The Two Faced.

I was reading an article on Netscape about a roller coaster in Maryland that got stuck. It was the Two Faced roller coaster at 6 flags.

The Two Faced is a metal roller coaster that has the passengers suspended below the track in a seat with their legs dangling. What makes the Two Faced interesting is that seats allow two sets of riders; one set facing forward and one set facing backwards.

This forward, backward thing seems to be quite populars these days. Kings Island, a Cincinnati amusement park, had two different roller coasters that allowed for riding backwards.

I guess it took over an hour to get the passengers off of it. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very high coaster.

While I really like roller coasters, I don’t think that I could walk down from one if it got stuck.  Thankfully, I have never been faced with that problem.

The Ballgame

The office where Kathy works, recently had a company outing. It was an evening at a White Caps game.

For those of you who are not familiar with the area, the White Caps is the name of a minor league base ball team in Grand Rapids. And as with most ball parks, the White Caps organization played games with the fans between innings.

One of the games that they played was their own version of the Price is Right. They brought a representative from the company down onto the field where he had to guess the price of a roll of paper towel. He guessed correctly and they gave him the roll of paper towels.

Then, before we realized what was happening, attendants from the ball park appeared in our section of the stands with cases of paper towels. They then started handing them out to everyone in our section.

There must have been hundreds of them. They kept bring them case after case. Soon, we were tossing rolls of paper towels like they were Nerf footballs. Eventually, we came home with three rolls but could of had more.

Maybe the next time that we go, we’ll have to guess the price of a 6 pack of beer! 😉

The hair brush.

When I was in the grocery store the other day, I decided to buy another hair brush. I already have a hair brush but I thought it would be nice to have a second one to use in the shower with my hair conditioner.

To my surprise, they don’t make hair brushes any more. Instead, they make styling brushes and curling wands. Of course, I haven’t purchases a hair brush in 30 years so I guess things have changed.

Unlike my old hair brush, the styling brushes have sparse course bristles with special holes in the brush for use with a blow dryer. And I am sure that it works well for styling but I wanted a plain old hair brush.

The curling wand had more bristles that the styling brush but the bristles went all the way around the brush. While, it would probably work, I was concerned that my hair might get caught in it so I passed on that too.

I finally found a boars hair brush. Now, I don’t know if a boars hair brush is made with real boars hair or if that is just a style.

The package claimed that the boars hair brush would make my hair shiny.  Now, shiny hair has never been a concern of mine in the past. In fact, I had never considered shiny hair as an option. So, do I or don’t I want shiny hair? I don’t know.

The pressure of the options is to much so I decide to leave. Maybe I can find a plain old hair brush at Rite Aid.

I-496

I-496 is the Lansing business loop of the I-96 expressway which runs from Muskegon to Detroit. Most of the 8 mile length of I-496 is posted at 70 mph. But, for as long as I can remember, there has been a two mile section through downtown Lansing that is posted at 55 mph.

This two mile strip, posted at 55 mph, has been a goldmine for the city of Lansing. Lansing’s finest liked to park their cruisers just on the edge of the speed zone change where they would nab unsuspecting motorists.

Driving 70 mph in a 55 mph is 15 mph over the speed limit and that is an automatic court appearance. However, the Lansing PD is not interested in court appearances, they just want your money. So, out of the goodness of their hearts, they only write you up for 5 over the speed limit though they note the 15 over on the ticket so that you can’t fight it.

Driving 5 over the speed limit is a quick $110.00 and 1 point on your license. Thank you very much! And while I have not personally donated to the Lansing traffic fund, I know those who have.

Well, for some unexplained reason, the state changed the speed limit this summer. It is now 70 mph for the full length of I-496. So, the city can no longer grab motorist who either did not notice the speed change or who had not slowed down quickly enough. So much for their cash cow.

I wonder if they gave a speed ticket to the person in charge of the speeds on I-496?

Lose up to 30 pounds!

I saw an ad the other day for a weight loss program. The program will guarantee that you can loose up to 30 pound in 30 days or your money back.

Now, the first thing that strikes me is that it doesn’t guarantee that you will loose 30 pounds in 30 days. It only say that you could loose 30 pounds in 30 days.

And the ad doesn’t say that you will loose this weigh in the first 30 days, it only say in 30 days. Everyone assumes that it is the first 30 days but in reality, you may have to take this stuff for years before you see your thirty day results.

But more to the point, it doesn’t guarantee that you will loose any weight in 30 days! Therefore, your money back guarantee is worthless.

Montgomery Inn.

While visiting my daughter Rachel in Cincinnati at the upscale community of Montgomery, we ate supper one night at the Montgomery Inn.

The first thing that we noted about the Montgomery Inn was that there was limited parking. And when we couldn’t find a spot, we had to rely on the valet parking at the restaurant. It was only 3 dollars so it was well worth the money to avoid the hassle of finding a parking spot.

When ever I go to a restaurant with valet parking, I expect to find dim lights and cloth table clothes. But the restaurant itself was a sports bar of sorts. I found this to be rather odd as Montgomery was more of a yuppie community.

There specialty was ribs but I couldn’t find them listed on the menu. I found out later that the ribs were such a known commodity that everyone who eats there just orders them.

Oh well, I have never found anyone who makes ribs as good as I do.

4:15 AM!

The governor and the legislature in Michigan agreed to extend the existing budget by 30 days. The governor initially said that she would not agree to a budget extension. But apparently there was enough progress made so she agreed to the extension at 4:15 AM on Monday.

With out a budget, the state can not operate. Nor can it pay its workers so they are laid off until the budget is reached. So, technically, the state was closed for 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, those of us who stayed up late to see if the budget would get passed, went to bed thinking that we could sleep in. When we finally got the news, it was too late to get to work on time so most of us just stayed home.

Now, the state doesn’t think like normal people so the state has some pretty strange ideas. So when the state closed, so did all of the state parks and state rest areas.

Park rangers literally went to occupied camp sites and instructed the campers to leave immediately. I imagine that most of those campers will go camping in a different state the next time that they are on vacation. I know I would.

Likewise, they closed the rest areas because there would be no one to clean and restock the bathrooms. But, the WiFi at the rest areas still worked. I guess they figured that people could use the internet to locate a restroom.

But, now we have a budget extension so everything is opened again. However, if they don’t reach a budget agreement by the end of October, everything will be shut down again.

So, if you are traveling in Michigan around the end of October, you just might want to bring your own toilet paper just in case.

Playn in the band

Kathy and I are now playing in the band at Ada Bible Church. Ada Bible Church is a fast growing church whose membership has now grown from 4000 last year to 5000 this year.

The church does a lot with music, unlike our former church. For all of the venues, there are about 12 different bands. With the exception of Saturday night, each band plays for two Sunday services every other week. We play every other week.

Since we play for 2 services, there is down time between services. This is where the party is at.

The church has a main auditorium. Outside the main auditorium is a two story narthex. The two story narthex connects to the two educational wings; one to the right and one to the left. And connecting the two wings is an overhead bridge.

On this overhead bridge are tables and chairs. This is where the band hangs (including us) between services.

Being in the band gets us Beaner’s Coffee (like Starbucks) and muffins. Life is Good!!

Fallsburg Festival

Last Saturday, we went to the Fallsburg Festival. It was held at Fallsburg Park.

The Fallsburg Festival is a yearly fall event featuring art and music and food all held at the beautiful Fallsburg Park north of Lowell.

Fallsburg was a community on the Flat River featuring a saw mill and a grain mill. During the civil war, it also served as a prisoner of war camp. (Imagine those poor boys from Alabama spending a winter in Michigan. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.)

I say “was” as the only things left of Fallsburg are the one room school, the park, the covered bridge and the historical society. But the Fallsburg Festival does attract thousand of people for the three day event.

Fallsburg Park is a majestic park with rolling hills, trees, brooks, a river and the famous covered bridge. It is a place where many family photos have been shot. If is also the place where my daughter and son-in-law were married. It is a truly wonderful place!

Unlike Lake Odessa’s “art in the park” in the park at Lake Odessa, this event focuses on art and not crafts. There are about a hundred booths featuring art. Art includes jewelry, pottery, glass, tapestry, wood working, paintings, photos, leather and lawn ornaments. Did I miss anything?

Besides the art, there was also music. Bluegrass to be exact. Four and five piece bands consisting of a double bace, a banjo, a guitar, and a mandolin. Each band would play for about 45 minutes, then the next band would come on stage. So, every hour, there would be a new band on stage.

Some of the bands were good and some were not. I noted that they were having trouble mixing the bands. This is in part because they did not have anyone mixing the bands. Mics were live as is and it was up to the bands to mix themselves. Maybe next year, I will volunteer my time.

The smells of the food was fantastic; pulled pork, bratwurst, elephant ears, hot apple dumplings. The only thing that I got to sample was some popcorn that Kathy bought. Kathy would not let me eat anything else.

I am sure that the rest of the food was fantastic! It smelled so good. But hey, I’m a man and I can change if I have to I guess.

After three hours, we had seen everything and it was time to go home. After all, I had popcorn hulls in my teeth and needed a toothpick. Until next year!