View from Port Gamble

I am told this is Little Boston

The Dump Runner

Alan Chessman Woodworking

Clean Shibas!

Kara took Colby and Ginger to the groomer today. So for the first time in a while they are all clean and pretty....

New office in auburn pt 2

John hard at work assembling ikea stuff

New office in auburn

FW:Girl cat

Downtown Poulsbo

Waiting for the Ferry

Edmonds Kingston is running about 30 minutes late Grrrrrrr.....

RSS in Plain English

I get asked all the time about RSS - what it is, how to use it, etc. This video does a good job of explaining what it is and why it is useful in navigating the web today, especially for use in news sites and blogs. I would add to the info here that RSS is also great for sites like Ebay and Craigslist where you may do the same types of searches on a regular basis.

Ester Short park in Vancouver

Waiting for The Beach Boys to start

I'm listening to the warmup act, Johnny and the Lugnuts or something... They have three dollar sausages though so I'm about to get me one.

Kara waiting for the Beach Boys to start

At Ester Short park in Vancouver, WA. A beautiful afternoon for a show!

Seattle from the Ferry

About to head back over to Bremerton.

Kitsap Newsgroup office

Here is a view of the Kitsap Newsgroup office in Silverdale. It is home of the Central Kitsap Reporter, the Bremerton Patriot, the Northwest Navigator, and others. It's where I've been all week. Great place!

At the Poulsbo Inn

Ready to start "Day 2"

Mad Men is a good show

Just finishing the dvds of season one. Its about an ad agency in the late 50's.

FW: The Puyallup 19 - foster/permanent homes needed asap

This is from my sister Annie Baskett. She has a cat rescue, Troopurrs, and just took in a group of new kittens and cats (see below).

---

Dear family and friends of Troopurrs,

 

This past week I took in 15 kittens and 4 mother cats. They were rescued from a vacant home in Puyallup where people were dumping trash and rummaging through the property.  A wonderful couple had been visiting and feeding them daily.  The kittens range from 5wks-8wks old and are mostly female with a handful of males.  They are DSH and DMH in black, black & white, brown tabby, and gray tabby.  The mothers are practically kittens themselves, only 8 months old each.  Kittens and mothers so far are all testing FIV/FeLV negative and are overall healthy (yay!).  Their behavior toward humans ranges from highly socialized to in high need of socialization.  All mothers and kittens are good with other cats and other kittens.

 

How you can be of help:

 

-FOSTER HOMES for 1+ mother(s) or 2+ kittens.  All food and litter will be provided and any needed vet care will be taken care of.  All that is required for space is one room (ie bathroom, laundry room, spare bedroom).  Kittens have been weaned and are eating kitten food.

 

-PERMANENT INDOOR HOMES for 1+ mother(s), 2+ kittens, or single kitten if you already have 1+ cat(s). Kitten adoption fees are $100.  Kitten pair adoption fees are $150.  Mother adoption fees are $65.  All other Troopurrs cats listed on my website can be adopted with these cats/kittens as well.  All adoption fees include spay/neuter, FIV/FeLV testing, flea treatment, deworming, and microchipping. 

 

-DONATIONS of litter, kitten food (Petstore brands: IAMS, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Wellness, or Purina Pro Plan. Grocery store brands: IAMS or Purina ONE), cleaning supplies (laundry detergent, paper towels, disposable gloves, large trash bags).

 

-PASS THIS EMAIL ON TO ANY OTHER CAT PERSON YOU KNOW.

 

 

Thank you for reading this mass email and please call or email if you are able to help or are interested in adopting.  Troopurrs has so far placed nearly 50 cats and could not have done so without the help from people like you!

 

-Annie

--
Annie Baskett / 425-359-1344
Troopurrs Purebred Rescue and Rehoming
Kenmore, WA
www.troopurrs.petfinder.com

 

Looking at a house with Kara and her sister.

Lots of mosquitos.

Feds close down IndyMac Bank

This is crazy, and HUGE news in the subprime meltdown.  It’s also not at all surprising, as Indymac was one of the big players who would give a loan anyone on anything.

------ Forwarded Message
From: Inman News Flash <newsflash@inman.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:12:42 -0700
To: Rob Schwertley <rschwertley@soundpublishing.com>
Subject: {Disarmed} News Flash: Feds close down IndyMac Bank


 NEWS FLASH  
 Feds close down IndyMac Bank In the biggest bank failure of the housing downturn to date, federal banking regulators today closed IndyMac Bank FSB, naming the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as conservator. ... Read full story here <http://www.inman.com/news/2008/07/11/feds-close-down-indymac-bank> .

---

 
 Find new Opportunities in 2008! Come to San Francisco July 23 - 25, for Connect SF ’08 and find new opportunities to take advantage of new technology and new strategies in order to grow your business. Register NOW! <http://www.inman.com/events/real-estate-connect-san-francisco-2008>  

---

------ End of Forwarded Message

A Visit to My Alma Mater at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

Another post from my father, Gary Schwertley:

Recently, I was able to make a trip to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri where I had been stationed in the Army before I went to Vietnam. I was assigned there from October 1969 to June 1970. The Army sent me there fresh out of basic Army administration school. When I arrived on post, I had no assignment and reported in to the replacement company. From there, personnel sent me to the 4th AIT Brigade. The brigade personnel sergeant then sent me to the 3rd Battalion of the brigade, and the personnel sergeant there sent me on down to B Company. So, I wound up in what was called B-3-4. My assignment was as assistant clerk, but very soon after I arrived, the company clerk decided he wanted to be in another company and disappeared. Overnight, I was made company clerk with no assistant. I was still only a Private E-2 (“mosquito wings”). I quickly found out that my predecessor had been a lazy screw-up, and I set about putting things right, getting the Morning Report (and other administrative matters) up to speed and finding out where all of our people were on paper. Actually, we had three Morning Reports: One for permanent party cadre; one for reservist trainees; and one for active army trainees. The Morning Report (DA Form 1) at that time was the pre-computer method of keeping track of where all of our personnel were (coming, going, sick, AWOL, leave, etc). The numbers were all supposed to balance out against a personnel card for each individual assigned to the company. Also, the Morning Report was used to keep a record of personnel assignments and losses. When everything is working right with the Morning Report, the company has a good clerk and a happy first sergeant. B-3-4 was an advanced individual training unit that trained soldiers in how to repair engineer-specific equipment, such as dozers, rough terrain cranes, graders, and so on. At any one time, we had six cycles of trainee classes in progress. That meant that a majority of weekends, we had a class completing their training and leaving, and a new class arriving and getting started. This was a very hectic schedule for a company clerk with the heavy turn-over of people coming and going. In addition to that, in a training establishment there is always a lot of drama going on, what with lots of people new to the Army getting adjusted to their new lives (or not). One of my additional duties was company mail clerk, so every evening I had mail call outside the orderly room for each of our six cycles of trainees, in turn. My father had lent me the use of one of his old cars while I was at Fort Leonard Wood, so as time permitted, I would takes passes and drive all around the Missouri countryside. I also made trips up to Iowa and down to Arkansas and Tennessee. When I visited Fort Leonard Wood recently, I knew beforehand (from Google Earth) that my old company area had been demolished and leveled. The old 3rd Battalion, 4th AIT Brigade area was located east of the “new” hospital, bounded by First Avenue on the north; Third Avenue on the south; Illinois Avenue on the west; and Nebraska Avenue on the east. Headquarters Avenue kind of bisected this area from east to west, and my company area was located just off of this road. In recent times, Nebraska Avenue was straightened out and a cut made in the hill where my company area was formerly located. As near as I can tell, this new road goes just about over our old mess hall and my barracks site. Like a modern day archeologist looking for clues, I walked around over this grassy and partially wooded site, not finding much evidence of the military activity that had once taken place there. What I did find in the Missouri grass was that the ticks had found me, and over the course of the next few days I had to expel three from my car. The buildings that B-3-4 was housed in were “temporary” structures that had been built circa 1940-41 for use in WW2. When I was there during the Vietnam war, of the five training brigades (TDA units), three were housed in WW2 buildings and two were housed in newer, permanent structures. Also, the 5th Engineer Battalion (TOE unit) was domiciled in WW2 buildings. With the draw-down and contraction of the Army following Vietnam, the WW2 buildings were vacated. At Fort Leonard Wood, the Army has preserved one small corner of the post in its WW2 context. Several barracks, administrative buildings, and a chapel have been preserved and are well maintained with interior historical displays.

Originally posted at: http://yesterdaysweapons.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5503

July 4 Road Trip

This story is from my father, Gary Schwertley, who just got back from a road trip.

Holiday greetings to my friends at YW. May you all be having a fine Independence Day holiday. I have recently returned from a long trip through the northern central and some of the Midwestern states. I covered over driven 5,700 miles in about two and a half weeks. My itinerary was from Edmonds WA to Spokane, WA; Missoula, MT; Livingstone, MT; Cody, WY; Gillette, WY; Rapid City, SD; Mitchell, SD; Harrison County, IA; Sedalia, MO; Joplin, MO; Goodland, KS; Fruita, CO; Elko, NV; Reno, NV; Carson City, NV; and return to Edmonds, WA via northern California and Oregon. Along the way, I stopped and saw some of the tourist attractions such as Yellowstone NP, Devil’s Tower WY (where Close Encounters was filmed back in the late 1970’s), the Black Hills in South Dakota including Mount Rushmore and Deadwood. After I had waded through summer tourists in these places, it was refreshing to get away from them.

On this trip, I was able to visit old family home areas in western Iowa and Fort Leonard Wood, MO, where I was stationed for a time before I went to Vietnam.

My Ford Crown Victoria logged an average of 27.95 miles per gallon for the entire mileage on the trip. That includes some arduous non-interstate driving over the Rockies both coming and going. I was prepared for the high cost of fuel on the trip, and was surprised to find that it was usually under $4.00 per gallon in the northern central and Midwestern states. It also seemed that my mileage was a little better on the fuel purchased away from the west coast. What I wasn’t prepared for is the increase in lodging costs. In the past year, it seems in my experience that lodging costs have risen from between 50 and 100 percent. Motel 6 often no longer posts their room prices on roadside signs anymore; I guess they change often enough to cause this, or the much higher prices they charge might scare away travelers. What used to be an under $30 room at Motel 6 now costs anywhere from $40 to $76 for a single. In fact, not once did I stay at Motel 6; I found that for less money or only a little more, I could stay at nicer places. Food was about what I expected, from dining out around my local area. It’s high, like everything else. I did get to eat some good barbeque while on the road.

I stopped and did some shooting along the way on my trip. I took along an 8mm Mauser, a .22 rifle, and my Ruger SP-101 little revolver. I did some target shooting way up around 9,100 feet in the Big Horn National Forest in north central Wyoming; some plinking along the Missouri River in Harrison County, Iowa, and more target shooting at the city rifle range in Carson City, Nevada.

I’ve got a few little stories resulting from this trip that I will relate in separate posts for anyone interested.

Link to the original posting: http://yesterdaysweapons.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5500

Beach Boys on July 4, 2008 in Atlantic City

From the Youtube clip posting: "This is a clip from the Beach Boys free concert on July 4, 2008 in Atlantic City. Nearly 60,000 people came to see the show. This concert came 25 years after their historic beach concert that drew over 300,000 people in 1983, when former U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from their annual July 4 concert in Washington D.C."

Small japanese maple

My car

Huge Japanese Maple