Day 2: The Ice Commeth

Well, we're closed for another day down here at Shawnee State, and it's all because of the wonderful freezing rain that's been falling since about 5 p.m. yesterday evening.

When I woke up this morning I immediately grabbed my camera and ventured outside to see what I could capture for my blog.

The power and cable lines are drooping because of the added weight of about a quarter-inch of ice encasing them. I've already heard that several homes out in the county are without power because of trees that have become too heavy with the ice and fallen through the lines. My uncle David, my mother's brother, has already lost power this morning because he lives -way- out in the county with lots of ice-coated trees between him and any main road.

I tried to focus in on a seed pod on a bush in the back yard to show just how thickly encased things were in the grip of the freezing rain. I think the plant is milk-weed but I couldn't swear to it. It looked so interesting with ice caught within the remains of the pod as well as coating all of the branches and vines that I had to try and snap a picture of it.

What really surprised me was some old scrub plants on the hill behind the house. Each branch and twig is coated with the ice and together they create quite a cool effect.Sometimes it's hard to see where the branch ends and the ice ends - as though the whole structure were somehow converted to a crystalline-based plant.

Wintery Blankets

Normally when it snows, I grab a picture of Tseo the Raccoon to show how bad the weather has gotten. Today when I went out into the backyard I realized that there was actually some measurable accumulation.

This morning he sort of looked like a raccoon ninja - hidden by the wintry blanket.

Shawnee has already closed classes for the day - originally only canceling classes until noon but then expanding it. So, it's a Tuesday and I have little to do.

Blood Stains in Carpeting

Sometimes I get some very weird phone calls; usually the more weird come from my friends. Tonight was no exception when a buddy of mine called up with a tone to his voice suggesting that he was somewhat upset.

"How do you get blood stains out of carpeting so that there's no trace?" was the question asked of me.

Before I could even ask, "Now why would I know something like that?" I ended up splurting out an answer.

"Soak a rag in peroxide and then dab / rub the blood and it should come up. If there's a bad place or it's turned brown already, coat it with a mixture of salt and water."

I have no idea where I'd heard that before but I knew that it would work.

Sure enough, my friend tried it while on the phone with me and the peroxide did the trick.

It turns out that his girlfriend had gotten bit by their dog and she bled... a lot.

So... in the spirit of "Friends help you move, Real Friends help you move Bodies"... I add this.

"Friends tell you things. Real friends tell you how to clean up blood stains without asking why."

Bones in Portsmouth?

From WSAZ:

PORTSMOUTH, OH (WSAZ) -- Police have found three bones in the backyard of a house in Portsmouth, but they are not those of a human, like they orginially thought.

This after Portsmouth Police and the Portsmouth Daily Times got identical letters that were very specific about the location of the bones. The anonymous lletter referred to a body being buried in late 1964.

Investigators found the bones Friday night at a house in the 2200 block of Vinton Avenue in Portsmouth.

After the discovery Portsmouth Police called forensic investigators from Cincinnati to take a closer look.

Investigators say at this point the case is closed, unless they get more information from the person who wrote those letters.

"The information contained in the letter indicated the person knew exactly what they were talking about," Portsmouth Police Detective James Charles said.

BSG the musical

After watching about ten hours of BSG this past Friday to catch up with the series, I listened to one of the characters singing a lament.

The character was one of the side-line characters who had been there since the series started. Lt. Gaeta was sort of the guy that everyone over-looked until he wasn't there; a backbone of the CIC who would leave a big gap in their operations if he was gone.

Through the course of the series, Gaeta ends up getting shot in the leg and they have to amputate it below the knee. While recouperating in sick bay, he is half-drugged on pain killers but can occasionally feel the twitches of his missing limb. The doctor told him to sing whenever he felt it to help get his mind off the sensation. It's an interesting idea considering that they can't just keep pumping him full of morph - they're not making it anymore.

It reminded me of the scene in Return of the King where one of the Hobbits sung some depressing dirge while a force of men charged in on a suicide run to retake the ruins of Osgiliath.

Well, I had wondered if they had borrowed the song from another source (like they did with the song that gathered four of the last five cylons together) or if it was original. So I started digging and finally found the words to the song and that it was originally composed.

To give you some idea of how the song was used in the show I've put a link to the Youtube video here.

An Original

With the end of BSG coming soon, I returned to the beginning. Thanks to youtube, I was able to find the introduction to the original series.

"Life here...began out there"

Powerful. Simple. Thought-provoking.

See ya.

Click here

Classes

Well, it's that time again.

Classes are starting.

Today I'm in my office and it's a few minutes before my first course of the term; Sociology 1101.

There's not much to do in an intro course on the first day but I like to basically discuss how I run my class. It's easier to lay out the ground rules for how things work right off from the start so that if the students don't like it they can find another class.

In three years of teaching, I haven't had a student complain or argue any point for the first lecture but I've had several plead that they "forgot" when it comes time to make up a test or the like.

Oh well, after my one and only class today I'm hitting the gym to get back into some sense of a workout schedule.

It's too easy to be lazy when it's cold.

Ugh.

See ya later.

-Tom