Oh, My, How Time Goes By!

Just in case there is anyone left who looks at my blog--I will still keep it going, but since I'm WAY more active on Facebook, the bulk of my postings will be there. I just don't have the time to put everything in two places--talk about redundancy! If you don't have a Facebook, page, GET ONE! If you have some aversion to Facebook, let me know, and I'll be sure to get pics & such to you.

From Curse to Blessing......?

I saw this bizarre ad on my sidebar on Facebook, and was intrigued.....
http://www.celle.com/
I thought they were kidding or something--I mean, this is just too weird! But no, it's true, legitimate, and in fact, may be a breakthrough of sorts--more research needs to be done, of course. Here's an article about it--
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21996417/

More Electric Vehicles

I had a post a while back showing off these nifty electric cars--now they are offering trucks! O.K., so they're not exactly manly.....but for someone whose kids are grown, and who doesn't usually have much to haul, they'd be great!
The first pic is the three wheeled car they had-- And two shots of the truck.

The sides and back fold down so it can haul larger items. However, the payload is only something like 500 pounds. Again, for someone like me, who just wants to bring home a few bags of mulch, it would be fine.

Here's a link to the manufacturer's site, with lots more info--

http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-cars/xebra-truck

Alpaca Antics

Brad, Leo & I went to an open house at an Alpaca farm recently. Here's the website for that ranch--http://hometown.aol.com/zehorsegal/ELLIOTTILLINOISALPACAS.html

And here's a website about alpacas in America--

http://www.alpacainfo.com/

I can't remember this guy's name........but he was very patient. Alpacas are quite gentle.

My new buddy......?
The fibers were super soft, right off the animal.
Anything made from alpaca fibers is soft & silky, just like cashmere!

Iowa City Sights

I have been remiss in my blogging duties lately......just haven't felt well much of the time, and been too busy catching up on chores when I am feeling O.K.! But here I am, and here are my posts~!

I've been in Iowa City a lot lately, thanks to my health issues--but at least we found some interesting tidbits to show you! First is the Robert's Dairy Cow.

Yes, I just HAD to milk her! Leo really didn't want to take this shot--he didn't want anything to do with the corniness!
We just liked this guy's massive bumper sticker collection. By the looks of the vehicle, I'd be willing to bet the bumper stickers are what's holding the thing together.......well, college students don't usually have a lot of spare cash!

What can I say? College students will do a lot of weird stuff to earn money. This poor guy (or gal--how can you tell....?) was trying to pull in business for Papa John's Pizza.

House Fire Tour

This home in Davenport was the scene of a fatal fire recently ( http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/09/04/news/local/doc48c08529454ee290544412.txt?sPos=1 ). The family gave permission for the fire department to give educational tours of the house, to educate people about how to prevent such fires. Leo, Brad, Leo, his friend Kyle, & I took the tour, and it was very eye opening.
This is the living room, where the fire started. The fire itself was entirely contained to this corner of the room, where a power strip next the the sofa was covered with debris, causing a heat buildup--and a fire. All the walls in the house were covered in black soot. The walls were originally white.
This is a pic the fire investigator took of the source of the fire. You can see the power strip on the floor--or what's left of it.
This is a closeup of the power strip. It was sent to a lab for further analysis.
The kitchen sink. I took this shot to show just how thick the smoke was. This sink is as far away from the fire as you could get in the house, around two corners, in the opposite corner of the house. The residents died of smoke inhalation, but they might have lived if their smoke detector had been properly installed. It was functional, but was on the floor--and didn't go off until after they were likely dead.
My thanks to the family for allowing the DFD to give these educational tours. A lot of people came, and I think it was obvious the tour had an impact on everyone who participated. Please, make sure you have working smoke detectors, and that they are installed properly. I sure will!

Ha So!

We found these over-the-top inflatables in front of Osaka's new location in Davenport (off 53rd). They were just so.....BIG! and so.....GOLD!
They certainly did grab your attention, which is, of course, the point. Wish I could afford to eat there sometime! Maybe with the tax return......?

I LIVE WITH A KILLER!!!

Our cat Frank likes to go outside (he has a harness and a leash), and fancies himself a mighty hunter. He doesn't usually catch anything, and you can almost hear the small creatures in the yard laughing at him. However, he occasionally gets lucky--I think he sometimes comes across an old animal....well, this morning, in the rain, Frank managed to capture this unfortunate chipmunk--
He meowed & scratched at the door, and when I looked out, he had the thing in his mouth, wanting to bring it in. I'm sure he figured it would be great sport to chase it around the house, where it couldn't get away........It didn't appear to be injured, except that Frank had bitten his tail in two--as seen below....I felt kinda bad, but that's the way of nature. I brought Frank in, gave him a can of wet food (cat people will know why I had to reward him for catching a chipmunk for me--dog people just won't understand....), then went out and guided the unfortunate creature back to the brush. I assume he'll go on to live a normal life, although he'll have a great story to tell his grandchildren about how he escaped the evil clutches of the Devil Cat--and he'll have the stubby tail to prove it!

Graveyard Galavanting

Leo I & spent an afternoon taking pics at Chippiannock & Riverside Cemeteries. Hey, don't laugh--it's really very interesting, and a great way to pump some history lessons into leo! We're also planning on doing some research to learn more about these fascinating places & the history behind some of the graves. Elaborate and/or decorative markers were fashionable in Victorian times.
The Victorians used a lot of symbolism on their grave stones, if they could afford it. Check out this link for an explanation of some of the more common symbols--
http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-tl/pages/Cem_Symbolism.htm

This empty cradle was for a baby named Jamie Sax, who died
in 1887, just shy of six months old. The symbolism of an empty cradle speaks for itself. It was interesting to see that someone had laid two small stuffed toys in the cradle--a memorial for a child dead over 100 years. Rex the faithful dog, at Chippiannock. Follow this link to read the story--

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/437

Another elaborate marker. It would be cool if I could afford something like this when I die......
This one was in a section of Riverside that is very old, and gets very little attention. This particular stone was carved more crudely than most, so I suspect a family member did it, rather than paying a stone mason.
This older section had a lot of immigrants in it--very interesting names!
A cicada emerging from his shell on one of the stones. New life in the grave yard! Even if that new life is a little creepy, it was still sort of touching......
An Armenian grave. There were a lot of Greek, Armenian, and Swedish graves.
A family who lost a set of twins very young. Possibly they were too small, premature, or had some other ailment they couldn't treat then. No way to know now. But it's something to keep in mind, that in the past, a mother could be reasonably sure she'd lose some of her children to disease.

Stop Drop & Roll!

Leo & I took some shots at the fire department training center, as we were on our way to take pics at Riverside Cemetery.

Their mascot--he doesn't eat much!
The building is cool--used to be the fire department for this part of town a very long time ago.

Oh, My.........

First Storm Pics

These pics were all taken the day of the storm, after the worst of it was over. Leo took some, I took some. A neighbor's house. Thankfully, we did not have any branches damage our house or garage, but not everyone was so lucky.A large tree split, and a third of it fell across our street, blocking access.
It was great to see how quickly all the neighbors came out to work on that tree in the road. The guys all got out their chainsaws & muscles, and had it cleared off the street in no time.
This was on the next street over. This guy's car was on the news several times--but then, it is pretty dramatic!
Our new neighbors, who had just finished moving in Sunday night, had a large tree from the backyard fall on their house. They have eight big holes in the roof. It also ripped the service off their house, but Brad went down & hooked it back up for them. He also hooked up the service for two other neighbors. They all thought it was pretty handy to have an electrician in the neighborhood!
Damage like this was the norm. No one escaped having some damage, and everyone had enough to make some pretty big brush piles.

Our neighbor's trampoline, blown up on the fence. And the tree along our driveway--it broke in half, and was laying across the driveway.
A closeup of the trampoline.
The main road up from our street had a very large tree down, which landed on the power lines running across the road, pulling the pole out of whack.
A tree down the street.

AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

We were hit by a pretty nasty storm early Monday morning (described as a "derecho"--Google it) and I have been without power, and thus without internet, since then. I'm on borrowed time here at my mom's (the withdrawal symptoms were just about killing me......).The story so far--the power pole at the back corner of our property, which had a transformer on it, snapped in two. In fact, about a third of all the poles in the neighborhood snapped in two, and a good many of the others are leaning dangerously. Everyone has power lines down on their property, and everyone has damage to one degree or another. Thankfully, the service on our house itself is undamaged, so once the power is restored, we'll be in business. And Brad was able to procure a generator from Koehler, which we're using intermittently to do laundry, wash dishes, and take showers (we're also taking advantage of the showers at the YMCA, now that they are up & running again!). Brad repaired the electrical service on the homes of a couple of our neighbors, and got a good second hand snowblower in payment. That should come in handy this winter!I have loads of cool pics of the storm and its aftermath, and am currently taking pics of the progress as the repair crews work. But, since I'm unable to download pics from my camera to mom's computer without a lot of fuss, you'll have to wait until my computer is out of hibernation to see them. I think you'll enjoy them--I did not enjoy living through it, however. On the morning of the storm, I was home alone (Brad & Leo had gone to the Y), and was quite ill. Yes, I had stomach pain again.....I was just waiting for Brad to get home to take me to the ER (again). But before he got there, the power went out, the storm hit, and the whole time, I was sitting on the floor rocking back & forth, in horrible pain. It was awful. I was watching the trees bending in half, listening to the wind assault the house, and seeing the neighbor's trampoline blow over onto the fence. I kept hearing cracking & creaking wood, but didn't realize until it was over how much damage had been done. Once the rain let up some, I checked out the back door, and saw the power lines down. I opened the door just to get a clearer look (the door was fogged up) but I could hear that telltale "buzzing" of live power--so I very quickly shut the door & called it in. Then I went back to sitting on the floor, moaning & praying Brad would hurry up & get home. However, he had a tough time getting home, because of all the storm damage along the way.Well, I finally made it to the ER, which was powered by backup generators, got my drugs, and went home. Just a sidenote on that--one of my docs, Dr. Constantinou, is going to have me tested for a variety of genetic disorders (all rare and unusual, naturally) that might explain not only my pain, but a number of other symptoms, as well. We'll see how that goes....Back to the storm--today we finally have crews working to cut out the damaged trees & such from around the pole. They will have to do a lot of clearing in our case, and in the cases of all the others with broken or damaged poles, since they will have to be able to get their equipment back there to set new poles......I do not expect to have power restored for several days, at least. And with Mediacom, who knows when we'll get our cable back! I'll hope for the best. That's all for now--I'll post pics as soon as I can~!

Poking A Bit Of Fun!

Mocha Magnifico!

Check out the "froth creations" in this article--
http://www.corriere.it/openxlink.shtml?http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=477397&in_page_id=1770