Garden Swing Cushions

50 years later: locals recall twister of ‘62

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:00:21 +0000

With a roar witnesses likened to an approaching freight train, a major tornado struck Crestview shortly after 4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5, 1962. A half century later, many vividly remember the storm that injured 60 people, left 1,000 homeless, destroyed 14 homes and 10 mobile homes, damaged more than 305 homes, and killed an infant in its grandmother’s arms.

Shortly before 4 p.m., Bertie Ann Curenton lay her 12-day-old first son, Leon Jr., down on her bed in their Anderson Street home so she could write thank-you notes for his baby gifts. Then she heard the roar.

“It was so loud and the house felt like it was shaking that I just lay over him on the bed and tried to hold him to me tight so that if we were blown away…he wouldn’t be blown out of my arms,” Bertie Ann Curenton wrote in an account published in “Crestview the Forkland,”

Edited by her sister-in-law, Betty Sanders Curenton, and Claudia Garrett Patten, the thick book devotes several pages to that unforgettable afternoon. at the time, the middle and the high schools, now Northwood Elementary School and Richbourg ESE School, shared a campus. The tornado severely damaged the high school gymnasium.

“I went to Northwood Junior High at the time and it hit our school,” Harry Tripp said. “that was a big thing back then.”

Tripp, who like Bertie Ann Curenton is a retired educator, said his mother never liked big storms and was traumatized by this one, which struck on his sister’s birthday.

“She was always scared of storms,” Tripp recalled. “We were five or six kids. She just grabbed all the kids and ran next door.”

Larry Stevens was visiting his high school sweetheart, Marilyn Hooks, now his wife of 45 years, at her parent’s home across Anderson Street from the Curentons when the storm hit. The couple ran to a window.

“We were right across the street. We were basically on the edge of it,” Stevens recalled. “We didn’t even know it was a tornado. We were standing at the window and we watched the roof blow off the Curentons’ house. all I remember is the top just blow off.”

Bertie Ann and her infant were showered with glass from the shattered bedroom windows but were unharmed. The amount of damage to their home took a few moments to register.

“I went out in the hall to telephone Leon Sr. and ask him to come home and try to do something about the broken windowpanes so it wouldn’t rain in. The phone was dead,” she wrote. “I looked up and saw the sky, and the rain was pouring in.”

“I remembered going over to see their house afterward,” said her niece, Jodee Curenton Sellers, an Asheville, N.C., innkeeper and daughter of Betty Curenton. “Bertie Ann was really brave.”

Sellers and her sister Jaynee’s grandmother, Ethel Lou Sanders, was babysitting the girls, who found the storm exciting.

“The back door had blown open and they were standing at the door looking at the lawn furniture go by,” Betty Curenton said. “Mother was trying to get the door closed and get them out of the way.”

“We were watching it. We saw our swing set and the lawn furniture go across the back yard,” Sellers said. “I remember Granny holding the back door shut. I wasn’t scared. I thought it was funny.”

Farther north, eight-year-old Joe Barley, today a Crestview contractor and building inspector, lived in his family’s one-story concrete block home on Ninth Avenue.

“Metal trash cans were flipping down the street and parts of the aluminum siding from destroyed house trailers were wrapping around pine trees and my mother said, ‘It’s time to do something very quickly,’” Barley said.

As the family sheltered in an inside room, “The roof went off and part of the concrete block wall went off.”

The twister did strange things. “Crestview the Forkland” cites a convenience store on North Ferdon Boulevard that was all but destroyed, although merchandise on shelves on the remaining back wall was left neatly stacked. The sudden drop in air pressure, however, sucked the contents out of bottles of vinegar.

Betty Curenton’s car pool wove through debris and downed trees to drop her at her Texas Avenue home. Her car, which had been parked in front of the home, had been blown about 50 yards down the street and its windows were smashed. Stevens’ car was undamaged.

“It was just bouncing around,” he said. “I thought it was going to turn over but it never did.”

The tornado skipped northeasterly, eventually depositing debris from Crestview in Walton County.

“They found a bunch of artifacts about mile on this side of Paxton,” Barley said. “They brought the stuff to the courthouse and laid it out for people to claim and somebody found a picture of me… and said, ‘I know that kid.’”

Barley still has the photo.

“It was water stained but it had rode 20 miles in a tornado so it was a wild ride!” he said. “It was a day to remember, that’s for sure.”

“It’s amazing how in the tornado, some things stay fine and other things are completely destroyed,” reflected Freda Wing, who as Freda Gray, a frightened Bob Sikes first-grader, sheltered in a small hallway as the family home spun around.

“I remember holding onto the door facing because the house started to move and I had to close my eyes because things started getting into my eyes,” she said. “I opened my eyes and the house started shaking. I looked up to the ceiling and all of a sudden the roof disappeared. and then it was all over. everything just stopped and it was raining on me.

“I ran to the front door to get my father. he was next door at my uncle’s house. I was surprised because there was no front porch,” Wing continued. “why was there a house in front of my front door? I found out the tornado had picked us up and turned us around. instead of facing south we were facing west.”

Years later Wing still gets mileage at parties from her experience.

“Sometimes when people ask me at a party game to tell something about yourself that nobody knows about, mine always is, I was a modern day Dorothy of Oz,” Wing said with a chuckle.

As word of the disaster spread, the Crestview National Guard unit augmented local and county law enforcement agencies to prevent looting, but mainly to keep sightseers at bay so emergency responders could begin clearing roads, checking for gas leaks and repairing downed electrical lines.

“Saturday and Sunday they spent most of their time directing traffic,” Betty Curenton and Patten wrote, “because an estimated 60,000 automobiles from four or five states filled with curious sightseers…brought all disaster relief operations in the area to a standstill.”

Downed telephone lines and overloaded remaining circuits added to out-of-town friends’ and relatives anxiety. Bertie Ann Curenton’s sister Katherine “Kitty” Powell, who lived in Andalusia, Ala., tried to phone after the storm was reported, Leon Curenton Jr. related. Luckily the operator was Mary Nell “Sister” McDavid, a sympathetic family friend.

“She told Kitty she could only put through emergency calls,” Leon Curenton said. “She kept saying the call had to be an emergency but Kitty didn’t get it. Finally she said, ‘Katherine, this is Sister McDavid. you have to say it’s an emergency and I can put your call through.’”

“We had less than a one-minute warning. It was scary at best,” Barley said. “all the big cities and even small towns have an alarm system like sirens or something. It’s something that’s needed. I have that service where they call you in the middle of the night but a lot of older people don’t have that.

“Fifty years ago we probably had 2,500 or 3,000 in the whole city of Crestview. There would’ve been a lot more fatalities and injuries if it was today,” Barley said. “It was a bad day.”

50 years later: locals recall twister of ‘62 is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

New Orleans:Federal Housing, Environmental Policies Clash

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:00:25 +0000

NEW ORLEANS – It’s 11 a.m. on a Monday and Bernice Horne is sweeping the front porch. Inside, her son fixes himself a fast lunch—he’s on the clock— while her granddaughter readies for a class at the local community college. “Erica,” she calls. “Grab me a dust pan. We don’t need any more mess around here.”

The view from Horne’s front porch is bleak: a weedy lot; the dark, gutted house of a dead neighbor; and beyond that, a derelict subdivision stretching as far as the eye can see. Occasionally a bird swoops in or out of a broken window. a ripped chain-link fence borders the abandoned affordable-housing development, which never reopened after Hurricane Katrina forced its operator, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), to close it more than six years ago.

“One day my baby granddaughter was sitting out on the porch swing, and she said, ‘Why does that building have eyes? it looks like it’s looking at us,’ ” Horne, a retired school custodian, says. “I said, ‘Baby, they’re supposed to be windows and doors to keep little girls like you safe.’ “

Horne used a grant supplied by the state to rebuild her tidy ranch-style house from the ground up after Katrina. for reasons both emotional and financial, she never seriously considered not doing so. “We don’t have any other place,” she says quietly. “This is where I raised my children. We can’t afford to go anywhere else.”

Upon her return, she installed a jungle gym in the backyard and, inside, a plush sofa with plenty of room for chatting with the neighbors she expected would return. they haven’t. The population of Horne’s neighborhood, Desire, has dropped 68 percent since 2000, falling from 3,791 to 1,213 in 2010, U.S. Census data show. where there were once occupied homes, weeds grow. The only commercial establishment for miles is the Money and Honey one stop, a concrete-fronted corner store with unpredictable hours and an inventory heavy on 99-cent soda and hot potato chips.

Though New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s recovery plan includes putting a $11 million community center and health clinic in this Upper 9th Ward neighborhood, the only city project to be completed so far is a modestly outfitted park with a small swimming pool, a few sports fields and a Kaboom playground donated to the neighborhood. On warm fall evenings, the sound of children playing football reverberates through otherwise quiet streets.

“No traffic. Nothing. It’s a ghost town other than the park,” a neighbor, Hardy Price, says. Price is one of four residents on his block. one of the others is his adult son, who lives across the street. The remaining two are renters who moved in next door after the property’s prior owner moved to Texas following Katrina and converted his home into a Section 8 rental.

The weeds were growing high in the Upper 9th Ward long before Landrieu took office—and indeed, even before the hurricane hit. for more than a decade before that disaster, a quieter one was unfolding, one that caused residents of the nearly 100 percent black, largely low-income community to live alongside a potentially lethal legacy of federal policy decisions. in the case of Horne’s neighborhood, the decisions were spectacular failures. Her house, as well as the abandoned HANO development she sees from her front porch and the public elementary school where she worked and her grandchildren studied, were built atop a 95-acre municipal dump.

Despite its devastation, the Upper 9th Ward has received far less attention than the lower 9th, which sits several miles to the southeast, across the Industrial Canal, where a levee failure during Katrina sent 20 feet of floodwater surging into the neighborhood.

New Orleans:Federal Housing, Environmental Policies Clash is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

Patio Swings Spruce Up Your Outdoor Space With Comfort and Style

AHL Weekly Release

admin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:00:44 +0000

Photo: Amy Williams

AHL Standings || Scores and Schedules || League LeadersSPRINGFIELD, Mass. … News and notes from around the American Hockey League, where the temperatures are getting colder while the Heat is rising: TURNING UP THE HEAT … A seven-game road trip couldn’t slow down the Abbotsford Heat, and now the Calgary Flames’ top affiliate sits with the best record in the Western Conference one-quarter of the way through their 2011-12 schedule. the Heat, who have played 13 of their first 19 games on the road, went 6-1-0-0 on their trip which started and ended in Houston with stops in Cedar Park, San Antonio and Oklahoma City in between. Abbotsford (13-5-1-0) returns home with a two-point lead atop the West Division. as he has been all season, Leland Irving was the Heat’s go-to man between the pipes, starting all seven games of the roadie. Irving, who has gotten 88 percent of Abbotsford’s playing time in the crease this year, capped the trip with a 1-0 win over Houston on Nov. 20, stopping all 34 shots in regulation and overtime before turning aside all five Aeros attempts in the shootout. Named the Reebok/AHL Player of the Week for his efforts last week (3-1-0, 1.47, .948, two shutouts), Irving is now an impressive 17-6 in 23 career shootouts. the addition of Krys Kolanos in late October continues to pay off for Abbotsford. Kolanos has nine goals and eight assists for 17 points in 10 games, joining Jon Rheault (9-8-17) and Greg Nemisz (7-10-17) atop the team’s scoring leaderboard. the Heat are averaging 3.70 goals per game with Kolanos in the lineup, and 1.67 goals per game without him. Abbotsford, 11-2-0-0 on the road this season after winning 16 road games all of last year (16-18-2-4), is home for a quick two-game series with San Antonio this weekend before heading back out for a four-game swing through the Midwest. NORTHEAST UP FOR GRABS … When the AHL realigned its divisions during the offseason, the five-team Northeast was left with just one team that qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs in 2011. but over the first quarter of 2011-12, the quintet has made up the AHL’s most competitive division from top to bottom. Connecticut, which has made the postseason in 13 of its 14 seasons in Hartford, sits atop the Northeast with a record of 9-4-1-2 (21 points) entering the new week. A three-way tie for second place locks Springfield (10-7-0-0), Albany (9-6-1-1) and Bridgeport (9-7-2-0) at 20 points each, and Adirondack comes in at 19 points on a 9-6-0-1 mark. the 2011-12 playoff format says that the three division winners plus the five teams with the next best records will qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs in each conference. All five Northeast Division teams currently occupy a top-eight spot in the Eastern Conference. WILD ABOUT DEVELOPMENT … Minnesota’s 1-0 win over Colorado at the Xcel Energy Center on Nov. 17 had a decidedly AHL flavor thanks in large part to the relationship between the NHL-leading Wild and their AHL affiliate in Houston. of the 18 skaters in the Wild lineup that night, 12 were former Houston Aeros, including six – Colton Gillies, Nate Prosser, Warren Peters, Justin Falk, Jared Spurgeon and Kris Fredheim (in his NHL debut) – who played for current Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo with Houston’s Western Conference championship team in 2010-11. PENALTY SHOT PROWESS … Jeremy Smith accomplished a rare feat in Milwaukee’s 3-1 win in Grand Rapids on Nov. 19: the Michigan native (Dearborn) and 2007 second-round draft pick by Nashville denied Chris Conner and Tomas Tatar to become the first AHL goaltender to stop two penalty shots in the same game since Bridgeport’s Wade Dubielewicz accomplished the feat against Hershey on Dec. 10, 2005. Earlier in the week, Springfield goaltender Manny Legace faced Worcester forward Mike Connolly on a penalty shot 52 seconds into overtime and saved both the attempt and the game, as just over a minute later the Falcons won, 3-2, on a goal by Alexandre Giroux. since the 1992-93 season, there have been 27 penalty shots taken in overtime of an AHL game (including four in the playoffs); goalies have stopped 25 of them. All told, goaltenders have turned aside 14 of 19 penalty shots (73.7 percent) in the AHL this season. ETC. … Peoria’s Brett Sterling, Bridgeport’s David Ullstrom, Norfolk’s Carter Ashton and Oklahoma City’s Philippe Cornet began the week tied for the AHL lead with 12 goals apiece; Sterling and Ullstrom also began the week on NHL recall to St. Louis and the N.Y. Islanders, respectively… Alec Richards made 48 saves – the most by an AHL goaltender this season – in Rockford’s 3-2 shootout win at Charlotte on Nov. 18; in a rematch two days later, the Checkers scored four times on 21 shots and chased Richards early in the third period of a 4-3 win… In his first AHL action of the season, Rostislav Olesz had four points (2-2) in the two games for the IceHogs… Jordan Nolan scored two shorthanded goals in Manchester’s 3-2 overtime win over Worcester on Nov. 18… Springfield’s Martin St. Pierre enters the week with a 10-game scoring streak (3-13-16), longest in the league this year… Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s 8-0-0-0 road start came to an end as the Penguins went 0-1-0-2 on their weekend trip to Portland, Manchester and Worcester… Sporting the top two offenses in the league, Norfolk and St. John’s split a two-game series at Mile One Centre, 6-2 Admirals and 3-1 IceCaps… Albany is 8-0-1-1 in one-goal games this season, but 1-6-0-0 in games decided by two goals or more… Springfield has made three trips beyond regulation this season and won all three games in the overtime period… Connecticut has needed OT in eight of its first 16 games… West Division teams are a combined 13-4-0-1 against the North Division… Chicago (10,913), Lake Erie (10,202) and Hershey (10,036) all drew Saturday night crowds of over 10,000 on Nov. 19, while San Antonio welcomed 10,534 fans to a school-day matinee on Nov. 15.

AHL Weekly Release is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

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‘Good Landscaping’ can add value to home

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:00:42 +0000

Good morning. If you’ve got a moment I’d like to introduce myself. my name’s “Good Landscaping.” you may have heard of me, or one of my siblings. I mean, there are quite a few of us in the “landscaping” family. There’s “Commercial Landscaping,” “Recreational Landscaping,” even the one we’re always trying to get out of trouble: “Bad LandscapMe, on the other hand, well; I’m just a whole lot of things. If you use me early enough in the home building process, I’m the siting of your home on that piece of property you’ve chosen. some lots, you don’t have much choice, but on others, maybe a few feet here, a twist of the home there and maybe we’ve taken advantage of a special view. or a little higher or lower on the site and maybe the home looks just right. you can’t tell exactly why, but maybe it’s me.

Could be this perfect siting of the home leaves it a bit far from the street. No problem for Good Landscaping. A well-designed drive can offer a visual tie to the street and offer much needed off street parking. Let me help and the walk from parked car to front door can be a special experience.

Suppose y’all and your home designer have done an excellent job on the home itself. Well, Good Landscaping can make it even better. Heaven forbid that little brother, bad Landscaping, gets hold of your well designed home.

Sometimes there’s an opportunity for a front yard garden. Sure, the house looks good and the foundation plantings make it look even better, but do you feel comfortable out in your front yard? If you don’t, you can, with the introduction of the sweet curves and meandering structure of well designed planting beds. Maybe a gravel walk or two makes the front yard even better.

And don’t forget the side yards. Maybe an opportunity exists there also. A small feature, maybe a birdbath passed down from your grandmother’s yard has been looking for that perfect setting. Maybe it finds it outside a side window where the surprise view of it would make your grandmama proud.

And finally we’re in the back yard. The patio is perfectly placed to work with the home’s interior. The covered arbor provides not only shade, but also that cozy feel that an overhead structure can provide. The size is right for your favorite activities, and the designed configuration is beyond pretty. it overlooks a back yard just right for you. Masses of azaleas, drifts of holly; color just right for your aesthetic taste buds and your maintenance capability; a gravel walk through shaded beds to a vine covered swing where you can read, chill, or reconnect with the one you love, all the result of Good Landscaping.

Yep, I can be a difference maker. I can add value to your home, to your life, make you smile. And if you need a little help getting in touch with me, give Carter a ring. We go way back.

‘Good Landscaping’ can add value to home is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

Does anyone know if i can replace the canopy and cushion on my porch swing?

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:01:54 +0000

the canopy has holes in it and the cushion just needs to be updated.

contact the manufacturer to see if they offer replacement parts. I'm not sure but I think you could check with your local hardware stores to see if they can make-shift a canopy for you.

Yup. Just make your own. Super simple sewing project. Ask a friend who sews to help. 2-3 hours and a pot of coffee, or a six pack.

Does anyone know if i can replace the canopy and cushion on my porch swing?

Mornings the darkest time of day

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 06:01:57 +0000

Federal Liberal parliamentarian Andrew Robb felt inhibited by the stigma attached to mental illness. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: The Australian

I TRIED all the tricks I knew to make myself feel better. I arrived early at meetings so I could go for a walk in the sun.

I told myself I was just unfortunate: I’ve got side effect no 13 out of 24, and it happens to be severe depression. I knew I had to put up with it for three or four weeks before my body adjusted.

I had never experienced anything like it. it was a lot worse than the underlying condition. it was a real hollowing out of yourself, not wanting to think about anything. At least in the past I knew I would slowly come out of it as the day progressed, but now I wasn’t functioning well at any time of the day. I didn’t want to make decisions, although I could force myself to, and I often spent hours looking at the wall in my office.

Vanessa Konig, my personal assistant, knew all the details and the impact the medication was having on me. Each morning she would ask how I was. "I’m bad," was all I could say, and then I would just sit in my office with my door shut.

IT was four weeks like that, just trying to keep lifting one foot after the other. it made me wonder about people who have chronic depression. What a curse.

My wife Maureen’s own recollection of those four weeks shows another perspective:

When Andrew decides to do something, he gets on with it. he likes a plan of action, and Jeff Kennett facilitated that by recommending a psychiatrist who is of the same ilk. After the first visit to the psychiatrist, Andrew was quite buoyed up. this thing could be fixed and he was going to do it, and fast.

Things did not go to plan. Chronic tiredness, listlessness, 24-hour depression, sleeplessness, jerking of his whole body when asleep and sweating all manifested themselves over the next three to four weeks. he had hardly told anyone what he was doing, so was trying to work and go about life as normal.

Parliament was sitting in Canberra. Andrew had to travel from Canberra to Melbourne during the week a couple of times to see the psychiatrist. We are a close family and I would tell our children and parents or friends that he was coming back for a meeting. I knew our daughter was suspicious.

At least before starting the medication he would get out of bed, albeit very unwillingly. he would come home from work at three or four o’clock in the afternoon, unheard of for this workaholic. he would say that he couldn’t do anything: not look at an email, not lift the phone, not read anything. he would just sit in his office looking at the walls. At home he would sleep on the couch with no interest in the news or anything else. Sleep at night was elusive, so he was taking sleeping tablets as well.

I was worried that this medication was not going to work. The doctor had said that Andrew would probably get worse before he got better and that lots of people did not stick it out. There is a very high percentage of people who give up the medication after only a few weeks. I had met the psychiatrist and had to be on suicide watch, so to speak, because of the side effects of the medication. I think I had been on duty all that weekend.

At the end of the four weeks, I had adjusted enough to the medication, but the mornings were the same as they had always been. Professor John Tiller decided to double the dosage. he warned me I could get the same side effects again.

The first day, a Friday, I didn’t feel too bad, but I had to go back to Canberra on the Sunday and I was cactus again. When I arrived in Canberra at 8pm on Sunday I went straight to bed.

The next day, I was just going through the motions. There was a shadow cabinet meeting, which I mumbled through. My vision of getting on top of the condition, and the medication, within four to six weeks was starting to explode.

People were still asking me about the leadership. I couldn’t keep saying, "I’m thinking about it." How long does one person need to consider something like that? I realised I had to do something.

When Professor Tiller said I had to trial the increased dosage for another month, I knew my timetable was shot. I didn’t want to make decisions, but I knew I couldn’t put this one off for much longer.

On Tuesday morning there was the usual three-hour partyroom meeting, which was held every week of parliamentary sittings. I was really in a bad way. I listened for 20 minutes and then I saw the sun shining outside, so I left.

It is probably a five-minute walk from the Liberal partyroom — down a green-carpeted corridor, turn right, left and right again, and out large glass doors, across the road that goes around Parliament House — to some wonderful little gardens. it is not where you would normally expect to find a senior member of the Coalition during a partyroom meeting. They are very private gardens. There are benches surrounded by rose bushes and wisteria hanging from a pergola.

That is where I took myself at 9.15am on September 15, 2009, seeking respite from myself. I can only imagine what I looked like, sitting there alone on the bench with shoulders rounded forward.

The sun was beating down, which made me feel better, and I didn’t have to deal with anything. I could have stayed there for hours, but after 50 minutes my mobile phone rang. it was Nick Xerakias, my senior staff member. Malcolm [Turnbull] had been in touch, wanting me back in the meeting. My stomach dropped. That was the last thing I wanted, but if the leader calls you, you go, no matter how you feel.

ENTERING the partyroom, I was hit with someone in full swing attacking Malcolm’s implied support for the government’s emissions trading scheme. The idea of having to form a view, to respond quickly, just felt like an impossible effort. The adrenalin always gave me a rush but invariably not until I got to my feet.

I FORCED myself to stand up, I started walking towards the front of the room and then it happened. The adrenalin started pumping, my thoughts came together, and I argued coherently for 10 minutes.

I dealt with the issue without slighting Malcolm, and reassured everyone there was a process we were going to follow. I gave them a sense that they were still in control and that Malcolm would be part of that process. I can’t really remember what I said, but whatever it was seemed to reassure everyone, and it was said with enough conviction and authority that it was effective. it shut the issue down for Malcolm, at least for that meeting. I sat down.

Peter Costello was in the room. We hadn’t seen each other for a few weeks, and he must have thought, "oh, Robbie’s back in action." he wasn’t alone. My speech, or rather my performance, prompted two or three of the people who had been encouraging me to run for the leadership, people with influence over different blocks of members, to think they should get in touch with me again.

Of course, they didn’t know that a few minutes after sitting down I was back in the black again. I left the meeting. I was feeling really bad again and I went back to my office, said to Vanessa, "I’m feeling crap. I don’t want to see anyone", closed the door and sat watching the wall.

LATER that morning, I got another two or three calls from people asking me if I had made up my mind. I said, "I’m still thinking about it, but I will give you an answer shortly," because I knew I was starting to look stupid.

The last thing I wanted to do was be dishonest, so I had to weigh up the consequences.

I still hadn’t told my three kids, any of the other staff, most of my work colleagues, my parents yet I was in a better frame of mind because I was starting to formulate a plan. I knew I had to take some action. I was just going through all the permutations and combinations and consequences, but I knew the critical thing was going public. all the rest would fall into place.

It would give me the freedom to deal with the side effects. People would understand that I wasn’t well. And I wanted to retain my integrity. I needed to be honest with people. I think it’s a lot easier for everybody if you tell them what’s going on.

It was complicated in this case because there’s a stigma attached to depression and I was very conscious of the conventional wisdom — that a mental disorder is seen as a character weakness — and politically that it could mitigate against me, no matter how well I recovered. but I couldn’t be cowed by that.

I ARRANGED to see Malcolm at 8.30 that night and told him everything. he was very good about it, as I expected he would be. I have known him a long time and he’s a decent fellow. We agreed I would take leave until Christmas from the shadow cabinet but stay in the parliament doing my electorate work. it gave me control over my agenda. I thought Ian Macfarlane was best placed to take over the climate change portfolio, and Malcolm spoke to him later that night.

Then I rang Laurie Oakes and arranged to meet him the next day. I wanted to see if he would consider writing a column.

Laurie has a big following across Australia in major News Limited weekend papers with huge circulations, and he is one of the most senior political journalists in the country. He’s highly respected, and I believed he was the best journalist for the job. I wanted to get the story out with some sort of history and context, as I didn’t want people thinking I was in a foetal position under the table. I thought Laurie would do a much better job writing the story than I could.

I TRAVELLED to Melbourne and called in unannounced to see my parents, Marie and Frank, in Reservoir on the Friday morning. I told them everything and explained that there would be an article about it the next day in the Herald Sun.

They are in their 80s and have nine kids and 34 grandchildren, so not much surprises them, but this took them a little unawares.

Except for my early years, I had always been quiet in the mornings, and although I hadn’t lived at home much since I was 17, they could see I had acted in a way that was consistent with what I was saying. My mother said I had been the happiest of all their nine children during childhood but had gone quiet in the mornings in my teens. They had put it down to the impact of adolescent hormones.

NEIL Mitchell was chasing me for an interview, and I decided I would do one live interview and leave it at that. People could then refer to either the column or the interview. Monday morning the adrenalin was coursing when I was on air, so I felt good. The message got out quickly and effectively.

It was important that I let the people in my electorate know. I have nearly 700 party members in my electorate, and it was vital that they had a clear idea of what was going on. Once I had done the interviews for the column and the radio, that was it. I didn’t want to do anything else until I had found an answer.

This is an edited extract from Black Dog Daze: Public Life, Private Demons by Andrew Robb, published by MUP on Monday ($34.99).

Mornings the darkest time of day is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

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Phoenix Police Auction, Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers Inc., to Host Police Marathon Auction Featuring Confiscated & Forfeited Property

admin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 06:02:05 +0000

August 16, 2011 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A Phoenix police auction, Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers, inc., will host a police marathon auction featuring electronics, jewelry, tools, school district equipment and supplies, city surplus, appliances, computers, sporting goods, household items, furniture, commercial restaurant equipment and much more on Saturday, August 20, 2011.

“Millions of dollars in unique merchandise are auctioned off each year both through live and online auctions.”

Items of interest for this Phoenix police auction include: Beatles memorabilia, Cambridge gold tone stainless flatware, Stetson Company beaver hat size 57 7-1/8, XBOX 360 S game console, Sunglasses marked Ray-Ban Wayfarer, Tan and brown handbag marked Gucci, Reebok Official NFL Onfield “Fitzgerald” #11 Arizona Cardinals jersey, Signed Yoko Ono framed John Lennon limited edition 47/300 lithograph, Sony PSP handheld game console, better Built diamond plate truck bed tool box, Vizio VX32L HDTV 10A 32″ flat screen TV, Swing arm hand crank canopy umbrella, Midway Nintendo Cruis’n Exotica arcade game, Group of Hampton Bay outdoor furniture, Vintage United’s 5 player Shuffle Alley arcade game, Wood dining room set, Rampage motorcycle power lift, Crystal Cooler round refrigerator, Vulcan 10360 commercial oven, Custom Choppers from Sucker Punch Sally’s and Sucker Punch Sally’s Café restaurant equipment.

“Although auctions are well known for offering great deals on high-quality items, police auctions in particular provide a host of benefits,” said Deb Weidenhamer, CEO of Auction Systems’ Phoenix police auction. “Millions of dollars in unique merchandise are auctioned off each year both through live and online auctions.”

this police auction will be held on Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. at Auction Systems located at 951 W. Watkins in Phoenix, AZ. All of the items listed in the auction may be previewed and inspected by interested bidders on Thursday, August 18, 2011 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Friday, August 19, 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and Saturday, August 20, 2011 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. one hour prior to auction.

Items will also be available for preview and online bidding beginning Saturday, August 13, 2011. Interested parties can visit Auction Systems’ Phoenix auction schedule to preview and sign up for online bidding.

About Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers, inc.

Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers, inc. is the Southwest’s most active auction and appraisal company. Auction Systems features live and live simulcast auctions and appraisals of stolen and confiscated Police and personal product including cars, tools, electronics, jewelry, sporting, coins and surplus, as well as auctions of commercial and heavy equipment, real estate, antiques, guns, estate and business liquidation and bankruptcy.

Based in Phoenix, Arizona and an INC. 500 company, Auction Systems is one of the fastest-growing privately held companies within the United States. Additionally, Auction Systems is an ICIC INC. 100 company and is ranked as the #1 fastest-growing woman-owned business and the fifteenth fastest-growing business overall within the inner cities of the United States.

Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers, inc. can be found on the web at auctionANDappraise.com.

Phoenix Police Auction, Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers Inc., to Host Police Marathon Auction Featuring Confiscated & Forfeited Property is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

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How can I keep spiders away from my house?

admin — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:01:55 +0000

I know ridding spiders outside is impossible, but we have giant spiders all around the outside of our house and great big ones crawling all over the back lawn! how do I cut down on them?? I'm terrified of spiders and can't even take my son outside to his swing set because they are everywhere!

You can try this stuff my mom uses. It's a spider spray made of natural ingredients. she doesn't like pesticides and chemicals, so she found this stuff. and of course she recommends it to all her friends. Leave it to my mother to tell everybody about it!

I think the spray is called SpiderRepel.

Do you live in the UK, your talking is as if you have been invaded by the killer spiders. Ring the RSCTS they will blast them into space. Good luck………there again if you kill a spider you are to have bad luck, so the saying goes.
Maybe you could make friends with them, just don't offer to polish their shoes……….lol

You need to get yourself a pellet rifle and shoot em all before comming into your house because if you dont, then you may have like a arachnid attack on your premisis

How can I keep spiders away from my house?

Why am I being overly jealous?

I have an unfinished ceder porch swing,can I use waterproofer to preserve it or should I stain or paint it?

admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 06:00:30 +0000

"woodtick" is right… it's naturally insect/rot resistant. If you do want to change the color though, don't use paint- most paints don't stick well to cedar. go with stain

Hi,
Although cedar can be left untreated, in time the sun will turn it gray, using Cabot's clear solution in a cedartone finish will protect the wood & look great.

I have an unfinished ceder porch swing,can I use waterproofer to preserve it or should I stain or paint it?

HORSE RACING: Back in the saddle (From Swindon Advertiser)

admin — Mon, 30 May 2011 06:01:38 +0000

HORSE RACING: Back in the saddle

8:00am Saturday 28th May 2011

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WITH the summer jump season in full swing, Swindon jockey Wayne Hutchinson is looking to make up for lost time.

the local rider fractured a couple of bones in his vertebrae when his mount fell at Southwell in April and has been on the sidelines for just over six weeks.

he told the Advertiser: “Everything seems to have healed alright and hopefully I can start getting a few rides under my belt.

“I finished up with just over 40 winners last season and enjoyed a good spell as number one jockey at Barbary Castle, deputising for the injured (Robert) ‘Choc’ Thornton.

“Unfortunately the horses go a bit quicker on the fast ground in the summer and if you take a tumble there is a higher risk you can get injured.

“However it will be great to get back in action, but the rides are a bit more difficult to pick up as several of the trainers I ride for don’t have many firm ground horses.

“My sponsors last season T4 Cameras of Market Street, Swindon, have agreed to sponsor me again and I will be sporting their logo on my riding gear and I am grateful for their support.”

Bruce Dingwall, director of the family-run T4 Cameras said: “Racing has always been a passion, jump racing in particular.

“Visiting Barbury Castle and watching the horses on the gallops got me hooked on the sport, and we are very pleased to sponsor a top flight jump jockey.”

BECKHAMPTON trainer Roger Charlton can get local punters off to a good start tomorrow at Nottingham by winning the first race on the card with Excavator, ridden by Steve Drowne.

Champion jockey Paul Hanagan is down to ride at the meeting and could chalk up another victory for his followers by winning the one mile, six furlong handicap on Blue Nymph for trainer John Quinn.

Chosen Character from the in-form yard of Tom Dascombe could be worth a bet in the one mile, half-a-furlong handicap ridden by Richard Kingscote, while in the three-year-old Maiden Fillies Stakes, Moone’s my name could go close for trainer Ralph Beckett and jockey Jim Crowley.

Jumps trainer David Pipe has a rare runner on the flat and Street Entertainer could be worth an interest in the final race on the card.

Jump meetings are scheduled for Fontwell and Uttoxeter.

WITH runners at several meetings today, Wiltshire trainer Richard Hannon would look to be in for a profitable day.

the champion trainer could well have a good chance of at least a double at Newmarket with fancied runners partnered by Richard Hughes.

as well as Newmarket there are plenty of meetings scheduled with both flat and jumping fans catered for.

the Channel 4 cameras will be at Haydock for their first four races, beginning with a two-mile handicap that could be won by former Manton trainer John Gosden with Zuider Zee, ridden by Ryan Moore.

the Listed Sandy Lane Stakes over six furlongs for three-year-olds could go to Sweet Cecily, the mount of Ryan Moore, while later in the afternoon Rhythm of Light trained by former Lambourn handler Tom Dascombe and ridden by Richard Kingscote, could win the seven-furlong handicap. now based in the Chester area, the Dascombe yard has been flying in recent weeks, much to the delight of the yard’s owner, Man United star Michael Owen.

Trainer Roger Varian, who took over from Michael Jarvis, has kept the flag flying for the yard and could win the following race, the Listed Pinnacle Stakes with Ferdoos.

the final televised race from the meeting is the Group 3 Timeform Jury Stakes, formerly the John of Gaunt Stakes, where Lambourn trainer Clive Cox holds an entry with Beacon Lodge. the six-year-old would look to have a good chance of following up on his recent victory.

At Newmarket the seven-race card begins with a mile handicap for three-year-olds that could be won by Luca Cumani’s Dubai Queen.

the Listed Fairway Stakes could go to Wiltshire trainer Richard Hannon with Cai Shen as could the following three-year-old Maiden Stakes with Avonmore Star.

the Channel 4 cameras will be at Beverley for their feature race, the Brian Yeardley Continental Two-Year-Old Trophy Conditions Stakes, that could see West Ilsley trainer Mick Channon make his long trip worthwhile with Arnold Lane, ridden by Sam Hitchcott.

Best bet at Catterick could be Triviality, trained by Jamie Osborne and ridden by Franny Norton.

RACING takes a back seat at Newbury tomorrow when the course welcomes legendary rocker Rod Stewart in concert.

Newbury Live is one of only four gigs the superstar will play in the UK this year.

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HORSE RACING: Back in the saddle (From Swindon Advertiser) is a post from: Garden Swing Cushions

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