A few months ago I posted some images and links from the Hailuoto Island ferry in Finland. Hailuoto Island is about the same latitude as Iceland, so this time of year there is virutally no night. Check out the time on the image below. Nearly 3AM and it’s still quite bright outside. Bet you could make a fortune selling blackout curtains there.  🙂

Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox – What is it about this team that they cannot win on the road? They win 81% at home and only 36% away. Although it looks like the Orioles are going to throw this game away and let the Sox have it.

   Celtics – They finally figured out how to win on the road. Maybe they can share the secret with the Red Sox.

 Angel Hernandez – Whiney bastard. Threw out Lugo and Tito for no good reason. Although anything that gets Lugo off the field can only help the Sox.

 Harvey Korman died. – Easily one of the funniest men ever. He and Tim Conway would keep me in stitches.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9T8i4FkNVo

Like many Americans, we decided to stay close to home this weekend. We’ve been meaning to get back down to the Moonshine Store, as we haven’t been there since last Spring. It was just as packed this year. Still, the burgers were good and the atmosphere was as cool as always. As you can see below, it’s located right at the intersection of 600St and 300Rd in Martinsville, IL.

On the way back home, we stopped in at the Lincoln Log Cabin site. We’ve been here many times, but it’s was a great day for a walk and this site has an easy and picturesque trail. As you can see, it was shearing day. The sheep didn’t appear to be too excited about it, though.  🙂

Ups and downs of the week.

 Red Sox – Riding a 7 game winning streak, albeit against NL teams. Still, I’m enjoying the ride.

 Celtics – They barely beat Atlanta and now they’ve lost their first home game and still have not won on the road.

 Jason Varitek – He was catching for Jon Lester’s no-hitter this past week. He’s been the catcher for 4 no-hitters in his career. During that time, there have only been 11 no-no’s in all of baseball, and Tek has been behind the plate for 4 of them. I think he’s the best catcher in major league baseball.

 National 55 MPH speed limit -  Please. Did we learn nothing from that farce the first time around?

 MacBook Pro – Got one this week. Not too impressed so far. The trackpad is lousy and the machine itself is uncomfortable to work with. The edges are too sharp.

 Garden Ramble – Is this weekend. I wrote about the last one. Should be a perfect weekend for it.

We were in Chicago this weekend. The weather was great. We went up Saturday, had lunch in Greektown, and the went over to the Adler Planetarium. The admission, as with all the museums over there, is a bit pricey, but it was a pretty cool place. The views of the city were spectacular.

This one is in Ramsau, Germany. Beautiful sunrise.

My yard looks best this time of year. The cherry trees blossom nicely and the peonies haven’t yet bloomed and the grass is very green. Shame that the daffodils have bloomed and died already. They’d have added some nice color here.

One of the most powerful memory triggers is the sense of smell. An aroma can bring back memories from childhood that seem like they were from yesterday. And I’ve also noticed that other triggers can bring back memories of smells, which in turn bring up other memories. I was reading a blog post from last year that spoke of the smell of bacon and eggs wafting through the trees in the morning when my folks took us camping in our childhood. That smell is still one of my favorite. It almost is enough to make me want to try camping again. Almost.

One of those other triggers is music. Back in the mid-80’s, I was working as a driver education instructor for Central Texas College over in Germany. I taught GIs how to pass the German written driving exam. I was always traveling to a distant Army base each week. One week I was driving back and forth to Stuttgart each day. It was about 100 miles each way, but in Germany, where there was no speed limit on the autobahn, the trip took less than an hour. As that week started, I had a new tape by Steve Perry (of Journey) called Street Talk. Lots of good songs on that album. I played it over and over during that week. To this day when I hear Foolish Heart, I can smell the leather in my ’77 BMW 633CSi that was my transportation back then. That was a very good time in my life and it seems the good memories are the strongest and most enduring. Just like camping when we were kids.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Bermuda – Beautiful island. 

  Air travel – Still sucks.

  Formula One – Start of a new season. No traction control should make for some interesting racing this year.

  Head colds – Probably caught this one on the flight down to Bermuda. Airplanes are just giant Petri dishes anyway.

 Springtime – Here at last. I hope it stays mild for a bit before getting into the really hot weather.

We’re heading to Bermuda for the better part of a week in March. It’ll be nice to get away from this.