Robert Pence

Yeah! Whoa with the horseshit, already!

1979: 1985: 1990: 2007:

Great photo tour. I haven't been in Columbus much but I've driven through Bexley in early summer, and it looks inviting.

The best math course I ever had was Practical Trigonometry, when I was an apprentice machinist-toolmaker. The training had a strong drafting component, and we had to be able to translate engineering specifications into layout information that a machinist in the toolroom could use. That was 50 years ago, and we didn't have nifty gadgets like pocket calculators and personal computers with CAD software; I got pretty good with log tables and a slide rule, and extracting square roots with pencil and paper was a piece of cake because I did it almost every day. Later I slipped into the strange world of manufacturing cost analysis and forgot every useful thing I ever knew, and eventually ended up in PC tech support. Now retired, I just while away the hours in vegetative pursuits like on-line forums. :roll:

"You're a highbrow Greek Revival "Greek Revival homes (also called Southern Colonial) are a mixture of many influences, including Roman and Greek (the columns) and French (the high windows). You're a mix, too. You take the best from the world and make it all work together. Though sophisticated, you're still up for a night of dancing on a sawdust floor. You love life. You have a welcoming temperament and can always find time to chat over snacks." Hooo, Boy! Me! Highbrow! :lol: Hmmm. Yeah, I like that style but it's too high-maintenance for me to get serious about. Here's what I have, and it suits me fine:

I experienced the same thing; past the late twenties, metabolism slows down. I had always been skinny despite eating anything that couldn't outrun me, and rather abruptly I started to gain weight. Along with that, I began to lose my formerly high tolerance for cold and had to really cover up at night in winter, instead of sleeping on top of the covers. Something else entered the picture in the past few years, though. I was wearing thermals and steadily turning up the thermostat until I still couldn't get comfortable with the house at 74 - 75F unless I was doing something physically active. A TSH test showed that my thyroid has retired. I've been working with my doctor to determine the right dose of synthroid, and although I'm still wearing thermals, the thermostat is back down to 70F and I only use the electric blanket to warm up the bed in my unheated bedroom. I can turn it off when I go to bed and stay cozy all night without the annoyance of a boyfriend the rest of the time. The Kahlua in hot cocoa isn't a bad idea; I may try it. I've had good results with Bacardi Gold in hot cocoa, too. After a cup or two, I can look out the window at my once-clean sidewalk getting buried again without feeling a compulsion to dash out to the garage and grab the shovel. Keeps me warm and makes it easier to say, "Ah, screw it!" :-) I just fell on my butt (fell is an understatement, I ate it BIG time) walking down the sidewalk here at Case. My pants are soaking wet, and my body is already starting to hurt all over. I don't think I've fallen that hard in a loooooooong time. Stupid wet slippery snow...... But if it's gonna be cold, it might as well be snowing. I'm just full of good advice today. :wink: I suggest ice crampons. You can find them at stores that sell workwear for occupations like construction and farming. They're sort of like stretchy rubber sandals or slippers that you pull on over your shoes, and the bottoms have carbide studs similar to the ones in studded snow tires. They really bite into the ice, and you could just about run full-tilt on smooth, wet ice without fear of slipping. Just make sure you slip them off before coming inside, because they'll surely raise heck with hardwood or vinyl floors. Edit: Oh, yeah, and on concrete floors they're like skates, only worse.

The GM truck plant at Fort Wayne uses methane captured from a landfill and piped eight miles to fuel the plant's boilers. The city is investigating capturing methane from its wastewater treatment facility to generate electricity. That was surprising to me; in 1961 I worked at GE Apparatus Service, a business that repaired and rebuilt heavy industrial electrical equipment. I'm sure a couple of our techs had to go the the wastewater plant then to work on a generator that was driven by an industrial engine fueled by gas from the sewage treatment. They didn't smell very nice when they got back.

Interesting photos. Those concrete elements look like footers/foundations; were there once pavilions or observation structures there?

Sherman, better you than me! One look at that thing, and I'd have had to go back to camp for fresh underwear! People who've never been to West Virginia have no idea what spectacular scenery exists east of the Mississippi. Sweet photo, Cory. There are neat visuals where most people would never think to look for them. Edit: Looking again at that photo of the climbing vines in snow under the streetlights, I just realized that there's something about it that makes me smile every time.

Nice! Ours was a colder, drier snow with wind at times, so it didn't cling to the tree limbs like that.

Beautiful pics! The snow is so lovely to look at, when it's not me trying to get around in it. I love the scene when the snow clings to the trees.

I got it. You just couldn't see me grinning. :-D

I haven't had a snow day since the blizzard of '78, and nowadays snow makes extra work for me. Yesterday I got more-or-less caught up, and today I took a sick-and-tired day and slept in.

Neat shots! It certainly doesn't look like the busy, bustling city I remember from visits there.

I was looking at electrics at Lowe's, and they have one that's only about $250 that probably would handle most of what I encounter. For heavier snows, I usually start early and shovel often anyway. With my corner lot, I have about a half-block of sidewalk, plus a two-car driveway. I use a corded electric lawnmower, and I have a couple of outlets on the side of my house and garage for that. I discovered that my electric leaf blower does a bang-up job of sweeping light snow from my porch and steps.

Redneck wet dream; two monster trucks on a trailer being hauled by a third one, apparently created from a military 6X6.

Thanks! It's wonderful to see this. A good friend who lived in Manhattan used to tell about taking Metro North to Cold Spring for summer weekends; I think his boyfriend's family may have had a place there. I took Amtrak from Bryan, Ohio, to New York via Albany during a very cold winter in the late seventies. The ride across snow-covered upstate New York and down the Hudson was gorgeous; I think much of the Hudson was nearly frozen over until we got near the city.

June 3, 2006:

Hey, I didn't say nothin'!

How about the double-is? "What I'm saying is, is ..." "What's happening is, is ..." Or even more absurd, "The history of this was, is ..." I've even caught my niece, and English teacher, doing it. She doesn't believe me when I try to call her attention to it.

I avoid that by saying "irregardless." :-D

Snowfall varies widely. This year has been heavy; the last few weren't. There used to be a group of four or five high-school boys who would go through the neighborhood with snow shovels looking for work, especially on snow days when schools were closed. I always paid well to make sure they'd come to my place first, and it was neat watching them. They had the teamwork down solid, and moved a lot of snow fast. They've all gone away to college. I'm in an old city neighborhood where a lot of residents are renters, and the homeowners are either too young to have working-age kids, or retirees like me. All the families with kids who could do the work are in the 'burbs, and the kids are either playing video games or glued to the tube watching spongebob squarepants.

After consecutive days of 5 or 6 hours plus on the shovel, ripped doesn't exactly describe the way I feel. This much snow doesn't stir the same excitement in me that it did when I was fifty years younger. I'm contemplating buying a snow blower; I'm fully aware that as soon as I do, the snow will stop, never to return. It's all good, so long as I it gets me away from endless shoveling.

That's a Courtyard by Marriott. It will be connected with the Embassy via a skywalk over Harrison Street, and the Embassy already connects with the Grand Wayne Center and Hilton Hotel via a skywalk over Jefferson Boulevard. On the opposite side of the hotel is Parkview Field, our downtown ballpark.

'T weren't a pig farm, ma'am. 'T were a dairy farm. And if you look at the mural in the public library, you'll see cows grazing in Public Square. :wink: