Monday, December 29, 2008

The End of the U.S.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front page article about a Russian that is forecasting the breakup of the United States sometime in 2010. He believes our country is near collapse and there will be civil war.

He forecasts the division of the country into segments - the west coast being Chinese oriented, central US being part of Canada (or Canada leaning), the east will be European oriented and the south attached to Mexico. I think he is wrong, surely California will become Mexican.

I didn't read what will happen to Hawaii. What do you think? I suspect it might become part of Antarctica but could be wrong.

December 2008 Update

We have been busy this month, first with a transatlantic cruise, then Christmas in Morrisville with Chris, Laura, and Maya, and then a bonus, a trip to visit our future puppy. More about the cruise and Christmas to come - maybe before 2010 even.

We are adopting a new puppy in late January - sometime around the 19th. It is a Havanese and the breeder invited us to come see the puppy she thought would fit us the best. Dexter as he is now known will become Archie when he joins us...or Archimedes for short.



We agreed with the breeder, Archie is an outgoing lively pup. We have been thinking about Archie being a therapy dog and also doing agility training. He seemed to be a good fit for both these endeavors but it will be up to him.



After an hour of play, tumbling, climbing and exploration Archie showed he was still a young puppy and decided it was time to nap.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The End is Near (for some things)

The New York Times has an article in Today's paper titled "Nearly the End of the line for S.U.V.'s." I view this as one of the good things coming from this recession. I've always had a somewhat jaundiced view of America's love affair with over sized vehicles.

True, they have features that attract and I was tempted to own one. But do our cities really need a Suburban lumbering through the streets, driven by a house husband on his way to the grocery store? There are exceptions but I think they are a huge excess and the shift to smaller, more fuel efficient cars is to be celebrated.

On the personal level, isn't it better to have room to park your car? To drive our highways without the threat of a testosterone bloated asshole trying to intimidate you by tailgating you 70 mph is appealing? That would just leave the testosterone bloated asshole in the Ford Prius.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Home Again

Hi everyone...well, maybe one...I think one person is reading this beside Hazel. So for that special one, we are home from our cruise and had a great time. We wish you a Merry Christmas.

I'll write more about the cruise in the near future and include a few pictures. I think I took over 700 shots so should find a couple worthy of posting. Most will be deleted. Shot a lot of sunrises and sunsets as we crossed the ocean and usually with them you end of dumping most since only a few are at the peak moments.

Also, since I shot them in raw format it will probably take over an hour to download them all. Then I have to edit and remove the unwanted shots, then convert them to smaller files for uploading. Most times I get tired of messing with them before I get through the whole process and just never post them. This time I promise I will...it might be 2010 but I'll get there.

Why shoot in raw if they are that much trouble? I'm always hopeful that one will turn out well and be worth printing. True, I know some shots aren't even in contention but it gets troublesome to switch the camera back and forth between the formats and I'm certain I'll forget to do so for the one great shot I was looking for.