Bogieblog

Toll Booth Follies

Earlier in the week I had to go to Manchester to pick up my new contacts. I left from work, so took the highway to get to old Match-Vegas. There is a toll on the way and I had made sure that I had my 75 cents all ready to throw into the change basket.

At the toll booths, there is one "Exact Change" lane on the very left hand side. There are two booths with attendants on the very right hand side. And, there are 3 "Easy Pass" booths in the middle. I was going for the very left hand booth, when someone decided they were in a bigger hurry than I was and cut me off.

OK, fine, I was in a good mood so I didn't even give him a finger. However, once he got to the basket, I started cussing him. He must have had his 75 cents in dimes and nickles (and maybe some pennies). He would toss in one coin, wait for it to be "eaten", toss in another coin, wait, etc etc etc.

Instead of breezing thru the exact change lane in about 20 seconds (for both of us), I sat there for almost a minute behind the guy. Now this guy could have gone to either one of the booths with the attendants - which were empty the whole time - and saved both of us some aggravation. But noooo, he apparently was just dying to tick someone off that day.

He succeeded - hope you had a great day asshole!

This Isn't Good

Our Vice President At work died in a car accident yesterday. Although we actually made money last month, it was precious little. This may be the straw that does us in since the VP was an investor in the company.

It should be interesting to see what happens at work in the next couple of weeks and months.

Town Meeting 2006

Last Saturday WS and I went to the Deering Town meeting (as we do every year). The usual cast of characters was there but the usual weather wasn't. This is the first time that I can remember that we haven't gotten snow on town meeting day. Last Saturday's sunny weather shocked the hell out of me!

We had a new participant in the town meeting - one of my customer's and his wife showed up. They have lived in town for over 10 years. I know they make it to the polls on Tuesday to vote (for the school budget, positions up for re-election etc.), but they have never been to a town meeting before (as far as I know).

They are usually the nicest people - they came to the meeting with an attitude. They both had frowns on their faces and stared straight at the Selectmen the whole time. They never cracked a smile. He made a sarcastic suggestion during discussion of one of the warrant articles. Not a good first introduction to town meeting.

Bird Watching

There are two birdcams now active:

• The peregrine cam is by the NH Audubon Society and is of a pair that nest every year in Manchester.
• The bald eagle cam by the National Wildlife Foundation.

The funny part is that I haven't been able to watch the peregrine cam because Windows XP won't allow me to download the Active X control I need (note - my firewall / virus checker doesn't have a problem, just Windows). That's okay, I have a computer with Win98 that will probably let me see it. If not, then I'll just fiddle with settings and see if I can really screw things up!

Back to School

In a meme that I did last July, I wrote that if I won a million bucks I would take a landscaping class or two.

The million bucks hasn't been won, but that did not stop me from signing up for a 10 week course on landscaping. It's not a real course; it is community education - you know, where people go to learn all kinds of useless things like "How to Put Together a Block Part" (honestly, that is one of the classes).

So, starting in April, my Tuesday nights (6-9) will be spent up at the Concord High School learning about landscaping. This will really screw me up as 9 is past my bedtime. It will take me 40-45 minutes to get home once I get out of class .

I have a feeling I will really begin to hate Wednesday mornings!

End of the Race

The Red Lattern Award, for this year's Iditarod, has been awarded to Glenn Lockwood. The award is given to the last team in, and signifies the end of the race.

Congratulations to every one of the teams and mushers for having the drive and spirit to even attempt such a feat; those who made it to the finish line certainly, but also to all those who started the race!

Iditarod Update 5

Since the last time I updated, a whole slew of teams have finished the Iditarod. Jeff king, as expected took first with Doug Swinley, Paul Gebhardt, DeeDee Jonrowe and John Baker rounding out the top 5 (in that order). The top 13 finishers spent less than 10 days on the 1,100 mile trail

There are some good stories of those that have managed to finish the Iditarod. One is of a former New Hampshirite whose dogs quit in Safety. There is nothing you can do when they decide the have had enough, except to let them rest and hope they will, at some point, decide they can go on.

Then there is Rachel Scdoris, who finished 34th. Becoming the first legally blind musher to finish the Iditarod is quite an accomplishment!

And lest we forget, there are still 11 teams out there running the Iditarod. I wish them luck in finishing the race.

Spring Must be Here

Tuesday, I let Prince out in the wee hours of the morning, and he immediately started barking. I called him in (WS was still sleeping) and did my usuall morning thing (put away the clean dishes, workout, let the cats out). After feeding the dogs, I headed back downstairs, and as usual, Prince wanted out again. I let him out, and and he commenced a-barking. Not an intruder type bark, just a continuous bark that says there is something out there (could be a cat, a squirrel or the wind knocking tree limbs together).

Our resident bear had evidently awakened from his winter's nap. The proof was Tuesday evening when I looked out and saw that one bird feeder out back had been thrown to the ground and the suet feeder was nowhere in sight. WS then informed me that the No-No feeder out front was on the ground. Upon investigation, I found the feeder from the backyard and the No-No feeder could be repaired, so I brought them in the house. The suet feeder was dragged off to parts unknown. The really expensive, heavy duty birdfeeder, did not end up like its breathren did last year:

The suet feeder out front, which is right next to the heavy duty feeder, was also left alone. That was curious because the bear had to walk right by those two to get to the No-No feeder. However, I am grateful that he gave me fair warning so I could move the heavy duty feeder to the tree by WS's shed (inside the fenced area).

I took the smaller feeder that usually resides there inside for retirement until next winter. The suet feeder in front I moved to a higher location on the tree - standing on a boulder and reaching above my head to hang it off a branch. If the bear really wants it, he cn knock the tree over to get it, but he may think it is too much bother.

I'll find out anyhow.

Queen / Paul Rodgers Concert

A week ago Friday, we went down to the DCU center in Worcester for the Queen/Paul Rodgers concert. The tour had just started and the Mass. date was the 5th stop.

The concert was exceptional. There was a good mix of Queen songs and Bad Company songs. I have never been to such a big sing-along! Most of the people there were our age +/-, but there were also much older people and a lot of people brought their teenagers. This was a stand up concert; we only sat during 3 of the slower songs (and even then, those on the floor still stood). They rocked the place for a couple of hours - without an intermission.

The only bummer was that we got stuck in traffic. We left 3 hours before the concert, for a 2 hour drive and still got there after the music had started. I believe this is the only concert in the world that actually starts on time! We could actually seee the DCU center for 1/2 hour before we could get off the highway. The problem was that there is an on-ramp just before the off-ramp, which gummed up the whole works. The only saving grace that we found parking only 1 block away.

If we ever attend an event at the DCU center again (it is a nice arena, even if it is a fair drive away), we will be leaving earlier to avoid the rush hour traffic!

Almost To Nome

At this writing, Jeff King has left the checkpoint at Safety, which means he only has a few more miles to go to complete the Iditarod. Assuming no catastrophic events occur, he will be the winner and Join Susan Butcher, Martin Buser, Rick Swenson and Doug Swingley as a four-time Iditarod winner.

2nd and 3rd places are up for grabs between Doug Swingley, Paul Gebhardt, DeeDee Jonrow, John Baker and Bjornar Andersen.

There is still loads of racing left as there are still 72 teams still on the trail.