Bend in glow Aug 30th

Last night we had a nice lightning storm pass through.

It seems in our new house the lightning strikes are becoming more and more predictable where they are going to strike as the cloud masses pass around Awebrey Butte and pass over the river.
I have always wanted to shoot photos of the storms, but never been able to capture them.
I took some shots using a medium photo quality so I could get the most out of the moment. The next time I will raise the quality level and possibly try a different lens.

My pbase site has the photos, but here is a sample:

wasted water for kids

The newest craze to hit the market for kids... Aquapod.
You got to be kidding me...

So San Francisco is banning bottled water due to the amount of trash it makes, Aquafina is really just tap water...

Why are people still buying water in mini bottles for day to day use?
Ok, granted this is a good idea for events where you need to give water to lots of people and its hot.. But come on folks your wasting your money for day to day drinking of water!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the "Aquapod" site... this is totally focused on crushing the parents into submission.

The company I work for used to have water coolers in the building, those 5 gallon jugs were reused after being cleaned by our water supply folks. We all had either cups or big bottles at our desk. Then one day we came in and a new refrigerator was put in full of Aquafina water. We were told this was a HUGE money saver, and better for everyone. But then walking through the halls, you would see piles of unused bottles, half drunk, half filled with crap, laying around in everyones offices and cubes.. Then the bottles were seen in both the recycle bin and the trash bin... Where did we improve? I hope that changes soon.

So today we have a new shaped fancy bottle with a cool website for kids.
The idea is great to get them to stop drinking sodas, but don't go from being a diabetic nations to a wastful jerk.
If your kids want fancy bottles, buy them a few, reuse them.
Check out these options:
Metro (for people in LA)
cool Nalgene
Kids Nalgene

when buying a bottle here are the types of plastic to use and avoid the others that are known to be harmful:

Better Plastics

#1 polyethylene terephthalate

#2 High Density Polyethylene

#4 Low Density Polyethylene

#5 Polypropylene

Key info on recycling:

Plastics recycling is also known as "downcycling," because each reiteration of your original bottle is of lower quality than the next, until at last the landfill beckons.

Use glass or stainless steel.

Hmm one has to think, how many billions of plastic soda bottles there are out there.....

Just when you think its safe to open your windows

Bend has sharks, well contractors.. same thing.

I have to remind myself that when we bought our house we knew the 2 empty lots across the street would end up getting built on. Well, 5 months later it happened.
Not that I am bummed. I prefer a "finished" neighborhood.
They are building fast... even working until 9pm the other week...but just when it was quiet for a week, I open the windows and bam bam bam... Hammers start swinging. I kinda think someone is sitting inside looking out the window waiting for a neighbor to open up theirs. Ok thats just a paranoid joke.

To top off the noise, the house behind us decided to make an add on, and they are doing a very tastesful job, but damn, I open the door to my deck mid day and its nail gun salutes all day. That one should end soon enough.

Bend is on Fire!

Well, yesterday Awbrey Butte was on fire and my shades were closed on my windows so I didn't even see it.
Turned out some guys were cutting rebar for another one of those big houses going up like grass on the hill.
They sparked it up and the garden hose just wasnt enough to stop it.
Here is some simple math....

+ =

Folks were rambling mentions of "too bad", rubbing their hands together thinking about what an effect of a burnt down butte would have on the cost of homes in the area.

On the housing price note, we noticed on our scan of houses for sale, there is a house on Fresca that just dropped its price to 380K, while adjacent homes are closer to 500k. Folks in the neighborhood might not be too happy.
Of course I noticed that there are homes in the 200K mark popping up again around here mostly in E. Bend, bringing it closer to prices from 3 years ago.
W. Bend should be following suit soon as folks can't carry the loans anymore.