Saturday, October 31, 2015

Life is Beautiful


Life is so Beautiful! It really bothers me to see people cheapen life by taking someone's life- even if it is only in a tv show. I wish you all could have heard the sermon our pastor gave on the commandments of life several years ago- "Thou Shall Not Kill". The Older I get, the more beautiful life becomes. I am so blessed to have three children and six grandchildren It seems the older my grandkids get, the less they want their photos posted. Caitlyn still does not mind taking her photo. Many of these photos were taken by her mom several years ago. - Every mother knows how Beautiful Life Is! So does every grandparent! Liffe is Beautiful!
If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
~Diane Loomans, from "If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Open Up Your Heart & Let The Sunshine In


I hope Billy  never looses his smile. I added some photos to a song, written the year I was born, by Stewart Hamblin. I like old music and I enjoy understanding the words and that have real depth and meaning to. If you have not smiled today, you need to listen to the words of this song. If you find someone without a smile today, give them yours.
This is a Hanna-Barbera Classic with one of the best messages within a song. This video clip is from The Flintstones Season 6. Episode 141 -Aired 09-17-1965 titled "No Biz Like Show Biz" The Song has been recorded by numerous people in the  mid 50's, including Stewart Hamblin, Blackwood Brothers Quartet, Roy and Dale Rogers, Cowboy Church SS, McGuire Sisters, Flemming Fold, Lancers and was featured on the Flinstones TV show in 1965. It is hard to argue with the theology of this 1954 song written by Stewart Hamblin. For you who cannot understand the words; "God is Good and the Devil is Bad"


Saturday, October 24, 2015

Real Men Of Genius 2015

This is my 16th Paint Striping Video and the 10th year of a video remembering the years crew, sites, and activities. We see some pretty country- from Canada to below Othello and 4 or 5 mountain passes in North Central Washington. I have enjoyed my years on striping crew and worked with some great people. We are like family. I don't know what next year has in store, but I wish them the best and am thankful for the good memories. I also appreciate the help we got from Johnny and Brad.
When I interviewed for this job, I said my biggest weakness was sometimes I work so hard I forget to cash my paychecks.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

You Were Always On My Mind

I am so thankful for Family-I hope we never take them for granted.  Family should have my most videos as they are what is important in my life. You can pick and change your friends but you can’t pick and choose your family. This is an old video, Time has changed some things in this video, and I am not sure what will happen to this blog next year,  but always remember;  "You Were always on My Mind."
A happy family is but an earlier heaven.
Girlfriend, Boyfriend, Friend, and Family. All of the words have END in them except for family
To us, family means putting your arms 
around each other and being there
Blood makes you related, Love makes you family.
I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Tiquilla Warning Label

The big emotional issue seems to be guns- yet over a dozen people  are killed in the U.S. by drunk driving in the time span of a typical school day. Maybe instead of restricting guns just to the Government, they should put labels on them as they do cigarettes?  I cannot figure out why people smoke even with warnings on the package telling of cancer danger (but they do)? I highly doubt if a warning on each bottle of alcohol would help either. Someone made a spoof commercial of what a warning label could sound like- I added photos several years ago- I could have added more dangers than they list. (ruined careers, broken marriages, ruined lives,,,,) To me it’s not funny- it’s sad and sick. Why not just say no, and just do not even try the first one. Maybe I could bring a student to the next fatality accident that is caused by drinking- it’s not a pretty scene. I have been called out to flag too many.       “Values are caught, not taught. 
Americans take 233 billion trips in cars each year. Of those, about one out of every two thousand trips are taken by those who are driving under the influence of alcohol.  Yet, almost one out of every three traffic deaths involve drunk driving.
Every 53 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash (9,878 people in total in 2011).  Every two minutes, someone is injured by a drunk driver.
Before you dive in, you should know that a number of factors affect the real odds of something, most especially your specific behavior. A surfer has a greater likelihood of being attacked by a shark than someone who never goes into the water. That being said, we rounded up some interesting general stats.
Odds of being diagnosed with cancer — 1 in 2
Turns out, cancer is only something that happens to someone else for 50 percent of us.
Odds of being a victim of a serious crime — 1 in 20
Serious crimes include things like murder, assault, robbery and rape.
Odds of being called to “Come on down!” on The Price is Right — 1 in 36
Given the stats on becoming a billionaire or winning the lotto, which we cover later, this is pretty good news.
Odds of being audited by the IRS — 1 in 175
We wish this one would switch places with some others on the list. As Charlie Brown would say, “good grief!”
Odds of being arrested while drunk driving — 1 in 200
With a designated driver, your chances are zero! Way better odds.
Odds of being born with 11 fingers or toes — 1 in 500
This means that if you follow 1,000 people on Twitter, one or two of them were probably born with an extra appendage.
Odds of dying from an injury in the next year — 1 in 1,820
We tend to think of injuries as minor, but they can be deadly.
Odds of dying in a car accident — Between 1 in 4,000 and 1 in 8,000
If you text while driving, you increase you chances by six times — the same as driving after four beers.
Odds of winning an Oscar — 1 in 11,500
Keep in mind, though, your odds are zero if you aren’t in the industry.
Odds of finding a pearl in an oyster — 1 in 12,000
Given how hard it is to shuck an oyster, we hardly think it’s worth it.
Odds of becoming a professional athlete — 1 in 22,000
We were hoping for the odds of marrying a pro athlete, but this will do.
Odds of going blind after laser eye surgery — 1 in 85,714
From our research, it seems this stat must be related to legal blindness, rather than total blindness, but consider whether it’s worth the risk.
Odds of dating a supermodel — 1 in 88,000
We'd venture a guess that these stats don't hold up when Leo DiCaprio is your competition. On the bright side, someone finally managed to take Adam Levine out of the equation.
Odds of dying in an airplane crash — 1 in 354,319
Not too bad as compared to cars... or bikes, on which you have a 1 in 4,147 chance of dying.
Odds of getting killed by fireworks — 1 in 616,488
About 66 percent of those occur on the Fourth of July.
Odds of being struck by lightning — 1 in 700,000
Just keep in mind that most people who are “struck” by lightning actually get hit from electricity traveling underground after the strike, so wear rubber-soled shoes and remember to crouch with your feet close together if a strike is possible.
Odds of becoming a billionaire — 1 in 7,000,000
Just keep in mind that some of the stats below show you how unlikely it is to become one by accident.
Odds of becoming President of the U.S. — 1 in 10,000,000
Considering the president is only elected every four years and may serve two terms, those ain’t bad odds.
Odds of getting attacked by a shark — 1 in 11,500,000 (that’s five a year)
Not even close to the animal that kills the most people per year.
  • Cows — 22
  • Ants — 30 
  • Jellyfish — 40 
  • Deer — 130 
  • Hippos — 2,900 
  • Humans — 16,260 
Shark Week will never be the same.
Odds of winning $1,000 in the McDonald’s Monopoly game — 1 in 36,950,005
You’re better off betting a financial-savvy-challenged friend a grand on a real game.
Odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery — 1 in 135,145,920
At least you can still be president, right?
Sources: Popular ScienceInjury PreventionCenters for Disease Control and PreventionAsk the OddsKGB Answers, Wikipedia, The Trauma Foundation
On December 10, 2012, five inmates incarcerated at the Idaho Correctional Institution filed a lawsuit against several nationally known beer and wine companies, claiming that their addiction to alcohol lead to their crimes.  The defendants included Miller Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch Co., Adolph Coors Co., Brown-Furman Co., American Brands Inc., Pepsi-Cola, RJR Nabisco, Gallo’s Winery, Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo.  The five inmates sought over $1 billion in damages.  The lawsuit is a product liability claim based on the theory that the companies failed to adequately warn that their products were addictive.

Failure-to-Warn

Manufacturers of products have a duty to provide adequate warnings to consumers about the dangers their products present.  If a product manufacturer knows or should have known about a risk of injury and fails to adequately disclose it, then under the product liability law theory of “failure-to-warn” the manufacturer may be liable to a consumer who is injured by the product.  However, an exception to a duty to warn is that manufacturers have no duty to warn consumers of commonly known dangers.

Lawsuits against Tobacco Companies

Since the 1950s thousands of people, who developed lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, filed  lawsuits against tobacco companies.  One of the  centerpiece claims for many of these lawsuits was that for years the tobacco industry was aware of the addictive qualities of cigarettes, as well as the health risks associated with cigarette smoking, and they failed to warn the public.  As a result, people developed lung cancer and other diseases.  However, early lawsuits against tobacco companies failed as tobacco companies disputed claims that cigarettes are harmful to health and hid evidence that proved that they knew otherwise.   Plaintiffs only started to win cases against tobacco companies when evidence proving that tobacco companies had knowledge of the dangers of cigarette companies for years and hid it.

Lawsuit against Alcohol Companies

While the Idaho lawsuit is reminiscent of the lawsuits against tobacco companies where plaintiffs claimed that tobacco companies failed to warn the public of known dangers of cigarette smoking, there remains an important difference.  In the tobacco cases, the claim was that tobacco companies hid that they knew of dangers associated with cigarette smoking, and in fact marketed cigarettes as being safe.  On the contrary, in the Idaho alcohol case the plaintiffs acknowledge that it is commonly known that alcohol is addictive.  However, the Idaho plaintiffs contend that alcohol use presents dangers beyond what is commonly known and the alcohol companies failed to warn of these dangers.  The danger is that there is a segment of the population that is predisposed to alcohol addiction and even one drink may lead to addiction.

A Flawed Argument?

The flaw in this argument is that it is impractical for alcohol companies to create a warning label that would adequately address all of the possible dangers that could affect people based on their genetic makeup.  In January, 2014, the United States District Court for the District of Idaho dismissed the complaint with prejudice.  However, the questions remain as to the impact of known dangers that could potentially affect only a small portion of the population.  What duty should a company have to warn in this type of case?
Alcohol addiction can increase the likelihood of drunk driving accidents. If you feel you have an addiction to alcohol or any other substance please seek help in your area.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Happy Birthday Marian DuCette

Every once in a while, special people are put on this earth. People with deep passion, immense love for others. People with hearts much greater than average, and today, one of them would like to wish you a happy birthday. Happy Birthday Marian DuCette!
A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.– Robert Frost

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Wipeout

This month is my 22nd year at WSDOT. I enjoy the variety of jobs I am allowed to do at work-I am on call 24 hours a day, if needed. I truly enjoy flagging. I get to meet some super nice people, enjoy the beautiful weather, and work in such a great places and great friends. Once, there was a snow slide on Stevens Pass that not only closed the hiway, it buried one of our snowblowers. The slide pushed him sideways and he got out just before another slide came in and finished burying our snowblower.  There a rock slide in Tumwater Canyon- crews had to haul the debris 7 miles up the road as you cannot just dump it over the bank to widen the road anymore.  We had to divert traffic over Snoqualmie Pass and second day, cars only, were allowed to detour on the Chumstick County Road, until it opened.  I flagged for too many fatalities that the road is closed for, sadly many involve drinking.  Most people just want to know why the road is closed- so Lets see if I can post some photos below for you on why the road was closed. The video called Wipeout I made several years ago and  has some photos from work and some I added from Internet to fill it up- I think you can tell the difference?
Several years ago I published this in my Wisdom, Wonder and Wit Joke Book, its called;
Washington Winter Journal:
Aug. 12: Moved to our new home in Washington. Beautiful here. The northern woods are so majestic. Can hardly wait for snow. I love it here.
Oct. 14: Washington is the most beautiful place on Earth. The leaves have turned colors. Went for a ride through the country and saw some deer. They are so graceful...certainly one of the most beautiful animals on earth. I really love it here.
Nov.11: Deer season will start soon. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill such a gorgeous creature. Hope it will snow soon. What a beautiful place.
Dec.12: Snowed last night! Woke up to find everything blanketed with white. It looks like a postcard! We went outside and cleared the snow off the steps and shoveled the driveway. We had a snow ball fight(I won) and when the snow plow came by, we got to shovel the driveway out again. I love Washington
Dec. 14: More snow last night. I love it. The snow plow did his trick to the driveway again. Its so great here.
Dec.19: More snow last night. Couldn’t get out of the driveway to get to work. Stupid Snow Plow.
Dec.22: More of that crazy snow fell last night. I have blisters on my hands from shoveling. I think the snow plow hides around curves and waits until I am done shoveling the drive way. Stupid Jerk!
Dec.25: Merry Christmas. More of that crazy snow.If I ever get my hands on that snow plow driver, I swear I’ll kill him. I Don’t know why they don’t use more salt on the roads to melt the ice.
Dec.27: More crazy white stuff fell last night.Been inside for three days-except for shoveling driveway after that snow plow goes through. Can’t go anywhere-car stuck in snow. Weatherman says to expect 19” of the crazy white stuff- do you know how many shovels of snow 19” is?
Dec.28: The crazy weatherman is wrong. We got 34” of snow this time.At this rate it won’t melt before next summer. The snow plow got stuck up the road and the crazy driver came to door to ask to borrow a shovel. After I told him I had broken six shovels already, shoveling the snow he pushed into my driveway- I Broke the last shovel over his ugly head.
Jan.4: Finally got out of the house today.Went to the store to get food and hit deer that ran in front of my car. Did $3,000 damage to car! Those beasts should be killed.Wish the hunters had killed all of them last November.
May 3: Took car to garage in town. Would you believe the thing is rusting out from all that crazy salt they put all over the roads?
May 10: Moved to Arizona! I can’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would ever live in the state of Washington!

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Happy Birthday Donny

I am so  blessed to have Donny as my son in law! Its fun to watch him care and raise our grandkids,  and  have him take care of Darcie so well. He is a good dad and wonderful husband to Darcie.  Happy Birthday Donny and may you enjoy many wonderful years, with Gods blessings.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Come Sail Away

October is Cruise Month- but I think all cruise prices just went up in price this month as well? It was on a Saturday, Oct. 3rd to Oct. 10th, 2009; we took our first ever cruise to Mexico. We flew to Long Beach, took a taxi to the ship and we had a wonderful 7 days-just the two of us. The video above is that trip, it seems videos have replaced the photo album books. We sailed on the Norwegian Star; a ship we actually cruised to Alaska on May 12th, 2007, with friends from church. We sailed on the Star, from New Orleans on Feb 23rd, 2013, for a total of 3 times on same ship. Jan prefers the southern warm weather cruises, and I enjoyed the Alaska cruise, since we could drive to ship- get on- no flying and no TSA to deal with.  No big vacation taken this year yet, but we did go hot tubing last night- does that count? I am still looking for a good buy on a cruise like this one was.
This was our schedule and prices back then for cruise. The coupon book was not that big of a deal.
Cruise Itinerary
Day Port/City Arrive Depart
1 Los Angeles, California --- 4:00 PM
2 At Sea --- ---
3 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 11:00 AM 6:00 PM
4 Mazatlan, Mexico 8:00 AM 5:00 PM
5 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 8:00 AM 10:00 PM
6 At Sea --- ---
7 At Sea --- ---
8 Los Angeles, California 8:00 AM ---

Dates                            Interior Oceanview Balcony Suite
Oct 3 to Oct. 10th 2009 $329      $379       Call Us $1,449

This cruise may have the following promotion(s) available:
•Complimentary Soda Card! Limited Time Only
•Free Onboard Coupon Book


Optimism: Waiting for a ship to come in when you haven't sent one out

I used to have a fear of boats, but that ship has sailed.

When the bottom of a cargo ship got a hole, it had one hull of a problem

Thursday, October 1, 2015

I Walk The Line

As many of you know- I work for WSDOT- I am in Traffic which includes striping state roads from Canadian Border to south of Othello. I really enjoy my work and the people I work with. I actually have one of the best jobs. Here is our 2009 striping photos set to an old song by Johnny Cash, called I walk the Line.