What the weekend held.

Well, we'll start with Saturday morning. My friend Doug Aiken came up to Grove City and we headed out to Franklin and Kennerdale (butt early in the A.M. I might add). We were in search of Bully Hill cave, and Cimino cave (supposedly an ice cave-even during the summer). With GPS in hand, and the assistance of a PA atlas we set out. We found Bully Hill cave with little problem. The coordinates which had been found probably 30 years ago were accurate to with in about 2 or 3 minutes. Fairly impressive with a GPS. Its a neat cave. Some pretty technical stuff inside and quite a few spiders. Cimino Cave on the other hand, proved difficult to find. So much so that we didn't actually find it. We scoured the rock cover ground for nearly 45 minutes and all we found was a sweet 15-20' "cliff" that would be excellent for bouldering. So, we found 50% of what we were looking for, and also further explored two railroad tunnels up in Kennerdale. By the way. Don't speed thru the little hamlet of Kennerdale. The locals dont' take kindly to this, and they will come out of their house, and stand in the middle of the road, and yell at your for going 3 mph over the posted 25 mph speed limit. Then they will help you find the old Kennerdale train tunnel. Mental note-you will fit in better there if you wear camo and don't drive a little Honda Civic.


Well, we didn't get pictures on this trip, but I do have two pictures from two other caves I was in. The first is me squirming thru a passage in Dravosburg. There was a lot of water in that cave. The second is me "holding up" the Guillotine at/in Lemon Hole. That is a sweet cave.


The second thing we did, was go to my wife's best friends play down in Pittsburgh. Cup-a-Jo Productions put on a multimedia event. It was really quite nice. I give it a three thumbs up. There were three short films, and a play. This play really gets you to thinkin'. The director/writer shows much promising talent and I know we will all look forward to her next piece of work. My vote is for a comedy/musical. If you need graphic design, or even help directing plays, give Joanna a shout (cupajoprod@gmail.com). Well, that's about it for exciting things over the weekend. Feel free to contact me though if you have a motorcycle you would like to get rid of for real cheap. I have a car washing sponge from Tarpon Springs, that little slice of heaven, to trade for it. Peace out yo!

TGIF Baby!

Thank God it is Friday! Which is wierd, cause we had a friday last week, and I wasn't completely pumped about it. The big thing is-what to do this evening? Everyone knows you can't just sit around and veg...at least not two weekends in a row.

The #@$!!@* Update: Removed!

Let's see, I don't know that I have any political rants today. Maybe I do. Why don't those senators and congressmen hurry up and approve Judge Alito? Is it because they are afraid he is "too conservative".? You didn't see republicans making a big stink and threatening a filibuster when Ruth Bader Guinsberg (spelling?) stepped up to the bench...and think it is pretty safe to say this woman is far left (But that could just be me, since I am a conservative, sitting so "far right", that the "center" looks left to me.). Come on public servants! Just get your job done. That's why we voted for you.

Sorry, I think these posts get more boring every time. I am going caving this weekend. Well, maybe not into the caves, but looking for them. Got the old GPS, entered their coords, and even located them on a map so I can get to them. Well, see how that pans yout. I have 5 caves to look at, they are all with in 20 miles of me, but that is lots of driving since they are in three different counties. Maybe I can at least get some pics of the entrances.

My Green Thumb

Well, I guess this is completely unrelated to anything else I have written, but hey, it doesn't hurt to get a few more pics in here. I am not huge into horticulture or gardening, however, I do like growing (or rather, attempting to keep alive) strange and/or uncommon plants. I have this little maple tree that I am trying to make into a Bonsai...it survived the transplant into its dish. This is how good it was doing in the summer. Currently, it is in the house, with no leaves due to that whole "leaves-fall-off-in-the-fall-and-come-back-in-the-spring thing. I also have a little oragne tree, but it is still pretty little. My favorite "plant" is my coffee tree. I got it when it was like 8" tall, it nearly died twice, and now the thing is about 2' tall, and grows like a weed in the summer...just not enough light in Western PA for lots of winter growth.

In other news-we finally got snow today, and it is actaully staying below freezing. Sweet!

Picksbuuurgs Gahhn ta da Suuupeerrr Bowwl

For those of you who think I can't spell, that is how they say the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to the Super Bowl (XL) in Pittsburghese. It is a harsh sounding dialect, and rather unintelligent sounding too. For those of you not familiar with it, they also leave the uncongigated phrase "To BE" out of nearly everything. For example, a normal person says, "The Floor needs to be vacuumed." In Pittsburgh, they would say, "The floor needs swept'n'at."

But really, I don't care about this right now, since Pittsburgh has such a rocking football team. It is sweet, oh so sweet. Last time I cheered for a team that went to the super bowl, it was the Buffalo Bills, in like 1989 (its a total guess at the year), and that's all we'll say about that. Consequently, I hate the NY Giants.

Also, I need to complain more about the weather. Dude, it's freakin' January, and all we have is rain, clouds and mid 40° temps. Really, this is wearing on me. It is hard to do anything outside. I can't snow kite, caving isn't as fun, since caves tend to be the low spots where water seems to want to congregate, (And, I don't care that it is "warm" in a cave-55° gets chilly once you are soaked to the bone for 2 hours.), can't really mountain bike much when it is dark when you get home. Really, someone needs to do something about the weather up in this piece!

Alright, for now, Peace Out.

TGIF!

Not much to say today.

It is butt warm out-Hi in the mid 50s. Cloudy-how untypical for Western PA ;-P

Man, everyone in the office is amped for the playoff game this weekend. Magically, signs are appearing on doors. Shoot, one guy who only likes Ohio State (college) wore a Steelers shirt, just so he wouldn't get beat up :-P

We'll see how the day pans out...more later. It remains to be seen.

Thursday-AKA "Day 5" on the ISM Time Card

Well, Since I am not going to get into any political rants right now...I guess there isn't much to say. Looks like a crazy weekend ahead. Perhaps some caving and the Steelers have their play off game against the Broncos. I'd like to think we didn't come this far to lose the AFC Championship.

Anybody out there into caving? Turns out, there are a number of small caves in Western PA. About 5 within 20 miles of my house it turns out. I don't have any elaborate equipment. Infact, against my better judgment, I don't even where a hard hat. I just wear some seal skinz gloves and an LED head lamp. Seems to work just great.

The @#$@# Update: Removed!

A new soap box.

Here it is, the Establisment Clause from the first amendment. Let us mull it over for a while, shall we.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

For now, this blog will contain political content. That said-Where is my seperation of church and state?

Oh, here it is...not in the constitution itself!
http://www.usconstitution.net/jeffwall.html

Let's start at the beginning-a very good place to start!

Oh yea, in my spare time I like to tweak my little 95 civic. It mostly happens when spare time and $$$ coincide, which is not frequent.

Well, here it is...the first edition out of Grove City. Comin' atcha live...if a blog can be live. Let's see-current things in my neck of the woods to discuss:
1) Creationism is not allowed to be taught in a classroom at a local school in PA :-/
2)What's up with this weather?
3)The #$@#@ Update: removed
4) Politics in general-for now we'll just go with I am a conservative
5) Recreation


Okay, so there is probably a lot to say on this case in PA on whether or not teachers can present creationism as a valid theory about where we all came from, and how. The crux of the "winning" argument is that teaching creationism does not demonstrate a seperation of church and state. First off-there is no mention of seperation of church and state in the constitution-it only states that congress cannot create an "official state religion" in laymens terms. Additionally, nearly all the major religions in American Culture teach a form of creationism-so by teaching it, you aren't supporting any one particular sect...nuff said on that for now.


Yea, the weather is just crappy...mid 40's. Not a big fan. I want my snow and sub freezing temps. Which leads me to recreation; I want to start snow kiting but I can't do that on the mud at the Slippery Rock IM fields. Oh yes, let us not forget-I have taken up caving as of late. When I get some pics of the caves-I'll post them.