As you can see, I seemed to have figured out how to post pictures on the blog. What you are looking at is half of a two gun battery on the north side of the San Francisco Bay entrance. The golden gate is off to the left side of the picture but you can’t see it in this shot.

The two gun battery was put into commission in 1905 and was capable of firing an 1,100 pound 12 inch shell eight miles. While only one gun pit is shown, each gun sat in the bottom of their pit and were chained to the steel rings in the wall. The semicircle of steps allowed the gun to be serviced throughout it’s 180 degree turning radius.

When the guns were loaded and ready to fire, they were raised up over the wall. After firing, the guns were lowered back down to be reloaded. Lowering the guns below the wall protected the soldiers from enemy fire. Underneath the gun pits were the magazines and quarters for the staff.

In 1943, the guns were decommissioned and sold for scrap.

One of the folksy aspects of our local paper, the Lowell Ledger, are stories from the past.  Every week they run little clips from 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 75 years ago and 100 years ago.  Recently, one of those clips caught my eye.  It was from January 1907.  Apparently, the weather was so warm that winter that people were enjoying fresh produce from their gardens.  This made me stop and ponder the whole global warming issue.

I can remember a January in 70s that was so warm, I played a round of golf in my short sleeved shirt.  And I drove to the golf course with the top down on my convertible.  And I can remember other Januaries when it was so cold that wild animals were freezing.  This winter has been relatively mild with temperatures hoovering in the mid thirties.  Yet, three years ago, the temperature stayed close to zero most of the winter.  Is it really global warming or just cycles in the weather?

When we first moved into our present house, I got a call from the Grand Rapids Press. They offered us a special introductory rate for a two month trial supscription. Since we had never subscribed to the paper, we thought that we would give it a shot. A few days later, we received an invoice which we promptly paid. Shortly after that, a little white plastic box was placed on our mail box post and voila, the paper appeared.

In the past, we had only read the Sunday paper and we bought that at the local gas station. It was really quite a simple system. I would drive to the gas station, which was only a couple of blocks away, pick up the paper, pay for it and then leave. No fuss, no muss. So, having the paper delivered was a new experience.

For the first week, there was some confusion as to whether the motor carrier or the foot soldier would deliver the paper. So, some days we got two papers.

After our trial subscription ran out, we opted for only getting the Sunday paper as that really was the only day that we could sit and read the paper. Getting the daily paper continued for a few days but then things settled down.

We were very pleased with the delivery system. Our carrier would send us an invoice on the 1st of the month and expect payment by the 15th. No problem. Our payment would supply us with the Sunday paper for the entire month. And every Sunday I would make my 8AM trip to the little white press box and retrieve the paper. But then, my carrier changed. I guess he went off to college or something. So, I got a new carrier.

The new carrier was not so dependable. One morning, I walked out to get the paper only to find an empty little white box. Confused and disappointed, I wandered back to the house. What to do? I remembered that there was a number to call if you didn’t get your paper.

When I dialed the main press number, I was told to press “4″ for missing papers. Great! I made my selection and got a recording asking for my name and address and reassuring me that I would get a paper delivered that day. Yes! But as the morning passed, I was still paperless so I made the trip to the gas station and purchased a paper.

Finally, at 8PM, I heard a rattle at the front door. Upon opening the door, a newspaper fell on my feet and I could see taillights going down the driveway. My paper had arrived as promised but I found the late delivery time to be totally unacceptable. So much for calling the special number.

After missing on an average of one paper a month, I concluded that it was just not economical to continue with the home delivery service. So, I declined further payments and took down my little white press box. And, while making the weekly trip to the gas station was a bit of a bother, at least I didn’t suffer the disappointment of not having a paper.

A few years passed and I got a phone call from some sweet young woman at the press asking me to subscribe to the paper. Forgetting the frustration that I had in the past and taken in by her promises of a new and improved system, I said yes. A few days later, the invoice arrived followed by a new little white press box, on its own little metal post, and the weekly delivery of the Sunday paper.

All was well with this new carrier. The invoice came on the 1st, payment due on the 15th. And the paper made its way into the little white press box each and every Sunday. But then, we got a new carrier.

The new carrier had ridged demands. Invoice on the 1st and payment on the 5th. The 5th!! This was not good. And we soon found out the she was serious. There was no grace period. If she did not receive our payment by the 5th, we would not get our paper that Sunday. Nazi!

We soon found that the system was totally unacceptable and canceled. The carrier, in turn, put a big round red sticky on our little white press box, presumable to insure that she would not deliver a paper to us by mistake. That annoyed me, so I though that I would help her out. I ripped the box off of the post and placed the box over the post so that the post occupied the space that normally contained the paper. I figured if nothing else, the wind might rotate the box and disturb the moles in the yard.

Many years past and despite the biyearly calls from the press, I tersely declined. But, then on that fateful day, I received assurances of an even better and improved system. I would pay quarterly and my payments would be sent directly to the press, thus eliminating payment problems with the carriers. And so, like Charlie Brown and the football, I fell for it again and said yes. And once again, the little white press box appeared on its little metal post, followed by the weekly papers.

The papers appeared weekly for about two years. Every quarter, we would get an invoice, which we paid, and every week the paper appeared in the little white box. I said to my self, I think they now have a working system. But then, one October, we made our quarterly payment on time but did not receive the paper for the entire months of November and December.

After the first missed paper in November, I had resigned myself to the fact that the system still had flaws and would continue to have flaws as long as they relied on people to actually deposit the paper in the little white box. Life is too short and the gas station is only a couple of blocks away. Oh well.

When the January renewal notice came, I stuck it in the paper shredder. Paper shredders can be somewhat gratifying on occasions like this. But then, as if noting my disgruntled attitude, the paper started arriving again. Not only did it arrive on Sunday, it also arrived on Saturday!

Thinking that this must be some sort of promotion, I was skeptical. But the paper arrived every Saturday and Sunday for the months of January and February. Of course, every two weeks I would get a renewal notice from the press and every two weeks I would shred it.

Then one day, I got a phone call from the press telling me that I was late on my renewal. I informed them that I was not going to renew and told them about my crappy service. She asked me why I did not notify them of the cancellation. I told her that non payment should be notice enough. After all, that is the way that my magazine subscriptions work.

After a few minutes of conversation, the woman concluded that while I had received the months of January and February for free, I had not received the papers for November and December, which I had paid for. She removed the past due notice from my account and we ended the conversation. Case closed.

The carrier, in an effort to make sure that he didn’t deliver a paper by mistake, put duct tape over the opening of the little white box. I found this to be a totally uncreative solution and decided to help the poor man out.

After removing the duct tape, I took a black marker and drew two large eyes on the side of the little white box. I then went to a novelty store and purchased a fake hand and arm which I hung from the opening of the box. I doubt that he will ever deliver a paper by mistake and when the neighbors ask about the box, I will tell them the story of the crappy service from the Grand Rapids Press. Come spring, I will turn the little white box into an annoyance for the moles again.

Today was another shopping challenge at Meijer’s (regional grocery chain). My quest was to acquire frozen pearl onions. While I usually use fresh pearl onions, the recipe I had suggested frozen so I thought that I would give it a shot.

Certainly frozen pearl onions would be a common commodity in any freezer case of any grocery store. After all, it’s not as if I am looking for frozen Okra. So I started at one end of the freezer case and began scanning for my prize.

Frozen spinach. Doesn’t sound appetizing. Peas and carrots. Too Gumpish. Broccoli and cauliflora. Crusading crucifers! Ah, frozen pearl onions! No wait. Pearl onions and baby peas. The picture on the package seems to indicate that the peas are the main ingredient and the pearl onions are for garnish. Bah!

I am now nearing the end of the freezer case and still no frozen pearl onions. But wait. What’s this? Frozen Okra? Tell me it ain’t so! There must be a cubic yard of frozen Okra in that case! I wonder if they ever sell any?

I re-scan of the freeze case only this time I work backwards. Perhaps I was distracted and missed them the first time. Moments later, I come to the conclusion that I am either going to have to use fresh pearl onions or find a recipe that uses frozen Okra. Sigh. Fred (Fred Meijer) what am I going to do with you?

Lansing is a place that basically has two types of sit down restaurants; national chains that serve drinks and bars that serve food. This morning, as I drove past a bar that serves food, I noticed their marquee. “Live tonight the Harvestmen. No cover.”

I had to wonder just what are the Harvestmen? I suppose they are some sort of music group but I don’t know. And if they are a music group, just what kind of music do they do? With a name like that, I can’t image them as a rock, blues or rap group. Or if they are, they need to change their name. The Harvestmen sounds more like a name for a barber shop quartet.  Oh well, I guess I will never know.

We now have a spell checker on the blog.  Or, at least, it appears that we have a spell checker on the blog.  Ok, ok, I’ll admit it; I have no idea how we got a spell checker on the blog.  But, apparently, sometime this week, the blog started spell checking.  Now, every time I make a spelling mistake, a squiggly red line appears under the word.  Isn’t technology wonderful!

When I first set up the blog, I noted that a spell checker would be nice, not only for me but also for others who post on the blog.  So, I went out to the Word Press (free blog program) web site to look for a spell checker.  The Word Press people did not have a spell checker but they did list several sites that offered free spell checkers for Word Press.

Following the Word Press directions, I down loaded the program to my PC.  From there I uploaded the program to the Word Press plug-in folder.  I then went to the plug-in tab on my blog so that I could activate the program.  But, when I opened the plug-in tab on my blog, the spell check plug-in was not there.  Hum.

I rechecked the directions and made sure that it was in the right folder, but the spell checker still didn’t work.  Noting that life is too short and that I can always paste to the blog from my PC which has a spell checker, I declared the spell checker to be an issue for a cold Saturday this winter.  But, now the spell checker works!

I know I should be happy but I am not.  Am I a chronic malcontent?  Perhaps.  But more to the point, there is a new version of Word Press that has just been released.  However, in order to upgrade, you have to disable all of your active plug-ins, including spell checker.  But since I never figured out how to enable spell checker in the first place, I certainly don’t have the slightest idea as to how to disable it so that I can upgrade.  Bah!

One of the things that state government does really well is make org charts.  And if my department is indicative of the rest of the state, I would say that there are those in state government who have dedicated half of their careers to creating org charts.

A new official org chart came out the other day and like all of the previous official org charts, the staff looked over the org chart and tried to determine what was different from the old org chart.  Official org charts tend to be more of an exercise in Power Point than an actual useful document.  Just because the official org chart shows you reporting to someone, that doesn’t mean that you actually report to that person.

For example, on the official org chart, I report directly to the Director.  In reality, I report to one of the managers who reports to the Director.  And the manager, on occasion, assigns me to a subordinate.  In short, the official org chart does not represent reality.

So, you might ask, “Why not put out an org chart that represents reality?”  Well, we also have an org chart that represents reality.  It is called the unofficial org chart.  The official org chart is what we present to Civil Service.  The unofficial org chart is how we operate.

The main problem is with Civil Service.  Civil Service has their own rules and regulations for job classifications and organizational structures.  According to Civil Service, my job classification is at too high of a level to report to a manager.  Therefore, I  report to the Director.  However, the Director does not know what I do and doesn’t really want to know what I do.  So, on the official org chart I report to him and on the unofficial org chart I report to a manager.

On the official org chart, a subordinate may report to his manager.  On the unofficial org chart, the manager may report to his subordinate.  If all of this has you confused, try working here.

So what good are org charts?  I will tell you.  I few months back I read an article which claimed that you should never eat lunch on your office desk because it is full of germs.   Well, since I spend my lunch hour blogging, I need to eat lunch on my desk.  So, in order to combat germs, I have found that org charts make dandy placemats.  😉

On the corner of a busy intersection in Lansing, stands a small white cross. The cross itself has a name inscribed on it in small black letters. And on the ground around the cross are several bouquets of artificial flowers. Every day, I pass this spot on my way to work in the morning. And I was there right after it happened.

A minivan had entered the intersection on a green light but got broadsided on the drivers side by someone running a red light. The impact was so forceful that it rolled the minivan over onto the very spot where the cross resides. The driver was dead at the scene.

People in Lansing have the habit of running red lights. Instead of coming to a stop when the light turns yellow, they floor it in a effort to get to the other side. Sometimes they make it through on the yellow, sometimes they make it through on the red but sometimes the light turns red before they even enter the intersection. And they are further encouraged by the fact that most signals now days have a two second delayed green, giving them a little extra time to get through the intersection.

Now, these light runners are hedging on the fact that even if the light turns red, they will still have enough time to get through the intersection. Why? Because the cross traffic is at a dead stop and it will take it a few seconds to get started; at least long enough for the light runners to clear the intersection. But in order for this to work, all cross traffic has to be at a dead stop. Unfortunately, on that day, that was not the case.

Two of the three lanes were full of stopped traffic that morning. They were all going to proceed through the intersection and make left turns in the two left turn lanes of the next intersection. The third lane was empty. The light runner had anticipated that all cross traffic would be stopped, allowing him that extra few seconds to clear the intersection. This was not the case.

The empty third lane was great for the minivan driver as he was headed for the gas station just beyond the second intersection. As he approached the intersection, the light turned green and he proceeded thought without having to slow down. A moment later, he was dead.

Thirty years ago, a friend of mine was killed in Lansing under similar circumstances. He was only 19.

When you drive in Lansing, do not assume that you have the right of way just because the light is green. You have to look before proceeding because people in Lansing regularly run red lights.

As I have said in the past, I have a love/hate relationship with Meijer’s ( regional grocery chain). I love their selection and the fact that they are close, about 3 miles away. But, I really hate the fact that there is no consistency in their inventory. Just because they have an item on the shelf today doesn’t mean that they won’t be out of stock next week. So in short, you can’t depend on them to have what you need when you need it.

Their slogan is “a single store, a million reasons.” I think that they should change it to “a single store, a million excuses.” Or perhaps they should change their “just in time” delivery system to “better late than never”.

But I do have to give our local Meijer’s store credit, they have never run out of fresh artichokes. Asparagus, green beans and even romaine disappear from time to time but I can always count on finding fresh artichokes.

Of course, I do wonder just how many artichokes they sell particularly here in Lowell. Lowell is just not the type of community to eat a lot of artichokes. I have purchase artichokes from time to time hoping that a new recipe that I found might yield a tasty artichoke. So far, no.

But even the checkout people are not that familiar with artichokes. Invariably they will grab them like they are grabbing a potato only to discover that those leaves have sharp barbs.

I think that artichokes and eggplant fall into the same category; if you put enough other stuff with them, they are quite tasty.

Kathy and I had been looking at replacing our refrigerator. The old one was having problems and it was not large enough to meet our needs. We had looked around for several months and had pretty much decided on a particular brand and model of side by side with the water and ice dispenser in the door.

One day, I was in Best Buys when I spotted the very frig that we had in mind on sale for 20 % off. Excited about this, I asked the clerk about the frig. He told me that there was only one for sale at that price. When I asked why, he said that it was an out of box. He went on to explain that the frig had been delivered, un-boxed and then returned, probably because it didn’t fit.

I knew that it would fit in out spot because I had already measured for that size frig. So I called Kathy and asked for her opinion on the purchase. She gave me the green light and I said yes to the sales person.

We processed all of the paper work and I handed the clerk my Discover card. He proceeded to run in through the machine. A moment later, he announced that the card was invalid. How could that be? I never carry a balance on Discover because of the high interest rates but I do enjoy getting those cash back awards. Disappointed, I handed him my Visa card.

When I returned home, there was a message on the answering machine from Discover Security asking me to call an 800 number right away. When I called, they first asked me for my card number and I gave it to them. They then told me that the card had been rejected for security reason when I tried to use it at Best Buys. Then they asked for my SS# and my address for further verification and I also gave that to them. They then told me that they were going to issue me a new card with a different account number and that I should be receiving it in the mail in the next three days.

Well, this whole thing made me very uncomfortable. Were it not for the fact that they knew my telephone number and where I was shopping, I would have put the whole thing in the category of phishing.

I can appreciate Discovers concern for making sure I am who I am, but how do I know that I am really talking to Discover? After all, I had to give them my card number, my address and my SS#. But what did they give me? Only an 800 number, my phone number and the knowledge of my last purchase attempt.

I did receive a new card in three days, as promised, but I still wonder if the whole thing was really on the up and up. It has been a couple of years and I haven’t had any problems yet so we’ll see.