now. Maybe I'll go pound on some other blogsites, that might make me feel better. :)

anyway, anyhow, anywhere

2005-11-16T00:11:00.000-08:00

Well, now that I've accostomed myself to this a little, I guess I can blog away now. Maybe sing now? :)

Wellandthewindwontblowandwereallyshouldntgoanditonlygoestoshow
whoaawhoawhao
Catchthewindweregonnaseeyouspinweregonnasail leave the bay
diddelydowah bopbopadowah
mymymymymymygal
Everybodyiknowseemstoknowmewellbutthey'renevergonnaknowletemgotohell
ababy baby babeeeeee right now
no no no no no. . . .
-page (roughly)

Anyways, just in case you didn't know, I'm quite crazy sometimes. :)

Well, let's see, the current life expectancy of a male human like myself is about 90 years now, so I guess I'm either half done or half full of it, depending on the optimist/peptomist thingee.

Wierd scenes outside the gold mine:

When I was 4, halfways thru kindergarten, we moved. We didn't move to what I consider to be a nice place. But it wasn't up to me. Oh well, life is like that, eh? Anyways, I've always wanted to go back and live there (the name of the town is Babbitt, Minnesota) but I couldn't because of the economic reality of no jobs. That may be about to change.

There's this outfit, called Franconiaminerals (they have a website) and they've been doing surveys at a place near Babbitt. Evidently, there's a whole lotta underground copper/nickel to be had but also high concentrations of neat stuff. Stuff like gold, platinum, and paladium. They might start mining real soon. That may mean a job for me. We'll see what happens, but nothing's fersher, ya know, yet.

All my changes were there. . . . . .
- Neil Young

Highway one? People, lemme tell ya about highway 1. This alleged road goes from Ely to da nort shore, eh? It's one a dem dere shortcuts. Ya ya. :) Well, it looks like a shortcut onna map. It ain't. Ya know, because I done been dere, eh, I kinda know dis stuff, eh, before ya go up dere and getcher self lost eh? :)
Anyways, normally, if you wanna go from say, Two Harbors ta say, Tower, eh, you gotta go thru Duluth, ya know, way outta da way, ta do dat. Or, you can take highway one. Depends on a coupla things, tho. . . . :)

Frinstance, if you wanna save gas, you could take highway 1 cuz it's a shorter distance; however, if you are thinkin', ya know, time-wise, yer better off going the long way. Same goes if it's wintertime. Hey, people, they built the damn road through a swamp. The swamp is fulla trees. They dropped an F-16 in there a couple years ago, still haven't found the wreckage yet. Tough going is an understatement, here; if you DO go, stay onna road. And drive real, real slow. It's like that. :)

Oh, by the way, enjoy the scenery, you may see a moose. Friggen twig-eaters are all over da place dere, eh!!

Roadkill: Roadkill is what god forgot about when he designed roads. :)

Daffox sez that roadkill is a good thing. It means Mr. Fox doesn't have to chase his next meal. :)

Okay, ok, I gotta do this, I've done this in chat rooms before, seems to work. :) Way up north, there's this guy driving along a remote forest road in a small german car. Rounding a tight corner a little too fast, he runs smack into a moose standing in the road. The moose looks up and sez, "Hey Rocky!! Watch me pull a rabbit outta my ass!!" :) :)

Well, I think I've done about enough damage for one nite.

just to start

2005-11-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

Hello. My name is Jeff Olson and I like to rock and roll. I also like to chat, and now I'm starting to blog, even. Computers are cool. :)

My main interests are kitbuilding (1/35 scale ground forces ww2), music, castles, science, politics, hunting, all kindsa stuff. I also speak fluent Minnesotan, ya ya. :)

Today, I went in to work but the weather was total crap. Rain and snow mixed, stuff I really don't like driving in. So I went home early. Six hours early. :) No, I really don't like to get out of work, but I really don't like wrecking my car/killing myself or others, either. It was an Occam's razor kinda thing, ya know? :)

It's ok, really; prolly in another coupla months I won't be working at my current job any more. I have a gold mine in my home town that may be opening up soon, I'm gonna try like hell to get in there. Then I can go fishing every day. It's paradise up there, people; if you have ever been up north ta Ely, then you will know what I mean. But enough of that, it's just a bun inna oven right now. :)

I suppose, this being my first entry in the blogosphere, that I should kinda tell you all about myself, briefly. Except, I can't do that. There's nothing about me that's brief. :) Well, except my underwear, of course. :)

No, you people all have to put up with the long-winded version of me. That can be a chore, I know, but, well, you will find it worth it in the end. :) :) :)

I was born on 5/28/61 in Ely, Minnesota, just a few hours after my mom & dad were out fishing. A year after that, they gave me a sister, about a year and a half later another sister. We lived in Babbitt until 1966/7 and then moved to hell. I won't go into that. Upon graduation from hell, I enlisted in the USNavy for a 6 year stint, serving on a submarine as a nuclear-qualified electrician. After that, I moved to San Antonio, Texas, living there for about a year, moving to San Diego, CA. for about another year. After that, I moved back to Minnesota, attended college for awhile at the UM Morris. Since then, I've lived a few other places in Minnesota, mostly chasing jobs and then working them. Right now, I live in Rochester, and I work making junk mail in the nearby town of Byron. See? Nice and long-winded, and that's just the beginning. :)

What am I like? Well, I like to think that I'm fairly intelligent and articulate, even erudite, depending on the subject. Im pretty well-versed in most physical science fields and know a lot about a bunch of other, more trivial, matters. The main thing with me is that I don't suffer a fool lightly, even if it's me. :) But I'm also one to joke, sometimes inappropriately, but never intending to be harmful. I'm also pretty quick-minded, and boyoboy can that ever get one into trouble, lemme tell ya. :) Oh, yes, and I like to talk. A lot. A real lot. Gotta step on my neck to get me to shut up kind of real lot. :)

I also read a lot, the vast majority of which is nonfiction. My interests are listed above, but that's not a complete list. Basically, my interests can be defined by whatever interests me at the time. :) But that says an awful lot without saying anything. Gotta question? Ask.

The most influential book I have ever read (outside of nonfiction) is Hesse's "Steppenwolf". Read it and you will know me well. Otherwise, I get an awful lot of inspiration from 60s/70s music. You know, the kind your mama warned you about. :)

Though I'm starving in the streets and can predict the future. . . .
- John Kay

Politically, I'm more-or-less a moderate. Whatever seems to work the best is what I tend to go with. I don't do religion. I will warn everyone ahead of time, I can be a very fiesty discussionist on politics/religion. Some people would label me an asshole. Oh well, how boring this planet would be without a little dissent, eh? :)

Ahhh, but enough of me for now. Time to just dream and type. . . .

The two of them were fishing. The day, bright, the sky, blue, the lake a dull, calm gray. The eastern breeze was why they were in that particular spot, near ringrock; they were backtrolling thru the minor chop where the bay turned into the main part of the lake. They were father and son, the boy trying hard to be like dad, and the father trying hard to teach his son some patience. Unfortunately, most of the action was on the dad's line, not the son's. The boy slowly began to realize that there was more to this fishing stuff than just catching fish. He began to look at the world for the first time, and it was a wonder, even for an 8 year old. Why, just coming up to the lake, they had seen a moose-cow and a couple of bears. Just a few hours before, they were looking at what dad called "mergansers" (funny ducks) and a nesting pair of bald eagles. Like any youngster, his mind began to roam from the tedium of watching his rod tip, and he began to dream of things going on around him, in those infinite woods surrounding the lake. There were giants up there, all around him. There were indians and outlaws in the woods - adventures to be had, places that needed his feet walking on them, so he could see. . . . .

The jerking motion the boat made brought him back, dad had just set the hook in another fish. "'Nother walleye, dad?"; but before he could answer, there was a tap-tap-tap and a major downward motion to his own rod tip - he had a fish on, too!!! In his excitement, he set the hook hard but was rewarded with a further tension on his line and lots of motion of the rod. The both of them worked thier fish, alternating with the sound of the drag pulling out with the clicking of the cranking of the reel. "Net!! Net!!" bellowed the elder, his standard procedure when he got the fish close enough to the boat. "I got a fish on here, dad!!!" came the response, and for once the dad didn't get mad. Carefully holding the rod in one hand, he reached for the net and netted his own fish, then the boy's. Both fish were flipping and flopping all over the bottom of the boat when he emptied the net.

"Is mine a keeper, dad?"

"He's as big as mine, maybe a little bigger, we'll keep both, eh?"

"Now, grab yours and put 'im on the stringer, like this." He deftly scooped up his fish in one hand and grabbed the half-full stringer with the other, untying it from it's loose knot and placing the pointy end in the walleye's mouth and thru the gillslit, then handing the stringer to his son, who followed suit. There were already 4 keepers on the stringer, and the boy had to struggle to get them all back over the side of the boat and into the water again, without losing them all. Hanging on to part of the stringer, he took the end and loosely retied it back onto the gunwhale of the boat.

OK, ok, like that's godawful. Well, I tried. Anyways, that enough for now - I just wanted to try this out kwik to see how it goes.