This walk didn't stink... and some things that do

For example, how about natural gas?  You know, of course, that the gas utility puts the "rotten-egg" smell in gas so that you KNOW you have a leak.  And yet...

Severely burned man recovers after home explosion

Updated: Monday, 15 Jul 2013, 11:18 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 15 Jul 2013, 10:31 PM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - On July 14, 2012, Caleb Hofmann was home alone at his house on Bayer Avenue. He said there was a strong smell and he wanted to light a candle to get rid of it.

The smell was a natural gas leak, and when Hofmann struck the match, his home exploded.

"I basically remember the ambulance getting there, and then, I woke up three months later," Hofmann said.

 

 

Well, congrats, Caleb.  You are the winner of a shiny new AH-CRAP award.  Other winners today include this one from Nain's legal blog:

 

 

Government protest was the reason for a bank robbery in Seymour, Indiana, on July 3, 2013, according to the Columbus Republic.

 

Wayne Paul Spaulding, 20, North Vernon, stands accused of robbing River Valley Financial Bank, 1725 E. Tipton Street. According to the Republic, Spaulding said he was mad at the government and decided to rob the bank just to see if he could.

Spaulding, a resident of Country Squire Lakes, was arrested several hours after the incident at his CSL home. He was arrested and taken into custody without incident. According to the North Vernon Plain Dealer & Sun, police recovered an undisclosed size and amount of all but $100 of the cash stolen during the robbery.

 

 

Well, Wayne, I don't know if it's any satisfaction, but here's your spanking new AH-CRAP...

 

 

 

Next up, how about a group award for the city of Fort Worth and the contractors they employ:

 

The city of Fort Worth is investigating how demolition crews erroneously razed the wrong house.

MyFoxDFW.com reports that a three bedroom, ranch-style family home near Lake Worth reservoir was accidentally demolished by city crews on Friday.

The vacant home belonged to a relative of David Underwood, who told the station he was recently driving by the lot when his wife noticed that home wasn't there.

"We looked up there and sure enough, it's gone," Underwood said.

Underwood said there were personal items inside the demolished home, including antiques. The home had been in his family for decades.

An unidentified neighbor told MyFoxDFW.com that a nearby home was set to be demolished since January. The neighbor reportedly tried to alert city officials when crews began tearing down the wrong house.

The city of Fort Worth on Monday confirmed the accidental demolition in a statement to the station.

"On July 12, 2013, contractors demolished the wrong property on Watercress Drive. The property to be demolished should have been 9708 Watercress Dr. The property that was demolished was a vacant structure located at 9716 Watercress Drive," read the statement from the city's code compliance office.

08, 16, what's the difference, eh?

 

For our space-interested fans, how about one for the International Astronomical Union?  These, of course, are the ones who in 2006 erased 76 years of science classes by declaring Pluto was not a planet, but a "dwarf planet."  Still, it didn't prevent them from discovering new moons around the non-planet this summer.

 

Meet Styx and Kerberos, the two newest non-moons around the non-planet.  Actually, one of them was supposed to be Vulcan, which was the name selected by the majority in the "Pluto Rocks!" name the moon contest.  The IAU vetoed that selection, because they stipulate that it must be a "character from Greek or Roman mythology", and not from Star Trek.  Hello????

 

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Vulcan (Latin: Vulcanus) is the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes. Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer... His Greek counterpart is Hephaestus, the god of fire and smithery.

 

 

IAU, this AH-CRAP's for you!

 

And with that, our short tour this morning.  We left at 9 AM to avoid skunks.  The heat was hot, as they say, but the humidity was way down.  As we started, I thought about what I learned about our front door slime molds yesterday.

 

 

When it's yellow and has moist stuff coming out of it, it is moving like an amoeba after bacteria.  If memory serves, the used to teach it was a link between plant and animal, but I don't think they say that anymore.

 

 

 

 

When it runs out of food (which it likes to find on damp mulch such as this), it dries out and takes on the spongy, puke-y characteristics that give it its common name, "dog's-vomit mold".

 

 

Inside it is full of dark spores.  The bad news is, you really can't get rid of them.  The good news, they don't hurt anything.

 

 

 

 

Watering around the office.  Scrappy likes water he can wade into, not water that falls on him.  "Can we just get outta here?"

 

So we went the north way to the trail, along Washington Center to where it (one day) is supposed to cross the road and head for Foster Park.  Two things are a concern here walking Mr. Dog.  One is the little bitty gap between ravine and four-lane...

 

The other?  Distraction by roadkill.

Anyway, once you've braved the roadway, you have to sneak around a gate put in place so that AH-CRAP winners don't try to take their cars down the foot trail...

And then you're good.

I've never seen a cardinal this bright of a red.  He must be the local Pope.

As we went along, we were passed far too fast by a bright blue bird I hadn't saw before.  I didn't get a pic but here's one from the net.  He's an indigo bunting.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, other than when we crossed the canal, we were dive bombed by several barn swallows...

 

Oh, and I have two sports related notes.  First, congrats to the A's Yoenis Cespedes for winning the home run derby!!!

 

#YOKNOWSDERBY (for you twitter-paters) hit 17 in the first round- enough that he didn't need to hit in the second round!  He then won a thrilling 9-8 final round with Bryce Harper ("the Hawpah", as they say on DirecTV), using only 5 of his 10 outs!


The other is more of an AH-CRAP that actually relates to Mr. Hernandez.  Meet Maurkice and Mike Pouncey.

Twin brothers, one plays for the Steelers, one with the Dolphins.  Both got off of involvement in the murder from Hernandez's freshman year in Florida, even though they were most assuredly involved.  Now they have the nerve to go around with "Free Hernandez" hats.  Maurkice has since apologized (and playing for the Rooneys, I'd be surprised if he's done with the consequences), though no word has come from the Dolphins camp except "We just heard about it."  These two, though stinking with guilt themselves, are no worse than all the idiot celebrities like Toni "I'm embarrassed to I'm an American" Braxton (Note to Toni:  I'm embarrassed that you are, too) who think that a non-black should be convicted DESPITE lack of evidence and DESPITE prosecutors that can't prove a case just BECAUSE the victim is black.  Throw in twitter-brains Victor Cruz and Roddy White as well.  CRY ME A RIVER!  Right now, there's still such a thing called the law, and the jury said that although they might have wanted to convict Zimmerman on something, the LAW gave them no basis to convict.  I have already contacted the Dolphins to dump Mike through their Facebook page.  They can say what they want, free speech.  But if that speech reveals them to be $#!t-for-brain punks, then I don't want one on my team.

Oh, and BTW:  How come nobody's bitching about "white Hispanic" George Zimmerman Aaron Hernandez murdering African-American Trayvon Martin Odin Lloyd?