The Zero Motorcycle

I learned of this nifty little machine today. It's called the Zero Motorcycle. "Zero" for the zero emissions, I guess. I think it's wonderful! Right now it can only go 40 miles on one charge, but the inventor said the battery is completely non-toxic. It's not heavy on the horsepower but the bike can smoke the tires sitting still. The "CC" designation, if it was a fuel type vehicle, would be around 250cc (according to the video). Anyway, watch the clip. It's pretty interesting. I like quiet vehicles and this may be the wave of the future.

The Zero Motorcycle Demo In Jay Leno's Garage
Found At This Link

I tried to embed the video here, but for some reason it wouldn't work this time (computer gremlins again). The link will open in a new window so y'all won't lose your place. Enjoy! :o)

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Bloggyland Inauguration Tour

Welcome To The Bloggyland Inauguration Tour

My favorite watermelon pink gown.
I'm all primped and dressed.
My ride has arrived so I won't be late for all the festivities.


The Pelosi Car
But first, a little history about the Inaugurations of years past.

1st President George Washington
Our beloved country became "a more perfect union" also known as the United States of America in 1776. Before that we were governed by the Articles of Confederation, which was agreed to by Congress November 15, 1777; ratified and in force, March 1, 1781. The Constitution was ratified in May 1787.

This week's 44th U.S. presidential Inauguration in Washington, District of Columbia, will involve a cast of thousands and an audience of millions.

At the beginning of the formation of our government, the populace had to hear the news through the written word and could take months. This inauguration will be televised and on the internet, ready to be viewed by billions in the blink of an eye.

What will happen today? There will be a church service, a procession by the President-elect to the Capitol Building, an oath of office administered by the chief justice, and a 21-gun salute. The newly sworn in President will give a speech and the members of Congress will host him at a formal lunch in the U.S. Capitol. The President will lead a parade of more than 10,000 people and dozens of floats back to the White House.

There will be nine official balls and nearly twice as many unofficial parties. The First Lady's inaugural gown will likely be presented to the National Museum of American History in Washington.

The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., collects inaugural ball gowns worn by First Ladies. On the left is the gown worn by Lucretia Rudolph Garfield in 1881. Next to it is the gown worn by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in 1961. Source

The whole shebang will cost 40 million U.S. dollars, paid for by private donations solicited from President Barak Hussein Obama, Jr.'s supporters.

This one didn't come anywhere near that amount! In a mural of the first U.S. presidential inauguration to take place at the Capitol Building, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall administers the oath of office to Andrew Jackson in 1829. Source

The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the term of the President expires at noon on January 20. Other than the date and time—and the wording of the oath of office—the transfer-of-power protocol is based on traditions going back to George Washington.

How a few "firsts" in Inaugurations trivia? Are you up to the task? :o)

Some Noteworthy Inaugurations: Firsts and Other Facts

April 30, 1789: George Washington
On the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, Washington was sworn in wearing a dark brown suit, steel-hilted sword, white silk stockings, and silver shoe buckles. During the oath of office he placed a hand on the Bible, beginning a tradition that nearly every U.S. President has repeated.

March 4, 1801: Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson is thought to have been the first and only president to walk to and from his Inauguration. Wanting to draw a distinction between royal events and simple, democratic ceremonies, he declined to ride in the customary carriage.
He was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
It was the first time a newspaper (the National Intelligencer) printed the inaugural address on the morning of the Inauguration.

March 4, 1861: Abraham Lincoln
The secession crisis required tight security for the new President and his parade. Army sharpshooters were on the rooftops overlooking the parade, and people complained that they could not see the President in his open carriage, as it was completely surrounded by cavalrymen. April 12, 1861 he led our nation into the War of Northern Aggression. His poor leadership led to a war of brother against brother.

March 4, 1865: Abraham Lincoln
His Inauguration was the first time blacks participated in the Inaugural Parade. Tragically, April 14, 1865 he was shot and killed. May 26, 1865 the War ended.

March 4, 1905: Theodore Roosevelt
He was President since 1901 due to Pres. William McKinley's assassination, Theodore Roosevelt did not have an inaugural parade until 1905. Veterans of Roosevelt's Spanish-American War Rough Riders charged along the parade route at full gallop. Some 35,000 people took part in the parade. [I'll bet that was a hoot to watch!]

January 20, 1949: Harry S. Truman
His was the first Inauguration to be televised

January 20, 1981: Ronald Reagan
His was the first Inauguration that was held on the west terrace of the Capitol.
It was the first closed-captioned TV broadcast for the hearing impaired.
It was also the warmest Inauguration on record (excluding President Ford's, which was on August 9, 1973, after President Nixon resigned).

January 20, 1985, and January 21, 1985: Ronald Reagan
As January 20 fell on a Sunday, festivities were held on Monday, January 21. Reagan did, however, take the oath of office on Sunday, January 20.
It was the first time a TV camera was placed inside the President's limousine.
It was also the coldest Inauguration on record.

January 20, 2005: George W. Bush
It was the first Inauguration since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He had the tightest security of any Inauguration (more than a hundred square blocks closed off, 6,000 police officers and 7,000 U.S. troops deployed, fighter jet patrols, chemical sensors).
Source

There's a whole bunch more trivia at the Source link. I found it interesting that very nearly every President has a "first" on record.

That's enough history for now. Let's come back to the present.

Have a happy day folks!

Our prayers go with the new administration that for the good of our country they be the best representatives of US possible. That they be humble and seek God's wisdom in all things. That they love our country more than themselves, more than their family's and more than any 'religion'. May Jesus bless and keep America safe from harm under His care.
~ Amen.

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I'm A Colon :

So my good bloggy friend Linda at Life's A Calling Who Is This did this on-line survey. Seems I'm a "colon"?!

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

And this result is after I got took in by the Joke today!? Go figure!? Well, when I make a mistake, I make it BIG!! ha! I did check with snopes.com first, honest Injun. Deepest apologizes buddies. I think what happened was our little 4 year old niece is very ill and I'm quite distracted. She has pneumonia and is very sick. Has me very, very, very concerned.

PS: Hubby is a "colon" too. Toooo funny!


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My Favorite Coffee And Tea Cups

This is a nonsensical post today. My good friend Muse-Swings and cohort for bloggy 'trouble' (substitute 'fun' there), had a good idea recently. She was making some yummy orange sherbet and 'challenged' us to post our favorite coffee cups.

Good deal.

We must be REALLY bored this weekend! It's the weather ... right!?

I have one in particular that is my favorite and I always hone in on it if it's clean. No big surprise, but it was purchased at the Motorcycle Museum in Maggie Valley, NC.

The Girls (2008)
When said cup is in the dishwasher, I gravitate to the ones below.

This one Steve bought for me recently. It is so heavy it takes both hands! So, this one is just for looking at.

Suzuki
I bought these at the Jeff Davis Memorial here in Georgia.

The south shall rise again! :o)
Steve also has a bunch of fav's. His, of course, have Triumph emblazoned on the front or his name and BellSouth / AT&T (his former employer).

Steve's favorite cups.
I have these two below just for sentimental reasons. The one of the left was a gift from my 1/2 sister before I lost her in the 1980's. The Kliban cup on the right is an 'antique' from the 1970's.

Gift cup and Kliban cup
Now, this cup I salvaged from the Dad's house when he died. That definitely has sentimental attachments. I wish Myra had had one with her name. She had some favorite dishes, but I gave them to her housekeeper as a gift. Myra loved her plates.

Donald Willard Ackman (1924-2006)
And that's it. So what's your favorite cup or cups? Might as well stay inside and be warm this weekend. :o)

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The Woman With One Gray Tennis Shoe

Have you ever counted the number of shoes in your possession? As I gingerly sip on some adult libation, I did this very thing tonight. I have shoes for dress, gardening, dress boots, riding boots, mules, sandals, flip flops, sneakers and everything in between. Footwear for every occasion. Know what I wear 99% of the time? You guessed it, the sneakers! I have all these nice dress shoes and all I wear are tennis shoes.

My contribution to high fashion.
My husband frequently teases about all the shoes in our closet. He laughingly calls me the Imelda Marcos of Patterson.

"I need a little more room in the closet again honey!"
Ok, I don’t have THAT many … yet ... there are only 31 pairs that I confess to. Pretty good for a gal who went barefoot most of the time growing up in central Florida.

“But I have an excellent reason for all this footwear“, I retort to my husband with a whine. “I have to match my outfits.“ Outfits?! What outfits!?! I no longer work outside the home. When I put in my time with High Finance I had very nice clothes with matching accessories including purses and hosiery. It was expected. But now I don’t have ’outfits’ unless you count my usual fair of blue jeans, a print t-shirt, and the afore mentioned sneakers with white socks as an ‘outfit‘.

Shoes have been around for thousands of years, you know. Our ancestors first began wearing shoes around 40,000 to 42,000 years ago, about the same time they developed more sophisticated toolkits and began creating elaborate art. I’m told that anthropologists and archeologists can tell all this because the toes of East Asia’s oldest modern human skeletons show that they wore shoes.

"Do you feel a draft too?"
Doesn’t that sound like an unusual job … studying toe bones!?

Ladies, can’t you see yourself at a party with nice people all impeccably dressed, sipping adult beverages (like the one I’m nursing now), and speaking in hushed tones with classical music playing softly in the background. Up saunters a handsome man and he says “Hello” smiling with his straight, white teeth.

What was I saying?
My ‘brian’ slipped away for a moment (that’s for you JBA). Tee hee
“Well,” you smile back sweetly to him and say, “and what is your occupation sir?”

“I study toe bones.”

Blank stare as you think, “Riiiight. Unusual pickup line bud. Move along now before I call the cops on ya … pervert!”

So back to the shoes … how can they tell all that about how long we’ve been wearing shoes from our ancestors toes? Seems that robust leg bones and thick toes denotes being shoeless. It’s because when one walks barefoot, the middle toes curl into the ground to give traction during push off. Gracile (slimmer) toe bones means the individual wore shoes. When wearing a shoe, a person pushes off with the big toe, placing less stress on the middle toes, resulting in less-developed toe bones. This gracility develops during childhood.

… caught ya lookin’ …
Well, that adult beverage has kicked in … but that’s my defense for having so many shoes. It’s my 40,000 year old ancestor's fault!


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Southeast Georgia Snow

Our Front Yard In The Morning Light
Can you see the heavy frost? This is usually as close as we get to snow in Southeast Georgia. It's suppose to get down to 23 degrees tonight, 16 degrees tomorrow (Friday) night! I think we'll stay inside and drink lots of hot tea.


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Gun Free Zone

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