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From The News Tribune (photo from their site, by photographer Janet Jensen):
"As we like to remind you at this time each year, the best adventures are your own adventures. With that in mind, we are honoring 1,727 of you as our 2007 Adventurers of the Year. That's one high-altitude Mount Everest rescuer, one blind mountain climber, one man who bagged Rainier for the 300th time, and 1,724 volunteers who helped put Mount Rainier National Park back together after the flood of 2006."
Check out the complete story on the TNT website... and congratulations, all of you!!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Outdoors All-Stars!
From The News Tribune (photo from their site, by photographer Janet Jensen):
Friday, December 21, 2007
More SAR photos
Members of Tacoma, Seattle, Olympic, Everett, and Central Mountain Rescue wait for their morning briefing at the Emergency Operations Center:
Volunteer search personnel listen to a briefing from park ranger Steve Klump:
Members of Seattle Mountain Rescue prepare for a day of searching:
In all, 32 volunteers from Mountain Rescue units around the state are helping with the search this morning, including 7 from Tacoma, 6 from Seattle, 5 from Olympic, 7 from Everett, and 7 from Central Mountain Rescue. They are assisting 6 national park rangers, and 2 employees and a search dog from Crystal Mountain Ski Area.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
SAR Photos
Here are some images from the search for Kirk Reiser yesterday at Paradise, with the help of volunteers from Tacoma, Olympic, and Seattle Mountain Rescue. All photos are courtesy of Mike Gauthier, who has been serving as Incident Commander for this search.
NPS Rangers, assisted by Tacoma and Olympic Mountain Rescue volunteers, employees from Crystal Mountain Ski Area, and avalanche search dogs prepare to go out in the field:
Ranger Stefan Lofgren evaluates a test pit to assess avalanche danger:
Remember, the most up to date information about the status of the search, including our plans for tomorrow, are available by calling the main park number and dialing "9." Keep an eye, also, on the weather and avalanche forecasts for tomorrow. We'll be gathering for tomorrow's search starting at 6 a.m.
Mountain Rescue Volunteers
If you've been watching the local news over the past 24 hours, you might have seen me wearing one of my other park service hats: that of Public Information Officer. Two days ago, a young man from Lynnwood was caught in a snow avalanche while snowshoeing with a friend about a mile above Paradise. The search for him reached a peak at mid-day yesterday, when a total of 17 people were out looking for him in the midst of a vigorous winter storm. Eight of those people were dedicated volunteers from Tacoma, Olympic, and Seattle Mountain Rescue, three of our most important partner organizations. (Uncharacteristically, these are volunteers that we'd prefer not to have to call!) They started showing up at 7am yesterday morning and worked hard until dark, in 20 degree weather plus high winds and sometimes whiteout conditions, finally heading for home about 5:00. (The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a great picture of the Olympic volunteers coming in from the field, thumbnailed and linked above, along with a detailed article about the search.)
The weather, unfortunately, did not cooperate for us to search further today. We got 15.5 inches of snow at Paradise last night, and the visibility and avalanche danger never improved enough to accomplish, safely, more than what we were already able to do yesterday. Tomorrow's weather looks better, and so we hope to be back out in the field searching, again with the help of our friends from Mountain Rescue. It's just another example of what we wouldn't be able to accomplish without the help of our volunteers.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
2007 was quite the year for trails
Today's Washington Trail News, an e-mail newsletter from the Washington Trails Association, has lots of great information about hiking and snowshoeing during the winter. A lot of it is also available on their website, including a feature on snowshoeing at Mount Rainier, trip reports from Rainier and elsewhere, and a summary of WTA's most productive year ever, thanks to the thousands of you who volunteered to help with trail maintenance and storm repair at places like Mount Rainier and our surrounding forests!
Conservation Internships and Recovery Posters
A couple of quick news items:
We will soon be posting advertisements on the Student Conservation Association's website for next summer's Conservation Internships. I'll keep you posted as we decide which positions to advertise, but you'll already find next year's interpretive internship at Sunrise advertised. These are great opportunities for short-term positions with loads of job experience, ideal for college students. Check our website for a list of the kinds of positions we filled last year.
I spoke yesterday with Jay Satz at SCA, who said that he had the proof of our Mount Rainier Recovery posters on his desk, which are, in his words, "drop-dead gorgeous." We've asked for one minor tweak to the design, and should have the posters in hand in about a week or so. Watch for an announcement shortly asking for help with a mailing party after the holidays to get the posters out to all of our volunteers
Also pending: announcement in the next day or two of a major donation by a prominent local corporation in support of our volunteer program and its partners...
I've gotten lots of volunteer applications in the past few weeks. Thank you to all who are interested in joining us or returning next year! Remember, there isn't much going on during the winter, but volunteer opportunities will expand exponentially as soon as the snow starts melting in May and June. Make your plans now, and we'll look forward to working with you come summer, if not before.
And finally: in the Fall/Winter issue of the National Parks Conservation Association's Northwest Regional Office Field Report (it's probably been out for ages but I just discovered it), a great article called "Helping Rainier Recovery: A Volunteer's Perspective," by NPCA volunteer Sylvia Williamson. "As one of 115 volunteers at Mount Rainier on Public Lands Day, I was delighted to volunteer for the Pyramid Creek Sherpa Project..." Thanks, Sylvia!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Our roads need a fix
From the blog of the Northwest Interpretive Association:
"....Olympic National Park faired no better. The popular Hurricane Ridge road is closed due to shoulder damage - from lessons learned from last year's storm and Mt Rainier, a road may appear drivable but the shoulder may be undercut. Also closed because of the storm are the Heart o' the Hills campground, the Sol Duc road, the Hoh road and the Quinault roads.
"Again, the call for volunteers goes out to the northwest. Such a great response was made last year to get Mt Rainier re-opened, that we hope this year will also see people pitching in for public lands."
Friday, December 14, 2007
Hunter fined for killing park elk
This from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
"An Arlington man sentenced Thursday in federal court for killing an elk in Mount Rainier National Park was ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and serve a year of probation, a federal official said Friday.... A park volunteer found an adult elk's remains Nov. 6, 2004."
Rangers used DNA analysis to link the elk to the poacher. Good work, rangers and volunteers!
Surveying the damage
The Washington Trails Association's blog, "The Signpost," has a good roundup of the flood damage reports from, as writer Andrew Engelson says, "our annual 100-year storm." A short exerpt:
"In terms of mountain roads and trails, the Olympics were perhaps hardest hit. The latest from Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest is that the Quinault area has suffered extensive damage. Most of the roads in the area are closed due to washouts and numerous blowdowns, including Graves Creek, the North Shore Quinault Road, and much of the South Shore Quinault Road. According to Pete Urban, with Olympic National Forest, just about every trail in the vicinity of Lake Quinault Lodge has many, many blown-down trees."
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Field Notes
Here's a random assortment of current news and links related to volunteering:
Flood Recovery: Here's a great story in The Olympian about volunteer efforts in response to the flooding around Chehalis, including information about how you can help through the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason, and Thurston Counties. See also this report, from The Oregonian.
Olympic Flooding: Olympic National Park now has a page for reporting the current status of roads and trails in the park, which also includes some impressive photos of their flood damage. It's all eerily familiar to those of us at Rainier who went through this last winter. I spoke with Maggie Tyler, the volunteer coordinator there, a couple of days ago. They have many roads washed out or undermined, a lot of their trails are buried by snow and so we won't know until spring how much they were affected, hundreds of trees came down, the entrance station at Hoh Rainforest was flooded, and at the peak of the flood, the Elwah River came just barely short of overflowing its dam. Current details are in the December 13 edition of the National Park Service's Morning Report.
Flood Science: Last winter, volunteer Scott Beason and others surveyed the effects of the flooding on Mount Rainier National Park. Along with park geomorphologist Paul Kennard, he has now published his final report on what he learned, and it's fascinating reading. Right-click this link to download a copy of "Environmental and ecological implications of aggradation in braided rivers at Mount Rainier National Park."
Next Summer at Rainier: In other news, planning for next summer's volunteer program continues well. Jill Baum and I have met with several park supervisors, and we're all excited about next year's program, which will be similar to this year's but with volunteer coordinators "embedded" in some of the park's key programs. We've gotten good feedback, suggestions, and questions, and are fine-tuning plans, even as we begin hiring for next summer's Mount Rainier Recovery Corps! If you know of anyone who might be interested in applying, send them our way! We're also working hard on putting together an exciting schedule of volunteer training opportunities in May and June, including NPS volunteer management, Leave No Trace, Risk Management, CPR, Wilderness First Aid, work skills, and NPS Orientation. Should be a fun summer!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Notes from San Diego
As mentioned in an earlier post, I spent two days last week near San Diego, attending and presenting at the Pacific West and Alaska Regional Superintendent's Conference. I want to share some of my notes from the conference, which was insightful and interesting on a long list of topics, including volunteerism, outreach, and partnerships.
The panel I was part of presented on Wednesday morning, for an audience of about two dozen superintendents from Alaska, Washington, and California. My co-presenters were Mandy Vance, Program Manager of Wildlink Yosemite; Michael Richardson, Program Director of the James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club in Denver; and Saul Weisberg, Executive Director of the North Cascades Institute. Together, they represented about thirty years of experience working in partnership with the National Park Service and other public agencies. We each introduced ourselves and our programs, then opened it up for discussion of issues, challenges, and ideas. Many of the superintendents had excellent questions or stories to share from their own experiences. It seems that the two most important issues we need to address, to make such partnerships more common, are 1) the culture of the National Park Service, and 2) funding. NPS culture is an issue because, historically, we haven't done much with partners. We're traditionally a very independent agency, one that has a singular mission, and populated by very independent individuals. Yet experiences such as ours this summer at Rainier have demonstrated how productive and rewarding partnerships can be. Our culture is changing to be more accepting of partnerships, but slowly and cautiously. One of the panelists, who works with multiple government agencies, says that the BLM is currently more open to working with educational non-profits than any other agency. Successful programs have both an agency champion and a non-agency champion. Without both, the partnership tends to fail. But the most successful programs transcend individuals by becoming "owned" and embedded in the culture of the park. "Find a common mission," said the superintendent of Golden Gate. Get together, find out what the barriers are, and work to overcome them. Don't give up before you start.
Funding, of course, is always an issue, and will be here at Rainier, too, as flood-related funding dwindles. Our groups draw on endowments, grants, earned income, and other sources to fund their programs, and invest significant resources into pursuing the funding necessary to keep them going. They lament that it's often easier to get funding for new programs than to sustain existing ones, though individual and corporate donors help. There are some existing sources of funding that we can draw on creatively, like cyclic maintenance funds.
Mr. Richardson commented that one of the major challenges he has faced as an African-American is building relationships between diverse cultural communities and national parks, especially when those cultures are underrepresented in the staff of those parks, or when "traditional" national park activities like hiking and camping are not common activities within those cultures. Yet programs like the Mountain Club, or the education program at Golden Gate, can provide opportunities for youth to engage in natural areas in new ways; and, in turn, national parks can reach out to diverse communities through non-profits and other groups that already serve those communities. "You have to reach out," he said, and once you do, the relationship will continue as long as you continue to provide a positive experience.
It takes time and commitment to cultivate partnership relationships, but they pay off. Youth programs, like the three non-profits on our panel, thrive on working with people who are passionate about their jobs. And ultimately, we have to cultivate the stewardship that created our parks in the first place--it's critical to the future health of our parks.
Other sessions included Lynn Scarlet, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, who stressed that the issues we face in the national parks transcend our borders, making partnerships and collaboration increasingly necessary. Technology is also changing rapidly, and we need to adapt the ways that we use it in order to keep up with our audience. Sustainable solutions, she said, will spring from collaboration and adaptive management, and agency managers are working on new policies to make partnerships easier--for example, giving superintendents more discretion and local authority for managing donation money, and relaxing some of the rules for competetion in cases where the goals of a partnership are not competitive--for example, when the goal is youth involvement rather than profit.
Dr. Robert W. Corell spoke about "Our Changing Climate: Issues for the NPS." I wish I could find a copy of his PowerPoint presentation to link to for you, because it was incredibly persuasive. He spoke in depth about the science of climate change--how the information is gathered, how it's analyzed, how it's tested. He made a very persuasive argument that the past 10,000 years of climate history have been unusually stable, which may have been a major factor in the development of modern civilization. After ten millenia, though, the levels of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane in our atmosphere are all up sharply.
Oceans are a major factor in shaping our climate. They account for 87% of the world's evaporation and, therefore, heat exchange. 90% of the energy from the sun goes into the ocean. We can model the affects of natural influences on ocean temperatures, and we can model those affects as supplemented by human influences--and the actual data measured around the world tracks with the latter models to a confidence greater than 95%. Oceans are also significant because the phytoplanktons living in them form the foundation of many of our planet's ecosystems. Increasing carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans increases its acidity, and that in turn impedes the phytoplankton's ability to form cellular structures. Based on measurements in the field, we're already seeing the trend moving in that direction.
Arctic ice is another harbinger of change, and incredibly, we're now seeing arctic ice melting significantly faster than computer models predicted. The extent of ice in September of this year was only half as great as it was in 1950, and the models now say that by 2040, give or take a decade, there will be no Arctic ice in September. The melt area on Greenland increased 20% from 1979 to 2005--and the decline is accellerating. This isn't seen as entirely negative by everyone--for instance, Russia is now building ships designed to take advantage of shorter routes through the arctic than are currently available through the Suez Canal. Furthermore, 25% of the world's petroleum reserves are estimated to be in the Arctic. The problem is, the Arctic is full of boundary disputes, and there are few mechanisms in place for resolving them.
Climate change usually has multiple effects. Warmer temperatures mean higher oceans, not just due to melting ice but also due to thermal expansion. Melting permafrost and longer summer storm seasons have increase erosion along the coast of Alaska. The longer, warmer seasons have also contributed to an infestation of bark beetles, whose larvae survive better in the warmer soil and now complete three larvae cycles per year instead of two.
Sobering stuff.
Wednesday morning's plenary session by Dayton Duncan, partner of Ken Burns, was more upbeat. He's working on a 12-hour, 6-episode documentary about the national parks, currently titled "Our Common Treasure: The Story of the National Parks." Three random quotes from his presentation: The story of national parks is "a story as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence, and, I would say, just as radical," especially in its intention of preserving parks for everyone, not just a particular class of people. The story of national parks, he says, "is not about places--it's about people who became passionate about places." And finally, his greatest concern is that Americans have become complacent, thinking that the parks have always been there and that they are "self-perpetuating," when in reality, they require passionate advocacy today as much as ever. He ended by showing us about ten minutes of rough footage from the documentary, which, of course, was awesome.
The last session I attended was presented by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods. He's been working for years on the issue of what he calls "nature deficit disorder." Kids today are demonstrably less connected to natural places than any other previous generation. If this disconnect continues, he says, where will future stewards and political support come from? Kids today increasingly think of nature as something intellectual (a National Geographic special or magazine feature on global warming), or a commodity (an otter on a t-shirt), rather than as an experience. Schools teach great things about the big ecological picture, but provide few opportunities for personal experience in nature. The human child in nature, he says, may be more of an "indicator species" than spotted owls.
Studies show--and this matches my own personal experience--that most of us who work in the field of conservation have special places we remember from childhood. They may not be great national parks, but just a vacant lot or woods near our home (for me, it was the local mill race, the railroad right-of-way, and the field edges behind our church). Studies also show significant connections between experience in nature and overall health--in areas like stress, obesity, and attention deficit disorders. Schools with outdoor programs score better on tests. Finland has the most outdoor education in the world--and the best test scores. Kids with natural play areas tend to play more creatively and collaboratively--even when compared to kids who participate in organized sports.
But this is an intrinsically hopeful issue. There's lots we can do, and broad support for doing something. And in comparison with the negative messages we're bombarded with constantly--for instance, how bleak the future looks due to global warming--this is a positive message. Based on the science, preservation of land is now a public health issue. While some may worry about the "risks" of nature, the risks from a lack of nature are even greater. And there are all kinds of things we can do, from local land management decisions to the landscaping of yards and businesses, to thinking about natural areas within urban areas as connected to one another than than as isolated pockets--a "Decentral Park," if you will.
A lot of this has nothing--directly--to do with volunteerism. And yet, it's all part of why we do what we do, isn't it? And it's tremendous food for thought as we shape volunteer programs that engage both adults and children with natural places.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Floods roundup
I'm back from San Diego, which is an odd place to be, in sunny 70 degree weather, when your home state is drowning under floods. It's strange to turn on CNN and see the lead story covering places just an hour from your home. Lots of folks have called or e-mailed me asking about the status of Mount Rainier National Park, so I apologize for being out of touch at this critical time. Here's a roundup of what's happened and where we stand.
Mount Rainier National Park seems to be fine. That could still change, as many wilder parts of the park are inaccessible at the moment due to winter snow, and we could find pockets of devastation when the snow melts in the spring. But so far, so good: all of our road and levee repairs held up well through the storm, with only minor erosion and some trees down. This storm was not nearly as bad as the one a year ago... for us at Mount Rainier. It was, of course, devastating for people in Chehalis, Tillamook, and other areas where the storm hit more directly, including Olympic National Park.
Storm stats: Acting Superintendent Roger Andrascik wrote on Tuesday morning: "The Nisqually River at National appears to have crested at 2200 hours Monday 12/3/07 at 11.37', below the predicted 11.8' and well below the historic 12.8' in 2006." Flood stage is 10 feet. Here's a link to the current streamflow data for the Nisqually River, and to the left you'll see a chart for the period of the storm. We got about 6 inches of rain in a little over 24 hours, far less than the 18 inches we got in 36 hours last year. Looks like maximum stream flow was about 9,480 cubic feet per second, compared with an average discharge of around 12,000 cfs on November 6, 2006. At 2pm on December 2nd (and for several hours before and after), Camp Muir was getting 95 mph sustained winds with gusts to 111 mph, before the wind station gave out that night.
Storm reports: Here's a summary report from the NPS Morning Report for December 5:
Mount Rainier – The park received 3.7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period on December 3rd. Despite continuous heavy rainfall throughout the park during the day and throughout the night, no significant damage was reported. Some flooding, mudslides, and runoff overtopping roadways occurred in local areas outside the park, causing hazardous driving conditions getting to and from Mount Rainier. An interdivisional planning team put contingency plans into effect in the event that the heavy rainfall began to affect the safety of visitors or employees. Non-essential employees were provided several hours of administrative leave in the afternoon to assist them in getting home to their families safely during daylight hours. The Nisqually River reached flood stage around 10 a.m. and continued to rise until it crested at 11.37 feet later that evening. As a comparison, the devastating flooding that occurred in the park a year earlier (November 6, 2006) crested at 12.8 ft. Roadway repairs, culvert improvements, and stream reinforcements constructed following the 2006 flood all survived this most recent event and performed as designed. The park returned to normal operations on the morning of December 4th.
Olympic fared worse (see also a similar report on their website):
Olympic NP – High winds and heavy rains dropped trees throughout the park and caused a record-breaking rise in the Elwha River. The river reached a record high level on Monday when it peaked at 24.65 feet, 4.65 feet above flood stage. The previous high stage was recorded in November 1949, when the river peaked at 24.2 feet at the McDonald Bridge gage. The river rose 14 feet in the 24 hours that preceded its record-setting stage. At the river's peak stage, 32,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water was flowing past the McDonald Bridge gage; 24 hours earlier, the flow was only 658 cfs. The river level began dropping yesterday, and was predicted to drop below flood stage by late afternoon.
On Tuesday, park crews began cutting their way through numerous downed trees in an effort to access park entrance roads, make damage assessments, and begin repairs to damage caused by the storm. Only Kalaloch was open yesterday, and the park was not recommending travel to that area. With Highway 101 closed at Lake Crescent and Highway 112 only recently reopened, staff have been challenged in reaching the park's west side destinations. Yesterday morning, maintenance and ranger staff were ferried across Lake Crescent by boat in order to reach the area. The summary of known damage follows:
- Elwha Dam – Shortly after the river hit its peak, floodwater began entering the Elwha Dam powerhouse. Bureau of Reclamation employees put Emergency Response Level 1 into effect, which is primarily a notification and preparation phase. All appropriate emergency contacts were notified. The next step would have been to evacuate the powerhouse, but this didn't happen because the waters began to drop. Assessments on Tuesday revealed only minor damage to one of the log booms at the dam, which can easily be repaired. At the height of the flood, the operators were holding back some water behind the Glines Canyon Dam further up river, while all ten spill gates were open at the Elwha Dam.
- Hurricane Ridge Road – Crews have cleared two rockslides from the road and are assessing possible damage to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. Wind speeds of up to 86 miles an hour were recorded on the ridge on Monday. The Heart O' the Hills campground remains closed due to earlier damage from a November 12th windstorm.
- Elwha – The Olympic Hot Springs Road is closed at the park boundary as crews continue to assess flood damage. Rangers report that many sites in the Altair campground have been washed away by the high flows.
- Lake Crescent – Highway 101 is closed around Lake Crescent between mileposts 222 and 232. The westbound lane of Highway 101 was severely damaged when a debris flow blocked a culvert and diverted water over the road about four miles west of Barnes Point.
- Sol Duc Road – A mudslide 5 feet deep and 60 feet wide is covering the Sol Duc Road about a half-mile south of Salmon Cascades. Damage beyond that point has not yet been assessed.
- Hoh Rain Forest – The Hoh Road is closed, with water flowing over the road at Snyder Creek within the park as well as outside the park boundary. Just over 14 inches of rain were recorded at the Hoh Visitor Center in the past 48 hours.
- Mora – The Mora area remains closed pending damage assessments.
- Quinault Rain Forest – Over seven inches of rain fell in the Quinault Valley between December 2nd and 3rd and high winds toppled many trees. The North Shore Quinault Road is closed by downed trees and electrical lines and crews are working today to reopen the road. The North Fork and Graves Creek Roads remain closed.
- Ozette – The Hoko-Ozette is closed with downed trees and power lines.
Dosewallips, Staircase and Queets Roads – The roads remain closed due to previous damage and unsafe conditions. The Deer Park Road is closed for the season.
The park continues to recover from the severe storm that struck the region earlier this week. As park crews gain access to roads and facilities, additional damage has been discovered in some areas, while other roads have reopened. Phone and electrical service are still out in the park's western areas. A summary of known damage follows:
- Hurricane Ridge Road – A major slide near the Switchback Trail brought mud, debris and water over the road. Once the slide was cleared, workers were able to spot several areas of extensive damage to the road shoulder along the downhill lane. The road will remain closed this weekend to allow crews to fully assess the damage and begin repairs. The Heart O' the Hills campground is closed due to earlier damage from the November 12th windstorm.
- Quinault Valley – The North Shore and South Shore Quinault Roads are closed due to downed trees and electrical lines. Crews are continuing to cut their way through the trees to reopen the roads. There is no electrical or phone service at Quinault. The North Fork and Graves Creek Roads remain closed and have not been assessed yet.
Hoh Road – The Hoh Road is closed at its intersection with Highway 101. One lane of the road was washed out within Jefferson County; minor damage has also occurred within the park.
- Elwha – The Olympic Hot Springs Road, the Whiskey Bend Road and Elwha campground have all reopened. Elwha Valley's Altair campground was not as severely damaged as initially thought; receding floodwaters have revealed many sites to be damaged by the flooding, but no sites or structures were lost. The Altair campground is closed throughout the winter season.
- Lake Crescent area – Highway 101 has reopened in the Lake Crescent area. Both the East Beach and Camp David Junior roads are open and cleared.
Sol Duc Road – The Sol Duc Road remains closed due to a mudslide about a half-mile south of Salmon Cascades.
- Mora – The Mora area has reopened, including the Mora campground.
- Ozette – The Ozette area is closed with downed trees and power lines.
- Dosewallips, Staircase and Queets Roads – The roads remain closed due to previous damage and unsafe conditions.
- Deer Park Road – The road is closed for the season.
More sources of news: Lots of other websites have good sources of up to date information. Start with the Northwest Parks and Public Lands Storm Recovery Coalition, set up after last year's floods, whose most recent posting is titled "Winter storms rip through Northwest: Parks hit again." The National Parks Conservation Association's National Parks Traveler blog reports "Pacific storm shuts down most of Olympic National Park," and comments, "If this keeps up, we're going to have to redefine the '100-year storm.'" (That's global climate change for you.) The Washington Trails Association's Signposts blog has on top of the news, with an initial report titled "Another mountain flood" that begins "I'm starting to feel like Chicken Little," and a follow-up report called "Two hikers dead, storm hits hard." The hikers died in an avalanche near Snoqualmie Pass. While you're at it, by the way, you can also check out "One year later, much storm damage awaits repair," an article that will now need to be updated, and "One year after the storm," which also remains very relevant. Finally, check this out: Ironically, tomorrow is the Washington Trails Association's volunteer appreciation party on the Olympic Penninsula. They'll need volunteers more than ever this next year. Which brings us to:
How you can help: Contact Maggie Tyler, the volunteer program manager at Olympic National Park, to offer assistance with their flood recovery. And don't forget that volunteers are needed in a lot of other areas as well! We don't have much going on at Rainier this time of year, so go help where you're needed! Then come back here next summer, as we'll have plenty to keep you busy continuing to clean up last year's flood!


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subset: commoncrawl


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We are 100 percent committed to making sure everyone on and around our job sites is safe, first and foremost.
Providence, RI (PRWEB) April 22, 2013
In recognition of the firm's industry-leading safety record, the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) has named Gilbane Building Company a national winner in the organization's 14th Annual Construction Safety Excellence Awards (CSEA) program. The CSEA program, sponsored by Willis, is the industry's elite safety excellence awards program, recognizing companies that have developed and implemented premier safety and loss prevention programs and achieved continuous improvements and maintenance of their safety and health management systems.
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About Gilbane, Inc.
Gilbane provides a full slate of construction and facilities-related services – from pre-construction planning and integrated consulting capabilities to comprehensive construction management, close-out and facility management services – for clients across various markets. Marking its 140th year in operation and still a privately held, family-run company, Gilbane has more than 60 office locations around the world. To find out what the next 140 years have in store, visit http://www.gilbaneco.com.


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Well & truly finished my Supercharged BA project & I am bored with it now.
So, I now want a decent V8 to play with & get the rumbling thrill back that I have been lacking.
Will pay by cold hard cash, or by bank cheque for the right vehicle that ticks all the boxes.
If it is the right vehicle I will pay you what you ask for it.
Or if you prefer I will pay part cash & throw in the Mod plated supercharged BA if you like. I am easy, so whichever way you want to do it is no problem for me.
The vehicle I buy must be cleared of all financial Encumbrances & be street registered or at least have a legal QLD Roadworthy certificate to go with it. A Mod plated vehicle is OK too.
The Supercharged BA xt GT look-a-like I have is in smick condition with only 86,000 on the clock. It goes hard & Nothing on it needs fixing or replacing. It has no rust or dents & definitely no Bog.
It has brand spanking new tires all round, all engine electrical sensors have been replaced (all Bosch), new interior roof lining. Nothing broken or missing & at the moment it still has 10 months rego.
If no one wants it I am happy to bag it up & keep it tucked away in the shed for the next 20 years.
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text:
Filed under: Life
4/19 – "Coming Around"
Tired of being afraid of being used,
Weary of misleading cues, of chances taken, risks making me feel afraid.
Leading me on, turning me around yet my confidence pursues.
Shot down again. Hopes Dashed.
Dreams again wasted.
Tired, weary, rejected.
Light pours in and possibilities flourish.
The FEAR dissipates like darkness from a rising sun.
Clouds roll by and saunter on,
While birds sing their mating song and I, I marvel
at the goodness, I wonder at the beauty of being
Tired, Used, Rejected, Afraid and coming back again for
More. And marveling at the chance to BE happy, content, loved.
6/14- "Want"
Hope, you love.
Hope, you need.
Wish, you loved me.
Wish, you needed me.
Believe, you can be loved.
Believe, you can be needed.
6/12 – "Moments"
There isn't a day that goes by
Except one or ten…
That I don't think about why we met then.
When that moment passes I wish for a mirror
Or cosmic glasses to reflect
The way we should have been.
Sometimes I see you walking towards me
And if I think fast enough to blink
You disappear from view and
I forget to think of
The love we shared or dare I say it?
Of the times I dared to believe in me, even forgetting my history.
Everything repeats itself and I can't seem to get off this shelf for if I do,
I know that I will break in two.
2/3 – "Pecans"
Mom and Pecans – that's what this is about. "Wanna' heah it? Heah it goze!"
She loves to make Pecan Pie, but
Everyone raves about the Toasted Pecans in the Mason Jar.
Bushel after bushel
Are brought to the door
"Just one jar, just one jar more. Keep the rest for you. We can never replicate
Those culinary things you do,
To that simple nut, The delicate pecan. The delicacy of the South."
"A pinch of salt, a pound of butter and toasted in the oven, No more than that!" You exclaim.
For the love and attention to tastiness, these nuts have no claim to fame.
My Mom, toasting pecans.
<This is a work in progress. Hence the stilted-ness…>
Filed under: Life
Back to my dating life.
After NYC trip, I arrived home to find that Ben Sills had called. He's my 3rd TOGETHER person. For those of you not in the know of 90's dating, Together Dating is a service where you actually go to a physical brick and mortar office and fill out a questionnaire, a dating profile and they use their patented (don't know if it is or not) matching system to match you up with potential dates. They do background checks, etc. on potential clients and then you pay a fee for their services based on the number of matches you want to receive. I don't exactly remember, I think 3 was the least expensive package, may have been 10 but I opted for the least expensive as my earnings weren't quite what my spendings were. I was seriously in debt at the time. I liked shopping a whole hell of a lot.
Message from Ben sounded promising so I called him back and we hit it off. He was very witty and I thought if nothing else, we'd be friends because he gets my sense of humor and we had some things in common. So I gave him my work number and he said he'd call me next week. Monday, he called and we made plans to meet at the Spring Garden Brewery for a drink. I got there first but then again I'm always early. So imagine my eagerness and hopefulness when I see a new BMW pull into the parking lot and a single guy gets out, and he's actually very good looking. This was a first for me because guys I've met before were usually late and not that good looking. Bonus Points if this is in fact Ben. He was nicely dressed and punctual. I'm liking this. It was Ben because he walked straight up to me and said, "You look crazy." Which was what we'd agreed in the previous night's phone call that I was really not, in fact, crazy. To which I responded, "It's got to be you!" Another kooky conversation call-back to our previous night's phone call. We had a good laugh. I really didn't feel nervous around him. I was lost in the conversation and daydreaming about the things we'd do as a couple, CRAZY, I know but not AWKWARD! We had a couple of drinks and loads of great conversation and agreed to make it an early night because he was coming down with a cold. The end-of-the-first-meeting conversation went like this:
Ben: "If we get together again, I'll cook um, hamburgers. Never mind the McDonald's wrapper, that's just the plate." (To which I laughed appropriately, I hoped.)
Me: some inane off the cuff remark about 'sporks' with him laughing appropriately and then I said rather boldly, "If you are asking, I'm game for dinner."
Which I thought conveyed the interest I have in him without seeming too overly anxious to see him again. Trying to strike that delicate balance of playing hard to get and not seeming so fucking desperate. I think he may have seen through me.
I really read this one wrong. He didn't call. I didn't have the courage or drive to pick the phone up and call him. At this point, my self-esteem is at an all time low and I really don't know how to put myself back out there again. But wait, I still may have Together Dating to come to my rescue again. The hell if I'm giving up this easily.
Filed under: Life
First, let me address NYC. Hello, NYC! No, really, last Thursday Mom, Dad, my bro and I went to New York to play. Thursday was Bloomie's (for Mom and I) and Ruth's Chris Steak House. Friday was Paul Stuart (for Dad) and Le Bernadin for dinner before WHOOPI GOLDBERG in 'A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum'. All of these things in these two days have been most excellent. Saturday we hit Sak's 5th Avenue and Macy's for some more good shopping for the whole family but had a bit of an adventure getting to Macy's.
Apparently, when one 'hails' a cab from the Millenium Hotel in Times Square, one expects safe transport to one's destination. Our cabbie was in such a hurry to get us out of the cab and into Macy's for their 'One Day Sale' that he rear-ended another taxi just blocks from the hotel. My Dad, the lawyer and resident NYC taxi drivers' worst nightmare (he's from the deep South and no one in New York (and sometimes at home, in the drive-thru) can understand him, American or Foreign Nationals alike…) screams to us to "GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TAXI! WE CANNOT BE A PART OF THIS!! JUST GO, GO, GO! GET OUT! GET OOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTT! WE CANNOT GET CAUGHT UP IN THIS! LET THEM HANDLE IT!" – not really a direct quote from my Dad. I'm paraphrasing. I'm sure that if what I paraphrased there had actually been heard by any cabbie (National or Foreign National) in NYC it may have sounded something like this: "Get awwwwt thee tacksah. Sheeat, we cain't bee apahty to this axedint. jess go, git now, go get awwt! WE CANNOT GET CAUGHT UP IN THIS! Let 'em hannel it."
I re-read that and NO, my dad isn't African-American(not that there's a stereotype here). He's (again) deeply rooted in the South. Of North Carolina.
So this all takes us (and thanks for remaining with me…) to the reason we're in NYC to begin with. Mom and Dad believed that the best form of education is travel. God Bless them for that because I am a Traveller. I love to see new places and experience new things. Every time I get the chance, I'm the first one to jump in the car and say, "Where to now?" Having said that, they also believed that families should have at least two meals together, EVERYDAY. Breakfast and dinner. Lunch, optional. Breakfast and dinner were not an option. We always ate together. ALWAYS. Ok, Mom cooked both meals, but she was such a diva that she rarely ate. But boy, was she a good cook! She's all Gourmet and shit. I think she ate while cooking and that's why she didn't eat much at dinner but that's purely speculation. I have no inside knowledge. Yet I digress. My brother and I had the auspicious and delightful pleasure of being able to set the tone for the meal by choosing the ambient music that would be playing whilst we dined. We would fight over it and in retrospect, this is inherently funny. I, being the older sibling would choose something suited to the mood of Mom. If she was in a good mood, I'd choose Neil Diamond, Tom Jones or perhaps Pavarotti. My brother, on the other hand, chose what he and Mom loved, ABBA. Every time he got to pick, that freaking 'Fernando' was the song choice. Don't get me wrong, I love 'Dancing Queen' and other ABBA songs as much as the next gal but ABBA at dinner? 'Super Trooper' is going through my mind as I type this. And it's not helping me at all. The point being that ultimately, Mom agreed with my song choices more often than not. So we bonded over Pavarotti. And more importantly we bonded over the 'Three Tenors' when it came to dinner song selections. Secretly, I hold to this day that my mom and brother share an ABBA connection.
So, back to the story, we're in NYC because the 'Tenors' are making some kind of commotion and we want to see them in concert. This is a birthday gift to Mom (and me, since I'm a month and 34 years apart, born) to go to this concert at the Giants Stadium. Mom and I head to the concert, Dad and my brother head to dinner and we could not have had two more different experiences, had we had two more different stories. EVEN. Mom and I go to the concert in a bus. It lets us off at the 'doors' of the venue. It's July. It's supposed to be SUMMER but we get there and it's fucking COLD! We buy sweatshirts, we climb to the top of the Giant's Stadium, to our affordable seats, to see the THREE TENORS, in New Jersey, who were billed to be in New York. Come see the Tenors in New York and they're in Secaucus. NEW FUCKING JERSEY. Don't get me wrong, I love NJ because of Bruce and The Sopranos. But this happened WAY before the Sopranos. NJ was still the butt of every NY joke. Come to think of it, New Jersey still is. But I digress… SO… this 'fuckin' guy climbs over us and says, "What the fuck? Could we be more closer to Jesus in these seats?" And then he drops this pearl…"If I were anywhere closer to Jesus, I think I'd be…CLOSER TO JESUS." I shit you not, dear reader. He was drunker than hell, at a Three Tenors concert. I think he thought he was going to see a Monday Night Football Game of the NY Giants, but it was Wednesday night! In all fairness, he was a season ticket-holder. He didn't care as much for Placido Domingo as he did for Jose Carreras. But when Pavarotti sang the opening to 'O sole a mio' he wept like a baby. LIKE A BABY. Or maybe that was just me and my mom. The sound reverberated with the dulcet tones of three masters of their voices while we watched, perched upon our high-rise seats, with binoculars trained to the big-screen live version concert footage. We were freezing our asses off. And loving every minute of it. I cried, Mom cried, we cryogenically froze the whole row we were sitting in from our tears.
I know why I cried. I'm so emotionally raw. I feel too much. I've always been very sensitive and intuitive. I don't pride myself on this, I just accept that this is the way I am. Why my mother cried is another matter. I don't know for sure why she cried. I know she was moved by the music, the atmosphere, (or lack thereof since our seats were so fucking high up in the stadium…) but I think it may have been a bit of nostalgia that made her tear up during the concert. A bit of "Amazing Grace", which is Mom's Achille's Heel in the music department. She cries every time that "Amazing Grace" is played. Which differs from me only in that I cry every time it's played on the bagpipes. She's part Native American, I'm part Scottish. Love the kilts and bagpipes. Takes me back to a time I've only known through travel. Good times, good times.
So I've digressed and need to get back on point but somethings need to be covered, in order to get 'back on point.' Shit, just realized I need an editor. Is there such a thing as a blog editor?
The concert was great…Epic, etc. And enjoyed the hell out of my time in NYC with my family. I love my family. They, apparently love me as well and tolerate my idiosyncratic-ness. We were walking, and I promise this is the last story tonight, away from the hotel and I see this guy in the crosswalk and I just stopped. In the middle of the street! And my parents and bro were behind me, fastly approaching where I was standing, and I stood there…slack-jawed. I was completely gob-smacked, I'd just 'rubbed elbows' with a celebrity in the street! So my folks and my bro were coming up behind me, pushing me along to get me out of the street when I come out with the following: (please stay with me.)
Me: "Oh my God, did you see that?"
My bro: "Huh, wah?"
My Dad: "Was it a cabbie looking for us? Duck! Hide your face!"
My Mom: "I knew Luciano saw us. He's been looking for me, no? Did he find me? Yes. Hahahaha." (this was the time before LOL.)
Me: "NO!!! Damnit, did you see the one-armed man I just ran into? He's the drummer for Def Leppard! I just ran into the drummer for Def Leppard! That guy in the cross-walk, with the one arm!"
My Mom and Dad look at me like I have two heads. My brother gives me the high-five with his hand tucked into his sleeve, not as a 'DIS to the Def Leppard drummer, but as a 'DIS to me. But it was funny. I called my best friend Tom that night to tell him of this brush with fame. He's the guy from high school who always remembers the stupid stuff you've ever done in your life and will remind you of it. I don't think I'd exist if he didn't exist. Having said that, I call him up to say, "Guess who I just ran into on a NYC street?" Tom says, "Who?" I say, "The drummer from Def Leppard!" Tom laughs and says, "Are you sure it was him?" I said, "Who else would have that hair (mullet-like) and only one arm and still be so fucking angry at meeting a fan in a crosswalk in New York City?" Tom said, "Anyone with a mullet and one arm." Me, responding, "But with a British accent? Come on, this was HIM, man." Tom, responding, "How did the people around you respond?" Me: "um, well no one noticed."
So I actually started to doubt that I'd had my celebrity-sighting until we got back to the hotel and I looked up what was going on in the city for the weekend. Found out that at some venue, Def Leppard was playing. Would be cool if I could say it was Giant's Stadium, but frankly can't remember and I don't pay a fact checker just yet. But all of the proceeding paragraph is true.
On another note I had an "A-HA" moment today. I was catching up on my Late Night with Jimmy Fallon watching and who do I see on the show, playing with the Roots but the guitarist from Def Leppard?!? Wait, what? Phil something was on LNJF the day I was typing the blog about running into Ric something from the same band. I wish I could remember their names right now and I'm too lazy to Google them just at this moment but will look it all up later. I'll pay myself to fact-check. So what was the "A-HA" moment? I found it very comforting to see this come full circle in my mind. Raw, emotional, intuitive…that and the fact that Tom once said to me that every time he turns on the radio it seems as though there is a Def Leppard song playing. Personally, I think he's left a CD in and doesn't realize it's not the radio but who am I to judge?
So here is what I'm working on for National Novel Writing Month. It's a very rough draft, mostly thoughts and old journals but I think I'm finding my voice. Comments are welcome!
So I'm new to this MacBook and I'm trying to write in the Nanowrimo. I don't know how to make this work just yet but figured I needed to start somewhere. It's easy to just find a place to type and start typing.
I have no idea what my novel is going to be about. I think I'll probably recreate my diaries that are still in existence and take some of my blog material and put all that together in a pseudo-diary/blog format for the novel. Anyway, that's what my thought is tonight. If that is the way I end up going then this whole thing is really going to go easily because I'm not really giving it much conscious thought, just kind of going with the flow. It's been so long since I've really written anything that I'd forgotten how difficult it can be!
This stream-of-consciousness writing is helping me. I feel like an idea may come from this after all. I just need to keep writing and not stopping. I really want to be witty and clever but things at work have gotten the better of me in the past few weeks and I feel as though my humor is eluding me. Listening to comedic podcasts is helping. I love listening to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier in Smodcast. They never fail to make me laugh. The other one Kev does with Ralph Garmin cracks me up! Hollywood Babble On is one of the funniest podcasts that I've found. I'm way behind on my Marc Maron WTF? podcasts and Kevin Pollack's Chat Show as well but hope to catch up on those now that I have my Mac and will be taking lunch breaks. Full one hour lunch breaks. I hate eating alone and all these men are very good company!
I've been tweeting a lot lately. Just tonight 11/4/10 I noticed that I have almost tweeted 3,000 times. #2,097 was "Closing in on 3,000 tweets. Still haven't said much."
I do interact with a few people on a fairly regular basis, and it makes the whole experience a little less creepy. Except for this one time. Dude in London sent me a DM (direct message) and asked me to bend over and then asked my name and age, then asked to see me naked. I thought he was joking, but apparently not. Supposedly he's some big deal in the London area but to me it's just creepy to ask a complete stranger something like that. The funny ones, like this actor who blogs, an actor/singer/painter, a college kid and a computer geek are very often just nice guys who have no agenda except to use the social media as it's meant to be used. I will call out one of the funny guys, @sadknob because he's a genius director and so smart and wry that I am constantly amazed by him. He's got a blog that would rival most that I've read and he's extremely talented. He is someone I would very much like to meet.
OK, it's been 25 minutes and boy did that go fast! My twitter buddy Patrick says that setting 25 minute goals has helped him with Nanowrimo so I'm going to try it tonight, and through the weekend. So it's break time, back to twitter and the Nanowrimo site to update my word count. LATERZ!
9:16pm update:
I am in the running. I have put myself on the nanowrimo website with word counts and a synopsis of my satirical novel. Now have to write said novel. And according to website am 4 days and many words behind. Uh oh. Just took a shower so am going to dry my hair and then continue on with nanowrimo writing and word counting. But first, a thought about the counting, isn't it a bit pushy? Discuss, whilst I coif. My hair. Two more words leading to a few more, nay, many more inconsequential words. Off to blow-dry! (Are hyphenated words considered singular words by Nanowrimo standards? Note to self: Check FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions for answer to: 'Are hyphenated words considered singular in the word count of the Nanowrimo book standards?')
9:39 update:
Am still unclear about the word counts but typing 'the word counts' must mean something. So the stream of consciousness continues. Not so much as I'm feeling more unconscious as I try to get back up to my goals as dictated by this Nanowrimo site. It's like a Gizmo sitting on my Fred Flinstone shoulder screaming in a Harvey Corman voice, "You must write things down and get your words out there!" Not that that is a bad thing. Maybe because I am drunk. Or maybe because writing gives me the freedom to edit myself in realtime and I'm choking here. I really liked Harvey Corman, I still like Tim Conway and now my references to the Carol Burnett Show and all are showing my age. Shit. My 25 minutes are up. Gotta run now or my 25minute experiments will have been in vain. And really, they were. Too typed to drunk. Drink! Escuse me.
11/6/10 – /Saturday evening
Today I decided to go for the dream and re-transcribe my existing diary with little editorializing or fictionalizing. That's my focus for the next three weeks. All the twitter stuff aside.
Here it goes: Set the stage, and the date:
Setting the stage: I was living in High Point, NC for some years and I'd been keeping a diary of sorts because I didn't know that in the future a 'blog' would be invented and I'd not have to write on legal pads and in notebooks before attempting to get published. OH but I did own a desktop computer and I'd been training myself on computers for some years before this all came about but to me, writing was about 'handwriting' with pen to paper. I'm really glad I did because I had beautiful penmanship then and it has since gone to shit. But thankfully I have a few remnants of my pretty writings preserved for no one at all. I have some of my old 'journals' as we used to call it, but not all of my journals. This is due to a miscommunication between me and my well-meaning parents. See, it all started back when I was a fetus…
I am adopted.
-tell the story from an adopted child, ie., YOUR story but start here.
-include the shitty parts as well as the great parts where you always knew you were adopted so that the adoption thing isn't perceived as abnormal, as opposed to the life you were brought into.
-try not to be condescending as the fact that you were raised in a privileged household could be held in a negative light AGAINST YOU if you portray it as anything but privileged. Even if that isn't the truth.
– do not blame your parents. everything that has been a part of your life is not the fault of your parents but in fact, has been a direct response in the way that you YOURSELF handled the situation.
– keep in mind the nature vs. nurture argument and see where that leads you. I believe it will still lead you back to who you are is who you are regardless of familial ties but I'll argue myself into a corner with the fact that I still see so much of Mom and Dad in me…it's just too hard to argue with yourself.
– Having noted this much it's time to stop procrastinating and time to start transcribing!
My life began on October 15, 1970. At the time of this writing I am 40 years and 21 days of breathing on this planet. I type "of breathing on this planet" because I choose to. There are those that say life begins at 40 and so I'm 21 days into life. Yay, me! But for 40+ years I've had some experiences and that's what I'd like to write about and share with you. I'm a Republican by means of parental influence, a Democrat by means of realizing I'll never be as rich as my parents and a Libertarian by means of realizing that government doesn't work, currently. I vote. And I vote for candidates I believe in, even if my beliefs don't match yours. I am adopted, I support abortions and I vote for the most qualified person.
My God! Who is this person who has gay friends, with and without AIDS? Who is this person who can see the good in everyman and recognize the evil that plagues them? Well, it's not me, but I inherently see good in everyone. Case #1: How many times have you gotten into a cab in NYC with the same cabdriver on two different days? Day 1, get a taxi from LGA to the Millennium Hotel in Times Square. The driver is from Liberia and I noticed this. My junior year suitemate's grandfather was the President of Liberia and so I struck up a conversation with him. We talked Liberian politics and life and what it's like to be a NYC cabbie for the 30 minutes it took to drive us into Times Square. Mom and Dad were horrified (Republicans) that I was talking so intimately with a stranger, (and being Southern, a "Blackman") God, this is just rambling… get to the transcribing…
-mention the move to Memphis and the throwing away of the majority of the diaries….this is important!
I ❤ Italians
I ❤ Italy
I ❤ Names ending in Vowels!!! 🙂
"Freaky Thoughts" 9/26/96
Funky drum beat
Cuban Rhythms
Love olive skin
Love to write.
Stir my drink
With an elegant finger
With apologies to
John Mellencamp ~
'Tis not what we think
So much as how we ARE.
Come on,
Cry to me;
Everyone else does –
Why should you be
Any different?
Dr. Timothy Leary
Frozen in cryogenics –
Where is our hero?
Who will speak out
For those of us
Wo have no voice?
Too many vices
Not enough pleasure.
Where comes the justice?
When do I get my social "SECURITY?"
Who will give me
Peace O' mind
In my retired age?
When shall I retire?
Can I have a single-income
My children will have
2 parents. They will
have sit-down meals.
2 adults – x # kids…
1 Male (Father)
1 Female (Mother.
That's not so horrid.
I know i's possible.
My parents did it.
They also have a house
That I can only hope
To inherit, for I'll never
Make that much $ in
My lifetime.
So what do I have to dream of?
Where's my sweet reared?
It's i my heart & HERE.
Going to Maryland to visit my 2 most favorite Christins. Fitz and Pennoyer! Playing in DC & Annapolis 🙂
Can't wait.
Making a mix tape and bored. Haven't packed shit. Not washed shit. Tired as shit. Got to PACK! Find $. Bills due. Life is great, RUN AWAY!! 🙂
This next page in my journal is from a conversation I had with a close friend and cannot repeat it here. I've spent half an hour debating whether to put it in or take it out and it ultimately only made me want to do the Hokey-Pokey and just shake it all about. So your secrets are safe with me for the time being.
(Thought there was a page missing but upon inspection, may have been drunk when composing this next entry. And upon reviewing said 'beautiful penmanship', am quite sure I was obliterated.) Here goes:
Thinking this is for Dan –
How could you leave me hanging? How could you let me dangle so precariously on the edge? O was it I, who left you- on the edge? 'I am in the heat of battle w/in myself…I know YOU left ME. But why was it MY fault? Did I drive you away?
See how unfair this is? You left…POOF… no explanations – no repercussions…SO EASY FOR YOU… So hard for me. I don't know why you hated me or couldn't tolerate me.
I am so desperate to know. What did I do wrong, Dan? You were what I wished for. Why did we part? What did I do? I know it had to be me. I am at fault. Forgive me?
<HAHAHAHA, ed. note.> –this was your insecurity at age 26, not his fucking fault, but yours. What are you apologizing for? IDIOT.
Went to Rocky Mount. Left work Friday early, in a huff. Work hasn't been good lately. Lots of pressure, lots of stress. So much so that I made myself sick. So I left work at 2:30, went home packed my shit and hit the road. When I got home Mom and I went to pick up "Pisser" aka, Yo-yo but he was still zonked from the anesthesia (he had his teeth cleaned!) and so we had to leave him overnight. Mom and I had a good talk. Dad had come home for dinner @ 7:00 (but it was 7:30 :)) and we had a good steak sand. w/veggie soup. Dad gave me advice on what to do about work – ("Do what you can afford to do.") And asked me what I wanted to do. I told him, graduate school, but I couldn't afford it. Also, for what, I don't know.
I had a WONDERFUL first date, blind date tonight. It wasn't truly blind, we'd been talking for a week or so. So much came up when we tried to get together that tonight was the first time we had a chance to get together. I met Mide at Red Lobster on Wendover and I wasn't the least bit nervous until I saw him. He's 5'7″ or 5'8″, slim, blond, blue eyes…very handsome. So strange- I don't usually like blonde/blue, but he's SO charming! 34, not a professional in the sense that I was looking for (Doctor, Lawyer, etc.) but he has a steady job – he owns a house, he has a great sense of humor, he has a cat… He paid for dinner, he kept smiling at me. He's got great eye contact! He said he was a nice guy and he is. His so genuine. God forgive me BUT… he has dirty fingernails. That's not a completely bad thing, but I don't know if it's for me. He doesn't seem like the traveling type. I COULD BE WRONG. My defenses are in high gear, so he must have hit something in me.
Michael Lloyd… he has a daughter in Wilmington. He sees her on holidays. He works shift work. He thinks I am "smart and funny." He wants to see me again. He says he'll call. I'll wait and see. Honestly, I kept looking at him, watching him and he made me smile. He's not much on conversation, but that's probably just nerves. He's too smart to be so dumbfounded. I bet he's very opinionated. That's great if he is! I don't know if I will ever meet such a sweet soul. I hope we will always be friends, no matter what happens. He is so great!
About Michael Lloyd. I was wrong – he is sweet and cute and caring but he's not that great with conversation, he laughs like an hyena and… he's a STONER. So sweet. Such a stoner! He wanted me to come visit his "crib" tonight. I am reluctant to go to any single man's house whom I don't know very well, but More so when it's their "crib". Anyway all of this is compounded by the fact that I have met someone else.
Mike Gulas. He's 33, single, never been married, no kiddies, smoker, writer, songwriter singer, music guy… humorous, witty, he's just like me but still different enough. I called him Monday night at 7 and we talked until 1 am. Tuesday night he called me and we were on the phone until 10. He kept trying to get me to go to Raleigh and see him. He's so kind! We met through Match.com and he picked me! (smiley face)
3/13 -3/14/97
I was hoping to write more before I met him, but it's too late for that now! I left work at 4:30 and had to go home to get Mike's # which was saved on my computer. I finally got on the road and called him from the airport exit. I had tuned in to the radio station he works for (850 am) and they were talking about ME! The host of the show said that "Smelly Williams" had met this girl through the internet – but that she'd probably show up and be a FAT TRANSVESTITE. "Of course real women don't go on the internet because women don't know how to use the computer." said the host. I got it and was laughing. So when I got closer to Raleigh I called Mike. When he answered I said, "Hey, this is the FAT TRANSVESTITE calling." He said, NOTHING. He was shocked that I'd heard the bit. He just kind of laughed it off. I was a little suspicious at that point but we had agreed to meet and I wasn't going to drop out because of some comedy bit on AM radio. Please! But then again, how desperate am I?
We met at Darryl's Restaurant. He was very cute! He sang me funny little songs, talked the talk and even kissed me when I left. And I haven't heard one worked since then. Son of a bitch! It was all for naught. Why do I keep setting myself up like this? First I'm too trusting and then I put my guard up. Then I let my guard down and trust that it's OK to just be myself and get out there and meet a nice guy only to be disappointed AGAIN. This is tough. And my parents wonder why I'm still single. I'd like to see them try it all over again in today's world. They had it easy.
Let me tell you my parents' story. Both in college, Mom is a sophomore and Dad is a senior. Mom and her best friend were walking down this path and Dad and his best friend were driving by. Dad and friend decided to follow Mom and her best friend and that's how those two couples met. Mom married Dad and their respective best friends got married. How fucking easy was that? I have to go on Match.com just to try and get a date.
Filed under: Life | Tags: i don't hate me, love, love. all you need is love
I can't feel sorry for myself because I'm loved.
I have friends who love and respect me.
My family supports me and I love them all, too.
But what of those people whose family shuns them? Should ignorance and hatred bar these people from love? NO! And I shout again with a voracious tenor voice, NO!
So if you ever find yourself with a wrongful voice whispering in your ear that you are unworthy of love, that you are unworthy of anything but abject adulation…then you must turn yourself into the complete opposite and realize that you're so worthy of this love that you're going to kick the ever living shit out of the bastard trying to take it from you, and…wait a min. think i'm on to something else. Inspiration seems to have taken a track to retribution. FUCKING HELL.
Going to compose myself for a minute. Back after a brief bourbon. Or a brief Gin, as gin is easier to spell when one is completely into tequila. Love the Cuervo. Jose, you are a friend of mine.
Did I mention the time I met STEW? He was my one-eyed sailor friend. No? Remind me to tell you of him. It's quite amusing. He actually liked me. Which is amusing. Not so much for STEW, (still not an anachronism for anything, it was his name.)
So this is my story, in not so many words. And nothing that my mother can burn in her misguided attempt at "saving me." Because, I'm blogging, BIATCH! Can't burn the internet! 🙂 Love ya, mom!
(BTW, my Dad's a lawyer and this is his worst nightmare come true!)
Last thought. Hopefully not MY last thought, just the last one for the blog…Am having a birthday on Friday that is, for some, a milestone. I consider it another birthday which by any family account is NOT A BIG FUCKING DEAL. I fear that people will make this a BIG FUCKING DEAL and I won't handle that well. Conversely, if my friends don't pay special attention to me on Friday I will make it a BIG FUCKING DEAL. I'm a Libra that way. Regardless, I like this. I like where I am in my life because I believe that I am where I should be. I truly believe that. Sorry, got sidetracked by Twitter. There are these hot guys that I'm following, and they may be tweeting me. STARS, tweeting me! Shit, I am special. And not because I heckle them! They really like me for me! 🙂
<disclaimer: I'm attempting wit, not delusion or insanity>
Filed under: Birds and Bees, Blogroll, HELP, Life, Uncategorized, Work | Tags: Alcoholic, AOL, beach, birthday, humor, Life, love, Ma, Marriage, meaning, Shoes, Shopping, Single, Snark, The Alchemist, Woman, writing
She is transported to the past in order to bring you this blog…<insert Wayne's World ™ deeeedledoooodleeeedeeeedeeeellloooodddoooodddllle here>.
It's 1993, I've graduated, found a job, and basically fulfilled what I thought was my parent's dream list of : "the things that you do after being educated." I missed the part about getting married. Damn. One of many dreams that my parents had for me that have yet to come true, through no fault of their own. They just didn't give the best impression of marriage. Dad's version: "I married her, it's FOR LIFE." Mom's version: "We got married, we made the family, I am a housewife, FUCK YOU. DON'T DO IT! Drinking is a much better way to deal with it. FOR LIFE."
I'm being harsh. And snarky. FUCK YOU. I learned it somewhere. Nature vs. Nurture? Not just a theory.
Back to the story, It's 1993 and I'm a year out of college, a year after or right as "The Real World" featuring Pedro, the AIDS guy who I totally fell in love with even though he was gay and had AIDS and by the end of the season died…"Spoiler Alert too late" he was the shit. I kid a lot but that guy had some heart and opened my eyes to the world. Brought me out of my hometown conservative homophobia to the "Real World". And that's what freaking reality TV should be, not this trumped up game of who's going to screw whom ever else over like there is on TV today. (Or so I hear, I quit watching that stuff an hour ago.)
Again, I digress, but I do have a point, albeit a disturbing point, to make. Consider yourself warned. And intrigued. Although only you can consider yourself intrigued if you genuinely are intrigued, which, to beleaguer the point is something only you can determine at this point by reading on. So to not further digress I will move on past this beleaguered point.
STEW. Not an acronym for anything, that was his name. He was the first AOL (acronym for America On Line) to seduce me online. He convinced the 20-something version of me to say dirty things to him. I still have conversations we had saved on a disc somewhere but I cannot fathom how to get them off this freaking 3.5 floppy onto Word. I'm hopeless when it comes to computers. So back to the story, it was titillating, people! I tell you this IM chat was HOT! We did stuff I'm still proud of today. And probably was made mention in Penthouse forums simultaneously. I'm just sayin' that I was young and horny. And wanting to be talked about in Penthouse.
So Stew, that guy…he got me all hot and bothered while talking to him on IM. So I agreed to talk to him LIVE and IN PERSON! And he dug my voice. "OOOOOHHHHH what a sexy voice you have, can I stroke my cock to it? Can I make you feel good?" And I'm all like, "Um, stroke your cock all you like, you're not going to make me feel good while you're in New Jersey and I'm in California. Fucker." – He liked that. I was taken aback at the lack of seriousness. If you want a girl to feel good, FUCKING BE THERE to make her feel good. Don't talk a game…So clearly Stew was out of the picture at this point. He walked the walk that he was walking… whatever that means. He was done for me. Stop it, I'm smart. Too much so, apparently.
Oh, but Stew story, meant to be something of a lesson. He was apparently some kind of movie previewer in the 90's and had a thing for young chicks. And he wanted me to send him a pair of my unwashed underwear. GROSS! So if you know the guy, call him out. Seriously, he sent me inappropriate videotapes, I repeat, "VIDEOTAPES". He sent an impressionable girl "VIDEOS" which I can't show 'cause they are on beta. But I digress. As I often do.
My favorite story that I don't tell: Meeting with Stew. He's such an enigma. He so totally "got" me that I find it hard to tell this saga. I don't even think you can call it a "saga" without sounding "facetious" when speaking of Stew. Stew isn't "Stew" in this anecdote, he was actually XXXX, but I don't think it's right to call people out when writing about them without their previous knowing of it so I'll call XXXX, Stew. He'll probably sue me later but fuck that, I got no money! I GOT NOTHING TO LOSE! And I never mean anything in mean spiritedness, Stew.
OK, done delving into the past. More recent past than my only reader knows about. Tom, want more? let me know. I can fill you in. Think this is entertaining? Please let me know. I am pandering here….
Filed under: Life
This chic gal is hip and onto something. You should read her! She's totally not into herself or anything… Just read her blog already, OK? Don't make me beg. Errr, um. Don't make her beg. Errr, um. no one is begging. Please read?
via Ashley Moore


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Good morning and Happy Labor Day.
Labor Day became a federal holiday in the United States in 1894. I didn't realize until I did a little research that the holiday was fast tracked by Congress after the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike. The folks in Washington were hoping to avoid further conflict by making Labor Day a national holiday.
I was only ever a member of one union. When I was teaching, I joined the teacher's union. That's right, I was one of those "bottom feeders" Rush Limbaugh talks about. But let me tell you, when you face a classroom of teenagers all day long, day in and day out, you really need to feel like someone has got your back.
Anyway, this blog isn't about unions, except for the whole Happy Labor Day part. So, what is this blog about? How should I know? This is one of those steam of consciousness things I do. No telling where that stream will take me.
My birthday was last Tuesday. I took Monday and Tuesday off from work and had myself a long weekend. That was nice.
On the morning of my birthday, I rode my bike downtown to Chamblin's Uptown.
I don't really do commercials in this blog, but can I just say, I love Chamblin's Uptown? It is an amazing used bookstore plus a wonderful cafe. It was the closest I've come to a "Paris-esque" experience since I returned from Paris. But really, I see Chamblin's as being more like Greenwich Village must have been in its boho hey day.
Admittedly, I am a bit of a literary romantic. Guilty as charged.
I managed to spend seventy bucks on books, and since it was my birthday, hooray for me. Then I sat in the cafe, drank a bottomless cup of coffee (not literally. A bottomless cup holds no coffee–but you know what I mean, right?), ate an egg and cheese croissant and wrote in my journal.
Here's what I wrote:
It is my motherfucking birthday!
What is significant about this opening line–besides the sheer poetry of it, is that I was actually feeling a little bit elated that it was my birthday.
I don't get all that bummed out about birthdays, I am usually indifferent. I don't want anyone to make a big deal out of it, but I do appreciate a simple acknowledgement–a simple, "Happy Birthday!" from a friend is sufficient. But elated? And this was before I had consumed one cup of coffee for every year of my life. (Or so it seemed.)
Here's the weirdest part about being so happy about it being my birthday–I wasn't jazzed because I had just turned 54 as much as, I was excited that I am just beginning my 55th year of life.
I may be 54 on paper, but I have actually completed my 54th year on this planet–at least in this incarnation. (Not necessarily an endorsement of reincarnation, just leaving the door open…)
I know what you're thinking–you're thinking I was all a quiver over those senior citizen discounts that will start rolling my way. Yeah baby–cheaper movie tickets, Early Bird specials and the like.
Hey, someone wants to give me a discount for reaching a certain age, Ima gonna take it. But that had nothing to do with my elation.
Frankly, I can't totally explain it. I just know that, for some reason, recognizing that I am beginning a new year of life, feels rich with possibility.
Maybe it is because my 54th year was such a special one. I stepped out of my comfort zone, actually left my house after dark on more than one occasion, worked on and performed in The Coming Out Monologues, met some amazing new friends, went to Paris. I didn't see any of that coming when I ended my 53rd year of life and began my 54th. It was just another birthday.
I have a secret fear of being happy. (I guess it isn't all that much of a secret since I just wrote it.) I can't say when it began or why, but I do have this inner voice that tells me, "If you are happy, you will be smacked down!"
If things go well, then they are bound to go wrong.
You're so in love, you get married, but you take your honeymoon voyage on the Titanic.
Or, something like that.
But somehow, passing through the time portal into my 55th year seemed like a really cool thing to be doing. For some reason, it made me happy. I know that life isn't going to be perfect, but when it isn't, maybe I shouldn't take it so personally. Maybe I'm not being smacked down because I am happy. It's just that, shit happens.
Happy Motherfucking Monday!


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The day started with the 2 keynote speakers - Jane Nicholls and Derek Wenmoth. I am always interested in what these two people have to say about e-learning and the journey that is happening.
The first workshop looked at how blogs had been used to as the portal for learning stories to strengthened the home-school partnership. I was amazed at how much time and effort had been invested by these teachers to upskill the students and the parents. 1-1 sessions had been undertaken where the teachers worked with families to teach them logging in, leaving comments and more. It has taken alot of hours to develop this and now the centre is working on a 'family asks' basis for the learning stories to be given this way and the families must ensure that they are willing to put in the same amount of hours as the centre. It was refreshing to see how much family involvement was going on with these blogs and how many of the families and students that had left the centre had undertaken ownership of the blog and carried it on. What a powerful way to show learning over the course of a school career or lifetime!!
My next session wowed me in the way the students own interest and passions shone through in what the students were doing and the way they were learning. Their passions were the learning. This is where a lightbulb really turned on in my head in regards to the degree of difference in what is happening in ECE to Primary education. The centre running the workshop talked a lot about students interests and passions and developing those in the centre as the central idea to the learning. Students were involved in learning experiences that breached home to school and back and involved a range of people. Having taught juniors but not spent alot of time in ECE centres this has made me re-think more about how the first year of primary is so far removed from what happens in alot of these centres.
While not on a whole, I think many junior primary teachers would get a shock to see what e-learning experiences their students are involved in before they enter their classes at 5 years of age. I had the chance to talk to several ECE educators about the transition period from ECE to primary and how hard it is. There seems to be several schools who are developing close networks with the schools around them to (see Grasslands Kindergarten blog and their links to Rhode Street School). We are currently looking at getting some of our junior teachers into visit some ECE centres. Also I am keen to look around at what is happening at our ECE centres where our students come from - how this meets with what we are doing and expecting from our students when they arrive at our school from these centres.


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Kendall Jenner says she's 'more of a Jenner than a Kardashian': 'I get that from my dad'
Caitlyn Jenner has had quite an impact on daughter Kendall Jenner.
In the May issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine, the 21-year-old model opens up about the similarities she shares with the 67-year-old former Olympian. "I mean, I'm a girl and I like being a girl, but I've just never been into it like they have," she says. "I think I get that from my dad (Caitlyn). I'd say I'm more of a Jenner than a Kardashian."
EXCLUSIVE: Kendall Jenner 'Devastated' Over Pulled Pepsi Ad Controversy -- Is This a Career Breaker?
Kendall also feels that she's the most private of her family members. "More than the rest of my family, I guess," she admits. "Just 'cause I think it's powerful. Plus, I think people always want what they can't have. It's nice to have some mystery."
As for her love life, the Keeping Up With the Kardashian star insists, "I'm not marrying anyone. I'm not engaged."
"There's nothing long-term or serious like that in my life," Kendall adds. "I'm doing my thing. I'm having fun. I'm being young."
WATCH: Coachella Round-Up! Leonardo DiCaprio Hangs with Newly Single Orlando Bloom, Scott Eastwood Shows Major PDA
See photos of Kendall Jenner:
See Gallery
Over the weekend, Kendall made her first public appearance since her Pepsi commercial controversy at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, and sparked some romance rumors when she was spotted with A$AP Rocky. She also turned heads in a stand-out style when she hosted Bumble's Winter Bumbland party with younger sister Kylie Jenner.
Here's a look at the thong-baring ensemble that Kendall wore to the festival:


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The Contemporary corner L-desk gives you plenty of room to spread out your projects on either side of the corner computer area, or to add a second computer monitor on one side. Affordable, and ready to assemble, this L-desk comes with fully finished front panels so that it can be positioned in open areas as well as facing a corner or along a wall, two more common corner desk placements. This corner L-desk is comprised of a right-handed J-desk and a return, so the desk seam will be on the right side of the seated user.
This corner L-desk is made with durable laminate surfaces and protective vinyl edges to keep the desk looking new. It comes with one file drawer and one box drawer that are locking and fully extend. Wire management grommets keep desktop neat and wire free. Keyboard tray sold separately. The pedestals ship fully assembled. This desk comes with two sets of handles, so that you can select the ones that look best in your space.
Assembly required.
This product has been Greenguard certified to support better indoor air quality for offices, homes, schools and healthcare facilities. Products that are Greenguard certified are regularly tested to ensure that their chemical and particle emissions meet acceptable pollutant standards.
This item is a GSA Schedule Contract item. National Business Furniture's GSA contract number is: GS-27F-0024V.
For more information, please call one of our government specialists at 800-558-1010, or visit this page to learn about all our government contracts including Navy BPA, Air Force BPA, TXMAS and CMAS.
For a limited time, take an additional 15% OFF the price of this item by entering promo code HARVEST during checkout! Your discounted price will be reflected at checkout. Promotion valid for 15% off all qualifying products (excluding tax and shipping) using promo code HARVEST only. Qualifying products will be marked with a 15% Off tag. Promo code cannot be used with any other promotions or discounts and is limited to one use per customer. Promo code applies to merchandise only. Enter promo code on payment page in check out to see discount before submitting order. Promo code valid November 1, 2018 to November 30, 2018 11:59 p.m. CST.
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Litter-Robot Warranty
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Free shipping to the contiguous US. Customers in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico will incur additional shipping costs.


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FARGO, N.D. (January 11, 2016) — TMI Hospitality's Room in the Inn® program provided 1,697 free room nights to families in need during November and December 2016. Since 1988, TMI has offered free rooms at all of our locations to those who have friends or family in hospitals, nursing homes, or treatment centers over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Here is what a few of our guests had to say about the program:
"It was great because we needed a place to stay with my husband going to the cancer center and we having new floors put in our house." -Quail Springs (OK) Fairfield Inn & Suites
"Great room – clean, comfortable bed and great breakfast choices. Thank you very much for the room at no cost. Our daughter is going on four weeks in the hospital, so this is a great savings for someone who travels distance to see their family member. Again, thank you so much for everything." - Billings (MT) Fairfield Inn & Suites
"Upon our arrival and check-in, Jenn was awesome – great service she gave us – very informative about the hotel and very knowledgeable on giving directions and easy way for us to locate and find our way to the hospitals and rehab centers. Hotel is very nice and clean. I want to thank you organization for offering me a free room while in Fargo for medical visits and especially during this holiday season. Thanks very much for everything." - Fargo (ND) Fairfield Inn & Suites
"Very nice and accommodating. Will choose this hotel again. Thank you. My husband is having emergency open heart surgery. We had not planned to be in this city. We were on our way to Kansas City when he had a heart attack." - St. Joseph MO HI
"We got a room here because our family member was in ICU at Bryan West. I was very impressed with staff. We will stay again!" -Lincoln (NE) Comfort Suites
"I cannot express enough how much this helped us. My mom had open heart surgery at Bryan East on the 28th. There are 7 kids in my family, all except 2 live out of state. We were all able to be there for the surgery and then some came and went throughout the week. I stayed the entire week at the Hampton Inn, as well as those coming and going. Derrick, your manager was so very kind and helpful and understanding. He kept offering to do more. Absolutely every staff member, from desk to housekeeping, to maintenance, were all so wonderful. I want to thank every one of them for treating us all like family. At such a stressful and emotional time it all really helped. I pray good things come to every one of them and your wonderful company in the future. God Bless you all." Lincoln (NE) Fairfield Inn & Suites
About TMI Hospitality
TMI Hospitality is a nationwide developer and management company of select service and extended stay hotels. Headquartered in Fargo, N.D., TMI currently manages 188 hotel properties across 26 states representing nationally recognized franchises, including; Marriott, Hilton, Choice Hotels, Carlson, Hyatt, and IHG brands. The multiple divisions of TMI support the expanding portfolio through development, construction, services, and operations. More information is available at TMIHOSPITALITY.COM.
Fairfield Inn & Suites Hartford Manchester Completes $2 Million Renovation
July 13, 2017
TMI Hospitality Acquired by Aimbridge Hospitality
June 22, 2017
Fairfield Inn & Suites Omaha East/Council Bluffs Completes $757,000 Renovation
June 19, 2017
Fairfield Inn & Suites Dallas Mesquite Completes $754,000 Renovation
June 15, 2017
Fairfield Inn & Suites Bloomington Completes Renovations
June 7, 2017
Fairfield Inn & Suites St. Cloud Completes Renovations
June 2, 2017
Homewood Suites Houston—Westchase Completes $2.1 Million Renovation
May 25, 2017
Fairfield Inn & Suites Toledo Maumee Completes $638,500 Renovation
May 18, 2017
TMI Hospitality Receives Three Prestigious Marriott Awards
May 5, 2017
Quail Springs Fairfield Inn & Suites Completes Renovations
May 2, 2017


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If you're looking for an Exo KPop merchandise which can be used in a daily life there's nothing more suitable for you than this. What you can see here is a beautiful made by fans long wallet. It's very popular among the fans and is attractive due to a stylish design. What is more it's totally cheap. It costs only $4.49 so you don't have to worry about spending too much.
This wallet has plenty room for your coins and cards especially for your bills. It can contain much more than that. The color of this product is creamy with grey and black elements. It has many small grey Exo logos at the top and one big black at the bottom with a caption 'We are one!'. This is a perfect gift for every Exo fan.
If this product is too long for you maybe you should consider purchasing a shorter one like this black Exo good.
If the size is just perfect for you you should be also interested in this B.A.P Long Wallet.


text:
Hi Karen, we have three beachfront condos in Gulf Shores. One in Seawind which is a larger 2 bedroom plus a bunk room. Seawind 794 has an indoor outdoor pool, sauna, hot tub, and a huge exercise facility. Our other 2 condos are in Boardwalk 585 and 886. Just do a search for those condos to see pics. All of our condos are furnished to best in the building clas which is why we rent almost everyday thru oct.
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Larry Grossmann
Gulf Front Condo ID: 385718
Gulf Shores Travel and Lodging Related Links


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Interested in getting in touch with Campus Vinyl BucknellU?
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Bygga is a South West London based building company that specialises in transformative home extensions and renovations. We understand what it takes to turn your space into the beautiful and well functioning home you have imagined. We have the experience and vision to work with detailed architects drawings or to develop your project from an idea to completion. Contact us to get your project started.
"We ran a full tender for our large redevelopment (with 27 steels) and chose BYGGA due to their competitive price, quality of previous work and strong references. They were a pleasure to work with throughout, always patient when others may have lost patience - they made a stressful process enjoyable. Above all they came in on time and on budget and the work is extremely high quality. I couldn't recommend them highly enough."
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"I chose Bygga for a residential extension and refurbishment project following a recommendation from my architect and am delighted with the end result. The team worked tirelessly to finish the build on time, on budget and to a high standard. Thanks again to all the team!"
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We'd love to have a chat to discuss your building project


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Lentelus Farms
Lentelus Farms was founded on the idea of creating a truly sustainable, agroecological, mixed livestock farm in the Comox Valley. All our animals are raised with the utmost respect and care on fresh green pastures. We produce pork, lamb, eggs, seasonal vegetables, dog treats as well as fresh sourdough bread for the Wednesday and Sunday Markets.