Everything you ever wanted to know about windmills but didn’t know to ask is available in a museum in Lubbock, Texas, known as the American Wind Power Center.  Located on a series of lightly rolling hills, the center was once known as the National Windmill Project but changed its name in order to suggest a more expansive approach to the history of wind power.  The purpose of the museum is to display the history of the American Style Water Pumping Windmill as well as other exhibits related to generating wind electricity.  Open since June of 1998, the museum has displays of over ninety rare and unique windmills.  Some of the energy-producing devices, with a diameter of twenty-five feet, have been built over wells and tanks outside in groups or individually in the Linebery Windmill Park.  Aside from the windmills, the Center also contains a collection of models, drawings and photography in the Windmiller’s Art Gallery, alongside other windmill artifacts.  These include the Elmer and Melvyn Miller Windmill Weight Collection, a display area built to exhibit windmill weights.  In addition to these items, there’s an exhibit titled 80 John which examines the history of early Black Texas Ranchers.  If you’re looking for a gift shop specializing in windmill souvenirs, then take a look into the Windsmith museum store.

The main museum sits on a hilltop surrounded by a number of windmills of different shapes, colors and sizes.  Inside, you’ll find the ninety  rare windmills, in a twist of fate, now protected from the weather.  The artwork and cast iron figures in the gift shop are unlike anything you’ll find elsewhere, in the state of Texas and beyond.  There’s also an outdoor exhibit with a large, industrial-scaled wind turbine, generating energy which is measured by a panel inside the main building, so guests can see exactly what these machines do.  There’s a second wind turbine, dismantled, so that people can see the inside workings of these huge commercial turbines.

If you’re planning a trip to the Lubbock area, you’ll find a surprising number of family friendly museums and attractions, from the Buddy Holly Center to Joyland Amuseument Park to the Silent Wings Museum.  For a place to stay, click here.  Then start exploring the area.  The museum is open from Tuesday through Saturday, from ten in the morning to five in the afternoon the entire year.  It’s closed on Mondays.  And the rates are extremely reasonable: Five dollars per person, or ten dollars for a family of four.

I had the best date this past Valentine’s Day and my friends are entirely sick of hearing about it so I’ve decided to tell it here. I don’t really mean to brag or anything like that, if anything I think it fuels the romantic story line potential for young people today and is also just fun for me to relive while telling. Tony and have been together for about a year, but two months ago we had a horrible, and seemingly irreversible, argument, and while I really believed we were soul mates, if there is such a thing, I also thought that it was definitely over. So, just recently we began talking again and I was blown away but what he did on Valentine’s Day. And it’s not that one evening can make other things go away or you know, make everything okay, but that weekend really demonstrated the extent of his care, or at least some of it, and how thoughtful he really is. It was enough to make us put aside our differences for a moment and just enjoy each other’s company again. And that’s really all we needed to move past the animosity and understand we cared enough to work through things.

Wow, and after all that let me say that my Valentine’s Day actually began on Wednesday the 10th. Tony picked me up and told me to put a little extra food in the cat dish and bring an overnight bag. That’s all the information I had when we arrived at the airport and headed to a gate that was destined for Atlanta, Georgia. We unpacked our bags and refreshed in the hotel room before heading out for some surprise. I had told Tony that I was born in Atlanta and lived there until I was five years old and my grandmother died and parents moved us further east. My grandmother had been a huge basketball fan and all I have from her is an autographed basketball from the 1958 championship series. This is one of my prized possessions, though they were owned by St. Louis at the time, which Tony is well aware. He also knew that I had never been to a game and one of my dreams was to return to Atlanta and attend a Hawks game in person. And while a basketball game may not sound too romantic, when we pulled up to Philips Arena I couldn’t think of a more romantic gift he could ever give me.

Since the first merchants set up shop, people have been finding new and exciting ways to promote their goods and their services. From the days of a young lad in a big hat, standing on the street corner selling newspapers and shouting Come and get it, to Micheal Jackson singing about Pepsi-cola and people handing out fliers during the red light of city intersections, advertising is an important element in the success of business ventures.  If no one knows what the company has to offer, well then–no one knows, and the company goes under. From billboards to the television ads with Montel Williams , Lance Armstrong, or William Shatner endorsing their business, companies have been selling their wares for decades, and now there is a new option on that front, the incredible and all knowing World Wide Web. What online companies such as www.moneymutual.com are learning, is that the Internet is a great way to advertise. Many people today, do not go to the encyclopedia, to the news, to the phone book or even to the cook book. Everything can be found online, from what are the symptoms of an allergic reaction? to “where’s the best place to get my dog groomed?” Online advertising has taken over, and to be honest it is about time. A student film project called Disconnected took three college age students to a place and a time that they had only read about or seen in old movies. The time before the computer , the Internet, instant messaging, Twitter and text sending. They went for three weeks without using these modern conveniences. It is a hilarious look at the world of technological advancement and the ways in which there is just no way back. The students became incredibly frustrated when even checking out a book at the library, or filling out their time cards at work became an issue without the use of computers and without access to the Internet. Online advertising and online business is where it is at. The world can never go back to yesterday, and what is so exciting…is just where it may go tomorrow.

It isn’t that hard to find a good cup of coffee in California.  In Los Angeles, it’s rather ridiculously easy, because everyone is super-driven out here, and there’s not much time to sleep.  We depend on the bean to help us get through the days, and it is one of those things that makes life worth living.  There’s been a lot more education lately about coffee, and information available pretty widely about fair trade coffee.  Even the bigger chains have completely changed the way they do things so that they can at least position themselves toward serving fair trade, if they don’t already.

It’s a fantastic day when you can wake up in a hotel in Santa Monica, and head out to the beach with the one you love, stopping for a coffee along the way.  With places like the 18th Street Coffee House, there are lots of options here.  This place is particularly wonderful because of the atmosphere and ambience.  The wifi is a bit spotty, but that kind of makes it nice, because people sometimes get tempted into talking to other people.  This morning, we almost saw the beginning of a community starting here.

Someone there told us that Co-Opportunity is the local co-op (duh), and that’s where you can also buy free trade coffee for your house, and lots of other things as well.  There’s something about being in places like this, where there’s a genuine sensitivity and honest effort toward taking care of the planet.  It just feels so, so very California.  Maybe later on in the day, we’ll take in a yoga class, and then have dinner at an organic restaurant, where they serve side dishes with shredded carrot and ginger.  Or maybe, if we’re feeling more daring, we’ll have burgers and even take responsibility for it.

There are many things to do in the city of New York that do not cost and arm and a let.  Many reasonable priced hotels can be found by checking here, there are many smaller, and very charming restaurants to be found in the different neighborhoods, and for a night out one can simply spend time walking through the New York Public Library or walking through the streets of Little Italy.

During the day, nothing beats some time spent at the park, and in the city and each of the five boroughs, there is quite a selection of parks to be found, and investigated, because one thing is for certain, the history of the parks is written on the side walks and to be found in the buildings, the boathouses, the mansions and castles and the plethora of sculptures that are found in each one.

Many people of the city, visitors and New Yorkers alike, find it wonderful to spend time at the Conservatory Water in Central Park.  One of the many aspects of the parks that was designed by Frederick L. Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the water provides hours of enjoyment, as well as begin virtually surrounded by flowers and foliage.  This has been a popular meeting spot for many, many years.  During the summer months one will see a variety of battery powered boats, radio controlled boats and small sail boats on the water.

And for many years, this too has been the gathering place for the thousands of people who come each season to watch the hawks of Pale Male hatch and take their first flights from their tall apartment nests into the the trees of Central Park.  The area is steeped in family traditions and in city history, and to just take a rest on one of the benches that line the Conservatory Water, is to take in a bit of what it is that makes this one of the greatest cities in the world.

I, like so many other people in this great nation, also love the city of Los Angeles. I have typically taken annual trips there throughout my adult life. It’s just been a sort of common destination for getting away for a day or two and there is always something to do there. During our college days my best friend Amy and I would head to LA to see a show or exhibit or something about once a month. That didn’t last throughout our entire college days, I shouldn’t exaggerate, but it probably lasted for most of a year. It was just an automatic assumption that when we wanted to get away we would head to LA. Oh, sorry, that wasn’t an intentional rhyme.

Interestingly, I’ve been in communication with some old friends lately. Two friends of mine in particular have been going through some difficult life experiences and we have been reconnecting and talking about all of this and some old times. Both of these friends happen to live in Los Angeles and recently I’ve been thinking about driving out to see them. In the process I realized that I haven’t been to LA for at least four years and how interesting it is that times have changed. I used to go to LA to get away from it all and now I’m thinking about going because two close friends live there and I want to see them. I don’t know if that makes the kind of sense I want it to, it just seems interesting to me. Well, in addition I’m wanting to go to support them and help them through their current life circumstances so I guess that’s also a part of it for me. But one thing I will definitely do which is similar to the past is find one of the Los Angels hotels by a best beach. And of course I’ll shop on Melrose and stuff like that. But this time it’s like returning to instead of escaping to.

Malta is one of those splendid island paradises that seem to ask one to engage in the poetry of the place, in order to find and maintain one’s bearings.  It is a very small island, and has been inhabited since at least 4,000 b.c.  There are a few cultural influences at work here, and the main contributors are Italy and Northern Africa.  This makes for a place that’s a bit unlike anywhere else on the planet, but simultaneously has all the trappings of the perfect exotic hideaway.  With plenty of luxury hotels, Malta can offer a splendid paradise for any traveler.

There is plenty here to recommend it, for those who are looking for a little old world charm, along with all the modern conveniences.  It’s very much in touch with the fashions and the dances of the times, but there are also plenty of remnants to remind visitors that this is a place that has been fairly isolated at different points in its history.  There’s also the simple fact that life on an island is very different than on the mainland.  The sea plays a much larger part in the world view, and its presence is never far.  There are ancient forces at work here, and old cultural traditions as well, and one of these is related to cooking.

In many areas, and among many families, houses don’t all have ovens inside.  It is a practice that people will prepare the dishes for cooking, and then bring them all to a large communal wood-fired brick oven for the actual cooking.  This is because of the obvious dangers of having an oven in traditionally close quarters, along with the unbearable heat it can produce in the hot summers here.  It also has the effect of bringing people together.  In the old days, as now, women would meet at the oven, making it a place where gossip and news can be discussed, and important decisions made regarding the community.  At times, it’s a delight to watch the process by which things that seemed exotic simply make sense.

Mardi Gras is one of the great annual festival celebrations that takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana every year. The festival is based on a traditional European Carnival celebration that occurs before Lent each year. The term Mardi Gras is translated in French as Fat Tuesday and refers to the grand indulgence that takes place on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. In English the term is Shrove Tuesday and the Carnival celebration is something that is celebrated by many cultures and was extremely prominent in the Medieval and Renaissance time periods.

Traditionally Carnival is intended to celebrate unregulated consumption of food and alcoholic beverages. There were various performances and entertainments that were associated with the feast that was also intended to turn social rules, roles and expectations upside down. It was a time of great revelry and abandonment where everything was taken to extremes. These behaviors all came to an abrupt end during Lent, which was a period of solemnity and fasting. It was generally the only time out of the year that such extreme chaos, disorder and social status turn over was accepted and or allowed.

People from across the country travel to New Orleans every year to take part in the parades and events of Mardi Gras. For many people attendance at Mardi Gras is almost considered to be a rite of passage. It is the most significant Carnival celebration in the United States and people from across the nation fill the luxury New Orleans inns and hotels while it is taking place. Face and body painting as well as elaborate costumes are popular and great street and club music is heard throughout. Face mask and beads are popular attire. The French Quarter is one of the more famous areas associated with Marti Gras and a main point of parade beginnings.