It’s hard to maintain a “glass half full” outlook with these temps. Adding salt to the wound, the ozone layer and wind patterns are pushing the smoke from our many wildfires into the valley as though it were a big bowl. We’re in the red zone (unhealthy). But as our optimistic weather forecasters remind us, “Look for cooler temps by the weekend.”

Right. Here’s the forecast. Like gas prices, anything lower than “painful” is welcome.

…eight years ago, when Southwest Airlines Flight 1455 from Las Vegas overshot the runway at Burbank, crashed through a metal blast wall and then through the airport perimeter wall and came to rest on Hollywood Way, a four-lane city street, near a Chevron gas station.

Amazingly, only two passengers received serious injuries. Even more amazing, check out the gas prices!

H.T. to Mike!

My older younger brother (think before you ask) recently joined Facebook and asked me to sign up in order to share his photos. So, reluctantly, I did. Surprisingly, I found the interface to be infinitely more intuitive than Myspace which I hate but joined in order to communicate with my grandson, Dakota, while he was in Europe with his soccer team. I know, lots of folks love Myspace, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a bloated, clumsy clunker.

Anyway, between the two, Facebook appears to provide a smoother user experience and a better sense of humor. For example, I found this post on the site’s own blog somewhat amusing. Apparently, some folks aren’t choosing a gender in their profiles, an omission that has caused some problems for Facebook’s language translators, so much so that they’ve asked members to kindly select one or the other. Of course, not to appear insensitive to users who haven’t yet decided which gender they want to be, Facebook has granted an exception:

“We’ve received pushback in the past from groups that find the male/female distinction too limiting. We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in Mini-Feed.”

The male/female distinction is “too limiting”? How so, I wonder. What other distinctions might there be? Anyone?

Simple, concise and strategic. But not so in the U.S. where our politicians endlessly debate alternative fuel sources and vie for their favorites (read “special interests”) to get all the federal funding.

Oil companies want oil to remain “the” transportation fuel source unless they get distribution control of the alternatives; farmers want ethanol to play a big part even though, at best, it can only supplement oil; solar panel makers aren’t sure exactly how they might power autos but they want in on the apparent “green energy” boom; battery manufacturers have been challenged to make cells that provide greater driving range and cost efficiency than are available today; and some, including Bush, want to tap the bazillion gallons of oil under our own feet, although Democrats seem bent on preventing that from ever happening.

All have a place in the solution although none alone are the holy grail of transportation fuel. Problem is, we can’t move forward with any of them until the political squabbling ends and that doesn’t appear anywhere on the horizon. Meanwhile, we’re getting skewered by our dependence on foreign oil. And while some believe we can just “wait until prices come back down” (like that will ever happen!), our politicians continue whoring around with special interests while Rome burns.

Heh.

Even Intel won’t run it.

Shocking.

Got this from Denny Wilson…

It was visitors’ day at the lunatic asylum. All the patients were standing out in the courtyard and singing Ave Maria and singing it beautifully. Oddly, each of them was holding a red apple in one hand and tapping it rhythmically with a pencil.

A visitor listened in wonderment to the performance and then approached the conductor. “I am a retired choir director”, he said. “This is one of the best choirs I have ever heard.”

“Yes, I’m very proud of them”, said the conductor.

“You should take them on tour”, said the visitor. “What are they called?”

“In the beginning this was a big problem. One inmate wanted to call them the ‘Big Apple with Little Brown Seeds Singing Sons of Siam’. But I said it was too long and, anyway, none of them were from Siam. Then, another thought ‘The Pencil Leads’ was a good name but the others disagreed because they had no one to write to.”

“Well”, the visitor asked, “What name did they finally agree on?”

“Surely that’s obvious”, replied the conductor. “They all agreed to call themselves…”

Click to read more ...

James sent this “post Fourth of July” Comedy Central skit with the caption, “Steve Pelkey, American Hero”…

One of the great things about Americans is the way we all get cranked up for Independence Day. It’s a big event for most, with parades, BBQs and spectacular fireworks shows!

Californians for the most part stayed away from “real” fireworks this year because of the extreme fire danger — we’ve already had more than 1700 wildfires throughout the state precipitated by dry lightening and high winds, so our Governator asked that we not buy fireworks in order to help prevent even more. But many of the usual controlled exhibitions went off as scheduled including northern California’s largest at Cal Expo in Sacramento. Here are a few more images (click to enlarge):

We were blessed this year with cooler temperatures — we call anything less than 106° “cooler” — so Dawn and I took in the annual East Sacramento “Fab 40s” parade followed by lunch on the patio at Rio City Cafe in Old Sacramento. There was a nice breeze and we relaxed watching the boats cruising the Sacramento River. What began as a lousy day for me turned out to be a pretty darn good Independence Day!

This is my final “official” Patriot’s Journey post for 2008 although I’ll continue to photograph and write about this great land of ours as the mood strikes me. If you’d like to re-read any of my previous “Patriot’s Journey” posts, click on “archives” in the navigation bar on the right, then click on “Patriot’s Journey” and you’ll be directed to all of them. And I’m sure my fellow journeyers — Drumwaster, Larry at The Bastage, the folks at The Line Is Here and Shortbus from The Edge of Reason — would appreciate a visit, too. I’ve enjoyed participating in this year’s journey with some terrific bloggers and hope to do it again next year. ‘Til then, God bless America!

With tomorrow being Independence Day, today seems an especially appropriate occasion to share this well done presentation from my cousin Mike. It’s a reminder of the mindset of our founding fathers as they shaped our nation. Definitely worth a watch…

This is a Patriot’s Journey post. You may also enjoy visiting the other journeyers: Drumwaster, Larry at The Bastage, the folks at The Line Is Here and Shortbus from The Edge of Reason…

This is kind of fun and will give you something to do over the long weekend. Upload an image (faces work best) and the application on this site converts it to ASCII letters or squares, b&w or color. Here’s one of Dawn…

I thought some of you military aviation buffs might appreciate this nice photo of a C-17 Globemaster on final…

Via AFP archives.

Are you ready to kiss - or be kissed? Is there a special someone that you’d like to kiss? If you haven’t yet experienced that first kiss, it can be a daunting challenge! Is it the right time? Is anyone watching? Does your partner even want to? Is your breath fresh? And the big question: Should you use some tongue?

There’s lots of advise available, often conflicting. Many advise that, assuming your prospective kissee is willing, you just “go for it”…

Click to read more ...

The last couple days have been emotionally taxing. Unknown to us, “Georgio”, our straight eared Scottish Fold cat, had developed dental problems. Those of you with pets will identify with how you feel when they have health issues.

We noticed a change in his mood a few days earlier but failed to connect the dots. By Sunday, he’d become solitary and lethargic and we knew something was wrong. Our vet agreed to see him right away, determined that he had some dental problems and scheduled him for surgery yesterday.

To make a long story short, he had five teeth extracted - his four canines and one other - a big payoff from the tooth fairy who, it turns out, is a feline herself (but that’s another story). Poor little guy, he must have been miserable. The vet gave us some oral pain medication we’ll squirt in his mouth every morning and some antibiotics we’ll give him for three of four days. Assuming he eats, drinks his water and uses his litter box, he’ll just need a follow-up exam in a week or so.

It’s amazing how these magical, jellicle little creatures, like children, become such a big part of our lives, a part of us, and when they hurt, so do we.

We’ll worry all week.

Got this Dilbert strip from Rich. It reminded me of meetings we’ve all attended…

Despite an outcry from users who still prefer Windows XP over Vista, Microsoft announced that, as of today, it will no longer sell XP. Rather than allow customers the choice to simply buy and install XP, Microsoft’s strategy is to force them to buy and install Vista before being allowed to “legally downgrade” to XP.

I’ve written before about the sub-market that formed after Vista’s release where some computer stores were doing a brisk business uninstalling Vista and installing XP in its place. In addition, many Windows users decided to upgrade from older versions of Windows to XP instead of Vista.

It would appear that Microsoft’s marketing strategy to improve Vista sales is to “innovate” its foolish customers away from XP and to Vista “for their own good” until Windows 7 can be brought to market sometime in 2009. Of course, if we’ve learned anything from history, it’s that Microsoft never delivers on schedule.

So if you’re one of the folks unhappy with Vista, you might want to grab a copy of XP while they’re still readily available. Or better yet… (Nope, I won’t even say it.)