Posting for no other reason...

...than to celebrate my 100th posting! I hope they are enjoyed, and I'll keep 'em coming!

I was warned...

...by some who lived here for awhile that it might happen. I said that it never would, but I do think it is starting to happen. Today confirms it!

As I took a break from packing my life into small boxes, I decided to drive around 'the field'. I've been away fom it for awhile for no reason other than too much else was going on. Didn't think I missed it. Didn't think I was starting to 'take it for granted' but I guess I was. I was headed into the mindset "it's there everyday, so I can go out tomorrow."

Kinda scares me a bit! Have I truly become 'one of them', the person who curses the town, curses the tourists, curses the park service, and doesn't appreciate the treasure that is right basically in my own backyard? I hope note!

I don't think it has happened. The first step in solving a problem is to admit you have one (funny, I know I have a problem when it comes to spending money, but I can't kick that addiction!).

Maybe it was discovered soon enough. Maybe I needed some time away to realize what I missed. The brief time I spent with JD last Fri., and my drive today made me remember what is truly important.

You can take away the traffic, take away some of the idiots who live here, take away the King (Latschar) and his ill-conceived ideas, take away the small-town politics, and take away the drama (please!), but what will remain?

A field of honor. A national park that truly is a treasure, one that should be visited by all and respected by all. It's here everyday. Vision just seems to sometimes get clouded by other things, but it remains, and I love it!

Moving, again!...

...Temporarily...to New Oxford! The landlords are raising the rent, and it's not worth it to spend what they want in a place where you live on the 3rd floor and have to lean your head to the side to take a pee. Don't believe me, ask EJW, MFN or JDP, or the Basecat. They'll confirm it to be true. Too bad, I'll be leaving my view of Culp's Hill not much to see, but that is what it is in the photo above!)

Prior to moving to Gettysburg, I had lived in the same apartment for 14yrs. Then, I moved in with a friend,stayed there for 6 months, and then came here. After 1 & 1/2 yrs., it's time to move on.

Temporarily to Lori's place in N.O, but we want to buy a house in the 'burg (the one without the 'h'!), so I guess I'll be making up for lost time and actually moving twice!

It kinda isn't fun, though, because I now own a lot more 'junk' than I did last year, and that move was tough enough.

Oh, btw, anyone got $150 G they can loan me so I can buy a house? It's kinda tough getting a loan, and I can use all the help I can get! Thanks!

And...anyone wanna help me move? I'll provide drinks, food, and whatever else you want!

I think the descision was already made...

...before anyone was even aware of the proposed fee. $7.50 every time I want to go see the exhibits? Thought this thing was supposed to be free? Guess I was wrong but once again. Seems a lot of things about this technological terror are not turning out to be in reality what they were first proposed to be in concept!

How many times can we be lied to and swindled by the same group of propagandists before we do something? "We need more space to properly display our artifacts."...Fine..."Hey, we only put out a small fraction of what we have. There may not be much there, but at least it's properly displayed."

"The Rosensteel collection is and always will be free to the public."..."Now, we aren't quite making enough money, even though one of our prime attractions hasn't even opened yet.so we must charge for eveything. We'll give you a chance to tell us what you think. It won't happen until maybe Oct. at the earliest."...

...What happened on Oct. 1st? The fee was announced. That's it. End of story! Wanna see the museum? Prepare to pay the price!

So, if you have a family of four, plan on spending $25 before you even get started, even if all you wanted to do was tour the museum.

I dunno. Maybe I don't live right or something, because I have problems, big problems, not with what was done, but in the way it was done. We being are lied to and made to feel sorry for an organization that overcharges and undersells everything, an organization that suposedly is poor, but that can afford to pay one of its executives $348,000 per year.

How did they think we'd react? Take it standing up like we always do? Not quite! I'll go see the Cyclo a few times, but that will be it. If I wanna pay to see a museum, I'll go to Harrisburg and see a real CW museum, not the Gettysburg museum-wanna-be that Latschar and his friends in the Foundation lied to us about and screwed us all over with.

What Not to Wear to the Renaissance Faire"...

So, it turns out that Im now a "Ren Faire" person! Lori and I went a couple of times, and I do enjoy it (I even bought a pirate outfit that I plan to wear as soon as we can go again!). The Ren Faire is fun. It's something different than other of the other reenacting I've done. And, you get to see some real, full-contact jousting to boot! How fun is that?

That said, there are people in the faire who try to dress period and would be better off staying home, or coming in modern attire. If you want to 'dress in garb', you should try to 'do it right'. Black Converse All-Stars are not proper Ren Faire attire! The photos above show only a small fraction of what I've seen the two times I've been there! Yikes! Some people are really scary.

By the way, if a tree falls in the wods and there is no one there to hear it, does it still make a sound?...I dunno...Knock the broad with the tattooed tree over, run away fast, and maybe we'll be lucky enough to find out!

"Heinz Field, Here We Come!"

So, Lori and I went to the Monday night football game in Pgh. vs. the Ravens, and oh, what fun it was! She had never been there, so we made the day of it. A quick stop in good, ole GC for the tickets, then south to the city of bridges, and the home of the black and gold.

We pulled into the parking lot around 4:45, set up our rolling tailgate party, and took it all in. There was some serious tailgating being done, and we enjoyed seeing it all. For some of these people, a tailgate party is more like a religion or way life.

Black and Gold campers and vans, 15 ft high flagpoles, grills, coolers, cornhole games, and, of course, beer! It was fun. I even got to see my good friend, Bill and his wife Carrie.

The game started out boring and even a bit scary, but Santonio Holmes' magic TD reception and Lamaar Woodley's slow-motion fumble recovery for td electrified the place like I'd never seen it before. It was like a playoff game. Heimz Field was a'rockin', and the Steeler nation was loving every minute of it!

It was another throwback jersey night as you can see, and some retired veteran Steelers were there to be recognized. It was good seeing the old guys come out for the game (Kevin Greene still looks scary, by the way!)

We took a trip up to the top of Mt. Washington to take in the view of the city from above after the game, and finally went to bed around 3am. The next morning, I took Lori around the South Side, my old stomping grounds, the place of my birth, and where my cousins and I got into a lil' bit of trouble more than a few times.

Lori got to see her team and their fans in action, and I did some flashing back to the good ole days! Truly an awesome two days! Can hardly wait to go again!

Dogs, and dog owners...

...On a skit during one of his shows, Jerry Seinfeld hit it right on the head when he described aliens looking at people walking their dogs, and said, by the look of things, they would think the dog was the superior being. If you doubt this, go to a dog show, and watch not only the show itself but what is involved in getting a dog ready to show. These dogs have it made.

I recently went to a show in Kutztown. Lori was showing both Maybelline and Fannie, and there was a good chance one of them would win something. Well, after leaving at 5am and getting there at around 7, I of course was ready for a nap. The only creatures though who could catch some z's on this particular morning were the dogs. They slept while we "set up camp!" The canopy, the chairs, the grooming table, etc. Amazing!

The thing that most surprised me however was that, even though we had a lot of 'stuff', we didn't have anything compared to what some of the other people had. Winnebagos that I could live in, fences, generators, grills, etc. If you could think of it, it was most likely there!

We won't get into the intricate grooming set ups for some of these pooches (They could make high-priced hair salon owners green with envy!). Let's leave it by saying that there are some people who spent so much time, and probably so much money, grooming their precious canine wanna-be champions that I'm sure they had little time for anything else! Mind-boggling, to say the least!

I saw dogs in carts being pulled around the parking lot (What the...?), dogs being carried (Again, what the...?), dogs being driven around in golf carts while other people walked behind them. Poopers-scoopers aplenty. A lot of dogs had 'professional groomers' and 'professional handlers' in their quest for a blue ribbon! Big money in some of these pampered pooches, for sure! Like I say, you name it, and it was there!

For me, it was a learning experience if nothing else. I've seen the shows on tv, but I never knew what they were about. Never knew how much money went into a 'show dog'. Never understood how politics could be so prevalent in what should be harmless competition (but it is there in abundance...you want the ribbon?...play the game!). Mostly, I never understood how seriously some of these people took this, and how much money they were willing to spend to get their dog's picture on the winner's platform! This is serious competition!