We went to the Rocks and Minerals Exhibit at the Kenosha Public Museum yesterday. Kevin loves rocks and minerals, so he was very interested. We took a few photos, so you can click on the thumbnail image to view them if you’d like. Kevin also recently did his first church service as an Acolyte! Sandy took a photo of him right here. Last night we also took George (Sandy’s dad) out to dinner at Red Lobster–Sandy & myself, Kevin, Mike & Ginger, Rick, and Diane took him. We didn’t take any photos, but we all enjoyed some great food and a nice night out.
Category Archives: News
Trick or Treating
We went trick-or-treating today and Kevin had a blast. First we had to stop back at the haunted yard we visited earlier in the month, just to see it during the day, and to see if the death row prisoner actually gets electrocuted. We weren’t disappointed. The display was working great, and the prisoner got zapped and shook violently for several seconds every few minutes. It was quite startling, even during the day. And as usual, Kevin kept his distance from everything, afraid of what might happen. A zombie was there at the front door handing out candy bars wrapped in dollar bills! It took some coaxing, but Kevin finally agreed to go up and get one. I even talked him into going up a second time””this time for a photo with him and the zombie. That’s the first photo in the set (and the one in this article). Click on it to go view the rest of the photos from throughout today’s trick-or-treating. It was pretty funny knowing Kevin was so frightened and paranoid around all the scary creatures and decorations at the haunted yard, while at the same time wearing a pretty scary costume himself. He really frightened a few children pretty good during trick-or-treating, and he wasn’t even trying to!
Vista Fall Fest and Jade’s 8th Birthday
We went to Vista’s Fall Fest today at Vista Surgery Center and had a lot of fun. Kevin wore his Freddy Krueger costume for the first time, and he was pretty excited about it. The photos are part of our growing “Halloween 2009” collection. Jade (Debbie’s granddaughter) also had her 8th birthday party today, so Debbie sent us the photos and I posted those as well. Click on the thumbnails or any of the links to view the images.
Halloween Season Begins
The Halloween festivities have begun. Last weekend we shopped for Kevin’s costume. We found a great store too–a giant pumpkin in the Regency Mall parking lot. Tons of great Halloween decorations, costumes, and goodies! It was a blast. We stayed for quite awhile just to check everything out. Kevin was set on a Halo 3 Master Chief costume that we had ordered from Amazon earlier in the month, which said “IN STOCK” when we ordered, but our order was cancelled a couple days later saying that they were out of stock. But at the giant pumpkin store we found the exact same costume–and it was the exact same size as the one we ordered–Adult Extra Small. Good thing we DIDN’T get it mail order though–the giant pumpkin store has a “no refunds” policy, but they let you try on the costumes first. So Kevin tried on the Master Chief costume… The crotch plate alone rested on the floor! It sure was HUGE for being an “extra small”. That was the only size they had, so we gave up on it.
He soon found his second choice though–the same costume he wanted to wear last year, if we had been unable to get a decent soldier costume in his size–Freddy Krueger. We have everything we need except the hat at the moment, and everything fits him nicely. Looks pretty scary. As a preview, click on the Freddy thumbnail and take a look at a collection of the best and worst Freddies we found on Flickr. It’s an interesting gallery I put together. You can’t add your own photos to a gallery you create on Flickr though–since “galleries” are for showcasing your favorite photos from other people–so you won’t find Kevin in that collection, but he’ll be added to the “Kevin’s Costumes” and “Halloween 2009” sets soon though. We also visited Jerry Smith’s Pumpkin Farm last weekend. We picked out a trio of pumpkins to carve this year, and maybe I’ll even try to assemble a new pumpkin totem this year. We’ll see what happens.
Kevin’s Halloween Costumes
At just over 18,000 photos, I’m finally done moving to Flickr. What a relief! One of the nice things about Flickr is how you can use any of your photos in multiple sets easily, allowing you to create custom groups of photos with things in common. So here’s my first set. This is “Kevin’s Costumes” – A photo of every Halloween costume Kevin has worn, from when he first went trick-or-treating at 2 years old (in 2000) right up to last year. Click on the thumbnail and take a look.
Photos, photos and more photos
I’ve been very busy this week trying to get my photo site up and running on flickr. I’m up to over 8,000 photos so far, just a few thousand left to go. So far I’m really enjoying it–much moreso than I did on SmugMug, even though there are fewer options available on flickr for layout and customization. I’m finding that the popularity of the photo service itself seems to be quite important when choosing a photo host. Even with only a small amount of my photos uploaded last week I started getting a lot of views, people marking photos as favorites, leaving comments, and even invitations to add some of my photos to specific groups! Plus, “geotagging” photos is actually fun and much easier on flickr than it was on SmugMug, so I already have thousands of photos geotagged as well! So that’s where I’ll be–uploading photos on flickr–probably over the entire weekend and beyond. I’m even finding and adding many MORE photos and collections than I ever had online before, so be warned! Hopefully they’re arranged much better than before as well, so you probably won’t be so overwhelmed at first, but if you keep digging, you’ll see there is plenty–and I mean PLENTY there to see. So stop by and take a look… and try out the slideshow mode too–it’s the smoothest web-based slideshow mode I’ve ever seen! Jim’s Photo World
“Bear” Photo Collection
During all of the chaos around here this week, I completely forgot that the registration for my photo site, jimsphotoworld.com, was about to expire. I didn’t plan on continuing it, so that’s no big deal, but I did intend to have things up and running on flickr, which I was in the process of moving all of my photos to. Flickr is only half the price of SmugMug, which is one advantage, but it’s also much more popular, so I’m also seeing more visits and comments from strangers after only a week of starting to upload than I ever did in an entire year on SmugMug. Don’t get me wrong, SmugMug is a fine photo host, especially for professionals, and it has excellent features. But right now I need something more affordable, and flickr seems to fill the bill. Flickr is also owned by AT&T/Yahoo, and it’s integrated into U-Verse, which we just switched to. This means we can view all of our photos instantly on any of our TVs, which is great! I’m far from finishing the switch though, since other more important things have come up this week, so it’s still a work in progress right now. I did, however, manage to put together a great collection of Bear’s photos. Take a look.
Dennis “Bear” Wegmann — August 5, 1954 – September 16, 2009
Dennis A. “Bear” Wegmann
(August 5, 1954 – September 16, 2009)
Dennis “Bear” Wegmann, 55, of Kenosha, passed away Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at his fiance’s home in Zion, IL.
He was born on August 5, 1954 to George John and Irene Mildred (Holtdorf) Wegmann in Kenosha. He was educated in the schools of Kenosha and graduated from Tremper High School. He took various accounting related classes at Gateway Technical College.
Dennis worked at Motorola as an assembler for several years and then at AMC/Chrysler for 30 years, retiring on October 31, 2003.
Dennis was a member of UAW Local #72, the Kenosha Auxiliary Police, the Milwaukee Suds City Van Club and the Kenosha County Line Van Club.
Dennis enjoyed camping up north at the Ponderosa Pines Campground in Plainfield, WI, he was an avid lifelong Bear fan, enjoyed playing darts, riding motorcycles, bowling, and enjoyed clubbing with his van club since 1972. Dennis also considered Jose Cuervo a good friend.
Dennis is survived by his father George Wegmann of Kenosha, his siblings Rick Wegmann, Michael (Ginger) Wegmann, Sandra (Jimmy) Trottier all of Kenosha, his step brother Robert Anderson of IL, his fiancée Diane Bishop of Zion, IL, his nephews Scott Wegmann who is serving in the US Navy in Iraq, Matthew Krumm who is also his Godson who is serving our country in the US Army in Afghanistan and Kevin Trottier, his step nephew Timm Sinnen, his step niece Tiana Honey, his Godson Jeremy Auskirk and several cousins.
His mother and his stepbrother James Anderson precede him in death.
Funeral Services for Dennis will be held on Monday, September 21st at 10:00 a.m. at the Bruch Funeral Home. Visitation will be held on Sunday evening from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. and again on Monday morning from 9:00 a.m. until the time of service at the funeral home.
Bruch Funeral Home
3503 Roosevelt Road
Kenosha, WI 53142
262-652-8298
Visit Dennis’s Online Memorial Book: www.bruchfuneralhome.net
Bear passed away last night
Just a quick note to let everyone know, my brother-in-law (Sandy’s brother) Dennis “Bear” Wegmann passed away in his sleep last night. It was quite a shock to us all, and we’re in the process of making all of the arrangements, which I’ll post as soon as I get them. Please keep him in your prayers.
Shirl’s Custard Stand Robbery Ends in Murder
Police are searching for two masked suspects who killed Robert Wilde, 18, who was a clerk at Shirl’s, 7943 Sheridan Road, an ice cream stand down the street from us. On Sunday night they shot the manager during a robbery. Police say they entered through a back door as employees were about to close about 9:30 p.m. They demanded money. One was armed with a gun, the other with a knife. They shot the 18-year-old male clerk and the 43-year-old male manager. Then they grabbed the money and took off on foot.
Four female employees, all between 17 and 20 years old, were not hurt. Both victims were rushed to Kenosha Hospital where the 18-year-old was pronounced dead. The manager was treated and released. A $1,000 reward is being offered for information on the suspects. Police describe them as male Hispanics 5’10” to 6′ tall. One has long hair, a tan parka, blue shirt, camouflaged pants and a black mask. The other one has a red or brown parka or sweatshirt, a green shirt, tan shorts and a black mask. Police are uncertain of their ages. Shirl’s was taped off and surrounded by police cars and officers when I went to work this morning, and still taped off when I came home this afternoon, and another building, about a block south of Shirl’s on Sheridan Road (across the street from McDonalds) was also taped off with several police cars and officers around it when I came home. No word on what was going on at the second building yet though.
MagicJack
I recently took a big risk with our phone service, and switched to MagicJack. Due to our ever-increasing cost of living, we’ve been looking for ways to cut costs. Since Sandy and I both have cells phones, I wanted to get rid of our home phone completely and just go with our cell phones only. Sandy thought differently, however, and thought we should keep our home phone service. So I looked into our options. As it was, we were paying $50-$60 per month for our home phone service through McLeodUSA. $30-$35 of this was for our base services, and the rest was for long distance calls””mostly from me when I’m on-call at work (a Waukegan hospital, which is long distance for us, and their corporate support, which is in Tennessee). Time-Warner cable-based phone service was an option that would save us some money, especially since it offers free long distance as part of the package. So that was one option. AT&T also recently stopped at our door offering their all-in-one package and “U-Verse”, whatever the heck that thing is”¦and this would have been about the same savings overall. Then I saw this bizarre thing on TV and in a few Internet ads called “MagicJack.” It certainly couldn’t be for real, so for a long time I dismissed it as just one of those goofy scams, like the “Free Internet TV” applications we always see the ads for.
Well, when yet another even bigger phone bill arrived this month, I decided to look into it further. I read many reviews of it, looked into application compatibility, and then, based on the price, we decided to just jump right into it. It’s a flat $39.99 for the box, which includes the first year of service, then it’s $20 per year after that. So we’re basically talking $20 for the little USB device, and $20 per YEAR for the phone service. Compare that to the $600 or more per year we were previously paying for our phone service! Plus, since we picked up the box at Best Buy, we can return it within 14 days for a full refund. And if you want even more of a deal, just visit the MagicJack website. There you can order on for free and try it out for 30 days before paying for it. So after weighing all of the options, we decided to go ahead and switch to it. We didn’t have anything to lose, and if it works out, we’ll come out way ahead! If I have you drooling now, make sure you read the rest of this posting closely. There are some caveats and requirements that might not make it an ideal solution for you. First of all, the only instructions are 3 simple steps on the packaging: 1. Plug your phone into it, 2. Plug it into a USB slot on your PC (or Mac), 3. Pick up your phone and use it. Sounds pretty simple, and in a perfect world it would be. But as it turns out, this only applies to Windows XP users. Vista users are close though. It won’t work as easy as this on Vista right out of the box–you have to go to their website and download the Vista update and install it to make it work. Then there’s Windows 7″”which is what I’m using now. I figured if the update worked for Vista, it should also Apply to 7. No such luck. But after some googling, I found a workaround that worked great. It required a Windows Vista system to complete though””you basically install the software and activate the MagicJack on Vista, then copy all of the configuration to the Windows 7 PC. After that it works great. Interestingly, MagicJack Support said that the MagicJack simply will not work on Windows 7 yet. I can say for sure though, that it does.
Next there’s the requirement of the PC. It has to be on and available, with the MagicJack software running, in order to be able to make and receive phone calls. This is no problem for us, we have a main PC that we keep on 24/7 as it is, and it’s fairly new, so it’s fast enough to handle the telephone while still allowing us to use it for all of our usual applications. We just have to be careful not to reboot when someone’s on the phone, or accidentally close the application. When the computer isn’t on or it’s unavailable, your calls automatically go to MagicJack voicemail. This is a nice feature though””it will automatically even e-mail your voicemail messages to you””as .WAV files. It also includes music on hold (while you’re using call waiting) and 3-way calling, although we haven’t used these features yet. I did hear the music on hold for several seconds and it was pretty raspy. But this feature isn’t even mentioned anywhere yet, so I think it’s experimental at this point.
On to call quality: Call quality depends on your broadband connection. From what I’ve read, if your upload speed is too low, you won’t be able to make or receive calls. So my having the “turbo” addon with Time Warner might be making all the difference in the world for us. We use the Playstation Network, X-Box Live, Digital Cable, as well as the Internet on a daily basis, so believe me, we need the speed boost. Call quality has been very good so far though. Calls sound nearly landline quality, and definitely much better than cell phone quality. I have noticed slight dropouts occasionally, and I experienced one 3-second pause where someone electronically “stuttered” part of a word, but then it resumed the conversion normally after that. The caller on the other end didn’t even hear it. Also, just starting a call is sometimes a bit difficult. You might get a dial tone, dial a number, and nothing””no ring, nothing. Hang up and call again though, and it works fine. Just a little glitchy there I guess.
Then there’s a power issue. The MagicJack box itself is about the size of a cigarette lighter and plugs into a USB port. If the port is unpowered, or plugged directly into a USB port on a PC, you can often have problems with it rebooting the software, disconnecting your calls, etc. These problems, however, all seem to be remedied by simply using a powered USB hub. It MUST be powered too””this is the issue””the MagicJack requires all of the power of a dedicated USB jack. Fortunately, I was proactive with this, and had a spare powered 8-port D-Link USB hub ready to use with it. I haven’t experienced this issue at all since we started using it, so I guess the hub works.
Lastly, the phone number problem. You don’t get to keep your old phone number. MagicJack doesn’t currently support “porting” of phone numbers to its service. They plan to offer this feature in the near future, however. So we had to choose a new number. You do this when activating your MagicJack, and you are given the option of choosing from the available prefixes available within your area code. The 4-digits after the prefix, however, are automatically generated. For us, in the 262 area code, the only available prefixes were in the Thiensville area, so even our next door neighbors have to call long distance (if THEIR phone service doesn’t include extended-range local calling) in order to call us. A bit of a bummer, but when you think about it, everyone’s phone service is evolving anyway, so there are probably few people left still paying extra for “extended area” calling beyond this distance. (Thiensville is actually 57 miles North of us).
I think that’s about it though. If you can handle all of the “catches” involved, this could be a viable solution for you. I think it’s going to be fine for us. Having an excellent Internet connection helps a lot though, I’m sure. And if there’s just too many catches for you to be comfortable with switching to it, keep it in the back of your mind for awhile. Based on previous history, the service and support for MagicJack is getting better all the time. They’re bound to improve the device as well as the phone service and it’s features in the near future, especially support for Windows 7 after it is officially released in October. I think I can handle the issues and make this thing worth the $600 we’ll save each year.
Weekend Update
Sorry SNL, I stole your title… Anyway, I’m going to try to make it a point to post SOMETHING every weekend, at the LEAST. The site can get pretty boring without some sort of regular update (even though lack of activity seems to do nothing to deter the spammers), so I’m making an effort. Today’s posting is simply a “What’s up update”. It seems I’ve been sucked in by the power of the “dark side” and I now play X-Box over PS3 by about 4:1. The only thing that pulls me back to the PS3 right now is Little Big Planet. And this is only because it’s not available on the X-Box, or I’d probably have it for BOTH systems. As I mentioned in my review, Microsoft seems to haev gotten a lot right, especially the addictive “Gamerscore” gimmick. It’s all about raising that score, and it uniquely ties all of your games together. We’re (I’m) currently addicted to Left4Dead, trying to finish the second part. I managed to complete the first part–not on my own, but with the help of an 11-year-old (Tyler)–after a couple weeks of struggling. I think one thing that hooked me was the fact that I work in a big hospital, and the objective of part 1 (titled “No Mercy”) is to make it across town to “Mercy Hospital”, work your way through the hospital, onto the roof, and catch a rescue helicopter. There are hordes of zombies after you the entire way, some of them “regular”, while others explode with amazing force, some emitting a toxic green smoke, and others that have tongues hundreds of yards long that the throw out fram great distances and heights to grab you, constrict you, and pull you toward them. Without the help of your teammates at this point, you’re sure to be zombie food. SO I spent a week getting all the way to the roof, only to be overwhelmed by zombies of all kinds after calling for the rescue helicopter to come get us. You can play the game by yourself (with 3 other computer teammates), play split-screen with a friend, or play online with human teammates elsewhere. I was using the computer teammates all week, because they’re pretty dependable and smart (they won’t turn on their teammates like a lot of X-box Live players will). So until tyler helped me out, I was getting defeated ay every attempt to survive until the helicopter arrived. Tyler was able to help me hold off the swarming hordes long enough for us to reach the helipad and jump onto the helicopter, and we were off to the next chapter. Now we’re both stuck at the end of the second chapter, in a farmhouse out in the country, again waiting for help to arrive. Another great aspect of this game is it’s “fear factor” (another “sorry” to NBC for stealing another title). The game can be so quiet and calm at times, and then BAM, zombies everywhere, attacking you so fast you panic! It’s very well done, and an awesome game to play at night, alone in the dark, with the volume cranked up (and the wife not home). The “crescendo moments” are very dramatic and frightening.
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In “Fish News” – our baby Plecostamus passed away a couple weeks ago. We’re not sure why, all of the other fish look healthy…except one. Over the past couple days we’ve noticed one tigerfish that likes to swim upside down. He swims continuously, he just constantly does it upside down, 99% of the time. We’re going to have to get our water tested I think. But other than those two, the tank has been amazingly stable for a couple years.
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In “Employment News” – We’re both still employed, which, in this economy, is a major accomplishment in itself.
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In “Family News” – Bear (Dennis) is now engaged to Diane, Sandy just turned the big “FIVE-OH! MY ACHING BACK!” and Kevin just turn eleven. That’s about it for now. I’ll be scanning some more photo albums soon, so watch for those. L8r!
Matt Chat from Afghanistan
Matt’s over in Afghanistan now. He left a few days ago. He called us at 4:30 in the morning the other day. He wasn’t sure what time it was here, since he’s on the other side of the planet now. I just had a little chat with him tonight. It was great to talk to him and know he’s doing good. Here’s a capture of our conversation (most of it, anyway). I edited out the actual locations he mentioned, just in case: [18:34] Matt : hello?
[18:35] jimtrottier: hi matt!
[18:35] jimtrottier: This is Jim
[18:35] jimtrottier: Got Internet over there?!
[18:36] Matt : at this current spot i do
[18:36] jimtrottier: Where are ya?
[18:36] Matt : were gonna be movin out soon
[18:36] Matt : *******
[18:37] jimtrottier: Never heard of it. I’ll have to look it up. It’s 6:37pm Wed here. What time is it there?
[18:38] Matt : 5:37 on thursday
[18:38] jimtrottier: Wow, you’re in the FUTURE! Cool!
[18:38] Matt : haha
[18:38] Matt : yea it was kinda bizare to watch the sun rise like twice while we were flying
[18:38] jimtrottier: Is it dangerous where you are now?
[18:38] Matt : nope
[18:39] jimtrottier: Thats good
[18:39] Matt : we actually beat the sun rise here
[18:39] jimtrottier: cool
[18:39] Matt : saw it half way and then it came back
[18:40] Matt : mom working?
[18:40] jimtrottier: Yes
[18:41] Matt : ahh kevin asleep already?
[18:41] jimtrottier: Not yet. playing LBP right now
[18:42] Matt : ahhh anything new come out yet?
[18:42] jimtrottier: nope, no new costumes or anything last week either. We’re waiting for two weeks worth of goodies this thursday
[18:43] Matt : is it expected to come out?
[18:43] Matt : yea
[18:44] jimtrottier: something should at least. Last week nothing cause of the holiday, so i jsut think there’ll be more than usual. No rumors yet though.
[18:44] Matt : yep thats it
[18:44] jimtrottier: Can’t even pronouce the name of that place!
[18:45] jimtrottier: What they got you doin?
[18:45] Matt : absolutely nothing
[18:45] Matt : i sit around and watch movies
[18:46] jimtrottier: Not a bad gig!
[18:46] Matt : completely filled up my tb already
[18:46] jimtrottier: wow!
[18:49] Matt : i wanna get a new one and start working on it
[18:49] jimtrottier: Another tb? holy crap
[18:49] Matt : yea lol
[18:51] jimtrottier: They have new 1.5tb drives now, nice.
[18:51] Matt : yeah i saw that i was thinking about getting one and selling my tb probably
[18:52] Matt : i seen one that was 2tb at best buy i dont know if it was 2 individual or combined
[18:52] Matt : but it was expensive
[18:53] jimtrottier: I think it was 2 drives in 1 box. Lemme check…
[18:55] jimtrottier: It doesn’t say if it’s 2 drives in 1 or not. It’s a NAS though, not USB.
[18:56] Matt : whats that?
[18:56] jimtrottier: Network Attached Storage. Connects through a network port, like a PC to a network.
[18:57] Matt : ahh
[19:01] Matt : i gotta get going
[19:02] Matt : my buddy wants to head back to the tent
[19:02] jimtrottier: Ok. Keep safe. We’ll talk to ya later. bubye
[19:02] *** “Matt ” signed off at Wed Jan 07 19:02:39 2009.
Christmas 2008
We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was full of family get-togethers, gifting, and TONS OF SNOW. We could have done without so much of the snow though, my back is killing me! All in all though, it was pretty nice to see everyone again and have them all over for another amazing grilled-ham Christmas dinner. All of the photo highlights are posted, of course, so you can click on the thumbnail to take a look. Kevin got some great games for the Wii and PS3, so he’s (we’re) bust playing all of those every chance we get. Sandy’s loving her new GPS–the first one she’s ever had– and I’m amazed at how simple they really are to use. I was expecting them to require some sort of elaborate antenna hookup in the car, or at least a monthly subscription to access the satellite system, but no, it’s really that simple. A one-time purchase and that’s it. The antenna is built-in and works quite well, receiving contant updates every second or two, telling her how fast she’s going, exactly when to turn, and even displaying the little car icon of her choosing and selecting the voice of her choosing! It was very amusing to hear “Elfred” the Christmas Elf give her directions. His mid-trip commentary is quite entertaining.
Update: 12/30/08 – I just finished posting all of our Christmas and New Years photos for 2008! There’s nearly 200 photos in all, so there’s plenty to sift through! Take a look. Highlights include: Christmas Eve at Beth & Tom’s, Christmas Day at Home, and Our Lil New Year’s Eve Celebration at Home with Tyler, Jayson’s son, who spent about a week with us over the holiday break. The photos are sorted chronologically, so they start a few weeks before Christmas when we put up and decorated our tree, and end with our New Year’s Eve celebration and Ty and Kev opening their presents from Jay & Shell. Enjoy!
Murder mystery from 1979
I found some interesting newspaper clippings in my dad’s things recently when we cleaned out his house. My mother liked to clip and save articles that involved friends or family, and she stored them away for future reference. Three of these clippings I found gave me some chilling flashbacks to something that happened when I was 16 years old. On Saturday evening, May 27th, 1979 our family went to the outdoor theater. We returned home at around 1:30 am and when we got out of the car all of us realized there was a strong smell of smoke in the air. Not seeing anything obviously visible, we walked around the neighborhood to find out where it was strongest. It wasn’t coming from our house, to our relief, but something was obviously burning. It quickly became clear that it was strongest straight across the street from our house. My dad walked up to the door of Mr. Bosman’s house at 6612 20th avenue and felt the door. It was very hot. He then opened the door, while at the same time I stood out front telling him he’s not supposed to open it. Smoke poured out of the door and it was so thick he didn’t try to go in immediately. He shouted across the street to my mom, who was on our porch, telling her that the fire was here, ‘call the fiire department!’. My mom basically panicked at this point and kept asking questions like “what should she say?”, “is Mr. Bosman ok?”, etc.. I was standing in front of the house and told my dad “I’LL call them!”. This was back when there were Emergency Fire Boxes on most street corners around town that contained a telephone link directly to the fire department. Most kids were well-trained about these boxes and when they were supposed to use them, so I quickly ran down to the corner, opened the box, picked up the phone and connected to the Kenosha Fire Department. I explained that the door was hot and my dad opened it and smoke is pouring out. They asked if anyone was inside and I said I didn’t know. My dad had gone into the house, found Mr. Bosman, but couldn’t tell if he was ok or not. He didn’t give a lot of information, probably because I was just a kid, and my mom was too upset already to handle more. The Fire Deparment showed up in a few minutes and took over. Mr. Bosman was found dead, and that’s about all I remember from that night. I remember that his death was somehow ruled a suicide, but we found this rediculous, since he was found with several broken ribs and several wounds to the head. How the heck does someone do all that trying to kill themselves?!?! All of the details are in the three articles my mom kept, so I thought I’d post them here, since I scanned them anyway, to preserve them digitally. The articles were very yellowed and close to falling apart, so I scanned them greyscale and sharpened them up a bit. I put all three articles in one PDF file, so you can download it and zoom in on the text to read each article. Bosman Articles – 1979
Knee Surgery and Harmony Agony
Well, my Knee Surgery is tomorrow. I’m a little nervous, but I’m glad the ordeal will finally be over and I will hopefully soon be able to walk normally, without all the pain. The surgery seems fairly common, and I (and my doctor) don’t foresee any complications, and I should be able to go home the same day. Within a week I’m supposed to be able to put full weight back on it again, but Physical Therapy will have to continue beyond that.
I’ve been working on perfecting my new Harmony 720 Remote. I got it pretty cheap in the bargain bin at Walmart recently. Sheesh, Logitech’s software really sucks major booty though! Even with the latest version you still can’t re-order your devices the way you want. I’ve had an older Harmony model for a couple years now, and the software has improved a little, but it’s still very hard to use, and not very user-friendly. Asking online only results in everyone saying that the Harmony remotes are activity-based, and the Device list rearranges itself based on whatever activity you choose. Arrrrrgh. It’s so customizable…yet missing this one seemingly simple feature that I crave… Very frustrating. My setup is too unique to use the Activities, which requires you to ALWAYS use the remote (for powering on and off everything, etc.) and it remembers the state every device is in at all times. But some of us in the house turn the power of things on and off on the devices themselves once in awhile, and others use the remote most of the time, so it renders the device status memory useless. I love using just the devices with my customized buttons, and it works great, the only little thing I still want is just to be able to re-order the devices so my most-used ones are on the first page. I’m up to 11 devices. Anyone else got a Harmony?
Update on Everything
Sorry it’s been so long between posts. I’ve been very busy with a lot of things lately, so here’s what I’ve been up to: iPod. I picked up an iPod recently, on the recommendation of a few friends, and I can’t put the darned thing down! I had no idea it could be so addictive–as so accessorizable–if that’s even a word… You can get pretty much any accessory for it imaginable, from simple docks you just drop it into to full-blown high-end stereo systems it integrates into! No, I didn’t go THAT far, but I did pick up a couple inexpensive “cube-like” clock/radios with iPod docks on them–one for home and one for my desk at work. It just makes it so simple–just drop it into the slot and it plays all my music, my movies, my photos… I just saw a really cool dock at Sam’s Club today that I am considering now. It looks just like a portable DVD player with a 7″ LCD display, except it has an iPod-sized cutout in the lower half…just drop the iPod in and you have a portable media player with a decent-sized 7″ display! I might just have to pick that one up. And get this–just for the heck of it I decided to see if it could handle syncing my entire collection of Digital Camera images–over 30,000 photos and growing. It took several hours, but it worked just fine! I was amazed. They’re compressed of course–it automatically reduces them to a comfortable iPod-compatible size–but they still look really decent when I run them as a slideshow with the iPod connected to our 1080p television!
Besides all the iPodding lately, a lot more of my spare time has also been eaten up by the handling my dad’s estate. I was officially appointed the Personal Representative last week, so I’m the lucky one that gets to handle every aspect of finalizing all the details, selling assets, and wrapping things up completely. At least there’s a lawyer involved to keep everything striaght and on-track. I can use him when needed, but not without a price of course, so I’m doing as much of it as I can without his assistance, due to our very limited funds. This week I put an ad in the paper to sell my dad’s van, and we’re actually getting a lot of calls about it, so hopefully that part of it will come to a close very soon.
Lastly, I have been having a lot of pain in my left knee over the past few months. Apparently it is the long-term effects of falling on a patch of ice in front of our house in the middle of last winter. I felt better a few weeks after the fall, so I assumed it would be ok. It was a little sore over the months since, but lately it has become much more painful, and walking up or down stairs in almost impossible. I had an MRI done a couple weeks ago, and they found a tear in the center of my knee. I’m going to see a specialist on Monday to see what has to be done next.
That’s about it I think. Oh, except for an excellent Audiobook I’m almost finished listening to (reading?) right now–yes, as I type this. It’s called “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. It was mentioned by Leo on the TWiT podcast recently. It about a Virtual Reality professor at Carnegy-Mellon. He found out he had cancer and only a few months to live, so he gave his last lecture. The lecture itself is all over YouTube, you should definitely check it out. The book isn’t the actual lecture, but more like his entire life story, up to and including everything about the lecture. Randy Pausch just passed away a couple weeks ago. Very sad story, but awesome reading and there’s a lot you can learn from him. Take a look:
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Black Knight is Back!
Black Knight is a classic Williams pinball machine. Black Knight and I go way back. I met him years ago at a place called Funway Freeway in Kenosha. It was an awesome arcade, back when arcades were more than just money making machines out to get your quarters. Back when you could actually learn and win a game, earn free games, and heck… even SELL a bunch of racked up credits to some sucker who wasn’t good enough at the game to earn them himself…YET.
I mastered Black Knight in the arcade. For months and months I learned the moves, all the nudges, perfect shots and combos, everything I needed to come in early, pop in a quarter, and play all day on it. It was a blast, and it paid off for me. Pinball Wizard wasn’t just a song, it was my life. And Hans was that poor sucker in the first paragraph who bought most of my credits. Yeah, some days I even turned a PROFIT!
A few years later, after Black Knight was eventually retired from the arcade and replaced with some new money-gobbling machine–when my master skills were waning, Bob Jensen gets a Black Knight machine for his restaurant, Pizza Popper. Not long afterward, it was offered for sale. I grabbed it of course, I couldn’t resist. It was $300 of money well spent, in my opinion. Getting it into my parent’s house and up to my bedroom must have been an interesting project, but I don’t really remember any of that. All I remember is playing it endlessly, cleaning it, and just looking at it. I had my dream machine, right there in my room.
Eventually it broke down though, to a point where I couldn’t fix it. I think it was a circuit board that failed, if I remember correctly. I got rid of it after that, and I don’t really remember who took it off my hands, if it was Hans or someone else. But Black Knight had provided a lot of the glue that brought Hans and I together back in the day, so there’s always been that special something in it.
Since then I had only my memories of it. Up until recently, when we got our Wii. Just after buying it we wanted to try out a few games on it, so we went to Family Video to rent some. I noticed a game titled “Williams Pinball Classics” so i picked it up. I flipped it over and looked at the 10 pinball machines that it contained. There it was. Black Knight was back. I doubted it was any good, so I thought renting it would be a pretty safe bet, since it’s much cheaper than shelling out the price of the full game. I really didn’t expect much, but thought it would be funny to see how close it was to the real thing.
Not knowing much anything about the Wii yet, we had to figure out the goofy nun-chuck connection thingie.. (why the heck does the nun-chuck use a WIRE, when the controllers are wireless?!?!) Who’s the brainiac that came up with that one? Fire him and hire someone who can develop a wireless nun-chuck! Duh. Anyway, we put the disc in and I immediatety searched the arcade and found no Black Knight. Silly thing was hiding up on the second floor! I quickly inserted my virtual quarter and figured out how to start a game and flip.
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Whoa. I was able to earn almost one million (you get a free game at one million) on my first game. I got just over 800,000 points, and by golly my SHOTS were there!!! Just a little more practice and I could get this down just like the real thing! It’s really quite well done for a virtual pinball machine! The timing, physics, and the who package is just amazingly accurate. There are a few sound issues I can hear and a couple mechanical differences, but I doubt many others beside Hans and myself would ever even notice. You can even nudge (in different directions!) and tilt, as well as play from several different camera angles! How they did it I have no idea, but I’m sure the original designers and/or some diehard players had a lot of input.
Fast forward a few weeks to today…
Jay was here from Arizona just after we got our Wii and we were in the middle of this rental.. Jay knows Black Knight well, having played it in my room quite a bit himself. Now my goal is to get him off of my high score board. The hard way. Tonight I got one step closer to my goal. It shouldn’t be long. I was able to “roll” the REAL Black Knight pretty easily ‘way back when’. Just a little more timeis all I need… you’ll see…Click on the thumbnail to see tonight’s high score.
Thank you!
Thank you everyone who attended the visitations and the funeral. It was great to see everyone again, but it’s so sad that it takes something so tragic to get everyone together.
Thanks to everyone who sent flowers, gave cards, donations, and helped plan things.
A special thanks to Bruch Funeral Home. Kris did such an awesome job of just taking care of every little detail so well, and making us feel so comfortable, it just made the whole ordeal so much less stressful than I thought it was going to be.
Thanks to Casa Capri for an excellent luncheon after the funeral, and for everyone who attended the luncheon. Again, it was great to see you all!
Lastly, I’d like to thank the U.S. Navy for providing such a formal, respectful, and memorable graveside service for my father. I’m sure he got quite a kick out of it, and it’s something we will certainly never forget.
Dad’s Funeral Sermon
Funeral for Harold Trottier
6/12/08 ““ First United Methodist Church
Rev. Ned Hintzman
Note: The recording may have started just after the service did, so a small portion of the pastor’s words are probably missing. This was my best effort to transcribe the service.
God gives us the capacity to mix our losses with our celebrations, our sadness with our joy, and our grief and our comfort. You see, the loss we feel is the gain we have been given. Think about that. The loss you feel today is because of the gain you have been given. Harold was a good and simple man. Life was not complicated for him. Surround him with his family on Christmas at his house and he was happy. Maybe he had on his red sweats and his Santa’s hat, and if he did, he was in his glory. Family cookouts, where somebody else did the cooking, was a good thing. He was doing well then. Give him a good steak along with his dog Tiny Toy in his arms or Friday night fish fry, and he was satisfied.
He was a good father to all you children, and his children’s spouses. To you, Jimmy and your wife Sandy, to Clayton and Clifford, and daughters Karen and Penny and husband Robert, and Loretta and Elizabeth and husband Tom. There are lots of good memories, of watching scary movies on the Sci-Fi station. There was that sense of humor that, to my understanding, at times was boundless (laughs). You never knew where it was going. And there was the “Bozzo” image that sticks in your mind. The trips to the family reunions during the summer in the Chevy station wagon, a loving grandpa to twelve grandchildren and Grandpa T. to seventeen great grandchildren. The scooter rides. And his dog Tiny Toy. Watching gangster movies, and sleeping over, and rummaging, just having a good time.
And not to be forgotten this morning are those 42 years that he and Donna were married. Her seemingly untimely death in 1992 ended a lot of travel plans with that barely two-year-old van that had hopes and plans written all over it. The van that remains, even though it doesn’t run. But he couldn’t have it be sold, because he couldn’t part with it.
Harold was in the Naval Reserves for five years and will be honored for that service when we are at Sunset Ridge. He was employed for over forty years at American Motors, and in recent years again, just, I guess I need to say it again, he loved that Sci-Fi channel. All the mysterious and scary movies that were on there. The picture boards””I always like looking at picture boards. Picture boards full of those pictures that, for you, bring back all those memories, all those good times, all those hopeful times, all that time that you lived with him, and he knew and loved you.
The bulletin cover today reflects the hope of his fate. In my Father’s house there are many dwellings, many rooms that Jesus has gone ahead to prepare. One for Harold, and one that Donna’s already taken care of. He’s gone home to be with his gracious and loving God, to be with Donna and the rest of those who have gone before him.
These words seem appropriate today:
God looked around his garden and he found an empty place.
He then looked down upon this earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arm around you and lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful, he always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering; he knew that you were in pain,
He knew that you would never get well ever again.
He saw that the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb.
So he closed your weary eyelids and whispered “peace be thine”.
It broke our hearts to lose you, but you didn’t go alone,
For part of us went with you, the day God called you home.
The joy of our fate is that when this life in the world can no longer be, God has another place prepared for us. A place where peace passes all understanding and living is always full and we share that hope not only for those who have died, but for us, as we continue into our lives. And I pray today that each one of us may live each day in the gracious compassion of God’s love. I pray that we might live with the assurance that God gives us, knowing that our lives will be filled with faith, and fill with the trust in God that is necessary, no matter what comes our way, no matter what we need, believing and knowing that God will be with us. This great gift of life. May you go forth today as people ready to live and ready to die knowing that either way, you are the Lord’s. Amen.
{Hymn: How Great Thou Art}
Go in peace. And may the peace, and the love, and the blessing of God Almighty, go with you, and be with you, now and always. In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
JimTrottier.com 