Saturday, June 24, 2006

NEW Poll Question on the left...

Give er a shot.
A TALE OF TWO ROBINS

Two robins decided to leave their tree to find some lunch. They found a freshly tilled patch of land that was crawling with worms. They quickly gobbled up as many of the worms as they could. Before long, they grew tired and decided to lie down in the warm sun. Soon, a large cat came along and ate both of them. As he finished, the cat thought, "I just love baskin' robins."
Secret Worlds: The Universe Within

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

Click here
Raccoon!!!

The biggest raccoon I have ever seen Is living on Evergreen in the Burdis' hedge. He made an appearance today at 3:15pm. I think he may have found a home there. Remember the lecture we had on bears? Over and over they said feed a raccoon feed a bear... They're cute but well do we need a bear?

If you live in that area try to secure any pet food you have been leaving out.

I don't know but this may be the result of bulldozing the forest on the north end of the community.
Well I see I have upset people including Charles who has been the best thing that ever happened to this website.

However, this website has rules just as any structured writing environment does. The rules say no politcal discussions and no religious treatises. Finally they say obey the Golden Rule. Those of you who are long time readers have seen the wisdom of these rules be made before your very eyes.

The rules are simple. Someone has to enforce the rules. That someone is me (not by choice I might add.. nobody wants the job.) No matter what you do as an editor you run the risk of offending someone.. I accept that risk.

You cannot imagine the nastiness that grew out of political discussions and the hurt feelings that ensued. That is not the purpose of this website to turn neighbor against neighbor over strong political and religious positions. WE had hoped to make this a sunny place of shared experiences and pleasant pictures. That is what we want and to keep the peace we cannot let anything get started that would disturb that peace. You may not think what you think or say about poltics in this community is not that bad but it had already had escalated to nastiness from 2 comments written by readers... Thus I deleted it.

If anybody wants to write here they can. I will edit out Political and religous stuff... There are literally thousands of blogs where one can go to argue those points or to pat each other on the back because they agree with each other. This, however, is not one of those places.

Friday, June 23, 2006

No Politics
"Why Worry About Tomorrow?"

Why worry about tomorrow
And the rising of the sun,
Of anguish over past mistakes
That cannot be undone?

Why waste life's precious moments
On things that bruise the heart
When today is ours to fashion
Into a work of art?

Today comes but once, my friend,
It never can return--
So use it wisely while you can,
There's a lesson you may learn.

Let history record the past
And tomorrow come what may.
Be content to do your best
With what you have today!
Poet: Clay Harrison
Community Roster


Hmm!

How would you feel about having our community roster on line? Wait! I know you worry about your phone # and all that but it's in the phone book now and as a result it is already on line anyhow. We could edit the list to keep those off that do not want to be on such a list. We could also put on any info that a participant would like all of us to know. Where ya from? What are your hobbies? Just any and all kinds of fun stuff.

Think about it .. I'm out of pocket today but will return and set up a poll for everyone about this... Think about it and run a comment or two and we will see what developes. RT

Retired and well-wired

ron says: I want this for us... a good read.

Retired and well-wired: "Retired and well-wired
Terwilliger Plaza's computer-using senior citizens are the opposite of technophobic
Friday, June 23, 2006
JOHN FOYSTON

They call it the T-Factor at Terwilliger Plaza, a buzzword that suggests this Southwest Portland retirement facility is well-wired and computer-friendly.

'You've been busy this month,' computer wrangler Rick Fox told a couple dozen residents at a recent monthly meeting of the Terwilliger Users Group. 'With 80 active members, you're downloading about 30 gigabytes of information a day, and we've logged about 200 to 300 e-mails daily -- about 9,000 a month.'

Fox manages computer, phone and security systems at Terwilliger Plaza, and has worked hard to encourage residents to become computer proficient.

Around here, the image of the technophobic senior citizen who pines for the days of vacuum tubes and rotary-dial phones doesn't fly, thanks in part to the T-Factor. Instead, Plaza residents are video-conferencing with their kids, surfing the Web for their next travel destination, ordering their weekly groceries, paying their taxes or buying Christmas gifts on Amazon.

They're staying in touch with the world through e-mail and the T-Net home page, where they can call up TriMet schedules, read menus for the ground-floor restaurant, contact staff members or browse the resident roster."
NO Politics

Sorry.

RT

Thursday, June 22, 2006

How Will Our Emergen

How Will Our Emergency Network Look? Where do you fit in?


Ron Thomas

I have people stopping me telling me they have purchased their new FRS radios. The last person paid $15 for 2 of them at WalMart. Some of you know them as Walkie Talkies and have them in your motor homes for backing up the rig or carrying on a conversation while you are caravanning. They are not CB radios but they work similar and have a shorter range. Today most of them have ranges of 2 to 5 miles. Our community is a mile long so they are ideally suited for us. To the left is a picture of the FRS radios the CERT teams use. All of them look similar.

FRS stands for Family Radio Service. People use them a lot to keep track of their kids especially at amusement parks. We are going to use them here in a variety of ways. True many will feel it is not worth the effort but I’m thinking you buy 2 and split the cost with a neighbor. You’ve just bought yourself a pretty good security package for nothing.

Here are some of the ways we will use our system...

  • We lose power in the park and telephones and cell phones... We are still linked by our FRS radios.

  • A neighborhood Watch patrol asks a resident to call in suspicious activity. In fact block captians might even monitor their radios all the time or take turns with their assistants.

  • You live alone are injured or ill .. you have another means of communication.

  • In an Emergency the CERT team will be able to give our community advisories over our network. You will be able to call for help.

Nearly every few days someone comes up with a fresh new idea on how to use the system. It’s so dirt cheap that you shouldn’t even fret over whether you should buy one or not.... Just do it.

I would like to talk about the radio itself now. Most of them come with 22 channels. Each one of those channels are further split into 36 privacy codes each. A privacy channel puts your group on another channel so that you don’t cross talk with other groups. For instance, right now we are monitoring CH 14 but usually everybody just picks a channel and starts talking and that could make our network useless up here so we will be using privacy code 14 which will make our network pretty much by itself. So our park will be on CH 14 Privacy Code 14 and will be on your display as 14.14. As time goes on we hope to have volunteers monitoring it 24/7.

Some time in July we will have CERT team members helping residents learn how to use their new radios. So if yours looks to complicated don’t fret we have been trained on them and will help you master it.

Oregon - Visitor and Relocation information:


An Oregonian tried and true......................

By Adam Ross
A lot of people say they're 'from Oregon,' but when John Bond mentions his state of origin, he really means it. 'My family arrived on covered wagons in the 1800s,' Bond said.
The Bonds that lived on the prairie and travelled the Oregon Trail called Eugene their home, but John has been hanging his hat in Rogue River for the past 15 years. An educator for 30 years, Bond retired in 2000 as principal of Rogue River High School.

7pm tonight at our Longview Hills Club House is another night of Pinochle, all you players time to gather and have some great fellowship. If anyone would like to learn or just watch, then stop by and join in from 7PM to 9PM tonight.


Have a great time!


Community Emergency

Community Emergency Response Team Roll-out


By ron Thomas


Today we had our rollout meeting for the coming Emergency Drill Session here at LVH. Present was the director of Emergency Communications  for Lincoln County, Jim Hawley. Jim is also joined at the hip by over 45 radio HAM operators throughout Lincoln County. He is going to call the two HAMs that live in our community and try to enlist their aid for combined CERT/Lincoln County Disaster Communications as he has helped the Lost Creek residents near ONA Beach.  This is a vital part of our Emergency Plan for LVH. It will allow us to communicate with outside services if we become cutoff from our phones, electricity and professional emergency responders. Jim Hawley will supply our qualified HAM operator with the necessary equipment to put us in touch with the world. He has two repeater systems, one at Otter Rock and another at the Fire Department.

The entire plan was discussed today. Not all of the CERT team was in attendance so a second meeting will be held at 6:00 pm at the clubhouse this Friday. Volunteers willing to help the CERT team are encouraged to attend. NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH VOLUNTEERS are especially welcome.

Sometime very soon we will have an LVH Town Hall meeting to present the plan and then soon after that we will have our drill. We will be inviting CERT team members from the Newport area to come participate also.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Searching for Stuff for the CERT Team

In our coming drill the CERT Team could make use of clipoards. You got old ones that are no longer of use to you? We can put them to good use. Drop them off at the clubhouse on the table next to the pigeon hole mailboxes.... Thank you (We need 12!)

IT'S THAT TIME OF THE WEEK AGAIN..........7PM TONIGHT AT THE LONVEIW HILLS CLUB HOUSE. IF YOU ENJOY PLAYING OR JUST WATCHING THE GAME OF POOL, THEN BE AT THE CLUB HOUSE FOR SOME GREAT ENJOYMENT AND FELLOWSHIP. SEE YOU THERE..............LADIES YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED TO JOIN IN.

Stem Cells Help Paralyzed Rats Walk, New Step In Research May Have Potential To Repair Human Spinal Cord Injuries - CBS News

Stem Cells Help Paralyzed Rats Walk, New Step In Research May Have Potential To Repair Human Spinal Cord Injuries - CBS News: "Stem Cells Help Paralyzed Rats Walk
New Step In Research May Have Potential To Repair Human Spinal Cord Injuries"

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

"THE BEAUTY OF SUMMER AND OREGON"
(Just click on picture to enlarge, then arrow back for next)











(pictures by Charles Burke)


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Monday, June 19, 2006

"SOCIAL CLUB MEETING MEETS TO RESIDENT ON THE HILL"





(click on picture to enlarge, then arrow back)
The Longview Hills Social Club met today at the Club House and discuss old topics and also a lot of new ones was brought to the floor to vote on. If you haven't been to one of your Social Club Meetings, then now is a good time to attend. There will be new officers taking over soon and still need a Chairperson, so if you might be interested then step forward. Also the lady pictured in the last photo here is our new resident Tina Hines, welcome Tina and we look forward to seeing you at future events on the hill. We thank those residents who took time to come to the meeting today. Remember this is YOUR communtity and so get involved, if a little or a lot.
(picture by Charles Burke)Posted by Picasa
Porcupine!

Last night, very close to midnight, Jacky and I went down to the JC Market. On our way out of the park we came upon a small porcupine crossing Windmill dr. by Vern and Dottie Charles' home. He was on his way south.. Maybe looking for a new home. Due to all the recent bulldozing of forest habitat north of the park we may see more animals than usual this year. Pet owners here have had to take doggies to a vet to have quills removed from sore noses.

LVH Sports Page

LVH Sports Page
"REMINDER TO LVH'S RESIDENTS......SOCIAL CLUB MEETING TODAY"




All residents are invited to attend your Longview Hills Social Club Meeting at the Club House at 4PM today, only last around an hour. If you have ideas or just want to listen then this is the place to be. Let's have a good turn out and show that we do care what goes on here within our community. Hope you take time and will see you there. Thank you to all..............!

Set aside any hard feelings from the past and start new, what might of happen in the past is water under the bridge and can't be brought back.

CERT LVH Our First

CERT @ LVH .. Our First Drill

Our CERT Team (Community Emergency Response Team) will be having its very first drill here at LVH. The time and date are not solid yet but it will be soon. We have about a ka-zillion new procedures we want to try out to see if they will work for our community. Working in this manner we will be able to establish a disaster plan that will serve our community for years to come.

All of our team members started training last October. There are about 9 members in the LVH group. At any one time, because folks are gone from the Hill, for one reason or another, you can expect 3 to 6 members of the team to be available in an emergency. This clearly is not enough to cover our entire community. So we are going to make use of all the volunteer help we can muster.

The way we are going to do that is use volunteers from our community to augment our trained people. Where we would normally need 3 or 4 CERT team members we will use 1 CERT team member as a group leader trained in emergency response techniques to head a team of 3 or 4 LVH community volunteers. In this manner we hope to multiply our effectiveness.  Where we need information and communications we are again going to use other volunteers under the supervision of CERT trained people.

If our emergency entailed helping people medically we might have volunteers hold a pressure point on an injured person. We might have volunteers help remove the injured to a safe area under the direction of a CERT team member. Meanwhile the CERT team will move on to help more people. In this manner we hope to do the most good for the most people in the shortest amount of time.

We are definitely going to ask for volunteers to help us canvass the entire neighborhood immediately during our simulated emergency. These volunteers will work a new system we are trying out for the first time. Our thinking goes that this would be a natural fit for our already established Neighborhood Watch Block Captains and their assistants. Were these folks able to turn out we could get the information we need to operate as a CERT team in just a few minutes. There probably is nothing faster than people who are already familiar with their neighborhoods for canvassing.  Fast is critical. We need your help.

We already have 2 volunteer ladies who used to be California Highway Patrol Dispatchers that will be working our communications section. We have 3 volunteers signed up at the clubhouse besides and a couple of guys who have contacted me personally.  That doesn’t sound like many volunteers but we are going to take the optimistic view that when you read this you will see the wisdom of preparing for a disaster before it happens and get thee to the clubhouse and sign up.

There is another key ingredient to the success of this operation, Communications. All CERT team members have an FRS radio similar to the ones kids use to play with. However, ours are a tad more powerful. We feel that the entire community should have one of these radios in their homes. During the time of a disaster we would then all be linked to our communications center. You would be updated by the center as to what is going on. You could call for help. You would know the latest information from the county disaster control through our community disaster network. You would not be alone. Your phones may not work but this little radio will keep you in touch with the community. Yes you will have to buy one. We were at WalMart yesterday in the electronics department and saw they were selling 2 of these radios in a blister-pak for $10. You only need one per home so if you and a neighbor go in together on a purchase your cost for this wonderful piece of equipment would be $5. Don’t even fret over this.. just get one right now and get tied into our disaster network.

We will be talking more about this subject as time goes on. If you are thinking you might be interested in volunteering you can come to our regular weekly CERT meeting at 11:00am on Wednesday at the clubhouse. For those of you that have already said yes, this would be a good meeting for you to come to also as we are going to review how our drill is going to unfold.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

"LONGVIEW HILLS FATHERS DAY DINNER A SUCCESS"



This evening at the Longview Hills Club House around 40 residents and guest enjoyed a catered dinner, plus we had the special treat of being entained by The Oregon Coast Sweet Adelines. Which brought the residents to their feet after their great performance. Our resident Frida Burke is one of the members of this group and we thank them very much for their wonderful music. Happy Father's Day to those fathers out there, we hope you had a great day.
(pictures by Charles Burke)Posted by Picasa
"IT'S UNCOVERED AND LOOKS GREAT"



The Yaquina Head Lighthouse has the plastic off and showing off its
new coat. Plus it has the orignal colors it had when it was first became
a light house back in 1873. The fence is still up and not able
to walk up to it yet, but soon. It looks great!
(pictures by Charles Burke)Posted by Picasa

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "Isaac Newton
6/18/2006 6:15:29 AM
'Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "Carl Sagan
6/18/2006 6:15:29 AM
'Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "Carl Sagan
6/18/2006 6:15:29 AM
'Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.'"