Money on the Road

Money Along Atlanta highway
From The New York Times

Money was just laying there along the side of a road near Atlanta yesterday according to a report I saw on the news last night and read about in The New York Times this morning. 

The article in the Times was titled, An Armored Truck Spilled Thousands of Dollars on an Atlanta Highway. What Would You Do?


According to the reporting, about $175,000 fell along I-285, the beltway encircling Atlanta from the back of an armored truck. Drivers stopped and scooped up money and fast as they could, BUT, it is actually theft to keep any money retrieved from along the roadway and the windfall should be returned.

While the skies may have been raining $50 bills, it was not a windfall for those who gathered them from the roadway. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Mid-Season Break

Baseball is taking a time-out for the All Star game which was again won by the American League!

Bottom Five Teams in Baseball
July 10, 2019

The Orioles are the worst team in baseball. They were the first team to amass over 60 losses and are on track to lose 113 games. The Orioles are 31.5 games out of first place in their division and 23.5 games out of the Wild Card spot in the league. With some luck, perhaps the Orioles can improve and become the 29th best team in all of baseball!

No Orioles player actually played in the All Star game on Tuesday night--the only Orioles player, John Means a starting pitcher, was held in reserve. 

Well, now that the mid-season break is over, we can resume watching the wheels come of the Orioles. Maybe I will go to a game later in the season. I have attended only one game thus far--and it, predictably, was a loss. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

The Fledgling

Fledgling Cardinal on the Pool Fence
Elkridge, MD
July 8, 2019

After another long day at work, Chris and I decided to relax in the pool last evening. Shortly after we began to chat and float in the pool, I noticed a female Cardinal frantically flying around the fence near the pool. I remarked that the bird seemed stressed about something, and then I noticed something moving in the grasses along the pool--yes, it was a fledgling. The cardinal was protecting and caring for the chick which was attempting to fly, walk, and untangle itself from the grasses. 

The male cardinal also appeared and both birds cared for the fledgling by periodically feeding it and trying to get it to imitate their flight patterns. The small bird, for its part, did attempt short flights and made good progress, It rested on the fence for a long time before jumping/flying down and shuffling off into the wooded area. 

All-in-all the entire event took about an hour and we were transfixed watching the small cardinal begin the process of caring for itself and learning to fly. 

Oh the things we can see if we just take the time to watch.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - July 8, 2019

1. It is the second Monday in July and the month is already beginning to speed towards its conclusion. 

2. In an amazing stretch of baseball, the Orioles have improved their record to 27-62 .303 and have lowered their anticipated losses to 113 for the season.

Finnegan
June 7, 2019

3. Hanging out in the pool for the afternoon is one of the best ways to enjoy a hot, July afternoon.

4. Finnegan knows how to relax on a hot afternoon by sleeping on his back on a cushion by the pool.

5. Congratulations to the Women's National Soccer Team for bringing home Gold! As a side note, the men failed to defeat Mexico for their gold medal.

6. Rain. Everyday there has been rain! 

7. Quandary:  There is a nail in the tire of my truck. My tire is not losing air. Do I remove the nail and potentially cause a leak or do I leave it in the tire until it becomes a problem?

8. Today in History. On this day in 1951, Paris, the capital city of France, celebrates turning 2,000 years old. In fact, a few more candles would’ve technically been required on the birthday cake, as the City of Lights was most likely founded around 250 B.C. The history of Paris can be traced back to a Gallic tribe known as the Parisii, who sometime around 250 B.C. settled an island (known today as Ile de la Cite) in the Seine River, which runs through present-day Paris. By 52 B.C., Julius Caesar and the Romans had taken over the area, which eventually became Christianized and known as Lutetia, Latin for “midwater dwelling.” The settlement later spread to both the left and right banks of the Seine and the name Lutetia was replaced with “Paris.” In 987 A.D., Paris became the capital of France. As the city grew, the Left Bank earned a reputation as the intellectual district while the Right Bank became known for business.



Headlines

Iran Announces New Breach of Nuclear Deal Limits and Threatens Further Violations - The New York Times

Florida, the Sunshine State, Is Slow to Adopt Rooftop Solar Power - The New York Times

Greek Conservatives take charge in landslide win, vow more investment, fewer taxes - Reuters

Hong Kong protesters march again, reaching out to Chinese visitors - Reuters



Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week


Call it mysticism if you will, I have always believed there was some divine providence that placed this great land here between the two great oceans, to be found by a special kind of people from every corner of the world, who had a special love for freedom and a special courage that enabled them to leave their own land, leave their friends and their countrymen, and come to this new and strange land to build a New World of peace and freedom and hope. Lincoln spoke about hope as he left the hometown he would never see again to take up the duties of the Presidency and bring America through a terrible Civil War. At each stop on his long train ride to Washington, the news grew worse: The Nation was dividing; his own life was in peril. On he pushed, undaunted. In Philadelphia he spoke in Independence Hall, where 85 years earlier the Declaration of Independence had been signed. He noted that much more had been achieved there than just independence from Great Britain. It was, he said, ``hope to the world, future for all time.''
--Remarks at the Opening Ceremonies of the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in New York, New York, July 3, 1986

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Just add sand, water, and palm trees

Getting ready for upcoming vacations can sometimes be a full-time job. 

Ethan in the Pool
Elkridge, MD
July 6. 2019

Yesterday, Chris and I took Ethan out to acquire a well fitting mask and snorkel for his upcoming vacation. He went with us on our cruise last summer and could not find a correctly fitting mast and that really was a problem during our snorkeling adventures. So, Chris made the promise to get him correctly fitting equipment for his vacation this year.

And we made good on the promise! After he was correctly fitted as the local dive shop, he bought the equipment home to try it out. 

The equipment worked and he looked like a creature rising from the blue lagoon as he checked it out.

Ethan is ready for a snorkeling adventure on a far away Caribbean island--just add sand, water, and palm trees!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Waiting at the Door

Finnegan, Makayla, and Chewbacca Waiting
Elkridge, MD
July 4, 2019 

Dogs wait patiently. No matter when I go outside or for what reason, it seems that my dogs are always waiting to welcome my return. 

This weekend we have a third dog, we are watching Chewbacca for Patrick and Tina. This image was taken on Independence Day just after 10 PM after the fireworks had stopped and as I was cleaning the yard and preparing to go to bed. The three of them waited patiently for my return. Perhaps they knew that it was bedtime?

It had been a long day for the three of them. There were five other dogs that celebrated Independence Day with them. Now as the day is ending it was just the three of them and me and Chris. 

Dogs are an essential part of life, in my opinion. They are always there and at the end of a hard day I have to admit, I appreciate the enthusiastic greeting that they provide to me when I arrive home. 

And, they wait at the door. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Whose America is This?

This will likely be unpopular, but I'm going to come right out and say it--I am appalled at the conditions in the concentration camps being run by the U.S. government along the southern border. 

Image from The Atlantic Monthly article

I chose my words carefully. The camps where the immigrants are begin held are nothing short of concentration camps and that insensitive statement that the conditions there are better than where they came from not only is untrue but also attempts to rationalize that we have deprived them of their freedoms and are not providing them with the basic necessities of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that is the bedrock of our America!

After spending time in these camps, how can we expect these people to have a positive image of the United States? 

An article in The Atlantic Monthly: A Crime by Any Name, spells out the conditions and make a poignant reference. From the article:

Detainees described overcrowding so severe that “it was difficult to move in any direction without jostling and being jostled.” The water provided them was foul, “of a dark color, and an ordinary glass would collect a thick sediment.” The “authorities never removed any filth.” A detainee wrote that the “only shelter from the sun and rain and night dews, was what we could make by stretching over us our coats or scraps of blanket.” As for the food, “Our ration was in quality a starving one, it being either too foul to be touched or too raw to be digested.”

Such were the conditions of the Confederate prisoner-of-war camp at Andersonville, Georgia, where, as the historian James McPherson wrote, 13,000 of the 45,000 men imprisoned “died of disease, exposure, or malnutrition.” The images of the captive, emaciated Union troops are shocking, evoking a form of suffering 21st-century viewers will likely associate with the Holocaust. The images so traumatized the Northern public that after the war, the warden of the prison, Henry Wirz, became one of the only people tried for war crimes. The Swiss-born Wirz was an easy scapegoat for Northern anger, which spared most of the former Confederacy’s military and political leadership.

We can try to turn our backs on the situation and we can try to call the detainees criminals--but convicted felons in U.S. prisons do not live in these conditions.

There is a crisis on the border--it is a crisis of our own doing and now we have to deal with it. But calling it a crisis strips the humanity out of the equation. This is not My America! My America does not have concentration camps where people are caged like so many animals and where children are stripped away from their parents. 

It is time to stop the abuse and fix the problem--and a border wall is not the answer.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Happy 4th

Happy Independence Day!

Along Maryland Route 100
Sunrise
July 4, 2019

It is the 4th of July and we are celebrating the birth of the greatest nation on Earth. I went out and played racquetball early this morning and caught the sunrise along the road. 

As the day dawned I remembered the many 4th's that I have experienced and even been apart form my family in service to this nation. I also remembered two years ago when I was on a cruise during the holiday--and I really enjoyed the celebration. 

Whatever you do today, take time to celebrate and make a promise to make the future better than the past.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Before the Storm

The Pool after the Initial Winds
Elkridge, MD
July 2, 2019

Thunderstorms ravaged the area last evening. Chris and I spent time on our covered deck watching the torrents of rain fall from the wind lashed sky. 

As the winds whipped up, I was discouraged by the numbers of leaves that fell into my pool from the trees. All of the leaves and debris needed to be removed and during a break in the action, I cleared the pool in preparation for additional and later storms during the evening. All-in-all, the storms did not trash the pool in the manner that the could have, but still it seemed that every loose leaf found it way into the pool or onto the pool deck. 

Finally, however, the rains came and the thunder and lightening began in earnest. Chris and I sat on the covered porch with the dogs and one cat and watched the storm. It was impressive to see the sheets of rain falling from the sky. 

I was actually happy for the rain as the ground was getting dry and the soaking will make the fireworks on the 4th of July safer. Our neighborhood lights up on on Independence Day!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Golf Monday

8th Tee Box Looking to the Flag
Carroll Park Golf Course
Baltimore, MD
July 1, 2019

Chris and I did something different last evening to mark the start of July. We took advantage of the great weather and played a 9-hole round of golf. Together!

Chris Working with her Driver
Carroll Park Golf Course
July 1, 2019

Yesterday was supposed to be the best day of the week, weather-wise. It was to be the coolest, in the high 80's, and no rain. And it was!

We had a good time together and we enjoyed playing with two other golfers in what turned out to be an overly extended round due to the slow pace of play by groups in front of us. 

Chris was hitting the ball with more authority and I had a very successful round, except for one pesky hole. We were using the round as a tune-up for the upcoming Troy Whittemore Classic which we will be playing in during the latter part of July. We will need a few more "tune-up" before the tournament. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD