Bogieblog

A Little Study

So the President commissions the CDC to do a study on guns (link is to the unpublished study). It did not seem to prove out what they wanted it to prove.

You can go read it, or not, but I think that Jay summs it up nicely (go read his entire post):

So, let's recap, shall we? In the landmark study commissioned by Barack Obama in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, we find that mass shootings are less common than bucket drownings, that guns are used for self defense hundreds of thousands of times a year, and that suicides account for most of the deaths by firearms. 

I say we need to ban buckets.

Bird Sighting

It tells me how little I have been posting over the last month that I have gone back in my picture files and found pics from the 1st week in June that I wanted to share.

I am unsure why the purple finch was in this posture. It was a warm day, but not overly so. I was also thinking that perhaps one of the area hawks was in the region and the finch was hding the best he could (actually that looked to be an excellent position if he couldn't fly to a more sheltered spot in the woods.

The purple finch seemed to be healthy, and later flew off, so although I didnt' see or hear a hawk, I figured that must have been the issue.

Sunset Over Deering

On the 21st of this month, I looked out the front window and told WS that I would be back in a couple of minutes. He was confused, but I left in a hurry, bacause I saw a photo oportunity. I had missed a similar opportunity a couple of weeks earlier, and I wasn't going to miss this one.

I headed down the hill to the Deering View and snapped a couple of pictures of the sunset.

Take a close look at the lower left corner of the 3rd pictue and you can just see a beautiful bush covered in blooms.

Oh, and I turned around, and there was the full moon.

I was going to crop out the house, but I think it makes a much more complete picture with the house in it.

Sometimes you just have to stop and appreciate the beauty that is around you!

Bike Week 2013

We had a faily cold and rainy June. A lot of days in the 50's and 60's (and 40's) and even in the middle of June I was contemplating turning on the heat because we had no sun to help warm up the house.

Bike Week started the weekend before Father's Day and as usual it rained for most of it. I road to work 3 times that week and everytime at least one of the trips (to or from) was in the rain. Friday I got so wet in the morning, that I had to hang everything out to dry in the sun when I got home that evening.

 

From left to right: Chaps (both legs opened up and spread out), neck bandana, jacket, vest, jacket liner. My boots were the only things that stayed fairly dry.

However, we did have some nice days - and those days coincided with the last weekend of Bike Week. WS stayed at the pig roast Friday night thru Sunday, while I made trips up there both Saturday and Sunday. We spent about 2 hours at Weirs Beach,and we parked off the boulevard in a back lot.

That orange bike is "Maham's" bike from the Progressive commercial.

We spent some time riding around the lakes region and over by Plymouthand enjoying the scenery and at a gas stop found they had put in a wind farm since the last time we had been in the area.

Saturday night was the pig roast, without a pig this year.But we did get to see and talk to people that we only see once or twice a year - so it was good.

We both had a good time and got to unwind a bit, which is all anyone can really ask of Bike Week.

RIP Shadow

12/28/1997 to 6/17/2013

He is the only pet that passed away at home and I am terribly sorry I couldn't be there for him at the end. He is buried in the back yard, 30-40 feet directly behind where this picture was  taken.

He is sorely missed by both me and WS.

Home Trip on the Cool Tool

Just to get a feel for how it works on longer trips, I activated my new app before riding home from work last night.

Pretty cool, they also give a video showing exact roads wheree htey use a "pin" to trace the route - so if you were in unfamiliar territory, and wanted to know your exact route, you can just look at your "video". (I am unsure if you will be able to access the video, thru the link, please let me know either way).

Not too shabby a tool for only FREE!

Cool Tool For the Phone

Thru the HDForums, I found a cool tool (app) for my phone that will track your travels by almost any imaginable transportation (walking, bus, bike etc). Then it gives you a rough map, time, distance and other stats. These you can share with anyone, some people or no one.

I thought it would be a cool thing to use on bike trips. I downloaded CheckMyTour a couple of days ago thru GooglePlay store (it is also available for iPhones) and decided to test it out during my walk at lunch. Now that walk isn't bery long - just around the parking lots of the building I work at, but I figured that would give me an idea of what it could do. so here are a couple of screenshots of my stats:

Check out the max speed of 4 mph, but my average was only 3.055. That is because I stopped at my bike and removed the engine guard chaps and stowed them away in the saddlebags. I also had my chaps and a sweatshirt that I had used for riding into work, which I stowed in another saddlebag. All-in-all, I probably spent 3-4 minutes at the bike before continuing on my walk. I could have hit "pause" and it wouldn't have counted that time, but I didn't want to bother. And truthfully, I had no idea what stats it was keeping, so didn't see a need to pause the recording.

Obviously it uses GPS to track where you are and I find it funny that it could track me so precisely that it shows how un-straight my walking line is! And, I was unsure what the picture would show inside my circular route - but obviously it knows the building is there, so I would guess that it works off of some type of mapping program (although it cannot give you pre-made maps).

I could also have taken notes of pictures and uploaded them to the site for use later (or sharing), but there wasn't much use of that during my test.

I think I will find use for this, if I remember to start it up before any of my travels.

New England Nationals!!

New England Nationals | New Hampshire Attractions.

WS and I are going to the finals on Sunday. When we lived in Kansas, we went to th eOklahoma races a couple of times. We moved to NH before the Kansas Speedway was built. Although NH has had minor races, they have never had the big names before (the ones you see on TV). The closest big races are in NJ and PA - not very close to us. So we are thrilled that John Force, his daughters and all the other competitors are coming to the state.

Just in Time

Planted tomatoes (36 plants) early this afternoon while that area was still shaded. decided it was too hot and sunny to continue, so came inside to get indoor chores done.

WS left for a ride to cool off (he has worked very hard this weekend rototilling and week wacking). I noticed that it got shady out, the back door, and looking from the deck saw some high white clouds. Good - shade so started planting the 36 pepper plants. Looked out over the roof of the house and decided I better be double-timing it; there were very black clouds on the way.

I got the peppers as well as 3 basil plants and some other herbs planted before the storm hit. Also had time to pull the potted plants off the porch so they wouldn't be drowned by the rain rushing off the roof. WS got home from his ride just before the storm hit.

Then the storm got here and I had to run around and close all the windows and doors (which I had opened about 10 minutes before to catch the cooling breeze). It was so dark one would have thought it was 9 PM instead of 5:15 in the afternoon.

I used the camera flash, and the plant is only about 4 feet from the back door (which was open). I actually had to lighten the picture in order to see the tree in the picture.

In 10 minutes we got 1/4" of rain then the wind and rain calmed somewhat. the plants in the garden aren't looking real happy, but at least they got watered. Another round of storms are on their way - but we aren't getting anything like what has hammered Oklahoma and other midwestern states, for which we are greatful!