Our new BLOB!

September 30th, 2010

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Alan noticed that I haven’t posted photos of our new grrrrrrrl.   Can that be?  We got her just over a month ago, and she’s not at all what I expected, we weren’t looking for a dog, and I was glad to only have one, and an easy one at that.    Kady is just the best doggy around.  But when I took a dog down to Dog Days of Stockholm, well, there she was, head on my shoulder the whole way and how could I bring a dog like that back to the shelter?  Sadie, that’s her name from the shelter, and with Kady it gets confusing.   She’s small, mostly black/chocolate lab, just 50 lbs, and 50 lbs of solid muscle.  At 10 months now, won’t get much bigger.

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She eats everything, but especially toilet paper, full rolls, and electrical cords plugged in, shoes, and one of the couches, and has helped us pull up the “Kenya” rug in the living and dining room.  Oh, and she ate a library book.  Not good.  Other than that, she is a delight, and keeps us hopping.

Here are a couple from my phone, sitting on the “poop deck” at my office door,  and in the office, they don’t convey her spirit at all…  More to follow — I got a new camera after having lost the other one I’ve had for so long… though it might be in the boat, or Washington, or left at the PUC or some meeting or other…

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She’s “the BLOB” based on the extensive previous and extensive older shep with new lab mix experiences of our dear friend Sierra on Doggyspace!

Northfield flood and clean-up

September 26th, 2010

Hot off the press… er… just in on the wire… errrr, wireless!

northfield.org has a great overview!

Cannon River flood news roundups and updates

And the missive hot off the press?

Cleanup is ongoing in Northfield today

Looking Forward: Volunteers Needed!
If you are willing to be called on to help with the clean up effort in the next 2 to 4 weeks, please register to help at http://northfield.org/flood . You will be contacted to help out as needed.

Griff Wigley’s phenomenal album of flood photos here

Check this out, I’ve not seen this before in any of the million photos of flood sandbagging, look at this utterly brilliant ladder and cone sandbag technique– only in Northfield (photos stolen from Griff – Fair Use and Full Attribution!!!):

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BOOM! at Xcel’s Black Dog plant

September 22nd, 2010

An “ignition event” in the coal hopper, more commonly called an explosion and fire… Three firefighters on the scene were injured when it blew after they arrived.

This’ll be old news, but I’ve been incommunicado for a while, lost in the mountains of the Northwest, where there is no cell, no internet… what a concept!

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Photo by Bill Klotz, Finance & Commerce (Fair Use!)

An interesting quote:

“I would say it’s pretty significant,” said Behnken, gesturing toward the Black Dog plant from a nearby park. Though reporters were not allowed closer access to the plant, it was apparent from a distance that the explosion’s force far exceeded initial references to it as a small explosion in a coal bin.

Here’s some video from KARE 11 with shots of the exterior damage:

In the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

3 firefighters hurt in blast at Xcel Energy coal plant in Burnsville

Workers noticed smoldering coal bin

By Emily Cutts and Deepta Holalkere
Pioneer Press
Updated: 09/21/2010 11:47:43 PM CDT

Three Burnsville firefighters were injured Tuesday morning at a power plant fire and explosion that shook local residents out of bed.

The fire started in a smoldering coal bin at Xcel Energy’s Black Dog power plant in Burnsville, the company said. As fire crews tried to extinguish the flames, a blast in the bin rocked the plant.

Two of the firefighters were treated at the scene for minor burns and returned to fighting the fire. A third was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with a leg injury, said Burnsville police Sgt. Jef Behnken.

“I heard a boom and then a bigger boom,” said Nancy Caneff, who lives nearby. Caneff was in bed when the blasts — the second strong enough to shake her bed — happened.

Firefighters put out two relatively small fires at the plant by 2 p.m. Tuesday but remained on site through the afternoon to handle hot spots, Xcel spokesman Tom Hoen said.
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On vacation!

September 18th, 2010

Long deserved…

Later!!

Last January, we got our dear Kady, f/k/a Lady, from Sixth Angel Shepherd Rescue, based in Marcus Hook, PA, and from a foster out on Long Island.

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She’s adjusting well to life here, right now she’s in her usual spot under my desk, and though she had a rough time when her canine sister Kenya died in May, she’s recovered and now is doing very well with our new Sadie dog, our unlikely but adorable adoption addition last month.   That’s quite a change for her, because she didn’t usually like other dogs, and was pretty aggressive with one at her foster home, they didn’t think she’d get along with Ken at all, but Kady knew… and just jumped right in the van ready to go home.  Since then, she has learned that many dogs are her friends and that she gives and receives from her sisters.

Anyway, someone had been searching “Sixth Angel Shepherd Rescue complaints” and so I did too to see what I could see, and it looks like a couple of months ago there was a bit of a ruckus, and Terry Silva, head of Sixth Angel Shepherd Rescue, prevailed.

Here’s the judge’s order, returning the dogs:

Memorandum – Sixth Angel Shepherd Rescue and Terry Silva v.George Bengal, Nicole Wilson and Pennsylvania SPCA

And an article from the Daily Times in Delaware County, PA:

Owner is Hoping to Have Her Dogs Returned

04-21-10
By:  Timothy Logue, Delco Times

Terry Silva wants her dogs back.

The Marcus Hook attorney claims she did not purchase two shepherd mixes and a cross-eyed chocolate Lab named Herbie from a North Carolina woman at the Market Street McDonald’s in Upper Chichester April 10.

“The dogs were mine from the time they left,” said Silva, founder of Sixth Angels Shepherd Rescue, Inc., Tuesday. “The only thing I paid her for was the transport and the boarding.”

Wardens from the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement disagreed and cited the former Chichester School District solicitor for violating the Pennsylvania Dog Law, which prohibits the purchase of dogs in public places.

“Defendant did pay for transfer of dogs” reads the citation, which comes with a $267 fine.

Anne-Marie Wessel of Lillington, N.C., was cited with five transport conditions violations, failure to have health certificates as required for interstate transports, and for selling a dog in a public place when she was confronted by wardens some time after 10:30 p.m. in the McDonald’s lot.
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