Archive for July, 2009

Home prices up for 1st time in 3 years

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Index of 20 major cities rises on a monthly basis for the first time since July 2006, hinting that the worst of the declines may be over.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The value of U.S. homes grew on a monthly basis in May for the first time in nearly three years, according to 20-city index released Tuesday.

The month-over-month increase was 0.5%, according to the report from financial data company Standard & Poor’s and economists Case-Shiller. It was the first increase in the monthly index since July 2006.

On an annual basis, home prices in the 20 cities fell 17.1%, but it was the second straight month that the year-over-year decline lessened.

“This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee S&P, in a prepared statement.

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D.C. by Segway

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Our annual corporate summer outing on July 10 took us to downtown Washington, D.C. and City Segway Tours. Believe me, there’s no better way to see the sites of than riding one of these beauties. Although they look tough to ride, a ten minute practice makes you an expert. Great tour guides and totally neat experience. A really great way to spend three hours in D.C.
Stacey and ShannonIMG_0413
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Growing up in Calvert in the 1950's Part 5

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, Boy

It wasn’t long before I grew tired of my BB gun and longed for real bullets and shotgun pellets. After all, I was 14 and all my friends had their own guns. I started hunting squirrel, crows and rats (at the local dump, more on that in an upcoming post) using my Dad’s .22 rifle and 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun. The shotgun was a little heavy for squirrels but had decent range for the crows. The .22 was perfect for rat work.

My real fascination, however, was for the firearms used by my TV western heros like Cheyenne, the Rifleman and Wyatt Earp. They all packed Colt .45’s and Winchester lever-action Model 94’s. The crushing reality was that those weapons were a bit high-powered for adolescent use. Ruger Arms came to the rescue with a .22 version of the famous Colt pistol. It was aptly called the “Super Single Six”.

After working for a summer in my cousin’s laundry and drycleaning plant, I had enough money to buy the pistol and a Lawrence Gunslinger II holster (just like on TV). Like my BB gun, these items arrived in our mailbox.

So there I was, 14, biking around the backroads on my bike packing my own “almost Colt .45″ pistol.

Life was good.

Ruger Super Single Six pistol

Ruger Super Single Six pistol

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