Fog

It's winter time here in Central Cal and one of the things that we deal with around here this time of year is the fog. The picture above I took this morning as I went out to get the paper, it is of my street and as you can see, you can't see to far down the road, on a clear day you can see the corner but not today. This makes for horrible driving conditions, especially once you get out on the highways, which was proven yesterday with a 65 car pile up. When it gets really bad like this CHP officers will pace traffic on the highways. After living out here for so many years now, you get used to driving in this thick fog, going somewhere at night can be an adventure. You get to counting road side reflectors, especially just before your exit, 4, 3, 2, 1 and your exit is there. Nothing like driving in the fog with your window down, no music, since you have to strain your ear to listen for oncoming traffic before you cross a road. No winter snow here, but plenty of winter fog.

The Wizard of Oz

I was watching this classic film on Sunday evening, I am sure that most of us have seen it at least once in our lifetime. As many times as I've seen it since I was a kid though, it was not until last year that I first noticed that the Scarecrow was holding a gun when they all went back to the haunted forest looking for their beloved Dorothy. I love this movie and since it is almost always shown right around Thanksgiving, I watch it every year. When I was little and would watch it, I would always go outside whenever the Witch would show up. I would listen to the movie thru and open door or window and once I heard that her scene was done, I would go back inside and continue watching. I'm a grown man now, but still a kid at heart, but I have to say that those flying monkeys still creep me out, especially when they start flying from the witches castle to the haunted forest and they are making that creepy sound. That is trippy to this day. Now that one particular monkey that is with the witch in that one room, is too real for me. I know that little people were used in the making of this film, but that one monkey...hmmmm, I don't know....lol. I have to say that I do have a different perspective for this movie since I read the book "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire. I became more of a fan of the wicked witch after reading that book. To me it's one of those "walk a mile in my shoes" scenarios as far as the witch goes. The movie will be shown again a few more times before we all carve our turkeys on Thanksgiving day, and I will more than likely watch it again a few more times. It never grows old, I'm sure we all put ourselves in Dorothys place and wonder what we would do, how we would handle being in Oz with the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man and of course Toto. Makes me wonder also, what if Dorothy had taken the other road when she first encounted the Scarecrow? Would things have turned out differently for her? Would they have met different characters and not met the Tin Man and Lion? Would she have ever have made it out of Oz then? What if she had followed the red brick road when she was leaving Munchkin land? From what I know the red brick road leads to the witches castle. Would she have been doomed then to encounter the witch by herself with Toto or maybe she would have encounted some characters along the way that would have provided more help than the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man. Makes me wonder. Speaking of Tin Man, if you have not seen the movie Tin Man that originally aired on the SciFi channel, take a look at it, it is a different twist on the Oz tale, very cool, very good, I may have to pop in that dvd and watch that one and see what questions come of it.

I'm a football fan as well....

Hey, hope that everyone is doing well today. So as you may or may not know, I live in Central California, surrounded by Giants and Dodgers fans and a few Angels, A's and Padres fans sprinkled in among them. This makes for lots of baseball on tv, radio and in the papers to watch, listen to or read about which is great. But during the off season, when football comes around forget it, especially this year. I'm a Cowboys fan, so I rarely get to watch them play on tv unless it's an early game or a Monday night game. We get the pleasure of watching the 49ers and Raiders, nice huh? Talk about some exciting football....Raiders last game, they only got 3 first downs.....3...that is ridiculous, that is what you get in the first possession or two. The Niners aren't so bad, they play better football, but still aren't winning. I'm not a fan of either team, but am a football fan and to be subjected to the blunders of both teams is too much. Not so much the Niners, but the Raiders with Al Davis ruling with an iron fist and doing poorly if I might add, it's just too comical. That team is the laughing stock of the NFL, they should be forced to forfeit their remaining games and not put us through the misery of watching them play. They should be given the opportunity to start their pre-season now. I would rather watch the Cubs/Dodgers series again than watch the Raiders play.....well maybe not.......that was too painful for me, for us Cubs fans. I can't wait for baseballs pre-season to start up again. I want to know who is going to play with what team, who will move for big money, who will stay put for big money. What will the Cubs do to get us to the World Series? What plans do they have written up to get us there? What players names do they have written down that may be in Cubs blue next season? My inquiring mind wants to know.......now......I can't wait......I want to watch some baseball, I want to watch Cubs baseball........time to check Jens countdown counter and see how many days are left.......Go Cubs!

Cubbie dog

Ok Cubs fans, this is my dog Bailey. I was messing with the camera one day during this last pre-season, when she decided to jump on the couch, so I put my Cubs hat on her that I always wear and this is the result......lol. I want to make her a small Cubs hat of her own, so she can wear next season. Maybe I'll make find her a doggy Cubs jersey.......Go Cubs!

Tampa Bay Rays vs The Philadelphia Phillies.....Yawn!!!!.....Well I don't know about anyone else, but so far I have found this world series to be very boring. I've tried to watch it from Game 1, but cannot get into it. I am a Cubs fan and would have loved for them to be playing in the fall classic, but I am a huge baseball fan, but I cannot get into this series at all. I'll start to watch a game, but after a few innings, I'm so bored with it. I find myself channel surfing for something that will catch my attention. I'm usually pretty excited when the WS starts, but not this season, the playoffs were great, very exciting. Anyone else finding the WS boring?