My Day out with Ashley

On August 14, 2009 I had my annual day out with my daughter Ashley. Every year I take one personal day and spend it with each of my children. This was my daughters day. I gave each one their choice of what we did. My daughter has chosen the zoo every year and this year was no exception.

We started our day by having breakfast with Grandpa as we did with my son back in July. After this we went home for a while and my daughter took a nap as we met grandpa before he went to work at 6:00am. Around 8:30 she woke up and was ready to go. Now, I had a head cold and needed some medication so we stopped at Walgreens and I bought my medication and we were on our way.

We arrived at the zoo a few minutes before it was to open and Ashley asked if I brought any bread to feed the ducks with. I had not so we went down to the local grocery store and bought a loaf of bread so she could feed the ducks. We went back to the zoo pond which is outside the zoo and fed the ducks before the zoo opened. We then walked around the pond and back to the car about the time the zoo opened.

Now, it was a great day to be at the zoo. The sun was shining and it was in the temperature was in the upper sixties. Even though I felt like crap from my cold and I was sweating like it was in the upper nineties I did my best have a good time with my daughter. Later in the day my daughter asked if she could have her face painted. I first said "no", but then reconsidered. This was something I had never let her do before. She proceeded to look through all the designs in the book and finally decided on a butterfly design. The artist painted her face and we continued our journey through the zoo. Finally around lunch time the temperature warmed up to the point where my daughter indicated she was hot so we went home. Their she continued to play even played with the next door neighbors daughter for a while. All-in-all a great day. Looking forward to doing it again next year.

Johnny Appleseed Festivile

My kids wanted to go to the Johnny Appleseed festivile on Sunday. I tried to get my son to go on Saturday as rain was forcast for Sunday. Fortunately the rain held off and a good time was had by all. Here are some photo's from that event enjoy. At the festivile you can see Musicians, demonstrators, and vendors dress in early 19th century dress, and offer food and beverages which would have been available then. An outdoor drama is also an annual event in Mansfield, Ohio.
The festivile is held in September every year.

For more information about Johnny Appleseed see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed

Small Wonders

As I was walking along today I came across this little thing as I nearly stepped on it. As a slug goes I guess this isn't a little one. But this is one of God's small wonders. I don't remember slugs being quite this big when I was a kid. I am glad I noticed it and was able to hold the camera still enough to take this photo. It is amazing the things we walk through life and miss because we are just too busy to notice them. It had been a very long time since I had seen one of these, quite possibly back in my child hood somewhere. P.S. I haven't been a kid for quite some time.

Neighbors

Neighbors! We all have them. Do you like them? Do you hate them? If you don’t know them then you are lucky! Do you wish they would move? According to the bible we are supposed to love our neighbors as we love our selves, but at times our neighbors make that difficult. I have a couple that I might pay good money to help them move.
Last night I was watching the kids play and I noticed how spectacular the sunset was. I thought I should run in the house and get the camera and take a couple of photographs of it. I took my photographs and had my camera pointed above the neighbor to the West’s house. I saw my neighbor to the South out in his yard so I spoke to him and said high. Walked over to talk for a second and showed him my camera and pictures. I then took my camera back in and put it away.
About two minutes passed and there was a knock on my door. Now, I couldn’t figure out why the kids would be knocking on my door. My neighbor to my West was at the door saying his daughter came in and said I was taking pictures of his house. Does anyone viewing this see a house in those pictures? Maybe the top of the roof line in one or two. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be and that viewfinder is really small. I told him I had not taken pictures of his house that I was taking pictures of the sunset and then went and got the camera to show him. My understanding is that he and the neighbor to the South have a feud going on. They have had trouble before. As I told my neighbor to the West as a rule of thumb I don’t photograph people or their property with out their permission. My photographs will be of trains, animals, my family, or nature. I showed him all the pictures I had on the camera even the ones from the day before. I also told him that I didn’t want to cause any trouble for any one. He said "You don’t want to be involved in any one else drama". I said, "I have enough drama of my own". I am friendly with everyone and try to leave people alone. I won’t say I hate my neighbors, because I don’t believe we are supposed to hate, but I don’t want to be involved in the war. I just wish they would move, but I guess I could get worse neighbors yet. Ah well…. Enjoy the pictures.

One Year Blogger Anniversary

One year ago today I started the journey of blogging. It has been a lot of fun and as my sister said when I first started "There is something therapeutic about it". I have at times written about issues on my mind and also about some fun stuff as well.

Railroad Crossing Safety

On Saturday I decided I would do a little train watching before I came home from work. I stopped at one of my old favorite places near the crossing at Nutman Avenue and stopped to wait. I hear on my scanner that L90 was coming in from the West from Roanoke. L90 works the GM plant south of Roanoke and makes a run both East and West each day.
I heard him call clear at Hugo which is the rail junction just West of the location were I am at so I thought here it comes. Next I know the lights are flashing and the bell is ring and a car screeches to a halt. They then put the car in reverse, but they don’t pull far enough back so the arm on the gate is coming down on top of their car. They then pull forward into the position shown in the photograph.

First off I wonder if the railroad has detection circuits in those railroad crossing arms that if it hits something it goes back up. If not and they had stayed where they were then there would have been a big dent in the top of the car. Quite possibly a big dent anyway. The second problem I had was the question "AM I SAFE HERE?". The problem I had with where the car was setting was that I wasn’t sure that the locomotive would clear the front end of the car. The car had to be a few inches from the tracks from where it is sitting. With the train traveling in my direction that car could be pushed off the tracks and into or on top of my car. Yes, I was concerned for the other motorist as well. One or both of us could have been killed had that locomotive caught the front end of the car or worse if the thing derails.

Keep in mind here when you are crossing the tracks when the lights first go off and the bell starts to ring before the arm comes down you still have time to cross the tracks. In the case of this motorist it would have been better for everyone involved if they had just kept going. The circuits in these crossings are controlled by the speed of the oncoming train. If the train is going 60 mph then they activate much more quickly and the arm comes down much more quickly. If the train is going 20 mph then just the opposite occurs. In this case the train was doing maybe 35 or 40 mph. I believe this area is rated for about 40 mph.

Temptation

As some of you may have read before back on August 3, 2009 started making a major effort to change my life for the better. I want to be a better man and live closer to the way God wants me to live. I want to be a good example to my kids. I have found it amazing the lengths that Satin will go to temp to do things that you shouldn’t do.

Tonight I had the opportunity to have my son come spend some time with me. The problem was I am planning to go to church in the morning and my church is over near Warsaw Indiana. It was insisted that I have him stay overnight and return him tomorrow around 11am. If not then my ex-wife and kids were going home. I even offered to have him come over for just a little while and I would drive him home afterwards. That didn’t work as well. Now, church would not be over until 12:00pm or so and there is no way I can drive back from near Warsaw and have him back in time.

Now, I was raised Southern Baptist (Old Regular Baptist). I have two churches that I go to on a regular basis. One is up near Kendalville Indiana and the other is in Peircton. It is a little different in that it meets at each location only once a month. Google "Old Regular Baptist" if you want more information. So I only go to church twice a month at this point and this would be the second of those times that I go. I have been looking around for other places that I might go for the third and fourth Sunday’s.

At this point I am feeling really tempted by Satin. I love my son very much and it makes me sad that I didn’t get to spend time with him, but my relationship with God has to come first. I am not saying my son tempted me in any way, there were other factors at work here. I can’t go into those at this time, but even though I am sad about not seeing my son I feel I made the right decision. God knows I would spend as much time with him as I could.

At this point in my life I am really feeling good about the way things are going. I am feeling the best I have felt in years. It has been well over a month since I said my last swear word (colorful metaphor as they called them in Star Trek IV the Voyage Home). I have had my struggles, but overall I am doing ok. As I said above it is amazing the lengths that Satin will go to temp you. I heard this said and I agree with this "If it feels right it is ok. If it doesn’t feel right then don’t do it".

Remembering September 11, 2001

At work today we had a moment of silence to remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I remember that morning well. Exactly eight years ago today I was at my desk working when I heard a group talking about it. I got up from my desk and asked questions in disbelief. I went to the Internet for news of what was happening and finally a TV was placed at an open location where we could check the news live. One of the people I work with made some remarks before our moment of silence. He said "This was an event that changed our nation forever". How true this is. Again, I would like to take a moment to remember the friends and family of those who lost someone in this attack on your great country. I would also like to remember those who lost their lives.

Additions to the blog roll

Recently I started reveiwing stuff on the net. Other blogs, peoples photo graphs and ect. Looking for ways to update areas of my blog and for ideas. I am adding to my blog roll a blog that I read quite often. That blog is:



Every Life Has a Soundtrack

http://ataylormadelife.com/blog1/

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Other Blogs of Note:

During my search I found the flowing blogs that I would also like to mention. The "Nikon Sniper" I believe has given me another reason to take out my my Cannon Digital Rebel on a regular basis. The other two blogs have sayings or prayers of interest. Feel free to check out their blogs and enjoy! To return to these blogs later you may bookmark then or click on them in my blog roll.

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NIKON SNIPER
Digital Photography is sorta like sniping with a machine gun. If you get up every day, turn on your camera and put your life on continuous fire, ... sooner or later, you're bound to hit something.

http://nikonsniper.blogspot.com/


MR. Dickie's Blog
The purpose of Mr. Dickies Blog is to provied a place where I can post quotations
I like and write about things that are on my mind.

http://mrdickiesblog.blogspot.com/

Arrow Prayers
Arrow prayers are short prayers that one sends up to heaven at any time and any place.

http://arrowprayers.blogspot.com/

Cool Sunset Photo on Flickr

IMG_0500
Originally uploaded by OCSP

I have been checking out other peoples photo's that they have submitted to flickr. I found this really cool sunset photo out there. Enjoy!