1,132 Posts

There is that new Sandra Bullock movie that starts today. She is so cute and talented that I love to watch her perform. It might be nice to see her not be a screwball in a movie. I read in the paper today that she has adopted a High School in Louisiana and is helping them recover from the damages of the hurricane. I guess 10 feet of water will tend to make it hard to come back without help.

Many of the daily bloggers I read have stopped updating and are now using Face Book. I find Face Book kind of like going to an ice cream store and limiting myself to a couple of those little plastic spoons for a taste. heck, some of the bloggers have not updated in so long that I have even stopped going by their site to peek in.

Yesterday I waxed into the teacher mode and absolutely no one commented. I hope that there were lurkers out there that at least read some of it. It would be a shame if I threw a party and no one came. I do understand that many of you feel this is the beginning of the busy time of the year and you just don't have time.

The Foreign Exchange Students at the local university are going to hold their annual performance tonight. I noticed the president of that group is from Bahm Me Thout in Vietnam. Spent a couple of months there in 1968. We were camped out on the edge of the airport and spent most of our time sending helicopter loads of ammo to our forward base.

Round two of my new found allergy to cotton seed oil is Church's Chicken. It seems that their Honey Butter topping on their biscuits has Cotton Seed Oil listed as the second ingredient. All this time I thought it was the spicy coating or the jalapeno I would eat. Crap oh dear, I am now not able to eat biscuits on the road. I also found it listed on the ingredients of Laffy Taffee. No major loss there but i did eat a small box of it last night after the Church's biscuit. My mouth feels like someone brushed my lips with a wire brush. I guess i need to find out who else uses Cotton seed oil on their biscuits. I love gravy and biscuits and may have to forgo that luxury. Crap oh Dear.

It has finally cleared off here and it seems like the wind has decided to lay low for a while. Should be a great couple of days here in the heartland. Just getting outside will be a reprieve.
Have a great day and an even better weekend. My thoughts will be with Janet and Mandy as they travel to Birmingham to have Thanksgiving with the Kirklands.

MUD

Management Styles

Formal Planner from Franklin Covey

Recently, a friend on Face book said she was going to start using a system to keep track of all the things she has to do. This morning, the paper had an article on how families manage money. Both are worth a look and a discussion.

If you purchase the Franklin Covey planner, the system advocated there is a start. In some ways it is a little more complicated than I advocate for a novice planner but at least it starts you off in the direction of looking at the big picture. Why plan for today if you aren't moving towards your life goals? The alignment of where you want to be in the long run with the goals of today helps reduce the dissonance in your life. I think that when your time is limited, at least understanding the priority of what you have to do is a real start. For me it was a matter of scheduling my must do and at least listing the things I should do and even down to the things I will do. I would take the daily calendar and put down any required meetings or events. I would block in the things I must do and should do and have the remaining list attached for times I had a moment.

One of the most important things I did each day was to set down at the end of the day and plan tomorrow. After the office would clear out, I would take the required 10 to 15 minutes and plan the next day. I would also scan the in-box for new assignments and hot items that turned up. With the e-mail coming alive in our business, I would also see if there were any priority tasks there. Folks, don't fly your in box moment to moment. It is like spending your time logged into Face book and waiting for someone to send you something. It will keep you busy but let you accomplish absolutely nothing worthwhile.

One job that I had was the Military Personnel Officer. The guy ahead of me was a control freak and wanted to see every piece of paper that went through the office. I literally found myself with a foot of paper each morning and I was spending time sending it out to the branch leaders. My secretary would have time to buff her nails and bother me with conversations about her life. I soon had a meeting with the section leaders and asked them why I was sorting their mail. "Because the other guy did it." I asked them why they didn't (or he didn't) feel they could do their job? They all agreed that they were perfectly capable of doing the day to day stuff and bringing me the problems that needed a Colonel's authority. We discussed that if it was a normal straight up, by the book issue, they all could say yes. If it was controversial and or might cause someone to say something I needed to be informed. If it was a "no" answer, I signed the letter. You can't imagine how the work flow settled out. I got back to the job of managing work flow and Leadership with the people doing the work.

In the paper the article about managing money they said there are three common ways couples manage. First there is the age old way in which one person sticks his head in the sand and lets the other person manage. If that person is a good manager, great. If not, this is one way to have big explosions from time too time instead of discussions. The second way is for the couple to divide the bills and each person takes responsibility for part of them and then they maintain a separate set of books with their money. So long as each person takes care of their part, this is somewhat OK. The final way is the simple work by committee that means that once a week or bi weekly, the couple talk about their goals, amount of money on hand and where they are having problems. One person can maintain the checkbook (works best for us) and the other person carries mostly cash.

No matter what way you manage your life and your money, I find that meetings, car trips and discussions after the check book is reconciled are times to discuss money. Start with the future and discuss where you plan to be in the real long term (20 years), long term(5-10 years) near term (3 years) and finish with where you are today. Focus on the process of achieving your goals and not on the failures. (This is a heck of a lot easier after you have some money saved)

What ever you do, remember to take some time to laugh and smile with the person you are with. We can all be replaced but at least make it for a darned good reason.

MUD

Goin' Rogue

What you see is what you get!

Yesterday I went to Forbes Field to recycle a couple of Computer Monitors from the early 1990's. They were a couple of big heavy suckers and I'm pretty sure that they had done their duty for long enough. The recycle center has changed their prices and it no longer is free to turn them in. It cost me $10.00 to "gift" them to the recycle center. I should have left them at the dump the last time I went. Oh well...

After turning in the old monitors, I thought about a really great young guy I worked with in the Guard. I had been told that he worked for the Fixed base Operator at Forbes Field. I decided to drive over there and pay him a visit. Walt is a great guy and always makes me smile. He automated the Officer Personnel section when he was my Officer Personnel manager. Under his guidance, we took the records to the State Conference and attempted to show the officers what was in their official record and to help them make it accurate. Under the old system, the officer would give information to the unit and they would mail it to the State. It may or may not always get to the right place and truly reflect the merits of the officers. Without a visit to Topeka, there was no way that a normal guy in the field could tell. I am sure that Walt made promotions for the Kansas Guard officers a lot better.

But to get back to the reason for the title. One controversy that has surfaced over Sarah Palin's book is perspective. Does anyone out there doubt that what I think about something is different than what you think. I know what I know and you know what you know and we may both be wrong. In our discussion, Walt and I both admitted to missing the latest Hall of Fame induction for the National guard Association. Walt said he missed going and really had planned to go because he wanted to see a long time friend. That friend is the reason I didn't go. Walt saw the guy as a mentor and said he learned a great deal from him. I described him as the south end of a north headed horse. I'm sure that reality is somewhere in between but where is that point.

I have a friend that wrote to me that he admires how open I am in my blog. I'm sure that at least one relative feels that I infringe on them with my openness and should be censored because I talk about them. They are probably both right in their own perspective. In fact, I am probably somewhere in between. I will promise you that there are a lot of situations that I think are funny but I don't put in here because it might offend others. By the same token, I don't sit down carefully and analyze each word to keep from offending. After 1,230+ blogs, I am sure that I have, if taken word for word, offended practically everyone.

That is my point. Just because you read what I write or what someone else writes and don't agree, try to remember that it is their perspective. Rational and reasonable is in the mind of the author. Writers write to share their feelings. Readers should try to let their feeling go and enjoy the writing. You don't have to have fished for a Sail Fish to Enjoy the Old man and the Sea.

Reading and comments are optional in my world. I enjoy knowing what you think but like Sarah, may not agree that what you saw or remembered is what I saw or read. Jes' Sayin'

Dennis aka MUD

Some of my Favorite Stories

Can You Spot the Wild Child in this Photo?

I have often wondered how kids in the same family could grow up so different. I am sure that I did a lot of stupid things in my life and survived with all my fingers and teeth. I have a cousin that grew up on a farm and seemed pretty normal in his life. He was clearing a feed chopper and lost some of his fingers. The good news was it was his trigger fingers and I'm sure that (and a Student Deferment) kept him out of harms way in Vietnam. I have another cousin that while impulsive was just only a little more "Wild Child" than I was. He managed to have more than a few teeth knocked out and some terrific scars from a traffic accident. Mother said that one of the two of us was bound to be in Prison some day. he is now a guard at a Prison. Mom didn't know how right she was going to be.

Barb, Erma, MUD & Curly in Arkansas (1974?)

My grandpa, Curly Fruits, said a lot of things to me over my lifetime but one that really stuck was the part about saving. He told me that if I would save 7% of my lifetime earnings I could retire early. He retired after 30 years with Shell Oil at the age of 50. Thanks to his advice (and day to day guidance from Barb) we did just that. I will be the first to admit that having a good paying job didn't hurt but Barb and I both saved the maximum we could far beyond the 7% Curly wished for. The only retirement money that has gone bust for us was the 14 shares of GM stock that I (like a fool) held on to.

MOM AND DAD

I think that women are placed here on earth to make men fall in love. From you mother through your sisters and on to your wife, you will fall in love and that love will just put a smile on your face. My dad, in one of his more lucid moments told me that one shortcoming he had in life was that he had room for only one woman at a time in his heart. He told me that the moment you begin to bring another woman into that place, you will lose your love for the one you have there. I have had a lot of women in my mind but only a few, one at a time, in my heart. The one wise thing I heard Jimma Carter say was that he had lusted after a lot of women but only in his mind. Kinda like buying lottery tickets. You wonder what your life would be like but don't have to change your telephone number.

Once upon a time, I had a date with a cousin of my then brother-in-law. She was a great looking girl with legs that went on and on. You know, from her butt to the ground. I was trying to get her to date my good friend, the "Great White Father in the great green Chevy" aka "bonehead" for some of his later stunts. As we cruised Douglas Avenue one Saturday night, we were turning around in the East Side turn-around called Sandy's and across the parking lot came a flying object. Plop, it hit and stuck on my windshield. It turned out to be a common bathroom toilet plunger thrown by none other than my best friend "Great White Father..." Needless to say, I could not convince her to go out with him. I kept telling her to not judge a book by his cover but his cover was a plunger stuck on my windshield. He went on to be a highly decorated Vietnam vet and a school teacher.

There are times when I wonder how I managed to survive in the Military. On several occasions I was told that I was unprofessional as a Lieutenant. Mostly by people that I told were wrong, when they were, but I told them to their face. At least once as a Captain my Battalion Commander had to drag me away from the general when he said something personal and stupid about one of my men in an officer's call. At least I waited until we were outside and with only the three of us present.

When I went to get a Top Secret clearance, the Defense Investigative Agency sent out a fellow that had spent a couple of weeks gathering information about me. He had asked for a record of my Driving, my Credit Score (report) and had visited with several of my friends and neighbors. he came in my office and looked me straight in the eye and said, "Are you really as dull and boring as this all says?" Yep-er, that's me... With a smile on my face.

MUD

Snowy Monday Morning

OH DEAR, A DEER!

To all of the pundits that say Global Warming, I offer the one finger salute that I hope they think means "We're Number One" with the wrong finger elevated. Sometime before dawn, it started sleeting and only because the ground was still above freezing didn't turn commuting into a mess. I use the garage on days like this as the front and back porch are too icy to get down. As if to add insult to injury, it turned to snow and while pretty, it (thank God) didn't stick.


The turn in the weather means that the woodpeckers line up to get to the suet block. There aren't any empty perches on the finch feeder and there is one bird after another in the sunflower feeder. The ground is covered with the hopefuls that just want a little snack as it is dropped from one of the feeders. Those pesky woodpeckers just chop the suet up as they dig out the little pieces of corn. The guys on the ground ain't too proud to pick up the little pieces. In a little while, the squirrels will show up looking for their share of the bounty here at Rabbit Run. So what if it costs $5 to !10 dollars a week to feed the masses. As much as I have been known to profess a dislike for bushy tailed rats, I have been known to spill a few sunflower seeds on the ground.


Yesterday Barb and I went to Lawrence for breakfast and a little shopping. There is a "World Market" shop there that has that Kookaburra licorice that I love so much. It ain't cheap, but man is it great, soft and chewy. While there, I generally pick up some Ginger Peach tea for Barb. On a large display was this big red tin of Ginger Snaps. I found a small package of the same kind and bought the cheaper one's. Man do those Ginger Snaps hit the spot with a hot cup of coffee. Barb says they taste pretty darned good with the Ginger Peach tea too. Makes me wish I had gone for the $9.99 can. Barb's probably happy that I didn't cause you can't eat just one. Oh yes I "CAN". (as in a whole can)


Rabbit Run sits just southeast from Topeka and we are in the transition zone between the forest and the short grass prairie. We have a lot of trees and some open spaces that once were farming ground. The first time we saw this place the field where our orchard and garden are was a wheat field. Down by the well was a hay meadow now overgrown with trees. Some of the trees are trash trees but there is a good planting of Oaks starting to grow their way across the meadow. Each year, Barb has planted one or two more trees in our orchard. I think she has finally given up on the idea that peaches can grow here. We have pretty good luck with apples and those Asian Pears.


Oh well, enough of this travelogue. I would normally say that I need to get on with more important endeavors but today may be a good day to stay inside with a good book.

This weekend I cooked a bunch of meat on the grill and barb put a couple of burgers to good use as planned overs. They made the base for a chili bean soup that had a wonderful smoky flavor. While at the world Market I found a bar of chipotle Dark chocolate and added a square of it to a bowl of the soup. I can imagine how good it would be in a lot of other dishes. I left it our of the entire pan of soup to let barb have the flavor of the soup. Wonderful snowy day meal with the addition of cinnamon rolls there at the end. Kind of wish I had a Pepsi but hey you can't have everything.

MUD

Advertisements on My Computer?

As I turned on my computer this morning, a normal looking computer pop up appeared on the screen to tell me that there are new colors available on my color pallet. I clicked on the box just to see what the heck a color pallet was and found that it was an advertisement for colored DVDs. I have all the right spy ware and the message on the bottom of my screen says Protected Mode: ON. Crap, I will run a scan again this morning to see where what has broken down. I hate pop up ads and one that looks like something my computer system generated is just too much.

While I am in the mood for a rant, I read an article about a couple living in Los Angeles in 380 square feet. Once upon a time, Barb and I lived in a trailer that was 8X38 feet from tongue to taillights. I'm pretty sure that the sidewalls were at least 4 inches thick so the real inside measurement was closer to 34.5 feet by 7 feet 4 inches. That is a little over 250 feet. At least in Los Angeles they can invite visitors to sleep in a tent in the yard. In Kansas that would have been possible only three or four months in each year.

Now, leap to modern day life here at Rabbit Run an you will find us with 3,000 square feet, a three car garage and storage space at one of my rental houses. Yes, we are up to about two cars per adult (2.5 to be exact) Four lawn mowers and a garden tractor. I started to work on the garage yesterday and realized that without a trip to the dump, I was doing little but moving things around. At least I could walk down some paths but I couldn't find most of the things I use on a normal day very quickly.

I started a system using buckets where I would put tools together by function. I started with a wood working bucket, an electrical bucket and a plumbing bucket. Now I find that I need a painting tote and some shelving to put all the electrical tools. Most of them come in those plastic cases but some defy me and once I have taken them out of the plastic box they don't seems to fit anymore. I won't even talk about nails, screws and fasteners located in about four different places. The good news in all of this is it will soon be too cool to work in the garage so it won't matter until spring. Crap.

Yes, we have the dreaded age old disease of not throwing things away. I am not sure when it really started but I can see that things start to accumulate in the storage areas and then the accumulation starts to migrate out into the living area. This disease deserves a double crap. I am almost past the point where we have everything we need and into that area where we have more than we can manage. I have seen the enemy and he is us.

It sure was fun last night to see the Jay Hawk round ballers play their first official game. The coach just kept a new bunch of kids on the floor and wore a pretty good team down and fouled out half of their starters. They showed up with only 10 players to start with so it was getting pretty tense there at the end to see if one of the assistant coaches would have to play. heck, KU could have loaned them a couple of guys that are going to red shirt and made it a little more even. It looked like the Harlem Globetrotters with all the dunks and pretty plays. There are still two players sitting out with injuries, two ineligible until second semester and three walk ones that didn't get into the show. last year the starters played a lot of minutes and this year it will be tough to stay in thew game. Throw the ball away or forget to play defense and you will find your butt on the bench. Way down the end of the bench. There are some freshmen sitting on the bench that should start for most teams.

Turned a little cool this morning and they are predicting moisture soon. It is cloudy right now so we'll see what it turns out to be.

MUD

Criminal Minds

Jay Leno, before the late night programs went belly up, had a segment where he would make fun of stupid criminals. I think it was some kind of a conspiracy that Jay moved to a one hour show at 9PM and Dave Letterman true nature exposed himself. The newest entry into the late night foray had Lisa Lampanelli on as a guest. In case you haven't been paying attention, she is the foul mouthed woman that has hosted those roasts on the comedy channel where Bleep us the most common word.

Now, back to the criminal mind and just how stupid it can be... Last night, a 52 year old Topeka man lowered himself headfirst into one of those big exhaust fan vents to try to break into a local business that was a restaurant but is now a smoke shop. Well, the well played but not thought out idea just led to that idiot being stuck upside down in the vent for three hours. The fire department had to come out and lift/pry/rope him out of that vent. Yes, he went to Jail after they treated his rope burns. I guess he wanted a pack of smokes. I can't imagine how dirty he got in that vent.

Yesterday I went to one of the local Quick Shops to get a bag of ice. When I walked up to the counter there was this cute young girl buying a pack of cigarettes. The shop owner did card her and she was just barely legal. She paid almost $5.00 for that 20 pack of cigarettes. I told her that 10 years from now she will wish she had stopped smoking today. It would be easy right now and later on, she will have to suffer. She smiled and went off with the pack in her hand. I guess being an old man with a Witty word just wasn't enough. I wonder what an investment of $20.00 a week would be worth by the time she is 60... No, she will be like a list of my friends that smoked and not live that long. I ran into a friend this week and he told me about a buddy that drank and smoked himself right into a heart attack and died a month back. Oh well...

MUD

Triscadecaphobia

For many people the fear of the number 13 is highlighted when it falls on a Friday. I for one am not one of those fear mongers and only share the name with you to let you see it in writing. There are other versions in the spelling where there is a couple of k(s) and an extra letter or two but in the end, who really cares? (Triskaidekaphobia)

I guess I didn't make myself completely clear when I mentioned we want to go to see all the Basketball Stadiums in the BIGXII. I also want to see the Jay Hawks play the team that owns the Stadium. I don't want to be at Texas when they play their Tune-Ups for the regular season. Tonight is the first game for the Hawks within the regular season. They played two D-II schools and it was fun but not pretty. Tonight will be the first official game and it will be fun to see if Bill Self plays the Freshmen all at the same time again. In the last game, he played the walk-on's near the end of the game. Everyone scored and all played.

Yesterday turned out to be a great day for grilling. I had some great steaks, some hamburger, some chicken and some brats. Now the trick will be to eat it all in a timely manner. Barb made a wonderful pie with a brown Betty topping. Barb would commend me for eating the Schmoe Girl's breakfast of pie.

I have been doing some interesting studying about what the Internet has been saying about the States. 50% of all the people live in 10 States. Other than California and Texas, none of those States are in the top half of the most livable states. I can't imagine how, other than the weather, that California made the list. They are broke and people are leaving there in droves. Their property values are so down that people can sell there and only buy a 23 bedroom mansion in Idaho. At one time you could go to Idaho and find some nice housing values. The last time we were there I saw a horrible little house on a bare lot sell for over $40,000.

Oh well, other than the wind, it appears to be a sunny nice day out there. I have a couple of garages to get in order so better get started.

MUD

Updates

The owner of the local franchise for McDonald's called me and was very concerned about the allergy incident. I assured her that I was a lot better and after finding out that there is cottonseed oil on the top of the biscuits am satisfied that I won't eat biscuits. She said that I could order an English muffin instead. It is amazing that of all the things in the world, only cotton seed oil seems to be an allergen for me.

Barb has contacted Nebraska and Texas to get tickets to a KU game there on their campus. She didn't have any luck with Iowa and Oklahoma State. My goal is to see the other stadiums in the BIG XII so I might have to find a time when they are playing someone not so near the top. So far Baylor has the nicest stadium with Texas Tech a close second. I love the atmosphere in Lawrence but hated our seats clear up in the corner and on a board. If three of the guys further down are big, they crowd the aisle. I don't have the $5,000 to get in the drawing for the hard plastic seats.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Barb kind of wants to stay home so we can have leftovers. When we go somewhere else, there is never a big old sack of left overs for "Planned Overs" If there is a better thing than left over turkey sandwiches, I haven't found it. Heck, I even make pancakes out of the left over potatoes. I know Barb loves apples and grapes so there is always apple salad left overs. (Is the plural like fists full of dollars? Lefts Over?)

I have the urge to grill today. I may make a run to Dillon's to pick up some hamburger and chicken. I may even slip in a package of Brats. It isn't summer here, but it is in the 50's in the daytime. Get out in the sun and it is wonderful.

Have a great week out there

MUD