We sadly had to euthanize Isabella, our pet kitty for the last 10 years, this morning...

Early in July, she was diagnosed with renal failure. She declined steadily throughout the month. Here are a couple of nice snapshots from the last few hours she was among us:



Goodbye kitty!!!

Although it was blazing hot today...

I felt like knocking out several miles on some of the trails up on Monte Sano Mountain. It's nice and quiet and secluded and shady. It's also a good way to work up a little sweat and free up your mind for thought...

I've already put up a link elsewhere for the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL), but it's a fairly valuable resource, so I'll put it up here as well. The old (current) site requires a card for home access. The beta site uses IP geolocation, so if your IP resolves to Alabama, you don't even need a card. Pretty cool!

One thing I just recently discovered (from AVL) is the Encyclopedia of Alabama. I've only given the site the most cursory glance, but it looks like it might have promise. Plus, there's always the Alabama portal on Wikipedia...

On this July 4th, let me wish everyone...

Just figured that I'd say....

Happy Father's Day!!!

This made the rounds a while ago (in some circles at least)....

But I am still highly impressed each time I see/hear it:

One of the Wikimedia Foundation's projects is Wikimedia Commons...

The site has a lot of cool media that can be used for various purposes. One nifty page linked from the site shows the latest files and updates in real time (http://toolserver.org/%7Epara/Commons:Special:NewFiles):

Fun 18 miles...

View 5-23-10 ride in a larger map

To all you moms out there...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Nice day for one of the Land Trust trails...

 

http://landtrust-hsv.org/

Followed, of course, by a 30 minute hacky session...

It was such a beautiful day!!!

A little run on 4-21-10...

Unfortunately, I got about halfway through my original planned route and discovered that a local bridge was out. I ended up doubling back and adding about 1-1/2 miles to what I was initially going to run....

 

An absolutely delicious day for a run...

Granted, it might have gone a little bit quicker if I hadn't waited until the peak heat of the day (not that much quicker), but that's what happens when one is getting ready for more night shifts. 7 miles. It was a beautiful day....

From Blogger Pictures

What do you get.....

when you combine this:

From 4-6-10

with this?

From 4-6-10

A GREAT day to be outside!!!

Another absolutely "gawgeous" day....

Much of it spent asleep!

However, I woke up in sufficient time to run for 20 minutes and then soak up some rays/bebop to some of the crazy tunes I listen to whilst kickin' the olde sack in the street. I would've stayed outside for another hour if I didn't have to head into work.

I hope that anyone who might be local had a chance to enjoy the sweet day today. Some of the weekend won't be as nice....

Peace, y'all!!!

Hey!!!!!!

Spring forward tonight!!!

Hybrid DJ mix via soundcloud.com

What an absolutely delicious day!!!!

The only bummer was that I slept for much of it. I did have a nice chance to soak up some rays for about 45 minutes while hackin' the sack and crankin' up the tunes in my driveway. Don't do what I do kiddies, because I actually play in the road. Fortunately, it's a quiet cul-de-sac...

And now?

Off to work! Y'all have a great night!!!

Back in the day (OK, it's only been between 10-12 years)....

I saw this amazing electronic band named Hybrid as a supporting act with Moby. I hadn't thought much about them in a while, but I receive a Facebook feed from them. Their latest opus:

Break My Soul from Disappear Here

Hybrid - Break My Soul (Music Video) from Hybrid on Vimeo.

What a beautiful day!!!

In preparation for my upcoming time on night shift, I slept in fairly late. After getting up (and finishing the mandatory first mug of coffee), I decided to go out and take advantage of the 60 degree weather and sunny day. I ended up running for 7 miles. I would have considered a longer run, but I had other business to attend to this evening. Here's another link with info about the Richard Martin Trail:

http://www.traillink.com/ViewTrail.aspx?AcctID=6031682

Yesterday was nearly as nice, but I didn't have as much time to hang around outdoors. After two miles on my treadmill, I went to the funeral of one of the UAH professors. Dr. Davis' husband is a co-worker of mine. The service was quite touching and hopefully eased some of the pain that her family and friends are feeling.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/post_215.html

Not really a lot going on of great importance this weekend (other than the aforementioned things). Hopefully, the weekend will end up just as nice as the rest of it has been.

BTW, for those of you who are so inclined, check out the first installment of my father's memoir. I've checked out the preview and I'm sure the rest of the story will be quite interesting...
Peace, y'all!

in reference to:

"Rails to Trails"
- Limestone County Parks and Recreation (view on Google Sidewiki)

Olympic medal count via vancouver2010.com...

Seeing that I work at Browns Ferry....

A friend from the Navy working at another nuclear utility was interested in info regarding the Browns Ferry fire of 1975. While doing some research into TVA info (photos, reports, etc.), I found the additional two items (external to TVA) somewhat interesting:

Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant fire : hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United States, Ninety-fourth Congress, first session, September 16, 1975. (1201 pages)

The Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Fire [Technology Report 77-2] (48 pages)