T A L

Alicia Keys - 'No One'

2010-02-20T21:44:00.000-05:00

Looking Out My Front Window...the morning after

2010-02-14T09:43:00.001-05:00

From Snow - Feb. 2010

Haiti Needs Our Help

2010-01-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

Top Selling Vehicles In 2009 - Ford F Series Tops The List

2010-01-06T08:38:00.007-05:00

The Ford F Series is once again the top selling vehicle in the U.S. for 2009. While sales were down by nearly 20% for the truck last year, it beat out the sales of the Chevrolet Silverado(number 3 in overall sales) by nearly 100,000 units.

Coming in second and holding the honor once again as the top selling car in the country is the Toyota Camry with over 350,000 sold. The Camry has held the honor of 'Top Selling Car' in the U.S for over 10 years now.

The vehicle showing the biggest jump in sales in 2009 was the Ford Fusion with a sales gain of over 22% from the previous year. The Chevrolet Impala and the Cobalt were the biggest losers in 2009 with sales declines of 38 and 44% respectfully.

A complete list of the TOP 15 selling vehicles in the U.S. during 2009 can be found below;

1) Ford F Series - 413,625
2) Toyota Camry - 356,824
3) Chevrolet Silverado - 316,544
4) Toyota Corolla - 296,874
5) Honda Accord - 290,056
6) Honda Civic - 259,722
7) Nissan Altima - 203,568
8) Honda CR-V - 191,214
9) Ford Fusion - 180,671
10) Dodge Ram - 177,278
11) Ford Escape - 173,044
12) Chevrolet Impala - 165,565
13) Chevrolet Malibu - 161,568
14) Ford Focus - 160,433
15) Toyota RAV4 - 149,088

via Reuters

Fall Wildflowers

2009-10-08T10:37:00.001-05:00

The recent rains and the cooler temperatures has given my wildflower bed a new burst of color.

'Silly Season'

2009-09-05T08:15:00.010-05:00

Oh My! The President is going to 'Indoctrinate' my kids.

While I do not like to call my political foes 'Stupid'...What really scares me in all of this manufactured drama is the effects it could have on our children. I just saw an interview with a conservative tea party organizer (what tea parties has to do with this issue, I don't know) announce on TV that he and his neighbors/followers were telling their children to get up and walk out of the class in defiance once Obama begins to speak. WTF? What does this tell our kids? That petty partisan politics trumps a child's natural respect and admiration for a President...any President? Sounds almost like parents teaching their kids to hate to me. What do we tell the African American kids sitting in class next Tuesday who are filled with pride over the first black President as they quietly sit and watch as some of their classmates get up and 'Opt Out' of listening to the President of the United States?

Sadly next Tuesday, I imagine that thousands of youngsters will be kept home and many more parents will ask that their kids be excused from listening to the President's message - leaving a lot of young children across America scratching their heads in pure bewilderment.

God help us

'The Anatomy Of Hate'

2009-08-28T11:36:00.001-05:00

Documentary can be seen this weekend at the Carter Center.

'Birthers' - These People Scare Me

2009-07-23T11:24:00.006-05:00

I was glad the other night when Larry King of CNN gave Liz Cheney an opportunity to help knock this nonsense down, but unfortunately for her and the Republican Party, she refused to do so...

Mr. Capehart On 'Birthers' - Reminds Me Of People Screaming "String Him Up, Kill Him

I only hope that Homeland Security and the Secret Service are watching these idiots very closely.

Ford Tops In Quality Survey

2009-07-21T08:11:00.003-05:00

Ford tops in quality survey | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Opening Tonight @ Midnight - Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

2009-07-14T08:05:00.002-05:00

Rainy Night In Georgia

2009-07-13T10:35:00.003-05:00

A couple inches of rain fell overnight...the garden loved it!!

Most significant rain in about 2 months. So glad to get it.

Latest Garden Pics

2009-07-02T13:01:00.005-05:00

Tomatoes, Peanuts, Okra, and Corn

Moon & Stars Watermelons

Brandywine Tomatoes

Suspended Drip Hoses For Watering

The month of June was a very dry month here in Georgia with many areas recording only about a inch or so of rain for the month. Over the last few weeks, watering has almost become a daily event but the drip hoses is helping greatly in curbing the overall water usage. We are keeping are fingers crossed for some passing rain showers this weekend.

Happy Gardening!

Summer Is Here!

2009-06-19T07:13:00.000-05:00

The HEAT is on...This weekend's tempertures are expected to rise in the upper 90's. No rain is site.

Time To Bring Out The Soaker Hoses.

'Propeller' Community Says Good-bye To Its Editor

2009-06-08T07:25:00.011-05:00

Last Friday, in his 'Week In Review' posting on the Propeller blog - James Marcus, editor of the social news site announced to the Propeller community that he would be leaving the site and would be moving over to assume new editorial duties at AOL News. While most of the members wished Mr. Marcus well with his future endeavors, a great deal of sadness and disappointment was expressed as well.

These comments were plucked from the Propeller comment threads;

"James .. good luck.. hope you will get the utmost satisfaction from your new position... be well.. be safe.. i think i'm gonna cry.. "

"We will miss you James. I've always enjoyed reading your weekly recaps. Hope your new position will make you happy. Make sure to post any articles on prop so we can still read you. All the best James"

"I don't know what to say James, I'm speechless and sad that you won't be here any more but yet I know this is a move for you in your career so I can't begrudge that"

"I can't really thank you enough for all the moments your wit has brought a smile or chuckle to my day, will seriously miss your WIR. And I sincerely hope you keep popping in to keep it honest! Wishing you the very best.

The Manager of Propeller, Tom Drapeau, had this to say -"James will most definitely be missed, not only with his wordplay in these Week in Review posts, but in his leadership role in the Propeller community. He won't be far, as his new editorial position is within AOL, but his focus will be shifting away from Propeller. "We hope to see James stop by every now and then, and wish him the best in all future endeavors. I for one have enjoyed these Week in Review posts immensely. Fridays won't be the same".

Speaking for myself... I will miss James and I wish him the very best with his new role at AOL News. His wit, charm, professionalism and most of all his daily involvement with the community helped make the site a very nice place to visit. He will be sorely missed.

James Marcus was hired as the lead editor for the new Netscape/Propeller website in the fall of 2006. Mr. Marcus added his popular 'Week In Review' segment several months later and it quickly became a success within the Propeller Community.

A Budweiser Commercial You Will Not See On TV

2009-06-05T08:33:00.001-05:00

Top Selling U.S. Vehicles In 2009

2009-06-03T13:59:00.005-05:00

As we have seen now for over two decades, the Ford F-Series pick-up truck remains the top selling vehicle in the United States with over 143,000 units sold through May. It is pretty amazing that it can hold on to this position in light of the fact that the F-Series sales are down over 39% from the same period last year. While the Chevrolet Silverado is holding on for the number two spot, the Toyota Camry is not far behind and could very well overtake the Siverado before the year is out. Only 1,200 units are currently separating these two.

The 4th best selling vehicle in the U.S thus far in 2009 is the Honda Accord with 107,000 units sold followed by three other foreign models, the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, and the Nissan Altima. All four of the vehicles were among the 'Top 10' in sales in 2008 as well.

Coming in eighth in overall sales is the Dodge Ram Pickup. Last year, this truck was the 5th best selling vehicle in the country and the year prior to that it was number three. That's right - for years the three best selling vehicles in the United States were all pick-up trucks. Ford, Chevy, Dodge - in that order.

The Ford Fusion takes the ninth spot in sales, up from 20th in 2008. The Ford Motor Co. sold nearly 20,000 of these in May alone. The new Fusion for 2010 offers a hybrid which is already selling quite well and the car is getting a great deal of media attention. In 2008, the Chevrolet Impala was the domestic car with the most sales. The Malibu overtook the Impala earlier this year and held the honor prior to the Fusion taking it away just this past month.

Finally, rounding out the the top 10 is the Honda CR-V which has sold over 65,000 unites thus far in 2009. If you would like to see the entire top 20 list with comparisons in sales and rankings from last year, click here

Day 2 - Roofers

2009-05-22T10:25:00.000-05:00

Roofers Having Fun In The Rain

2009-05-21T13:47:00.003-05:00

Sprinkles turn into a shower and out comes the tarps...

...day one of Roofing project ends early because of rain showers.

Philanthropy Project - Give And Glow

2009-05-18T10:34:00.002-05:00

Find out more about the Philanthropy Project at it's new home on AOL

Keeping Up With My 'Friends' list On Propeller

2009-05-07T07:43:00.010-05:00

Over the last few years, I have built up quite a few very good friends on Propeller.com. Many have been a part of the Propeller (Netscape) community from day one and each day these fine folks offer story submissions and commentary to the site through its comment threads that I enjoy reading on a daily basis.

Managing my 'Friends' list is certainly an ongoing process...I try to purge my list at least once a month as members to the site as they do on all social sites seem to come and go. For instance, if a friend has had no activity on the site in the last 45 days or so, I remove he or she from my list. On average, I add 2 to 3 people per week to my list which is only a fraction of the Friends request that I may receive in a week. Needless to say, I am very big on completed profile pages that details ones hobbies and/or interests that seem to mirror my interests. Currently I am befriended to around 130 folks on the social news site - most of these people submit articles daily but quite a few are more than satisfied by just proping (voting) on articles or commenting. Without question, the community that makes up Propeller.com is one of the most mature and intelligent within social news today.

In following my friends on Propeller, I make it a point a couple times a day to go into my profile page and click 'Friends Submissions' which allows me to see the articles that my pals have submitted to the site. I read the articles that interest me and will often prop but the others I pretty much ignore and skip over. Its my very strong belief that if I voted on all of my friends submissions that these folks would become clueless as to what I was really interested in and enjoyed reading, thus destroying the primary purpose of social news. I can also track my friends comments by clicking on that person's profile page and then clicking 'Comments'.

On a related note, earlier this year Propeller management brought back the ability to easily share your submissions with your friends via the 'Share' option. This option allows you to send a heads up of your submission to a 'Group' or up to 25 individuals (friends). You can also e-mail your submission to someone who may not use Propeller or at least use it on a daily basis. While this option is very popular within the Propeller community, many like myself will not use it for all submissions. Why? Frankly I submit between 5 to 10 articles a day but not all of them have the same meaning or importance to me - thus I only use the 'Share' option on articles that I find to be the most interesting and thus what I suspect would be of most interesting to my friends. Just imagine, If we all sent out notifications of all of our submissions our 'Site Mail' boxes within Propeller would become very cluttered.

As Propeller gets ready to celebrate its 3 year anniversary next month,

Happy Propelling To All

'Replace Hate With Understanding, Compassion And Acceptance

2009-05-01T07:28:00.004-05:00

The Matthew Shepard Foundation

Embracing Diversity

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T06:46:00.001-05:00

Family Picture from 1962. I am the little boy sitting all the way to the right in the photo.

Earth Hour Is Today

2009-03-28T07:57:00.004-05:00

Earth Hour - Saturday March 28, 8:30 PM

Earth Hour is an international event organized by the World Wide Fund and is held on the last Saturday of March each year. It asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on the issue of climate change.

It's A New Season

2009-03-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

New Bookcase - Finding Pleasure Even In The Simple Things

2009-03-19T09:21:00.002-05:00

Over the last few months, I have been on the lookout for a good quality 3-shelf bookcase for the living room that was priced preferably under $75 bucks. It had been rough going but last week we found this bookcase @ Target for $64.00. It was reduced by $20.00 from its normal $84.00 price tag.

I love the chestnut color and very pleased with the overall quality.