We Visited Wayne and Shirley's House Today

Wayne and Shirley will be our new neighbors in March. They are building this "historically correct" cottage about a block from our house. The downstairs includes a living room with fireplace - the kitchen - and a master bedroom suite. Upstairs are three bedrooms and a bath. The place looks like it belongs in Celebration, Florida.

Walmart Blinks - Tamaqua Wins - Thanks Larry Wittig

You may recall that Walmart has wanted to move into Hometown for the last several years. But they have been dangling a sword over the school board's head. Unless the Tamaqua School Board would give them 10 years of tax forgiveness - they said they would not build. Well guess what - their developers just paid $1,000,000 for the land in question. And thanks to Larry Wittig - Tamaqua Board President - Tamaqua kids will benefit from those 10 years of tax dollars.

Dear Larry Wittig -

Thank you for standing up to Walmart - and winning!

I am so happy your were right. I am tired of businesses in America playing one town against the other - similar to the way NFL owners play one city off against the other.

You were right - these guys planned to built a Walmart there regardless. Thanks to you - the kids of Tamaqua will benefit from the extra tax dollars. After all - tax dollars will be coming out of the money that the locals will be spending in that store anyway.

So Tamaqua will get its Walmart - and Tamaqua schools will get their fair share of real estate taxes.

I hope the borough councilmen and township supervisors remember to thank you for standing your ground - but I kinda doubt it.

Harry

Trophy Crooks are Gators!

Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A staff attorney for the state's utility regulator was arrested Thursday on a felony charge of possessing stolen property for his role in the theft of two Florida State University national football championship trophies.

Jason P. Rojas, 28, was booked Thursday at the Leon County Jail after returning the second crystal football to authorities Wednesday night, school investigators said. He had kept it at his home wrapped in a white plastic garbage bag.

Rojas is the son of former state Rep. Luis Rojas, who served in the House of Representatives during the period Florida State President T.K. Wetherell served as speaker.

Both men are graduates of the University of Florida and neither have any previous criminal record, Florida State police said. Both cooperated fully in case of the crystals swiped from a locked case, investigators said Thursday.

The first recovered trophy was retrieved from a commercial storage facility in Fort Walton Beach where it was in a brown, cardboard box, protected with wadded-up newspaper, assistant Florida State police chief Tom Longo said.

FSU Coach Bowden to Have Surgery Today

Bowden will undergo cataract eye surgery today. He said he expects to do his call-in show tonight.

FSU Championship Trophies Recovered

The bling is back
FSU recovers stolen championship football trophies
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A pair of $30,000 national football championship trophies stolen last year from a locked case at Florida State University were recovered Wednesday, university officials said Wednesday.

A 25-year-old self-described boat captain from Fort Walton Beach, John Piowaty, was being held at the Leon County Jail on burglary and grand theft charges, university spokeswoman Browning Brooks said.

One of the trophies was recovered in Fort Walton Beach in the western Florida Panhandle, about 150 miles west of Tallahassee and the second was recovered in the capital city.

A second suspect, who is from Tallahassee, surrendered the second trophy Wednesday evening and will turn himself in Thursday, Brooks said.

Neither were students or employees at the university, she said.

The Waterford Crystal trophies, awarded at the time by Sears in recognition of the 1993 and 1999 national championships based on the final coaches poll, were removed from a locked wooden-and-glass case outside coach Bobby Bowden's office on June 23, 2004 during renovation work in the area.

"I always felt like we would (see them back) because what are you going to do with them?" coach Bobby Bowden said Wednesday night.

There were no surveillance cameras in that area and the trophies were not insured.

Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said security has since been beefed up significantly.

"I thought it was just a matter of time," Wetherell said. "You can't have something like that and somebody's not going to say something to somebody."

Assistant Florida State police chief Tom Longo and Wetherell said a $2,500 reward for information leading to recovery of the crystal trophies could be paid.

University's boosters purchased replica trophies that Wetherell insisted Wednesday looked the same to him as the originals.

Wetherell praised the police work and noted the cooperation the school received from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, adding he'd "like to have a third one too."

The Seminoles failed in their bid for a third national title in their 2001 Orange Bowl where they were defeated by Oklahoma.

The 1993 team led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Charlie Ward finished 12-1, beating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl on a last minute field goal by Scott Bentley. The 1999 team went 12-0 behind the school's second Heisman winner, quarterback Chris Weinke, defeating Virginia Tech and star quarterback Michael Vick in the Sugar Bowl.

Ebay Sale is Over

The ebay sale just ended - final price $171.00. The buyer is from British Columbia in Canada.

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Went to My School

You may re-call the old Panther Valley Middle School where I taught 33 years. Well - Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey went to school there. Their dad was the band director there in the 1930's - long before I was born. This week the town honors the Dorsey's with a plaque in front of their old home. This above picture was taken on my retirement day - February 6, 2003 - Panther Valley Middle School in background.

LANSFORD — It may not look like much today, but in some ways, the modest half-double at 227 E. Abbott St. in this Carbon County borough is as important to American musical heritage as the gates of Graceland or New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street.

Community leaders gathered Friday morning to unveil a historic marker at the former home of the Dorsey family who lived there through much of the boyhood of the two big band legends.

In 1916, Dorsey relocated his family, including 11-year-old Tommy and 10-year-old Jimmy, to Lansford.

From 1934 until 1939, he would also serve as musical director of Lansford High School, holding band practices in the auditorium of what is now the Panther Valley Middle School on Bertsch Street.

Nesley also recalls the occasional temper and temperamental personality later often associated with Tommy Dorsey Jr. in his musical career.

"He was a little hard of hearing except for a sour note and then he would throw his baton," Nesley recalls.

The historical marker was sponsored by the Lansford Alive revitalization group, and president Bennett Verda Jr. said between 20 and 22 more markers are planned for other historic sites in the community.

Watch Our Ebay Sale of a Satellite TV System

Would you like to follow along on an ebay sale? We are selling a Canadian Satellite HD Television System. Keith used to use this system to watch Canadian HDTV programs - European Soccer games - and HDTV Networks from Boston and Seattle. The auction runs out on Wednesday at 6:30 PM. See the auction at - http://tinyurl.com/a49dl - Wish us good luck.

Micah Gursky Back on Tamaqua Council

You have to love the character of Micah Gursky. Two years ago he was defeated as an incumbent on town council. He was targeted by a "one issue" group that was against filling the local strip mines with ashes from power plants and sludge from the Delaware River.

Gursky is a graduate of Tamaqua High School and a record holding quarterback for the school. Since he also was an excellent student he was offered a scholarship to Princeton University. There he did something strange - he graduated - putting him in an extreme minority of coal region scholarship football players.

After college - he did not forget his roots - he came back to Tamaqua to live and serve. He is an assistant to Representative Dave Argall and yesterday won "re-election" to the Tamaqua Town Council.

You Know You Are From Pennsylvania If:

If you consider it a sport to sit in a treestand all day long
with a bow or a gun just to put food in your freezer.. you might live in
Pennsylvania.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96
nights each year because Bradford is the coldest spot in the nation,
you might live in Pennsylvania .

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March,
you might live in Pennsylvania .

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for five months out of
the year, you might live in Pennsylvania .

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work
there you might live in Pennsylvania.cause you're all so damn friendly.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle
of his forehead, cause he wears a hardhat you might live in Pennsylvania .

If you have worn shorts, sunglasses and a parka at the same
time, you might live in Pennsylvania .

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, or if you
are in church and your priest or minister asks you to pray for the
STEELERS , and wants to get you all home for 1 p.m. kickoff, you might
live in Pennsylvania .

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone
who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Pennsylvania.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE Pennsylvanian WHEN:

1. "Vacation" means going up north past I-80 for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).

7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave all the doors unlocked.

8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.

9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

11. You know all 4 seasons: almost fall, winter, still winter and road construction.

12. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

13. Your idea of creative landscaping is a concrete statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

14. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

15. Down South to you means MORGANTOWN W.V

16. A critter is something you eat.

17. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his NEW FORD F150

18. You go out to fish fry every Friday.and bingo every Wednesday.

19. YOUR 4TH OF JULY PICNIC WAS MOVED INDOORS DUE TO FROST.

20. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

21. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

22. You actually understand these jokes

- Jeff Foxworthy

Fort Lauderdale has Solar Powered Traffic Lights

Finally a use for solar energy that makes sense.

When power failures and downed traffic lights left the streets of Broward a hazard to travel, Coral Springs turned to nature's best source of energy: the sun.

Since Friday, Coral Springs has put up temporary solar-powered traffic signals at seven of its 72 intersections that have no power. Four more are on their way from the manufacturer.

And as far as city police are concerned, the signals are a genuine lifesaver.

''They work perfectly and look just like regular traffic signals,'' said police spokesman Sgt. Rich Nicorvo. ``They are automatic, have a solar battery that stores enough energy for four days, and even have turning signals.''

Ben Houser in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan, Canada - It would not be a news blog without a picture of Ben Houser either holding a fish or a deer. Ben loves to hunt and fish. After years of being a successful eye surgeon - Ben's loves being outdoors. Ben is also an avid gadget freak - Ben is the guy that everyone talks about when they say, "the guy with the most toys wins." Ben loves Macintosh Computers and visiting with his grandkids.

Pennsylvania Voters Defeat "Intelligent Design"

All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.

Among the losing incumbents on the Dover, Pa., board were two members who testified in favor of the intelligent design policy at a recently concluded federal trial on the Dover policy: the chairwoman, Sheila Harkins, and Alan Bonsell.

The election results were a repudiation of the first school district in the nation to order the introduction of intelligent design in a science class curriculum. The policy was the subject of a trial in Federal District Court that ended last Friday. A verdict by Judge John E. Jones III is expected by early January.

"I think voters were tired of the trial, they were tired of intelligent design, they were tired of everything that this school board brought about," said Bernadette Reinking, who was among the winners.

The election will not alter the facts on which the judge must decide the case. But if the intelligent design policy is defeated in court, the new school board could refuse to pursue an appeal. It could also withdraw the policy, a step that many challengers said they intended to take.

Bobbsey Twins Go To The Big City

I just got back from the airport. Nancy and Eliza - partners in crime in "Project LEAD" - left for Washington DC, Princeton NJ, and New York City. They will be gone for five days mostly working on the project but they hope to find time to take in a Broadway show. They left Tallahassee today - will spend two days in Washington - then travel by rental car to Princeton spending one night there at the Nassau Inn. Then they will continue to NYC via the train - spending their last night in a Hotel near the Newark Airport where on Saturday they will return home. Professor Bowie will pick them up at the airport because their plane arrives back in town right in the middle of the FSU at Clemson football game - the famous Bowden Bowl - where Tommy and Bobby coach against each other.

I am home alone for five days.

I am considering driving the camper to Clemson for the game if I can find someone that would like to go along. We would drive to Clemson Friday - stay in the camper Friday night - see the FSU game Saturday at noon - then drive home after the game.

Woodlands Resident Stump Grinder in Action

Click on the Dr. Nancy Everhart taken action photos to enlarge them.

Remember Michael Keaton in the 1983 Thriller - Mr. Mom - where he wants to impress his wife's boss by carrying around a running chain saw? Enter Harry and his stump grinder. A stump grinder might remind one of a chain saw on wheels. Fortunately it is a lot more docile and quieter than it looks. The stump grinder has a Honda 9HP super quiet OHV engine. It is relatively vibration free. One grinds the stump by moving the machine left and right while the wheel chips away making big piles of saw dust.

The stump grinder arrived Monday and was immediately used to take out 10 stumps in the front yard. This morning 10 more stumps were removed from the back yard near the pool.

Nancy captured the stump grinder and the "Woodlands Resident Stump Grinder" in action. Note our mixed forest of palm trees - pine trees and live oaks. We intend to clear all of the brush from the house to the lake - take out a few smaller trees - and then remove all the stumps and exposed roots to make a "park-like" landscaped area. We are considering putting a guest house/workshop/boat house down near the lake.

At roughly $20 a stump - I have already done about $400 worth of work.

Next toy is supposed to arrive Friday - the chipper/shredder. I have mounds of underbrush all cut and ready to shove into the chipper/shredder.

Darrell and His Buick

You all met Professor Darrell on here a few stories back - he is the guy that was voted Outstanding Professor by the students. When Darrell came to visit us last summer in Hawaii - we quickly shared a common bond in admiring old cars and machnery. Well here is Darrell's latest project - a 1956 Buick "Hardtop Convertible." No - the top does not go down - but back in the 50s and 60s - we used to call cars like this "Hardtop Convertibles" because there was no center pillar between the windows - pretty neat. Darrell lives about 6 miles north and west of us - we are looking forward to visiting him soon and seeing the Buick face to face.

Stump Grinder Arrives - I Removed Ten Stumps Today

The stump grinder arrived today from the factory in Illinois. It is made by the Praxis Company. It has a Honda 9HP OHV engine. I had to pick it up at the Roadway Express Terminal just west of Tallahassee. I used the hitch carrier on the back of my camper.

After reading the manual and watching the instructional video - I started removing some of the many stumps on our property. I started in the front of the house and removed ten stumps in three hours. They ranged from six to twelve inches in diameter. I ground them down to about six inches below normal ground level.

Some surprises - the stump grinder is quieter than I expected. I rented one in Tamaqua a few years ago and it was much louder. Also I expected the chips to be flying more. I re-call chips flying up to 50 feet when I rented the one in Tamaqua. Maybe this one is sharper - but the end product was a pile of saw dust - very fine chips. I am a little sore - but I got a lot done in a couple hours - and expected much more vibration. The Honda engine runs very smoothly and starts with one pull.

I wore gloves - and used my full face motorcyle helmet for protection. It was overkill - the machine is much more docile than I expected.

The chipper/shredder hopefully will be here Friday.