Liar, Liar

There seem to be more and more ads on TV that say that it is perfectly OK to lie to your kids if it is “for their own good.”

It started with – or, at least I first noticed it in – ads showing mothers who would do anything to keep their munchkins from learning that the canned pasta products they love contain Vegetables.

It quickly spread to the new drinks like that hide the taste of veggies behind fruit juice and sugar.

Now, it has even spread to the marketing of computers, and the lies (and liars) have expanded. 

A commercial that aired this weekend shows a kid lying to his mom about how long it takes to do his homework. Meanwhile, he is  spending time on social networking sites with his friends. 

Mom, it turns out, is perfectly happy with the lie, because it gives her “Me time” to surf the web herself!

I know and accept that each generation is convinced that the world is going to Hell in a hand basket, but isn’t this getting out of hand.  Shouldn’t someone at the agency – or at least shouldn’t the sponsor – have said “This is unacceptable behavior that we do not wish to endorse?”

Bye, Lance II

Well, now it is official. Berkman was traded to the Yankees yesterday.

He has been having a bit of a down year, but he’s a great guy and an excellent player – sorry to see him go.

For what it’s worth, he went 0 for 4 against Tampa in his first appearance for New York, while the ‘Stros were blanking the Brewers for the second night in a row.

Bye, Lance

Almost every sports outlet is reporting this morning that Lance Berkman is on his way to the Yankees – nothing official yet, but he seemed to be saying goodbye to team-mates at last night’s game.

Hard to believe, but the Chronicle confirms that he is the last active Astro to have played in the Astrodome. Tempus really does fugit.

Snakes

 

Night before last, Honey went out the back door and saw a copperhead coiled just a foot or so from our back door.

Of course, by the time I got out there, the serpent was long gone.

Last night, we let the dogs out for their usual potty break before bed-time.  Dusty came running back into the house, and instead of going into her box, she headed into the living room.  I called her back and put her to bed.

This morning, her face and neck are swollen; her collar was so tight it’s a wonder she didn’t suffocate overnight.

Typically, Tinker and Dusty hunt snakes, but this is the second time in a row that one has been bitten by surprise.  (pooped pup)

In a few minutes, I’ll be taking the weed-eater to the liriope.

It may not help, but it can’t hurt.

 

Social Networking vs. Privacy

A lot has been written in the media lately about personal security and social network sites like Facebook.

This morning a fellow named Ron Bowes posted a downloadable file which he claims has all public information on over 100 million Facebook subscribers.

The searchable file includes all information from the site (including pictures) which was not blocked by privacy settings, and even some that was – if, for example, you interacted with someone whose privacy settings were not as  strict as yours, your info may be available through theirs.  Changing settings or opting out won’t help now – your info is out there on a searchable file, available to anyone with enough available memory to download it.

The file is currently available at skullsecurity.org if you can access the site.  Since the story broke, their server has been overloaded.

Big Trees

I was reminded that I didn’t post any pictures of the California Redwoods from our recent trip.  As I have noted previously, I was having connectivity issues at some RV parks around that time. Also, I wasn’t sure the shots would do them justice; even with cars or people in the photos, its hard to get a sense of how magnificent these trees really are.

Anyway, here are a few shots:

  

 

Redwood National Park and several California State Parks share jurisdiction over the northern California Coastal Redwoods.  Most of these pictures are from the Prairie Creek State Park area. 

Boggy, Boggy Thicket

We dodged bad weather throughout or recent trip. 

For just over a month, it seemed like everywhere we went had experienced bad weather the day before we arrived or it came the day after we left.  Meanwhile, seems like it rained at home almost every day we were gone – Houston is on track to record its wettest July in history.

In Onawa, Iowa, we watched a huge thunderstorm pass to our north.  No rain, but gusty winds broke some huge limbs from the cottonwoods in the RV park.  Apparently, weather didn’t get much better after we left, since a dam failed up there this past weekend. CNN

The Missouri River was up in South Dakota, because of torrential rains that hit just before we arrived, but we made it all the way across the state, and spent a week at Custer under sunny skies.

Weather was fine in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho while we were there.  Not so great last night; a rare tornado touched down, killing a couple farmers in Montana.  Another twister destroyed a motorhome in southern Utah on Monday.

The Oregon Coast was foggy for at least part of every day, but we’re told that’s normal.

We finally got rained on in Silver City, New Mexico.  Set up in the campground in the rain – something I normally don’t like to do, but in this case it was a welcome respite from the heat.  The city has had several flash flood watched and warnings since we left, but that’s normal.

The town had originally been designed with the streets running north to south. The town was also built in the path of normal water runoff. Businesses sprang up and people learned to deal with the inconveniences of the summer rain. Silver City was built with high sidewalks in the downtown area to accommodate high flood waters. Meanwhile, uncontrolled grazing thinned down plant life on hills surrounding the town. During the night of July 21, 1895, a heavy wall of water rushed through the downtown business district, leaving a trail of destruction. A ditch 55-feet lower than the original street level was created in what was once known as Main Street.  

Businesses on Main Street began using their back doors on Bullard Street as main entrances and eventually, were permanently used as the new front entrances. To this day, the incorrect odd/even addressing conventions on the east side of Bullard Street are a reminder that the buildings were addressed on Main Street originally, not Bullard Street. Main Street now ends near the back of the Silver City Police Station, where the Big Ditch Park begins.

Our ditches were full when we arrived home, but I somehow got the 5th wheel backed into the driveway without running the truck into the mud across the street.  (Yes, I have done that before!) 

It took two days, but I was able to get the yard mowed before the rains set in again.  I was delayed by a strong thunderstorm night-before-last that dropped a 30 foot tree top at our front door.  The base of the trunk was about 10 inches in diameter, and although it miraculously missed hitting the house, it only missed the roof by 2 or 3 inches.

Rained all night last night and the back yard has an inch or two of standing water.  Think I’ll take today off.