Looking Up

One of the greatest feelings I experience in life is looking up to the heavens on a cool, crisp, clear night when the stars are easy to see. I take deep breaths in the cool air and somehow, it seems to rejuvenate me. Looking up at the heavens, wondering many things. Reflecting on life, questioning if we’re alone within our universe and what the future has in store for me. Looking up at planets, stars, and galaxies reminds me how small and insignificant I am in the grand scheme of themes.

Just when it seems I’ve arrived at a Eureka moment, I notice the dog is ready to come back inside. I let her in and continue on with my meaningless life.

I’m Not In The Cult Of Mac

I’ve had the privilege to use a Macbook Pro free of charge for the past few months. Decked out, retina display, the works. I’ve owned an iPhone since the 3GS and it’s been a wonderful device. The Macbook is the first Apple computer I’ve ever owned. I used the opportunity to learn the quirks of the Apple ecosystem. Instead of control C it’s command C. The mouse I tested in the Apple store has one button with no way to right-click. I’ve learned by using the Macbook Pro that it doesn’t improve my productivity at all, it slows it down.

One of the biggest pains in the ass with a retina display is when I take screen captures, the resolution of the image is doubled. What would normally be a 500 pixel wide image on my desktop is a 1,000 pixel wide image on the Macbook. So far, I haven’t found a way to take screen captures in non-retina display resolutions. Speaking of Retina, I don’t see what the big deal is. Things look nice on the screen but they look pretty damn good on my LED monitor as well.

So far, I’ve yet to do anything with the Mac Book Pro that justifies its cost. I’d never be the owner of a Mac Book Pro now that I’ve had the chance to use one the past few months. I’d rather use a decked out 15 inch Windows 7 Home Premium notebook. This way, I could use the same exact programs and workflow I use on my desktop. My mouse would have a right click button and I can go back to using Control-C instead of a command key. I’d be more productive and happier overall.

Best Friends Mom Passes Away

The other night, I was startled to discover at 5 AM that my best friends mother had passed away at the age of 80. Just a few days ago, she went into the hospital because she was having chest pains and once the heart specialist put a camera into the valves around her heart, they discovered that all of them were around 80-90% blocked. The doctor couldn’t believe that she was still alive and walked into his office. They were to perform immediate heart surgery but postponed it for a few days because they discovered that she had weaker than normal lungs. Early Monday morning, she went in for surgery. The surgery went well as it involved taking veins from her foot and using those for a heart bypass. She was under the knife for six hours. Once it was over, she was groggy but conscious enough to speak a few words. During that night in recovery, while everything seemed ok, the world lost a great woman. The doctors tried for 30 minutes to bring her back but to no avail. As of now, no one knows what happened and the doctors are flabbergasted as to her death.

I’ve been trying to help support him through this troubled time in his life and it’s even more troubling to know that the house he lived in with his mother will now be silent with only himself to occupy it. I believe that for him, the silence will be deafening. She was quite a quilter and now he begins the process of celebrating her life and performing the necessary tasks of cleaning up (organizing, donating, and throwing items away) after a family members passing.

You know, you go through life and no matter what, you can’t seem to get away from death. Life moves at a fast pace but deaths of family members and friends or people that you have connections with act as stop signs. Times to stop and reflect on life, both theirs and your own.

The Great Hornsby

Ended up getting quite a bit done today. I finished up the process of re screening the four windows in the kitchen. I managed to install a new dryer vent that is louvered so that it’s closed when the dryer is off and open when it’s on. I then proceeded to caulk the connection point between the brick and the dryer vent but because I caulked first before putting the dryer vent in place, I broke the seal and ended up getting caulk where it wasn’t supposed to go. I should have screwed the vent into the brick and then caulked. Regardless, I have a lot of practice to do to get the caulking technique down pat. Last but not least, I finally talked my fiancee into getting this big barrel out of the garage and thus, out of my way. He was found at the other house we are trying to sell and is now in the garden with a flower pot on top. I’m pretty happy that he’s out of my way. Oh, and if you’re wondering about what the great hornsby is, it’s the name my fiancee gave to the barrel.

The Great Hornsby Barrel

Hog Heaven – Better Than Old Carolina?

Before my trip to Salt Fork State Park, I was given a suggestion to try out a place called Hog Heaven which is a BBQ restaurant with three locations, two of which are off of 77 South. My favorite BBQ joint in Ohio for the past two years has been a place called Old Carolina BBQ which I discovered during my trip to a local annual rib cook off. Old Carolina has great ribs but what has set them apart from the rest of the BBQ I’ve tried is their sweet sauce.

hog heaven in ohio

Since we enjoyed our visit to the first location located in New Philadelphia Ohio, we decided to visit their Canton location. During our first meal, I consumed a plentiful pulled pork sandwich. While the meat didn’t have any distinct flavor, the sauce is what made it pop. I can only describe it as ketchupy but with a sweetness to it such as honey or molasses. There is no spice to it what so ever and is the only sauce they have. I continuously found myself drowning my pulled pork in the sauce. During our second trip, I ordered a half slab of ribs. The first thing I noticed with these ribs is that when I picked up the bone to start eating them, the meat fell off without any of my assistance. This impressed me and told me these folks know how to cook a rack of ribs. The meat had a glaze of their sauce while also having a crispy texture to the top of the meat from the grill. These ribs were delicious. In fact, they were so good that now my fiance believes she has found a BBQ sauce that is better than Old Carolinas which we are still hotly debating.

While their Canton location is farther south than Old Carolina, it just might be that good for me to make the drive. I’ve found myself drinking from the sauce bottle as if it were Mountain Dew, it’s that good. While the new Philadelphia location was more like a biker bar, the Canton location was geared more towards a restaurant atmosphere. If you’re heading on I-77 South, stop by the Canton or New Philadelphia location for some excellent BBQ. Before the suggestion, I’ve never heard of Hog Heaven and now I consider it a hidden gem in Ohio.

Review Of The 23rd Ohio Bigfoot Conference

The 23rd annual Ohio Bigfoot conference hosted by Don Keating has come and gone. I didn’t expect the turn out to be as good as last year when Bob Gimlin showed up but alas, about 600-645 people were in attendance for this years event. I wasn’t too impressed with this years event mostly because of the speakers. The speakers that kept my interest the best was Ron Morehead as he explained what happened during the course of time that the Sierra Sounds were being recorded, some of Dr. Esteban Sarmiento’s presentation and last but not least, Eric Altman, director of the PA Bigfoot Society.

I found myself falling asleep a couple of times during some of the other presentations throughout the day mostly because I didn’t have a clue as to what the speaker was talking about. Lack of knowledge on my part but the dry speaking and lack of humor killed my attention span. Out of all the presentations, Eric Altman’s was the most interesting because it dealt with sighting reports that his group was either currently investigating or has investigated over the past 2 years. I wouldn’t mind if somehow, an entire hour or two was dedicated just for folks to get up and tell their story of their eyewitness account or could at least get a few more investigators to speak on what they have discovered via their own research. Although I doubt very many people would be willing to share their sighting reports to an audience of 600 people.

Unfortunately, Don Keating didn’t present on his investigations into the Ohio Bigfoot over the course of the year which is disappointing because I’m unable to make it to the Monthly meetings that he holds. It would have given everyone a heads up as to what’s been going on in Ohio Bigfoot wise. There was also some technical difficulties that at times, made it very annoying to be part of the audience thanks to the interference projected from the microphone. During one of the sessions, there was a loud audible clicking noise that we had to listen to for the duration of his presentation. It was easy to drown out after a while but still, made it hard to focus on the information he was giving out.

23rd ohio bigfoot conference

Attendees Starting To Fill The Room

Number 24 for Don is up in the air but if he decides to go through with it, I hope the speakers are geared towards more sharing of either personal sightings or accounts, sharing of information via their investigations or just a sampling of recent investigations that person or group has been on.

One of the reasons why I enjoy the Bigfoot conferences so much is because of the substantial discounted rates that the Salt Fork State Park lodge offers. For Friday and Saturday the rates were only $79.00 while staying Sunday was only $29.00. While I look forward to the Bigfoot conference every year, I’m equally content with enjoying a mini vacation in a beautiful park for a few days with my lady friend. Unfortunately, we were not able to hike our usual spots because of the miserable rainy weather over the course of the weekend. In fact, it’s been so wet that a lot of the plants that normally have giant flowers this time of year have yet to bloom or were just starting to. However, we were able to hike close to the lake before the start of the conference and before a heavy thunderstorm came rolling in.

Salt Fork Lake

Salt Fork Lake

Overall, I enjoyed my time at Salt Fork State Park despite the miserable weather. After all, I beat my fiancée 5 times in a row in air hockey (I don’t think she enjoyed that part of the vacation). I also won four incredible pieces of Bigfoot artwork for my office wall for $40.00 in an auction during intermission. I’ll be showing those pictures in a follow-up post. The event itself was free to attend and I got to meet up with a couple of old friends. Hope to see news soon of a 24th conference.