« Logan's Run Amok | Main | The Moose Is Loose! »
December 12, 2007
Service Stations
 |
| Photo: Me, my younger, more attractive brother John
Copeland, and my son last Saturday ringing the bell for the Salvation
Army. BTW, my kid and I are wearing PJ's because that morning we held
his 7th birthday party, a "Pajamas and Pancakes" theme. This is a good time of year to consider public service. Ringing the bell last Saturday only took an hour. I spend that much time looking for my keys every day. It wasn't too stellar of a commitment of my time. My son got a lot of credit from passer's by and family for volunteering to help out. I asked him this morning how he felt about that day. He said it felt good to be helpful, and the thing that really stood out in his mind was when people put their money in the kettle. At Rotary a few weeks back we had a High School student read the quote "You make a living out of what you get, but you make a life out of what you give." I'm sure it's a famous quote, but I hadn't heard it before, and thought it was a great way to look at things. I might add an asterisk that pointed out that some people/institutions make a living off of what you give via taxation. I think it's good for Chicoans to volunteer. But you do need to find something that's right for you. I'm not a soup line person. Nor am I an invasive weed puller. I'm not a park watcher either. I'm more of an installer or repairer. I like to work on projects that are additive. We recently planted trees in Caper Acres for "Make A Difference Day", that was a good little project. Painting Humpty Dumpty the year before was good too. If you want to take on a whole new line of service / project here are some ideas I've been kicking around but haven't got to yet. Fire Fighter Relief - I'd like to donate an X-Box 360 to each fire station so they have something to do when working long overtime hours. Payne's Butter Cupboard - My friend Gregg Payne spends so much time beautifying the community that I would like to stock his cupboard with Apple Butter so he never goes without it. Plaza Drunk Tank - I think it would be great if we could convert one of the plaza bathrooms to a drunk tank. The police could just toss a few guys in every now and then, and then come back in a few hours and let them out. This would reduce green house gas caused by transporting drunks to and from jail. Squirrel Tail Beautification - Many squirrels around town have ratty hair. I think we could really improve our town if we permed the squirrel's tails and dyed them festive colors. |
|
 |
CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner:  Anthony Watts, see comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at December 12, 2007 07:27 AM
Comments
xbox 3607 is the cic
Posted by: Anthony at December 12, 2007 07:40 AM
perhaps even an xbox squirrel
Posted by: Anthony at December 12, 2007 07:44 AM
thanks for all the apple butter.
Your little green x box alien has his eye on that squirrel.
Maybe its too late.
Posted by: Gregg at December 12, 2007 07:56 AM
ah, found the picture from the setup screen
http://help.insightbb.com/images/help/game_consoles/xbox_step1.gif
Posted by: Anthony at December 12, 2007 08:03 AM
It's the Xbox Logo. I have two xboxes
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 12, 2007 08:04 AM
I really like the squirrel tail idea. I tried to catch a squirrel one morning when I lived downtown a few years ago. I got it to come within a foot of my hand before it got scared and ran off.
I would totally donate my original xbox, but my 360 has only been in house for a few weeks now, so no donatie the new household member.
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 12, 2007 08:08 AM
If you want me to be more specific with the CI Challenge, it is the Xbox logo that pops up during startup on the ORIGINAL Xbox. not the 360. black background with puke green and yellow icon.
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 12, 2007 08:12 AM
It looks like the X-Box is a fairly ubiquitous symbol.
I have to apologize to all the squirrel lovers out there, I accidentally wrote that the squirrel tails could be "died". Killing squirrel tails is a rather unfriendly thing to do.
Trevor,
I was riding my bike through Bidwell Park with my son a month ago and we ran across a baby squirrel. We stopped to drink some water, and it came out of the bushes at our feet. I reached down and picked it up and eventually moved it back off the trail.
Like most wild animals it was soft and friendly and really enjoyed being touched by a human. That was a good lesson for my son, pick up wild animals that may be sick or injured. But I figured it would get run over or gobbled up by a dog if I left it on the path.
I just thought I'd let you know that I have touched the holy grail of catching a squirrel by hand. On a side note, a few years ago I was walking downtown when a cat ran out of a side yard carrying a squirrel by the throat. That was a tough cat. With it's tail the squirrel was the bigger, although deader, animal.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at December 12, 2007 09:16 AM
That might have been my buddies cat that you saw with the squirrel. Kiki was an alleycat that my friend Sean took in when he lived downtown, and Kiki used to bring Sean squirrels constantly. Like at least 1 a week. Most of the time after he would drop them on the porch the squirrels would just get up and run away, but there were a few that didn't make it. It was kinda sad.
I've always wanted a pet squirrel too. You should have kept the baby squirrel, they make great pets.
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 12, 2007 09:24 AM
Trevor,
See there's another idea for a non-profit. I might form the Chico Squirrel Coalition. We could locate and catch stray squirrels in the park and locate homes for them.
Whoever dumped the squirrels in the park in the first place should really be ashamed.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at December 12, 2007 09:32 AM
Squirrel dumping is a terrible practice. Millions of squirrels each year are dumped in city and national parks, causing terrible problems in the ecosystem.
Nut's are being eaten off tree's that would normally be used to create more trees... Holes in tree's are being used for shelter which would normally just be rotting...
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 12, 2007 09:35 AM
not sure why my first post came out "xbox 3607" when of course its "xbox 360".
If you rotate the image 90° right it sure does look like a squirrel. Perhaps Lon is designing a new Xbox game - "Revenge of the Squirli" complete with a level 10 light saber fight to the death.
Here's a cat to go with the game:
http://icanhascheezburger.wordpress.com/files/2007/12/funny-pictures-expecting-skywalker-cat.jpg
The winner gets to find out which rodent is his father.
Posted by: Anthony at December 12, 2007 10:50 AM
Hey Lon, check the post time, did I set a new rapid response record?
Posted by: Anthony at December 13, 2007 08:16 AM
Anthony,
Holy smoking keyboards Batman. You now have the record for the fastest CI challenge answer ever.... 13 minutes.
Time to make room on your trophy shelf. I'll be posting your new trophy in the coming days.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at December 13, 2007 08:43 AM