Monday, January 19, 2009

Having your Birthday on Inauguration Day...

It is a curious thing to have my birthday on Inauguration Day. I have had some great ones. On the day I turned 12, Iran released 52 US hostages who had been held for 444 days. That was a great day. President Reagan had spent the time leading up to Inauguration Day threatening Iran with all the force of the United States military. Carter said he brokered the deal the night of the 19th, but history shows they were afraid of Reagan, and rightly so.

So on my 40th birthday, Obama will be sworn in as our next president. I think his nomination was a con played on America's fears. But without a conservative on the ballot, he won, with 20 states. I don't know how much damage a president can do; I'm much more concerned with a liberal congress. But I do wonder if Iran doesn't see him like they saw Carter. In an attempt to be well-liked, you wind up looking weak.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Stanwood Fights the Flood










The geography of the city is such that if the Stillaguamish River crests 532, the city will fill like a goldfish bowl. So major efforts were made to sandbag certain areas to prevent a catastrophe. With an abnormal amount of snowfall, followed by a Hawaiian Express (warm air and rain), we quickly ran into huge amounts of water. The river overflowed it's banks and flooding began on the south side of town. We were protecting the city on the north side. Here is what we saw enroute to town to fill sandbags.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

An Early Anniversary Present

As our 20th Anniversary arrives on the day the digital television revolution does, we get TV reminders daily that there are only so many days until February 17th. Well, to stave off the pressure, we went and bought ourselves a new bed to replace the 19-year-old one. Here are the children saying goodbye to the old one.