LVCI's Wild Nightlife

Here's what goes on around here in the wee small hours of the night (on the back deck)

Dogs, Possums, Raccoons

Along With The Occasional Skunk

(.. and cats.. lotsa' cats!)

Oops!

A humorous video I put together a while back

***

There I was sitting at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig. "Well, whatcha gonna do about it?" he says, menacingly, as I burst into tears.


"Come on, man," the biker says, "I didn't think you'd CRY. I can`t stand to see a man crying."

"This is the worst day of my life," I say. "I'm a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen and I don't have any insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my old lady in bed with the gardener and then my dog bit me." "So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all,

I buy a drink, I drop a capsule in and sit here watching the poison dissolve; then you, you jerk, show up and drink the whole thing!

But enough about me, How's your day going?

My Take On The Hubble Telescope

Posted Aug. 22, 2011

The Hubble has shown us the most amazing pictures any human has (or likely will) ever see with the human eye. There is this thing called "The Observable Universe". The "Observable" in this case pertains to the visibility of light. This is where it gets all so overwhelming.

Our own section of the universe was created almost 14 billion years ago. We've determined that because our best optical telescopes (like the Hubble) can only see that far. However, is there something that exist beyond 14 billion years?

We shall never know other then through math equations and assumptions. This is so because we've only been around this neck of the universe for about 14 billion years. That's how long it takes for light to reach us here in our current position.

Had we been around for 30 billion years, we might be able to optically see 30 billion years into the past.

The whole concept over powers the imagination. Why not 100 billion?
Why not infinity?

On top of that since we are moving, at who knows what speed, away from other stars, light may never reach us from the presumed edge of the universe even if we exist 10 billion years from now.

Say for example, even if we were a 100 billion years old. We still may never observe stars that are moving away from us at the speed of light. This because the light would never get here.. EVER!

Then there's this whole speed thing. Just how fast is our galaxy traveling?
And relative to what?

Suppose our true galaxy speed was half the speed of light, would not our own references of time last approximately twice as long as another galaxy's who was not?

See this time thing cracks my mind wide open. If one were to travel at the speed of light itself, theoretically time would stop.

A biblical passage in Daniel said that each day with God is as of 1,000 years of man. Years ago I did the math. Through a transitional equation of numbers, that work's out to 99 percent and a fraction to that of the speed of light.

Is this why biblical passages keep keeping referring to the creator as "the light"?

So every time I stare at one of the Hubble pictures, this is all the stuff that comes to mind for me. It's also the kind of stuff that puts everything into perspective for me.

Experimenting With This Blog

People may have noticed I'm posting far many then I usually do, forty one so far this month. I wanted to see what would happen with my statistics. One may also note in a previous post I requested people subscribe either via email or RSS feeds. Of course I have no idea whether someone bookmarks or subscribes through a RSS feed but here's how things look so far. * Not a single additional person subscribed via email.
* There's been no increase in the number of 'return visits'.
* Only 1 person has left a number of comments.
* More people visit old past posts then new ones. Although I intend to post heavily for the remainder of the month before drawing any final conclusions here's a few I have so far.. * It doesn't seem to matter whether I do 10 or the 41 I have so far the stats stay about the same.
* Nobody seems willing to engage through comments no matter what subject I broach.
* Around 90% end up here via a link from somewhere else or through a search engine..
* Various posts from years ago get about the same number of hits as my latest. I'll address this again after January ends. I will say this much, preliminarily speaking, it's not encouraging.

The Farmers & The Dead Mule (HUMOR)

Curtis &Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily News Newspaper in Starkville, MS. and bought a mule for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night."

Curtis &Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."

The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"

Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis &Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked.

"What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"

They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."

Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."

The farmer said,"My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"

Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."

Our Greenwich Village Food Tour

Reposted From: September 10, 2011

I didn't have a chance to post yesterday (Friday, Sept. 09, 2011) because we headed out on the bus to NYC for a food tour.

I think we set a new bus land speed record as it only took us one hour and 50 minutes gate to gate.

Just enough time for my 'magic umbrella' to work. You see despite days of rain and Friday's NYC forecast for a 40% chance of thunderstorms, it was nothing but SUNSHINE by the time we arrived at the Port Authority Bus terminal. IT'S MAGIC I TELL YA. If I had not brought it I'd guarantee that it would have rained. It works that way for me nearly 100% of the time!

I have a few pictures and thoughts I'll share about the day.

We took 8th Avenue Subway from 42nd street down to 13th street. First thing I'd like to point out is, I cannot fathom how the MTA manages to lose money at $2.50 a pop. The 6 car subway trains are always standing room only coming and going every 5 or 10 minutes. Talk about magic, the MTA must sure know how to make money disappear.

As you exit the subway you have a really great view down the street of the new World Trade Center under construction.

We met our group a few blocks down at 89 MacDougal Street at the Caffè del Mare in the very heart of Greenwich Village.

Ours was one of the smaller groups. There were 10 of us. Normally she does one or two tours with 16 at a time. What I find interesting about these tours is more then just the gnashing of various food samples. It's the other people in the group.

One couple came from New Zealand and were visiting the U.S. over the past six weeks. Aside from fascination with their marvelous accents, I found it interesting that this couple's basement was flooded back in New Zealand while he was visiting the states. The couple's neighbor was doing his best to pump it out for him while they were away. They said here we are. We left a country where there was flooding and Earthquakes, then ironically they came here to some of the same. :-)

Another couple was from Vancouver, Canada. They said it was nice to be in NYC because it was cooler then home... SAY WHAT!

Like I said it turned out to be a really wonderful sunny day.

Washington Square Park

Like every project in NY, the park has been under renovation for over 6 years and counting.

This foundation has been a bone of contention because they moved it to align with the arch. The preservationist had issues. What's new!

Here are some of the eatries we visited on the tour..

FINAL IMPRESSIONS
* While the news media was belaboring on and on about 9/11 security fears, we saw none of that in the Village. Folks were pretty much going about their business as usual only a few blocks away from the WTC.

* As we toured I was totally unaware that a few blocks away, on Wall Street, stocks had taken to another big bite out of my 401k (again!)
It was so nice to be oblivious, at least for one day.

* After going into about 6 family owned restaurants I was left with the impression that what the Village considers irreplaceable distinctive historical character, Mayor Ed would consider them an eyesore and probably would want to create some sort of KOZ or NIZ and have the city tear them down.

* The village started out as mostly poor tenements. Today many of the buildings are extremely expensive and more desirable then some of those in upper Manhattan. Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anderson Cooper, Sarah Jessica Parker and Sean Lennon make the village their home to name a few. Here are some of the more notable residents and entertainers that got their start in the village over the years (not shown but included Lady Ga Ga)..

* Food is very inexpensive for the most part. Most of the cheeses and pastas etc. are hand made on premises. There are maybe a handful of eateries around the Lehigh Valley that can even begin compare to the quality nor price. Now I know why NYC doesn't need "Super" markets. Why cook when food twice as delicious (w/o the mess) is available for probably less then you can make it at home? Nor do any "super markets" come close to the specialty shop ingredients available from these individual owners.

* While we can afford to visit and eat in the village, no way in hell could we afford to even begin to consider living there. It's New York's latest, greatest, most expensive, in-place place to live. Some have been moving from Upper Manhattan to the village. Here are Reality Listings For Greenwich Village. We're talking from about the mid $400,00's to 10's of million$.

* The movie & TV industry loves to shoot down there. There were two being filmed on Friday. I have no idea which one it was, but the wife and I were filmed for a crowd scene for one of them. Should I look for a check in the mail?

* Just like Manhattan, I find the streets to be far more friendlier and safer then those of our own in the Lehigh Valley. Am I just being naive?

* I highly recommend the "Foods Of New York Tours". For around $50 per person, I couldn't find the room to fit another bite and had to beg off all that was offered.

* The round trip bus tickets, subway, food tour, extra on drinks, tips and tour gratuity (optional) set me back a little over $200 for the two of us. I consider that very reasonable for a full days worth of eating and historical tour.

Video Courtesy "TurnHereFilms"

ADVICE:
Just make sure your stomach's empty so your prepared to eat and anticipate that you will being doing a lot of walking.

I'm Thinking To Run 4 Mayor Of Allentown

I have been considering making a run for the position of mayor in the City of Allentown.


Before I make a formal announcement or put up my official website, let me run a few ideas past my readers.

After all I do want to pretend demonstrate how much I value your input before finalizing any of my plans.





Here goes:
*** Current plans do not include paving all pathways and trails. I intend to pave all paths and use them for railbeds.

Here's why.. I intend to bring back the trolleys. Of course I will call them "light rail service cars". I'd prefer trolleys, but to get the free funding from the state and federal government you have to go with the latest jargon, eh?

Next, since these trolleys light rail service cars have really no place to go, I will introduce Phase II.



What exactly is Phase II?
Well as I stated earlier I have trolleys with no place to go. For that I need to create destinations.

So starting along Fish Hatchery Road I plan on developing a gigantic Indian Casino as a trolley stop. People will be able to take the trolley from almost any nearby park to visit this cash cow entertainment venue. Perhaps I shall I call it "Lenape's Emeril Sands".

Additional stops will include the Lehigh Parkway.

Up till now we've only had the "Lights In The Parkway". I plan on adding..
-"Easter In The Parkway" (Playboy bikini bunny judging contest),

-"FatherDayfest" (where dad's try to guess which kid's theirs for a case of beer),

-"Liquorfest" (Independence day),

-"Thanksgivingfest B.Y.O.G." (where you can shoot your own turkey) .

-"April Foolsfest". On that day I will double the entrance fees and transportation fares and when you get there.. nothing's happening! I will have live video feeds from the city's website where for $5 viewers can twitter and poke fun of all the saps who show up. Course I can only do this one time, but it should be a hoot!

Additional trolley stops will include:
Various city park "Fight Club" sites. Where each weekday after school at 3:30 PM kids can enjoy their favorite after school activity in a controlled environment.

A baseball field in one of the designated parks where kids can ride their ATV's, illegal motorized motorcycles and electric scooters.

While I have a few other plans, those should give you some idea of what Phase II consists of.

*** Since revenue is tight I can see where we will have extra office space down at City Hall. To raise revenue I would make low income rentals available within city hall. I consider the location extremely strategic considering we are right next to LC Courthouse, above the Police and right down the street from the whoskow.

I consider this extremely cost effective in-so-much as the city would not be required to provide police with bikes, cars, fuel, etc.

*** I would take another direction for Hamilton Street's future. Instead of restaurants and bars, as mayor I would take empty stores and turn them each into a museum. Visitors could buy single tickets or a block of tickets and visit each former store to tour displays of what once was sold there.

I would employ seniors who once were employed in each as tour guides. These guides would have to be bilingual. They would have to be able to speak beyond their native tongue of Pa. Dutch and be fluent in English. SORRY

Current bars and restaurants would be replaced by food and liquor vendor carts on sidewalks.

*** I would turn Hamilton Street into a two way single lane. Not so much as this would work, but it's great entertainment for the visitors to these museums. Nothing like road rage for a belly chuckle.

*** As mayor I would open a sound shop in the lobby of city hall. Here motorists could by all their CD's and 1,000 watt automotive sound systems. Ought to be able to push a couple hundred of these units a year. Hey at $1,000 a pop...

*** I would have the city's traffic department issue free "double parking" passes. Yeah we wouldn't make any money but at least we could publish the names of the jerks who do it on our city's website. Then allow for anonymous posters to comment with veiled threats which should scare the be'jeezus out of em'. Hey you never know, right?

*** As Mayor I'd issue hugely overpriced get out jail free cards for 1st time offenders. This only if they promise to leave town and sign a waiver never to set foot in Allentown again under threat of triple the punishment.

*** Property Taxes (SUCKER BETS): I'd issue scratch off tickets. For $200 a ticket take a chance on zero property taxes next year. For $250 a ticket- double or nothing.

*** My final idea.. "Blast The Mayor". For 25 bucks you get to verbally trash the mayor for 5 minutes at a city council meeting of your choosing.

I simply cannot fathom with all the people hungering for a poke at the mayor why this was not thought of before. For an additional $75 you get to throw colored water balloons at the mayor and have you picture taken. The money would be used to pay the mayor's salary. So the worse I do, the more money I make.

Repost from March 19, 2013