They didn't listen to Colonel Cooper

But of course, that would imply they even knew who Colonel Cooper was...
With the latest craze of gaming distracting this country's younger generation(s) from matters of pertinence, Pokemon Go is making the complete lack of situational awareness very evident.  There are numerous reported robberies and muggings across the landscape of seekers of the Pokemon.

I first head of this new game a couple of weeks ago when we stayed with one of my nieces and her husband, both in their mid-20's.  He was excited about the game and had just downloaded it to his phone.  As he was explaining how it worked by using your camera, I immediately cringed at the thought of the potential and probability of the security breach.  It's also now becoming more widely reported that this game gives the Google-ites pretty much complete access to everything on your phone.  Talk about a data-rich harvest!

Each to their own, I guess.

Crickets

Crickets chirping.  That's about all that's going on here.
The minutia of life as it fleetingly passes by.  The wonderment of our daily activities that we get accustomed to and not find noteworthy, forgetting that every day is a gift.

I wasn't able to go to the NRA convention this year.  Perhaps one of these years...  Meanwhile, I'll have to appreciate it vicariously through my blog followings.  Although the numerous comments about the traffic snarls kind of makes me glad I didn't go.  I hate being stuck in crowds.

The other day while I was at my firehouse, the Chief stopped in with the toddler  whom he and his wife recently took guardianship.  Cute little guy.  Probably around 2 y/o, give or take.  He came right up to me, even though he doesn't know me.  After playing with him a little, I walked him behind the Chief, who was wearing basketball shorts and proceeded to go thru the motions with the little guy on the art/ act of de-pantsing.  Everyone got a yuk-yuk out of it.  About a half hour after the Chief went home, I got a text from him.  He was at the sink when the little guy came up behind him and attempted to de-pants him.  He was cussing me.  Awesome.   Murphy, you would be proud.

It all appears at some point

The (usually) good thing about Al Gore's invention of the interwebz is that information you are looking for has a way of eventually ending up on a website.
Case in point; several years ago, I was curious about information regarding a record set of 78's that my parents had when I was a wee-lad.  For those of you under 25 years old, a record is like a big black CD with grooves in it.
It was the story of Willie the whale, the whale who wanted to sing at the Met.  Using different search engines and search terms yielded no results.  That was then.
This morning, for some unknown reason I tried again.  Voila!  Found it.  Some one put the recording on the tube of you and another website has the 14 minute movie Walt Disney made in 1946.
I share my discoverys below:

The animated movie .  I'm not tech savvy enough to get a non-youtube video embedded.

Enjoy!

Scam thievery!

Just checked my email and glad I did. 
There was a notice that a purchase was made that exceeded my (low) dollar amount threshold.
Problem is, I didn't make it.  It was an online purchase.
I called the credit card company and spoke with their fraud dept.  Now they are sending me a new card.
The disturbing part of this;  This is the second card (different account) to which this has happened in about a month and a half.

That was an interesting evening

I took the pup for a much needed hike/ walk along a trail on the bank of the Shenandoah yesterday afternoon.

 It was a beautiful day for it.  Mild temps, plenty of blue sky and awesome scenery.
As we were walking back to the parking area, some one from my fire station called me and asked if I was around and available.  Our swift water team had been requested to assist PD and a towing company to retrieve a vehicle in about 5' of water.
The info that was relayed to me was that this was a non-emergency response, that the driver hadn't set the parking brake and the car rolled down a driveway into a body of water.
Well, that was somewhat accurate.

As it turned out, that body of water was the Shenandoah River.  It wasn't a driveway.  The closest house was about 1/4 mile away. 
The car's owner, supposedly had gone to this quasi-boat ramp (meaning a dirt/ mud cleared slope into the water.) to check out the fishing.  He told the police that as he was standing there, his car went past him and into the river.

When we got there, this is what we found.  The car, a Dodge Magnum wagon, had floated downstream about 200 feet before settling where it did.

With the tow company's truck winch line and an assortment of additional chain and straps, we still came up short about 10' of being able to attach to the car.
So we took all the misc. stuff out and got our utility rope.  It is 1/2" Kernamantle rope, rated for a tensile strength of 12,000 pounds, but we typically don't load it to that, figuring in a safety factor of 15.  We weren't sure it would hold, but what the hey.
Started out with one of the tow truck driver's recommendation of placing their "J" hook on the "A" pillar.  As soon as they started winching, the car came up on it's side, ready to roll over.
We re-rigged with a strap through the car around both "A" posts and attached in front.  We were a little surprised that it still rolled over.  The tow operators drug it out on it's roof and righted it on the river bank.
Once the car was out of the water, one of the tow operators looked in the car.  He said it was still in drive.
I heard it said that when the owner called his insurance company and told them what happened, they hung up on him.  I think I would be finding another insurance agent, but I suspect that decision is already made for him.
I'd be curious to know what the total bill of this adventure is going to be, between the tow bill, our bill and the fines he's likely to incur.