This is a Joke, Right?

I just got an email alert from my favorite talk station in Indy, WXNT 14030-am, advising that there will be a new host, Phil Hendrie, on the station. Get a load of his "credentials":

Hendrie's views are unique for modern talk radio. He is a registered Democrat who vocally supported Bill Clinton, voted for Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000, and both Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. At the same time, he supports troops in Iraq and the War on Terror. Phil voted for and supported George W. Bush in 2004 and feels that Bush will someday be viewed as one of the country's greatest presidents.

So, Hendrie can best be described as... misguided in every way? For Carter, Mondale, and George W. Bush? Ranking Bush up there with, say, Lincoln? Well, WXNT is airing him from 1-4am. Seems like a good place to stash this guy.

Update: WXNT is shaking things up even more than this. I just received an email from the station saying that Neal Boortz and Glenn Beck are going to trade times. From the email:

The other major change to our lineup involves two of our most popular hosts: Glenn Beck and Neal Boortz. Both hosts have very passionate fans. However, based on the results of several listener surveys, Beck & Boortz will "flip" timeslots effective tomorrow. Glenn Beck will now be heard from 10:00am to 1:00pm weekdays with Neal Boortz moving to the 6:00pm evening slot.

Well, that sucks! Boortz was the one syndicated show I listened to, because of Neal's largely libertarian views and because it was a time that I tend to drive. That's when I listen to the radio. I never listen in the early evening, and my understanding is that this slot is sort of the graveyard for the daytime airwaves.

Glenn Beck? The guy does good radio, so long as he isn't talking politics. I don't want to hear him talk policy. He's clueless there. He is very entertaining when talking about having been a drunk, or going on about popular culture, but as a whole, I don't care about an ex-drunk or celebrities.

Looks like the iPod is going to get even more use in the car when I'm in central Indiana. Bummer.

Road Work A-Plenty

(Crystal Lake, IL) No sooner finished with site verification worh in Champaign IL, and I was summoned to take on at least two projects in northern Illinois. Can't really call it Chicagoland. The work is 55 miles west of Chicago, and about 15 miles south of the Wisconsin border. These jobs will be a combination of verifications, easement acquisitions, and assorted title work. It will easily consume the rest of 2007.

I'm really missing the political season this year. Well, I'm not missing it exactly. At this time last year, I was 30 pounds lighter due to a kidney stone and general neglect, completely stressed out, nursing a severely broken hand, and generally dying to pour myself into my new business. So, here I am, right where I wanted to be. Well, I wouldn't mind if I hadn't put the weight back on. And I'd really love it if this kind of work were available in Indiana, right close to home. I miss being home with Ame and Isabel day in, day out. But in terms of the work, it's grown beyond my wildest dreams.

Moreover, my drive to the United Center for Wednesday's Sharks-Blackhawks game will be a relatively short one! But apart from that diversion, the nose will be to the grindstone.

Pleasant Dreams

As I'm about to turn in for the night, I'll allow a delightful, wistful item from Radley Balko float through my mind as my head hits the pillow and I drift into sleep. It's a list of questions he would like to ask presidential candidates at debates. Here are my faves:

— A recent study found that over half the country now derives part or all of its income from the federal government. Three of the richest counties in the country are in the D.C. suburbs, a telling indicator of just how bloated with taxpayer dollars Washington has become. Do you think these trends are healthy? Would you agree or disagree that the federal government is getting too large, too influential, and too pervasive?

—Name five government agencies that are either superfluous, anachronistic, ineffective, or otherwise no longer necessary, and that you would eliminate? To make things interesting, let's take everything under the Department of Defense
off the table, with the acknowledgment that there's plenty of cutting to be done there, too.

—The U.S. currently has troops on 6,000 bases spread out over 135 countries. Do you believe this is a good or bad thing? If bad, from what countries would you remove U.S. troops?

I'm picturing stunned faces, immediate evasive maneuvers, and snickers at the squirming power-seekers from across the USA. Ah- sweet, sweet dreams...

Open Up and Say, "Arr"

(Fishers, IN) - Or, "Arr, Matey". I'm fond of "Off me wooden leg, ye salty dog!"

Yes, today is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Make sure to do your part.

Hat tip: Mike Watt.

Big Relief!

(Parma, OH) - Here's some major good news: my Dad's surgery was a success, and he's recovering nicely.

He had the least invasive treatment possible for repair of three Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms, at Parma Community Hospital. The alternative was a complete opening of the abdomen, and that scared the hell out of all of the Koles. So, being able to receive the EVAR treatment was a big relief, and the successful outcome an even greater relief.

I'll take Isabel to see Grandpa in a short while, now that most of the grogginess is gone, and he's up to seeing more wiggly visitors. No 'hop on Grandpop', or airplane rides for a while, though.

The Hardest Part

Road trips with Steve are big fun for me. The hard part is leaving the family behind. The reunion is only a few hours off, but in Cleveland.



Ame and Isabel are already in Cleveland, and I'll leave Fishers shortly. My Dad is having a pretty serious abdominal/cardiac surgery on Monday, so we're going to be there for him and my Mom.

No telling when I'll be back in Indiana. I'm going to stay until his condition is stable.

Someone's Gotta Win? Says Who?

(Fishers, IN) After a week on the road, I finally turned my eyes to college football- and what do I see? Notre Dame and Michigan have lost again? While Ohio State won? I really am living the life these days!

So, 0-2 Michigan faces 0-2 Notre Dame, and the headlines on the Indy Star and ESPN all say, "Someone Has To Win". Says who? How about a nice tie? In fact, how about a nice scoreless tie? Let's see hightened futility for these two! How delightful that would be!

Another Road Trip Photo Post

I could do these for weeks. Maybe I will! For now, here are a variety of water-oriented photos. The first three are mine, the fourth is Steve's. Captions soon.

Road Trip Notes

(Madison, WI) - It's been difficult to get wireless internet connections in the various places we've been visiting, so the posts aren't exactly on the spot reporting. That's ok. The main thing is the trip itself, of course.

Today's start was in Duluth, where temperatures were cool, but the cloudy skies did not mean anything more than sporadic rains. In any case, a little rain wasn't going to dampen a trip to Duluth's waterfront, where we were going to check out huge ships leaving the harbor, and trains carrying ore and stone.

A ship called the "Canadian Progress" left the harbor carrying a load of coal, for power plants or steel mills unknown. The US Army Corps of Engineers posts the expected times of arrival and departure for tankers, so it's easy to plan to be at the channel at the right time. Navigating these ships out of Duluth and into Lake Superior isn't nearly as treacherous as the course through Cleveland's Cuyahoga River "Collision Bend", but it's still fun to watch the trip.

The Canadian Progress in the ship channel on Minnesota Point connecting Duluth and Lake Superior

Hitting the road out of Minnesota and into Wisconsin revealed the best wildlife sightings of the trip thus far: Four bald eagles, several elk, deer, and dozens of wild turkeys. Neither Steve nor I had never seen a bald eagle in the wild before, so we were very excited at seeing one on the road, finishing off a deer carcass with the help of some crows. Only about ten minutes later, I spotted another perched atop a dead tree in a swamp. Steve stopped the car so I could approach for some pictures. As I made my way closer, a second bald eagle chased the first off its' perch, taking its' place. Unfortunately, in getting closer for better photos, both birds were spooked off, and they flew away.

I wish I could have gotten closer, but the bald eagles didn't seem eager for my company

This was the first real serious backroads jockeying we did, and it really paid off. We use the DeLorme's Atlas & Gazatteer series of maps. These are backroads maps, created with road trips in mind. DeLorme's publishes an edition for most states. They aren't great for city travel, but they really help you find alternates to the highway that make up in scenic beauty for whatever time might be sacrificed. I recommend them highly.

The road less travelled, in northern Wisconsin.

Road Trip Photo Post, 2

(Duluth, MN)- Here are some pics, courtesy Steve Wainstead, of my interview with Craig Coxe. I met with Craig in Harbor Springs, MI:

Craig studies a printout of his NHL fights, as compiled on www.dropyourgloves.com

Funny to see Craig react to the list. Users vote on winners and losers. "They really thought Kimble beat me?" We laughed.

Craig & I, posing for the camera. Craig Coxe is one tall man.

Road Trip Photo Post

(Thunder Bay, ON) - Some of my pics of our flight from Charlevoix to Beaver Island. This is a small handful of the 70 or so images shot from the plane. I was especially pleased with a 20-shot study of the landing gear against the surface below. I selected three favorites here.

On The Road, and In The Air

(Sault Ste Marie, MI) - Quite a day yesterday, despite missing on Mark Rutherford's pointers for the Charlevoix area!

The interview with Craig Coxe at Springs Harbor, MI was about the best I've ever had with an athlete. Many, many thanks to Craig for taking the time (about 90 minutes!), his enthusiasm, and for being so open about every topic. My experience had always been that hockey players are more humble and forthcoming than other pro athletes, such as NBA, NFL, or MLB players. But Coxe was so accommodating, and truly a fun interview. I can't wait to transcribe and even to begin posting some video interview clips.

From Springs Harbor and after lunch, we went back to Charlevoix so that we could get a ferry boat or plane to Beaver Island. We struck out on a couple counts. On Mondays this time of year, the ferry makes only one trip to and fro- and had already made it. We really wanted to enjoy each available mode, water and air. Well, water wasn't available, so we agreed that it would be better to fly each way than to miss out on a trip to this remote place. We got to the airport and learned that there was only one round-trip remaining in the day. We would take it, but these would be back-to-back flights- only a 15 minute wait between trips!

It was totally worth it! On the flight out, I was the last to board, so I sat next to the pilot on a very small twin engine propeller plane. I was extremely nervous, but went with the thrill. Took many pictures from the air. We hit the ground, chatted up local Islanders for ten minutes, then boarded again to skip back to mainland. Steve sat next to pilot for the return, and I sat at the back, shooting a collage of the plane's interior and a series of shots down to the surface. It was a study of the fixed landing gear and whatever was below: Lake Michigan, treetops, a quarry, the runway, etc. I'll load some of these later.

In the late afternoon, we drove up to Sault Ste Marie, deciding to stay in Michigan one more night before crossing into Canada. We went to Kewadin Casino, which is run by the SSM Chippewa Indians. I'm usually pretty down on non-Vegas casinos, but this one was very good. It had a huge number of slots, and a fair number of table games. But here was the best part: $1 video poker was 9-5, and the texas hold-em table was 1-2. What's that mean? High payback for longer play on slots, low stakes entry on poker. So, Steve and I could play and not feel like we were going to break the bank.

Actually, we both left with more money than we started. That usually doesn't happen, but Steve doubled his money on roulette, and I won a small amount on hold-em. We had a real laugh at the end of the night, when I was simply trying to get a metal $1 token for my dad. I put a $5 into the video poker machine with the idea that I would take one or two out of the five and play the rest, probably losing them. I got two nice ones, but then kept winning small hands- two pair & three of a kind. I would play, win, cash out, look at Steve, and we would laugh... and repeat. Nothing big. I left with ten buck, plus the two tokens. It was just the situation- no investment in winning, yet doing so.

Today we'll make tracks, trying to get to Thunder Bay. Of course, we never know what may divert our attention!

On The Road

(Traverse City, MI) Several years ago, I would take a crazy road trip with my best friend, Steve. I looked up and found that it had been nine years since we took a road trip! Fortunately, it all worked out so we could do a trip that had been long-standing on our list: a circle tour of Lake Superior.

Ultimately, the plan is for a figure-eight tour: North from the Indy area, through Michigan along the western coast of Lake Michigan; then heading west theough Michigan's Upper Peninsula along the southern coast of Lake Superior, to Duluth, MN; then east along the northern coast of Superior; then west again through the UP- this time on the southern coast above Lake Michigan; then south through Wisconsin, Illinois, and back into Indiana. Route will vary on a whim- any time, any where, for no reason at all. About a week, all told.

Steve flew in from New York to Indy on Saturday. Ame and I showed him Hoosier hospitality with a nice dinner that included veggies from the garden and Indiana pork. Sunday, we hit the road.

Starting in Fishers, we meandered through Hamilton County, passing a bison farm on Six Points Road, just south of 296th. We meandered through Tipton County and got onto US 31 in time to let Steve feast his eyes on the famed Sherrill's "Eat Here and Get Gas" sign.

US 31 is a straight shot to Canada, but we did jump off from time to time to check out various sights. One misadventure was in Niles, MI. I truly thought that there was a tavern on trackside, full of railroad decor and a dining caboose. I was mistaken. My memory failed me. We asked around town- even at the Amtrak station- and everyone was stumped. Well, it had been ten years since I had been to that tavern, on a long work detail. On reflection, I think it's in Sturgis, MI. Who knows? I'll have to dig through my old photos.

Steve was astonished by the cheap land prices in Mi. $10,000/acre sounds ridiculous to a New Yorker. This was for property within 1,000 feet of Lake Michigan, north of Muskegon. Fun listening to him laugh at the prices.

We ended up in Traverse City, where the temperatures are lower and the wind is gusting. Today's adventures include an interview with former NHL player Craig Coxe, and a day trip to Beaver Island.

Could be trouble ahead- I forgot to bring my birth certificate and passport. I don't know if this will pose problems getting into Canada. I suspect that it might. If so, it would severly alter the pre-trip planned course, potentially eliminating the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario. That would be a bummer. I was hoping to stop in Thunder Bay, and to take in the sights along the way.

Voting With Your Feet

One fabulous recipe for driving away wealth is to raise income taxes or property taxes. The more money a person earns, the more incentive that person has to leave so as to preserve their rightful earnings. When property taxes outstrip the perceived value of contributing to the upkeep of a neighborhood or a municipality, the higher the tax, the greater the incentive to find a place that will be worth the bill.

I've long said that people vote with their feet. I've done it twice in my life. My great-grandparents crossed an ocean to do it. One place I voted with my feet on is Indianapolis. I did it before the City-County Council, on Mayor Peterson's recommendation, raised the income tax. I did it before the property tax assessment issue came to fore. Thank goodness!

Even NuVo gets it:

When the deleterious effect of high taxes is apparent even to NuVo, then it's as plain as the nose on your face. Wayne Bertsch at NuVo.

I love the "World Class Mayor" bit on the t-shirt. Peterson likes to crow about making a "World Class City" and that high taxes are the price to be paid. What a load. When the murder rate is higher than Detroit's, Indy is not a World Class City in any sense, except perhaps Third World. The priorities are a wreck. Public safety should be fully funded while everything else plays second fiddle. It isn't the way things are done in Indy, so I left. Now that I'm making more money than when I lived in Indy, I'm damn glad I did, because it would be a crime to pay more for getting less.

The people who remain in Indy have to decide something: Do you want to have Indy as a cauldron of poverty and crime? Or, do you want to have increasing wealth and decreasing crime? It's a simple matter of policy, and while I'm no fan of the Republicans (because they create disincentives for wealth, only are slower on the implementation), the Democrats are quickly destroying Indianapolis. So, while too many partisan Democrats would rather fiddle like Nero and keep their people in office, will the independents be swayed to vote Libertarian? Or at least stop voting Democrat? (I can't even bring myself to say 'vote Republican'. They haven't earned it.)

I'll keep looking from a safe distance.

Hat tip to Hoosiers For Fair Taxation on the strip!

Excellent Time for a Protest

The NFL season opener is in town tomorrow night. The Super Bowl champ Colts host the Saints for a big deal game, with big deal entertainment on Monument Circle. (Kelly Clarkson is ok by me, because she had Mike Watt play bass on recent recordings.) The national TV cameras will be focused on Indianapolis.

What better time to dunk some property tax assessment tea bags into the canal? Details:

INDIANA TEA PARTY

NFL Opening GamePan Am Plaza - Across from RCA Dome.
Thursday, Sept 6th - Meet at 6pm.
Bring your assessment (or facsimille) to put in the giant tea bag.
At 8pm we march to the Downtown Canal to dunk the tea bag once more

I've heard some grumbling about this, along the lines of, 'why can't you just enjoy the moment and not try to give the city a black eye?' Har har, the city already has the black eye. Check out the murder count, murder rate, general crime rate, tax rates, wealth flight, and then see if people trying to right the ship is in fact 'giving the city a black eye'.

Sometimes, embarrassment is the only motivation for fixing obvious and huge problems.

Update: Matt Tully wrote a truly unfortunate column for the Indy Star, urging everyone to enjoy the 'circus' part of the 'bread & circuses' charade, essentially sneering at the tax protesters. From his column:

"We want to communicate with the rest of the country what's going on in our city," event organizer Melyssa Donaghy, also the city's best-known dominatrix, told me.

All I can say is, huh?

A little perspective, folks. Something tells me people in Dubuque, Detroit and Durango don't care about tax increases in Indianapolis. And I'm betting NBC will steer its cameras away from those protesting in the streets. But since you're going to be here, Kelly and Faith, I thought you could use a primer on what's going on.

A. Why must Tully identify Melyssa Donaghy as a dominatrix? Does he identify every person he writes about by their proclivities? Or, is this just his shabby attempt to smear her? That was rhetorical. Matt Tully lives to smear the earnest little people who endeavor to make our region a better place to live. I know, he's done it to me.

B. The point of shining the light of truth on the tax situation for people outside to see is not because they have an interest. It's because this event is a sham designed to prop up the gilded face of the city. Underneath the glitter is a hell of a lot of decay. The protesters are, as the kids say, keeping it real.

C. Perspective? It doesn't matter what the problems of New Orleans or the third world are. We live in Indiana. All politics being local, we work to make home a better place. If we ignored home and focused elsewhere, home would get worse. Why does Tully want home to decline? What kind of 'thinking' is that? Perspective, indeed!

Maybe it's just that the Star sells a lot of newspapers and draws a lot of website hits by running pictures and stories about the Colts, thus selling a lot of advertising. Maybe that's Tully's motivation for this slime-dripping hack job.

Red River Gorge, III

Ame, Isabel & I took our third trip to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky earlier this week. It was an excellent trip!

Posing on the deck of the cabin. Awesome views!

For me, the highlight was watching Isabel enjoy participating in the action. She really wanted to do some hiking rather than simply being carried in the backpack. So, we let her walk the trail to Balanced Rock.

We figured this would be a short walk on her part, that we would end up carrying her after some short distance. She only turned two this past June.

She's a tough little girl! She fell down twice and brushed it off, saying, "I ok. Let's go". She scaled all of the stairs by herself, at her insistance. This is no small feat for a 2-year-old, as you can judge by the photos.

Isabel leads Mommy up the stairs, up the mountain.

This is the joy of being self-employed: Take off on a non-holiday Monday for a couple days. It's ok, the boss approves.

Goofy Daddy and Isabel at Balanced Rock

Excellent College Football Weekend

What could be better? Ohio State wins large, Michigan loses to the first cream puff on its' schedule- at home, and Notre Dame gets pounded at home.

Repeat this, oh, four or five more times, and we'll see a memorable season! (It's a shame both teams can't lose when Michigan hosts Notre Dame later this month. Oh well.)

If You Have To Read Just One Article On The Michael Vick Case...

Here it is- on ESPN.com, that fountainhead of deep social analysis. Seriously, Howard Bryant's article on the Vick plea is excellent. From Bryant's writing:

Still, for all the emotion and anger, for all of the societal hot buttons this case has pressed at once -- race, class, privilege, the debate about cruelty to animals versus the value of human life -- this conclusion feels unsatisfying. Here is the saga of a man who financed and oversaw an inhumane operation, who was party to all of its graphic brutality and who, to date, has not shown an ounce of remorse. The fact that he still has a chance to avoid jail seems incongruous, even unfair, especially in a world in which it appears that hard time seems to exist only for the guilty poor, the average or the unconnected.

Sums it up well. The thing that always occurs to me when a pro athlete is involved with the law is that they get a different deal than the rest of us. It isn't right. Justice is supposed to be blind.

I know- we're supposed to be a nation of laws and not men, too. Alas. There's that pesky idealism that's supposed to be on the wane.

Scary Ride

Besides the raw workload, one thing has been on my mind that has made it hard to get too worked up about much of anything political.

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving on I-74, back home from Champaign, Illinois. It had been a good road trip- I finished earlier than expected, so I was going to be home earlier, which is a major plus. But it was raining, and being that I was early, I decided to take it easy. I normally drive about 75-78mph on the interstate. I knocked it down to 65, set the cruise control, and eased on down the road.

I learned something about cruise control and rain. They don't mix. Moving in the passing lane ahead of a slower semi, I noticed that I was going backwards. It happened so smoothly that I didn't really grasp that I was hydroplaning until I was facing the semi. This was bad. It was behind me.

It was astonishing that I remained completely calm. I had the thought that I was going to be hurt badly, and yet, everything seemed to be suddenly a lot slower, and I was really calm.

I grew up driving in Cleveland, so I know how to drive on ice at speed. I thought it through. I let off the gas (no brakes) and turned the wheel to right the car. As I did this, I was sliding from the passing lane to the thru lane. About 1,000 feet later, the car was reasonably pointed forward, so I began tapping the brakes. I saw that the drainage ditch off-road was pretty deep. This still didn't cause me any alarm. Then, I felt the rumble strips in the berm, so I hit the brakes hard.

Sure enough, the tires grabbed on the strips and I stopped. I had one tire over the edge of the ditch. I hit nobody and nothing.

Well! My heart was pounding through my chest, and with the realization that I was safe, I actually felt some panic. I looked in all my mirrors to see what lay behind me. I was sure that someone else would have wrecked or run off the road in reaction to my movements. But, no! The semi was up the road, as were other cars, moving along as though my spin-out never happened. Nobody had run off behind me.

I sat there for a minute to collect my wits. It really took that long for it to sink in that all was well. It was just a scary moment, but with no harm done.

I was pretty spooked about continuing on the highway, so I got off at the next exit for a slow road home. Luckily, that was SR 32, which I could take home by way of Noblesville.

So, if anyone wonders if the political fire is out of my belly, the answer is that much of the time right now, it is. I did get riled about an anti-capitalism post on Bilerico recently, so it's not gone. It's just that perspective comes easy to me right now, and perspective is very dangerous to the pen of the idealist.

My Life, Illustrated

Pretty simple these days: work & family. Some of it even happens here in Indiana.

Isabel admiring the bunnies with Ame, at the State Fair. She really loves bunnies!

On location Friday in Champaign, Illinois. 110 sites near cross-connect boxes. I've perfected the 80-hour work week.

Watching trains with Alex in Bedford, Ohio on Saturday. Bedford is his hometown. He visited with relatives here all week.
Playing house with Isabel and Sasquatch in the backyard. She outgrew the old playset, so we donated it and found this one. She really loves the house! Now, if a bunny were to come out of the woods and join her, well that would just be heaven on earth for her!