We attended a gathering of the narrow gauge modeler clans this weekend.

Here are some pix.

It's your internet to protect.

Give this a try for more information!

http://americancensorship.org/modal/call-form-moz.html

I went fishing this morning but after a short time

I ran out of worms. Then I saw a cottonmouth

with a frog in his mouth. Frogs are good bass bait.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog

in his mouth I grabbed him right behind the head,

took the frog, and put it in my bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without

getting bit. So, I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniel's

and poured a little whiskey in its mouth. His eyes

rolled back, he went limp. I released him into the

lake without incident and carried on fishing using

the frog.

A little later, I felt a nudge on my foot.

It was that snake, with two more frogs.

We spent four days near Birmingham, Alabama this past weekend. It was for a family reunion and as usual, I was schlepping my camera everywhere. There are two galleries this time. The first is a very short collection of my favorite images from the more than 680 shots. The second is a much larger gallery showing some scenes from the only complete iron furnace museum in the United States. It's called the Sloss Furnaces and is well worth the visit if you're in the Birmingham area.

http://mentilucent.net/AlabamaPretty/AlabamaPretty.html

http://mentilucent.net/SlossMill/SlossMill.html

A gallery of some images from

Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Island.

Better than the usual tourist stuff!

We were out and about this past weekend!

Here are the two galleries:

http://mentilucent.net/Catoctin/Catoctin.html

http://mentilucent.net/OldMill/OldMill.html

Enjoy!

Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob.
So they loaded up Jack's minivan and headed north.
After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard.
They pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the night.
'I realize its terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed,' she explained. 'I'm afraid the neighborswill talk if I let you stay in my house.'
'Don't worry,' Jack said. 'We'll be happy to sleep in the barn, and if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light. 'The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night.
Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way.
They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.
But about nine months later, Jack got anunexpected letter from an attorney.
It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney ofthat attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend.
He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, 'Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed at on our ski holiday up north about 9 months ago?'
'Yes, I do.' said Bob
'Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?'
'Well, um, yes!,' Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out, 'I have to admit that I did.'
'And did you happen to give her my name insteadof telling her your name?'
Bob's face turned beet red and he said, 'Yeah, look, I'm sorry, buddy, I'm afraid I did.' 'Why do you ask?'
'She just died and left me everything.'

October 24, 1861, 150 years ago today, the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed.

The first message sent over this predecessor of the Internet was:

TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
IN THE TEMPORARY ABSENSE OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE I AM REQUESTED TO SEND YOU THE FIRST MESSAGE WHICH WILL BE TRANSMITTED OVER THE WIRES OF THE TELEGRAPH LINE WHICH CONNECTS THE PACIFIC WITH THE ATLANTIC STATES. THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA DESIRE TO CONGRATULATE YOU UPON THE COMPLETION OF THE GREAT WORK. THEY BELIEVE THAT IT WILL BE THE MEANS OF STRENGTHENING THE ATTACHMENT WHICH BINDS BOTH THE EAST AND THE WEST TO THE UNION, AND THEY DESIRE IN THIS--THE FIRST MESSAGE ACROSS THE CONTINENT--TO EXPRESS THEIR LOYALTY TO THE UNION AND THEIR DETERMINATION TO STAND BY ITS GOVERNMENT ON THIS ITS DAY OF TRIAL. THEY REGARD THAT GOVERNMENT WITH AFFECTION AND WILL ADHERE TO IT UNDER ALL FORTUNES.
STEPHEN J. FIELD
CHIEF JUSTICE OF CALIFORNIA

My wife and I took a day trip up to see the East Broad Top railroad and the Rockville Trolly Musem which adjoins the EBT.
Here are a few of the more than 500 images I shot that day.
http://mentilucent.net/EBT2011/EBT2011.html

We took a trip up to the East Broad Top RR and this is just the first batch of art photos.
http://mentilucent.net/EBT-Art/EBT_ART.html

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: 'Talking Dog For Sale 'He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

'You talk?' he asks.

'Yep,' the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says 'So, what's your story?'

The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young.. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA.

In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. '

'I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running...

But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.'
'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired.'

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

'Ten dollars,' the guy says.

'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?'

'Because he's a Damn liar. He's never been out of the back yard'

A couple made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the other if there was sex after death. Their biggest fear was that there was no after-life at all.
After a long life together, the husband was the first to die.
True to his word, he made the first contact:
"Joanne..........Joanne" "Is that you, Tom?"
"Yes, I've come back like we agreed." "That's wonderful!? What's it like?"
"Well, I get up in the morning, I have the sex. I have breakfast and then it's off to the golf course. I have sex again, bathe in the warm sun
and then have sex a couple of more times. Then I have lunch you'd be proud - lots of greens. Another romp around the golf course, then pretty much have sex the rest of the afternoon. After supper, it's back to the golf course again. Then it's more sex until late at night. I catch some much-needed sleep and then the next day it starts all over again"
"Oh, Tom, are you in Heaven?"
No, I'm a rabbit in Kansas ."

We took a nice drive out to West Virginia and managed to get a few photos. Here's the link:
http://mentilucent.net/PawPaw/PawPaw.html

I attended a geek convention near DC last week and got a few pix of a new convention complex and some tourist shots with a new friend.
http://mentilucent.net/Gaylord/GaylordCon.html