Weather: Great-Leak in upstairs unit: Not so great.

Well, you know what they say about Murphy's Law.  It's hard at work here in Naples.  Our guest Linda was in the main bathroom drying her hair yesterday when she felt a drop of water on her head. Sure enough water was coming our of the exhaust fan.  We called the home warranty company who sent out a plumber and an investigation revealed the upstairs owner's toilet is leaking.

The property management association will take care of it but it never fails that something like this should happen  when we're expecting more company for a stay of a couple of days.

Added to this is that the property management company spoke to the owners and she is convinced her bathroom couldn't be the problem because they just had work done.

Well, guess what?  Two plumbers confirm that  the problem is in fact hers.   So...we'll have to see how this all shapes up.

Stay tuned. Life's A Beach!

Day Two, Naples, Fl

Day two in Naples.  Today we met Linda's friends, Chuck and Sue, at the Naples Zoo.  We had been there before with the kids but there's always something new to see at a zoo.  I took lots of pictures which I'll be posting on my website when we get back.

Tomorrow it may be a return trip to Cork Screw Sanctuary which is a huge Cypress swamp maintained by the Audubon society.  I never tire of visiting that place.

While we miss the kids a great deal and never could live here for a prolonged period, we are very happy we bought this place.  It's a great place to enjoy nice weather, the beach and see a ton of stuff.  I no longer have much desire to see much of anything else in the world except for the United Kingdom so I don't have a problem hanging out here for vacations.

We'll be returning on Saturday the 12th.  In the meantime I think I'll watch the Kentucky Derby and make myself a rum and coke.

 Bye for now.

Yet another Monday

It was a great day yesterday.  I spent the morning with Mike, Becky and the girls to watch Becky run a half marathon.  After lunch I went home and worked on my cranky tiller which I finally got started. 

There's much to be said about well made machinery.  My tiller is probably about 30-35 years old.  It's a TroyBilt Pony.  The reason it wouldn't start isn't because of anything inherently wrong with the machine.  It's because the gas probably had water in it and it needed a new spark plug.  Also the throttle mechanism was rusty and stiff so I took everything apart, cleaned it up, put in fresh gas and a new spark plug and PRESTO, it started.

For the next three days I'll be watching the boys and doing my volunteer thing.  I also have to get my weekly column written for HamletHub since I won't be here Friday to do it.  The problem is I have no idea whatever on what to write about this week.  Any ideas?

Then it's up to Becky's Thursday to drop off the tiller for Mike and watch the girls.  Finally, first thing Friday morning it's off to Florida for a week.

I may or may not write one or two blogs from there.  We'll see how it goes. 

More of life's paradoxes

Guy one:  Strong, athletic,  eats right foods, worked out regularly his whole life, no drugs, very little alcohol--Dead of cancer at 65.

Guy two:  Never works out, smoked for many years, eats whatever he wants,  sedentary life style,  over weight--going strong.  

Explain, please.

A Visit to A Farm

I took Cole & Nicholas to a mini farm to day.  They saw, fed and petted sheep, lambs and a llama.  What is it about farms that kids love?  Well, certainly the animals for one.  But they also like the fact that it's  an adventure with grandpa and it involves something for which they don't have much experience.

We had a great time and will surely do it again.  My next trip there will be with Brooke & Courtney.

Happy Earth Day

School children and "green" conscious adults across the nation are celebrating Earth Day this weekend.

I recall during my teaching days the great lengths we'd go to to bring awareness to students regarding the problems we face in terms of the Greenhouse Effect and global warming.

We had kids make posters, we saw movies and put on skits of our own.  Very often we had visitors come to the school and make presentations.

Community efforts are in full swing also with groups of people roaming the streets with garbage bags picking up litter.  Towns and cities of course have been running recycling programs for several years now.

All of this is good.  We need to be recycling glass, paper and plastic.  Our landfills are filling up. But here's the problem.  In terms of actually reducing our carbon footprint it's small potatoes.  The fact is one coal fired power plant like the one shown here does more harm to the earth than all of the litter combined in the country.  And given the fact that this country has enough coal to keep us going for many, many years, the prognosis doesn't seem promising...unless government and industry work together to find ways to burn coal cleanly.  That will involve tax dollars and reduced profits but the end result will be worth it. 

Unfortunately a republican controlled Congress is not in the least bit receptive to this idea.  More reason to make some dramatic changes in Congress this November.

A busy day

Yesterday I spent much of the day with all four grand children.  They're ages 8, 5, 4 and a recently turned 3. 

As I was running around after them, settling little spats, dealing with some sharing issues, taking them outside to play and later getting lunch organized I thought about the many families that have four kids about those ages.  It must be very challenging. 

For the most part everyone got along very well and as expected Brooke helped out a great deal with the younger ones but by 5:30 I was home relaxing.  Their parents still had  to get dinner ready, give baths and have some family time. 

Of course a huge part of coping with large families is to establish a routine and a set of expectations.  After that, things pretty much fall into place.

In fact the only thing I thought was going to be a problem was when I was fixing lunch.  I assembled them in the family room to watch a show so they wouldn't be underfoot in the kitchen.  My dilemma was finding something that would appeal to all of them.   Incredibly enough, they immediately agreed on Max & Ruby!

I could never figure out the appeal of that show.  It's about two rabbits.  Ruby is Max's big sister.  I have never seen their parents but they do have a grandmother.  On top of that the animation is very primitive.

Anyway that's what they watched until the pizza was ready.  Which brings me to the topic of food.  They were bottomless pits.  Imagine feeding a family of four children these days?  I do the grocery shopping for my wife and me every week.  We are not big eaters by any stretch yet I can't get out of the store for less than $100 and it's often more.

And feeding them is just the tip of the iceberg where it comes to the cost of raising a family. It's no wonder both parents have to work.

All in all it was a great day with four great kids.  I look forward to more like this.   

Happy 3rd birthday Nicholas

Happy 3rd birthday to grand child number 4 Nicholas George Stockwell. It doesn't seem possible that he's three already. They're growing fast!

Time marches on!

Yet another milestone occurred yesterday to remind us that time is in fact marching on and at a pretty furious rate at that.

Cole had his kindergarten screening. Jen reports he did fine so maybe they'll be sending him this year. Newtown is planning to offer full day kindergarten so I'm sure that will figure into the decision.

Now there's only one more to go--Nicholas. Before you know it, all four grand children will be in school full time. Looks like I'll have to find other ways to occupy my time. Maybe volunteering in their rooms?? Hmmmm...That's an idea.

A Visit with Jack

My last blog reported on an unfortunate situation in a veterans hospital. It was about a friend of mine named Jack.

Yesterday, before I picked up Brooke & Courtney from school I looked in on Jack. He was very happy to see me. As we chatted, the conversation inevitably drifted back to his WWII days. He loves to tell stories about his navy days on a battleship.

We agreed that I would try to look in on him some time on Fridays since my other days are pretty much filled up with other things. I used to visit him on Tuesday afternoons but I'm reserving that because from time to time I help out my daughter then or I do something at the other places where I volunteer.

I'll have to start searching for more pictures of navy warships to show Jack. He also likes cars so I'll be able to mix it up a little.

A sad story

I generally try to keep these blogs fairly upbeat (except when I'm venting about something or the topic is politics). But unfortunately this is not one of those.

I used to visit a WWII navy veteran at the Lutheran Home in Southbury. His name is Jack. He wasn't happy there because there were no other veterans for him to talk to so he transferred to the Veterans Hospital in Rocky Hill, CT. This all happened about a year ago.

Yesterday, his brother called me and told me he was back at the Lutheran Home and that he would like for me to look in on him. Apparently, conditions at the brand-new veterans hospital were dreadful. Most of the men with whom he hoped to make friends were in fact not WWII veterans. Rather, they were men who served in more recent conflicts like Viet Nam and Iraq.

Most of the men were seriously impaired from injuries or drug dependence. Jack's brother went on to report that while the hospital looked shiny and new from the outside, it was everything but that inside. He reported that the place was filthy inside. For example he reported that the bathroom in his room hadn't been cleaned in a very long time. It contained days-old vomit and feces from his roommate.

The hospital was understaffed and the workers who were there were all 'foreigners' who spoke little if any English. They were unfriendly and generally unresponsive to the needs of the residents.

Jack couldn't take any more so his brother moved him back to his former location.

This is a very sad situation. Is this typical of veterans hospitals across the nation or just this place? Someone needs to look into this.

The Ratings War Is On

The Today Show and Good Morning America are battling each other for morning viewers. GMA has been nibbling away at Today's lead in recent months so NBC is getting nervous.

So what does NBC do to combat this erosion in viewers? It recruits none other than air head, gas bag Sarah Palin to co-host! Good move Today. You lost me.

Oh. In response to this bonehead move, ABC got Katie Couric to fill in for Robin Roberts for the week. A much better move in my view.

Actually, I don't care what either of them do. Morning TV has sunk to new lows in recent years. Fortunately I get Fox Business News station which airs the Imus in the Morning show. Depending on who he has for guests, this is preferable to network TV.

Lest you get the wrong idea, I don't actually watch morning TV for very long. With the exception of Tuesdays, I'm usually up and out fairly quickly.

Are you good at math?

Back in my teaching days one of mine and everyone else's biggest concerns was convincing kids--especially girls--that they can be good at math and that it could be equally fun. There were many times when I would have a conference with a parent who would blame his or her child's lack of mathematical achievement on themselves because they would say they weren't any good at math either.

The irony is that if a child doesn't seem to be good at math it's not because of genetic or hereditary factors. It's usually because one or both parents have convinced the kid that they're going to be lousy at math because they are.

Fortunately this is not going to be a problem for 8-year-old Brooke & her 5-year-old sister. First, their parents have high expectations for them a second they've found ways to make math fun.

This is especially true of Brooke who can't seem to get enough of math. She's always telling me that she knows the multiplication tables, square roots and long division and she frequently asks me to make up problems for her.

Her little sister is coming along too but for obvious reasons can't keep up with her older sister so she tends to feel left out.

When that happens we do something else or I keep the math challenges at her level so she feels successful.

Whatever the case, both girls will grow up liking math with no fear of it. Now let's hope the public schools can build on that.

The Role of the Supreme Court-Has it become too powerful?

I've been following the deliberations now going on before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Health Care Reform Act, aka Obamacare.

It's of course impossible to predict how the justices are going to rule but the line of questioning would seem to suggest many of them have made up their minds, to wit strike it down.

I find this a bit troubling. We've always known the SCOUS has enormous power in the sense they can strike down legislation as being unconstitutional but let's face it, many if not all of those justices have an agenda and are far from objective.

There are at the moment 5 very conservative people on the court. If you don't think they wield great influence just think for a minute as to who exactly it was that got George Bush his first term. It sure as hell wasn't the voters.

So the question is, are they TOO powerful and if so, what can be done about it short of redrafting the Constitution?

I fear nothing except to be sure to elect presidents who when presented the opportunity will appoint the right (meaning correct. NOT politically "right") people to the court.

Pres. Obama has appointed two. Justice Kennedy is probably the next to go. That will likely happen during the term of whoever is elected in 2012. For that reason alone, the upcoming election is very important.

Heading into the last week of March

Forecasts are calling for the return to March-like weather. In other words normal. But during the brief warm spell I managed to get quite a bit done in the yard. Still more to go but it's actually better if it's cooler for what I have planned next which involves a lot of chain saw work.

For the moment it doesn't look like I'll be getting to the park with any of the grand kids. Supposed to be chilly and windy.

But the warm weather will return--for sure.

On the Right to Bear Arms & the State of Florida

The tragic slaying of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin that's in the news every day (make that hour) is bad enough. To add insult to injury the individual who did it is still free on a recently passed Florida law that allows lethal force to defend yourself. It's called the stand-your-ground law.

Previous to the passage of this law it was a person's duty to flee the scene to escape harm rather than resort to lethal force. This is still the case in most states.

Complicating the effort to find justice in some way, gas bag Al Sharpton has jumped in promising to do nothing but inflame the situation.

The sacred Right to Bear Arms as guaranteed by the constitution or so says the Supreme Court at least has gotten out of hand. Where are the safeguards?

Some states are even considering doing away with the need for a carry permit. It's back to the 1880s in the old west.

This nation seems to be a nation of extremes. In many instances it's an all-or-none attitude. That's the case with gun control. Isn't there a happy middle ground somewhere?

Let common sense prevail for a change. Not everyone should be allowed to own or use a gun-period.

Yet another Courtneyism

After picking up the girls from school Tuesday afternoon, there seemed to be more than the usual amount of sibling squabbling-at least more than what I'm used to.

I was somewhat exasperated so I told the girls I thought it might be a good idea if each of them had some quiet time in their rooms.

The following conversation then ensued:

Courtney: Why would you send me to my room? Shouldn't you send me someplace else? I love it in my room. That's no punishment. Geesh, Grampy.... on and on it went.

Brooke ended up playing quietly in her room for a while and Courtney and I inspected her captive insect which we're still trying to identify.

The Key to Retirement

The key to a happy retirement is very simple. Keep busy with worthwhile activities.

Take this week for example. I spend all day Monday as I usually do with Cole & Nicholas. Today, Tuesday, I am doing my volunteer thing at an assisted living facility in the morning and then spending the afternoon and early evening with Brooke & Courtney.

Tomorrow, it's back with the boys. Thursday it's pick up the girls from school and wait with them until their mom or dad come home.

Friday, it's into the yard to get some much needed spring cleanup work done.

In between all of that I have to get in my workouts, write a column for Newtown Hamlet Hub and keep my blog spot and website updated.

Before you know it, it's Saturday. The week flies by. But that's better than sitting around doing nothing, getting fat and lazy.

Well, time to go.

Heard on the Hub

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Happy St. Patrick's Day from Elf Nicholas

Top o'the mornin' to ya'

End of an Era

In the "signs-of-the-times" department, I heard on the news yesterday that after 244 years the Encyclopedia Britannica is ceasing publication.

While I realize this is inevitable, I find it regrettable. After all, for a long time whenever someone needed information, what did they do? They went to their bookshelf and pulled out the appropriate volume of their encyclopedia and looked it up.

Today of course you log on to Google and there it is.

I still have a considerable number of reference books on shelves around my house. I have almanacs, atlases, dictionaries and other kinds of books dealing with specific topics. I like using them for questions or just perusing them out of general interest or even sharing them with grand children.

I realize however that I in no way represent the norm. The homes of my children and most of my friends have very little in the way of reading material laying around or even on shelves and I'm sure that's true of most people these days.

All hail the internet.

Number one of things I don't get

Ultra conservative Rick Santorum (You know, the guy who insists prenatal care should be avoided because it leads to abortion) wins Alabama & Mississippi.

This guy's level of bigotry, chauvinism and general ignorance is appalling. Yet, a significant number of people find him to be "presidential".

What's wrong with this picture?

Ignorance reigns supreme

Just heard on morning news-
Results of recent survey of random sampling of people throughout the southern states: The majority believe Barack Obama is a Muslim and not a legal citizen. Unbelievable. In spite of all the solid evidence to the contrary (uh, birth certificate????) there are those who still don't get it.

I use the word ignorance charitably. I really think at the heart of this is racism-pure and simple.

Maybe this country hasn't made that much progress after all!

Spring cleaning

With warmer weather and daylight savings time now here, I took my traditional walk around my yard this past weekend, mentally cataloging what I have to do this spring.

Every year it gets more and more overwhelming and the situation this year has been complicated by the October snow storm that brought down numerous limbs and branches. While I welcome the opportunity to add to my store of firewood, it is just one more thing I need to do.

I have found that the area I attempt to keep free of leaves is smaller and smaller every year. I've decided that it's no big deal if leaves cover the back hill. I'll just mow them into what little grass there is. Also, unlike some guys I talk to from time to time, I have no problem whatever with moss. Moss is green, it doesn't need to be mowed and it is harmless. In fact it's nice to sit on a moss covered area to relax.

Also complicating my spring cleanup endeavors is a chronic back yard drainage problem that has plagued my yard since our house was built.

The builder installed a curtain drain around my backyard to drain off the water that is constantly running down our back hill. The problem is he backfilled the pipe with soil instead of crushed rock thus rendering the system pretty much useless.

I finally managed to find the pipe and remove the mud enough to start the drain flowing. Now I have to lengthen the ditch and fill it with rock. That should help matters for at least the rest of the time we're in this house.

And so it goes, the yearly ritual of spring cleanup!

Sick Kids:(

I hate it when kids are sick, don't you? Cole is here today fighting off the latest round of viruses to afflict his school. His brother, now recovered, was also sick a few days ago.

Yet even feeling as miserable as he does, Cole was nice enough to offer me a sip of his water.

I politely declined.

What is your definition of rich?

Mitt Romney's wife recently announced on national television that she doesn't really consider herself to be a rich person.

She and her husband are worth about 250 MILLION dollars!

Um...help me out here. I personally think that's pretty rich but apparently I'm wrong. So what IS rich?

He's sorry??? Yes, he is a sorry example of humanity!

Soooo....Rush Limbaugh has apologized. Do you think he's really sorry? Here's a guy whose stock-in-trade is insulting people. Suddenly he's sorry???

What he's sorry about is the mass exodus of advertisers from his program. They can't separate themselves from this jerk's comments fast enough.

THAT'S why he's sorry. It's all about the money!

Pajamas

What's so great about pajamas?

Whenever my grand daughters stay over one of the things they most look forward to is getting in their jammies with grammy and watching a movie while eating their favorite dessert.

Now it seems this has caught on with my two grand sons.

The last few times that I've been at my son and daughter-in-law's house baby sitting for four-year-old Cole and two-year-old Nicholas they've been in their jammies. This is usually because my son has a lot to do in the morning so he doesn't have time to get them dressed. But when I try, they want nothing to do with it. They'd rather hang out in their pajamas. So unless we're going outside to play or we have an errand to run, jammies it is!

Then several hours later (5 p.m. or so) their mom comes home and there they are in their jammies.

Is this not a good thing? They're comfortable and active all day so, frankly, I don't see the harm buy as warmer weather nears and they want to go outside, street clothes it is!

It's all about perspective

Feeling a little down this Monday morning? Wishing Spring could maybe speed up its arrival? Have a sniffle or two? Looking forward (or not) to a busy week at work? Just plain not up to your usual good spirits?

Let's put things in perspective. Imagine yourself being one of the victims of the tornadoes that have been sweeping through Indiana and Kentucky.

How about that little 15-month-old girl they found laying in a field. Yesterday it was reported that she didn't survive her injuries.

To add insult to injury those folks woke up this morning to deal with several inches of new snow on top of all the debris.

How are things looking for you now?

More wisdom from Pig Man

Have you been following the controversy surrounding comments made by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh?

It seems Mr. Limbaugh has taken issue with a UCLA law student named Ms. Fluke.

Ms Fluke is an advocate for government paid birth control.

Mr. Limbaugh in his unique way disagreed with her by referring to her numerous times as a slut. He then went on to suggest as a slut, she should post video of her doing...well, whatever it is sluts do.

Class act, huh?

But why is anyone surprised? We all know this is what Limbaugh does. He's just another lunatic fringe, right wing ignorant pig fouling the airwaves. The fact that so many people tune into his broadcast and he makes so much money doesn't really change anything. He's still a pig no matter how you look at it.

The heck of it is I don't think government should be paying for birth control pills either. I think birth control is a private issue and bears private responsibility. BUT, I politely, respectfully disagree--unlike Mr. Limbaugh who launches into an abusive and personal attack.

Message to the media. Ignore him.

Oink oink, Mr. Limbaugh.