Just stopped by to see the Grouchy Old Cripple and got to this short post about Larry Craig. Republicans all over the U.S. are urging him to step down and get the hell out of the limelight yet the Democrats are still supporting the bribe-taking scumbag William Jefferson. What’s up with that?
August 30, 2007
Four Children Injured in Miami Explosion
I just ran across this over at CNN as well as a couple of other news outlets. Apparently an explosion caused a fire that is burning at least two buildings in Miami. Four children and one fire fighter have been injured in the fire and all have been transported to the hospital for treatment.
Slower…and Slower
Is it just me or is the site just dragging to load today, even worse than usual? I am doing several different things here on my end so I can’t be sure that it’s my site or not. Either way I have found a way to export my templates from this site with minimal effort and hopefully will be on the new MT installation within the week. If that doesn’t speed things up then I will start to look for alternatives to my host. I am tired of it taking forever to rebuild the blog when I post and it still takes forever to comment, to the point where most people end up hitting the post button two or three times duplicating comments. Having to clean them up is a PITA.
Morning…
I think I am starting to really like the way that I have the twitters set up as one-liners in between the entries. With the Google News is really was a bit much but a lot of times even when I am at home I get a fleeting thought and it really isn’t something I want to waste the time to write an entire blog post about (although that has never stopped me before) but I do want to get it down and share it.
The wife and oldest daughter have dentists appointments today. I know how much fun that is. I haven’t had to worry about it in years since I have dentures. I have been seriously considering getting implants though, but I am not sure how much my insurance carrier will cover and the thought of someone jamming metal sticks into my gums and jawbone also lends a flavor of serious fear and loathing to the entire prospect. I’m not sure that is an ordeal that I really want to go to.
Obviously I managed to get today off as well since I am here writing. No scheduled posts, that’s the rest of the week. I haven’t had two days off in a row in four weeks and was getting pretty damned stressed out about stuff so I need the break. After today I have to go until Saturday the 8th before I get a day off, then I work four more days until my vacation. As I mentioned in the last post I just reserved a car, actually a mini-van for the trip. Since the boy and his gear will be coming home with us we needed to make sure we had plenty of room for him to stretch out. I’m not sure if he will want to spend the trip home eating or sleeping. Probably a combination of both.
Trinidad and Tobago
…I don’t even remember what it was I was watching but there some action flick on last night before I went to bed and the location was down in the Caribbean, which of course got me to thinking about where I want to go on vacation in January or February. My September vacation is locked in already since the boy is graduating from boot camp we will be spending at least half the week in Beaufort, SC. As a matter of fact I just finished reserving a mini-van for the trip this morning and booked rooms last week.
Anyway, after Christmas it’s so dreary around here and that makes it the perfect time to go for a vacation in the Caribbean, perhaps in Trinidad. The weather that time of year is great. From what I understand, the temperature ranges from 70-85 degrees in January, neither too hot or too cold.
If you know your history you will know that Columbus discovered the island in 1498 and claimed it for Spain. Since there was no gold as there was in other parts of the Caribbean it wasn’t settled immediately. He also sited Tobago (naming it Assumption) but it was pretty much ignored until the 1600s. By the time a few years before the American Revolution there were only 800 inhabitants on the island and spain started offering incentives for people that were Catholic to immigrate there, whether spanish or not. By 1797 when the British took control of the island the population had grown to over 16,000 which included 2100 white Europeans and 4500 free Africans.
Since there were so many non-white land owners in Trinidad Britain granted the island Crown Colony status, which meant that the residents were denied the right to vote and kept them out of the political process. Trinidad finally gained independence from Britain in 1962 and Trinidad and Tobago together formed a republic in 1976. One cool fact about Trinidad is that it was the first country in the world to recognize emancipation from slavery.
Like most of the Caribbean Trinidad and Tobago are blessed with warm blue seas and beautiful sunsets. It is the home of Carnival. Even though it is located just off the tip of Venezuela it is not considered part of the South American continent.
Thursday Thongs
Here is this week’s photo. I found this while searching for a picture for the tramp stamp tuesday post but thought it would fit much better today…