The Joys of Cell Phone Theft

It is amazing all the things you can think about when your step-daughter tells you that her phone has been missing for two days.  Your comfortable world just disappears.  It helps, of course, if you are a creative, chronic worrier like me.  I can think of many, many things to worry about that others might miss.  People like me have difinite uses.  We are the ones who dream up what the terrorists might do.  We are also the ones who come up with things that will not happen.  At any rate, back to the cell phone.

It was laid down for a minute and some one stole it.  How do I know they stole it?  They sold it within twenty four hours.  Here is where we get really lucky.  A friend called the number and someone answers.  Already I am beating the curve.  A  few calls later, a meeting is arranged at Dort Highway and Carpenter to pick up the phone.  at 8 PM.  That left lots of things to worry about, but, you know what, it all came off without a hitch.  We got the phone back.  I knew it could happen but I never bet it would happen.  We paid the person returning it the money he had paid for it.  I think that is only fair.  I really have to thank him for bothering with returning it at all.  He made our day. 

The Saint Augustine Trolley

One great thing about giving trolley tours in Bay City, Michigan is being able to enjoy tours given in other places.  Saint Augustine is a wonderful example of how to run a trolley tour.  If you go there, I have to recommend the Old Town Trolley Company.  For twenty dollars for a ticket,  I got to ride on their train for three days. 

I learned about Flagler College and its Tiffany windows.  I learned about one of the most beautiful Churches I have seen in the United States, Saint Augustine's Presbyterian Church. I sampled wine, walked on bastions, went down crowded alleys to quaint shops and had good dinners for not much money. 

It was a great time.  Entries to follow on the Fort San Marcos, the trolley and  all the beautiful hotes in the city.

Saint Augustine, Florida

I  left my blog the last time before I went to Jacksonville, Florida.  So many things have happened since then, but first,  I want to give some idea of my experience in Jacksonville and Saint Augustine. 

Jacksonville is one of the most expansive cities in the United
States.   That is a great surprise since I didn't think of it as large.  It is about fifty miles from Jacksonville Airport, JAX, to Jacksonville Beaches.  The whole trip is more or less city intersparsed with large rivers and bridges spaning them. 

Jacksonville Beach really delivered.  My main problem with it was that It took me three or four days to find out that a beautiful beach was just down the path in town.  It was not more that five hundred feet away and that I had been driving by it for most of the week while thinking that there were no beaches in the city.  Wrong... You can walk for miles on the beach in the city.  It is beautiful.

More to come.

 

Epigenome and Epigenetic - Words I learned Today

 

"Epigenetics is the study of epigenetic inheritance, a set of reversible heritable changes in gene function or other cell phenotype that occur without a change in DNA sequence (genotype). These changes may be induced spontaneously, in response to environmental factors, or in response to the presence of a particular allele, even if it is absent from subsequent generations."

That is a lot of words to say that a bunch of material located on the strands of DNA but not the DNA itself determines which genes are turned on or off.  The genes are The DNA but the material that surrounds them has lots to do with how or what they express.  OR!  material that is changed during the life of one person is passed on to that person's descendants.  Sometimes that works for three or four generations or more.  That is a whole lot like the old Lamarkian Theory.  It also means that some of the  things we do, what we eat, what is in our environment will determine some of the characteristics of our descendants.  This idea would have gotten you thrown out of a college biology class in the 1960's.   Do a Google search and find out what you think of it. 

 

My First Year Hunting with a Bow

This is also the first year that I am using my cell phone camera to take pictures of myself in the kitchen of my house.  That explains the slight quality problem.  The camera is neat though.  I hang it from a magnetic hook on the front of the refrigerator.  Set the camera to 10 second delayed flash.  Stand back and frame the picture in the viewfinder that is facing me. (that is why the camera projects your picture when the cover is closed) and wait for the picture.  It is the easiest way to get your own picture I know of.  Look for more of the same. 

 

Have a great day,

user225937's AOL Pictures Public Gallery

user225937's AOL Pictures Public Gallery. 

 

 

Pictures and Daily Rambles

So my picture of the address by my drive way finally made.  It is added to Daily Rambles.   This sign has a long, in fact too long, history.  It started as some of the many rocks, stones, "boulders" that my wife, Sue, had me move to the yard when we first came out here to live in 1998.  Tons of stones were moved at that time.  Lots of them came from the middle of Tuscola County, on Hardy Road.  Then came the flowers and finally, this year, I  made the sign pole. 

The sign pole took quite a bit of thinking.  Oh, I know you doubt it but retirees have quite a bit of time to think.  How should I put it together?  Most of that was about what should be done to attach the horizonal arm.  Should it be made up of parts to wrap around the post pole?  Should it butt against the pole and be secured with right angle brackets?  What should I do?  I cut a 3.5x3.5x1.75 inch dado in both pieces and joined them.  No problem.  The whole thing was lots of fun and took about two hours.  Anyway, thanks for the time.

 

Your Halloween Treat

Your Halloween Treat :

I watched the movie Neufertuto.  It is the Dracula story with some new twists.  The pictures themselves were very clear compared to silent movies I have seen.   I have to wonder if an part of Germany was like the background of the movie in 1913.

 

user225937's AOL Pictures Public Gallery

Bay City, Michigan was part of the Tall Ships celebration on the Great Lakes this year.  What a story these ships have to tell about how we lived and traveled only a century ago. 

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat! :

Ah yes, trick or treat.  Click on the link,  I can't say no to that face asking for candy.  I can't say no to the shy ones either, or the big ones looking so grown up but so young in the eyes and two feet taller that two years ago.  The money I have spent on candy in the last forty years is not one of my regrets.  It was a good night in Vassar, Michigan.

Hunting with a Stick and a String

For the last two months, I have been slowly, slowly building up  all the things you need to go into hunting deer with a bow.  This is a casual hobby for me.  I don't plan on hunting in the  rain.  If I am tired, I don't plan on hunting,  I only plan on hunting if I want too.  That, of course, does not include situations where I am hunting with a buddy..  In those cases, we will hunt at almost any cost.  I do have my pride. 

Anyway, back to the bow.  I got one about the first of September of this year.  It is a PSE.  I now know that is a Precision Shooting Equipment bow.  At the time, I didn't know anything. I was lucky because it turns out to be a pretty good old bow.  What I didn't know was that bows have changed over the last fifty years.  I shot my bow, also the result of technical changes, quite a bit from 1957 to 1964.  But, do the math, that is a while ago now.  In 1957, I got a fiberglass bow, a new thing,   It looked like a long bow.  It had no wheels, no crossed strings and definitely no iron.  My new bow has all of the above.  It also needed a sight, a rest, and a mounted quiver.  Acquiring these items is what was involve with the set up part of the hobby.  That is all done now though.  I am about one hundred dollars shorter and the bow is about three pounds heaver.   I am good to go. 

My friends know that I am good to go.. That means that I better get started in the field or in the woods or even down the road but a huntin I had better go or face mild harassment.  Into the corn field I went.  Now, this corn field is just tailor-made for hunting.  Rows, twenty feet wide had been cut in it for use in harvesting later on.  Walking down the rows, I could see deer tracks.  This was getting to be fun.  It was so quite.   I could feel the weight of the bow.  A gun is different.  What do you do with the arrow.  Should it be in the bow?  If so, how do you keep it from falling.  If not, how do you get the time to move it into position while being very quiet and watching a buck that is really better at this than you are.  I elected to have it nocked or placed on the string and ready to go. 

Suddenly, after only about twenty minutes walk from the house, I stop and listen.  There is a sound.  A rustle in the corn means a big animal is near.  I can't see a thing and it is twilight.  Finally, there is a burst of noise.  One hundred and forty feet from me, this deer bursts into the clearing.  That is too far to even consider shooting with a bow.  It would make it but I wouldn't reliably hit anything.  What a thrill and a surprise to see that deer.  As darkness fell, I walked home, feeling happy and  lucky to be there with that old bow.  It was fun.