What a Sunrise With a Warning.

I had a great sunrise this morning. I remember a sailor saying "Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning. Red skies at night, sailors delight". Well, this one turned out to be very true as you will see. The sun came up as a beam through the sky. The only thing I did to the pictures was crop them.
It continued to rise in all it's beauty. Isn't this amazing?
It was almost over.
It's ready to finish. It's all done and look at the roads as clear as can be.
Here is my drive home. This is a split four lane road with only one of the two lanes passable on my side. We were going 40 MPH.

Jake Went to Groomer

Jake or Pomeranian was getting a little shaggy after going 9 weeks since his last grooming. He goes to The Wizard of Paws which is a great play on words.
Here he is all groomed with his scarf on after the groomers. He continues to get darker on his back. He is a good looking old fellow.

Bobbie Cutts Gets Life in Prison

The trail and sentencing of Bobbie Cutts is complete (you can see the article from the paper when he was convicted). He was given life in prison and no chance of parole until for 57 years when is 89 years old. A juror said his confession when he plead for his life was the worst thing he had done. The juror said that they weren't positive that he had truly done it with malice until they heard his plea. Bobbie Cutts definitely knew what he was doing and as a policeman knew what he was doing. The cover up truly had the worst effect when he killed his pregnant girlfriend. He probably will never get out of prison.

Prostate Cancer Report

I had blogged recently on the fact that my brother-in-law had found he had Prostate Cancer. His PSA reading were not as high as mine and his Gleason score was low. His Cancer was not as aggressive as mine was. He had Radioactive Seeds implanted in the Prostate. He is doing well at this point and does not have the road to recovery that I had.

This treatment was much less invasive then the Radical Prostatectomy that I had. Dr. Zippe said that he would have done the same procedure as he had done on me if he was to do it today. The way Prostate Cancer is controlled is based on your condition.

Prostate Cancer is very dangerous to men so a PSA test is an easy way to insure your health. If you are over 40 talk to your doctor.

NE Ohio Geese

We have flocks of non-migratory Canadian Geese that stay all year round in our area. They have adapted to the area. I think they were feeding on the grass in the yard. I had a picture of another flock on the lake last week.

This is a picture from a flock of about 30 Geese in a yard before the big snow hit yesterday. You can no longer see the grass. I caught this one as it was making a turn in a perfect pose. I was about 75 feet away with my close-up extended out to about 20:1. I used a fence to support the camera.

Snowy Day in NE Ohio

We received a gift 12" of snow today. This is a street in the neighborhood at noon. The snow is scheduled to continue until 2 AM tonight. I love the way the trees look but the snow is packing snow and really hard to move when you clean the driveway. Our road saw the first plow of the day at 6:30 PM.

Where is the road? --------- It's between the mailboxes. I took this picture of a pine in the neighborhood.
This one is beside my deck, don't they both look decorated like a flocked tree.
Here is my back yard with the snow cover. It just kept coming down all day.
The family of snowmen down the street. The kids got a day off school because of the roads and took full advantage to play outside. They must have two older and one younger child.

Brooks & Dunn 'Cowboy Town'

I would like to say up front I'm not a critic, I'm a fan of Country Music and movies. Saying this in front it's hard for me to say a CD doesn't meet my expectations. I have to say that 'Cowboy Town' was not my favorite CD. The songs that have been released from the CD have been good so I expected more of the same. It's lucky I bought the CD at Wal-Mart because it had three Wal-Mart exclusive songs that were pretty good.

I really enjoy Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn as a duo. I feel Ronnie Dunn is the best singer of the two and has done some great ballads through the years. 'God Must Be Busy' falls into that category. There is another good song which was already released 'Proud of the House We Built'.

"Cowgirls Don't Cry' is the third song on the standard tracks which I enjoyed. I feel a lot of the other songs are so-so.

All the Wal-Mart exclusive tracks are ones I like. 'Cowboys, Cowboys' has a great beat and "Damn Right I'm Gonna Miss You' are both led by Ronnie and his soulful sound. Kix does a song 'Walk Away Slow' which is a better song by him.

I think if you like Brooks and Dunn you need to buy the CD from Wal-Mart for the extra tracks.

Abraham Lincoln Art Blogs

I added another Artist to my Art Blogs. It is called The Brookville Daily Photo Blog. Check it out when you get a chance. He is from Ohio and He really has a way with words.

It is written by 73 year old Abraham Lincoln. He is a relative and named after the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). He has such a great way with stories and pictures that are truly unbelievable.

Check out some of his other blogs also including his My Bird Blog. The pictures he has of birds are outstanding.

Fish Finders Find Fish

I'm going to borrow from an old wood chuck tongue twister for this:

How many fish
can a fish finder find
if a fish finder can find fish?

A fish finder will find
all the fish it will find
if a fish finder will find fish.

Call it what you like fish finder, depth finder, fish locator, sonar unit. No matter what you call it it's a way to learn the depth, bottom structure and location of the fish underwater. There is one thing about looking into a lake, you don't know how deep it is unless you can see bottom in the shallows. Sometimes on a windy day even that isn't possible.

How does a fish finder work. It sends a sonar signal from the transducer to the bottom of the lake and receives an echo back to the transducer that converts it to an image which is then recorded on your screen. If there happens to be a fish in the way it also marks that reading on the screen. I always keep my Lowrance on fish mode so it draws a fish shape and also tells me the size of the fish. All helps are good while fishing.

So when do I depend on my fish finder. There are two times I use it extensively:
1. You need to know what depth the water is where you are running while trolling a lure behind the boat . It's nice to see a fish on the fish finder but sometimes they come from the side and you get strikes when least expected. I can stay at the constant depth and keep the lures in the catching zone for a longer time.
2. Another time is when searching the bottom for structure that are holding fish. I can remember several time when the fish finder told me there was structure under the boat and fish were on the structure that I have caught fish from the spot. One time I caught an 18" rainbow trout from that place I would have never dropped my bait to the bottom. There was another time I sat over a school of fish in an area 50 foot from shore and caught a variety of fish from the spot. The people on shore couldn't believe that I kept pulling in the fish one after the other.

So I use the tools I have to make myself a better fisherman.

Tiger Wins 6th in a Row

Tiger easily beat Stewart Cink to win the Accenture World Match Play Championship for the third time. Tiger had two close matches out of the six but had no problem closing out this one on the 29th hole of the 36 hole championship round. That meant that Americans finished 1st, 2nd and 4th for a very good American showing in the Tournament.
Way to go Tiger, The Masters is coming in April as the first Major of the year. I believe Tiger will be Number 1 in the Fed-Ex Cup after having played only two tournaments.

Remembering Grandpa - The Grape Arbor

I have some wonderful memories of my grandfather. I spent a lot of time with him when I was young. Things change as you get older and have a family of your own to with witch to live. The other thing to happen was we moved from PA to OH. I would make a real effort to see my parents but maybe should have seen my grandparents more often.

I was just thinking about the grape arbor he had in his back yard. It was built from heavy wood and had seating on two sides. The grapevines had grown over the top of the arbor and they were a wonderful tasting green and purple grapes. It was great to be under the arbor on a hot day because of the cooling effect of the vines and leaves. I would sit there in the summer and be able to pick fresh grapes that were fun to eat. The two types of grapes definitely had different tastes. The people of that day knew how to take advantage of nature.

My grandmother made stuffed grape leaves and was able to make them from the fresh grape leaves from the grape arbor. She really had a talent with food and everything she made I ate with gusto. My Dad also made the stuffed grape leaves and would go and find wild growing grapes to use for the wrapper.

She also made a salad from dandelion leaves and I would go out to fields along the road and pick dandelion leaves for them. You had to pick the leaves before they flowered for them to taste better. The salad definitely had a bite but whatever dressing she put on it made it a treat.

Tiger Wins Both Matches Today

Tiger played well enough to win his to matches today. He handled AJ Choi fairly easily and advanced to the final 4. He then beat last year Champion Henrick Stenson in the last few holes to advance to the final 2. This leaves two Americans in the World Championship 36 hole Match. Justin Leonard will play Stenson for third place.

Stewart Cink hasn't won on the tour for since 2004, in which he won twice, and Tiger is going for seven wins in seven starts around the world. It sounds like a mismatch but sometimes golf can be a funny game. Cink played a wonderful front nine today with 5 birdies and an eagle. That would of given Tiger a run today. We'll have to see what he does tomorrow.

Tiger Moves on in Match Play

Tiger takes 20 holes to beat Arron Baddley. The pair had 22 birdies between them but the final Birdie on the 20tth hole wins it for Tiger. The field is cut to 8 players with Tiger playing AJ Chio. Tiger is still going forward to win 6 tournaments in a row.
Badds had birdie putts on 17, 18 and 19 but couldn't close the door on Tiger. If you give Tiger a chance the inevitable will happen.
The field is cut to 4 in the morning and then to 2 in the afternoon. The finals are tomorrow when they go to a 36 hole tournament. I wonder if he can win again this year?

Added Anna to my Artist Blog List

I had a visit from another great photographer to my artist list. It is Anna from Atlanta, GA. I really like her work and the sharing of her faith. She does a photo a day and has a great eye for she sees through the camera. You should visit the sight to see her work.

She has a great moon photograph from the eclipse on Wednesday night.

Here is a progressive photo from our local newspaper showing the Lunar eclipse. It says the next eclipse will be 0n 12/21/2010. I hope you saw this one.

Done With the Cold

We are done the with the freezing cold weather from yesterday. The problem is the warmer weather has brought back the snow. I usually drive into the main plant on Fridays but the weather has stopped me from making the drive. We got 6" of snow overnight and now we are supposed to get a freezing rain with black ice on top of what is already here. We are under a winter storm watch until 7 PM. I can hardly wait until this storm passes.

This winter is getting really old. I'm getting ready for a change. I know we still have a month to go but I'm ready for a change.

Tiger Goes For 6 In a Row

Tiger Woods #1 player was playing JB Holmes #16 player in the Accenture Match Play Championship. They play the high rank players against the low rank players so you have the best rising to the finals. They forgot to tell JB that this was an easy win for Tiger.

It was a JB who had Tiger down 3 with five holes to play. Tiger isn't one to give up. JB hits a long ball and out drove Tiger almost every time.

The story then goes as follows:

Hole 14 - 15' Birdie 2 down with 4 to play

Hole 15 - 18' Birdie 1 down with 3 to play

Hole 16 - 20' Birdie all square with 2 to play

Hole 17 - 35' Eagle 1 up with 1 to play

Hole 18 - Par JB misses Birdie - Tiger wins

Yes, that's 88' of putts on 4 holes, no wonder he's the #1 player in the world.

JB had an excellent response. “You’re playing the best player in the world, 3 up with 5 to play,” JB Holmes said. “I just said, ‘Don’t do anything stupid. Make him beat you.’ And he did. What do you do?”

Single Digits This Morning

It's cold outside today. It was 7 degrees F when I woke up this morning and it went down to 5 degrees F before I was out the door. There was no wind so it didn't feel that bad. I didn't even wear my gloves while scrapping the ice off the window. The best thing about being this cold is that you don't get snow at this temperature. It's supposed to warm up some tomorrow and we will get snow and maybe a freezing mix. It's so much fun in NE Ohio.

Eclipse of the Moon

We had a total Lunar Eclipse in NE Ohio tonight. This picture was about 15 minutes before there was a total eclipse which shaded the Moon from shining. It was a great night for pictures with no clouds.
How many of you know how an eclipse of the Moon happens? The first thing you have to understand is where the Moon gets the light to shine toward the earth. The light comes completely from the Sun. The Sun shines its light toward the Moon and the Moon reflects the Suns light back to the Earth. An eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon. The Earth shadows the Sun from shining on the part of the Moon. You are actually seeing a portion of the earths shadow on the Moon.

Trisha Yearwood 'Love Songs'

My wife gave me a copy of this CD for Valentines Day. It has a great picture of Trisha on the cover. I would think most of you know that She is married to Garth Brooks. That certainly is a combination of two powerful voices.

The album opens with her first release from 1991 'That's What I Like About You'. This is what brought her into fame with the CD. She really is a powerful singer.

Also in 1991 was her signature song that is still played today. It went to Number 1 on the charts, 'She's In Love With the Boy'.

In 1992 she sang a super ballad that showed pure emotion 'Down On My Knees'. I'm a sucker for ballads anyways, so I really enjoy this one.

She followed it in 1993 with two other great ballads, 'I Don't fall In Love So Easy' and 'The Nightingale'

Two years later in 1995 "Thinkin About You' went Number 1.

In 1998 she did 'I'll Still Love You More', another really good ballad.

There are 14 love songs in all ranging from 1991 to 2005. If you like Trisha's voice you will really enjoy this CD.

I Added a New Art Blog

I added a new blog to my Art Section. Gina from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia is a scrapbook artist and adds so much more with her stories of her life in Tasmania. She has beautiful pictures of Tasmania, her love of scrap booking, her family and her cooking. I would recommend a trip to Australia to check out her sight. Tasmania is definitely a country I know little about and hope to learn more through the visits. Tasmania is located off the South East coast of Australia toward Antarctica. From the pictures they have beautiful weather right now. Our winter corresponds to their summer. Here is a picture of Hobart from Mt. Wellington.

Everyone knows the Tasmanian Devil from cartoons but how many of you know the real animal. The Tasmanian Devil is the only carnivorous marsupial still living. That means its a meat eater and has a pouch for raising their young. That mouth certainly is full of teeth. They give off a bad odor when scared. It certainly has skunk colors.

Sports Weekend Recap

NASCAR: Ryan Newman #12 wins the 50th running of the Daytona 500. The Dodges won 6 of the top 8 places. Toyota's finished 3rd and 4th place finishes. The Chevy's and Toyota's who had dominated the starting races up to this point ended up with a Chevy only having a 9th place finish.
NBA: The All Star Game and the rookie verses sophomore game were dominated by the Cavaliers. Boobie Gibson won the MVP with in the sophomore win and King Lebron James won the MVP east win of the game. There was an unforgettable dunk at the end of the game that showed how good James won.

Golf: Phil Michelson won his 33 tournament at Rivera Country Club. Phil has been playing well this year with a second last week and a win this week. Phil looks like Tigers only real competition so far this year. Tiger goes for his 6th tournament win in a row this coming weekend.

The Weather Has Gone Crazy Again

We had another roller coaster weekend. We reached a high of 56 F yesterday and all our snow has melted and we see grass again. It will be 28 F by 5 PM and snow is predicted for tonight. It is a real up and down this February. There were high winds last night that woke me up. It was really howling as the front moved in with the wind blowing up to 30 mph. It supposed to stay cold with another snowstorm on Wednesday. This is really crazy weather this winter.

Canton Murder Trail

Bobby Cutts a Canton police officer was found guilty of killing his girlfriend and unborn child. He had used an accidental death defence which didn't fly with the jury. He did the deed in front of his child and left the child alone as he hid the body. This is a time when justice was done in a trail. It's a shame when police men think they are above the law.

KSU honors past athletes.

There was a halftime program at the basketball game where the athletes from the NFL 2008 Pro Bowl were honored. There were three former KSU athletes who were honored. They gave out a poster that was a little too large to show. It said "Excellence in Action" Congratulation! All thre were undrafted free agents and are doing really well in the NFL.


Here is a picture on the overhead projector from the Pro Bowl Game. Joshua Cribbs plays for the Cleveland Browns. Cribbs was the KSU quarterback and is now a return specialist for Cleveland
James Harrison Jr. plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harrison was and is a defensive end. He is shown here with the KSU Atheletic director and Flash the mascot.
Antonio Gates plays for the San Diego Chargers. Gates was a Basketball Star at KSU and is now a wide receiver for San Diego. Gates did not attend the halftime program.

What Is It IV

Here's an unusual picture, especially for you in the south. I was driving by Lake Hodgson the other day and saw this sight. If you click on the picture it will become too clear so take a guess first.

Kent State Basketball

Kent State University already has a 20 win season. We went to the game yesterday and I took some pictures. Kent State played the Ohio University Bobcats.
This is the tip off to start the game.
This is Flash the mascot.
The score at half time with the cheerleaders performing.
The cheerleaders liked to do lifts.
KSU went on to win their 21st game 72-62 in a convincing fashion over the #2 conference team.

What Is It III (Continued)

I hope you can see the same tracks going across the lawn. You can tell it's not a large animal. Are there any more guesses? Click on picture to enlarge.

What Is It III

This one is not a close up but what is it.

I hope it's not too tricky.

A Welcome to Family & Friends

A welcome to our house. Our house is open around the clock to the grandchildren and we love to have them stay over when possible. We do go by Nana and Papa to all the grandchildren. I thought the icicle formation behind the sign was very nice so I took a picture of it. It certainly is a reminder of the weather we are having in North East Ohio.

Guy Pernetti Plays for Valentines Day

We went to see Guy Pernetti at the Rusty Nail in Twin Lakes, Ohio. He is playing there the third Thursday night of the month from 7 PM to 9 PM. He is always a pleasure to listen to his guitar mastery and singing. We have seen Guy perform several time. He was playing alone without his bass player. This did nothing to deter from his performance. Here is a You Tube of one of his songs.
He plays a Dobro Resonator for several of his songs.
This Guitar has a sound similar to a steel guitar.
I really don't know how many guitars Guy has but there are many more then are shown here. He is much more of a Blues player but does play country so I tied him into that category.

Happy Valentines Day

Valentines Day is a time to share with your loved ones. It is a time when you tell them how you feel about being with them. Be sure to share with your friends that they mean something in your life. It doesn't have to be sappy it can just be a sharing of something with fun involved.

I think I will take the grandsons to a movie, maybe "The Spider Wick Chronicles". My wife and granddaughter are going away for her birthday trip this weekend.

I hope each of my friends who read my blog will have a great day.

Here's a Funny Cartoon

Crankshaft often has funny cartoons. I thought this one was ideal for the day before Valentines Day.

The Snow Plows Are Running

Snow / Sleet / Rain hit the area yesterday and the wintry mix really messed up the roads. The snow trucks did the best they could to keep up but the roads are a mess. This is the part of winter I like the least. I had a coating of ice on the driveway after my snow blower did the best it could. This is what you get living in North East Ohio. I thought this was a great picture from the newspaper of what the plows were working on yesterday.

Two Signs of Retirement

I'm able to play the radio while working but I have a true sign of retirement that my daughter made for me one Christmas. The sign is very true. I do fishing for fun. I work to support my family. Here is a closeup of the sign. it always reminds me of my daughter and my passion. If you ask if you can be passionate about fishing just consider the amount of time I spend on the lake trying to find fish.
I also have a cup that holds my markers. Since I fish on a lake without water skiers that only leaves two reasons I'm not fishing. At this time the weather is the main reason I'm not fishing. The water is way too hard and unless you drill holes you can't fish. The inconsistency of the weather has made ice fishing dangerous. I have done ice fishing but as of late "I Don't Do Ice".
It will be a couple of month for the water to become soft again and I will be able to get back on the water. That is when WORK will be the only reason I'm not fishing. April is always a cold and miserable month to fish but May is when great fishing will start. I can't wait to be on my boat again. I can't wait until I'm retired.

Having an Off Day

There are those days every once in a while when you just don't feel up to par. I took a sick day off work because I wasn't feeling well. My stomach has bothered me all day. There is a lot of flue in the area and I wonder if my body is fighting with it. I did get a flue shot but maybe the flue bug doesn't know that fact. I hope I feel better tomorrow. It might also be the low pressure area that is over us. Who knows what is going on, I don't.

The weather did give us the 6" of snow they predicted and then it turned to sleet and then rain that covered the cars with ice. It is 28F on the ground, so the rain is freezing as it hits the ground. We have the 6" of snow with an ice cap on top of it.

It's Cold outside

It's 2F outside. I went to start the car this morning and it didn't like me. The wind is blowing and making it feel -12F. The blizzard from yesterday that left an ice covering is going to change to a snow storm of 6" tomorrow. It will only go into the teens today with cold tomorrow.
Most of the areas schools are closed because of the cold. It looks like snow blower weather tomorrow.

My Grandparent on Fathers Side

These are my grandparents. I was named after my grandfather and was the first grandson to carry on the family linage. This always made me special in their eyes and I was treated really well by my grandparents. We lived above a dairy when I was young which was behind my grandparents house. We moved across town when I was about 5.
This is exactly how I remember my grandfather looking. He was retired by the time I could remember him. He came to America in the early 1905. He was the first from his family to travel across the ocean. He was a very spiritual man and I can remember him sitting at the window and reading the bible. He had a knack for gardening and would take roses and make new plants. He had a grape arbor which was a beautiful cool place to sit and relax. This is my grandmother. She came to America when my grandfather asked for her to come. She had been promised to him as a child. That is the way they did things back then. She was a kind person and would make bread for all the family. She had a kitchen in the basement of the house where she did the baking. The smells coming out of the basement where out of this world. She would make small loaves with butter (which she churned fresh) in the bread. That certainly was a treat. I would ride my bike across town to visit them when I was about 12 during the summer. It was about 8 miles on city streets but I never felt any danger while travelling across town.
I loved to visit with them and they loved having me come to see them. We used to have family reunions every year and everyone in the family would come and get together every summer.