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Since this is the last day of July, I had to get this in under the wire. As you pump gas the next time, count how many seconds that it takes and then consider the following:
Exxon's 2nd quarter profits were a record 11.68 billion (11.97 billion if you don't factor in the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement). That works out to $1485.55 per second in PROFIT! And that clock is tickin' 24/7.
End of rant.
You All
Have A Great Day
Even though I have retired from teaching, I still feel the need, once in a while, to impart important knowledge to the masses. And so;In the rain forests of Malaysia, lives the tiny pentail tree shrew. As far as we know, these shrews are the only mammals, other than humans, that drink beer as a normal part of their existence. The beer comes from the flowers of the bertam palm, that have been invaded by a mysterious kind of yeast, that turns their nectar into alcohol. The highest alcohol levels measured have been about 3.8 %.
These little shrews have never been studied in captivity, but scientists believe that they must have the ability to metabolize the alcohol very quickly, because they never appear drunk. Being drunk would be a threat to their survival, and they seem to be thriving.
So if you run into one of these little fellows in a bar some night, share a small portion of suds with him and I'm sure he'll have some jungle stories to tell you.
For the past few days, Kris, Matt and myself have been experimenting with a form of collaborative poetry called Haikai. You can check my post from 7/23 to get more details. Here's what we have so far. I just added the last two verses and a title. We could call this a finished product or continue. I'm ok with either option.
July Weekend
Summer sun and rain alternate
A pleasant sort of conflict
I doze
Awakening me from slumber
The sun, victorious
My thoughts grow wild
nourished by the heat
wary of a stray cloud
Ideas are abundant
Almost none relate to work
Warm glow of evening
work a distant memory
fresh lemonade smile
Natural calm; the future gleams
like a distant sunset pond
A dog barks, birds chirp
Nature softly plays
her relaxation tape
Sad is not an option
Monday is only a rumor
Here is a picture of the barbershop quartet, Clear Choice, that I sing with. Left to right, that's Terry (subbing for Ray), me, Dan and Jim. We were entertaining at a party before the Akron Aeros baseball game on July 9th. The Aeros are the AA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. That's their mascot, Orbit, in the middle. He has heard us sing many times over the years. That probably explains the slightly crossed eyes.
With age, there is a tendency to have trouble remembering the names of items that should be familiar. On a grocery shopping trip on Wednesday, Sue made sure that we would never have that trouble again. She purchased the Dymo LetraTag electronic label maker (LT-100H, for short). This baby came with a user's manual that is bigger than the one we got with the motorhome. I believe that I first saw this model on an episode of The Jetsons. As you can see in the picture below, we have already put our LT-100H to use, and this is only the beginning.
If you did not see yesterday's post, please check it out and feel free to join in the Haikai collaborative poetry. Thanks much to Kris and Matt for their great verses. I know that there is more creativity waiting to be unleashed out there, so don't be shy.
I have been reading some articles about Haikai, which is collaborative poetry. In Japan, this form of poetry has been around for a long time and is sort of a combination of a game and literature. Haiku is done by just doing one verse, by one person.
I am fairly ignorant of the subtleties of this process, but I thought it might be fun to experiment a bit. Anybody with me? I gather that there are a lot of ways to do this poetry. I am going to set the following, simple guidelines and then let's see what develops.
I will write the first verse, which will be three lines long, with a maximum of 17 syllables.
The brave soul who decides to write verse two is limited to two lines and a maximum of 14 syllables. This verse should show at least a slight reference to the first one, but should also go off in another direction.
The third verse is back to three lines, 17 syllables max. and references verse two with a new twist.
We alternate between two and three line verses.
The poem should always start with a three line verse and end with a two line verse.
The general idea is that each person adds their own little change of direction to the poem and the rest of us hang on and see where we end up.
Put your verses in as comments and identify the number of the verse that you are writing.(just to make it easier for everyone to follow the order). In case two people write the same number verse, the first one added wins.
I hope this will be fun. Here goes:
Summer sun and rain alternate
A pleasant sort of conflict
I doze
I got my first issue of Reminisce magazine yesterday and I read all 67 pages in one evening. I discovered a copy of Reminisce recently in a waiting room somewhere. Since I can't remember where, it proves that I am a person who needs to subscribe to this publication. The format is that people send in stories, pictures and just general facts about life in the 20's through the 60's. The editors pick the best ones and include them in the magazine. Basically, it's a magazine that is written by the subscribers and there are no ads. It is published every other month and it cost me about $30 to subscribe for three years. My first issue is for June/July. I can't wait for the next one to get here.
Since this year is the 100th anniversary of the Model T, they have many articles and pictures relating to that vehicle. There is also a copy of a Harley-Davidson ad from 1926, describing the new H-D Single that could be purchased for $235.
Some sample costs of items from 1961, when I was just entering high school are listed below:
First-class postage 4 cents
Gas range $128.88
Flour 49 cents for a 5 lb. bag
5-piece dinette set $34
RCA color TV $495 (not so cheap)
Average annual salary $4961
Yesterday afternoon, we finally got around to seeing the movie, WALL-E. We had been talking about it for weeks. As I have mentioned before, we seem to see a lot of animated movies. I'm not worried about this. The animation these days is so good and the characters are so lovable that it just makes you feel good to watch one of these things. So many other movies are either violent, full of language intended to make teenagers giggle or have camera movements that make you nauseous. I went through puberty once and that was enough. And as far as I know, none of the "actors" in this movie had been in rehab, ever. Sorry, I started talking about WALL-E and suddenly I turn into CRANKYMAN.
We really enjoyed it and would recommend it to all. Adam and Emerson had seen it while we were were visiting in Tennessee and they liked it too. Just a warning to Kim(Halter), who is not a big fan of robots. The good robots are the stars of this movie and the few bad ones are mostly just doing their jobs. Good definitely triumphs over bad in the end.
In case you missed it, the 2008 version of the Carroll County Fair opened yesterday in Carrollton, Ohio. It runs through next Sunday. Carrollton is the county seat of Carroll county (go figure). For some unknown reason, my dad occasionally referred to it as " the armpit of the world". I always thought it was a nice place.
I have not been to the fair for many, many years and we won't make it this year either. There are lots of good childhood memories for me that are associated with the fair. Back in the good old days, the fair was held at the end of the summer, when most of the harvesting was done on the farms. For that same reason, school didn't start until after Labor Day so all the kids could spend lots of time at the fair.
Maybe next year, we'll schedule a visit to the old fair. I'm sure that it has changed, but then, so have I.
In her never-ending quest to convince me that science is evil, daughter Kristin sent me a story about a guy being injured when he was crushed under a 10,000 pound electron microscope. This happened in her home city of Cincinnati. My immediate response to her was that microscopes don't kill people, people kill people. But I have since uncovered some background information on this situation.
It seems that until late, last March, the microscope in question was living peacefully on an island, in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. The native tribe, that also lived on this island, worshiped the big scope, which they called Bausch (a native word meaning large eye that sees small things). Bausch had a mate that lived with him on the island (don't get ahead of me). Her name was Lomb (native for, companion of large eye that sees small things). Bausch and Lomb loved each other very much and the natives kept them happy by feeding them large, 50 pound paramecia, which are found only in that part of the world.
All this was upset when an adventurer from Ohio stumbled upon the island and observed the two scopes from a distance. In his greed, he realized what a large sum of money he could get by selling Bausch( the much larger of the pair) to some medical facility back in the U.S.
He lured Bausch onto a freighter, using large, suggestive pictures of the Hubble Space Telescope, and then transported him to Cincinnati. A deal was arranged to sell the big scope to a research hospital in Pittsburgh. The incident in which the man was injured happened as they were preparing Bausch for transport.
How can we hold this poor instrument responsible for the injured man? Bausch just wanted to return to his island, and nobody wants to go to Pittsburgh. The saddest part of this story is that authorities are now saying that Bausch must be dismantled. I'm afraid that this is going to become just a big spectacle.
This summer's crop of raspberries has begun. I gathered the first ripe ones this afternoon. The main location is behind our storage shed, but there are a couple of other spots where the bushes have started to grow. We also had 15 cherry tomatoes waiting for us when we got back from Tennessee. We had some of those on a salad for lunch today. The eight regular tomato plants haven't produced any ripe ones yet, but it won't be long. I think I'll hit them with a little plant food tomorrow to help them along.
We also have quite a growth of wild strawberries in the back yard, along the deck. Last year, I ate a couple and they tasted awful. Since then, I did a little reading and found that they usually don't get ripe until August. I'll give them some more time to get sweeter and see ho
w they taste.
As I did when I was a kid and went picking raspberries with my mom and younger brother, I left some berries for the birds. I'm sure that they are responsible for the plants being where they are, anyway. Thanks, little buddies.
Aside from all the barbershop stuff that was going on, the fact that we got to visit with so many family members made the convention trip that much more fun. After all, Carly, Emerson, great grandpa, and The Oak Ridge Boys, all in one week. You can't beat that. Thanks again to David and Barbara for their great southern hospitality.
Our first international barbershop convention has come and gone, and we had a great week. The combination of going to convention events and visiting with David, Barbara and all the other family members made time fly. It's hard to believe that we'll be headed home tomorrow.
The quartet finals last night were great. Old School, Storm Front and Metropolis all took some jabs at the society and I think that it hurt them in the judging. Their routines were very well done and their singing was great, but I guess the judges felt pressure to not reward such behavior. Too bad. I've always thought that humor was a big part of barbershop. I think that Old School took the biggest hit, because, I thought their singing was the best of all ten quartets and Joe Connelly, their lead, is a legendary, three-time gold winner already. He had a serious voice crack/ meltdown at the end of one of their songs during the quarter-finals, but I still think that they are the best choice for our April show. They made the final ten, even with that mistake and were outstanding the rest of the way. The judging seems to emulate the way figure skating is judged. Very subjective, and political.
The top five quartets are listed below, with their three-day score totals.
O.C. Times 8074 Gold
Crossroads 8023 Silver
State Line Grocery 7973 Bronze(1)
Redline 7941 Bronze(2)
Old School 7893 Bronze(3)
So, it's time to head for home. On Tuesday night, my quartet has a gig, singing for a pre-game party at the Akron Aeros baseball game. Later in the month, we go back with the DerbyTown Chorus to sing the national anthem at a game. The quartet has a couple of other bookings in July and we'll be singing with the chorus at Copley and Fairlawn. Then in August, the chorus will sing at Stan Hywet Hall (the Seiberling
Family Home) with the Akron Brass Band. I hope I can put some of the things that I learned here at the convention into practice, and improve my singing.
We attended both sessions of the chorus competition yesterday. What a show! The morning session ran from 11:00 until almost 4:00. Then the evening session went from 6:15 until after 10:30. They stopped the competition at about 9:00, so that we could watch the Nashville fireworks display on a live TV feed, on the two giant screens in the Sommet Center. The background music was provided by the Nashville Symphony. In the end, we had listened to 28 groups from around the country and the world.
The choir from Sweden came out in full Viking garb, including horned helmets. They actually sent three guys out before they were introduced. Two of them dragged the MC off the stage, while the third one introduced the chorus. Then they started their program with, "Here Comes The Showboat." (Viking boat, that is) How can you not get choked up with lines like, "we love our shields, we love our swords, but we really love those barbershop chords"? Immediately after that line, they hustled into groups of four and did the "When I leave the world behind" tag. The crowd loved it.
The Midwest Vocal Express, of "Fish" and "Little Green Toy Soldiers" fame, came out dressed as penguins. This was mom's favorite. They started with "The Cold Songs."
Not all the choruses were as wacky. Many of them just knocked you over with their singing. At the end of the day, while the judges wrapped up the final tallies, The Westminster Chorus (last year's gold medalists) sang two numbers, thanked everyone for their support and then did another number. Wow!
Here are the medal winners for this year:
Gold: Masters of Harmony, Santa Fe Springs, CA
Silver: Ambassadors of Harmony, St. Charles, MO
Bronze(1): Voices in Harmony, Bay Area, CA
Bronze(2): Sound of the Rockies, Denver Mile High, CO
Bronze (3): New Tradition Chorus, Northbrook, IL
Today we went out for a late breakfast with the Moomy clan, (Sue and I didn't get back from the convention until after 1:00am ). We are hanging around the house today and will go back tonight for the quartet finals at 7:30. The barbershop intensity has been high all week. It's all been fun, but I think that by tomorrow we may have Post Chromatic Stress Syndrome.
We plan to visit with all the relatives tomorrow and then drive home on Monday. Wickett, if you are reading this, hang in there. We are comin' to get ya'.
Well, 20 quartets have been narrowed down to 10. I'm glad that I'm not a judge because all the groups are so good. There were some really good comedy songs, poking fun at the old vs new controversy in the BHS and other contest-related topics. The Allies, from JAD are in the finals as well as Old School, our potential show guests.
Before the semi-finals started, the Oak Ridge Boys were inducted as honorary members of the BHS. They were there in person and sang a gospel number acapella that was outstanding. After that song, they announced that they would sing a bit of another song, because it was "the law". Then they did a shortened version of Elvira. The crowd went wild.
We went to the building dedication and Mega-Sing this morning. Hundreds of men (and some women) singing Pole Cats in the street in front of the new headquarters. They gave us 30 minutes to just wander around, find 3 other guys and sing something. That was in between sessions where we all sang together.
Grandpa Moomy arrived safely this afternoon and Andrew and Kim are coming in later tonight. We are getting ready to take chairs outside to watch the Hendersonville fireworks display, as soon as it gets dark. The Nashville fireworks are tomorrow night.
Tomorrow, the chorus competition starts. This is what show choir guys do after high school (or after retirement). It should be fun and a whole new experience for Sue. I will post her reaction to the whole thing later.
Finally, just so I get credit for being on the pontoon boat ride yesterday, I posted the video below. My job was to watch for mermaids and pirates.
This was quartet quarter-finals day. Over 50 of the best quartets in the world, competing to advance to the 20 positions in Thursday's semi-finals. We attended the morning session and listened to 26 quartets in all. Wow!! They were all fantastic. In my humble opinion, Old School, the quartet that we are considering as a guest on our April, 2009 show was a notch above everyone else. I got goosebumps.
When we got back to our temporary home, we headed for the marina where Cap'n Dave keeps his new boat. After removing the covers and other maritime chores, we launched. We motored around Old Hickory Lake for almost two hours. (see video below) What a beautiful spot. The lake is huge and the trees and houses along the shore make great scenery. Talk about a relaxing way to wind down after a busy day. Steamboat Bill's was the next stop, where catfish fillets were enjoyed by all. We stopped by the Meador household for a brief visit and picked up Emerson for an overnight stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Tomorrow, it's back downtown for the big outdoor Grand Opening of the new headquarters building, a mega-sing and in the afternoon, the quartet semis. I'd better get to sleep.
What a busy day we had today! We registered at the convention center, looked at the exhibits a bit and took a guided tour of the new BHS headquarters building. All of this before lunch (at Rippy's). Then I went to two classes( Let's Sing Some Tags and Care Of The Senior Voice). We walked around downtown Nashville a bit and saw the "Batman" building and the old customs house, which was the only one in the country not located on the coast. I spent some time in the AHSOW room, woodshedding with some of the boys and then we headed for Demos', for fine Italian food. A little more sightseeing and we were ready to call it a day. Tomorrow, the quartet contest will begin. They have to narrow the field down from over 50 to 20 by Thursday. It will not be easy because they are the cream of the crop.
