Weekend Getaway!

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Richard

Cheryl and I had just about had enough of this heat and B.S. going on lately so we went to the coast for a little R&R. I made reservations on a Tuesday for the following Friday/Saturday nights and surprisingly got rooms. Later we learned that in Florence, there was a “Rods n Rhodies” car show thing going on down in Old Town and in Bandon they were having their Cranberry Festival that same weekend.

An “added bonus”, since we knew nothing about the festivities in advance, so we kept our original agenda of relaxing and playing it by ear (sort of, I always have some plans in mind) We got started later than usual, Friday at noon after Cheryl got off work. We went straight through Reedsport in stead of stopping to make dinner at Mo’s in time. Besides, one of our favorite antique shops had closed and that would have been our only stop anyway.

We got to Florence around 3:30-4, got checked into our room and went down to” Old Town” along the river. We did our shopping before going to dinner at Mo’s, a twist for us, as we usually have a lunch at Mo’s, then shopping. As usual, there were a few new shops and a few missing shops.

Here are some pics of the Old Town area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did some antiquing the next day before leaving Florence, then on our way to Bandon we stopped at Winchester Bay so I could pick up some smoked salmon. I couldn’t resist so I got a crab cocktail while there, OMG! It was the best crab cocktail I’ve ever had and I consider myself quite the crab critique…

 

 

 

Just next door to Winchester Bay is the Umpqua River Lighthouse and USCG barracks with the old USCG admin building, now a museum…

 

 

 

 

In Bandon we walked around the Cranberry Festival and shops till we dropped. Later we went to the Coquille River Lighthouse as the Sun was setting and to Face Rock to watch the Sun sink into the ocean.

 

 

 

The last day, on our way home we stopped at Misty Meadows and got more food souvenirs and we stopped at the West Coast Game Park Safari to see the baby Tiger and Leopard. Billed as the nations largest petting zoo, there are lots of deer and goats and other critters roaming freely about the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you like, I have all the pics from our weekend HERE at 

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Web Worms invade Valley

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Richard
Mail Tribune

Around the Rogue Valley, web clusters looking like Halloween decorations gone awry are filling trees and jamming the Grange Co-op phone lines with requests for advice and remedies.

The creepy-looking fall web worm nests, generally found in outlying areas and madrone and oak stands, have shown up en masse in urban trees, even vineyards, this summer. The worms feed off the host trees, destroying foliage and branches.

“The last 10 days to two weeks, we’re getting at least 50 to 75 calls per day and that tells me there is an issue,” said Steve Soderlund, Grange Co-op store manager on South Pacific Highway. “We’ve sold out of Thuricide, which has an active ingredient called Bacillus Thuringiensis — a 24-hour concentrate.”

Dave Keiry was outside helping a neighbor Saturday morning when someone showed him the cluster in his ornamental Japanese plum.

“I went to the Grange and the clerk told me I was the 35th or 40th person to get the same stuff,” Keiry said. “As I drove home, I saw the trees were covered along Biddle Road, past the airport and into Central Point.”

The creepy crawlers have been called a variety of things, ranging from tent caterpillar to the ugly nest caterpillar, but Rick Hilton, an entomologist with the Oregon State University Extension Service, said there is no doubt about this pest.

“There is another moth where the caterpillar makes a similar tent,” Hilton said. “But we’re dealing with fall web worms.”

When these caterpillars emerge from their cocoons, they are plain white.

“They are generally found in the mountains and hills,” Hilton said.

The theory is that the invasion was spurred by two years of wet, cold springs and late summers.

“The wet conditions and late summer threw things off so the predators and parasites that control them were not active,” Hilton said. “We saw them last year in the organic orchards. There was a big population last year and so there was a large population to start with this year,”

The arithmetic is simple for Soderlund.

“Thuricide is an item we commonly carry and it wouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “Except when every third body walks in with a tent caterpillar issue. You don’t normally sell 20 bottles one year and 200 the next.”

The active ingredient in Thuricide, Bacillus thuringiensis, often is called Bt. It’s a biological pesticide that occurs naturally and is considered safe for people, pets and wildlife.

Hilton said the OSU Master Gardener’s program has reported the highest volume of calls ever received as a result of the web worms.

Hilton said as soon as the eggs hatch, the webs show up.

“They feed on anything from 90 to 250 plants,” he said. “At first it’s just a leaf and then it grows. The webs usually have at least 100 eggs and the worms grow to an inch long. When you have 100 caterpillars and they start getting bigger, they need a lot of food. That’s why a web can take up a whole branch. The sooner you get to it, the better.”

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Picasa Photos

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Richard

I have added some more pics to my Picasa photos vault There is an album of our recent trip to Newport for our anniversary.

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Thanks again Microsoft… :-(

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Richard

I recently updated our computers that have Windows 7 to the SP1. I see no difference except our happy little network is shot, in that Cheryl can’t print anymore. It says “you need to update your driver”, when you try you get an error, “are you sure you trust this printer?” you click Yes and nothing happens. The printer is hooked up to my PC, she accesses it via the network.

I fixed the problem by un-installing the damn service pack. I don’t know what we will do when we “have to ” have the service pack installed later down the road, hopefully it will be resolved by then. In the mean time, do yourself a favor and stay away from the service pack 1 update for a while

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Iconic Image

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Richard

Today we went to a flea market and I fount an old 1964 National Geographic that had NASA stuff about ‘future’ flights to the moon. It also had the JFK funeral. It was only .50 cents, I was expecting a couple bucks, which I would have paid.

I was looking through the magazine, mostly at the cool old ads and came to the Kennedy article. Even though I just turned 3 years old, I remember seeing this on TV. Then I came to this:

…after 47 years I still get all choked up at this  image which, after searching google, there are several taken from different angles, all equally as heartbreaking. I believe this image(s) will live on in history as one of the most iconic images of our time.

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Comfortably Numb

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Richard

Sitting here watching David Gilmore Live in Gdansk on the Palladia channel, I am swept back to my former youth listening to Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ after graduating from high school in 1979. I was living in Portland at the time, going to PCC and hanging out in the rec-room, KGON was playing it on the radio and I remember people talking about it.

Some years later, when I was in the ARMY stationed down at Fort Ord, CA. we watched the movie extensively, trying to figure out all the “bricks” in his (Pink) life that led to his mental collapse.

As I am watching David Gilmore on tv, I am looking up Pink Floyd and various related material on wikipedia. I’m thinking to myself that David is on my personal list of the top 5 guitarists of all time. (Personally, I put him at N0. 1 followed by Jeff Beck, Robin Trower, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry.) So I look for various lists on the internet of the “top 10″ and “top 100″ and David comes in the top 10 of some lists which are mostly just opinion as is my own list.

I found out on wiki that Comfortably Numb has been voted best guitar solo several times and it is one of Pink Floyd’s best 5 tunes of all time. I had to run in and download the ‘Wish You Were Here’ album on iTunes and throw it on my iPod with the rest of my Floyd collection, as well as the Live in Gdansk album I got from Amazon.

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Day Trip to Dunsmuir

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Richard

I took what I call my “Last day trip to Dunsmuir for a while” on Wednesday (10/6/10) meaning, I start my new job at Schwan’s on Monday and it’s going to be a while before I have any time off to do such things. Even though I only saw one train that day, it was a very satisfying and relaxing day. Rewarding as well as I found two new things I have never seen before along the old Siskiyou Line in Northern Cal. and got to chat with an online acquaintance at what was a chance meeting at a remote area along the line.

The night before my trip, I emailed a fellow, Robert “Photobob” Morris saying I was going to be in Dunsmuir area and hoped to run into him. Well the next day as I was driving through Grenada, CA, a very small very old farm town along the Siskiyou line, I noticed a strange looking old Line-shack I had never noticed before. There was a road leading right up to it. It was an old but still usable ”in-Motion” track weight scale used for the farmers grain cars.

As I was checking it out, up pulls Robert and his wife to take some pictures as well. Small world… We were both surprised that, after many many years, and being in a small town with high unemployment and basically nothing for the local kids to do it was in such pristine shape. There wasn’t a single bit of graffiti or vandalism, there was expensive but primitive electrical equipment inside behind unlocked doors. I have some pictures at my Picasa site. The first few are of the scale, shack and the old Southern Pacific concrete line shack.

There are a few images of my other discovery that day. An old section of road with a cool old trestle going over it. Thought it would be a good future photo-op location if trains ever return to that section of track again.

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DirecTV Pulls Through

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Richard

Following up on my last blog, Disappointment With DirecTv, After a few emails from Support at DirecTv I got my equipment as promised. It’s a shame it had to be this way. but thank’s just the same.

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Disappointment with DirecTv.

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Richard

UPDATE: 09/17/2010; DirecTV made good on their promise, see DirecTV pulls through blog.

We love our DirecTV…. but…. and I mean a Big BUT… we recently had to deal with Customer Service/equipment/tech on the phone. Yeah yeah, another complaint about somebody. Here is the email I sent them (as if it matters)

Here is my official complaint sent to the FTC:
…Advertise products online (certain equipment) and promise items on phone they don’t even have, or can get. 5 separate phone calls, each an exorbitant amount of time finally to find out they don’t even have the equipment or can get the equipment they advertise. Big case of false advertising…
On your website you advertise an “AM21 Off Air Tuner” to compliment the newest HD DVR+. I first was promised a free DVR with the purchase of the AM21, after 3 calls finally got the DVR for $99 but no AM21. Was promised a free AM21, instead got a B-Band converter. Final call, on hold for over 30 minutes to find out you don’t even have the AM21, nor can get it. It’s on your website, it was promised to me 3 times, to find out you don’t have it or want it, is FALSE ADVERTISING! Instead of giving me $100 to refer a friend, Which I will now never do, you should credit my account so I don’t LEAVE to DISH!!

Ahh, ranting at it’s best. Yes, I really did contact the FTC on their website. This was a case of flat out, FLAT OUT false advertising. I don’t like chewing out the CS person, it’s usually not their fault, but try asking for somebody of authority to complain to, won’t happen. Twice it actually was the CS persons fault but you’ll never talk to that person again so why bitch at somebody who theoretically had nothing to do with it. Besides, they just threaten to hang up on you.

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Free Virus removal Forum

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Richard

I recently picked up a nasty little virus cruising the Internet on my NetBook. I was using FireFox so I was surprised. It was what is called “Scare Ware” or “Fake-AV”. It presented itself as a virus protection program scanning my system, a ‘fake’ Windows Security Shield with a balloon pop-up, “Your system is infected, click here to fix”. And that makes the fake AV program window show it’s ugly head, “scanning” your system,… a few virus names show in a “Found” menu and a “Click Here to Clean” button appears. (I later learned that if this happens again, don’t touch anything and power-off. Best way at this point is to just press and hold the power button till it powers off)

When the button is pressed it takes you to a page to “Purchase” the virus scan program to be able to continue. Of course it’s fake, it’s not the virus scan program I have installed you say to yourself. I tried to close it, I tried to use my real virus scanner, I tried “Task Manager” to stop it, no other browsers would open, only the one you were using when you contracted it. Everything kept pointing to “Purchase”

I shut down and restarted in “Safe-Mode” (restart: after the screen goes black, start tapping your F8 key repeatedly until a screen appears, Arrow up/down to select “Safe Mode”, press Enter) I used my Spybot S&D to remove the initial programs and stuff associated with it. After that I did virus scans and used a few other programs designed to remove Malware but all came up empty after Spybot S&D removed what it found.

None of my browsers worked. I basically had to go through the Network setup wizard and establish a network connection again. Then I had to go to Internet Settings (Windows XP…. Control Panel>Internet Options>Connections-tab>Setup, follow the wizard) That got my browsers to at least work, but none would bring up a web page. I did a System Restore back to a few days before the incident. (Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore) That got me back online, but things were still not right….

I went to my un-infected Desktop PC and went online and changed all my passwords anywhere I had important business because after doing a search around Google, Microsoft had a page explaining what this virus was and does, It first tries to fool you to buy the product, then it steals your passwords, looking for FTP servers to put itself on to spread further. I didn’t want to take any chances so I changed everything important.

I did a search for help and whenever I clicked a search result, it would take me someplace other than where I wanted to go. But not on everything, luckily, important places like MSN support, Google support, some fix-it sites, etc… worked fine. So I now had  Hijacked /redirect search results. I did manage to find a great place that basically does the same thing a Tech place would do if you took it down there and paid who knows how much money to have it cleaned.

I went to TechSpot.com where I found other people who had my same problem. It is a several step-procedure, customized to your particular malware/problem. Here is a link to my forum/post and what I had to do to clean my system. If you need help, don’t follow my procedure, every one is different and the scripts they create are catered to only my PC.  Follow the “8 step” procedure before posting (sticky post at top of page) It is all volunteer work, these fellows do this on their own time so be patient, it takes a while, Mine took about a week.  You might swear you are being ignored but everyone does get helped.

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