Weis Meets President Bush

First, let me address a pet peeve I have regarding the media.  Whether you agree with his policies and decisions or not, President Bush is our leader, and I get aggravated every time I hear on the radio or read in the paper/magazine about Mr. Bush.  Give the man the respect he is due.  Phew, glad I got that out.  Now, below is a great story about the ND Football Coach and PRESIDENT BUSH! [Source: 12/5/07 South Bend Tribune].

During a recruiting whirlwind last week, Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis piled up the handshakes and frequent-flier miles.

Then a funny thing happened -- Weis himself got recruited.

Weis and wife, Maura, took a detour off the recruiting trail Thursday to speak with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush at the White House. The Weises were invited by Bush to attend a holiday party in Washington hosted by the president and his wife.

The Bushes also had some business in mind. They wanted to know if coach Weis would be interested in serving on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

"It's moving in that direction," Weis confirmed Monday.

It's been moving in that direction for years, actually. Four years ago, Charlie and Maura Weis started Hannah and Friends, inspired by the Weises' almost 12-year-old special-needs daughter, Hannah. It is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing a better quality of life for children and adults with special needs.

In August, the Weises broke ground on Hannah and Friends Farm, a 30-acre residential community off Hollyhock Road, north of Auten Road, that will serve as a home for adults with special needs.

A caretaker's house is expected to be finished by this month, a recreation center for the property by spring and the first two units that will house a total of eight residents by next football season. The plans for Hannah and Friends Farm call for a total of 16 residential units to eventually be built.

Six months ago Weis said the White House sent a representative to South Bend to meet with the coach to gauge his interest in serving on the committee.

The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities was created in 1961 by former President John F. Kennedy. It was originally called the President's Panel on Mental Retardation.

Twenty-one citizen members and 13 ex officio members appointed by the president comprise the committee. Among the citizen members currently on the committee is singer Clay Aiken of "American Idol'' fame.

It is estimated that more than 7 million Americans experience mental retardation and intellectual disabilities. Intellectual disabilities affected one in 10 families in the U.S.

Weis stayed in California after ND's 21-14 season-ending victory over Stanford, then began working his way across the country recruiting. On Thursday, he flew from Arizona to Washington to meet with "the big boss."

"We thought that would probably be a good thing to do," Weis said. "So we did that."

 

 

Tags: Notre Dame, ND, Charlie Weis, Hannah and Friends, President Bush

Business Continuity/Pandemic Planning

I work for a large utility, at a nuclear power plant, in the Business group.  One of my recent responsibilities is to coordinate the Business Continuity Planning for our station, with the stated goal of keeping our electrical generation plant on-line to support the Michigan and Indiana areas by keeping the juice flowing and the lights (and much more) on.  For us, Business Continuity means planning for Loss of Infrastructure (a.k.a., computer systems), Loss of Building (tornado, fire, earthquake, etc.), and Loss of Workforce (due to pandemic, influenza, etc.). 

Our main focus over the past six months has been to address the loss of workforce issue.  What is interesting is that we have had three pandemics in the 20th century, making the average about every 30 years.  The message is that it is not a matter of "if", it is a matter of "when".  The prediction for a H5N1, bird flu pandemic, is 40% loss of workforce, and of those, 3-5% will die; this is serious business folks.  My company takes this very seriously, paying for flu shots for all employees and family members, subsidizing flu shots for our contractors, sending a pandemic planning package to all employee homes, and stock piling critical supplies and food at our critical facilities.

Tomorrow, as the leader for the Business Continuity at our nuclear power plant, I am attending the first Steering Committee meeting of the county Continuity Of Operations Planning (COOP).  As a provider of a critical service, we are a member of the steering committee.

The University of Minnesota has a great web-site for keeping abreast of pandemic planning, and other national health matters.  I encourage you to google and get access to this information.

Tags: Pandemic, Influenza, Business Continuity, Nuclear Power Plant

Back to the Grind <sigh>

Sunday was kind of a quiet day, my best friend was at work, so I was piddling around on my own.  Read the Sunday Paper (one of my favorite weekend activities), made Chex Mix scramble for the first time (it turned out well), took care of cousin Shane's kitties, cleaned the garage, and did some work-work.  That took me to 1:00 PM, and time for the Colts game, they won.  Unfortunately, the following game, Da Bears, resulted in another Chicago loss. Oh Well. 

On the BCS front, how cool that Illinois is going to the Rose Bowl.  Hope they do better than the last time they went, 1984 again against USC (I was there, and the game was a blowout, against the fighting Illini).  Looking forward to watching, will not be able to make the trip this time :o(

Thats all for now :o)

Tags: Illini, Colts, Bears, Rose Bowl

Winter Weather

Note to self - never wait until the last minute to get tires for winter weather.  I went to Discount Tire today, after running my other errands, got there around 12:00, and waited 25 minutes in line.  After we checked out my tires, it was clear that I needed four new ones.  After getting into the system, there was a 3 hour wait, so I headed to Lowes.  Got some new shelves for the garage and started moving some items over from the old garage.  Headed back to Discount Tire at 3:15 PM, and had to wait another hour before the truck finally got into the bay for new tires. Got home around 5:15; the new tires worked great, as we are getting some winter weather, about 1/2 inch so far, did not need to use the 4-wheel drive.  Soooo, make sure you plan ahead, cause when the bad mojo weather is coming, the tire dealers are very busy. 

Weekend Boy!

We have a joke here at Nutwood regarding when we have time off from the daily grind.  I am Weekend Boy this weekend, unfortunately, Beth has to work. 

However, I have lots to keep me busy.  We are taking care of cousin Shane's cats, I need to get several hairs cut, need new tires on the truck in preparation for SNOW (yuk!), packaging up the recycling, getting in a couple of workouts, cleaning the old garage (move things to the new garage), and some AEP work to do.  Helps keep the time moving until my "bride" gets home from work.

One of the things that we are most proud of, after six years of marriage, is that we still have not had an argument or a fight.  I think that is something to be quite proud of.  Being "Bucko", I have to admit that I have hurt her feelings with my joking, but it is easily identified, and then we talk it out.  How wonderful to have a true life partner.

Also, a very happy birthday to my daughter, she is 14 today. 

Tags: daughter, birthday, bride

Groundwater

Interesting Facts:

Groundwater - water beneath Earth's surface between saturated soil and rock that supplies wells and springs. 

The thing that I did not know that I found fascinating is, "At any one time, the Mississippi River carries just 1 percent of its waters to the Gulf of Mexico.  The other 99 percent lies beneath the river's bottom, saturated in rock and dirt." [Source: Nature Conservancy/Winter 2007 Edition].  I never realized the true linkage between our rivers, our watersheds, and our groundwater. 

Living in the country, we are on well water, and understanding these types of facts are important.  We have a small pond in the back yard, and we can gauge the water table based on how dry our pond is.

 

Tags: Groundwater, Nature Conservancy, Wells

Who Would You Vote For?

We took the opportunity last night to watch the Republican U-Tube debate.  Have to admit, as Republicans, we were disappointed.  I heard on NPR on the way home tonight that Thompson and Huckabee lost ground, Romney held his, and McCain gained in the eyes of the New Hampshire voters.  We did love the Huckabee line "Jesus was too smart to run for office".  That cracked us up (WWJVF).

On the Democratic side, Iowa still remains very undecided.  Some recent reading I have done indicates that Iowa is very pragmatic in their voting, and if the trend and press indicates that you are not electable, then you will not get their caucus vote.  Based on that, my prediction is that Hillary will continue to lose ground, Obama will continue to gain (have to admit that I will consider voting for him if he is the candidate, most likely to be non-partisan and invoke change, even if he is anti-nuke and more liberal than my tastes condone), and Richardson has a good chance of doing well.