Black Squirrel

I'd never seen a black squirrel before moving to Omaha a few years ago. I've since developed a -perhaps unhealthy- obsession with them since. As some of you may or may not know, if I had to be a rodent, I would choose to be a squirrel. And preferably a black one. They are rather rare here as I have only seen one in my neighborhood, across the street. One in Memorial Park, and one in West Omaha. I'm sure there are more, but these are the three individuals that I can account for. I spent about 40 minutes stalking the one in the park on Saturday.

This grey/red squirrel was chasing our black friend first. Then he turned the tables.I'm not sure how many trees that I followed him through, but I was amazed at the ground he could cover without touching the ground.

More HDZ

One of the nice things about living somewhere that isn't Centerville is that there are things to do. We have an annual pass to the zoo, so whenever Corwin is bored we like to stop by. Many people who visit the zoo try to see the whole thing in one go, but I don't like this. It can really wear you out, like going to a museum. By the end of the day, you're tired and not really enjoying yourself, but by damn you paid full admission and you're going to see everything. But because I visit the zoo two or three times a month I stroll along taking my time watching the exhibits that I really enjoy, getting passed by most everyone.

When we got the to the Desert Dome today, we saw our friend Andrew in the Sun Room. I don't remember his exact title, but he is the number 2 man in charge of reptiles in the Desert Dome. He invited us in and showed a couple of interesting things, before he had to go investigate some tree that fell over somewhere. He showed us a three day old gecko that was rather cute. And Corwin got introduced to a Black Something Something Snake. Andrew described it as a poor man's Indigo Snake. Corwin wasn't afraid at all and wanted to touch her, but even though she wasn't poisonous it would have hurt had she bit him. But she was a rather nice and calm snake.

Columbus Day

Italians think they're so damn important that they have to have their own holiday. I'm looking at you Tony. Can't they make up some cool holiday like the Irish and St. Patty's day where everyone gets drunk on green beer? Noooo, they've got to celebrate some guy who discovered America about 500 years after the vikings. And several thousand years after the Native Americans. But anyway, with thier holiday comes the closing of the government. And Corwin's daycare is in a government building. So even though I'm supposed to work, he can't go to daycare on Columbus Day. So I took Corwin to the zoo Monday afternoon.

Corwin had fun playing on the brass lion pride at the Henry Doorly Zoo's main entrance. He ran through the Desert Dome and wanted to play in all of the puddles and water falls that exist through out the complex. I got to watch the jack rabbits, which I rather enjoy. The older ones always have these torn up ears from numerous battles. Who knew that bunnies could be such warriors? We then went to the aquarium and played around the penguin tanks. We went through the tunnel aquarium next and Corwin became infatuated with these two girls that were maybe 6 or 7. He does this all the time, he'll see a cute little girl much too old for him, and stare at her or follow her around hoping to be friends. He is a terrible flirt. He should be more respectable like his father.

Return from C-town

I've always meant to take a picture of these funny dinosaurs at some place called Benny Davis Farm between Centerville and Corydon. I finally got around to it today. I'll have to do it again sometimes because I'm not happy with the quality of the image taken with my old point-and-shoot digital camera. And for those who care, my gas milage has increased from around 11 mpg to 17 with the new four speed transmission.

Yellow Hat

In many ways I'm a fairly simple guy. I'm really white trash with a decent income. I drive a 35 year old muscle car. I lament the fact that I don't own a house so that I might own a tree that I could hang an engine from to work on. I've owned ten cars in my life, and none has been an import. If you look in my fridge right now, you'll find Sam Adams but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the occasional Miller High Life or Busch Light. And little things often please me. I'm not very complex in some ways and that's OK. I know me and I like me.

Case in point, my new Hurst shifter finally arrived from Jegs.com today. It has been back ordered for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't in a hurry about it because I thought I had to have to whole transmission rebuilt. A shifter for it wasn't very important at the time. So I open the Jegs box and inside is my ratchet shifter but also a bright yellow Jegs hat that I didn't order. I suppose they included it just to say sorry for taking so long to get this to you. It pleased me in an illogical and stupid way. I put the hat on and show it to Anke, all excited that I had gotten a free hat. She says, "You look like someone from Iowa." And she's right, I put on this hat and I feel like I'm strait outta Mystic*! It makes me wish I still had my old black '77 Camaro that was held together with bondo, but was stupid fast. I could then put on my yellow hat and cruise the square listening to AC/DC in style.

Of course Corwin steals the hat right off of my head, and he just looks impossibly cute.




*Mystic is a small run down town about 8.5 minutes from Centerville.

Sometimes procrastination doesn't pay off

If you've been reading this you know that I put a new transmission in the Cutlass a month or so ago. Well the bloody thing was making a funny noise and not shifting right. The whole car was also extremely sluggish- like I'd lost 20 or 30 horse power. I was afraid that the transmission that I bought was bad. On top of that, the company that I bought the damn thing from is in bankruptcy at the moment. I was lucky to even get a transmission, some folks didn't. It was one of the last ones I believe.

But I was afraid to take the car to a transmission shop, because I didn't want to hear the bad news that the whole thing is junk and it'll cost you at least $1000 to rebuild the boat anchor in your drive train. I was talking to Dad about that this weekend and he suggested that I have Doug Widick of Widick Diesel rebuild it for me. Doug's shop is the only place that Dad will allow to touch his semi. Doug uses Dad's Western Star as a test truck of sorts and does all kinds of fun and wacky stuff to make it get better fuel mileage. He is currently getting around 7.5 mpg and pushing 550+ horsepower. That 7.5 mpg is a very impressive feat for a semi.

Anyway I didn't want to bring the car to Doug without really knowing the transmission was toast. So I took the Cutlass to a transmission shop (Transmissions Incorporated at 49th and Dodge, Omaha) that is only about 4 blocks from where I live. They sign out front that says free transmission diagnosis. So I thought that I'd have them check it out first. They then called about noon to say that the funny noise was the transmission dipstick was vibrating against something and the throttle pressure needed adjusted along with a cable stop thingy. Kirk at the shop said they could do all this for $51.43. This pleased me greatly- along with Anke who was very understanding and wasn't even going to yell at me if I had to get the transmission rebuilt.

I picked the car up after work and suddenly the Cutlass and I were friends again. I couldn't hear the transmission and it was much peppier. It seems that before getting fixed the car wasn't ever staying in first gear, so I was always taking off in second, which will make your car seem slower than it actually is.

So the moral of the story is I should have faced the music and taken it to the guys down the street weeks ago. I'd have been much happier if I had.

TV

The few TV shows I really like, inevitably get cancelled during their first season. This was true of Firefly and the quirky Push, Nevada. Both of these shows premiered in 2002. Push, Nevada was cancelled after only 6 episodes. ABC was kind enough to give them a seventh episode to try and wrap everything up in a rather unsatisfying and rushed way. They put the bloody show up against CSI and it got crushed in the ratings, what did they expect to happen? ABC didn't try working with it at all.

That same year Firefly premiered and it lasted almost the entire year. But it got cancelled with three completed episodes unaired. Fortunately these episodes were released when the box set for series was released. So, firefly was successful enough and had enough of a cult following to warrant the release of all of it's episodes on DVD and the release of a the firefly movie: Serenity.

Well, there are a couple of shows that I like that seemed to have done OK: Boondocks on Comedy Central and My Name is Earl on NBC. Carnivale made it through two seasons on HBO. I've only seen a couple of episodes of Deadwood, but I think I would really like it if I had the opportunity to see them all.

Anyway, what this leads me to is that I saw a really cool TV show on NBC last night (Monday nights at 8 central time.) Heroes. It's about average people developing superpowers. My favorite example is a wageslave in Japan- named Hiro appropriately enough- who stares at his clock until he makes the second hand go backward for one second. He then jumps up and goes running down the rows of cubicles celebrating and yelling about how he has altered the time space continuum. Later in the bar, his buddy thinks he's nuts and tells him if he can really alter the space time continuum why doesn't he teleport into the ladies room. As he goes to the bar for another beer he turns around to see Hiro getting drug out of the ladies room and thrown out by bouncers. As the bouncers are throwing him out he is yelling "Yahoooo!". Another good story line in the show deals with two brothers. The older successful brother is running for congress and always casts a huge shadow over the younger health care provider brother. But he thinks he can fly. He'll finally be the special one. He tells his brother this and his brother thinks he's nuts. So he jumps off of a building to prove to himself and his brother that he can fly. As he falls to the ground the older brother- the successful one, the one running for congress, the already "special" brother- ends up flying to save little brother. The writing was good, the acting was good. Its more of a good drama with funny parts than a superhero show. I really hope there are enough geeks out there like me who watch it to make it successful.

German Photo Diary - Part 3

We took a day hike in Saxon Switzerland- so called because it resembles a little Switzerland in Saxony. This installment deals with that day trip.Waiting for the train to take us to the mountains.

Corwin watches little Anouk. He really liked Anouk and didn't really get jealous of her at all.
We're on our way climbing Robber's Mountain, where bandit's used to hide out back in the day.
I'm climbing a ladder through a very tight crevice. I was happy to have the hood on the backpack at this point, knowing that would hit the bottom of a rock before Corwin's head would.
Corwin and I safely emerge from the gap. It was all rather nerve racking and a bit tedious. You tend to worry a bit more when you have your son on your back in these situations, plus it affects your center of gravity in a negative way. After getting to the top of the hill/mountain and taking the back pack off I felt like a veritable billy goat.
Andre's favorite past time is rock climbing. Climbing shear rock cliffs, not a simple hike with ladders and rails that we used to reach the top of Robber's Mountain. So he has lots of nifty climbing equipment. You'll notice that Corwin is wearing a children's climbing harness. It is attached by a rope to Andre's climbing harness. The allowed us to give Corwin a little more freedom on the top of the mountain.
Corwin looks down the chimney of the bandit's fire pit in the cave below.
Corwin from a fire's point of view.
Magestic views from mountain tops are never as impressive in photos as reality.
A picnic in the forest.
The forest.
The day ends in a ginger bread village only a handful of miles from the Czech Republic boarder.

German Photo Diary - Part 2

This is a shot of Schneeburg- Snow Mountain in German- where Anke grew up and we spend several days.

Oma Renate and Tante Ursel with a napping Corwin.
Corwin's little path.
Water Lillies.
Anouk's Racer.
If you'll look closely you'll notice that the little square bale of hay is flying through the air. That's right, the red thing forms the bale of hay then flings in into the following cart. While we've been fighting a war in Iraq our great country has taken the eye off of the ball and been surpassed in the ever important field of hay-baling technology.
A lake where we spent the afternoon hiking.
Some evil genious devised this pool and placed it along a hiking trail to lure in unsuspecting Americans and tourture them. You see, they place a sign there that says walking through fucking cold water on rocks is somehow good for you. He probally also believed that leaches were good for removing the bad humours from the blood. The only refreshing thing about it was how amazing it felt to no longer be in the torture chamber. I did two circuits of the pool. Crazy Inga did five.

Family.
Punk toddler flies through the air.
I just like this picure. I does a good job of showing the constant motion that Corwin is in.
Samurai Andre duels with Corwin.
This could maybe be Iowa. It isn't.
Touring the church.
Corwins discovers the beauty of puddles.
Mushrooms.
Pond of the Dead. Really that's what it's called.

More photos still to come.

German Photo Diary - Part 1

We made it back from Germany safe and sound. Corwin was really great on the plane. He cried and screamed a couple of times, but not for long and very few times. I'm really proud of how he did traveling. This photo diary of the trip are in mostly chronological order.

Corwin Plays with a toy truck from Anke's childhood. I thought this little wooden truck was the coolest.
Corwin bangs the bongo at Tante Sabina's house.Who can resist a day old lamb.Anke and Corwin walk through the court yard at Tante Sabina's. One of them wishes to chase the kitties some more.Anke's father, Lutz, and I try to teach Corwin to ride a tricycle. His little legs are still a bit short though.These little toads were common every where. Anke kindly rescued a couple that were slow crossing the road, that may have been hit by cars. Slugs were also common. We encourage cars to hit them.Ina, Anke's step mom, pushes Corwin in the off-road buggy that was borrowed by Lutz. Thanks to whom ever it was that Lutz borrowed the stoller from.I read a book and drink a beer in the evening. Life isn't so bad.Corwin freeloading once again.I'm to entertain Corwin by blowing soap bubbles.People are small in the big forest.Corwin has studied all of the dance moves from Pulp Fiction.
Butterflies love me.My niece, Anouk, and her mommy Inga.This picture of Corwin with a flower is for you, Mom.

And with that, I'm going to bed now. Jet lag sucks, more pictures later. Thanks to Anke for taking most of these. She is more diligent taking photos than I, therefore I show up in pictures more than she. Some were also taken by Lutz, Inga, and even me.