Wind Turbines

I pass by these every time I go Up North to visit my folks. Towering pillars foreboding along side the freeway. Kissing the sky and reaching the heavens-churning slowly almost in a calculated fashion. My mouth is agape with the sheer sight of their size. These are wind turbines of Forward Wind Farm near Byron, Wisconsin on the Fond du Lac and Dodge County borders.

Tall and majestic they are, scaling over 40 stories into air. The blades are 134 ft across. The weight of the rotors are 47 tons. They'll operate in winds starting at 9 mph and they'll cut off at 54 mph. They are designed to withstand winds up to 134 mph. These babies can generate up to 145 megawatts of electricity, that's enough to power up 36,000 residential homes! That's a structure for you! To top it all, there are over 80 turbines in the area! There are over 300 turbines in Wisconsin.

Amazingly it may seem, there is controversy over these giants. residents living in the shadows of the turbines have complained of noise, shadow flicker and maintenance issues. Not to mention an increase in their electric bill. After seeing some videos about their arguments, I'm not so sure I'd want to be living nearby them...

Here's some information, I've researched upon-

http://www.we-energies.com/environmental/bluesky_greenfield.htm
http://www.we-energies.com/home/ByronWind.pdf
http://www.ecw.org/byronwindtour/turbines.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyOImGHyJtQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7b4fGoK4Xo

Learning Isn't Hard (When You Got Your Library Card)

While my computer was down, I wasn't exactly idle. I spent some time at the library not only to check in from time to time, but to up pick a few books and pick out a few CD's to rip and burn. Got some good ones too...

Babe Ruth-First Base (upgrade)
Babe Ruth-Amar Caballero
Bad Boy-Best of Bad Boy
Black Crowes-Croweology
Chicago-XXX
Sheryl Crow-Detours
Def Leppard-Songs from the Sparkle Lounge
KISS-Sonic Boom
Matchbox 20-Exile on Mainstream
Pink Floyd-The Wall (upgrade)
Queen & Paul Rodgers-Return of the Champions
Queen & Paul Rodgers-The Cosmos Rocks
Queensryche-American Soldier
Raconteurs-Consolers of the Lonely
REM-Accelerate
UFO-Best of UFO
Neil Young-Chrome Dreams II
Neil Young-Fork in the Road

The books I picked out:

Walk This Way-The Autobiography of Aerosmith by Aerosmith and Stephen Davis
KISS Behind the Mask-The Official Authorized Biography by David Leaf and Ken Sharp
Lynyrd Skynyrd Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock by Gene Odom with Frank Dorman

Harley Davidson to Leave Milwaukee?

Say that this isn't so... I picked up the paper this morning, to my disbelief, read in bold headlines that the Harley Davidson plant MAY be leaving Milwaukee---for Kansas City. I was shocked! The rising labor costs may be forcing this world renowned motorcycle company out of state. Not only the loss of 1,360 high paying jobs will be affected, but the loss of tourism as well.

Harley-Davidson means a much to Milwaukee as beer and brats do. A symbol of my state, like cheese and the Green Bay Packers. The loyalty among Wisconsinites towards our culture is great. We are fanatics of what we believe in. We guzzle our beer like water, eat our bratwurst with pure glutton and put cheese on everything we eat. Hell, we even pray to the Packers gods for our wins. Why should we treat Harley-Davidson any differently? Harley Davidson has been an icon in the Wisconsin community for 107 years!

I remember hearing about the 100th Anniversary of Harley Davidson. Literary HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of bikers made a pilgrimage to Milwaukee! Stories of the I-94 Interstate shutting down for a parade of bikers and Bruce Springsteen playing in Milwaukee filled my ears. I could go on and on about these "hogs" featured in countless numbers of Hollywood movies and the celebrities that own them. Goes to show how much of influence of Harleys have on our society!

I don't own a Harley, yet I wish I did. I think it would be fun to take a ride on one of these babies with a lady on the back wrapping her arms around my waist as we ride! Wind flowing through my hair....radio blasting "Born to be Wild".......

Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan

It was twenty years ago today that the legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan passed away. He was one of the greatest rock and roll blues guitarist ever lived. Never before I've heard such an incredible guitar player. Only a few can match his brilliant style and capture the emotion he had in his playing. He was one of a kind.

Stevie Ray was killed in a helicopter crash nearby Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, WI (which is about a 45 minute drive to the west of Racine) The copter crashed into a nearby ski hill in the dense midnight fog. Also killed in the accident were four members of Eric Clapton's entourage and the pilot. They were heading for Chicago. Details on the crash here.

Earlier in the evening, Stevie Ray jammed to a sold out show with guitar gods that would have scorched the Earth with blistering passion. Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray's brother Jimmie were present on the stage! THAT would be a wonderful sight to see, if I would have went.

Yeah, I was planning on going, but bowed out because I already had spent a bundle on earlier concerts that were at Alpine Valley that same summer. I already had seen Rush, Aerosmith and Robert Plant.

Fortunately and ironically, I had gotten my hands on that final performance. It may not be the best show SRV ever played, but it is worthy of a bootleg. I highly recommend getting this one. Here is the setlist.

1. Testify
2. The House is Rockin'
3. Tightrope
4. Things I Used to Do
5. Let Me Love You Baby
6. Leave My Girl Alone
7. Pride and Joy
8. Wall of Denial
9. Riviera Paradise
10. Superstition
11. Couldn't Stand the Weather
12. Going Down
13. Crossfire
14. Voodoo Chile
15. Sweet Home Chicago
    

Even though I didn't go, I will always remember Stevie Ray for the great guitarist he is and the impact he made in my life.

Back in Business!!!!!!!

Nice comfy chair....check
Cigarettes and ashtray...check
Can of Pepsi....check
Computer plugged in...check
Windows 7 downloaded...check
Firefox running....check
Blogs up and running....check

Well folks, guess what?

I'm back in business!

YEEE HAAAA! The glowing rays are radiating my eyes, soaking them in the afterglow. I'm feeling the warm euphoria flowing inside of me. The withdrawals are receding...The convulsions have stopped. Revival is here!

After three weeks of battling against the Hewitt Peckard technical dummies over imaginary recovery discs, I admitted defeat. Dismayed by the lack of progress, I took my business to Harbor PC in West Racine. A few days later, my computer was fixed. The hard drive was replaced and parts of the motherboard fixed. The computer runs like a champ now. All I have to do now is tweak my Firefox add-ons, get used to Windows 7 and organize my pics.

Now to catch up on the blogs.......

Plan B

My patience has finally ran out of the door! I'm done screwing around with the technical idiots from Hewitt Packard. Done with waiting for "alleged" recovery discs to arrive. DONE! I want my computer back and I want it NOW! The withdrawls are getting serious now...

So I bid my adieu to the Best Buy Geek Squad From Hell and gave the Hewitt Peckhard the bird! Time for Plan B. I got my refunds back and took my business to a local puter geek whom already has what I need. They'll even tweek it for better performance. For a cheaper price too! If it goes well, I should have my computer back on Monday. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Checking in from the Library...(again...)

SIGH! Here I am, checking in from the library....AGAIN! My PC is still down. YUP... It's been a week since I've been able to really sit down and catch with my e-mail, Facebook and the blogs. Time is really limited here at the library. With hope, by Saturday I will.

I know I heard that before. The hard drive in my PC has been replaced and brand new. The issue now is WAITING on the fricking recovery discs! I had ordered these discs LAST Thursday after I had taken my computer to Best Buy to get repaired. So what's taking so damn long? It's the idiots at the God knows where technical support center in India! It has been one hassle after another with these clowns!

First, I called for a rush on the discs. Supposed to be here within two days, NOT five business days!

Two, they sent them to the WRONG address! Luckily, I was able to figure out where they were sent to and retrieve them personally.

Three, the WRONG discs! What I needed where RECOVERY discs, NOT the Windows 7 upgrade!

So now I'm waiting on the recovery discs, they SHOULD be here by Friday. By Saturday, with help from the nice gentleman at Best Buy, I should be good to go... If not, I'm gonna go postal...

Keeping my fingers crossed, because I'm getting tired of waiting in line to use a computer.....

UPDATE!-Went to check on the status on the recovery discs yesterday, come to find out, they were out of stock with "none left" and my order cancelled! Outraged I decided to scrap the HP bullshit and get my computer back from Best Buy. I was gonna let someone fix it. The Geek Squad guy was sympathetic to my situation and CALLED HP tech himself! There WERE discs in stock! They should be here on Tuesday...SIGH! If that doesn't work, it's back to plan B or get a new computer...

My Computer is Down

Here I am, in Best Buy, looking at new computers. Well, my computer is down. I'm probably gonna to get the one I have fixed. The hard drive blew on it. So, it may be a couple of days before I can get online again. What am I gonna do? Damn......

Rodrigo y Gabriela

I listen to most kinds of music, especially the music that has guitar in it. I stumbled across the video while looking for my daily video post for Facebook. I was floored by what I heard! I Googled up Rodrigo y Gabriela and got this link. Quite impressive for a short career so far. Here are they performing "Hanuman" inspired by Carlos Santana.

A Day at the Fair

It's midsummer now. I have been taking advantage of the weekend time to go and do things. This weekend I went to the Racine County Fair in Union Grove. Although it was hot and humid out, I had a great time doing things there like:

Seeing small animals,



Horses...



Cows...




Some old Case Tractors...




Rode on rides...




Ate some delicious cheese curds...




And saw a demolition derby...

Well, I spent a wad of money and got a a little sun burnt. The crowds were a little hectic at times. All in all, I had a great time. I drove home with a smile on my face....looking forward to next year's fair.