EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival
I recently had the chance to go back to Walt Disney World to check out the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT. I have read many reviews and blogs discussing the festival but I never expected so much! If you ever get the chance to attend this festival, I highly recommend stopping at the Welcome Center as your first stop....
‘Tis The Season
So… Didja get your entry in for the Name a Snowplow contest with the Ohio Turnpike commission? Some of the winners from last year were in the paper recently and I have to say they were pretty clever. This year’s contest ended Sunday, so we’ll have to wait and see what takes the $100 gift card prize–eight of them,...
The Disney Chronicles: Part II
Ever been on a bus or a similar crowded situation with “wound-up” young persons when singing (and other such expressions of high spirits) breaks out and at some point, there is a raucous announcement of what is to come, namely : “Second verse! Same as the first! A little bit LOUDER and a little bit WORSE!”...? Well, here’s verse...
The Wheels On The Bus…
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go…. Wait! We’re not moving. So that was one part of the saga. Wait until you hear the rest of it. Our intrepid band of Quiz Masters (James A. Garfield’s Academic Challenge team) was off to...
“I need a book with instructions on hemming blue jeans; it is getting too costly to have someone else hem them for me. I would also like them...
The staff of the Newton Falls Public Library has their own memories of children complaining about the appearance of clothing after shortening or alterations, and can understand a mother wanting to be frugal. We found a variety of instructions for hemming different types of clothing and fabrics in sewing books on our shelves, such as the “Reader’s Digest Complete Guide...
Chipmunks
For those of you who are old enough to remember the cartoon, Alvin and the Chipmunks, they were a trio of brothers who got into all sorts of mischief; the cartoon characters were not too far off from the real thing. Chipmunks are known for eating flower bulbs, getting into bird feeders, and making holes all over your yard,...
The Wheels On The Bus… Part III
And now, as the sun sets slowly in the West…. End of competition and return to God’s country (Garrettsville, in case you didn’t recognize the description). The contests, across so many topics and fields, illuminated our strong points and our areas ripe for improvement. All team members made some critical contributions—math, nineteenth century literature, scientific notation, historical events, whatever—at some...
Requiscat in pace…I guess
All of you Latin scholars out there no doubt recognized that phrase, often abbreviated as R.I.P. and translated as Rest in Peace. Well, it’s had an outbreak here at the ranch; our feline population has undergone some major changes. Boy, has it ever. First off, Ruffian, of the inside cat contingent, took off one day and could not be persuaded...
Old Farmers Almanac
I love the Old Farmer’s Almanac…I don’t necessarily take it as gospel but I do love the miscellany of STUFF that is in it. It is a veritable FOUNT of KNOWLEDGE of various off-beat and semi-useful pieces of information. I say semi-useful because some of the wisdom that this publication imparts, I would rather not have to actually have...
How old do you think Nelson Ledges is?
Understanding the concept of time in seconds, minutes, days, years, and even centuries is easy for us to comprehend. However, the concept of geologic time is very hard for most of us to wrap our brain around. How can you put into perspective 4.6 billion years, the estimated age of the earth? Let’s try. It would take you...
Messages From Mother Nature: The Ladybug
“Excuse me sir, but would you please call me by my correct name…. I am a LADY BEETLE, not a common bug!” Some explanation is in order for our snooty ladybeetle. Lady bugs are really beetles, not bugs. All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. Within the insect world, there are several distinct groups, Butterflies and Moths...
Welcome To The Lifeboat; Please Come Aboard
What do you do when, at 67 you find yourself single and alone again? The reasons for this often include, your mate passed away, or perhaps you and/or your mate decided to end a 1-40 year relationship for whatever reasons. At any rate you are now alone in the house, responsible for everything. Assuming that bereavement is an ongoing...
Two Mice and a Truck
Oh gosh Henrietta, something is going on in the barn again. The humans have opened up the barn doors, too much light, not used to all this light in this old barn. Get me my sunglasses! Sam, it’s that farmer guy lookin’ around in here. Oh boy, he’s brought two other humans in to look at our mobile home(decrepit...
It Must Be February
Must be February, the Easter candy is on the shelves. And the “cabin fever news stories” are circulating. That’s what appears when all of the news outlets are sick and tired of going hysterical about the weather—record-high snowfall, record-low temperatures, funny (or not-so) pictures of people digging out, names for the storms (How about Hortense? We haven’t seen that name...
Are We There Yet?
And just where are we going again? By the time that we get there, I’m going to be so out of shape that someone will have to haul me over the line in a wheelbarrow. When the Y closed, it so disrupted my self-designed fitness routine that all of my muscles have declared a national holiday and I’ve had...
Latest Unlikely News
Ya know, you can’t make this stuff up.... The news is rife with absolutely amazing little bits—factoids, we might call them—about what’s going on “out there”, and I don’t mean outer space. Doesn’t take much more than a skimming of the news to find a fine selection of nutballs running around in front of God and everybody and coming...
Wild Hikes
Well, actually, it wasn’t all that wild but it definitely was interesting and fun. The Portage County Park District is offering opportunities to scope out some of the features of the newly-funded (THANK YOU, VOTERS)county parks with knowledgeable and entertaining volunteer naturalists (or one, at least, Thank you, Joe) to get a good look at just what’s out there. ...
Follow the Signs: Part III
This is part three of the story about running down a Model “A” Ford lead and purchasing the car. Jerry and I most often look for hobby cars that were never finished or cars that have sat in the garage for years and years, forgotten until a new owner or relative comes on the scene and wants to clean things...
Look!!! Up In The Sky!!!
Remember that one? “Look !!! Up in the sky !! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! “It’s Superman !!!” Nah, never mind, It’s not Superman, it’s a whole bunch of super people–The Fraternal Order of Eagles, to be exact. And what set me off on this tack was the sign out front of the local aerie ( That’s ornithologist talk for...
And Another Thing…
I keep discovering (Not through Spring Cleaning–perish the thought) more stuff to put out on the Big Community Yard/Garage Sale coming up in May (as advertised on the electronic bulletin board downtown at the light). Tons-o-stuff stashed around here; some of it I vaguely remember acquiring, some of it, might as well have come from King Tut’s tomb or...
Down the Old Road…I Really Want An Antique Automobile
“I’ve been looking at, toying with, buying an old car, antique automobile, that I could take to cruise-ins, antique car shows, or just cruise around town in. They’re cool! Are they good investments? You have a couple of them. What really do they cost and how much does it take to maintain them?” This inquiry is something that I frequently...
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Sing a song of sixpencePocket full of ryeFour-and-twenty blackbirdsBaked in a pieWhen the pie was openedThe birds began to singWasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king? Never mind the sixpence, the blackbirds, the pie or the king (They’re all from the 18th century or earlier…Shakespeare, maybe?), what I’m really promoting here is the “Sing” part. Once upon a...
In addition…
In addition to pareidolia, I occasionally suffer(if that’s the right word) from bouts of mondegreen; I don’t think that it’s covered by any reputable insurance(though it’s likely on the docket for some fly-by-night, blood-sucking outfit from the late-night TV)but it can be sort of debilitating when you’ve got it. Pareidolia, as you must recall, is usually seeing significant images in totally random contexts, like the guy down in Louisiana who cut open an eggplant and beheld the word “God” spelled out in seeds. Elvis and the Virgin Mary are apt to turn up anywhere, from a toasted cheese sandwich to pictures in mildew on old walls.
Horticulture Hotspot!
Well, if it ever rains again….. What’s up with this weather? Every day, just about, the weather guru’s keep saying that there “may be scattered showers, with a chance of thunderstorms”...” isolated rain showers and T-storms”...”possible T-storms with hail or heavy rainfall”. And what have we been getting? Zip. Zero. Nada. Which is about what I am getting on the...
Reasonable Accommodations for Disabilities in the Workplace
Many people have heard of the “Americans with Disabilities Act” (ADA) or even the phrase “reasonable accommodation.” It seems few outside the Human Resources community understand what is involved with either. Here is a good start: do not model your company’s compliance or employment practices after anything you see on a TV or streaming series. While the scenarios on...
Notes From The Vineyard
2011... wow – I can’t believe it! Where did 2010 go? Oh well... now that 2011 is here, it is time for me to get started on all of my exciting plans for this year and not dwell on last year. I know that 2011 is going to fly by just as fast so I am ready to start...
Treating Your Employees Well
You might think that, with currently high unemployment rates, it will be an employer’s market forever. But, you would be wrong. Even today, as unemployment remains stubborn, some industries are having difficulties filling their job openings. Today, your industry could be in a buy or sell mode as far as attracting top employees is concerned. But there will come a...
The Old Farmer’s Almanac revisited.
What Dave Barry always calls “an alert reader” stopped me the other day in the PCDL and asked if I wasn’t going to write some more stuff drawing on the abovementioned publication and it seemed like a good idea, so here we are. The Old Farmer speaks : (Freely translated by yours truly) What is it that everyone quotes the...
