Jeff's Crazy but Sensible Views on Life

Hi, everybody!

Where the heck have I been? Who knows? At my age, years fly by where minutes once lived.

Another Christmas is upon us here in the States. I have been working hard and it seems like a lot of things are way behind on different fronts but I am getting there slowly but surely as they say.

My son got an early Christmas present earlier this month that is named "Spike". That has been an effort getting "Spike" under control and housed appropriately.

Spike is the second edition to our household supply of boy pets. Spike is a bearded Dragon lizard that is about 9 inches long. Some day I will show you some pictures. Any ways, Spike has taken up some time getting his crib set up but things are running much smoother now.

We had 5 inches of snow yesterday in a pretty major storm but we seem to have missed the worst of the storm so that is good. I watched the Cleveland Browns football team today up north a few hours and they were playing in a blizzard.

My son is supposed to be back in a little while from his grand mothers so I am awaiting his arrival. I accidentally put the lizard cave rim on the tail of his other lizard, a leopard gecko, so I am not really looking forward to his arrival for that reason. It's hard to say now whether the tail will fall off or now so now we get to wait...but I know one thing that we won’t have to wait for, that is me feeling like an idiot. No waiting there. How could I as a parent leave the cave edge on the lizard's tail.

Friday night, I was able to coach my son’s basketball team as a sub coach because his regular coach had some other commitments he had to attend to.

When I started practice, I lined the kids up to run. Nick and Nick number two were the most athletic kids at earlier practices so they lined up to do their usual duel against each other for the winning spot in the race.

So I yelled GO and the lads were off, 7 who were 7 and 8 years old, running down the court to the other end and then back to where they started from.

I was watching all the kids and didn’t really focus on my own son and his journey there and back.

Then I realized that my son was the winner and that Nick and Nick were so in awe that they were beaten so soundly by my son, that they were looking at each other in complete disbelief of getting smoked like they did.

We ran the race again and this time he repeated the feat again, to the same astonishment from the other two gym rats.

I vaguely remember having a talk with my son after his last practice about getting a good start at the beginning of a race. I guess he figured that part out. I was very happy for him to get accolades from the other players who are also his school mates. That goes far for a young boy. It's that acceptance thing.

As the basketball night went on, I realized that I had participated in a life long memory for my son because of this feat of his and because I was able to sub as his coach. This will always be the night I coached him in 3rd grade and the night he won the races against his friends. We will talk about this night over and over through eternity now as father and son.

AT VoicesNet, traffic levels are pretty high and keep going up a little bit at a time. It has always been and continues to be hard for me to really understand the concept of the thousands of people who come to VoicesNet each and every day.

The Poetry contest closes in a couple of weeks so here we go again at trying to get through thousands of poems. It is hard work but we like the challenge. We continue to try to come up with the right Internet contest. The current contest is our first with a new concept. Stay tuned.

Well, I better wrap up. I just wanted to say HEY to everybody here in BLOG world at VoicesNet. I fixed the links to the blog articles so you can now get to the blog articles through the blog article links around the website. Try it out. Next will be to get the most recent blog articles listed again on the main home page.

You also might have noticed on the poem entry page that we are setting up to be able to enter in other than POEMS into the Voicesnet database. We envision being able to enter other kind of entries, or documents, there. Maybe you want to enter a quote, or how about a Book Review. These are just some off the top of the head thoughts about what I am talking about here. Stay tuned. That should happen over the holidays, our gift to all of you. Don't worry; the poems will still be listed and accessible by themselves just like they are now.

Well, I will talk to you later. To all of the bloggers out there; this is a call to arms. Let's get this blog party started at a little bit faster pace. Let’s hear from you.

Jeff

:)

Well, it's a Friday night at the end of a usual tiring week.

I worked real hard this week. Now I need a rest.

VoicesNet continues to roll. I am glad to get the poetry contest behind us but in a good way. For one thing, now we can move forward with the current contest poems.

I read so many poems recently that I thought I was going poem stir crazy or something like that.

It is a huge responsibility running our poetry contest. The many judges involved take their jobs very seriously. They are all very talented and committed writers, too, so I want to invest the same seriousness into my role.

It is hard to judge poems. One judge might like a poem. Another might not. We have a tough time picking the final order. Really, anybody that makes the top 30 out of over 5000 poems should be proud so I think that is a good approach. For that matter, the top 200+ final poems will be listed and we also already list the top 200+ poems based strictly on the initial judging round of the contest.

I think I am going to detail the review process that we go through at some point and get it published to the web. You would appreciate the efforts that go into this process.

Also, I will talk some more soon about the basis for the top selectee choices in the just completed contest. Stay tuned there.

On the family front, all is fine. School is keeping my family busy as are the general chores of life. A favorite Uncle was just released from the hospital today so I hope to visit him soon. I might tailgate at a local college football game tomorrow. We'll see. 150,000 people is a lot of people but you only live once and sometimes it is good to just immerse in society at such an event or two. I might attend an Indian festival, too.

I often try to follow elusive aspirations. I sent an email to Bill Clinton through his website and I received a call from a "Chelsea" from his office the other day and she said that he could not meet with me on the date that I requested. She didn't leave an alternate date in the message and there was no return number left. I will have to try a different date. Some day I am going to get the support of a significant National or International figure or organization involved with VoicesNet in a suicide prevention program sponsorship. Some day I'll explain what I am trying to accomplish there. For now, the point is that I am occasionally making such contacts. I have tried to contact Oprah Winfrey and a few others but have not gotten anywhere. The Chelsea call, from the Clinton office was the first real reply that we received although it was merely a courtesy call, not an attempt to negotiate a date to get together. But it was nice of them to put in the effort and swallowing the cost for these type calls. We'll see where I can get with this aspiration over time. If you read, this, keep coming back and I'll let you know any progress I make over time. VoicesNet is great but having a website will a social basis is my intention here at VoicesNet as we move forward and wrap up our 6th year in operation over the next few months.

Well, that is all for now. I'm glad to check in here.

If any of you are reading this and are new around here, thanks for hanging around here at VoicesNet.

Jeff

As I work on my computer, son, I look over and watch the intense look on your face, son, as you hold the pencil meticulously while jabbing down into the burning candle pit.

You can barely keep your eyes open but you are, somehow, at 1:26am on a Saturday morning (late Friday night), able to tell me that "It Went Out" urging me to again light the candle that you have now put out at least 100 times in the last 10 minutes alone.

Now you are marveling at the huge wax pile next to the keyboard that we have made emptying the wax occasionally so that the accumulated wax in the candle did not continuously put out the candle, somehow because of the boy candle progression that occurred up until that point.

Hold on, I have to light the candle. Be right back.

The wax coated pencil is sitting there smoking as the candle is lit again.

The wax pile is pretty deep, too.

All I see is your dark eye sockets, nary an eye to see, as you take an eerie glow again spiking the pencil into the candle pit.

The light is pretty bright in there now. More than the normal recent low glow. He must have the end of the wax coated pencil on fire. That is the case. Then the pencil is doused out in the already melted wax.

It's out again. Just got the notice.

There sure is a lot of wax, son!

Be right back!

Alright, lit again.

I watch you doing this ritual like I once watched my own pets as a boy.

I am curious about your development as a person. I am intrigued by what you are intrigued by. I wonder what you are thinking about as you grow and wonder what I thought about at that same age as a boy.

You are 8 but your face looks as wise as an 80 year old. You are way smarter than I will ever be.

It's bedtime soon. That will go over well.

"It's out", he says!

Everybody, have a good night!

Jeff

DRAFT - being proofed still!

I have a daughter in her early twenties who is moving to Florida this coming week with her boyfriend. They have known each other since her mid teens.

When they invited me to go canoeing on one of their final days in Columbus, last friday, how could I say no?

I hadn't felt very good for a couple of weeks but as I told my wife, it really didn't matter. I knew that after my daughter left, that the time we would have to make more memories would likely be seriously limited.

So when Friday came, my 8 year old son and I hopped in the car and headed across the city to meet up at the livery with my daughter, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend's brother and nephew.

The temperature was very humid and somewhere in the 90s.

When we got to the livery, the others rented kayaks and my son and I rented a nice big canoe.

We headed into the water, which was very low. My son was wearing his souvenir North American Indian headress that he had acquired days earlier when he visited Chillicothe Ohio and saw the Tecumseh re-enactment show. That was a great site and I felt very safe. Indians had once been predominant in Ohio.

So there we were, owning the river. We actually did not see another canoe or kayak during the 4 mile journey.

Canoes aren't the most comfortable things in the world, I recalled quickly after our start, but I certainly relized that I was basically in heaven on earth. Two of my children were safe and happy with me and I was making a great memory with my daughter who was leaving town soon. I was bonding with this gargantuan likely future son in law who will possibly be the next Jack Hannah some day. I forgot to tell you that my daughter's boyfriend is a recent zoology graduate. That is what leads them to Florida, he will be doing some wildlife watershed work while working to get into Grad school.

So it was very cool.

So my son and I continued down the river getting use to each other while we bot paddled our different size paddles.

My daughter and her boyfriend kayaked around each other mainly while the other two boys, both in their teen, hung around together paddling away.

My daughter and her boyfriend would occasionally be right with us and other times be either behind us or ahead of us. It was all very casual and unplanned except for the general direction that we were heading.

My son's headress lasted for awhile before it ended up getting ragged and wet and we ended up trying to preserve the item as the day went on and more and more water got into the canoe.

After a little while of casualness, I apparently let the sun get to me and had a great idea to switch with my daughter and let her bond with her little brother for awhile. This meant me in the Kayak and her in the canoe with my son, her brother. Seemed simple at the time.

So we pulled over to the side where it was very shallow and we did the switch.

Now I was in a kayak and it was time to go. It wasn't as easy to get into the kayak as it was to get into the canoe and I should have paid more attention to this.

So there we are heading back down the river again. Wow. This is pretty cool. The layak paddle has paddle heads on both ends so you paddle different than in a canoe, which requires you to pick the paddle up from one side to the other and back and forth, etc. So you have a lot more maneuverability in the kayak compared to the canoe. You also sit very much closer to the water, kind of almost down below the water level, at least it feels that way.

Wow, I'm getting good now. Paddling left. Paddling right.

When I was first starting in the kayak, I remember feeling the boat kind of tremble a couple of time, like it was going to turn over but I quickly was able to regain the balance. Who hasn't seen a kayaker on TV sometime in their life suddenly disappear out of site as their kayak tipped upside down? What a mess. I remember not even thinking of the trembling when it happened. After all, it seemed like the water is maybe 3 feet at the deepest; nothing to worry about.

So there we were having a wonderful day. There was usually shade on one part of the river and sun on the other and sun coming through the leaves of the trees. Pure heaven on earth!

I remember my daughter asking me a couple of times how it was going in the kayak. She wondered if I wanted to switch back. I should have paid more attention.

Suddenly I felt another one of those trembles in the Kayak, like it wanted to start to roll some. As I shifted my weight as I had naturally and instinctually done before to counter the imbalance, I remember saying to my daughter something about how I always had an instinct for balance.

The next thing I knew, my kayak rotates 180 degrees (half circle) and I am suddenly upside down with my head completely under the water, just like those guys on the Olympic highlights. Once the boat started to roll, it was like being in a wash machine.

The problem, I found out, was that since you sit in the kayak on your rear end, it wasn't the easiest and most natural thing in the world to get out of and you basically had to just stay plunged underwater as you unravel your feet out of the boat and then you can come back up. You can't come up with your head before you have your feet out of the boat (because you have no feet to use to push up from the river bottom). As I was upside down in the river, I figured this out. Next time I will know. Also, just my luck, the water was only a few feet deep most everywhere that day but for some reason, when I plunged under, the water is over my head, about 7 to 8 feet deep. So there I am like a beached whale flopping around in the water.

When I came up, my daughter looked alarmed and then when I laughed, her and the others were all more relieved and they all broke out in laughter. It was a funny moment once they knew I was alright!

Even funnier was when I tried to get back in the boat and continue, because I wasn't going to switch back with my daughter right then. I had to get back on the horse, so to speak.

Well, it took me about 20 minutes to get back into the kayak and start moving down the river again. I lost count, but the first few times I tried, I ended up basically doing the same maneuver, and ended up head down in the water as my family members and the others wondered if I was ever going to be able to get back in the kayak successfully. I guess the more water in the kayak, the more it is apt to want to get swamped in the water. I remember hearing one of them say, "He's in the boat!" after my many futile attempts, as if they never expected me to make it and had given up on me.

So we headed down the river again.

Eventually my daughter and I switched back after I felt I had regained my face. I was now back in the safe canoe and she was back in the kayak.

A little while further down the river, my daughter says, "Hey Dad, you're losing your money", as she pointed to money falling out of my pocket. This made me check my pocket and I realized that I had my cell phone in my pocket. Well, that was great except that I was just dunked mercilessly in the river numerous times by monther nature. Bummer. Tomorrow I am heading over to see if I can get it repaired.

So that was my day on the river. It was perfect. We had great memories that will last forever. I ruined my phone. I tried out a Kayak. My son canoed for the first time in his life. I did something fun with my daughter and her boyfriend before they leave for Florida.

The Indian headress has dried out and we will try to repair it later this week. I can't tell you how much the little lad grew as a human being and as a little man because of this journey down the river.

My daughter is great and I so appreciate the chance I had to spend some time with her.

My phone was a piece of garbage any ways!

Thanks for reading,

Jeff

Hi everybody! It's been a quick summer for me and my family.

I've been very busy on many fronts and continue to try to move a lot of things forward.

That's seems to be my goal these days, move things forward, whatever that means. I guess it means not backwards and certainly not at the same place as one started.

I think I need simple system like that sometimes, put left foot in front of right, to keep it moving at all.

The excitements for me this summer were on many fronts and I really don't take enough time to consider my gifts.

I have had a lot of journeys with my son this summer that are memorable and have also had my own personal journeys. My teen daughter continues to mature and become an adult right in front of my eyes. My wife has had some health problems recently but continue to grow personally in many ways and we can still have a great time together after many years of marriage, which says a lot if I think about it.

Last weekend, I saw some amazing things, the Perseids Meteor Shower. It was incredible. My personal count was 5 that I saw in two nights including the first one on the first night that I would swear was a gift from above. It was literally like watching a fire ball above the telephone poles. Since it was my first one, I didn't realize its uniqueness until the following night when I saw the next 4 that I saw. They seemed much higher up and also went much faster and came and went much quicker, giving you less time to see the meteor. The ones I saw on the second night were so quick that you actually kind of reviewed the images in your visual memory after the meteor was gone, not having any time to actually lock on the meteors before they were gone.

So that was a real blast. I'll tell you more about it in a later blog (where I blog about summer son activities and our bonding experiences). I really want to blog more but have not made the time recently. I think I would like to blog more regularly in the future.

Oh yea! By the way. The tree that my son has been egging me on to knock over for a time now has finally been felled. More later on that, too. It was a lot of fun and the hug from the little 8 year old man was as precious as they get; pure boy jubilation. You know, parenthood boils down to this sometimes: when your child or children are happy then you are happy. When they are not, then you are not.

The VoicesNet duties are always "moving forward" too. The judges have been doing what the younger crowd would call a "sick" number of poems lately (for your older ones, that means unreal, very very cool, ridiculously significant, etc.). I can't even believe what is going on there. That is incredible. My rough on the spot math tells me that they have done somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 poem reviews in the last month or so alone. Wow! Gail will be announcing the final list by September 15th if things go well and we keep movin' it forward. :)

The VoicesNet newsletter just went out again recently so that is cool.

My day job has been hectic recently with a lot going on. I respect all of you out there who head off to work each day. Work is not an easy thing, usually, and can be very stressful. If you are feeling the pressure, ask yourself if what you are stressing out over will kill you or harm your family. If it won't, then keep that perspective to tackle things with more confidence. You will be alright.

That's about all for now this late at night. I'm glad to have checked in again and if you read this, thanks a ton for stopping by the website here and checking things out and contributing in your ways.

Jeff

Yesterday, my wife and my son went to the zoo, using our recently purchased zoo membership.

The weather was like Paradise here in Central Ohio. We get very little direct sunshine here in Columbus because it is so cloudy all of the time. Once I heard that we were in the lowest 10% of cities getting sunshine in the world. I don't know if it is true or not but I can believe it.

Yesterday, there were some scattered clouds that were like marshmallows spotting a beautiful blue sky. The temperature was just at 80 degrees F.

We knew it was going to be crowded when we parked in the final row of the parking lot.

On the way in on the trolley, the trolley driver suggested that the animals would be more active because of the nice temperatures. I barely was awake at that time needing a soft drink to get my brain going while my body started getting itself going just by the fact I was starting to move.

When we left for the zoo earlier, we decided that we would not take the digital camera. That was a huge mistake on this day that was unfolding. I don't know how many times I thought to myself that I needed to have my camera.

Here are some of the wonderful sights that we saw:

(1) Until Saturday, I had seen the alligators only lay stiffly in the alligator pens. On Saturday, we actually had front row views of seeing the handlers go in and feed the alligators. The gator feeding was about 10 feet in front of us and the handlers were about 6 feet from us. At one time, the gator, with a mouth full of fish, raised his head and just stared at us in the front row of the crowd. It was an awesome feeling being so close and having an alligator like that look you right in the eye. This was an amazing exhibit. The handlers fed fish after fish to the gator (one of the two ate).

(2) In Asia Quest, a fairly new exhibit, they have a colony of the largest bats in the world and I have seen them in the past and they have all been asleep but for some reason, one was away from the sleeping pack and was at a feeder dish right by the glass in this storefront size area where they live. We were able to stand within a few feet of this creature hanging upside down and eating and cleaning itself. Imagine a large size cat hanging upside down, it was something like that. It had the yucky bat cloak around it and the claw foot was very strange looking. It was more like a hook than a claw. I remember thinking what that thing would probably do to me if the glass was not there protecting me.

(3) We took my wife to the amphibian building because she wanted to see the white alligators there. My son and I had seen them before so my son navigated us to the gators. He was our navigator for the day. He was in heaven as our leader. These gators, unlike the ones written about above, which were about 7 feet long, were about 2 to 3 feet long. The joy on this day was that one of the white alligators was swimming very slowly in the water, which my son and I had not seen before. It was amazing seeing the little arms on this alligator from behind as it swam in the display tank. Sometimes I think that an amazing experience can be had at the zoo when you see in an animal that you are viewing something that resembles our species, humans. This little alligators back and arms looked like a persons back and arms when it was swimming. This type of perspective makes people realize their existence in the myriad of species that make up the world.

(4) Speaking of monkeys, we saw these very large apes in this huge pen. There was a momma, a poppa, and a baby. We saw the baby crawl to the top of the cage then down and then get on the momma's back to be carried around, and right in front of our glass about 20 feet away at one point. The poppa would come around at one point and the momma just walked to the other side of the pen with the baby in tow. Seeing the poppa ape sitting upright always reminds me of my father, who is 350 lbs at 6'2 and a very large man. There is that thing again, you know, the animals reminding us of our own species.

(5) To end the day we went through the North American trails where we came across these large Alaskan Brown Bears, two playful siblings. They put on an amazing show of play while they sparred and chased each other repeatedly, sometimes screeching out like they would in the wilds. They were oblivious to us as if we were peaking in to their world unknown to them. I have never seen anything like this in this large pool of water that they were playing in.

(6) Also during the final North American walk, there was a wolf den and this wolf was pacing back and forth from one end of the area to the other over and over again. My son, who is 8, did the same thing from outside of the penned in area. Now these are wolves, so the area was not a small area. I would guess that the penned in area was 200 feet worth on the trail. So I observed my son going way down the path out of my sight almost as the wolf did the same and then returned passing me as they headed to the other end of the penned in area. The both repeated them so many times I finally asked my son to stop because I was afraid that my son was going to make the wolf mad. But while they both paced back and forth, they would both pass by me within a couple of feet of me and each other at times. In all the years I had been going to the zoo, I had never seen a wolf up close and personal like this, right at the glass. I don't recall ever seeing one out of their underground lair.

Those were the main animal events, any of which by itself would make a summer a successful one at the zoo. These were very unusual sightings for a casual zoo visitors and especially to see them all on the same day is just an amazing thing.

I wish I would have brought that camera!

There were many other nice things, as soon as we got there we ran into a squad of zoo professionals out in the open with things like snakes, large cockroaches, and other critters.

We ate overlooking the great central lake at the zoo and had a good time and got a lot of exercise. Naps were in store later in the day for all.

I hope that you had a chance to enjoy the splendor of the outdoors this last weekend wherever you were at.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff

On Saturday, I jumped in a vehicle and headed South in to the Appalachian Hills part of Southern Ohio. I had my son with me.

We drove for two hours before we arrived right on the nose as planned in the late afternoon.

We primed our real journey at Old Man's Cave, descending into the earth like my son had never done before.

We hiked and climbed up and down all over the cavernous ridges where the Old Man once lived, they say.

Then we headed three miles down the road where the real journey began.

We hiked into a split in the earth called Conkles Hollow. My son told me clearly later that he did not like the Conkles Hollow Hike.

He didn't like it because you could look up and there were just these sheer cliffs that seemed to go forever. Also, he had wanted to go on the upper rim trail when we started and I had to gently talk him out of it because I had taken it once and it was one of the scariest days in my life. On the Rim trail, you actually hike right on the edge of the hollow below and that was too scary for me. One slip and you are a goner is all I remember thinking. You can tell I am respectful of heights! So is my son!

Conkles Hollow is like Land of the Giants, or Jurassic Park. You feel so small as you see these giant cliffs, massive fallen boulders of float rock, and giant trees. If you hike into the Hollow, you keep going lower as the cliffs continue to grow around you. As you proceed in, the sun eventually goes away as the temperature also drops. The humidity is really weird, too, because you would sweat while being cold. It was weird.

We hiked back which is a few miles in. Half way there we stopped to eye this massive cave now shut off that I recall climbing in when I was younger. We stood on this massive float rock, which is some kind of huge sandstone bolder that has FLOATED down the canyon walls. That was a very powerful feeling for some unknown reason. It was like we had conquered the earth in a little way.

The cave we visited was half way back so we kept going. We passed what they called the Horses Grotto, a cave believed to have been used by early American Indians. My son was no longer interested in stepping into the Grotto. He was getting scared for some reason as we proceeded deeper into the planet. One thing that he didn’t like is that as we got to the end of the Hollow, the overhead walls are more massive than ever and more importantly, they are closer to each other making you feel even more suffocated. like you are near the center of the earth or something.

He really had a problem with one of the last curves before we reached the end of the hollow but I coaxed him through as we reached the holding pond that marked where the end of the hollow was dumped into by the overhead waterfall from the upper ground.

My son would not walk to the edge of the pond, which was ominous and dark. The waterfall was not falling due to the drought conditions in the area so it was a big dark calm pond that you could walk to the edge of on a dark sandy basin.

My son was saying something to me as I looked over in wonderment. I shushed my son somehow and he responded and just let me comfort his fear with a Dad hug around his shoulders while I continued to look over in amazement.

There were a few other groups there who had hiked back into the hollow and were enjoying the setting. There was a family of maybe 6 or 7 people over by the pond, a couple sitting on a large rock together, and maybe another group of two or three behind them.

Also, I noticed another couple who caught my attention.

There was a man on his knees in front of a woman talking to her while she sat on a rock. She had the largest smile on her face. I watched in curiosity for a few minutes. I could only hear them as a mumble from where I was, probably 50 feet away from them.

I could not believe my eyes as reality set in.

My son now had gained courage as we stood there for a few minutes and as he saw kids half his age running around the holding pool, so we started down from our high spot at the end of the hollow and headed over towards the pool of water.

We passed the young couple who had caught my eye.

I looked over at her as we passed by and asked her, "Did he just propose to you?". She giggled excitedly and said that he had. He acknowledged the same with his look and without words while merely shaking his head up and down with a nod.

I offered my hand in congratulations to both of them and expressed that I was so lucky to have been able to witness such an event. What a gift it was for me. I wish them the best in life, this unknown couple. They became a message for me on an already wonderful day.

We hiked out of Conkles Hollow ending a great day of hiking and life.

Thanks for reading! I really enjoyed writing this article.

Jeff

copyright 2007 by Jeff Humphrey and VoicesNet.com

Well, I am a zoo member now (once again).

It had been a few years but now it is once again. I paid the dues and joined the zoo!

The Columbus Zoo is one of the best in the world (I hear and see). You know, Jack Hanna and company. If you're in the States, you might know Jack Hanna's name from the late night comedy shows, where he takes his animals to get the attention and to amuse the country. Jack Hanna on a late night talk show is like a Laurel and Hardy segment.

I took my son and tried out North America land first and then the new Asia Quest exhibit. This was on a side of the zoo that we had not been keeping up on. It was great. We saw the largest snake in captivity (24, 31, or 40 feet - I'm old), albino alligators, bats with the largest wing span (6 feet and creepy), and a barking deer from Asia. My son even petted a 4' boa constrictor.

It was a hot day but it is amazing what $4.95 plus a fan plus two batteries and a spray bottle and a water fountain can do for you.

My legs were screaming last night but it was worth it.

Today, I'm heading out to get a cheap $19.00 Walmart plastic pool. That sounds like a good deal to me.

Later I have to catch up on a lot of work stuff on many different fronts but it is nice out right now, a little hot (think in the 90s today) but the humidity has been quite better lately.

I keep forgetting that I am running for President so I better spend some time on that. I'm looking for some campaign managers. Who is this Hillary Clinton?

Have a great day,

Jeff

When I become the US President some day, I will immediately arrest all of the senators and congressmen who will not release their "Earmmark Spending" requests.

Can you image what these leaders of the US are thinking who will not release this information to the public who elected them into office.

We send them there to Washington to represent us and you are submitting your requests for funding and you are not wanting to reveal this to us.

I am with CNN and Fox and many others out there in blog land and insists that these folks release this information right now. In fact, I'm thinking about calling the networks to see if they want an interview on this topic with me.

I suggest to all citizens of the US to call and write and email your representatives to the federal government and tell them what you think about this issue.

Vote for me. I'll lead the way! (I know I can't probably have them arrested but what the heck, sounded good). It is though, like, that this is a moral law, a moral agreement between the reps and the citizens and it is being broken in my eyes (as a candidate to the US Presidency).

Thanks for your support,

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A Special Note to all of my supporters of my candidacy:

Sorry, I've been kind of busy. Who knows where the time goes. I have kids, too, you know, so keep that in mind before you jump ship on the "run". I'm actually thinking of doing all of my campaigning from here in my office through my computer. I want to show fresh ideas and that's pretty fresh although a few of my fellow candidates do king of look like some old "Scanners" actors for some reason so I'm keeping my eyes on them (for an occasional pulse).

This should excite you, supporters, to help in the campaign financing department, I am going offshore to have most day to day campaign activities completed. Wages are a lot cheaper and we can make a million dollars go a lot farther this way (in case we get a million dollars).

We are also implementing a new "get the word out" campaign where we are trying to establish a network of librarians to ask every patron who checks out a library book if they would support "Jeff Humphrey for the US Presidency". We want them to include a flyer in each checked out book but we might not get that in our agreements.

Vote for Jeff!! :)

If you have loved ones who are in or were in US or Allied Armed Services, there is a new tribute website where you can make a tribute page for your favorite soldiers.

It is called WarNotes.com

Please help us get this new tribute website off of the ground by supporting the troops.

Go to WarNotes.com and register with a valid email address and you can immediately start creating soldier tribute pages.

The new website is not intended to be anti-war or pro-war but is apolitical in that respect. It is a commemorative and historical website honoring those who have served their countries in valor.

Your help would be supported.

Read Jeff Humphrey's blog for information about why this website was hatched. That article is at

What I Did for Dad on Father's Day

WarNotes.com