House passes three veteran-related bills

[CornField]

The Iowa House unanimously approved three bills related to Iowa veterans last week. They include legislation to:

• ban protestors from 500 feet of a military funeral or memorial service, for an hour before and an hour afterward (HF 2132)
  
• offer lifetime combined hunting and fishing license or lifetime fishing license to disabled veterans for $5 (HF 2244)
  
• attempts to mainstream Iowa Dept. of Veterans Affairs identification of veterans and spouses in nursing homes (HF 2363)
  

[IA_Seth]

1. They all seem reasonable to me...

Perhaps protestors should be banned from ALL funerals in this fashion, but other than that I agree with all of the above.

[CornField]

2. I'm curious why the hunting/fishing licenses were limited

Why not offer the same to all veterans?

[IA_Seth]

3. I think its a monetary issue...

Limiting the license benefit to disabled veterans allows the state to collect its regular fees on able-bodied veterans to continue its good works to improving habitats for our wildlife, and cleaning up our waters for all citizens.

Besides, as an avid hunter/fisherman, I think our licenses/fees really are quite reasonable as they stand. If anything we could stand an increase, especially for non-resident fees.

[CornField]

4. I'm sure it is... just seems like a really bad 'sympathy' prize to me

Sure you lost your legs in Iraq, that doesn't mean you can't wheel yourself down the local fishin' hole, catch a load of cats so you can feed your family...

Then again, the way the feds have been reducing veterans benefits, this might be a good idea... might be the only way those folks are able to put food on their tables.

Seth, curiousity question, do you geocache?

[IA_Seth]

5. Geo-Caching

I don't have a GPS, so that would kind of make it hard...I tried using my psychic powers one time but I ended up finding a bee hive instead. Ha ha.

But seriously though, I have an interest in it and am actually looking to purchase a GPS before the end of the summer to help with my hunting/fishing/hiking adventures.

Are you involved? If you are, what's the best GPS for the money in your opinion? I posted an inquiry in the 'Outdoors' group here on DU about it.

[CornField]

6. There's an introduction event coming up

First, what led me to ask the question was knowing that you like the outdoors and your statement about keeping everything clean. CITO (cache in, trash out) is the cacher's mantra.

Now to the event...

It's being hosted by IGO (Iowa Geocachers Organization) at Kirkwood in Monticello on March 18, 9 a.m. to about noon. Cost is $15 per person.

Basic description: "IGO members will present the basics of GPS receivers and geocaching in a relaxed classroom setting. After a some explaination and Q&A, class will adjourn to the field where participants will have the opportunity to hunt several geocaches placed for the class. Experienced geocachers will be on hand to accompany new players on the hunt. 'Loaner' GPS units will be available for people without one of their own."

If you're interested you'll need to register online: http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?d=216&p=2607&t=2&&class_id=CGAC-020-JON01
or by phone: [phone]

------

I guess you could say that we're involved. LOL! We've been active members on geocaching.com since the spring of 2003 & are charter members in the Iowa group.

Here's our 'team' graphic:

I made our graphic and then put it on shrinky dinks. We drop one of those in each cache we visit. (And folks don't believe I'm talented... LOL!)

Our family has had some amazing adventures since we started caching & we visited so many places that we otherwise would not have known about. There was one last summer which was a multi-cache (a starting point, stops in between with clues, final destination) and it was linked to Iowa ghost stories and spooky locations. It was an absolute hoot.

GPS -- we have a Garmin and I highly recommend them. Ours has been dropped, went with us into creeks, fallen off our bikes (only to get smushed by our tires) and just keeps on going. Some models have a difficult time getting signal through a car windshield. We've never had that problem -- it tracked us perfectly through all types of weather and environmental condidtions when we drove to Seattle (lying on the dash & hanging from the rearview). The only thing I don't like about our unit is the lack of an external antenna port.

If you are just using it for hiking and outdoors, a black and white screen is probably preferable because the color screens are difficult to read in direct sunlight.

What you might want to do is check out: http://www.gpsinformation.net/

Or you can go to the original newgroup source of all this madness: news:sci.geo.satellite-nav

Oh, if you don't mind buying used electronics, you might want to keep an eye on some of the local pawn shops. Do your homework first as to what units you'd find acceptible and then keep your eyes open.

[IA_Seth]

7. Sweet.

Now THAT is the kind of info I was looking for...

Sounds like I know someone I can bother when I need info!

Thanks for the heads up and all the info, thats great.

[CornField]

8. LMAO!

Glad it was useful. Feel free to tap my shoulder anytime.

I was considering having you hook up with my husband for some of the more 'adventerous' trips, when I remembered why I no longer allow him to take our children on such trips. Imagine if you will... myself, hubby, three children and a dog headed off in the Jeep. As usual, I'm driving (because I'm better at it, even if he won't admit it) and he's navigating (because he loves those electronic gadgets). We are on the fourth and final destination to the cache. We know it is an old bridge and we know we just passed it on the main road. We see a older county-looking road ahead and turn left. All is good, right?

Fast-forward to a few minutes later. I'm still sitting and driving. Hubby is now standing on the console with his upper body through the moon roof. Why? Because he has led us into weeds which are taller than our vehicle. Even the dog was whimpering! Meanwhile, James has crawled out onto the roof of the Jeep and is yelling down through the opening, "Honey! Don't be a wuss. I can see just fine. Keep going."

Personally, I firmly believe "don't be a wuss" should be placed in the famous last-words category. LMAO!! Of course, it seemed like we drove forever like that. Finally we hit some old, broken up concrete and James decided I could stop and he'd walk out the rest of the way. Not 25 feet in front of us was a direct drop-off into a creek/river. We needed to be on the old abandoned bridge remant on the other side. You don't want to know what was said to James as I had to back out of the lovely weed world to the main road.

Next time I'll tell you about myself, the dog and my oldest daughter skidding down a cliff and into the river in the Matsell Bridge area. (thank goodness it was summer)

[Debi]

9. You can't leave us hanging like that!

These stories are better than the chapter-a-week stories they print in our local paper....MORE, I DEMAND MORE :bounce:

[CornField]

10. Just for you, Debi

I'll have to tell the other story sometime when I don't need to get to bed. For now, you'll have to be content with a different one (already typed out, so I can just cut and paste).

The Great Potty Scare

There is something about children and the noise of toilet flushing. None of my children have ever appreciated a good flush. Samantha, in particular, holds an acute aversion to this noise. I know that she must get outside the stall in public restrooms or she'll start screaming. I also know that, if left to her own devices, she'll never flush a toilet in her life.

Today we had to go out. I say "had to" because running around town with both little ones in tow is simply not something I do for fun. Actually I think most women could give up expensive gym memberships and better spend their money hauling my clan about town. Lifting? Who needs a weight bench? Running? Ever seen how quickly a child can move in a parking lot? Aerobic motion? That would be re-placing the dry goods on my grocer's shelves.

Anyway today we were at the grocery store. All we really needed were the idols of our household addictions - Diet Pepsi, yogurt, cheesie poofs, milk, and soy dogs. I'm not sure how the cart filled up. As we are on our way to the check-out lanes, Samantha announces she must go potty -- NOW! I'm hoping she can just hold it another 10 minutes until she gets home, but her manic 'pee-pee' dance moves suggest otherwise. We head to the other end of the store.

I enlist the help of a woman with a name tag to see if the bathroom is empty. It is, so I let Samantha go inside without me. Bubbs is sleeping in the cart (a miracle unto itself) and I'm not wanting to disturb his slumber if I don't have to. Ten minutes pass... fifteen... I'm beginning to wonder if she has drowned. Then I hear the scream. I honestly had no idea I could still move so quickly, much less maneuver a sleeping toddler from a shopping cart with one-hand accuracy.

Inside the bathroom, I discovered a crying Samantha. She sat, pants down, on the far side of the bathroom, glaring angrily at the toilet in the stall. Through the tears, I come to understand this toilet tried to "eat" her. It was one of those auto-flush jobbies and when Samantha leaned forward to wipe herself, it moved into action.

Well, I helped her up, dried her tears and cuddled the very upset Bubbster. We got back to the cart (my purse still untouched inside - second miracle of the day, if you're counting) and begin the walk back to the registers. Samantha is in front of me and walking as if she's a cowboy just off a four-day ride. As we move into the produce section, I ask Sam what's up with her behind. There, in the middle of Spirit only knows how many people and five different types of potatoes, my daughter proceeds to pulldown her pants and remove a large wad of toilet paper from her butt crack. Then, she hands it to me. I'm shocked and can feel all the eyes on me... I took the paper, shoved it in my jacket pocket and proceeded, head down, to the registers.

-----

Many moons ago, I wrote a "family" column for the local paper. I could bore you to tears with the exploits of my children. ;)