Ok maybe not leader but............I beat the man y'all.
Last year my beautiful city thought it would be a great idea to close a turn lane on my street and add these wonderful things called "bump-outs".
I live in a very residential area but my street sees some heavy traffic during rush hour.
These "great" new additions caused severe traffic jams during peak driving times.
It has been so bad that I have completely given up parking in my driveway.
That's right, the traffic is so bad that getting in and out of my driveway is almost impossible.
Most of my neighbors and I have given up and just park on the street.
In addition, these bump-outs put pedestrians smack dab in the middle of the road, making it almost impossible to see them at night.
Not only is it a traffic nightmare, its dangerous..........your tax dollars at work folks.
Well after weeks of honking and frustration my neighbors and I organized.
We started a letter writing campaign and email bombardment.
That turn lane needed to come back and those bump-outs needed to go
Nobody really thought it would work. I have to admit I was the most skeptical.
I never heard anything except the typical "thank you for your concern" stock letter.
Then a few months back I saw a very official looking man with a stop watch and a strange peice of equipment watching the traffic........hmmmmm.
But that was it.......nothing further.
No letters, no notices, no workers, no nothing.
But last night as I headed out for my evening walk I saw it (the traffic was so bad when I drove home that I could not see it)
A beautiful pile of ruble where the bump-outs used to be along with caution tape and orange cones.
Now, I do not know if the plans include bringing back the turn lane but apparently, the bump-out is gone and the "mess" is scheduled to be removed today or tomorrow :)
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!! (if feel so rebellious.....he he)
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Clay Aiken is running for congress.................................................................
aaaaaaayup
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/clay-aiken-running-congress-north-carolina-article-1.1602649
aaaaaaayup
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/clay-aiken-running-congress-north-carolina-article-1.1602649
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Stay in school kids
This is truly messed up
Funny but messed up
I remember skipping school, it was fun, this never happened
Apparently things have changed.
Funny but messed up
I remember skipping school, it was fun, this never happened
Apparently things have changed.
Monday, February 3, 2014
RUN!!!!!!
Hmmmmmmm, I know what I said about global warming but if there is even the slightest possibility that these "things" are becoming more aggressive because of climate change.....I WILL DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY
I will use 1 ply toilet paper, I will wash and reuse my aluminum foil, I will stop buying plastic bottles.......I WILL DRIVE A PRIUS
You win, uncle, I give......fine, the ice caps are melting, we are all going to die if something is not done right now.
 |
| they have to kill them with FIRE!!!! |
(I'm not going to be able to sleep now that I know these things exist)
(oh and NO, it is NOT cool to send me emails of even creepier things that are on the planet......YOU are not funny)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/killer-hornets-chinese-city-living-in-fear
The Chinese city living in fear of giant killer hornets
Jonathan Kaiman visits Ankang municipality where swarms of highly venomous hornets have killed 41 people in three months
Chen pointed with a shaky hand at the small plot of cabbage, spring
onions and corn where his friend, Yu Yihong, had been stung to death by
giant hornets.
"When he got to the hospital, there were still two hornets in his trousers," said Chen, a farmer who, like many villagers, declined to give his full name to a foreign journalist. "The hornets' poison was too strong – his liver and kidneys failed, and he couldn't urinate."
Yu, a square-jawed 40-year-old farmer in perfect health, had been harvesting his crops when he stepped on a nest of Vespa mandarinia hornets concealed beneath a pile of dry corn husks. The hornets swarmed around Yu, stinging him through his long-sleeved shirt and trousers. He ran, but the hornets chased him, stinging his arms and legs, his head and neck.
After Yu succumbed to the poison about 50 of his friends and relatives gathered to mourn his passing. Outside the farmer's mountainside home in Yuanba village, they ate preserved eggs, buckwheat noodles and boiled peanuts in silence; one set off a string of fireworks. Yu's wife and two children sat inside, weeping.
V mandarinia is the world's largest hornet, around the size of a human adult's thumb, yellow and black in colour and highly venomous. Its 6mm-long stingers carry a venom potent enough to dissolve human tissue. Victims may die of kidney failure or anaphylactic shock.
"When he got to the hospital, there were still two hornets in his trousers," said Chen, a farmer who, like many villagers, declined to give his full name to a foreign journalist. "The hornets' poison was too strong – his liver and kidneys failed, and he couldn't urinate."
Yu, a square-jawed 40-year-old farmer in perfect health, had been harvesting his crops when he stepped on a nest of Vespa mandarinia hornets concealed beneath a pile of dry corn husks. The hornets swarmed around Yu, stinging him through his long-sleeved shirt and trousers. He ran, but the hornets chased him, stinging his arms and legs, his head and neck.
After Yu succumbed to the poison about 50 of his friends and relatives gathered to mourn his passing. Outside the farmer's mountainside home in Yuanba village, they ate preserved eggs, buckwheat noodles and boiled peanuts in silence; one set off a string of fireworks. Yu's wife and two children sat inside, weeping.
V mandarinia is the world's largest hornet, around the size of a human adult's thumb, yellow and black in colour and highly venomous. Its 6mm-long stingers carry a venom potent enough to dissolve human tissue. Victims may die of kidney failure or anaphylactic shock.
stinging his arms and
legs, his head and neck
An Asian hornet (vespa mandarinia) eats a honeybee. The sting of the
highly venomous giant hornet, which measures about the size of a human
thumb, can dissolve human tissue and cause kidney failure. Photograph:
Scott Camazine
Yu's story is a tragic but increasingly common one in north-west China's
Shaanxi province, where, over the past three months alone, hornets have
killed 41 people and injured a further 1,675. Ankang, a municipality in
the province's south, appears to be the centre of the attacks. While
hornets infest its mountainous rural areas every year – 36 residents
were stung to death between 2002 and 2005 – local people and municipal
officials say this year it is tantamount to an epidemic, the worst they have ever seen.
At least some of the deaths were caused by V mandarinia, experts say. The species does not typically attack unless it feels its nest is threatened. But when it does, it can be fierce and fast – the hornets can fly at 25mph and cover 50 miles in a day. They make their homes in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect.
People blame this year's scourge on climate change: the past year has been unusually warm, allowing a high number of hornets to survive the winter. Huang Ronghui, an official at the Ankang Forestry Bureau's pest control department, lists a host of other possibilities: the hornets may have been agitated by a dry spell, while labourers have been moving deeper into the mountains, disturbing their nests. "Other than this, hornets are attracted to bright colours and the smell of people's sweat, alcohol and sweet things," he told state media. "They're sensitive to movement, such as running people or animals."
The region has also been overrun by the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, a slightly smaller species which can be equally dangerous. Hundreds, even thousands, inhabit each nest, which typically hangs from a high place. In Chengxing village, a few miles down a winding mountain road from Yu's home village, 16-year-old Tan Xingjian pointed at a tree in the distance. Hanging from one thick branch was a pale, basketball-sized bulb, its surface alive with darting black specks. "That's where they live," Tan said. "We don't dare to go near there."
Ankang is on alert, with the local authorities posting warning notices online, on roadside treetrunks and on primary school walls. The crisis has exhausted Gong Zhenghong, the spiky-haired mayor of Hongshan township in rural Ankang. Since September, Gong has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan, with 175 close to schools and roads.
Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made from rain jackets and canvas, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. "They don't fly around at night," he said. Sometimes the team begins work in the late evening and doesn't finish until 2am. "We'd normally send the fire squad to do this, but this year there were too many nests." Gong left his office, returned with a black rubbish bag, and pulled out the charred remains of a nest, the blackened tails of bulb-like larvae protruding from its combs.
Firefighters destroy dead hornets in Ankang, Shaanxi province, China. Photograph: China Stringer Network/REUTERS
Two other cities in Shaanxi – Hanzhong and Shangluo – have also been
besieged by hornets, though the death tolls have been markedly lower. In
southern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a swarm of hornets
attacked a primary school in mid-September, injuring 23 children and
seven adults. The teacher, Li Zhiqiang, told pupils to hide under their
desks and tried to fight the creatures off until he lost consciousness, state media reported.
The hornets seem ubiquitous in Ankang. In Liushui township, a scattering of two-storey concrete homes sandwiched between a lush hillside and a stagnant river, an elderly shopkeeper in a purple blazer said the hornets had infested a cabbage patch near her home. "The government has been coming down and burning them, but they can't burn them all," she added, pointing down into the brush. "I'm not willing to go down there."
Mu Conghui, a 55-year-old Ankang villager, was stung 200 times while tending her rice field in late August. "These hornets are terrifying – all at once they flew to my head, and when I stopped, they stung me so much that I couldn't budge," she told state media. "My legs were crawling with hornets. Right now my legs are covered with small sting holes – over the past two months I've received 13 dialysis treatments."
The Ankang government says it has removed 710 hives and sent 7m yuan (£707,000) to help affected areas. "We're doing everything we can, but there's only so much we can do," says Deng Xianghong, the deputy head of the Ankang propaganda department. "God has been unfair to us."
At least some of the deaths were caused by V mandarinia, experts say. The species does not typically attack unless it feels its nest is threatened. But when it does, it can be fierce and fast – the hornets can fly at 25mph and cover 50 miles in a day. They make their homes in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect.
People blame this year's scourge on climate change: the past year has been unusually warm, allowing a high number of hornets to survive the winter. Huang Ronghui, an official at the Ankang Forestry Bureau's pest control department, lists a host of other possibilities: the hornets may have been agitated by a dry spell, while labourers have been moving deeper into the mountains, disturbing their nests. "Other than this, hornets are attracted to bright colours and the smell of people's sweat, alcohol and sweet things," he told state media. "They're sensitive to movement, such as running people or animals."
The region has also been overrun by the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, a slightly smaller species which can be equally dangerous. Hundreds, even thousands, inhabit each nest, which typically hangs from a high place. In Chengxing village, a few miles down a winding mountain road from Yu's home village, 16-year-old Tan Xingjian pointed at a tree in the distance. Hanging from one thick branch was a pale, basketball-sized bulb, its surface alive with darting black specks. "That's where they live," Tan said. "We don't dare to go near there."
Ankang is on alert, with the local authorities posting warning notices online, on roadside treetrunks and on primary school walls. The crisis has exhausted Gong Zhenghong, the spiky-haired mayor of Hongshan township in rural Ankang. Since September, Gong has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan, with 175 close to schools and roads.
Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made from rain jackets and canvas, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. "They don't fly around at night," he said. Sometimes the team begins work in the late evening and doesn't finish until 2am. "We'd normally send the fire squad to do this, but this year there were too many nests." Gong left his office, returned with a black rubbish bag, and pulled out the charred remains of a nest, the blackened tails of bulb-like larvae protruding from its combs.
Firefighters destroy dead hornets in Ankang, Shaanxi province, China. Photograph: China Stringer Network/REUTERS
Two other cities in Shaanxi – Hanzhong and Shangluo – have also been
besieged by hornets, though the death tolls have been markedly lower. In
southern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a swarm of hornets
attacked a primary school in mid-September, injuring 23 children and
seven adults. The teacher, Li Zhiqiang, told pupils to hide under their
desks and tried to fight the creatures off until he lost consciousness, state media reported.The hornets seem ubiquitous in Ankang. In Liushui township, a scattering of two-storey concrete homes sandwiched between a lush hillside and a stagnant river, an elderly shopkeeper in a purple blazer said the hornets had infested a cabbage patch near her home. "The government has been coming down and burning them, but they can't burn them all," she added, pointing down into the brush. "I'm not willing to go down there."
Mu Conghui, a 55-year-old Ankang villager, was stung 200 times while tending her rice field in late August. "These hornets are terrifying – all at once they flew to my head, and when I stopped, they stung me so much that I couldn't budge," she told state media. "My legs were crawling with hornets. Right now my legs are covered with small sting holes – over the past two months I've received 13 dialysis treatments."
The Ankang government says it has removed 710 hives and sent 7m yuan (£707,000) to help affected areas. "We're doing everything we can, but there's only so much we can do," says Deng Xianghong, the deputy head of the Ankang propaganda department. "God has been unfair to us."
Oh....that explains it
So as most of you know I have a musician addiction.
I've had it all my life.
In fact its so bad, two years ago I befriended a neighbor because I saw him saw him dragging a cello out of his car.
Yeah, it extends to the classical instruments.
Well this morning the Gods gave me an answer for my sickness
I was sitting in front of the computer with the non-offensive, office approved soft rock channel droning away in the background.
Suddenly I hear a very familiar refrain.
"Beth, I hear you callin............."
It was like being sucked back through a tunnel and I was suddenly sitting in my sunshine yellow bedroom in Lake Magdalene, Florida listening to the beautiful song for the 18th time that day.
It's 1977 and I am a too tanned and too blond and just starting to discover that boys are not as stupid as I thought they were.
My neighbor Justin Starr is the coolest boy I know and don't tell anybody, but we kissed in the pool last week (he he).
I'm completely lost in this mishmash of memory but not so lost that I, possibly for the first time ever,
comprehend the lyrics.
Wait a minute....this song is about some chick waiting on her musician boyfriend to stop goofing off and come home.
Holy crap, it all makes sense now, the waiting, the loading out of the amps, the "no baby, she knows a guy who knows a guy so I need to be nice and buy her drinks all night" BS I actually bought for awhile.
WHAT!?!, at least 1/2 of my romantic life can be blamed on this stupid, stupid song.
That's it, next boyfriend is an accountant.
Of course I then found this beautiful spoof of the song....hilarious and the 70's kitchen is fantastic.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/kiss-beth-video-spoof/
I've had it all my life.
In fact its so bad, two years ago I befriended a neighbor because I saw him saw him dragging a cello out of his car.
Yeah, it extends to the classical instruments.
Well this morning the Gods gave me an answer for my sickness
I was sitting in front of the computer with the non-offensive, office approved soft rock channel droning away in the background.
Suddenly I hear a very familiar refrain.
"Beth, I hear you callin............."
It was like being sucked back through a tunnel and I was suddenly sitting in my sunshine yellow bedroom in Lake Magdalene, Florida listening to the beautiful song for the 18th time that day.
It's 1977 and I am a too tanned and too blond and just starting to discover that boys are not as stupid as I thought they were.
My neighbor Justin Starr is the coolest boy I know and don't tell anybody, but we kissed in the pool last week (he he).
I'm completely lost in this mishmash of memory but not so lost that I, possibly for the first time ever,
comprehend the lyrics.
Wait a minute....this song is about some chick waiting on her musician boyfriend to stop goofing off and come home.
Holy crap, it all makes sense now, the waiting, the loading out of the amps, the "no baby, she knows a guy who knows a guy so I need to be nice and buy her drinks all night" BS I actually bought for awhile.
WHAT!?!, at least 1/2 of my romantic life can be blamed on this stupid, stupid song.
That's it, next boyfriend is an accountant.
Of course I then found this beautiful spoof of the song....hilarious and the 70's kitchen is fantastic.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/kiss-beth-video-spoof/
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