Autumn days

With the snow coming slowly out the sky I have to say it sure looks pretty outside. In our neighborhood we have some trees that have turned yellow and some that are still a vivid green. The air even seems to smell better.

The wife and I even had our first talk about making snow angels. Once again I was told to enjoy myself if I felt the need to go outside and get artistic.

Is this climate change thing going to grace us with a summer next year? This year I think we only had the air conditioning on twice. I could do with some global warming about now.
Comments are always welcome.

Different things

Since some are saying this winter will be colder than normal it is
being predicted that natural gas prices will raise by 50% or more this
summer. This will be interesting on a couple levels. The first is the
fact that many are clinging to the global warming fad. If we’re going
to be hotter than Hades I’d like to know when to start getting ready.
The other is that if reports that are all over the internet about
having more natural gas than ever why does a cold winter mean higher
prices?

What about gas prices? Not many are talking about it that I’ve heard. When we imported less than a million barrels per day for the months of March and June 2009 I don’t remember hearing it on the TV news. This should be news because the last time it happened was in April of 1988. Of course some of this is due to the fact that people aren’t driving as much as they have in past. Critics will say it has nothing to do with finding large oil deposits in Saskatchewan, Canada; or the Bakken and Three Forks-Spanish formations here.

There are some new e-mail scams going around and you can learn more here. The FBI doesn’t send emails like this out so be forewarned.

The United States Department of Justice has announced that October is
Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The FBI has a team that analizes hazardous materials and worse. Things like ricin and anthrax. Only a small percentage of materials they
check are the real thing but its nice to know there is somebody to
look into these things. To find out more about the group go to
the story.
Comments are always welcome.

A few helpful hints

Earlier today I thought I’d be going to a cruise-in with a friend.
Since the weather decided not to cooperate I thought some helpful
hints are in order.

If you’re like us you have changed the filter in the furnace and
either cleaned and checked it yourself or had it checked. But do
you have a CO2 detector in the house? Nobody likes to think about
about carbon monoxide poisoning but it does happen. And if you
can’t afford a smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector you can also
get a pack of test cards at a hardware store. These cards have a
light brown dot in the center of them and turn dark when there is
CO2 in the air. For a few bucks they are cheap insurance against
a potential problem.

If you don’t have CO2 detectors, but plan on getting some, a
good website on the subject is here. If you
don’t think this is important please remember we’re talking about
an odorless, colorless gas that can kill you.

It’s the time of year to put the storm windows down, seal any
small cracks on the outside of the house that may have developed
during the year, get the cold weather clothes out, and make sure
the shovels and snow blowers are in working order.

This is also the time of year that the critters start trying to
find a warm home for the winter. The spiders, mice, and other
bothersome pests will find the cracks we have left uncaulked. If
you store your winter boots in the attched garage or utility room
it might not hurt to check them for spiders before sticking your
feet into them. If you’ve ever been bitten by a brown recluse
spider you know the wisdom in this.

Shortly we’ll be raking up all the fallen leaves and putting
away the lawnmowers for another year. We’ll have to get more yard
waste bags and remember to run the mower completely out of gas. I’m
lucky because our mower, trimmer, and slowblower all use the same
gas/oil mix. If you’re like me and forget to add Stabil or a like
product to the gas can you could have bad gas. It never hurts to
check. Lastly, it doesn’t hurt to stock up on what we need for a
a hot cup of cocoa with marshmellows.
Comments are always welcome.

What a day

Yesterday the wife and I volunteered to work the gate at LeClaire Park for the Bix Fest from 11 am to 3 pm. I thought it would be an uneventful 4 hours, which it was. We chose the parking ramp to leave the new car in since we didn’t know we could park inside the Festival.

Then we had to get home. I’m thinking 3 pm on a Friday no problem.
It ended up being bumper to bumper from the parking ramp to the top of Brady Street hill. What a mess.

Later I patrolled from 7 pm until tropical storm AlGore hit. We were doing great when the wind picked up along with the lightning. The group shrugged it off and when the rain started we weren’t too concerned because it wasn’t raining hard. We made it back to our
headquarters almost dry and changed out of our uniforms. By the
time we made it down four flights of stairs the monsoon had hit.

With all the people downtown the closest parking spot I could find
was on the 700 block of Main Street. Needless to say by the time I made it to the car I was soaked. I think my sneakers will be dry in
time for Thanksgiving.

I’ll be heading down again to work the gate tonight from 7-11 pm.
We can only hope the weather co-operates today. Enjoy the weekend. If you live inside of the Bix7 route, the worst is over.
Comments are always welcome.

Global warming update

I’m a fan of global warming today. Just think, if we didn’t have global warming today we would have to get out our winter coats in the middle of July. I’d much rather put up with rain than snow this time of year.

I’ll be pretty busy today until the wee hours of the morning so here’s a few things to mull over. The first is done as a public service to keep
people from overpaying. Don’t buy cigarettes with your debit card! It might end up costing you more than you think.

You also might want to go down to Centenial Park and take some pictures of the buildings that won’t be there much longer. As you get older these will help you remember what it used to look like.

And lastly, a reminder that members of the Guardian Angels will be at the Northpark Cruise-in tomorrow night from 6 until at least 9 pm. It will be held in front of the Sears store just to the east of the front doors. Parking is free and the event is well worth the suggested $2
specator fee. We are considering this a fund-raiser and you can buy some 50/50 tickets to support us if you wish. We also consider it an meet and greet session so if have any questions or concerns, or just want to meet some of us, come out and say hello.
Comments are always welcome

A little recap

Saturday, July 11th, is the cruise-in at Southpark Mall in Moline, Ill. It is hosted by the Quad Cities Cruisers, runs from 6-9:30 pm, and is free for spectators. If you want to look at some neat cars they’ll be by JC Penny.

We ended up with water in the basement after the last storm but it didn’t knock out the water heater. I’m thinking about putting the water heater in the kitchen and just using the basement for a swimming pool.
Of course if this global warming doesn’t kick in soon we wouldn’t be able to use it.

There will be some things coming up I’ll post about next week after I catch my breath. I feel like the guy who used to make the doughnuts
in that I’m catching myself coming and going lately. Since the patrol
is done for tonight I believe a nap is order.
Comments are always welcome.

A few things

What a differnce a few days make. Seems like only yesterday were were getting broiled in sub-tropic temperatures and yesterday we almost needed a jacket. I’m going to start this post on some local news that caught my eye and end with a warning from Iraq.

In the Argus I learned about a car accident on Interstate 39 near Oglesby, Illinois. The driver was from Moline, and a passenger from Moline was killed in the wreck. The accident is still under investigation, but the reason the article caught my attention was because the accident involved a 1962 Studebaker and a 2003 VW. The Studebaker was driven by David J. Kahn of Moline and the dead woman is Julia M. Hogan also of Moline.

Both our local newspapers covered a shooting in the 1100 block of Tremont. We now know one of the victims died. It’s getting pretty bad when someone walks up to a parked car at around 8 pm, and shoots both occupants. It was reported that the shooter then jumped into a waiting vehicle and took off.

Las Bananas has made the news again with another brawl. One person got charged with two counts of willful injury causing serious injury and several counts of assault with a weapon (knife). It all supposedly got started by one guy dancing with somebody else’s
girlfriend. Why not just close this “club” down? It has had more police calls than any other bar I can think of. Here’s a question; if the business owner is renting could the nuisance abatement come into play?

The last local item is from the “just when you thought you heard everything” file, Two guys are accused of beating the snot out of another guy to steal his cigarettes! Yes at around 7:30 pm on the Centenial bridge these two morons asked another man for
a cigarette. He said no even though they could see the pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket. So one guy pulls a knive and threatens to stab the man. Instead he punched the guy and knocked him down where after they took his cigarettes then kicked him when he was down. The two accused are being held in Scott County Jail on a $25,000 bond.

And lastly, the warning-
This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan , Taliban Minister of Migration Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that if military actions against Iraq continues, Taliban authorities intend to cut off America’s supply of Convenience Store Managers and possibly Motel 6 Managers. And, if this action does not yield sufficient results, Cab drivers will be next, followed by DELL and AOL customer Service Reps. Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened to send us no more candidates for President of the United States!
It’s gonna get ugly!!!

Comments are always welcome.

In the dark II

For the second weekend in a row we were without power. This time it was only a little over three hours so it was bearable. During the outage I walked around a bit and saw quite a few people also out walking. I stopped by an older neighbors house and we chatted for about an hour.

That proved to be an instructive hour. I found out that in our little one block area we have 6 rent-to-own properties and one vacant home. I also got way more information than I needed on an eviction from one of those rent-to-own homes. It still amazes me how people can keep the yard up but live like animals inside a house. I won’t go into details other than to say the sewer was backed up for a month.

I decided to walk some more in the dark to see if I could find what areas had power. Once again north of Locust had power and it appeared from Brady west had power also. I didn’t see any lights on 10th street or over on Grand Avenue either. I did notice that some areas had trees down again while other didn’t. The worse we got was flattened ferns but the hostas did just fine.

I wouldn’t know if there were an abundance of police calls or not because my scanner runs on electricty. We didn’t hear many sirens so I’m assuming there wasn’t a bunch of break ins. After the tsunami left the area it was actually nice out. Let’s hope we don’t get a repeat of bad weather next weekend.
Comments are always welcome.

Short note

The heat is going to be brutal for at least a few days. Please be careful, even those in good heatlth can have problems if they push themselves too hard. We haven’t been able to find out where the cooling centers are but we do have the malls, the Senior Citizens Centers, or even hospitals for short term relief. We who have air-
conditioning could invite elderly and/or frail neighbors in for a bit to cool off.

On another note, I’ve mentioned the 5th Ward meeting this afternoon in an earlier post and covered what I thought Alderman Lynn would bring up. I felt it only fair to mention a few things the Guardian Angels want to address. Since the first of the year the Guardian Angels have assisted the police in the apprehension of 35 criminals;we have gotten 5 guns off the street, two of which were stolen; we won the startup
chapter of the year from the International Alliance of Guardian Angels with 80 groups in the running, and we will announce the formation of two new chapters in Davenport. So although the Davenport chapter has been recognized as the best startup chapter, we feel we can do better.
Comments are always welcome.

Little thoughts

On May 29, 2009, The New York Post ran an article that said the FBI computer network was hit with a vicious cyber-virus and that the FBI couldn’t recieve or send emails.

Of course the situation got blown out of proportion in the newspaper and the FBI issued a press release to clear up the matter. I haven’t heard if a correction was released by the newspaper or not but you can go to the link above to see how the FBI handled it.

It is just me or does anyone else feel we’re missing out on the whole global warming thing. I thought it was just a tad chilly early this morning for the end of May. At any rate in another month we’ll probably be wishing for weather like this.

Since the weather is cool, I’ll have to get some yard work done this weekend. I don’t think the City would care if I declared my yard a rain forrest. Since I started carrying my cellphone again it seems like I have to get things done in short spurts.

There was a lot of activity after dark along the riverfront last night. Almost all the parking spots were taken and groups of people were fishing, cooking out, and one group was even dancing in the parking lot. All in all it was good night to be out and about in the downtown area.

There are going to be a lot of car events popping up all over the place shortly and I’ll try to list some of them. I may do a post on this tomorrow as the fliers keep coming in.

Comments are always welcome.