Cartoon of the Week

Toles in the Washington Post:

It is hard to shake a belief that is based on politics and not on reality.

Miserable Day…

Sorry I haven’t updated the blog much today. I have been having a miserable morning and early afternoon getting my car out of the shop where it has been for the last 10 days.

To start with, when Bucky’s Auto Repair called and said my car was done, I trucked off to Martinsburg, first to return the rental to Enterprise, then to pick up my Toyota. Should have been simple.

The rental car turned out to have some small scratches on the rearpassenger side, which I hadn’t noticed. Someone must have brudhed me in a parking lot while I was at the gym. This however turned into an insurance claim and I had to put up $50.00 against the insurance coverage.

Doing the paperwork on all this, including phone calls to my insurance company, took about an extra hour. When I finally got dropped off at Bucky’s by the Enterprise driver, I got my car and went home… only to discover on the way that the front turn signals weren’t connected. So back to Bucky’s (which is about 20 minutes away from my house) to tell them they hadn’t connected the front turn signals when they repaired the car. After the “sorry, sorry’s” they got the blinkers blinking and made up for my dissatisfaction with the job by giving me a lovely Christian Calendar for the coming new year… just the thing my little atheist hands wanted to grab.

So now I’m home again having wasted most of the day… and I have to go to a kids show rehearsal in a couple of hours at Full Circle to see what I’m designing lights for.

Hope you are having a great day.

American Conservation Film Festival Begins This Week.

One of the reasons we love being in Shepherdstown, WV, is the American Conservation Film Festival, which starts this Wednesday with a Sneak Peak reception. The Festival has grown over the years and now uses space in Town and at Shepherd University as well as at the National Conservation Training Center’s Byrd Auditorium. Much of the Festival is free, but even the paid admission events are cheap and highly worthwhile.

Here’s the schedule:

INFORMATION CENTER AT THE WAR MEMORIAL BUILDING
THURSDAY 11/5 – SUNDAY 11/8

WEDNESDAY 11/4

War Memorial Building (7:00-8:00)
7:00-8:00 Sneak Peak Reception
(Shepherdstown Men’s Club members and invited guests)

THURSDAY 11/5

Shepherd U. Erma Ora Byrd- Student Films & Reception (6:30-10:30)

FREE ADMISSION

6:30-6:50 Disturbance
6:50-7:20 Extreme Commuting
7:20-7:40 Into the Cool: The Living
7:40-8:35 Division Street
8:35-9:05 Wings Over the Marsh
9:05-9:20 Rising Tides Hawaii Parks in Peril
9:30-10:30 Student Reception

NCTC-Byrd Auditorium (7:00-10:30)

FREE ADMISSION

7:00-8:30 A Sea Change
8:30-9:30 Conservation in Context -Returns to the Sea
9:30-10:0 Big River

NCTC Small Theater (7:00-10:00)

FREE ADMISSION

7:00-7:45 The National Parks: This is America
8:00-9:00 In the Company of Moose
9:00-10:00 Kareara: The Pine Falcon

FRIDAY 11/6

Shepherd University- Frank Center (7:00 to 11:00)

FREE ADMISSION

7:00-8:15: Fresh: The Movie
8:15-9:15 Conservation in Context- We Are What We Eat
9:30-11:00 Food Inc.

Shepherd University-Erma Ora Byrd (7:00-9:45)

ADMISSION: $5.00 per FILM or $10.00 for the EVENING

7:00-8:30 No Impact Man
9:30-10:30 Eating Alaska
10:30-11:00 Big River

Opera House (7:00-11:00)

ADMISSION: $5.00 per FILM or $10.00 for the EVENING

7:00-8:30 Coal Country
8:45-9:30 In A Place Out of Time
9:30-10:30 The Linguists

War Memorial Building (7:00-10:15)

ADMISSION: $5.00 per FILM or $10.00 for the EVENING

7:00-7:45 Milking the Rhino
7:45-8:30 Greening of Southie
8:30-8:40 Pirates
8:40-10:10 A Snowmobile for George

Stone Soup Bistro
9:30-Midnight Meet the Filmmakers Reception

SATURDAY AFTERNOON 11/7

NCTC-Byrd Auditorium (12:30-5:00)

FREE ADMISSION

12:30-1:30 Children’s Short Films
(Climate Change: Wildlife and Wildlands; Chickens of the Sea; Frog, Chemical, Water, You; Why Don’t We Ride Zebras?)
1:30-2:30 Feral Peril
2:30-3:30 Lords of Nature (intro by Will Stolzenburg)
3:30-4:15 Conservation in Context- Predator Purgatory
4:15-4:20 How to Survive a Bear Attack
4:30-5:30 Grizzly

NCTC Grounds (1:45-5:00)

FREE ADMISSION
1:45-5:00 CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY- PHOTO SAFARI

NCTC Classroom (12:00-5:00)

FREE ADMISSION

12:00-1:00 Tale of the Sundarbans
1:00-2:00 Eating Alaska
2:15-4:15 Hotspots
4:30-5:00 Shifting Sands Climate Change in the Mojave
5:00-5:15 Preview: Young Voices on Climate Change

NCTC Small Theater (12:00-4:30)

FREE ADMISSION

12:00-1:00 Shenandoah: Voices of the River
1:30-3:00 No Impact Man
3:00-4:00 In the Company of Moose
4:00-4:45 Greening of Southie
5:00-5:20 When Eagles Dream

SATURDAY EVENING 11/7

NCTC Byrd (6:30-11:00)

FREE ADMISSION
6:30-7:30 Running With Wolves
7:30-8:30 Student Award Winner Presentation and Screening
8:30-10:00 Home

Opera House (7:00-11:00)

ADMISSION: $5.00 per FILM or $10.00 for the EVENING

7:00-8:30 Coal Country
8:30-9:00 Wings Over the Marsh
9:00-9:45 In A Place Out of Time
9:45-10:45 The Linguists

NCTC Museum (10:00-11:30)
10:00-11:30 Meet the Filmmakers Reception hosted
by The Downstream Project

SUNDAY 11/8

NCTC Byrd (12:00-5:30)

FREE ADMISSION

12:00-1:30 Home
1:30-3:00 Food Inc
3:00-3:45 Shenandoah: Voices of the River
3:45-4:45 In A Place Out of Time
4:45-5:30 The Linguists
5:30-6:00 Conservation in Context-Conserving Cultures

Opera House (12:00-5:30)

ADMISSION: $5.00 per FILM or $15.00 for the DAY

12:00-1:00 Lords of Nature
1:00-2:00 Grizzly
2:00-3:00 Feral Peril
3:00-4:00 Running With Wolve
4:00-5:30 Coal Country
5:30-6:00 SPEAKER-Phyllis Geller (Coal Country Filmmaker)

War Memorial Building (12:00-4:15)

ADMISSION: $5.00 per FILM or $15.00 for the DAY
12:00-1:00 Kareara: The Pine Falcon
1:00-2:00 In the Company of Moose
2:00-2:30 Wings Over the Marsh
2:30-3:00 Extreme Commuting
3:00-4:15 Fresh

*schedule subject to change