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David Mitchell

Tim,

I understand your priorities - the mountain scenery etc. I chose Colorado years ago for two similar reasons - Mountians and skiing. After 17 years we had to move back to Columbus for family reasons and regretted it ever since. My 3 kids live all over now but we all still miss those days at the foot of the Rockies. 

Funny side story from that. Growing up in Denver, any time we went somewhere you had that visual reference (the mountians) to your west. So the kids grew up with a pretty good sense of directions. It was right after we moved back to the "big C" that the older two had to learn to drive. And they complained constantly that they could not figure out what direction they were going to find their way around town - no "scenery" to help navigate. 

Timothy Lavelle

Happy 70th year birthday to everyone this year!!!

February is a great month for me to take a break from ranting at all of you and to suggest that "Female February" is here. I want to sit back, enjoy the Eagles beating the Patriots and just read what all the ladies have to say about any topic whatsoever.

Officially offering a topic to all our fabulous femmes. Hilary Clinton has no more chance of winning the presidency than a snowflake in hell. Who else you got? Man, if that doesn't get you fired up I can't think what will. Say your piece....PLEASE.

Jim/Dave...Mt. Ranier is often covered by clouds on our northern horizon, such is Washington weather. On cleae days it is almost always snow covered but does have bare patches in mid and late summer. When people are lost on the mountain, and that is far too common, it is strange to sit here and stare at this monolith and think of their plight.

John Maxwell

Timothy Lavelle

OK...last post for real until March....

Jim. Harley. No way. Overrated. I have an aging 79 BMW, 1000 cc 100 RS, that I found in a shed in Saudi Arabia. Beautiful old girl that carried me across the US and back in 86, passing many broken down HARDLEYS. Or recently I ride an 1800 CC Honda VTX made at the Honda factory in the Columbus area. A veteran Harley rider once asked me if I knew what HONDA means? "Harley Owners Need Dependable Alternatives."

Jocko...your discovery of a mound of bear poop and subsequent retreat taught you the reason they call it SCAT!

Out.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Animal Crackers

Jack,

Before we moved to Colorado my wife and I visited Rocky Mountain National Park and I quickly learned two lessons.

As we drove down a road I spotted a herd of elk in the distance down in a little valley. Grabbing my camera I stealthy made my way down the hill about 200 yards through knee high grass to capture a good wildlife photo. I almost tripped over something which turned out to be a relatively fresh kill carcass of a female elk. Hmmm...Uh-Oh, where is the mountain lion! That hill on the run back seemed awfully steep! LESSON #1.- ALWAYS BE AWARE!

When we got back to the motel, I was changing my jeans for a pair of slacks and discovered three ticks crawling up my leg. Fortunately ticks walk around a lot before they attach. LESSON #2 - APPLY DEET BEFORE AND DO TICK CHECKS AFTER WALKING IN TALL GRASS!

Your bear story struck home as their scat is quite distinctive and can be huge. My Critter Cam caught this sequence in 2015:

And, the following morning it was clean-up time:

Linda Weiner (Bennett)

-I was on twitter for #SOTU for the third year consecutively—kept me informed of the broadcast and some good and totally ridiculous opinions of what folks thought they were hearing.  It was still better than just straight listening. It was the best SOTU in my memory.

-I ran across this yesterday. Since there was heavy discussion of TV westerns, I’m sharing.

  http://www.tv-cowboys.com

-Dr. Jim, Don’t you love critter cam? Do you still use it.

-Tim, are you giving ladies permission to join in? 😉.  I’ll bet you can’t stay quiet on here for a month. 😉

James Hamilton, M. D.

Linda,

Yes, I love and still use the ol' Critter Cam! However, I mainly catch deer on it as I saw no bears this past summer. I did see one pile of bear scat so I know there are some still around but should be hibernating now.

I plan on taking the Cam out into Pike National Forest soon and putting it somewhere way off the beaten path for a few days. My first Cam was stolen when I set it up in a wooded area of a city park. This newer one is able to be locked onto a tree by way of a thick metal cord so I hope that will not happen again. My goal is to capture images of a mountain lion and some bobcats.

You are correct, Tim will never make it through the month!

David Mitchell

Thanks Linda,

The "TV Cowboy" site is great! I got to read about Lash La Rue and Jay Silverheels (Tonto) and a bunch of other cool stuff. I even learned the real meaning of "Kemo Sabe". 

Also, Yes, I echo Tim's suggestion that we need more input from the feminine side of this bunch. You are pemitted to shoot off your mouths every bit as much as the six or seven of us loud mouth males are. You understand we all suffer from a condition known as "Man Answer Syndrome". We have an answer to everything - weather or not we are asked, and even when there is no question to begin with.

(and I really wish my buddy hiding behind the curtain would stop being a "reader only" and post something. You know who you are, and you have more damned intersting stuff to share than most of the rest of us.)

And lastly, Linda I would enjoy very much hearing more about your Dad's music trio. It is NOT unimportant - it's all good here girl! Anybody who played on the Sally Flowers show has to be forever etched in the annals of 1950's Columbus history. 

David Mitchell

Oh, and Tim,

You're going to sit there in you little mountan hideaway and drop 

"an aging 79 BMW, 1000 cc 100 RS, that I found in a shed in Saudi Arabia. Beautiful old girl that carried me across the US and back in 86........."

on us and just leave us hanging there?  C'mon man! That's cruel and inhuman punishment. Can't you give us a little more than that?

(or do we have to wait till March for it?  Jeesh! I'll be an old man by then.)

Frank Ganley

I will weigh in on the SOTU address, incredible, President recounting the year and what his administration has accomplished and incredible for the idiocy of the left for sitting there on their hands and only briefly did they ever give a golf clap. THE BLACK CAUCUS COULDN'T EVEN RECOGNIZE THE LOWEST IN ALL OF OUR CHECKERED HISTORY BLACK unemployment, shameful. Dana Perino on Fox news stated that all of the dems should have taken the road that it was their accomplishment for all the work the black caucus has done to improve the lot of our brothers and sisters of the black persuasion . On to lighter things, Jim in your picture creekside it appears to me as if you are leaving your own scat for bears to examine. Hmmmm mama bear this scat looks like its come from some skinny yankee boy hardly worth eating him. 

tim you couldn't be quiet for a month even if you took a vow of silence and enrolled in a Trappist monastery . as with me, you also would go absolutely burr serk with the silence... In my days of retirement other than taking care of my granddaughter, i fill the noiselessness with my music and colouring. both incredible outlets for stress reduction. You ask, stress reduction, what kind of stress? Men take care of an inexhaustible tornado that resembles the looney toons character the Tasmanian devil but with a smile. bourbon never tasted so good at 5 pm.

Closing, prayers for us all , and only because I was born there and our high school mascot  GO EAGLES

James Hamilton, M. D.

Michael McLeod

I think, if you know your recent American history, particularly the civil rights movement, you might have an idea of why the black caucus would have a hard time giving Donald Trump the time of day. Of all his random, insulting, ignorant tweets, the most repulsive one was his insult to John Lewis, one of the heroes of the civil rights movement, who walked across a bridge in Selma Alabama one day not knowing if he would make it to the other side alive - and thus played a part, along with many others, in waking this country up to the insanity and hypocricy of racism. John Lewis is a thousand times the man Donald Trump is. And Trumps ignorance of American history is just one example of why, as they say, there will never be any bridges named after him. I'm patient. Time will tell this tale.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

While I am not taking a side in the Super Bowl and more's the pity because, as a spectator, for me to enjoy a game to its fullest, I need to be fully vested in the outcome.  I don't like to be wishy-washy about caring which team comes out on the winning end.  I will be way more interested this weekend in the OSU-Illinois basketball game.....fully vested in an OSU victory to bolster their #17 ranking.  Having said all of that, Peggy Southworth Townley shared this video with me on Facebook today and I was so grateful for her reminder of this incredible Tim Tebow story.that I am linking to it to share with all of you here on the forum.  Go Bucks!!  Go Eagles.....or Patriots....sigh!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPkz6Cd4xGU

Mark Schweickart

My brother just sent me this link to a 90 minute documentary about Flippo. Now you're talking! 

Frank Ganley

Mike with all due respect only a few people would have known about this gentleman and as I vaguely remember was somewhat tortured by the Selma police during Dr King's march on Selma. Mike do you really think that came up and where was the tweet etc. Let's get over all this past he did this, he said that he hates these people, he's going to get us all killed, really do all you left wing chicken littles think the sky is falling and holy Jesus what are we going to do. Lets whip people up in a frenzy about a man who 50 years ago or more made a bold and courageous statement, Let kill a statue over that one. Let it rest. Let's ask ourselves a really easy question and see if we all come up with the same answer. If I am Vlad ( that's what I call him when he calls) do I want to deal with a businessman who is known for winning just about every deal that he enters. Donald Trump does not lose in a negotiation, period. Or if I'm Vlad do I want to deal with a person that I have beat up in every military deal, negotiation and even got to buy 25% of America's uranium. Hmm do I want to argue with somebody that may kick me in the ball or do i want to tell a spineless wimp who i have beaten every time?  If this was a Geico commercial Vlad is getting kicked in the balls right about now. Stop with the petty bullshit, if I am Killary Clitlusion i would be screaming at the congress, Senator at this point what does it matter. Ok, the stock market has dumped 2000 points today, do you think a few people said ok that a nice profit, , let me take some out and see where it all settles. Our constant complaining and carping about his tweets, his wife, his everything is getting old and to have shumer and pelosi sit there like they did when they should be celebrating the success of the united states they are sitting there thinking how can i screw this up and make trump fail. Left wingers, hello. These people are screwing you over. Let talk about black people MIKE. tHE PEOPLE OF CHICAGO WITH MORE GUN LAWS THAN ANYWHERE IN THE US ARE DYING EVERY DAY. Detroit have you been there lately, nice place but car manufacturers are moving back. Moving back not because of the democrates but Trump. Black people , mexican people, chinese peoiple only count when an election is coming up. Oh we'll do this say the dems, oh we'll make your schools better, again I cry Bullshit. ah but the left will blame white privlege. I still trying to wrap my head around that one. Cival rights movement put the blacks above every candidate they could. I trying to find out where my free stuff is. Where's my housing allowance, where's my food stamps, oh sorry you can't turn stamps into money like you can with an EBT card and I want my smart phone paid for. Dems we only have so much money , lets get behind the greatest Preesident in Modern TIMES and take America once again to the greatest caring nation in the world. And if you are unhappy with his performance vote him out. But he keeps this train a rolli better keep him. 

David Mitchell

Like I was saying before, I liked it better when we were talking about ferrol hogs, or the Whetstone casting ponds. Oh well,,,,,,

Mark, Thanks for the piece about Flippo. I'm only part way through but enjoying it very much. I really think he was actually some important part of a right of passage for me. I can recall a time in life when I progressed from hurrying home to watch Flippo after school - and hurrying home to shoot hoops in the driveway or call girls on the phone. I'm thinkin' it must have been when I was about 14 or 15? 

(maybe I should'a stuck with Flippo on TV)

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

We interrupt this Fox News posting . . . Won’t even be trying to understand Frank’s latest diatribe. 

Clare

David Mitchell

Oh boy, here goes....I'm gonna regret this in the morning. This is likely to put me out of the running for Miss Congeniality - damn!

Frank,

I am a (sort of) conservative republican (or so I once liked to think) and I would just like to say that although I do not agree with most of Dem. Rep. John Lewis political point of view - (or Mike's in many cases), Mr. Lewis has more respect from those who recall his courage for what he went through In Selma than any ten rinky-dink, loud-mouthed, New York, sheister, women-groping, handicap-insulting, DRAFT DODGING, narcissitic psychopaths put together.

And can we all please just stop with the "successful businessman" crap!  I get so tired of that nonsense. That is a very checkered history. We all know his daddy gave him one (or was it two?) million dollars cash and between one and two hundred million worth of Apartments in NYC. But we seem to forget that by the 1980's the banks took all of it back, and realizing a smart business angle for themselves, GAVE  him back $30,000,000 cash to keep the naming rights on some of his major projects. He failed with a Steak Company. He failed with an Airline. He then re-launched (during better market conditions) a successful Real Estate development career - with a lot of help from the NYC (and Russian) Mafia. But he still managed to go bankrupt on his Casinos - what, 3 times? - and once more on a real estate project? And recently, he finally had to settle out of court (to save his campaign's ass) with all the families he was blatantly CHEATING out of their life's savings with his "Trump University" - which had itself become a scandal or a joke (pick your point of view) around legitimate NYC professional Real Estate, Finance, and Banking circles - most of whom consider him to be a virtual pariah. His record of chisleing vendors, suppliers, and laborers down to pennies on the dollar is legenedary. If that's what you call "winning business deals" I beg to differ. We were raised better than that. 

(and remember kiddies, it's not okay for Mr. Obama to take those expensive trips abroad (I agree), but it IS okay now that "The Donald" is breaking the Secret Service's budget with his entourage trips to Mara Lago - every damn weekend !  And how about a sitting president who is secretly continuing to sell his real estate deals - while in office ?)

And again, I just have to throw this in - my (least) favorite description of him is his famous quote; "My battle with venerial disease was my own personal Vietnam."   Pure, unadulterated puke!

Yes, I agree that he dropped a big bomb on the right target in the middle east - once. And I agree with part of (not all) of his new tax bill. By all means, let's DO repatriate those overseas hoards of cash from Apple and Google and Amazon, etc. Yes, our highest in the world 35% corporate rates were killing american business compettiveness (is that a word?) You couldn't design a better way to ship our jobs overseas! BUT I do NOT like (and cannot fathom) lowering the rate brakets on the top individual income earners - huh?  I know it's not a very significant part of the budget, but the example it sets - what the Frank? (if you'll pardon my expression)

Don't get me wrong Frank. I would not have voted for Hillary until the day after pigs learned to fly helicopters, but I have every right ( I think I may have even EARNED a bit of it. ) to say what I think (your very point, right?) - that this guy is a thoroughy disgusting human being and an embarrasment to the honorable principles of our country! Other clean living decent citizens could have affected some of the same improvemetns in our economy. He simply yelled the loudest and got the most attention.  

The situation we found ourselves in for the last election is not unlike other countries in history. We had had enough of the liberal, do-nothing leadership vacuum and so some of us got mad enough to vote for CHANGE! But here is the crazy part of history (not unlike Germany in the 30's after the Wiemar Republic - and other counties in other times - Latin America for example) - This guy was smart enough to see the opportunity and pander to the lowest common denominator of an irritated, impatient, discontent population. (Like the crowds Storming the "Winter Palace" in 1917 - or manning the Barricades in Paris in 1789 - he caught the right wave and rode it all the way in.)  

----------------------

BTW - I did not vote for either of the first three candidates - not even dunderhead Anderson (remember: "What's Aleppo?") I voted for the Attorney from Nashville or Memphis who was #4 on the ticket. He was against abortion and for looser Marijuana lawss. But my main attraction - He and his wife started an orphanage for some of those lost babies of Romania after the fall of Ceausescu in 1989. Friends said "Oh man, you wasted your vote".  My response, "Nope, I think you wasted yours."      (My motive: I do have grandchildren I have to face)

Now can we get back to the casting ponds?  Or Flippo maybe?

Michael Boulware

I have been elevated to celebrity status!!!!! Flippo's grandaughter was in my history class when I taught many years ago. She even remembered Dan Immel from Anderson, Indiana. Flippo loved to tease that guy.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Back in October, 2017, Posts #1974 and #2010, I talked about my conservative leanings. I have not changed.

The Democrats, especially the Progressive wing, literally hate Donald Trump. Why? It is my belief that it all boils down to the fact that he defeated their candidate, whom they had already annointed to be the POTUS. With all the recent evidence that has come out, Bernie didn't have a chance and much was (illegally) done to assure Trump didn't either. But he won despite the cards being stacked against him. I truly believe that none of the other 16 Republicans who ran in the primaries could have won that race. And, if by some slim chance any would have, none of them could be standing up to the hatred and attacks that have been levied aganst Trump. And they would have been levied aganst any one of them. They would have been more concerned about the politics than the agenda that Trump is successfully implementing. My opinion, of course.

There were many heroes during the Civil Rights movement of the 60's and John Lewis was one. Many advancements were made and continued to be implemented in the following decades. It is also my belief that under the last administration we experienced a giant step backwards in race relations. It is tragic that many Representatives and Senators can't appreciate the fact that minorities are improving in many ways under this current administration. Like him or not, President Trump is keeping his promises to the people to the best he can and without the support of many in Congress.

There are several Republicans who also despise Trump. He has upset the status quo of Washington D.C. and was not a member of any inside circles. He was not "one of them". Slowly some of those are starting to help him accomplish some good things for America - Paul Ryan for instance. If others on both sides of the aisle can move beyond their dislike and hate I think that our country will benefit greatly.

Jim

Daniel Cody

Ok i’ll stay off you lawn!

David Mitchell

Mike B. and Dan,

Would you two please stop hogging this Forum?

John Maxwell

John Jackson

Jim, for another view of Paul Ryan read Michael Gerson's Feb. 5 column entitled "The Cowardice among Republicans is Staggering".  Gerson's liberal bona fides are unassailable - he's an evangelical Christian, a former policy advisor at Heritage Foundation, chief speechwriter and senior policy adviser for Bush 43, and now a conservative columnist. My favorite quote from this piece:

"The nearly uniform cowardice among elected Reublicans is staggering.  One is left wishing that Obamacare covered spine implants".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-cowardice-among-republicans-is-staggering/2018/02/05/41852454-0aa9-11e8-8890-372e2047c935_story.html?utm_term=.78ab84cbed71

Frank Ganley

Jack, If I group all liberals and Dems into one easy group and you don't belong in there I from the bottom of my heart apologize. I have reread my last post and the only word that I could have changed would be a word that refers to bull defecation, I apologize. For your service to our great country, I thank you. I was not allowed to participate because of a birth defect, spinal Bifida occulta... I thank God every day that when we were being born there were no prenatal testing as it might have been brought to my parent attention to the risks and dangers of spinal bifida. So to all of our classmates that served we salute you for what you've done for our great country. If it pleases the court, please show me where I have been vulgar and inappropriate so I will be able to make changes in my thinking and approach. once again in response to your last post what do you mean this isn't the place, for what an exchange of ideas, thoughts, and beliefs, what you stand for or is this a place just to talk of cowboy shows and flippo. so when you say my input is insulting and disgusting I need to know where it was. But it is alright for you to accuse me of being a klan member or even knowing some is insulting but I am going to take that as a joke but for the record, I hate everything about the klan and the john birch society. I have never started one of these chains but only weigh in. Once again apparently the conservative side is not to give their opinion as it might upset the Dems.