Late post, Easter morning

Do you still remember how excited you would get at Easter and Christmas? I *barely* did, but having kids helps to make it so real again. This video is so much fun for so many reasons....

Denny Hamlin Fan

Denny Hamlin Fan, originally uploaded by -SPK.

There is none cuter!

I got so stressed watching this

El Caminito del Rey (The King’s pathway, often shortened to El Camino del Rey) is a walkway, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Alora in Spain.

The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. Some parts of the walkway have completely collapsed and have been replaced by a beam and a metallic wire on the wall.

Many people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years. After four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, adventurous tourists still find their way into the walkway.

via

Barack in PA

Centralia PA underground Fire

Centralia PA underground Fire, originally uploaded by eaglerm.

This is a photo taken by Ricky Mensch of Wind Gap PA. This is a truly interesting story and I just recently read about it myself.

There is a small town in Pennsylvania called Ashland where Route 61's northbound traffic is temporarily branched onto a short detour. Exactly what the detour is circumventing is not immediately clear to travelers, however few passers-by pay it any mind
a detour is nothing unusual. But anyone who ignores the detour and ventures along the original route 61 highway will soon encounter an abrupt and unexplained road closure. Beyond it lies a town filled with overgrown streets, smoldering earth, and ominous warning signs. It is the remains of the borough of Centralia.

Centralia, Pennsylvania was never a particularly large community, but it was once a lively and industrial place. At its peak the coal mining town was home to 2,761 souls, but today the population of its cemeteries far outnumbers that of its living residents. The series of events which led to the community's demise slowly diminishing its numbers to less than a dozen began about forty-four years ago.

Centralia 1962In 1962, workers set a heap of trash ablaze in an abandoned mine pit which was used as the borough's landfill. The burning of excess trash was a common practice, yet at that particular time and place there existed a dangerous condition: an exposed vein of anthracite coal. The highly flammable mineral was unexpectedly ignited by the trash fire, prompting a quick effort to put it out. The flames on the surface were successfully extinguished, but unbeknownst to the fire fighters, the coal continued to burn underground. Over the following weeks it rapidly migrated into the surrounding coal mines and beneath the town, causing great concern.

Soon the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources began monitoring the fire by drilling holes into the earth to determine the extent and temperature of the fire. In retrospect, it was realized that the well-meaning workers may have unwittingly provided the fire with a natural draft by drilling these boreholes, feeding the coal's combustion. As a precaution, the Department also installed gas monitors in many homes within the affected area, but nonetheless many residents complained of symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure.

In 1969– seven years after the fire was started– a more involved effort was made to contain the fire using trenches and clay seals, but the attempt was met with failure. In the 1970s, concerns over the severity of the extensive subterranean fire were stirred when a gas station owner noticed that the contents of his underground fuel storage tank seemed hot, so he measured the gasoline's temperature, and found it to be a troubling 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Numerous attempts were made to extinguish or contain the underground fire over the next two decades. The mines were flushed with water and the burning coal was excavated, but despite the persistence of the workers, their efforts were unsuccessful. The work continued for years at a great expense, with no appreciable progress.

After burning beneath the surface for almost twenty years, the fire drew national media attention when the ground crumbled beneath the feet of twelve-year-old Todd Domboski in 1981. The sinkhole– about four feet wide and 150 feet deep– had sufficient heat and carbon monoxide concentration that it would have killed the boy had his cousin had not been there to help pull him to safety. It was not the first nor the last sinkhole caused by the fire, but it was the most sobering.

At that point, about seven million dollars had been spent in the firefighting effort. Experts determined that the only option remaining to effectively battle the fire would be a massive trenching operation, at the cost of about $660 million, with no guarantee of success. Left with such limited options, the state of Pennsylvania basically condemned the entire town, and spent $42 million in government funds relocating most of its residents.

The fire still burns today beneath about four hundred acres of surface land, and it's still growing. There is enough coal in the eight-mile vein to feed the fire for up to two hundred and fifty years, but it may burn itself out in as few as one hundred years. A few residents remained in the borough after the buyout, but their numbers have dwindled since then to about a dozen. Most of the unoccupied homes and buildings have been razed, and large portions of the town are being reclaimed by nature, leaving meadows crisscrossed with overgrown asphalt roads and the occasional steaming or smoking hillside.

In its prime, Centralia was a vibrant community with five hotels, seven churches, nineteen general stores, two jewelry stores, and about twenty-six saloons. Today it is a modern ghost town whose guts have been burned out, and whose main path of ingress has been closed and detoured. Residents are expected to return in 2016 to open a time capsule which was buried in the town in 1966, back when the town's future was still somewhat optimistic. Its future now is decidedly more grim… There are currently no further plans to extinguish the fire, and most modern maps no longer show a dot where Centralia once stood.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, originally uploaded by -SPK.

A picture I am proud to say that I took of our future President.

A huge shout out to Stephanie Monahon for hooking us up with two tickets and for having Barack sign a book for us, too!

For the first time in my life, I'm excited to be following a presidential election and be voting FOR someone, rather than choosing the lesser of two evils. Barack stands for a lot of what I believe in, and for what I believe America needs now.

Click here for the whole picture set.

Most fearless animal on Earth. Ever hear of the Honey Badger?

Ahhhhh

Ahhhhh, originally uploaded by -SPK.

Doing what Robins do best.

EXTRA 300 COCKPIT

IT HAS A KEY! Does anyone else but me think that's kind of unusual.

No matter what - it's pretty amazing to look at.

Brightline Pilot Flight Bag

Buffalo vs Lions. Lions vs Crocodiles. Buffalo vs Lions

Our Wild Kingdom being WILD!

Barack Obama, your future president

"I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords

Crazy awesome robot

When it's walking up the mountain side it looks like two people - one walking forward and one backward.

This is one awesome machine. Check it out. Seen here.

The World's Largest Shotgun Shell?

This video shows what must be the world’s largest shotgun shell: the 120mm canister round designed for the cannon of an M1 Abrams tank. The 50 pound shell contains 1150 .40 caliber tungsten pellets launched at 4500 fps, with an effective range of 500 yards.

What’s fascinating to me is that you can see clearly that the shot charge of the canister round behaves exactly like a load of shotgun pellets. As the round leaves the muzzle, the pellets at the front of the pattern encounter air resistance and begin to peel off and fall behind the main charge, opening the pattern and forming a shot string. The pellets to the rear of the shot column draft behind the leaders, retaining velocity and moving to the front. The canister flies with the pattern for quite a ways (our light plastic shotcups have petals that open open and slow the cup quickly). Eventually, though, the poor aerodymic shape of the canister causes it to slow down, and you can see the trailing pellets catching up and passing it in flight.

The last shot shows how much the pattern opens up at long range as the shell decapitates every one of a row of targets that must be 30 yards across. Given the price of tungsten, I can only imagine how much the three shells fired in this video must have cost. Best not to think about it; just click “play” and enjoy the sight of your tax dollars flying downrange.

--Phil Bourjaily via

Sheriff: Woman spent 2 years sitting on boyfriend’s toilet

WHAT??!!

The Associated Press

WICHITA | A 35-year-old woman who apparently spent two years in her boyfriend's bathroom in Ness City had become stuck to the toilet seat, authorities said Wednesday.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body. It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself," Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said in a telephone interview, adding that it appeared her body fat had grown attached to the seat.

Authorities planned to present their report to the county attorney later Wednesday to see if any charges should be filed against her 36-year-old boyfriend, Whipple said.

The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding he never explained why it took him two years to call.

He said the boyfriend had brought the woman food and water during the two years and told investigators he asked her daily to come out of the bathroom.

"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

The house had another bathroom he could use.

Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh as if she was using the toilet. Her legs looked like they had atrophied, he said.

"She was sitting on the toilet and was somewhat disoriented," Whipple said. "She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave."

She refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out. She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City, where she is listed in fair condition. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a prybar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

Authorities said they did not know if she was developmentally disabled.

Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.

A neighbor, James Ellis, told The Associated Press that he had known the woman since she was a child but said he had not seen her for at least six years.

He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up.

"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier.

At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.

The case has been the buzz of this western Kansas town.

"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," Ellis said.

It's true.

Ohhh, the IRONY

Eastern Bluebird checking me out

Eastern Bluebird checking me out, originally uploaded by -SPK.

The male and female appeared today at our backyard feeders.

Red Tail Hawk

Broad-Winged Hawk, originally uploaded by -SPK.

It seems that we get a visit every Sunday from a Hawk. Today it was this Red Tail. (someone corrected me - thank you!)

He was soon chased away by some Crows. Another day in paradise for a Hawk.

Toyota Camry Hybrid Dashboard

Toyota Camry Hybrid Dashboard, originally uploaded by -SPK.

So, this is the dashboard of my new Toyota Camry. A few things to note:

Miles driven this tank: 430

Miles left: 21

Total miles this tank: 451

Miles per gallon: 35

Oh, and sorry about it being so shaky - I was going 75 miles per hour.

Here is some more info on this car: www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/22825.shtml

Obama '08

Obama '08, originally uploaded by -SPK.

Becky, me and the girls went to Big Woody's in town tonight. I registered as a Democrat from an Independent and Becky from a Republican.

GO OBAMA!!!

I love pictures like this