Photos of our recent trip

I tried to include in the most recent blog these photos, representing a few of the 100+ photos I took on our river trip on the Danube and to Prague, Czeck Republic. I have no idea the number of photos one can include in a blog, but at the time I was unsuccessful in including them, so i'm adding these four as a sort of postscript.

Photos from our recent trip

I tried to include some photos with the blog I just wrote on our recent "Cruise on the Danube and Prague" but was unsuccessful, so I've resorted to this "followup" blog with pictures to get the job partially done. The first picture shows Marilyn sitting on a stone wall resting, another shows a scene from the river, another the dinner at the horse farm, the next the humor of the Slovakian, and the last shows Marilyn in front of one of the multitude of monuments. We really enjoyed this trip and heartily recommend it to those who think they might also enjoy it.

The Danube River and Prague

Marilyn and I just returned from an outstanding two weeks in Europe. As I’ve stated before, we really enjoy River Cruises and, while we’ve already previously enjoyed three other River Cruises in Europe, we decided on this trip. We previously had cruised part of the Danube River that this particular trip involved, specifically the portion of the Danube from Vienna, Austria to Linz, Austria. Our trip started in Budapest, Hungary and went west to our debarkation point at Linz Austria. Our ship was the Riverboat BIZET, operated by Grand Circle Cruises. About ten days prior to our original departure date of 11 October, we got a call from Grand Circle asking us if we would consider moving our departure date to 9 October. (It seems they had oversold the scheduled 11 October trip.) In exchange they offered us a voucher for several hundred dollars toward our next trip and a cabin upgrade for this trip. We accepted their offer.

After flying from Indianapolis to Washington, to Frankfort, Germany to Budapest Hungary overnight, we got ourselves settled into our quarters on the river boat. The next day they moved the boat to the other side of the river. The Danube River splits the city of Budapest and the north side of the river is the city of Buda and the south side of the river is Pest. The morning was spent in a tour of the city by bus. After lunch on the boat, we decided to participate in one of the optional tours that was a horse show and evening meal The horse farm featured native “cowboys” and their riding skills. It was interesting but the meal was so-so.

The next day we sailed for Esztergom. The town is the site of the largest church in Hungary and is the center for Hungarian Catholicism and the seat of the cardinal primate of Hungary. The famous anti communist cleric, Cardinal Josef Mindszenty was reburied here 4 May 1991. We sailed at 2;00 pm after bloody-mary’s and were entertained that night in the lounge by the liars club.

The next day we were in Slovakia and first enjoyed a walking tour of the capital, Bratislava in the morning. That afternoon the ship sponsored a question and answer session with two students from the university of Bratislava That evening we were entertained by a student choir in the ship’s lounge.

The next day was Sunday and we were treated to a city tour of Vienna, Austria, walking and by bus. After returning to the ship and lunch in the dining room of the ship, we were able to take shuttle buses to the city center to enjoy time on our own. The city is beautiful and the local people throng to the city center on Sunday afternoon. It’s simply a treat just to see all the people that come downtown during the day. Our ship sailed at 1:00 am. for the town of Melk, Austria and a visit to Melk Abbey.

We arrived at the town of Melk around 1:30 pm and the optional tour of the Abbey. Marilyn and I had visited the Abbey on a previous river trip so we chose to just walk around the town. At 5:30 that evening the ship’s Captain held a farewell reception in the lounge and at 7:00 pm his Farewell Dinner. Marilyn and I were invited to sit at the Captain’s table during the dinner so we felt we had to dress up more than our usual casual attire. We were entertained in the lounge by the ship’s crew. Great entertainment. That night we sailed for Linz, Austria.

We arrived in Linz the next day and after breakfast on the boat we went for an orientation walk to the main square in Linz. Those passengers who signed up for the optional tour to Salzburg spent the day there. Marilyn and I had previously been to Salzburg stayed on the boat for lunch and in the afternoon walked back to the town center and spent the afternoon there. We spent the evening repacking for our debarkation of the BIZET.

The next morning we boarded buses for the trip to Prague, Czeck Republic. The bus ride was broken up by stopping for lunch at the Eggenberg Restaurant in the town of Cesky Krumlov. The menu was a small salad, roasted pork, sauerkraut, Czeck dumplings, walnut cake, and a drink. Good lunch! Following that –on to Prague and checking in to the Don Giovanni Hotel. A buffet dinner in the evening was included at the hotel.

On this day we were scheduled to visit a school and have lunch at the elementary school in Nelahozeves. This is a small Czeck town which was the home of the famous European composer Anton Dvorak. It seems that Grand Circle sponsors a foundation that makes donations to various educational programs in Europe. In this case they had donated $20,000. to this school. The school had used the money to purchase quite versatile computer equipment to teach the kids English language. The children were five to seven years of age and they demonstrated their ability in learning English. The kids were all cute, typical, kids of that age and it was a learning experience for us. The kids sang a song for us and our group, in turn, sang “Ole MacDonald’s Farm” with several choruses for them. They liked that. Later we ate lunch in the school cafeteria. They served a salad, Czeck goulash with rice, and Strudel. After returning to the hotel and resting a bit, we prepared to catch the bus for the second optional tour we signed up for.

Just before departing on the optional tour, the program managers had arranged to have a car put on display in the parking lot of the hotel. The car was called a Trabant and was manufactured during the Communist occupation of Czechoslovakia. The car body and frankly, it looked like the interior also was all plastic and the power. was a one cylinder engine. This one was built in 1983 (?). Fuel had to be a mixture of gasoline and oil. It got fair mileage but was not too reliable even when new.

The optional tour was about 50 kilometers north of Prague to the village of Nosalov and included dinner and Polka demonstrations. This tour was a disappointment. The dinner was on the lean side, the room was too small for the crowd, there was insufficient seating, and the polkas were confined to too small space.

The next day, after breakfast at the hotel, we went on a bus and walking tour of the city of Prague. The city is truly one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Before the WWII, Prague had a much larger Jewish population and one part of the city was called The Jewish Quarter. Only 5000 to 6000 Jewish families remain. The churches, other buildings, and bridges are architectural wonders. Unfortunately, Marilyn got sick about three quarters through the city tour and we had to go back to the hotel on our own. After back-tracking through the city, we found the subway and took it back to the hotel. Later, since Marilyn wasn’t feeling well , I decided to go back to the town center via the subway to see if I could find a music store that sold CD’s. I found one and was able to purchase two James Last (My favorite conductor) CD’s.

The next morning we had an early departure for home which required us to get up at 2:00 am. We traced essentially the same route home as we used getting to Europe at the beginning of our vacation (Frankfurt, Washington, DC, and Indianapolis). We arrive home in Indianapolis at 6:10pm after regaining the six hours we lost going over.

Great Vacation!

POLITICIANS and TAXATION

The last two or three weeks have really got my dander up regarding politicians and taxation here in Indiana. Our township recently received the statements for our property taxes for 2007. Our property taxes, based on a new 2006 assessment, increased by 33%. That was the average for our township, however, some property owner’s taxes were increased by two or three hundred per cent. Needless to say, as other township's and county residents have gotten their statements, their taxes have increased by similar amounts. In addition, the statements for all counties in the state were due out with first half payment due in May and since the assessors were late in completing their assessments, payment due dates were postponed and all kind of due-dates exist throughout the state. As the citizenry have received their property tax statements, they are up-in-arms about the increases. People really feel that something is wrong with the property tax assessments or calculations.

The legislature was warned early this year that there were property tax problems and that they needed to enact legislation to “once-and-for-all” re-evaluate the property tax laws. The legislature fooled around the whole session, accomplishing next to nothing, tending to the needs of the state’s lobbyists, and then announced that there wasn’t enough time to properly deal with property taxes. Instead of doing something they voted a rebate for everyone which would be mailed later in the year. They didn’t even consider just letting people deduct the amount of the rebate from their second half of the year taxes to save the postage. I think they thought if everyone received a check from the state in the mail closer to the next election, they would reelect the legislature out of gratitude. From what I’ve heard, most of the citizenry have already made up their minds about how there are going to show their "gratitude" to Speaker Bauer and the bunch that’s called the legislature.

Meanwhile, after numerous remonstrances and complaints the governor has stepped in and made some decisions after evaluating the problem. Most significantly, it was reported that the commercial property in Marion County was bypassed in the reassessment and they suffered no rate increases. As an example it was reported that one woman’s condo was previously assessed for less than $500,000. And then on the reassessment it was increased to $1,000,000 value. Simultaneously an automobile dealer down the street had no change in his assessment from 2005 of $986,000. This bypassing of commercial property in the reassessment smells of somebody involved in collusion of some sort. The governor canceled everything about the reassessment and authorized a new assessment for Marion County to include all commercial property. He also appointed a committee to streamline Indiana’s tax structure. Hopefully, this committee will come up with some good recommendations to which the legislature will respond. I personally don’t think the Governor is at fault in this fiasco, but I do blame the legislature and the local assessment offices and I think people will remember them and their petty bickering in the next election. I take note also that the state legislature found the time and agreement to give themselves a raise.

And then to add insult to the stupidity of the legislative and assessment processes, our Mayor of Indianapolis, “Bart Simpson” managed to pick this time to request a .65 % increase in the county income tax. That had to be approved by the Democrat-controlled City – County Council. After some questionable procedural actions the Council voted to thrust that on the county taxpayers. I think the voters will clean house on the Mayor and the Council also.

I have some recommendations that I think will get government back in charge of the taxpayers. They are as follows:

1. Term limits- 3 two-year terms for House members, 2 six-year terms for Senators.
2. Six years out of office before being allowed to work as lobbyists.
3. Pay raises must be voted on by roll call.
4. Every bill involving an expenditure of taxpayer funds must stand on its own under sponsor’s name.
5. No “Pork” under any name.
6. No campaigning more than six months prior to a national election
7. All collected campaign funds must be turned over to the National Treasury immediately following an election.

This will do for a start and it can’t happen to soon!!

The Month of June

This has been a busy month, yet interesting and rewarding. In fact, it’s been demanding, yet satisfying.

We get our medicine, as a veteran, at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, so that meant a trip of 120 miles each way. I bought my hearing aids through their Audiology Department in the Hospital and took advantage of this trip over there to get them checked out. Turned out they’re probably good for another year and that was welcome news. We’re very fortunate to be able to pick up our medications through their pharmacy every three months. We alternate driving with friends of ours and that saves on gas. Gas got pretty expensive here in Indianapolis during May ($3.39 per gallon) but it’s come down to $2.87 this past week. It seems strange to say that gas at $2.87 is cheap. I can remember in 1940 when gas was 18 cents per gallon. I guess its all relative.

Every Wednesday morning I go to breakfast with my golf buddies. We started out in 1990 with five of us for our weekly breakfasts, the purpose of which was to decide where our golf group would travel to play golf on our twice-monthly schedule. There were sixteen of us in that group originally, but now we don’t travel to different courses any more since the group has drifted apart and several have passed away. In fact our breakfast group is down to three of us. Once in a while anymore, two of us get out playing golf, but usually we just have breakfast and talk about golf, politics, the Indianapolis Colts or the Pacers. Oh, and I can’t forget the discussions about our various ailments. I’m 78 years old and the other two are 84. I’ve included a couple pictures of back when we were getting together regularly for golf. The picture of the single golfer is me and the group picture features four of our original 16. The two on the right in the group picture passed away a few years ago.

This has been an extremely warm month and the grass has really grown. It takes me about three hours to cut our yard and sometimes this month I’ve had to cut it twice each week. Finally last week the grass went dormant from all the heat and I haven’t had to cut it for a week. It finally rained last night and most of this morning. I suppose the grass will recover from its dormancy and I’ll have to start cutting it again. Regardless, the hot weather is still better than snow. Two projects I still am trying to get done are some repairs for the pool (the pump has a seal that’s leaking and the heater has a safety valve that needs replacing) and we have an awning that we’re trying to get someone to give us an estimate on replacing. We also signed up for another River Boat vacation trip in Europe. So you can see we’ve been quite busy.

Saturday, May 27, 2007, was the day of the 500 Festival Parade in Indianapolis. The parade is the culmination of the various celebrations which take place during the month of May prior to the Memorial Day 500 Mile Race. My wife decided that we hadn’t been to the parade since the 1970’s, so we were going to be there. My lack of enthusiasm was based on the fact that during the late 60’s and early 70’s I was deeply involved in the operation of the parade. The Commander of the Indiana National Guard at that time was a member and former President of the 500 Festival Committee and I’m that was why we were so involved. My job at first had top do with the parade security since at that time the parade was at night and the local protestors loved to roam the parade route trying to stir up trouble. Our solution to the problem of the protestors was to line the parade route with “Cherry-Pickers” armed with a Guardsman and a “Walky-Talky “radio which enabled us to quickly alert the police and a platoon of Guardsman for response. Later I manned the Command Post while other Guardsmen controlled the start of the parade and the marshalling and deployment of floats and other units. It was a big job and one I was glad to be rid of eventually. However, I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed being an observer this year. I even enjoyed the city bus ride downtown and the return home by bus. I got to see quite a bit of the city more carefully, avoided the parking headaches and saved gas.

It was raining and misting all morning, and since one had to get there early to avoid the rush, we sat in the rain under our umbrellas for about an hour, but just as the parade started, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The parade has really gotten to be a national, and quite an exciting event. It started out with the Indianapolis Police Motorcycle Drill Team and have received national recognition and deserve it. They were followed by a Color Guard made up of all the services. The parade is basically divided into ten divisions, each made up of one 3-car row of the race car drivers riding on the back of 2007 Corvette convertibles, various celebrities riding on the back of antique convertibles ( I can’t imagine where they get all of those good-looking antique cars), followed by bands, giant parade balloons, floats, hose patrols, and clowns. It is a very professional and efficient operation. All 33 drivers were present. Of particular note was Governor Mitch Daniels on his motorcycle leading his motorcycle club. Also Peyton Manning was the Grand Marshall and he looked as if he was really enjoying his role. I was surprised regarding the floats in that they were quite nice, all of them were made of styrofoam and none of them were made of flowers. Although they’ve had them for several years, the giant balloons were new to me. It was a great experience and I have to admit that once again my wife knew what was best for me.

ON INSTALLING DSL

For some time I have been debating myself regarding installing DSL as my internet server. I’m currently on cable and have been happy with it for seven or eight years, except for the price. The DSL I’ve been looking at would cost about $18.00 less each month which would be considerable per year. Last week I decided to make the move to DSL and took the first step which was to purchase the modem and contact the provider to make the switchover. I was told it was easy to make the switchover and could do the installation myself. I had one complication and that was that I use a router to direct my internet to a laptop as well as my desktop. I was assured that it was not a problem.

The first step was to insert line filters into all my telephone hook-ups in the house which would enable my phones to work at the same time as I use the internet. This was simple to do and they furnished the filters for my phones (all seven of them). The day of the installation, a telephone lineman arrived bright and early to check our lines inside and assure they were OK for DSL. I spent the rest of the day trying to get the modem and associated cables hooked up just as the diagram described. At the end of the day the internet didn’t work. After dinner that evening, I decided to call for help from their support technicians. My call was directed to a lady at their Support Center in Texas. She was diligent in trying to help me and we may have been making progress, however, our conversation was cut off and I lost contact with her. I dialed the support center back and this time I got the Support Center in California and was connected to a man. I had to go through all that had taken place with the woman and then after he had me trying several possible fixes, our phone conversation was again cut off. But by this time I decided to eliminate hooking up the laptop/router portion of my installation in order to simplify things. Then, upon trying to reestablish contact I got the Texas Support Center again, but the woman I talked to previously was tied up with another customer. I insisted on talking to a supervisor and demanded they send someone out to my house to help me. After much more conversation, they agreed.

The next afternoon I got a phone call that said my telephone would be disconnected for an hour or so and then a technician would come to the house. When he got there he explained that our area phone lines had been installed sixty or so years ago and at that time the phone company, by necessity, had installed amplifiers on the lines. This was no longer necessary on current installations and that he had fixed the line. It seems the amplifiers and DSL just didn’t mix. He checked the inside installation of my modem and cables and got it working. He said he didn’t know anything about routers so I was resigned to omitting the laptop from my hookup. After he left, I proceeded to notify my list of addresses of my new E-Mail address and send out a few messages. However I preferred that my E-Mail be on Outlook Express and since the DSL literature said that was possible, I called the Support Center for help.

The technician led me through the switch from Yahoo E-Mail to Outlook Express and now my E-Mail doesn’t work on Outlook Express or Yahoo. Conveniently, at this moment my phone contact was again cutoff and I tried to call back quickly in hopes of getting the same Technician. This time the Support Center was in India. I hung up and dialed the Support Center again. I don’t know where the Support Center was this time but I asked to speak to a supervisor. After again repeating all that had transpired to date the supervisor informed me that this was an Outlook Express problem for Microsoft and that I should contact the Router manufacturer for help in hooking up my laptop. At this point I said “to hell with it, I’m going to see if I can get back on my cable server and return the DSL to where it was purchased”.

To make a long story shorter, I’m back on cable, I’m using Outlook Express, and “lo and behold”, I found out that cable offers internet at a slower speed which is comparable to DSL’s speed and price (but not advertised). Also, I’m so tired of screwing with this whole thing; I’m now paying a local kid to hook up my laptop through the router. Unfortunately, that about covers my attempt to switch to DSL. For the two days I was able to get on DSL, I did find the speed was about the same as cable, although I didn’t get a chance to try downloading anything. The use of my telephones, while using the internet on telephones lines, wasn’t completely clean of feedback on the telephones. Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that when the going gets a little tough for these help experts, hanging up the phone is a pretty simple way of eliminating “help” problems.