Waterford Park Strikes Out

At a recent hearing before the Kootenai County Hearing Examiner, Waterford Park Homes, LLC was denied approval of a conversion from a commercial building next to the boat launch, to that of a residential condominium.

This project has long been a sore spot with local residents, who feel Bayview is becoming a "Company Town", owned and controlled by Bob Holland, owner of Waterford Park Homes, LLC.

The following points were raised by the examiner, as part of the recommendation for denial. Waterford Park has the option of appealing to the County Council, but it is believed that after so many egregious actions by the applicant, there probably won't be a friendly welcome there either.

.The property is currently zoned commercial and is not appropriate to be used as residential purposes.

.There is insufficient parking available for a residential condominium development.

.The development does not meet Americans with disabilities Act certification.

.This development currently has various Red Tags from the Kootenai County Planning and Zoning Department and the Idaho Department of Lands for development code violations and has proceeded with work on this development without required permits.

.It sits on the identified flood plain of Lake Pend Oreille.

This should drive a nail into the heart of a very unpopular developer, were it not for the fact that the community doesn't have the proper permit for that, either...

An interesting conjecture would be that now the building has gone through the construction for the conversion without permits, can it be then retro-constructed back to commercial, or would that permit be denied, too?

The moral of this story is that after buying, then throwing out mobile home owners in one park, and after having given eviction notices to another, creating several dozen homeless, the tight knit community of Bayview is outraged.

When I was in the service, we had an expression that fits here. "Don't pee in your own mess kit."

Gerald Ford...RIP

I honestly never liked Jerry Ford. He, through his caretaker role as president, let his ego rule him, and caused the Reagan era a delay that was critical, insofar as it allowed Jimmy Carter into the Presidency, and the decimation of our armed forces.

Yet he was an honest man...A principled man. He actually thought he could win the election that he lost to perhaps the biggest loser that we ever had as a president.

I go to bed tonight, with these mixed feelings. Having said all this, however, rest in peace, Mr President. Unlike others, you never shamed the office.

History will undoubtedly treat you better than we will.

Storm Clouds on the Horizon

As I prepare for the year 2007, several vagrant thoughts cross my mind. What I believe I'm seeing is the period just before a thunderstorm hits. The hair standing on end,ozone smell in the air, the waiting...

Some of the same storm warnings are apparent in human behavior. People seem more aggressive, less polite...As always, folks are killing each other in the name of God, Allah, (same God)or just because we use a different Prophet as an intermediary.

In review, Catholics and Protestants still fight over religious differences in Northern Ireland, even thought they worship the same Deity...

Shiites are killing Sunnis, even though they both follow Mohammad...

Muslims and Christians over the World seem bent upon Crusades 11.

In Israel, Hamas and the PLO are fighting over whether to eradicate the Israelis now, or later, and let us not forget the Kurds, screwed out of their homeland by Imperial Great Britain, after the "War to end all Wars."

All of these religeous wars, killing in the name of God, plus the freaks. Rogue Nations such as North Korea, that want power for power's sake.

I wonder...I worry...My hair is standing on end and I smell ozone...

Christmas Eve in Bayview

I stepped out on my deck a few minutes ago. The Village is dark and silent, except for decorations that twinkle over the water of the bay.

The kids and grandkids called today wishing me a Merry Christmas. Taking a day off from Potato Salad, I'm baking. The Seahawks lost again. Life goes on.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL, GOOD NIGHT...

The Promised Land

I have been fighting Internet Explorer for over a week. First I down loaded, as instructed, IE version 7. They called it Beta 7. Now I know what beta means. "Experimental."

I couldn't stay on line more than a few minutes, without the system going into "program Not responding." They didn't respond...I did!

After switching between version 6 and 7, I finally gave up. Suddenly, from the hinterlands, a voice appeared. They were friends, there to help. There was Adam, and a lady,(sorry I didn't get your name) from the contractor that services Time-Warner, late at night.

Then there was Backwoods Bob, Bill McCrory, and Tyskoduk. They all stepped up to help me in my fathomless ignorance of what happens when your computer has a mind of it's own.

Finally, I sucked it up and typed in: http://mozilla.org/products/firefox/. An amazing thing happened. When I down loaded Firefox, they brought my cookies, favorites, and all other stuff that had been saved on other programs.

I am now not, as you can see, locked out of Blogger.com. I am free to cast aspersions upon the character of the bad guys, praise the good ones, rake muck to my hearts content, and of course, send forth unsolicited opinions on many various topics.

I have reached at least one, of the promised lands. (The next might be tougher)

Thank you all for being there for me and Merry Christmas to all...

Microsoft Sucks

Lest any of you think I have a fixation on sucking, let me explain. I have been denied access to posting on this blog for two days. The reason?

I routinely downloaded an update from Microsoft from Internet Explorer version 6, to 7. This is called a "Beta" version. Every 20 minutes or so, the program would become unresponsive.

I have been very critical of Time-Warner recently, but I got help through one of their contractors that provide tech support. We finally decided to delete version 7.

That worked fine, except in the process, I could no longer access the blog. Yesterday, Bill McCrory spent a huge amount of time patiently trying to lead me to the promised land. We finally gave up. Today, another fine fellow, Backwoods Bob, who is a computer engineer, came to the rescue.

It turns out the "Beta" means experimental. Bob was able to go into Microsoft Support and discover that their "Anti-Phishing" program has flaws that is causing service interruptions. We deleted that, tweaked version seven and all is fine today.

The Wordslinger from Ontario,Canada in Tech Support, Bill McCrory, and Backwoods Bob are the most patient I've ever known. Try talking out a problem with a mostly deaf person, and I'll guarantee most people would give up in disgust. Thank you all.

Now I can go back to muckraking and expounding unsolicited opinions.

Death Defying Acts

Whether your favorite adventurer is a mountain climber, white water kyaker, parachuter, stunt pilot or whatever, millions of dollars per year are spent rescuing them.

The American people are a generous sort. Willing to help out their neighbors when in distress. Stepping up, such as in the Groene situation. I applaude that spirit.

What gets to me though, is that adventurers such as the three lying dead on the slopes of Mt. Hood, in Oregon, decided to face the challenge of climbing one of the stormist, snow blown peaks in the Country during bad weather. Did they get a comprehensive weather report before tackling the Mountain? I would hazard a guess that they did not.

For too long we have footed the bill for reckless adventurers when their foolish behavior gets them into trouble. I believe that if these people insist on doing these kinds of things, that they should be required to sign a waiver that explains they will be responsible for all expenses of rescue, and require them to bond the government, or arrange for private financing of the bail-out.

Famine & Pestulence Next?

Our good friends the Cascades didn't step up this time. Thursday night, all hell broke loose. We had winds of forty to fifty miles per hour, punctuated by gusts of who knows. The top half of trees that had stood for a hundred years or more, twisted off and fell,usually on top of something.

Since the papers have covered this story well, I will bore those of you that are local. For those that live in the mid-west, they're going to say, "What's the big deal." For those Snowbirds that are from this area...It's a big deal.

Because of the sharp rise in the foothills that we call home, tornados, although not impossible, don't occur often. What we get, is in a strong storm, downbursts that will twist the tops or even the top half of large living trees until they snap.

Thats what happened Thursday night. I would have reported this earlier, except for the fact that my power was out for more than 24 hours. I became a refugee. Friday morning, I hopped in my very fortunately undamaged car, and surveyed the damage.

The famous Bitter End Pine? Gone...Or at least half of it. A tree that has been threatening our Trailer court? broke into little pieces, missing everything. (If you didn't know, yes, I am trailer trash.) Yes. One of those people that retired without large pensions. Not your fault. My bad, but nevertheless, here I am.

In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, just south of us about 25 miles, a different story. Two trailer park/RV parks experienced serious damage. In Spokane, Washington, West of us, four deaths occured. At the height of the storm, we had 50,000 folks out of power. 50,000 might not seem like that extreme, except we are rural, and 50,000 power users represent several hundred square miles.

Those of you that have boats in the local marinas? Don't worry. The winds came at us from the West, Southwest, and the marinas at lake level suffered no damage that I have heard of. Had the wind reached thse velocities from the other direction, it would have been bad.

I retreated to a motel in Coeur d'Alene, whence I rediscovered the local night life in the city. Then, retiring to my room, I wondered if my home was alright. I wondered that all night. This morning, broke with sunny skies, windless and beautiful.

All I had suffered was loss of sleep. My home is fine, and all of those of our community. Somehow, we dodged the bullet. I will sleep well tonight. I wrote this so that those of you that winter elsewhere, could too...

Time-Warner Sucks

Time-Warner Cable appears to be headed for self-destruction in a big way. Since they took over Adelphia, here in North Idaho, we've had nothing but problems. Within the first few weeks we had service interuptions that lasted from hours, to days.

Now, in a dispute with the local Fox outlet, we will lose fox, and possibly Fox Sports Network if they don't come to agreement before Midnight tonight.

The current dispute is over whether Time-Warner should pay KAYU, a UHF station, and Fox outlet for Spokane, Washington and surrounding areas.

Both sides actually have made gross misrepresentations while stating their positions. KAYU is a UHF station with very limited broadxcast radius. With cable, their advertisers get a huge boost in viewership which should and does make more money for the station.

Time-Warner, has dug their heels in over this issue, claiming that the station is viewable by antenna, ignoring the fact that direct broadcast is very limited. T/W is on the eve of losing Fox, and the resulting loss of NFC football coverage after today. This would take the coverage of our regional team, the Seahawks, and Mariners away.

In the opinion of Bayviews, these entities need Babysitters, not Litigators.

The giant sucking sound you will hear tomorrow, across our area, will be the telephone overload, as disgruntled Seahawk fans rush to order either DISH or Direct TV...

Religious Warfare

Somewhere, somehow, we have lost the ability to call a spade a shovel. In the ever increasing desire to never offend anyone or any group, we hear nothing about the truth of our War against terrorism. That truth is that we are at war with a religion.

Certainly, not all Moslems are warlike, or terrorists, but a large enough percentage of them take to heart the directions that Mohammed left regarding the killing of infidels. When he was driven out of Mecca to Medina, he returned, killing all of his detractors in the process.

I believe that until we recognize why we are at war, and approach it from the religeous warefare angle, we can't win because we are not participating in the same contest they are.

We have the Saudis, supposedly our friends, funding terrorists every bit as much or more than Kaddafi ever did, but because of politics our government covers it's eyes, ears, and mouth, much like the three monkeys of "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil."

Bayview Invaded

Bayview was invaded today. No, not by black helecopters from Canada, (they need passports now, you see) Not by philandering Cops, but by birds.

Big White headed Bald Eagles. As magnificent as they are though it sometimes pains me that our National symbol is a carrion eater. I guess that Turkey Buzzards were'nt National or sexy enough, but they have much the same diet. Roadkill tops the menu, but for December at the Lake. Then, their attention turns to dying, spawned out Kokanee, or Blueback as we locals call them.

These birds will hang around Bayview and environs until they have cleaned up every scrap of decaying fish, at which time we will run them off for having severe halatosis.

We invite those bird watchers to join us in celebrating the arrival of the Eagles, and your participation in "Happy Hour" which ohmygod, has already started without me. I'm outta here.

TV Networks Rule?

Well, the BCS has spoken. Florida will play Ohio State, instead of Michigan. I truly believe that the networks have with the power of the dollar, completely taken over any close calls that occur under the present system.

Lets step back a moment. When Ohio State, #1, beat Michigan, #2 only by three points,at Ohio, which with home field advantage was a toss-up and Florida with an identical record was beat by #8 Auburn, I have to question the objectivity of the decision.

Strength of schedule can hardly favor Florida, with the SEC only having about three competitive teams, and Big Ten, or Twelve, or what ever they are called now, never gets a rest from top flight competition.

I think it boils down to TV. They thought that two teams playing each other for the first time would be more interesting than a rematch...But was it fair and objective?

Kootenai County Prosecutors Flaunt Porn

While deputy prosecutors are in the County Courthouse on a daily basis, trying to convict child porn offenders, and other crimes of a personal nature, the prosecutors were caught recently by the Spokesman-Review, trading porn and child porn e-mails in a joke format.

Fresh from the Joseph Duncan case, one wonders what in the form of evidence is circulated as "funny" e-mails among law enforcement and the Prosecutors office. We need a huge broom...Right now...

For the story on this, go to Huckleberries

Names & Places

Two or three years ago, I went on a road trip to beat all road trips. I started in North Idaho, went the Northern route ending up in South Carolina. I came back by the Southern States, up through the Ozarks, Branson Missouri, and on the the West coast by way of Phoenix, Arizona, thence back to Idaho.

One of the things I always wanted to write about, was some of the outstandingly funny names for some places. Now, I readily admit that I live right next door to Athol, Idaho, so I'm not picking on just one region.

Most of the fun stuff is in the South. I credit them with having outstanding senses of humor. For instance, how about Wetumpka, Alabama. This is a place that students reach high school age before they can spell their town's name...

Flippin, Arkansas...Now there is a town that must party a lot. How about Zephyrhills, Florida. Windy there perhaps. Oh yes, folks, there really is a Tallahatchee Bridge. It crosses the aforementioned River just past the Talladega Raceway of NASCAR fame. Nothing was being thrown off the bridge as I passed though.

Los Banos, California, which if I remember my Spanish is translated to, "the toilet", was an interesting name for a town, but I would have picked Rialto for that name, myself.

Anchorage, Alaska isn't hard to figure out, but how about Anchorage, Kentucky? Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is one of my favs, but Bug Tussle, Oklahoma beats it out.

Truth or Consequenses, New Mexico, named after the game show...

Some visualization is required for many of these names, but I urge you not to use that while considering Humptulips, Washington...

Solutions in Iraq

I am not a military genius, but during my life, we have fought five major wars, and numerous minor engagements. Simple observation, plus some military experience, mated up with the fact that I don't have a a personal agenda, qualifies me to speak on this subject.

What got me started, was reading a fine editorial by Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News. To paraphrase him, we need an outside the box solution, not just a tweaking of the existing plan. (I use that word loosely)

He goes on to suggest embedding US troops in the police and army units. The logic here is sound. These folks can't very well take off on a vengeance crusade, with our people with them. He further wonders why this hasn't already taken place. I think I have the answer to that one. Politics. We set out to turn the government back to the Iraqi people too soon. Having wed ourselves to that course, our government is having trouble using reverse gear.

Back in the Sixties, President Kennedy set up an irregular Army unit called Special Forces. They were irregular in the sense that they did not exist to fight battles and charge the enemy, as the Rangers did. They led indigenous forces that were under trained for their mission, in fighting their own battles.

Sound familiar? Yup! The mission that the Green Berets fulfilled in Viet Nam. Today we have a large contingent of these A-Teams available, but we aren't using them for which they were trained. The following is a cut & paste from the Army mission that explains the Special Forces and their role.

Special Forces Operational Detachment A (SFOD A) The "A Detachment" or "A Team" is the basic SF unit. This twelve man unit is specifically designed to organize, equip, train, advise or direct, and support indigenous military or paramilitary forces in UW and FD operations. The detachment has a commander (Captain), XO (Warrant Officer), and two enlisted specialists in each of the five SF functional areas: operations, weapons, engineers, medical, and communications. Each SF company has one SFOD A trained in combat diving and one SFOD A trained in military free-fall parachuting.

Attach these guys to each Iraqi unit, with the ability to call in air strikes if necessary and we might find a way out of this mess. We then pull back our line troops to the porous borders of Iran and Syria to hold territorial integrity.

That's my take on this...If any of you have a better idea, let's hear it...

Silent Days

It is much like I imagine the sight one would see if everyone fled Bayview during the night. The Christmas poem comes to mind. "All is calm, all is bright." Not a single sound is to be heard here today.

The snow drifts down, coating the trees and roofs with winter white. Tomorrow is supposed to usher in a winter storm.

Wait, I see a fisherman's boat sliding into the bay. Hopefully, he or she has the winning fish in the current fishing derby. My newest neighbors, driving the junker that starts up every morning at 5:30 AM sans muffler just arrived,and the spell is broken. The snow stops and a blue sky emerges...

Snowbird Study???

Saturday's Spokesman-Review revealed that fact that a WSU Assistant Professor recently received a grant to, get this, spend the Winter in Arizona! He is according to this article, studying the interplay between permanent residents and snowbirds.

This educator shows his elitist side when stating, "I'm an expedition-type backpacker." and "have never been in an RV, much less slept in one."

OK, he is to be admired for admitting up front, that he has actually no qualifications to study RV folks. None at all. Turns his nose up at those that don't camp out in a sleeping bag on the ground at 30 below. Probably shops at all the "In" outfitters, you know, L.L. Bean and such. Anyway, I digress.

This smarmy, unqualified individual just got PAID to do what the rest of us can't afford to do, because not all of us can afford $3.00 per gallon gas, and 6 miles per gallon on our firmly parked RV's.

The source of this magnificent grant wasn't revealed, and a good thing. They then avoided the ridicule that I would have heaped on them. Am I envious? Bet your ass I am. The only way I'm going to get anyone to pay my way to Arizona this winter, is to piss off so many people that they take up a collection to get rid of me.

In case you haven't guessed yet, this is my first installment on the aforementioned plan...

From Under The Rocks

Well, It's started, and even before the newly elected Congress is seated. It would appear that the far left and moderate wings of the Democratic party are already in full battle for party control.

In an unbelievable attack, Robert Scheer, from the ultra-left, is attacking the Dems for not supporting the Pelosi choice for Majority Leader of the house. Disregarding both the overwhelming vote for Hoyer, and reality, he hacked away with generalities, slogans, vitriol and essentially, threw down the liberal gauntlet, declaring the war for control to be on.

My take on this new war, is that more casualties will ensue from this internal dispute than our "Occupation" of Iraq. I use the term occupation, since "War" denotes uniformed official troops fighting on the battlefield.

All this, before these newly elected leaders have even taken their seats. As I read the editorial page of our Spokesman-Review, it occured to me that the Republican Party has to do nothing. Attack nothing. Let the Democrats self-destruct. They don't need any help...

Auctions, Indeed!

It has come to my attention that an auction has recently been held, for the goal of having lunch with several minor officials. Hey, don't get me wrong... If these folks need sponsors so that they don't have to buy their own lunch, far be it from me to interfere...

On the other hand, (do I sound like a one handed economist?) If we are going to start sponsoring lunches for good causes, I am willing to volunteer myself for the good of the community. There are several very good reasons for this, the first being that I am cheap.

I must assume, while we are at it, that someone other than the aforementioned big wheel picks up the tab. Should that not be the case, I humbly withdraw my name as a volunteer er...Victim, ah..."Blogstar."

North Idaho Says Goodbye

Sunday at the Captain's Wheel was all about saying goodbye to Jerry Berry, principle owner of the Wheel, friend to all and a great guy.

A potluck dinner, a celebration of Jerry's life, and a bunch of deranged musicians, doing what Jerry loved the most, performing music 'till the cows come home. Over thirty musicians crowded into the Wheel to pay respects to one of the great Inn Keepers we've known.

The crowd, estimated at over four hundred, staged through, sampling the food and the many memories of Jerry Berry. There were never any strangers in the Wheel when Jerry was present. He would come over, throw an arm around you and make you feel like a million dollars.

He would have looked at the festivities, then probably use his favorite expresion, saying it was "Hoodakai."

At this hour, the party still goes on...We'll miss you, Guy...