Have a great Easter Holiday.

What a beautiful day. I can hear the sounds of the new bridge construction going on from here at the house. I asked someone at the site today about their timetable considering all the good weather they have had this past winter. He told me that they might be ahead now but that will not necessarily mean a quick completion of the project. This is due, he explained, to the need they have to do some work in the river itself. They do not have a permit to work in the river until sometime in June, so even if the work may be ahead of schedule now, he cautioned that the completion date may be far off. It looks as though they are readying for more (cement) pouring. I won't probably be here when it is finished.

"Distasteful, Maybe Immoral … But Legal"

How in the hell did they do THIS? Go to this site and check it out. See what Dan Gillmor says about the emerging digital age, and what Michael Fraase says about these dancing elephants. ***Webcasting legally*** If imposed on copying then "we may end up copying the USSR".

You can't buy a PC in Cuba.

In Afghanistan, "What seemed like a good idea in the context of the Cold War is being criticized by humanitarian workers as a crude tool that steeped a generation in violence", as explained in this article.

Not that I understand the situation in the mid-east, but the desperation and sense of hoplessness that pervades the occupied territories have to be addressed. Will that situation ever improve? And on the note of improving situations, globalization, poverty and debt relief are addressed during a UN summit in northern Mexico. Plenty are still sceptical.

The Russians have a new submarine. It comes out while part of the Kursk still sits on the ocean floor. The Gepard is supposed to go deeper than its American counterparts.

Richard Reeves is alarmed, as are others, in the Bush administration's tight control of information and outright lying. Theodore Olson "officially announced last week that when the government chooses to lie, the public's business is none of the public's business", and David Broder reminds us of the president's narrow mandate.

I don't think that I can impress enough the benefits of what this next article explores. Everyone should do it.

I have a Peava (Dave) update. I found him comfortably in his chair watching television again with his son waiting on him. He is looking forward to getting a smaller cast so that he can go downstairs, get his e-mail, and load his shells. The little dog and I will stop in while we are on the other side of the bridge construction. She gets a biscuit, Dave gets a visit and I get some exercise. Post your e-mails. Y'all have a great week.

I took the little dog for a walk and we stopped at Dave's house to visit (the little dog stayed outside) because he recently broke his leg. He said that it hurt the worst when they were getting him x-rayed. He broke the two bones in his lower leg. Now he has a bigass cast half way up his thigh. Getting to the bathroom is a chore. Poor Dave can't reload his gun shells because they are in the basement. The accident happened at UMass, where he is responsible for keeping the grounds safe for students, employees and everyone as a supervisor in janitorial or grounds. If you would like to cheer Dave up then send him an e-mail. I'll let him know that these are coming. Stay tuned for Dave updates!

Poindexter's name comes up again.

It is the first day of spring and it snows all day. I took the dog for a long walk again and as we were walking by the bridge construction site today I asked one of the workers when they would start pouring that side of the abutment. He told me that they had just poured an 8 foot plug. That means that they have found the bottom on that side of the river (they had to go down a lot further than expected) and they now have a base to build on. Maybe we'll have a bridge again. I think that the dog knows when we can cross on that site and when we can't. Not that bad dog anymore.

The Montague Conservation Commission is holding Guilford Transportaion Co. responsible for wetlands violations off Greenfield Road. Hopefully this thing can be cleared up soon so that we can once again use that road to get home. I'm tired of using Hatchery Road, as I am sure that the folks on Hatchery road are sick of us. This may expedite the matter so that the bridge can be replaced.

The battle for a renovated Turners Falls High School may be a little easier after this news. It looks like the town will get "maximum reimbursement" for the $31.6 million school renovation and expansion. This will leave $3.1 million to be picked up by the towns of Montague and Gill.

No road race for me today. I went out with friends last night. I'm hoping for at least 50 degrees today. Good for the bike and running. I will take the bike out anyways because the weather will be cold for the rest of the week. I'll look up Adam too. He should be back from his bike week trip in Florida. I don't know whether I have any readers outside the family, but I wish you all a great weekend. : )

I took the bike out today and went to say hi to Bob, Cindy and the Wendies. The sun and warmth were getting to me. I spent eight years in Florida and after one winter back in New England I get excited over a 60 degree day. Oh boy. I even went running today too. I sprained my ankle last August and today was my first really long run. Depending on how the ankle feels Saturday I'd like to run the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Road Race. I just checked and the online pre-registration is closed. I've run it before and then I didn't even register. I just jumped in with Gene and we ran that way. If I go I'll wear his shirt for some free advertisement.

After I got back from the run, I called an insurance company, zoomed over there, got the insurance and then went to Greenfield to register it in this state. I was trying to avoid Massachusetts but I have been here too long for that. It was quite easy. You just have to have the right answers and give them money when they ask for it. Just keep the money coming. I found out that my lowest temperature for riding is 40 degrees, (or more). Really over 50. Woo hoo.

Michael Moore is having trouble keeping up with his book signings. At a signing for his book in San Diego, stupid White Men, he found himself close to arrest.

I just sent the orders for the forward mounts and the lowers for my bike today. I already ordered a 39 tooth sprocket from sprocket specialists and it will be here Thursday. At the Honda shop I had them order new shocks for better control and a better ride. I'll deal with getting new handlebars when I can ride it again. It's better to collect all this stuff now when it is cold out.

Let me just list a bunch of things that are rolling around in my head/being: I need to get a Mass license, I need to register Mom's car and my bike in Mass, I need to get a trailer I think for my trip out west, I need to order some extras for my bike, I need to coordinate with tracy as far as my pre-trip trip out there, I need to get back to Annie about watching the dogs and helping out with the sugar supper, I need to pick Erica up today, Wednesday and Friday and I have to figure out just when I'll take a final tour of Florida on my Bike (before I move). ...and during all of this the dog is bitching at me because she wants me to take her out for a walk. I gave her a bath today. She smells good! Tara calls.

Well, the meeting took place and the result is that motion four passed and also motion five passed. What a nail biter. There were a number of attempts from the dissenters to table the vote for later, to question the legality of the vote, to question the environmental impact of a firehouse there, and the impact of more taxes. The tax bill will still be quite less than that for Turners', any alternate property that is available was not feasible and thanks to Mrs. Chief Greene, it was found to be a legal vote. Sam Lovejoy proved to be a fountain of pertinent information and Clarkson Edwards put forth a compelling argument for going ahead with the project.


The naysayers were voted down. How can you vote against a new firehouse? To delay would mean to incur many more costs. The time is now and that was what had to be understood. The vote divided between the lefty and the established residents (to my understanding). This was not a perfect situation; there were time constraints and an anti-development bend on such an endevour was out of place. I think that it came down to the fact that here you had two distinct groups of people and they weren't going to agree. End of story. That has been my gripe with the left because they have failed to enter the community. You won't lose your precious selves if you make new friends. These are good people. The left will never make any headway unless they truly enter the community and understand their neighbors. It is such a simple principle. I guess my time out of the happy valley has been to my benefit. This may seem cruel but the present left are chumps who cannot see. Take this in a constructive manner please.

Tonight the residents of the Montague Center Fire District will vote on whether to approve the construction of a new firehouse to be built on Old Sunderland Road. This should prove to be interesting. As the article in the Greenfield Recorder said yesterday, the fire district has outgrown the present firehouse (it used to hold carriages). There are no training facilities or showers and the vehicles the station presently has barely fit into their bays. There are critics who are concerned about a raise in taxes and environmental impacts. Fire Chief John Greene said in The Recorder that there will be four items on the agenda, "the first two have to do with the proposed fire station, and the second two ask for money that the district used as a match for a federal grant be replaced in two different accounts." The tax rates would be double what they are now if Montague Center merged with the Turners Falls Fire District, and the result would probably be worse service. The Montague Center Fire District firefighters are a well-trained volunteer force who are nominally paid for their dedication and hard work. I believe that they deserve, as do the inhabitants of the fire district, a new firehouse. The meeting will be at the firehouse on Station Street at 7:00 PM.

I was trying to explain to my brother what this presidential phenomenon is lately; how Bush's buddies can be caught in their present business practices at Enron yet the country doesn't care about the close ties these people have with this present administration, and then I read this op-ed piece by John Balzar explaining it.Thanks John.

I finally went back to the YACCS Comments site and found to my delight that they now host free counters to those who use YACCS. Woo hoo. It is too late tonight but I'll work on this tomorrow. Oh yeah, I bought a scanner. I'm still trying to figure out what I can do with it and how. I made donuts this morning for a funeral service at the Montague Center Congregational Church. They came out good.

"We all learned a lot about ourselves – that we all swear too much and have bad tempers," said Ozzy Osbourne's wife, Sharon, about the impact their new "reality sitcom" has had on them.

"Executive Director Larry Klayman, who noted that Judicial Watch has close to 100 federal FOIA actions pending, said the Bush administration's attitude is one of 'arrogance throughout – that the government is not to be questioned.' " in this AP story.

How about that Ann Coulter; go here to see Tom Tomorrow's snazy new comic.