why in the hell would anybody live in Montana...i mean really Alaska is 10 times better than that.

If you've ever been there, you'd know. It's absolutely breath-taking country! Of course they have all those crazed, radical fringe groups there. Hmmm, maybe that's gonna be Sarah's new audience.

I love driving along country roads till that country smell hits my nose.

You mean when you run over a skunk.

Been there, done that. I finally had to trade in the car, because no matter how many times I washed it, the smell would return on humid days.

You know what I find soothing in recent years? I love the sound of a distant train when I'm nice and cozy in bed in the evening. I'm sure I wouldn't be thrilled to have tracks right outside my window, but hearing from a distance is relaxing to me. It seems several times a night I hear the train whistle and the clickity-clack of the train. Call me goofy, but I like the sound.


TIS

"You mean when you run over a skunk..."

No, you mean when you run over dinner's first course!

I imagine she could then see Canada from her porch and be able to report all of those Canadiens who are sneaking into the country to access our medical services.

Cow shit?

Exactly.

But I did hit a skunk a couple weeks ago. UGH!!!!! And NO I didn't keep it for dinner.

Ate it right then for lunch?

You kill me loggy

Me too. I also love to hear a heavy rain when I'm half asleep in bed.

I grew up less than a mile from Interstate 81 and would hear the constant drone of traffic every night in bed as a kid. Today I live 2 hours away from home, but still a mile from the interstate. A neighbor once told me that he almost didn't buy his house because of the noise from the highway; I had never even noticed the highway noise in the years I was there.

Another thing I enjoy at night is sitting on my deck and watching about a thousand fireflies twinkling just above the wetlands that slope behind our pool while listening to the countless frogs croaking. Also, the birds seem to be most vocal just before dawn, which is another pleasant thing to here.

And while I'm at it, I love watching thunder storms approach and arrive.

I love heaaring the rain on a tin roof. Also I love it in Kentucky you can hear the water in the creek by the house. No matter where I'm sleeping at I have to use a box fan for the noise.

The KR-EE-K or the KR-IC-K?

Or See-ment pond?

You're right Santino it's the crick.

The crick? Is that where you see all them little critters running round?



TIS

Yeah critters like tad poles, turtles, craw fish.

I like watching/listening to thunderstorms!

I forgot about salamanders, minnows, frogs.

CNN) -- A gunman walked into an LA Fitness gym outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, turned off the lights and fired off 50 rounds, killing three women before killing himself Tuesday evening, police said.

Authorities are at the scene of a shooting at an LA Fitness gym near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The man didn't speak but was carrying a gym bag with a note inside it. He was found dead in the gym lying on top a gun about 7 feet away from a victim, said Charles Moffatt, Allegheny County police superintendent.

At least 10 other people were injured in the barrage of bullets that sent people in the gym ducking for cover, Moffatt said.

A law enforcement source identified the gunman as George Sodini, a 48-year-old gym member.

Moffatt would not release the name of the victims during a Wednesday news conference.

Sodini was a systems analyst in the finance department of K&L Gates, a law firm with an office in Pittsburgh, said Mike Rick, a spokesman for the firm. Sodini had worked for the firm since 1999, Rick said.

Neighbors described Sodini as a bit of a recluse. They said he had stopped talking to neighbors

That's awful, Ollie. Are you familiar with the neighborhood?

Just vaguely PB. It's a Pgh. suburb and I don't recall ever going there.
But get this:

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. - A man who sprayed bullets into a fitness class filled with women, killing three and then himself, apparently kept a Web page in which he wrote about years of rejection by women and an earlier plan for violence at the gym in which he said he "chickened out."

Neighbors described 48-year-old George Sodini as anti-social, and the Web page in his name showcased a resume setting forth his credentials as an unhappy loner. It listed his date of death — Aug. 4, 2009 — and his status of "Never married." The page ended with the words "Death Lives!"

The 4,610-word Web page, on a domain registered in Sodini's name, appeared to be a nine-month chronology of his plans to commit the shooting, his decision to delay it and the process that led to the eventual carnage at the health club Tuesday. Authorities did not immediately confirm that the site belonged to Sodini, but the elaborate nature of the comments so soon after the shootings suggested authenticity.

"The biggest problem of all is not having relationships or friends, but not being able to achieve and acquire what I desire in those or many other areas," said an entry dated Sunday. "Everthing stays the same regardless of the effert I put in. If I had control over my life then I would be happier. But for about the past 30 years, I have not."

The Web site's author wrote of planning the attack since at least November, and had tried to do it when the same Tuesday-night dance aerobics class he targeted met on Jan. 6.

"It is 8:45PM: I chickened out!" he wrote. "I brought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!"

So he killed all those women because he couldn't get a date?

Another social misfit who couldn't be content to just blow his own brains out.

Both pathetic and scary.

So, July's unemployment rate actually dropped to 9.4%. Could this be good news since many economists still expect the rate to top 10% before the end of the year? Of course, the rate calculation is based partially on the fact that over 700k unemployed workers have stopped looking for work. We'll see.

Eunice Kennedy-Shriver is in critical condition and is in the hospital. For those who don't know, she is JFK's sister and Maria Shriver (Schwartzenegger's) mother.

Maria was seen recently at some government proceeding advocating the research for Alzheimer's. Her father, has been diagnose with Alzheimer's. It was quite touching hearing her describe how she use to be his little girl and how he no longer even knows who she is. Anyway, very sad to have both parents nearing the end at the same time.


TIS

New album artwork preview... http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9540/flufront.jpg

TIS do you mean her husband because her father joseph kennedy died in '69.

Maria's father, Sargent Shriver, not Eunice's father.