Give Me Back My Christmas

Somewhere over the past few years, and I am not really sure when, our Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas cards etc. have become a "Holiday" tree, "Holiday" lights, "Holiday" cards etc. I have one question...why??? Apparently it is because we offend people of other religions. So now society wants us to omit the Christmas so as not to offend anybody.

So, I have one more question...what about all the Christians?? Does it not matter if they are offended?? Isn't a menorah still a menorah?? Isn't Hanukkah still Hanukkah?? Isn't Kwanzaa still Kwanzaa?? So why has Christmas become "Holiday"?? As a Catholic (albeit not a practicing one) I feel offended that my Christmas was taken away from me. I guess it doesn't matter because I am a white catholic so I am not a minority and do not have a special interest group looking out for my "well being".

I have even heard of some schools not serving hot cross buns because the "cross" is offensive to non-catholic students. Solution; turn the buns so they become hot "x" buns.

On a serious note- when will it stop? When have we become so sensitive that we have to find anything...and I mean anything to complain about. After all, isn't this nation "The Melting Pot"?? Where we supposedly accept people of all backgrounds, religions and cultures. So why are you turning my religious holiday onto yours?

Give me back MY Christmas!!

Nature is still winning....

I went to the farm yesterday for some bow hunting. I really didn't have a good feeling due to the weather. When I pulled into the driveway, the outside temperature reading in my truck was 56 degrees at 6:20 AM!! On November 15th!! I should have just turned around and went home but being the glutton for punishment I am, I stayed.

When I got to my stand I was soaked with sweat at 6:45 AM. I don't have any light weight clothes for hunting, eveything is for cold weather. I got into my stand and was ready. At about 7:30 I heard a turkey in the distance. About 1/2 an hour later I saw him. I tom with a pretty long beard. He was about 80 yards away but it looked to be about 9" long.

At 10:00 my back couldn't take sitting in my stand anymore so I got down and went to my truck for an early lunch. It was too hot to go back so I figured I would get the camera out and take pictures until 3:00 then try hunting again. As I was walking around I almost step on a snake!! I do not like snakes of any kind. This one turned out to be a milk snake about foot or so long. yuck!! I did manage to get some pretty good pictures around the farm.

At 3:00 I headed back out only this time I hunted from the ground. I hunted until 5:00 and saw nothing. I think the warm weather has everything screwed up. Hopefully it will get cold real soon. After yet another disappointing day of hunting I packed everything up and headed home. I didn't get out of the driveway before I hit traffic. I sat in bumpber to bumper traffic for over an hour. I finally got home over 2 hours later. As I was eating dinner at 7:30 at night, I was really wishing I had stayed home. Oh well, at least I got some from air, albeit hot.

Schools going too far??

Yesterday day we sent Baileigh to school with her lunch just as we do every day. Beth gave her some candy corn for her snack. She loves candy corn and can't wait for Halloween to eat them. We never let her eat more than a couple.

Last night she told us her teacher would not let her eat them. She goes the YMCA's Hazlet Children's Achievement Center and they have a "No Candy Policy". What the hell is that!! She is OUR child and we PAY for her to go there, so if we feel that she can have a few candy corn, that that is our business, not theirs. I think this whole health issue is going waaay too far. Now I hear a school in NY is banning home baked goods for kids Birthdays. I remember as a kid looking forward to birthdays because you knew you were having cake, cookies, brownies etc. And it is not like we send Baileigh to school everyday with candy, this was the first time.

I guess the drug problems and gang problems are no longer a problem and the education system is so top notch and needs no more fixing that we can now focus all of our attention to candy and baked goods. If you want to combat the obesity problem plaguing our children, why not start at the children's home.

Yeah, I may not be the healthiest guy around nor do I eat healthy but I make sure Baileigh does. That's the problem, for some reason these days, parents want society to raise their children instead of themselves. I am not sure when this started happening but it is getting out of control. 30 years ago if you got fat it was your parents fault, not your friend's mom for sending cookies to school. The best part of the whole health battle is that people were upset that fast food restaurants were not posting the nutritional value of their food. Helloooooo!!!! It's fast food people, it ain't supposed to be healthy. There is probably more nutrition in the wrapper of a Big Mac then the burger itself. Well, I guess next week it'll be something else.

Photo Project #2

I recently submitted my latest photo project for my course. Again I had to take 3 pictures each with a different technique. I also included the picture shooting info and the Evaluators comments.

I must admit that I almost didn't include the comments because I didn't want it to sound like I am bragging...because I am not. In fact it is quite the opposite. I wish I had looked at the first two pictures better then I might have had 3 perfect pictures. Oh well, I guess I'll have to try harder the next time.

Picture# 1- Rule of thirds- This is of course, Baileigh.
Picture info...
Shutter speed- 1/60 sec
Aperture- f32
ISO speed- 1600
Evaluators comments: The picture and composition are perfect, except that Baileigh is not in total focus. At first I did not see that but now I do. Hind sight is 20/20 as they say.













Picture#2- Framing - This is my friend Eddie at the farm we hunt.
Shutter speed- 1/125 sec
Aperture- f4.5
ISO speed- 100
Evaluators comments: Again, the picture is perfect except I didn't follow the rule of thirds. I did not realize I was supposed to on this picture and she agreed. The lesson was not clear enough.













Picture#3- Leading Lines- This is a picture I took on Rt 287 in North Jersey while Beth was driving.
Shutter Speed - 1/2000 sec
Aperture- f3.5
ISO Speed- 100
Evaluators comments: She said this picture is great and I could not have done any better. I guess because here I followed the rule of thirds AND used leading lines.

My little ballerina

Last night was the first ballet class for Baileigh. She was looking forward to this since we first told her about it last Spring. In fact, she wanted to get dressed in her tutu an hour and a half before we had to leave.

When we first got there she couldn't wait to get into the dance room but when we did, she got very shy. She became very clingy and didn't want me to leave. We can't stay in the room, we have to go to the waiting room in the front and watch the class on a monitor. So I told her I would wait by the door for as long as I could. Her teacher, Ms. Meagan, came over and brought her over to the group. She reluctantly sat on the floor with the other girls. I slowly made my way out of the room and down the hall to the waiting room to watch on the monitor.

At first she didn't even realize I was gone but when she did it seemed as if she didn't even care because she was having so much fun. I may be a little biased here but she did awesome!! In fact, most of the girls already took a ballet class with Ms. Meagan and Baileigh did just as good as all of them and this was her first time out.

We are not allowed to take pictures at the studio so these picture are at my mother-in-laws house right before we left.

September 11th 8 years later

I can't believe that it has been 8 years since the 9-11 tragedy. I am going to make it a point to not only remember those who died trying to save lives such as the fireman, policeman and other rescue personnel, but to also remember those who died just going to work. Not to take anything away from the heroes of the horrible day but I think we all lose sight of the innocence that was lost on that day.


Being a fireman or policeman brings with it a risk every day. Each shift beginning brings the chance of it being the last day and to me that takes guts. But what about the insurance salesmen, real estate agents, janitors and other civilians that perished on that day. There were many heroes among them as well. I, as I am sure most of you, knew someone that died in one of the towers. She was not firemen nor a policemen, but a very peppy, outgoing woman who finally landed her dream job...selling real estate in downtown Manhattan.


So today, when you see flags flown half staff, see tributes or hear songs played on the radio in honor of that day, try to remember ALL the victims of 9-11, both civilians and those in uniforms. God Bless the victims, their families, friends and most of all, GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

Breaker breaker, got your ears on......

I have been feeling a little nostalgic lately and returning to my redneck ways. I recently bought a CB radio and installed it in my truck. I used to always have one in my trucks back in the 90's and early 2000's. My last one died and I have never replaced it until now. I got a Uniden PC78LTW Bearcat Pro Series CB with 7 weather channels.

My friend drives a truck and told me people still use them. It's mostly truckers but there are still some four wheelers (cars) that use them. I guess here in the north east it is not that popular but in the south and mid-west it still is. I could not find a CB shop anywhere. And the only place I know that sold CB accessories is Radio Shack but they don't sell anything in the stores anymore. It is all on-line ordering.

CBs come in handy when there is traffic because not all traffic gets reported on the radio. Here are a couple of pictures of my radio and antenna set up. When you enlarge the picture of the truck you will see twin black antennas mounted on the tool box in the bed.

Giants game

After Baileigh had so much fun at the Lakewood BlueClaws game, we decided to take her to a Giants game. Beth got 3 tickets from someone she works with and since it was only a pre-season game, we took Baileigh. Had it been a regular season game we would not have taken her because we knew we would be leaving early and I don't like leaving regular season games early.

After not living in North Jersey anymore I rarely get the chance to get up there, so when we got off the Turnpike it was like the first time I have ever been there. Beth asked me which way we have to go and I had no clue. The way they make you go around that place (and the surrounding roads) is ridiculous. Finally we found the right area for parking. Oh, and we got a parking pass with the tickets to boot. We got out of the car and the heat was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Although we were not "tailgating", we hung out at the car for a bit so Baileigh could get the whole Giants game effect. So far she is having a good time. As we starting walking toward the stadium, a breeze was blowing and it seemed as if the humidity was letting up. I thought maybe we were in for some decent weather....

As we got to our seats it felt as if someone cranked up the heat, as well as the humidity. We still had 10 minutes till kick-off and I was sweating my ass off. It was hotter then some Yankee games in the summer. I knew 5 minutes into the 1st quarter that heat was getting to Baileigh. I asked her if she was fun and she said yes but she was squirming around in her seat. I knew she was getting very hot so Beth got two Snapples for $5.25 each!! Wow, I guess they gotta pay for the new stadium that is not needed.

We had planned on leaving at 9:30 from the get go but by 9:00 Baileigh had had enough. She was very tired and hot, as were Beth and I. We left the game at about 9:15 or so. When we got back to the car I asked if she at least had a little fun and she "Yes. But I would have had more fun if it wasn't hot". I have to agree. Well ,at least she got to experience a Giants game, albeit 1 and a half quarters.

Last Thursday we took Baileigh to her first baseball game, the Lakewood BlueClaws. The BlueClaws are the Phillies minor league team. Baileigh had a great time. I figured this would be a great oppurtunity for the camera. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

Photography course project

I am currently taking a photography course from the New York Institute of Photography and just completed my first photo project. The following 3 pictures are what I submitted with the explanation of each photo.

Photo #1 has to show motion or speed. I used a fast shutter speed to capture the individual water droplets from a garden hose.










Photo #2 had to have a shallow depth of filed. I chose this hibiscus flower but a picture does not capture the vibrant colors of the flower. The background is my father-in-laws pool and backyard furniture but with the soft background it is not distracting. At least not yet.







For the 3rd and final picture, I had to choose a scene with a greater depth of field. This photo is a farm along side Roberts Road in Holmdel, NJ. I decided to not use a tripod but after looking at some of the other pictures from this shoot, I am going to go back and take more pics only this time I am going to use a tripod.






Well, the photos are off in the mail to my instructors/evaluators so wish me luck.

Below are a few more pics I didn't use for one reason or another. Let me know what you think of all these pictures.
Thanx....

Fishin'

Had a great day of fishing today. My friend Eddie and I went to Monksville Reservoir. The place has a nickname; "Skunksville". We got on the water at about 6:30 or so and didn't really expect to get anything. Eddie started the day with a bass early on. I figured that would be it. We lit our cigars and I kept fishing but figured it would be a fishless day for myself.

At about 9:30 I got a hit and set the hook. I knew I was into a good fish when all of a sudden, he got off. I reeled in my worm (plastic worm- not live bait) and had to fix it then cast right back into the same spot. As soon as the worm hit the water, BOOM, he was back! This time I set the hook better and reeled him in. Boo Ya!! My first large mouth bass in a long time. It went about 2+ lbs. We each caught another bass (my second being the smallest bass I ever caught). A big thank you to Eddie for the trip on his boat and for taking the picture. Well, four fish in about 7 hours at Skunksville, I'd say we killed 'em.

Fire In The Sky

Last night we had a pretty bad thunderstorm. About an hour later, after it had stopped, the sun was setting and the sky was still very cloudy. It looked very eerie as it was sort of copper looking outside from the sun shining through the clouds. Of course I went outside and snapped some pictures of the sky. All I could think of was Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". Especially the line "Fire in the sky." That is exactly what it looked like. It was one of the coolest looking skies I had ever seen. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Rain rain rain

With all this rain I don't have to worry about watering the garden. In fact, it may be getting too much water. I am getting some peppers and a few tomatoes. The basil is coming nice as is the cilantro. If the tomatoes get too much water then they can get too much inside the tomato, then when you cut it open, it is full of water. This happened to some of them last year. Anyway, here are some pictures of the garden now. You can see how some of the tomato plants are 3 times the size from when we planted them.


Peppers, basil and cilantro.












Tomatoes. The American flag is the site of where we buried Nemo, inbetween the two garden beds.

New fish

We buried Nemo Friday night and Saturday we were at Petsmart to get a new fish. Baileigh wanted a goldfish so we had to get a bigger tank. We went with a 10 gallon tank with filter and the whole set up- minus the heater. We started off getting one fish but figured the tank was big enough and she really wanted two so....we got two.


The all orange fish is named Goldie and the orange and white one is Nemo II, but we just call him Nemo.

I'd rather get a couple of fish then a dog or cat. Actually, I like to watch fish swim around. I may even one day get a heater and some tropical fish. I wonder if a small striped bass would fit in the tank. :-)

$10 for a bike ride?!?!?!

I decided to go for a bike ride today and wanted to go Chessequake State Park and go on the wooded trails. When I got there there was a line to get into the park. As I was waiting for my turn to enter I noticed the people in front of me look as if they were exchanging money with the person in the booth. I thought there is no way they can be charging to get in the park. Sure enough they were. $10!!!!!!!! As if we don't pay enough in taxes for the privilege to live in this corrupt, criminal run state, now they want to charge $10 a car load to get into a park!! Hey Corslime, are you on crack!!!!

I cannot see paying $1 to get into this park let alone $10. I mean, I wanted to ride my bike for an hour or so. Even still, what do you get for the $10? It's a park. I'll be damned if I am going to give Corslime, the biggest crook of them all, any more of my hard earned money than I have to.

So instead of biking on wooded trails, I went to the Henry Hudson Trail in Keyport. Albeit not a wooded "mountain bike trail", it is nice to ride. It is paved and goes from Aberdeen to Atlantic Highlands. There is a southern portion that goes from Freehold to Marlboro and Aberdeen, but I have never ridden that part. There has to be a place to ride a mountain bike on wooded trails that is free. But then again this is New Jersey so probably not.

Goodbye Nemo

Last night I had to tell Baileigh that her pet Betta fish Nemo died. She loved this fish so much and it broke my heart to tell her. She was very upset as she cried while saying goodbye to her beloved fish. I would be lying if I said I didn't get teary eyed and choked up watching her.

Today we buried him in the back yard by the gardens. We put an American flag in the ground along with the two plastic plants that were in his tank. After we put them in she said "daddy, I just want to stand here for a minute". Again it broke my heart.

When we went inside she then asked "When can I get a new fish? I want a goldfish and name him Goldie". I guess Everybody deals with grief their own way. So, needless to say tomorrow we will be off to the pet shop to look at goldfish. Hey, it's better than her wanting a dog.

Goodbye Nemo. Baileigh will miss you and always love you. Come to think of it, I will miss him too.

I decided to go fluke fishing today after work so I headed to the Spy House pier in Port Monmouth. It was a little rainy out so I put on my rain gear and headed out to the pier. When I got out there I couldn't believe how hard the wind was blowing. It felt like 30 to 40 MPH. When I got out of my truck there was virtually no wind.

I was using squid strips with spearing and fluke hooks. I usually use egg sinkers but I didn't have any so I was using pyramid sinkers. Not sure if that makes a difference or not but I was not getting any hits. After about an hour I was reeling in when I got snagged on something. I was about to cut my line but whatever I was snagged on was coming in. As I was reeling in I looked down and saw what looked like the tip of a fishing pole. I figured someone broke a rod and threw it in the bay. As I kept reeling up I realized it was a whole rod. When I pulled it up that's when I noticed not only was it a fishing pole but a whole set up; rod, reel and bait. It is an 8' Ugly Stick with a Shakespere Prius reel complete with hook, fish finder rig and weight. It also had a strike indicator on the tip of the rod which leads me to believe that someone had the rod casted out and was not paying attention and something big hit and took off, taking the rod with it. From the looks of it the rod was not in the water that long.

I may not have caught a fish today but I now have a new (well new to me) rod to add to my collection.

Mid-life crisis?

Not sure if I am going through a mid-life crisis or trying to re-gain my youth but I have been contemplating on taking up surfing. I work in Belmar and since it is getting warm out, all the surfers are coming out. Surfing is not something I ever thought about doing in the past but lately I have been wanting to try it. And with the fishing so slow it will give me something to do while I wait for the first fish of the season.

Now, anybody that knows me knows that I am not a little guy at all, not in shape nor am I a spring chicken. The thought of getting up on a board and keeping myself up does concern me but I still want to try it. I looked at surfboards and never realized how much they cost so needless to say if I do get one it will be a used one. Maybe I will even get a Tiki to wear around my neck when I go surfing in Hawaii. :-)

If anyone has ever surfed or knows a good place for beginners to start in central New Jersey, let me know, thanx.

Yesterday was garden day. Baileigh helped me plant this year's crop. First we had to go to Home Depot and get top soil. I always get Miracle-Gro soil with plant/vegetable food in it. It feeds for up to 3 months. I also use Miracle-Gro Liqua Feed once or twice a week. Last year I didn't use it until half way through and the tomatoes were not as good as they were the year before when I used it the whole time.


We planted:
Tomatoes
1. Super Steak
2. La Roma II Red s
3. Big Beef
4. Super Fantastic

Peppers
1. Jelepenos
2. Habaneros
3. Mandarin Sweet Peppers


We also planted sweet basil and cilantro. I decided to plant the Habaneros because I like to make hot sauce and those peppers are hard to find.

This is the pepper, basil and cilantro garden.

Here is the tomato garden.

Here are a few of the many pictures I took at Cheesequake Park in Matawan, NJ.

Garden State Parkway traffic in April. Kind of looks like summer traffic. Northbound is going away.











One of the many paths in the woods. There are quite a few of them











When I took this one I was hoping the seagull didn't, well, you know...











This creek is fed by Raritan Bay. According to park literature, there is crabbing in the creek.

Surf fishing

I've been hearing of reports that people are catching striped bass in Monmouth county from the beach in Raritan Bay. I have also heard some blue fish are being as well, although I thought it to be a bit early. Anyway, I decided to go out and see. Beth, Baileigh and I went on Saturday from about 11:00 to 2:00. I fished clams from the beach in Port Monmouth next to the Spy House Pier. This is the spot were not only stripers were supposedly being caught, but keepers as well. I did not get a hit. I also did not see any fish caught for that matter. Someone walking on the beach told me a fish was caught on the pier but I did not see it. There were quite a few people fishing from the pier, yet no fish were pulled out. At least Baileigh had fun playing in the sand.

I went again last night. Same spot. Same results. Clams from the beach and not a single hit. One thing I did notice though was the abundance of seaweed. This made it difficult to fish. Especially when I tried to throw plugs. I fished for about 2 hours and gave up. On the way to my truck I was talking to 3 guys who were headed out on the pier. They told me they only heard of a few fish being caught. One was a 12 pound weakfish. There were only a few people fishing this time. I guess everybody else thinks like I do now....there are no fish being caught like you hear. It may be tackle shops giving out bogus reports to drum up business. I think I'll try Belmar ocean surf one night next week.

Backyard garden

I started getting my garden ready for this season. I have clay dirt in my yard (all over my property for that matter). And anyone that knows anything about clay dirt knows that it does not drain. After a soaking rain I have puddles in my yard that look like ponds and don't drain for days at a time. So I knew that if I did a garden the plants would be drowned in no time at all. Besides, clay dirt is VERY HARD to dig. So after thinking of what to do, I came up with a plan.

I built 2 raised beds, put down landscape fabric and filled them with bedding soil. Of course I used pressure treated wood and galvanized screws.
















I used stakes in the corners and drove them into the ground for stability.

























This one I built with 1x4's and use for growing tomatoes, basil, peppers and other vegetables.








This one I used 1x6's and use it for growing garlic. Garlic gets planted in September/October and is harvested in July/August. Since I did not plant garlic last year, I am going to use this one for tomatoes only and the other for everything else. Tomato plants need a lot of room to grow. When I planted them in the other garden with everything else, they were too close and almost got choked out. So now I will have more room to grow more peppers. I am going to grow habanero peppers because they are are to find. I enjoy gardening with Baileigh and she loves it. She never touches the peppers because "they are hot".

Pictures from Keyport

I took out the camera and snapped some pictures tonight from the bulkhead in Keyport, NJ. A shot of the rock wall in Cliffwood. I've never fished from here but I hear it is a good spot.












The sun setting behind a water tower in Cliffwood.











The beach by the boat ramp. Not much swimming goes on there.











One of only 2 boats moored. There are a lot more moored in the summer time.













A buoy in the channel coming out of the few marinas in Keyport. Staten Island, NY in the background.








Another shot of the sun set over Cliffwood.