Canada Trip Part 1
Posted August 3, 2010 – 9:34 pm in: JournalWe left for Canada (via automobile) at about 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 25, and crossed the Lewiston-Queenston bridge at 8:00 p.m. or so. It took over an hour to cross the bridge and get through customs, which seemed to be an abnormally long wait. After finally reaching Canadian soil, we drove a few kilometers (Canadian-speak) and found our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake. We checked into the Mi Casa Su Casa Bed & Breakfast 
at about 9 p.m. Our friends Isabel and Carlos Reyes, proprietors of the B & B, greeted us and made us feel at home as they have done each time we’ve stayed with them. Their home is spotlessly clean. They have only two guest rooms, each of which is equipped with an “en suite” bathroom. We have yet to share bathroom facilities with other guests in our many stays at beds and breakfasts, although some B & Bs have this arrangement. If sharing a bathroom with others is not for you, make sure you find out before you book reservations.
We started frequenting B & Bs about 10 years ago and have stayed in them whenever possible ever since. We have yet to find one that hasn’t beaten all the motels and hotels we’ve ever stayed in. They are very quiet, relaxing, and interesting places to visit and to sleep in. Besides having nice beds and owners who personally attend to your needs, they also provide good (and often excellent) breakfasts. It’s at the breakfast tables where you find the most interesting advantage of staying at B & Bs. Unless you happen to be the only guests on a particular day, you will find other travelers eating at the same table. You never know who you might end up having a conversation with. We’ve met many interesting people during our B & B stays. Most of the guests we’ve met are friendly and talkative, and enjoy sharing experiences with others. Not only are the guests interesting and entertaining, but many of the proprietors are worth the price of admission in their own right. It takes a certain philosophy and open-minded disposition to be able to manage a bed & breakfast, and for this reason the proprietors are often people who have experienced a great deal, have seen and done lots of things, and are not prone to levy judgment on others for their views or lifestyles.
We visit the Niagara region in Canada fairly often. We enjoy the quiet atmosphere, the many wineries and fruit farms, and the friendly nature of the Canadian people. We always visit the Falls while we’re there, even though we’ve seen them many times. The Falls are beautiful and breathtaking of course, but it’s almost as interesting to watch the people who visit there. You never run out of people to watch and wonder about. If you go, make sure you ride the Maid of the Mist. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget.
That handsome fellow in the photo is Trevor, our grandson. He was with us last year when we visited the Falls. You have to wear rain gear on the Maid of the Mist. It gets very wet when you’re a few meters from the bottom of the falls and the spray is coming at you from all directions.
We spent four nights in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and during our stay we visited a few wineries that we had not found in previous visits. One of them is the Sunnybrook Farm Estate Winery. Sunnybrook specializes in fruit wines. I don’t care for sweet wines and didn’t think I’d much care for the wine at Sunnybrook when we started the tasting process, but I was very much surprised when I found the wines very tasty and not the least bit cloying. They were light and very refreshing. The Sunnybrook folks make peach, pear, apple, and blueberry wines among others. We also bought several bottles of “Chocolate Embrace,” a blueberry wine infused with chocolate. This stuff is very good.
We also visited the Coyote’s Run Estate Winery. This place is noted for its two soil types, each a distinct color and composition. One soil variety is dated at 15,000 years and the other at 450 million years! That’s some old dirt.
Coyote’s Run has vineyards in both soil types, and the vineyards are differentiated as the Black Paw and the Red Paw due to the color of the soils. The grape wines they produce from each vineyard have distinct bouquets and tastes. Very interesting stuff.
We left the wineries with 12 bottles altogether, just enough to get through customs without having to pay duty fees.
We rented bicycles one day and rode down the Niagara River Trail. This trail follows the Niagara River and offers great scenic views of the river and the the U.S. (New York) side. Bikes can be rented for $20 for 3 hours or $30 per day. Those dollar figures are Canadian. These days, the exchange rate is almost even between US and Canadian funds. We used to benefit from an advantageous exchange rate. During at least one of our trips, 75 US cents was worth a Canadian dollar. Those days are gone, however, and there’s little economic advantage in visiting Canada or purchasing Canadian goods. In fact, we talked to several Canadian citizens who said that they travel to the US these days to make purchases.
Our visit to the Niagara area isn’t complete until we dine at the Queenston Heights Restaurant. If you follow this link, be sure to click on the photo of the restaurant interior and drag to the right or left. You get a panoramic view of the place. We found this restaurant one day when happened to spot the sign as we drove by. We stopped in for lunch, and went back that night for dinner. A few years ago, reservations were a necessity. These days, with the world economy still struggling and the number of US visitors greatly diminished because of the exchange rate, you can pop in just about any time unannounced. The food is always great and the service is excellent. Many of the employees have worked there for decades. We’ve become friends with several of the waitresses. They are efficient but entertaining.
Our original reason for visiting Niagara-on-the-Lake, however, was the Shaw Festival. This is an annual event lasting from April through October. There are four theaters in Niagara-on-the-Lake, with a total of ten plays staged between them this season. The festival is named for George Barnard Shaw, whose plays are presented regularly during the festival. Other playwrights get their chances too, including contemporaries of Shaw as well as those from other periods.
We usually purchase tickets months ahead of our trips. This year, however, we thought we’d just forgo the planning and see what was available when we arrived. As it turned out this year, we were so busy with other activities that we only purchased tickets to one play – “The Women” by Clare Boothe Luce. We managed to get good seats because someone had turned in their seats when they were unable to attend. We were in the center section about 15 rows back. The play was performed in the Festival Theatre, the largest of the four in town. Many attendees at the plays are of advanced age. I like going there because I feel young, relatively speaking. One year we witnessed an old lady fall down on her way out the door during intermission. She was promptly plucked off the floor by an observant usher and in a minute was on her way to the ladies’ room as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
We enjoyed “The Women,” which was performed by 19 women and no men. Men held significant roles in the play, but only in the conversation of the women. This made for an interesting perspective. Ms Luce, after writing “The Women,” went on to become influential in publishing and politics. She was the US Ambassador to Italy for three years and was elected to the US House of Representatives.
We also visited the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens. We have visited them before, but there is always something new to see. There are 99 acres of trees, plants, and flowers. Well worth the few hours it takes to see it all.
More on our trip to Canada in the next post.
No Comments | Tags:Another Query Response
Posted July 23, 2010 – 11:18 pm in: StillwaterThe third time is NOT the charm.
I received a third response to my series of query letters to literary agents yesterday. The purpose of this one was identical to that of the other two (although it took two letters in the one instance where I was asked to provide the first five pages of my novel). The latest response is worded a bit differently, of course, and signed by a different individual. That individual, although dissing my query, actually apologized for being so late in responding. That individual, however, is someone working FOR the agent I sent the query to, not the agent himself. Real agents must be pretty busy.
I’d like to know how many book queries the agencies receive in a week’s time. There must be billions of people out here with book ideas and the desire to get published. How many novels have been written that will never see the light of day? How many of those novels are actually pretty good? How many are totally ridiculous?
Some folks who can’t seem to get the attention of publishers or agents try a different path to publication. There are several alternatives available, both of which can be described as “self-publishing.” The first involves paying a company to publish your work in book form. A number of companies provide this service, such as Booksurge and Lulu. This involves a substantial initial investment, but guarantees that the work ends up in true book form. Then all you have to do is sell them.
Another path involves the publishing of the work online. This can be done by anyone (with minimal training) without any outside help. The author can set up a Web site, place ads on it via Google Adsense, and post the work for anyone to read in the hopes that readers will click on the ads. Money is earned by each ad click. It could take some time to make this method pay off. My Web site has earned me about 85 cents over the past year.
I’ve considering going the route of self-publishing and may end up doing so someday. In the meantime, however, I’m going to continue my efforts to obtain an agent. I have a few more tricks to try. I’m rewriting my query letter, trying to put some spice in it that might grab an agent’s attention. I’ve decided that the meager and disappointing responses to the first two versions indicate some inadequacy on my part.
I’m hoping the inadequacy lies in the query letter and not in what it’s trying to sell.
No Comments | Tags:The Catcher in the Rye
Posted July 17, 2010 – 5:58 pm in: JournalI finished reading, for the first time, J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” this afternoon. I’m not really sure why I hadn’t read the book before. Perhaps it was because it was banned from the reading list during my high school days. I really don’t know if it was banned in my school, but it was banned in many other schools.
I’ve heard about the book for many years and, from time to time, found myself wondering what it could be about. Having read little about the book, apart from articles discussing the author and his eccentricity, I never became familiar with the plot or the characters. Based on the title, I thought it might have something to do with baseball. It does not.
The narrator of the story is Holden Caulfield, a young man who has just been kicked out of school for the third (or so) time, and whose life is in tatters. Holden encounters all sorts of events and individuals that cause him emotional distress. He smokes, drinks, thinks lewd thoughts, swears, blasphemes, and suffers with a chronic inability to have healthy social interactions with other humans. The book is depressing from time to time because of Holden’s difficulties but it is also occasionally funny and often downright hilarious.
Holden is smart but not as smart as he thinks he is. He is alienated, emotional, over-analyzing, self-conscious, and severely depressed. He thinks about sex very often and worries about his own sexuality. He has no idea how to successfully communicate with girls. He is, therefore, the quintessential teen-aged American boy. He also happens to have a relatively wealthy father who can afford to spend money on good schools and psychiatrists.
I found Holden to be a very sympathetic character, probably because I can still remember thinking the things that Holden thinks and having many of the same dysfunctions. In fact, I can remember many of them because I still experience them. Some things you just never outgrow.
I empathized with Holden for other reasons. He is picked on by some of his peers but also experiences deep empathy for those peers who are even more picked on than he. He lost a dearly loved younger brother to leukemia and spends much time thinking about him and reminiscing about experiences they shared. Holden loves and idolizes his younger sister, who seems to be the only human that he can truly communicate with. Their relationship is very touching to me, and helps to make Holden a more substantial character because he demonstrates first-hand his ability to have a relatively normal relationship with someone.
Although “Catcher” takes place in the 1940s in New York City, the novel is not distractingly dated. I can imagine nearly all of the action and dialog taking place today, in just about any town in America.
I picked the book up at Barnes & Noble several weeks ago, along with a copy of “The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler. I read “The Big Sleep” first and reported on it here. I liked that book, but must say that “The Catcher In the Rye” will be in my thoughts much longer than Chandler’s detective story. That’s because Holden Caulfield contains a pretty big chunk of me, whereas Philip Marlowe and I have very little in common.
No Comments | Tags:Hard Workout
Posted July 13, 2010 – 5:10 am in: FitnessBrian Carpenter conducted our open training session Monday evening at Kachmann Mind Body Institute at Lutheran Hospital. Brian was filling in for Erin Long, who is in California attending a seminar.
The session was set up in modules of 8 repetitions. There must have been 15 or so individual modules. At least it seemed like there were that many. Each individual repetition consisted of a certain amount of time in motion and a certain amount of time at rest.
For example, we ran in place for 10 seconds then rested for 10 seconds. We did crunches for 15 seconds and rested for 15 seconds. And so on. Although the rest periods helped, each module basically drained every ounce of energy out of whichever muscle group we happened to be working on. As another example, one module consisted of squats against a wall while doing curls with weights. After the 8th repetition, I felt as if I could not stand up. I also felt as if I could not ever again curl the 15 pound weights.
One module drained our forearms and biceps, only to have Brian ask us to do 10 fast pushups immediately thereafter. Now that was interesting. I can usually crank out at least 10 quick pushups, but there was nothing quick about those 10. I’m lucky to have made it through all 10 without breaking my nose in a total collapse.
I thought that perhaps Brian would give us one easy module at the end of the session to ensure we could walk out of the workout room under our own power. Well, that didn’t happen. The last module consisted of crunches in a plank position, lifting the right leg and touching the left elbow and alternately lifting the left leg to touch the right elbow. One last time, 8 repetitions, 15 seconds on, 10 rest. Or something like that. By that point, I had lost track of time and was no longer listening to Brian’s voice but only to the beeper on his timer.
I’m sitting here this morning, typing this on my laptop, knowing that as the day wears on I will be reminded of last night’s workout throughout the day and into tomorrow. That’s one good thing about hard workouts. Your investment in time and effort provides returns sometimes for days afterward. It also makes your muscles big and hard and makes you feel like you could kick some serious butt.
No Comments | Tags:Query Progress
Posted July 10, 2010 – 9:19 pm in: JournalI received a second response to my queries to literary agents the other day. It was, like the first one, well-written, concise, to the point, and dismissive.
This one contained the line, “Though what you’ve written promises to be thoughtful and compelling, I’m afraid we were unable to find a place for it at this agency.”
I like that sentence. I’m not kidding, it is really good. In fact, it’s the kind of sentence that could be used in a number of situations with only minor editing.
“Though your opinion is thoughtful and compelling, I’m afraid I can’t find a place for it in my mind.”
“Though what you’ve done was thorough and complete, I’m afraid it’s just not sufficient for us to keep you on the payroll.”
“Though you are thoughtful and compelling, your presence here will be terminated upon your imminent demise.”
“Though you are thoughtless and revolting, I’m afraid we were unable to find a place for you in our travesty.”
“Though you are putrid and decaying, I’m afraid we were unable to find a place for you in our cemetery.”
I’m sure you could think of some good ones. If you do, why not post them as comments below? It could be fun.
No Comments | Tags:Fitness Update
Posted July 7, 2010 – 5:31 am in: FitnessI would have thought I’d be fit by now. Biking, physical training, and now yoga. Not to speak of the daily walks. Just how much does a person have to do to KEEP FROM GETTING SORE MUSCLES!?
I wonder if there’s any exercise regimen that keeps all muscles toned to the point where they no longer get sore. I also wonder how long it takes after working a particular muscle and after the soreness subsides, before that muscle will get sore again when it is reworked. If you know what I mean.
At least I know there’s an acronym for the sore muscles you get a day or so after your workout: DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness. It’s a condition nearly everyone encounters from time to time, except for those who never overwork a muscle. But even couch potatoes may from time to time dismount from the couch and accidentally use a muscle in an unusual fashion, making it stretch or pull a certain way that it’s not used to and subsequently complain through pain.
I survived a particularly strenuous training session Monday night, compliments of Erin Long. Erin has adjusted the exercise routine to accentuate a particular part of the body. We spent a great deal of time with upper body work and dumbbells on Monday. Therefore my upper back, shoulders, and arm muscles are feeling the love. One exercise included lunging strides across the floor, forward and backward, with heavy weights in hands. My legs and butt are squealing with delight after that one. Even though we’ve done that exercise before, it has been long enough ago that my muscles don’t remember doing it. My brain does, though.
Usually the pain subsides after a couple of days. It’s not something I can’t live with. In fact, I’ve been living with almost non-stop muscle “discomfort” for a long time. Even though the pain is bearable, I guess it’s natural that I should wonder when it will stop. But maybe I shouldn’t wish for it to stop. If it did, it might indicate that I was no longer in conditioning mode. And if I’m no longer in conditioning mode, I will have stopped trying to get stronger and tougher.
I’ll take the pain.
No Comments | Tags:Blogging
Posted July 3, 2010 – 3:17 pm in: JournalBlogging is the easiest and fastest way to get published. That’s because you can do it yourself. This cuts out the agents, editors, lawyers, and whomever else someone needs to get published in “the traditional way.” It takes about 5 minutes to set up a blog on sites like Blogger and Zooloo. Anyone can do it.
Blogging can be free if you use the popular blogging sites. My blog, however, is not. My Web site initially was not a blog. I intended it to be a site related to the increasing problem of trash, waste dumping, and ecology. I decided to set up my own domain and use a hosting service. I did this because I wanted a unique name for my site that was directly associated with a domain and also because I initially had visions of expanding my site and generating enough revenue to pay for expenses. This was when my site was going to be something more than just a personal blog. I am not good at self-promotion and so I had trouble spreading the word about my site. I was also getting more and more depressed with the content, since most of the links and commentary had to do with depressing stuff like the pollution of the Earth through the dumping of toxic waste and the failure of efforts to keep people from disposing of trash anywhere they wanted. I finally decided to change the format to a personal blog.
Now I can write about toxic waste if I want to, but I don’t have to. I can write about voles, bicycling, doctor visits, personal fitness, novels, and just about any other topic that I want. That amounts to almost total freedom.
The problem with that strategy is that some people don’t care about toxic waste, voles, bicycling, doctor visits, personal fitness, novels, or anything else that relates to me or my opinions. It’s not that I’m blogging to gain hundreds, thousands, or millions of readers. (Five or six would be OK.) People frequent certain blogs because they are known for covering particular subjects. Hobby blogs, sports blogs, political blogs, financial advice blogs, movie star blogs, etc, etc. “Personal blog” pretty much describes mine. “C’mon, America, read Bruce Weaver’s personal blog! Subjects galore! Weekly updates (sometimes oftener)! Exciting! Fresh! Original! Rarely a misspelled word!”
Pretty enticing, right?
I know I’m not currently selling my blog very well. I should probably spend more time promoting it. The reason?
Fame!
I can do without lots of money. I just want to be famous.
So there, now you know. I need fame and lots of it. I just don’t know how I’ve been able to do without it until now. Perhaps I just didn’t understand how important it is.
I just don’t want to be famous and rich. Being both causes all sorts of problems, including increasing lawyer, psychologist, and rehab expense.
Gimme fame. Keep the money.
No Comments | Tags:Voles Update #1
Posted June 27, 2010 – 2:30 pm in: JournalThis is an update on my continuing effort to clear my yard of voles.
If you read my first post on this subject, you’ll know that I have already attempted to live in harmony with the voles. There has been little harmonizing going on in these parts, I can tell you. Of late, I’ve tried to trap the critters so I could deliver them to some other part of the universe.
I purchased a Jt Eaton 420CL Repeater Multiple Catch Mouse Trap (see photo) at Menards for $9.98. It’s a metal box about 10 inches long, 7 inches wide, and 1-1/2 inches deep. It has a clear plastic window in the top for viewing what’s inside. 
What’s inside is an open area with two short enclosed tunnels containing springed ramps. If a mouse or vole enters either tunnel, the ramp goes down as the animal passes across it. When it is through the tunnel, the ramp flips up high enough to block its escape.
To entice the voles, I added a dollop of peanut butter inside the trap. The peanut butter is visible in the photo. After two weeks, nothing entered the trap except a few assorted insects and a small spider. The “trap and remove” option seems not to be working, at least with this trap. I’m not spending any more money on traps. The peanut butter was still in pretty good shape, so I finished it off on a Triscuit.
JUST KIDDING!
Having given up on trapping and transport, I am now in full “drive them away” mode. I purchased a container of Messina Wildlife’s Animal Stopper granules for $14.10. 
This stuff is supposed to keep most mammal pests away. I poured some into and around each of the vole holes in the yard and also along the vole runs. After visiting the Messina Wildlife web site, I discovered that they make stuff specifically for voles and moles. Oh well.
For good measure (just in case Animal Stopper stops nothing), I poured a total of a half gallon of white vinegar into the same vole holes. I don’t know about you, 
but I wouldn’t like waking up to strong vinegar fumes in my cave.
I’ll keep watch over the next few days and apply more of the treatments. I have to stock up on vinegar. Perhaps I’ll try cayenne pepper if our daily downpours taper off. I’ve heard that cayenne is disliked by most yard pests. I found a recipe for cayenne pepper repellent. All you need is a pan, some water, cayenne paper, and dishwashing liquid. Sounds like a recipe even I might be able to follow.
I’ve also heard about people using moth balls as a repellent. Coyote urine is supposed to work too. We do have coyotes in the neighborhood. Maybe I can glamour one into doing my bidding and teach him how to pee in the vole holes. That would have to be cheaper than any of the methods I’ve tried so far.
More vole updates will follow.
No Comments | Tags:Radon
Posted June 24, 2010 – 4:57 am in: JournalThese days it’s common for a potential home buyer to request a radon test before the purchase. If the test result is at or above the maximum recommended level of radon – 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) or higher – mitigation is recommended. If you’re selling a home, get ready to spend between $1,000 and $1,500 for the mitigation. If you’re not selling your home but need radon mitigation anyway, you’ll spend between $1,000 and $1,500. Testing is done on the lowest lived-in level of the home.
I had our house in Warsaw tested for radon as soon as we decided to sell, knowing that most prospective buyers usually stipulate the test before purchase. A licensed tester came to the house, set up the radon sensing device, and returned in several days to pick it up. A day or so later, we were given the results. The radon level on the first floor of the house was above the safe level established by the feds. I figured that we might as well have the work done even before a potential buyer inspected the house because we’d probably have to do it anyway. I found myself wishing that I had checked the radon level when we built the home. But it seems that most people don’t bother with this until they are pushed to do so by a prospective buyer.
After mitigation was installed, the radon level was tested again and found to be 1.0 pCi/L, well below a dangerous level.
After moving into our present home, I found myself wondering about the radon level here. This house has a full basement and a sump pump. If radon is in the soil under the house, I felt sure that we would find radon in the air. Late last year, I ordered an Accustar radon test kit. The kits contain either one or two testing modules. I ordered one module at a cost of $25. Two modules are $50. I received a small testing device inside a plastic housing in the mail. The instructions explained how to set up the test and how long to test. There were no visible electronics and no electrical connections. I simply had to find a good place, put the device there, and leave it alone for at least 90 days. The instructions recommended that it be left in place for a full year. I didn’t want to wait that long, so I kept it in place for the minimum period of 90 days. At the end of the testing period, I wrote down the testing dates on a form and mailed the testing device back to the testing facility in a special envelope. Test results were returned to me in a week or so. Our radon level was reported to be at or higher than 4 pCi/L.
Not completely satisfied with the test results, I decided to spend another $125 and have a short-term test done by a local testing agency. This test involved the setting up of electronic equipment in our basement by a professional tester. The test equipment was mounted on a tripod and placed in a corner of a commonly used room. The test ran for several days and the equipment was picked up by the tester. Test results were provided to me a few days later, along with a letter and an invoice. The test report can be found here. The radon level was measured at 5.5 pCi/L, high enough to scare me into mitigation.
I called Three Rivers Environmental, a local radon mitigation company. A representative showed up a few days later and developed a preliminary plan for the mitigation process. Price: $1,000. I agreed to the price and scheduled the work.
A few days later, two men showed up at a prearranged time. They explained exactly what they had to do to make sure we removed most of the radon from the air in the house. The basic idea behind mitigation begins with a recognition that radon exists underground naturally and, through various means, can find its way into homes. In my case, our basement was constructed with a drainage system of tile that follows the perimeter of the basement. The drain tile is beneath the floor of the basement. The tiles are constructed to carry water into a sump pit, where excess water is removed via a sump pump. Radon gas collects under the basement and finds its way into the house through the drain tiles and the sump pit.
I took photos after the project was complete (see below).
The first photo was taken in the basement. A hole was drilled in the floor of our utility room above the drain tile. After the hole was drilled, dirt was removed from beneath the floor to make an open area or pocket. A vertical 4 inch PVC pipe was inserted into the hole, with its end projecting slightly into the open air pocket. A sealant was placed on the floor around the base of the pipe. A 90 degree bend was installed at the top of the pipe and a short section of straight pipe was installed to extend the pipe into the garage.
In the garage, a bend was placed on the stub pipe extended from the basement. A vertical pipe was attached to the bend and extended through the ceiling.
An air flow indicator was installed on the pipe in the garage. If the red liquid is at the “zero” level on both sides, there is a problem and the installer must be notified. A problem could arise if the water level below the basement rises high enough to cause water to be sucked into the mitigation piping. You do not want this to happen.
In the attic, an exhaust fan was installed on the PVC pipe. An existing electrical circuit was tapped into and an outlet placed near the fan. The PVC was extended through the roof above the fan.
Finally, a cover was installed over the top of the sump pit in the basement. The cover was caulked around its edge with silicone. The fan was plugged into the outlet in the attic and the air flow started.
Test equipment was left in the basement by the installation crew.
A technician came to remove the equipment several days later. He read the test results before leaving, and the radon level was measured at 1.1 pCi/L. The mitigation procedure was a success.
Now we can breathe a bit easier.
No Comments | Tags:Test of New Version of WordPress, plus Charlie’s visit to South Bend
Posted June 21, 2010 – 4:39 pm in: JournalI just downloaded a new version of WordPress for BlackBerry and am now trying to use it. I’m typing this post on my BB and will hit the button to send it when I’m happy with the words.
It’s raining hard in South Bend where I happen to be at this moment. There is some lightning too, but mostly it’s just wet rather than scary. The high winds in the last storm to pass through here caused plenty of damage and power outages. Many businesses and residents are still without power and will be for a while yet.
Charlie Weis was in town for a few days and was interviewed by a reporter at the South Bend Tribune. He was here for a fund raiser for his Hannah & Friends charity and a celebrity golf tourney at Blackthorn.
I’m a little disappointed that Charlie didn’t try to hook up with me while he was in South Bend, but I know he was busy and he probably didn’t even know I’d be here. In fact, even if he had known I was here he probably wouldn’t have called. He doesn’t have my current cell phone number. Not to mention that he doesn’t know me.