October 23, 2007

Late Day

rmiles7721October 23, 2007Parenting/Family

I’m going in late today. A few weeks ago it was decided that the districts and divisions needed to start working some evening shifts, which is actually a pretty good thing. It allows us to do a bit of training with some folks that don’t normally work with us. It also allows me to sleep in a little bit since I have scheduled most of my seconds to come right after my one or two days off. I hate working the evening shift because it means I don’t get to see my family but you have to do what you have to do to make money I suppose.

It is still raining off and on here, thank goodness. I know my plants and fish really appreciate it, but that means that we have done no more decorating since the other day when I posted those pictures. Maybe tomorrow afternoon if it is dry we can get a bit done, otherwise there is probably stuff to do inside the house. We have to start getting ready for this weekend. My daughter turns ten tomorrow and her birthday party is Saturday. As usual we are having a Halloween party. That’s one of the things she gets to enjoy each year. Since her birthday is so close to Halloween they normally wear costumes and have a bit of creepy fun.

She has already received her big birthday present. The wife took her out and let her get her hair done, now she has colorful streaks in it. Other than that she has asked for some board/DVD combo game from Disney that I need to go out and look for.

Took me a second to find the game on Amazon, but this is what she wants…


I just ordered it for next day delivery but it looks like they won’t have it here until Thursday. Plenty of time before the party anyway.

Flood Waters Rise in New Orleans

rmiles7721October 23, 2007Site News

I was just watching this Associated Press video of New Orleans and it’s like a flashback to 2005. Even though most of the southeast is in a drought, New Orleans is getting a ton of rain and flooding in parts. They’ve closed down some streets and Mayor Ray Nagin is asking residents to stay at home.

Apparently the pumps are doing what they are supposed to, but it’s just not fast enough. It’s not as if it’s going to get any better any time soon. That’s what happens when you sit in a bowl that’s below sea level. They do have some choices as to what to do with the city. The need to look at the Netherlands for some examples of engineering if they city is going to remain for another 100 years. Floating houses and better sea walls, rebuilding the natural areas around New Orleans, building up some of the extremely low levels, these are some of the things that they can do.

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California Wildfires

rmiles7721October 23, 2007Site News

I’ve been reading a bit the last few days about some of the fires that are burning in California and am just amazed. They too have been in a long-time drought but the thing is that a lot of these fires are naturally burning and we have kept them away for so long that now they are ten times worse than they should be.

I know I wouldn’t want to be living there now.

It seems like the fires are getting worse every year out there as they try to control them. From what I have been reading over at CNN and other sites only one person has died so far because of the different fires, which number in the teens now.

Apparently over 400 square miles have been burned in Southern California and over 300,000 have evacuated San Diego County. President George W. Bush has declared an emergency for seven counties in California as well.

Disney

rmiles7721October 23, 20074Travel

The wife made a comment a few days ago about how she would like to go back to Disney World again at some point in the next couple of years. I’m all for that but I think maybe we will do things differently next time. We did have a blast though…

Disney October 2005 007.jpg
We took this one right outside of the hotel we stayed at in the park.

It was fairly expensive. I think that all in all we dropped around $5k while we were there and could have spent more. A bit more than my budget could afford but it was certainly worth it.

The next time we go I would like to stay longer but in order to do so we either need to rent a motor home or maybe an Orlando rental home for a couple of weeks. It certainly was nice being able to stay right in the park but the savings we would have by doing something else would make it more likely that we could stay longer.