Pt 2

Indigo Bunting at the feeder

Finch at the feeder

Do You Remember When (DYRW) Part 2

Tip Toe down memory lane with me as I recall the days of old when times were easy and life was simple.

My mother thought that waffles were a great Sunday supper. For some reason I thought they were for breakfast and it always seemed sort of out of place to eat waffles for supper. Perhaps even then I would have a flush of sugar rush followed by a real down period so they were not for me. Even today I try to eat some Bacon or ham when I eat pancakes or waffles. To tell the truth, I can’t remember when I had my last waffle. I am pretty sure even if I did have one, it wasn’t the toaster kind. Given free reign, I will eat ham and two over medium with hash browns and dry whole wheat toast.

As kids, we generally got a couple of pairs of shoes a year. Seems like at the start of school and sometime around Easter, would find us in the Shoe Store. I remember that one time we went to a store that had Buster Brown Shoes. You would put them on and go look at your feet in a machine that showed how your feet fit in those shoes. I’m pretty sure it was a fluoroscope and there is no telling how much radiation we were exposed to just to see how our feet fit in those shoes. I recall doing it a couple of times with different shoes and today I don’t have cancer of the feet.

I know that from the neighborhood we grew up in, we were at best, upper lower class or the cream of the crap. We never went hungry or without clothes but it was easy to notice the difference between the kids in Forest Hills and the Travel Air City kids. In fact the nick name of my neighborhood was changed to “Dogpatch” after the Al Capp cartoon city. We did have a real collection of Oakies and Arkies that came to Wichita during and right after WWII. There were no blacks in our neighborhood. They wouldn’t live in such a trashy place.

I can remember most of the cars we owned while I was a kid. It all started with the Kaiser dad bought right after WWII. I can remember that we wore that car out right down to the seat springs. We had to finally put blankets or the springs would hurt our little legs. Dad bought a Volvo and it was one of the first cars I drove (Legally). I did steal the Chrysler keys and drove it down the driveway. Dad had to know from the rubber on the driveway that I had laid rubber with that hemi powered beast. Dad bought a 56 Chevy, a Nova and later a series of new Volvo’s. One of my favorite stories was that Nova. Dad bought it from our neighbor when he stopped driving. Pete told Dad that he really likes those back-up lights, especially at night.

Back in the days when no all cars came from the factory with air conditioning, my Dad would buy and install an “under the dash” model. If you sat right in the front seat it would blow cool air on you. For some reason they didn’t hold the Freon well and Dad was always adding a can of Freon to make them cool well. That was of course back then no one gave a good crap about the effects of Freon on the Ozone layer. Most of my friends had a set of hoses so you could add Freon when needed. As I recall, it was cheap and you could buy it by the can t almost any store.
Do you remember seeing your first aluminum bat? I think it was a softball bat that we bought Dave when he was little. It really cracks me up to hear the crack of a ball hit by a bat being replaced by the “pink” of an aluminum bat.

I still consider myself the king of the BBQ grill. I can remember going to grandpa’s house and having chicken cooked on a grill that was a 30 gallon barrel cut in half and reinforced with pipe. I’m sure that one of the Oil Field workers would make them and one year one made it our way to Wichita from Western Kansas. Ours really didn’t last all that long. Seems like that grill rusted apart in short order. Today I have a couple of Weber grills and lots of hickory wood. I wouldn’t even think of using one of those dirty grills in the park.

There were two games back in the day that we wouldn’t get caught dead playing. Tennis was one and soccer was the other. I know that today a lot of kids play them both. Back then we played baseball, kick the can, hide and go seek and that was pretty much it. My sisters had a couple of those big clunky tennis rackets with the wood press to keep it straight. Seems like those darned cat gut strings just didn’t hold up to hitting rocks.

This seems like an appropriate place to talk technology. Barb's Dad was a TV repairman so she doesn't really remember when she got her first TV. I was either 7 or 8 when that first TV appeared in our lives. It was a Sear's Silvertone and Dad purchased the extended warranty from Sear's and got his money's worth. Seems like about once a year it needed a new Picture Tube and they kept that TV working long after most of the Black and White sets had been replaced by Color sets. I remember the night Dad brought the set home. He got up on the roof and was adjusting the antenna when the refrains of the Gillette theme came on and the announcer said, "The Friday Night Fights are on the Air." Dad bailed off the roof and we watched a fight that looked like it was held in a snow storm. The next day he managed to get channel 12 so we could clearly see it. The broadcast tower for channel 12 was nearer Hutchinson than Wichita and I really don't remember when KAKE and the CBS channel came to life. I do remember that that TV ran night and day if anyone was awake. Today I have over 100 channels and there are times when I have trouble finding something to watch.

Oh well on to part 3 later.

MUD

Do You Remember When (DYRW)?

This MUD with his first girlfriend, Lollie

Harvey's little sister

What events do you remember in your life that sparks vivid memories? Remember that the facts of the events are filtered through your perceptions and recalled from your memories so they might not match exactly the event as the world recalls them. This is part one of DYRW as seen by the Wichita Flash as he is now known as Mean Uncle Denny or MUD for short.

Yesterday I went to a car show and saw a torpedo shaped window air conditioner on the side window of a 55 Chevy. Somewhere back in the days prior to having a real air conditioner, there was an accessory that you could buy, fill with water and if, and only if, Mom kept jerking the lever to dip the media into the water it blew air that was a few degrees cooler than the outside air. It cooled with the principle of evaporation and didn't work if the humidity was high. I think Dad even put in some ice once and how we all laughed as when he went around a corner it peed that cold water on mom. That was back in the days of the 4X70 air conditioning or four windows rolled down and the speed limit was 70.

Dad bought a 55 Plymouth and called it a “Plemon”. He drove that stupid car for about three years until he found a 57 Chrysler on a used car lot. That Chrysler had a hemi engine and air conditioning. The transmission was controlled by a button arrangement by the left front of the dash and you pushed a button to select the gear. That car would get out on the road and gobble up the miles as smooth as you could want. The air conditioner was in the trunk and there was still room for a family full of suitcases. I remember that our family dog, Rex, loved to sit in the back window shelf and fart. That would be picked up by the air conditioner air intake and blown to the front of the car where Mom would shout, “Damned Dog” and roll down the window. I am pretty sure it was the dog, mostly.

Our family vacations were for the most part trips to Grandma and Grandpa Fruits house. It was really neat when they bought a cabin and some land in Arkansas. We would go down there and rough it for a couple of weeks in July each year. We would get to swim in the Buffalo River each afternoon and man do I ever love the memory of those Black Diamond Ozark watermelons dripping cold juice down our chin on a hot day. Instead of just going down the hill to the Little Buffalo River, we would drive over to Pruitt and swim there where highway 7 crossed over the bigger river. There was a nice sandy beach and a bluff to jump off of. Someone even carved steps up that bluff so you could walk up without the fear of falling. I can remember how hot those steps would be and “hotfooting” it up to jump off into that cool water. I remember that I learned to swim underwater before I learned to swim on top of the water. I would find the fresh water muscles and crush them with a rock to watch the perch come up to eat the meal I served. I remember the day when I got out a little deep and a great big catfish came to lunch. Scared the hell out of me.

There was one trip to Brownsville, TX to see Dad’s Uncle, Truman (?). I really don’t remember his name because all the boys went by their middle names so it doesn’t much matter what I called him. What I remember the most was the hot two day car ride on the way down and back. I have seen picture of us on the beach on the gulf of Mexico and I remember that Rick was in a diaper so he would have been a little over a year old. Somewhere in my memories there was a car trip where we saw a tornado revenged town and a flood. Can’t remember if it was on that trip but because I was only 6 or 7, I get it all thrown together. I fell off the counter at the highway Patrol (or sheriff’s office) right into the water and we were invited to spend the night with some strangers. The lady of the house gave me a pair of her son’s underwear to sleep in.

My dad had a run of bad health about the time I played Little League ball. I had to walk to my games in the early evening. I remember one evening I was a little late so I had to run across a field to get to the game. Just as I saw a big clump of grass, I decided to jump over it and at that same time a covey of quail came out of that cover. I remember hitting the ground on the other side and my legs had turned to rubber. All I could do was slide to a stop. I’ll bet my heart was beating its max rate and I had to squeeze to make sure I didn’t wet myself. I made it to the game on time and from then on, I always ran around that brush pile.

One summer I went up to Beech Aircraft’s lake, north of our house, to go fishing. The only thing I had for bait was a pocket full of raisins (lint and all). I baited a hook there by the dock where the perch were and sure enough those little perch hit those raisins like they were good. Well, at least they didn’t have any lint left on them after being dipped in the water. I cut one of those perch up and used him for bait. Pretty soon I was catching bigger fish and it was kind of like I worked myself up in size until I had some pretty nice fish. There was a guy there that I gave my fish to and I’m sure he told some tall tale when he got home. I sure did.

I remember that in grade school we would “Duck and Cover” in case of a nuclear explosion. We would duck under our desks and the guys would all whisper, “and kiss your ass good bye”. It was great stuff for 3rd graders. I remember that one year the school bussed us to either Whitewater or Clearwater (There is both near Wichita and at that age I didn’t have a clue where we went.) I do remember that one of the Mom’s showed up in her convertible and left the top down as we drove with all the other cars to our lunch site out of town. The other kids were all jealous of us until they saw how sunburned we were the next day.

The school I went to would have a day at the end of the year when we would all go roller skating at one of the rinks near us. We even went to Augusta, Kansas one year. It was always a hoot to see how clumsy everyone was at the beginning of the day and how good we were at the end of the day. For some reason the Beech Aircraft Employees club would have a roller-skating party fairly regularly and Dad or Mom would take us there to get us out of the house. I always knew how to skate and going in the circles was a hoot to me. I always hated when we would have to stop and do the “Hoochie Coochie”. You remember, put your right skate in , put your right skate out and then shake it all about”. Fall on your butt and laugh it all about….

Enough for part one. Next time.
MUD

Geography 101

If the geographic center of the contiguous United States is in Kansas, how come Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky calls themselves the Mid West? If you look at the United States, the East Coast is pretty clear. Illinois is along the Mississippi so it should be the west side of the East and Missouri is the east side of the Central US. I would say that Colorado and New Mexico are the east side of the Western US and the Midwest is somewhere in Western Colorado and Utah. For the record I will call Kansas the Heartland. I don't know why this causes me problems but it is like that little ditty that went, "I ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June or July. I had problems with my months because that dang "Shine on, Shine on Harvest Moon" song screwed with my mind. Don't get me started on the days of the months..... I was in my 50's before someone taught me to count the months on my knuckles and the knuckle months were 31 days. Why didn't my third grade teacher show us that instead of giving me a D because I was too damn busy to learn, "30 days has September, April and November...." Stupid, stupid, stupid. Teach me the easy way to remember and I'll remember that way, but just to cram facts at me is the hard way.

Barb and I just had that discussion about free speech that crops up from time to time. I am wary of good intentions to stop stupid speech or speech where the speaker is wrong. Having some organization in charge of making sure the "Fairness Doctrine" is the law of the land is not a good idea. I feel that moving towards that slippery slope will muzzle free speech. Yes, I understand that you can't holler "Fire" in a crowded theater and I understand that liable laws apply when a person is not in the public eye. It probably would be more prudent to say I disagree with the Government leaders than to say they are a heard of stupid cows. (Mostly because I think other than methane, cows probably don't do anything that deliberately hurts us and I love a good steak)

IMHO, or In My Humble Opinion, should be applied to any blog and electronic message. The problem is how do we ensure that Facts and opinions are duly noted? How do we make the print and electronic Media connote that fine line when they cross it? This discussion has been held for a long time. In fact read Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" or Orwell's "1984".

Oh well, Happy Mother's Day for all you mothers out there. Try to enjoy what you have and not focus only what you want. I buy lottery tickets to focus my wants on. When I win the lottery I will..... Hire a Lawyer to make sure I have as much free speech as I can afford.

MUD

TrySomething Different

On a trip to Wal*Mart, I was looking for a package of wild rice to make my grilled chicken/wild rice salad. On the rice aisle, they had "Lundberg Wild Blend" of wild rice and whole grain brown rice. It is wonderful as a change to potatoes or pasta with cooked chicken.

I cooked the chicken in a separate pan with a little oil, some soy sauce, salt & pepper. I cooked the wild rice blend with a little butter, about a teaspoon of chicken bouillon, and salt and pepper. The package of rice needs two cups of water for each cup of rice and the package holds two cups of rice. It takes a good 50 minutes to cook the wild rice so don't hurry to cook the chicken. In fact, I actually made the chicken and then put the chicken on top of the rice for the last 10 minutes to keep the chicken warm.

I served microwaved California blend vegetables that I under cook a little. I love it when my vegs have a little crunch left in them.

Good Eating.

MUD

In About a Week

Barb has finally given in to my wonder lust and agreed to travel to Europe (Spain) and down into Morocco. We will fly into Madrid and then on into Morocco where we will get a chance to visit with our friends Gerald and Julie. They are the parents of two cute and nice little girls that seem to like us. They are almost our Grand children but mostly because their parents are our friends too. I'm sure that I will have lots of strange pictures to post when we get back. I probably won't take the computer so I doubt that we will do much posting while we are gone.

The rain here in the Heartland has slowed down a little. We have had only about one inch of rain this week and is it ever green out there. I have places that need attention and the places I mowed early this week are pretty ragged and need it again. I'm pretty sure that we will return to a jungle and have to spend a couple of days on the mower.

In case you are wondering about the pictures on the post from yesterday, I really haven't gone completely around the bend, only my weird sense of humor leaks out now and then. Things are so crazy out there that one of my blog buddies talks about wearing aluminum foil to protect him from the crazy thoughts. Another guy wrote about duct tape so what better thing to combine than an aluminum foil hat held to my bike helmet with duct tape.

Better get on with the day. have a great weekend.

MUD

Newest Hat Styles

Living in Topeka where we had the State Hospital, Menningers, The VA Psych ward and more Psychiatrists, it is not unusual to see people wearing stupid things. The question of the day is? How do you protect yourself from the stupidity happening around you when you are riding your bike? Aluminum foil and Duct tape.

A really good fixture in this set up is the helmet comes with a mirror so you can see them when they are sneaking up on you from behind.

This is dedicated to two Dogs an his search for things to laugh at. I may not be crazy but I know where it lives.

MUD

Fair?

The question I have for today is Justice as it is carried out in today's world Fair?

Where should the trial of the US Soldier that is accused of killing an Iraqi family and raping a 14 year old girl be held. First option is in the US and not in a Military court as he is no longer a soldier. The second option is in the US in a Military Court (Recall him to Active Duty) and the last option is in a court in Iraq. There are Status of Forces Agreements that in most cases preclude the last option. He is currently being tried in a civilian court.
OK, if that is easy, here's a tough one. An Air Force truck driver in Japan is driving his Military Vehicle and doing his Military job and for some reason a persons steps or is pushed off the sidewalk in front of his truck. Where do you hold that trial? Military Court or Civilian court? No so easy this time... The correct answer is that what is the SOFA agreement with Japan now that we are not in a War Time. (I don't know the current agreement but I would say Military Court.

Take that same airman and now he is off duty and he goes to a local store and robs it. Where should he be tried?

I guess that as I have said in the past, Fair sometimes ain't fair. There are many of us that feel mercy should always prevail and those that feel justice should prevail. In many cases both can't and mostly don't. As Sully rightfully pointed out on a comment, "It depends on how the arguement about is, is decided as it is debated". Dang, I hate it when that happens.

MUD

Slippery Slope 1st Step

MG,

Read the first step here : http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1966

Then read about: In March and April of 2009, the DHS under Janet Napolitano, issued two very disturbing special reports on what the new administration considers to be the most dangerous terror threats to the Homeland. These reports were issued to local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/inquiry-into-controversial-dhs-report-sought-2009-05-06.html

MUD

What Has Happened to Free Speech?

As you know if you read this blog is that I support Free Speech. I have a special dislike for stupid speech but because it is protected, I support their right to say it. I am concerned that the current administration is moving to start down the slippery slope of not allowing Free Speech because it critical of what they are doing.

Hell yes, soldiers returning from the War are unhappy if they can't find work. I would think they would use their GI Bill money and go to school like a bunch of us Vietnam Vets did but hey, it is their life. To claim they are any more prone to do stupid things with their training than any other group of trained soldiers is just not fair. I'm sure there might be a Tim McVeigh every once in a while but that was an aberration not a rule.

The People that feel they have been Taxed Enough Already have the right to shout at everybody in Congress and no one party can thump their chest that they have tried to protect us from new taxes. It isn't a Republican effort, it isn't a conservative effort, it is a taxpayer effort to tell the congress that they are expressing their right to let the Government know they are pissed off that no one is acting like they give a damn about the guy that is paying the taxes.

Those guys standing on the border and yelling, "There goes another one." are trying to get the attention of our Government that we are being invaded and those invaders are bringing drugs, gangs and sending money home that should stay here in the US. I love my brown brothers, I just wish there weren't so many of them here illegally. You should see the smile on my face when I eat the food at the Fiesta here in Topeka. I know that a lot of their sales money is going to their schools and their kids will be better for it.

Is anyone else as tired of hearing about Edwards affair? He is a spoiled rich kid living in a 23,000 square foot house and anyone thinks he represents the values of the majority of us? Now the wife is saying that he was seduced and it is all the girl friends fault. Bull Shit lady, if he was any kind of a man he could tell the girl that he is married and walk away. I have had a friend that was a lady, but unlike a well known ex President, "I Didn't have sex with that woman." I believe that my wife deserves better from me. Just because I took my wedding vows in Las Vegas Nevada doesn't mean that I didn't mean them.

Oh well, going to go do some volunteer work today. I will spend a couple of hours talking to State employees about food and health related matters.

MUD

Enjoy this ride

http://www.lshs64.com/enjoytheride.html

Click the link for good ideas set to a nice piece of music.

Trust the Process?

It is my contention that somewhere about 90% of of the biggest hurdles to overcome in any business, government, board or community group is the simple words, “Trust the Process”. Somewhere the Masters of Business Administration instructors in our Universities listened to their Philosophy Brethren until we forgot the principle of leadership and policy and started to worship at the throne of process.

Process can be established, measured and studied to death but without a reason for it being the way it is, it will ring hollow in the end. In fact, I once saw a Total Quality Management program tank and everyone was still singing the “Trust the Process” mantra. Hell, they could measure performance of each and every little thing but there was never that policy link to what the hell we should have been doing. We sailed the good ship Process down through the organization without once having someone say this is why we are doing it this way. You could lie, cheat and steal so long as your performance measures were OK. That was an organization that had been based on the principle of Leadership developing policy and then enforcing that policy. The road to being successful is marked with success not performance indicators measured and reported.

I witnessed a call center bring in a staff of MBAs. They claimed to be ISO 2000 certified and started to measure everything. That was a call center and the most important thing should have been what our customer wanted/needed and what his customers wanted. The process was highlighted and followed to the letter. Right off the bat, we found out that collecting the monthly bills was not as important as getting new customers. They bled red until that whole program went into the toilet. It was founded on a great idea and with no leadership to look at how to tweak it into reality. They processed that bugger to death. The agents would get a call from a customer who was having a small problem and could not mention that the customer was three months behind on paying his bill. We had a good process to ask the customer if he could pay his bill using a check number or a credit card but our agents could not ask the customer to pay. In fact we could add services to his bill in spite of the fact they weren’t paying for what they already had. In the periods of down time our agents could have called one or two customers a day and asked them to pay their bill. Nope, didn't happen. Many customers were kept on the system inspite of bills that ofthe exceeded $1,000. It was a well known fact that if you could not get the service in Southern California, call our call center and without question they will sign you up and keep you on their active customer list forever. Instead of becoming the provider of a comprehensive communication program with great services, they became the provider of last resort until they had to shut down because of the losses. It was like someone said, “let’s see if we can lose 20 million dollars”. They should have said, “let’s make this process work and make money.”

Now and for the next four years, we have a President and a Political party that is processing the hell out of us. Not, “Why would we spend the money to stimulate the economy or how much do we need or where should we spend it.”. When the outgoing President said I think this is going to hurt but the banks and AIG need about 400 Billion to stay in business. The President trusted the process and Congress answered that we needed a Trillion dollars and then handed the cash over to the new President. (Did you read that in spite of Barry saying it wasn't going to happen AIG still gave our almost 200 Million dollars in bonuses anyway?) He fired the CEO of GM and now is telling GM to get ready to close Pontiac. He has let Chrysler go into Chapter 11 and married it to FIAT. Have you ever owned a FIAT? About one morning in five, I would pass one on the side of the road going to college. That poor guy drove it and it wasn't suited to drive on our highways. Let’s see, we authorized the Trillion dollars to keep people working and now we are closing how many plants and how many jobs will be lost?

Last year I had to pay when I filed my Income Taxes. I was getting ready to start paying quarterly additional payments and this week, I get a notice in the mail. The President has authorized a cut in the amount withheld and I will start getting more money to pay back. Who the hell is in charge up there? Right when I need to start withholding about $300 more a month, I get a $100 cut in the amount they are withholding. It is my fault and I have to write to have more withheld, or pay a penalty at the end of the year. Stupid, stupid, stupid…. This is process without Policy, and I am not sure they would recognize leadership if it bit them in the butt.

Right when we need to have faith in Congress and the President, we find ourselves about to nationalize a major portion of the Health Care System. They will automate the records and make decisions for Doctors and Health care providers on who will be authorized care and at what cost. This is the same system that people have been throwing stones at for the Social Security System and we want them now to be in charge of health care?

Instead of Leadership, we have mixed messages and leadership applied to areas that just don’t make sense. Jeez, it seems like someone should be able to say the following five things are the most important and work on them until they are fixed one at a time. We have Congress studying the College Post Season Bowl game process. How about fixing the job losses before there are more of us on the dole than working?

I will not Trust the Process any longer. I will shout that we need leadership and solid policy. I want someone to step up to the plate and be responsible or quit if he can’t make it work. Don't stand before the teleprompter and read, make sure that the people who write for you know what you stand for and have them articulate that. Leadership and Policy based on solid beliefs will fail occasionally, but people understand a good program worked hard. Following a stupid process without knowing what the expected end result should be is just that, Stupid. Surely there is someone out there that has been some branch of the Military that knows how to say, This is what I stand for, “Follow Me” and count cadence when they get out of step.

MUD

Guest Column, Support a Teacher

Listen Up, This woman speaks the truth

MUD has kindly agreed to let me sit in his chair and speak on an issue close to my heart today. I was a teacher for over 30 years and feel a strong connection to those who still ride herd over the kidlets out there in the classrooms across the USA. Teachers face some tremendous challenges these days and most work their tails off doing the best they can for their students. Just talked to a teacher who has a suicidal student. That is seriously hard. The faint of heart do not go into teaching or they most certainly don’t stay past the first year when they realize how tough it is.

Sometime MUD will tell you about the day he subbed in a high school physics in the am and kindergarten in the pm. Give him physics any day.Recently four teachers in our district were told their contracts would not be renewed because they weren’t doing a satisfactory job. They hadn’t received any unsats on their evaluations. Their students were meeting those dreaded state standards. I personally worked several years with one of these individuals. She is an outstanding teacher.So why would the district do such a stupid thing you ask??? The answer, of course, is MONEY. They can fire a second or even third year teacher and hire a cheaper first year teacher or even better just squash all the kidlets into the rest of the classrooms so everyone has 30 students instead of 23. Now I understand money shortages, but that is no reason to lie and tell teachers they aren’t doing the job when in fact they actually are. There is a policy that covers the need to eliminate jobs due to money but the administration chose not to follow it. Sadly for the district and the students, these teachers decided not to fight this battle so they will be teaching somewhere else next year.So the message I leave you with is---Go tell a teacher some where that you appreciate the tremendous job they are doing. You could even buy them a daisy or two to make them feel special. Have a good one.

MG

Note - I have fought in a war, dug ditches and commanded units but nothing was as tough as the job of teaching our kids. (Especially Kindergarten) MUD

Cinco de Mayo

see more dog and puppy pictures

I love it that they have the above pictures under Mexican Hats for those of us that can't remember Sombrero

If they don't want it pronounced May-o, why do they spell it that way? Shouldn't it be spelled Myo? Oh well, have it their way. Whatever way you spell it, try to eat some beans and a taco or two and have some fun today.

It has dried out enough to get the mowers out and do some whacking of the tall grass. I am not sure I would call it mowing because there is so much grass that it bogs down in the mower and really looks bad when you finish mowing. I did manage to get out and spend a few hours outside doing some other projects also. Managed to bait enough mouse traps to catch that pesky mouse that ate a hole in the cat food container. He was a tricky rascal and had licked the peanut butter off most of the traps but the last one got him smack in the head and it only takes once.

We are about two weeks from our trip to Europe and then to Africa. I love the way it sounds, only really we are flying to Spain and then on to Morocco the next day. We have some good friends in Morocco and can't wait to hear the giggle of their girls. They told us that we should bring some toilet paper. Is it a trick after my Cottonelle story? It isn't important, I probably won't remember it anyway.

Yesterday, Dave was mowing at his house and ran out of gas. he came down to borrow a can and I was not aware of his visit. He called and asked if he was really not to use the blue gas. I keep at least a gallon can full of gas/oil mixture for the chain saw and the weed whacker. At least he did know enough to ask. I can't imagine how much smoke the mower would make it it tried to run on the gas/oil like a chain saw. I'm sure it would at least start but I'm not sure how long it would run. Would cure the mosquito problems up there at his house.

Barb and I planted a row of wild flowers here at Rabbit Run and a patch at Dave's. Should be interesting to see what grows. Barb said the seeds were all last year's crop so they should be viable for the most part. I guess it is more a product of how many seeds don't get eaten by the field mice. This time of year I'll bet they are hungry with all the nesting and raising of families going on.

Better get on with the projects for the day. Will be a warm day with rain predicted for tonight.

Have a great one.

MUD

I cried as I watched

Monday, Monday, Ta Da, da da da duh!

The Mommas and the Papas song Monday, Monday always greets my mind as I sit down to the computer and figure our what the heck day it is. Here at Rabbit Run, the Sunday to Saturday days all seem a lot alike. Other than the days of the week title, (and a good song thrown in) time marches on. The difference here in the early spring and summer is the mowing. I spent about 6 hours riding in circles and didn't get it all finished. What should have been a quick three hours is a drudge because the speed is degraded by the depth of the grass. Even when I finish it looks like crap and needs trimmed up.

Oh well, Dave is going to get on the mower at is house today ad finish up there. I will probably spend a couple of hours here trimming and a little time there mowing under his cedar trees. I will probably also load up the sprayer and make sure those darned bag worms don't get a big foot hold again. They almost killed a couple of his trees before I got them killed.

We met one of the friends of our 'nother daughter Mel on Sunday. He lost almost 200 lbs and discovered a lump In his chest muscle. Had he not lost the weight the lump would have gone unnoticed and it might have killed him. It is kind of a bummer to get in good shape and find that he needs bi-weekly chemo for cancer. I guess some times good things happen and some time the bear gets you. We had a roast done in the crock pot with some carrots and potatoes. Good food and good times.

Somehow a very small rock caused me to turn an ankle the other day and now it is sore as heck. At the time it didn't seem like anything. Now it really hurts when I go up and down the stairs.

Quit complaining stupid and deal with it.

The Newspaper finally published Barb's editorial about the school board. I am hoping she will write me an article for tomorrow. We'll see.

MUD

Not My Cuppa'

Not My Cuppa' tea

Just this morning Barb said something about the 50 degree temperature outside was just not her Cup of Tea. I thought it was an interesting way to compare things so I thought a few positive things and negative things were in order.

My Cup of Tea:

• Coffee. Black hot and full of caffeine. Unless it is after noon and then it keeps me awake when I need a nap.
• A good Lawn mower. At least a 40 inch cut and electric start.
• A chat with a good friend. Oh for an hour or two with my friend Ken or Harvey. Both guys are the cure for, "Oh poor Me".
• A few minutes of watching the stupid young squirrels try to get into the feeders. We have a new Tube feeder full of peanuts and he will hang and swing to nibble off a little peanut. I'll bet he spends more time trying to get a free meal than if he were out really working hard to find nuts that are still edible. There is a set of second year squirrels and their mother that come to visit. I can tell that she is nursing a new set of babies but she still takes time out to scold the guys when they invade her space.
• Seeing Jenn at the Lake with her rowers. She never has enough time to talk but it is such a treat to hear her put on her First Sergeant's voice and bark orders. "OK you Juniors, go help get that Quad out of the water. You are in it next so hustle". I couldn't do it better.
• Helping a good friend do something good for the community. My Buddy, Joe, runs a Taco joint here in Topeka. El Gringo is one of my favorite places to eat. Yesterday the shopping Center had a special where you could get a free biscuit and gravy from 8 to 10 AM. I put on my El Gringo shirt and hat and helped for a couple of hours. Got to see more cute kids and put smiles on many faces. I'm sure it surprised them when as soon as the crowd slowed down I got a broom and swept the floor. I am as big a nut about clean places to eat as Joe is. For the record his taco plate with beans and rice is as good as it gets in Topeka. His hot sauce is just right for me. Not too hot and hot enough to let your tongue know it has been somewhere warm.
• Shrimp

Not My Cuppa

• Stupid angry people. While I enjoy a good rant in a blog, I hate it when stupid people rail at things they don't know a damn thing about. I really hate it when people say things that deep down no one believes. We have a group that carries signs that has all sorts of stupid sayings "God Hates......." Fill in the blank for their latest hate. Instead of a sign that says, "Do X and you will burn in hell" (quote some cite in the bible here). They put stick figures of a buddy bending another buddy over and parade the signs all over. Most of the time the signs are carried by kids that should not know what the hell the sign means.
• Hot Tea. I love a good cold tea on a hot day but hot tea is just not normally my drink of choice. Oh Sure, I'll order a pot of tea at the Chinese restaurant when Barb is along but I have been known to drink Iced Tea even on Zero Degree days. But hold the sugar even in iced tea. Carbonated soft drinks are kind of OK but , "Sweet tea?"
• Places that advertise one thing and deliver another. If you know that you only have a limited quantity of something, say so in your ad. When I rent a car on line, I fully expect you to deliver that car when I get there. Don't offer me a Mustang and give me a PT cruiser. Normally I try to rent the kind of car I want to drive to see what the different cars are. The last time I rented they had a "Whatever" choice for a couple of bucks cheaper. I got to choose between three different kinds of cars. OK, I drove that damn Mustang. (It really was a nice car)
• Putting off something that needs done because Today's Sunday. Why in the word would I wait to mow until tomorrow? Mondays and Sundays are a lot alike here at Rabbit Run.
• Mowing in 50 degree weather. Barb and I are alike in some things. Different but similar, No, mostly different but simpatico. Hum, we are growing old together. Lets leave it at that.
• Ditch Crickets. Pinch their tails and suck their heads. I love a crawfish boil if they use shrimp.

Have a great day out there.

MUD

Nother Day at Rabbit Run

The sky was dark and it rained often

But out in the grass the Porch Kitty saw something moving

Yes a 5 foot black snake out looking for a meal.

The snake was no threat to the cat but unless you were ready to see a long black snake, it can cause you to flinch. Barb has a rule, leave that snake alone Dennis he was here first. OK by me.

MUD

Why I hate Getting Old(er)

My biggest complaint about getting older is that I have more and more factoids stored in my brain and there are times I just can't remember why they are there. For example under the Category: Paper, Subcategory: Toilet Paper aka Toilet Tissue, I have the name Cottonelle stored. The problem is when I get to the store I can't remember if Cottonelle is that wimpy thin crap that doesn't hold up or if it is that stuff that gets the job done and lord forbid you have the runs as it wipes off a layer of skin with each use. Yes, somewhere in the middle is the quilted stuff that is just right but who can tell when the rolls are in a double wrap of plastic. Add to the fact that you just have to but the six pack of four rolls each to get the best price and bingo, you will have a years supply of tissue that you hate. No, I didn't say I hate Cottonelle, I said I couldn't remember if I hate it or not. Crap.

I haven't had a good record remembering everything I need to remember over the years and now as I have real overload of things just get jumbled and I find myself looking at a garage full of half used boxes of nails. I never seem to be able to find the right kind of nails until I have a new box and then bingo I have to move the half used box to get to the new box. Crap... Double Crap.

Another problem I have is that it is hard to remember to throw things away when they have really out used their usefulness or when I discover that the product is unable to perform to the expected standards. Yes, I once bought an electric drill because it was cheaper than the entire set of bits I needed to do a job. Yes, I found that drill, dead as a door nail the other day. I remember seeing the charger for the battery sometime this year but I can't remember where. I guess it really isn't important as the battery no longer would hold a charge and the battery costs more than the drill did. Not that I would remember what the hell the battery number was the next time I'm anywhere there are batteries. Triple Crap.

The other day I heard that someone said that old men need Viagra and if that didn't work they needed to take Ginkgo Buloba so you could remember what an erection was like. Hell, it took me three days to remember Ginkgo Baloba and I am never at a Health Food Store when I do. Quad Crap...

I am of the age where you went to school and came out with a degree and no student loans. We worked, saved and went into the service for the GI Bill. I am sad for people that have student loans bigger than their home loan. For them I say Crap five times. (I don't know the Latin word for five)

I am going to stop listening to talk radio. Our local station has started to carry Dave Ramsey and hell, I could give out his words of wisdom. Make more or spend less. Save some damn money and pay off your bills. I am also tired of hearing the same stupid questions. Uh, Dave, I owe $40,000 in student loans, $20,000 on credit cards and have a home mortgage of $250,000. My wife just got pregnant and I'm not sure I can make it on my salary of $10 per hour. Duh... Get a second job delivering Pizza, never see your wife and pay, pay, pay. then save, save, save.. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap......crap.

Oh well, I'm going out to the garage and see if I need to buy or throw away toilet paper or that damn drill. I must need some Viagra so I can remember. What was it I was going to do?

MUD

Green Soggy Doggie

For those of us in the Heartland, the lack of sunlight is causing stress. Add to that the abundance of rain and the growing grass and it is down right disheartening. I look out to the south and all I see is green taking over the countryside. There is just no way I could even get out and walk down the slippery hill let alone mow. Oh well, a good book is waiting to be finished and a better book is waiting for me to get started.

Did ya' listen to the Presidential News Conference last night. Barry ended with the complaint that there were a lot of important things waiting for him when he started. Did he think it was going to be easy? Did he think that it wasn't work? He listed all the things that are problems and then added the Health Care issue. I think he needs to understand that Health Care is his issue added to the list. That one issue the a majority of us think can wait. He is the one that dealt that hand and he can fold it for now. Don't get me started about Education for now.

What do you think is important? For me it is to get the Government Spending under Control. Don't spend another dime until we are sure that we know what it is being spent on and what it is for. There needs to be a Government Accounting Office audit on how the stimulus got from 400 Billion to 1 trillion. Those responsible for Pork in that bill needs to be identified and the pork eliminated.

Jobs are important? Lets see, the President has eliminated the CEO of GM, is about to eliminate Pontiac and has hinted that Saturn as the last in may be the next out. How many million of people losing their jobs is that? I guess all that talk about jobs was just that, all talk.

Speaking of stupid things, I got a notice in the mail that my retirement check is going to increase by about $100. How you say? By lowering the amount of withholding they are taking out each month. Instead of doing a cross check to see if I paid enough in, they just cut the withholding. Crap, I paid a penalty last year because I didn't have enough coming out and now they withhold less. Yes, I got a monthly raise but will have to pay that and more back come the next tax year. Crap, no one is in charge.

Do you know when Cabin feaver has set in? When you drive to Lawrence to see the new Wal*Mart and to get a piece of that new Kentucky Grilled Chicken. How do you know when your wife also suffers that malady? When she goes with you.

Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day in August.

MUD

Emergency Post

My son, Dave gave me this book the other day and I started to read it without a lot of attention to the content. I'm not sure what I thought it was about but I just discovered it is about how the Government hypothetically screws up when the Asian Bird Flu over runs the world (in 2019) . The book is fiction but it is right on point concerning what we need to do now that the Human/Swine Flu is starting to infect people.

If you can get a copy I highly recommend you do and read it. It talks about all the mistakes that can be made. It really shouts how our desire for freedoms can doom us if a real epidemic strikes. If the Military won't submit to mandatory innoculations, what chance do we have with the general population.

We have already had our first fatality from the swine flu and it is in 63 locations in the US. We even had two people in Kansas come down with it. Just today, the Emergency Operation Center for the Kansas Guard opened for 12 hour per day operations. Partly for the flooding because of our Monsoon season that has set in but also to monitor the spread and incidents of the Flu.

I don't want to spook you to do stupid things, but the book " The Last Centurion" by John Ringo sure asks a lot of tough questions about our readiness for an emergency today.

MUD

The Life and Times of MUD Part 1

From 1947

to 1965

I read a story today about a person's adventures and what shaped them into what they are. I decided to try to capture some of the life transforming moments and share them with you. It is not a guide, but a travelogue. There is absolutely no guarantee that if you do what I did you will get what I got. (or so you should hope)

My earliest times are marked by the friends I had. The first and most favorite was Harvey. He was a year older and a grade ahead early on but he and I both had older sisters and we bonded to play together and still have contact. He is a couple of states away but with e-mail who knows where anyone is. In about the fourth of fifth grade Harvey broke his collar bone and missed a lot of school. That caused him to be kept in my grade the next year. Only lately has he admitted that it caused him some hard feelings to have his classmates go on without him. I thought it was cool to have him in some of my classes. I could go on and name several more but the longest and best friend tops the friends list. For the record, Ron, Eugene, Dennis L and who could forget the effect of Danny Rex on the kid from 544 Byrd Street.

My fourth grade teacher was the wife of my High School Assistant Principal. Mrs Moore shared my strange reading habit and encouraged her me to stick my head in a book and keep it there as much as possible. Perhaps it would be fair to say that she didn't prevent me from reading as much as I could. She tried everything to quell my adventurous nature but when she found that I could read and pass the tests she no longer had me sit in the front and in the hall or coat closet. At the end of the year, she told us that someone in the class was not going on to the fifth grade. Oh shit oh Dear, I was the first person in the family to flunk the fourth grade. Of course she was the only person not going on and it was a joke but you don't know how relieved I was to see those Ds on the card. I thought they meant D for Denny so I was happy.

What do you do with a child on a baseball team with attention deficit disorder? There is only one place that keeps the kid involved. Catcher! Either you pay attention of you get hit a lot. It didn't hurt that I could catch and throw out a runner going to second. No one stole third on my watch. Our pitcher Ken played third when he wasn't pitching and he just was glue on anything I threw his way. I alternated between catcher and first base over the years.

One of the problems today is that kids don't have the urge to ride bikes like we did. I swear that I probably wore out more old bikes going as far as I could. I remember one time we had gone so far that the hub on my bike got so hot it smoked. We dipped it in the water in a ditch and it smoked. I got it home but no amount of oil could unfreeze that sucker. Today I ride a recumbent bike where you sit down and look straight ahead. I have a rule that over 40, the seat on a man's bike must be larger than his prostate. If you ever have that region go numb once and you will never want it to happen again.

I think that kids today are too spoiled by being hauled to soccer, dance lessons, swim lessons and little league games. As a kid we would just start up the street with our bats and gloves until we had enough kids to play a game of baseball. In fact, there would often be more than enough and the outfield would be full of the little guys. It took a lot of leadership to conduct those games without fights and I'm sure that dealing with the mob mentality prepared me for the Military.

A paper route took almost my entire 9th grade year. From the age of 13 to 14, I walked the streets of my neighborhood twice a day delivering the paper. That was also the year that I grew from 5 foot 4" to 6 foot 2". I wore out shoes like they were going out of style and changed entire wardrobes at least three times. I know I wore the soles off three pairs of tennis shoes and two pairs of boots. My favorite clothes at the time was the T-shirt and sweat shirt. Many days here in Kansas you would start out in the morning in a sweat shirt and coat and in the evening be in a t-shirt. I can't remember wearing anything but jeans as pants. When you are walking at least three miles and carrying a bundle of newspapers you didn't need long underwear to keep your legs warm. I'll bet I lost a hundred pairs of those brown jersey gloves that year. You just couldn't fold the paper with them on and you had to have them when you weren't.

Cars were a big part of my life. From the first Hillman that I shared with my sister to the Volvo I had the darnedest collection of old heaps. They were : The Hillman Californian, a Mini Minor, a 55 Chevy, a Renault Daphene (That one was Dad's idea not mine) and a Volvo. I think I spent as much time working on this line of heaps as I did driving them. I'm sure that had I spent all my money on one new(er) car I would have been better off. Oh well, I worked in a gas station so I had a lot of guidance.

For the record, I told one of my nieces that I would mention the Maytag dishwasher in this post. It washes dishes with the best of them but the model I have must have had a bad run of plastic parts. Almost every clip on the baskets have broken off and the final blow was the roller on the upper basket. The old model had a screw in a small wheel and when it broke, it took a $40 part to replace it because of a design change. I was glad I could fix it but a small wheel that costs a couple of dollars makes a lot of sense instead of replacing the entire basket lowering mechanism with the wheels riveted on. Oh well.

MUD

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO) Part 2

Wash your hand often and don't kiss them piggies

A While back, I did a post about some of the things I feel strongly about. I offer these comments to let you hear what this old retired conservative guy is thinking about some of the news of the day:

• I am not sure who started the absolute non agreement going on in Washington but they had better start showing some leadership or the people who get to vote will end it. Instead of just dismissing the TEA (Tax Enough Already) rallies, the Democrats need to try to understand that most of us understood the 400 Billion bail out but were dismayed when it went to 1 Trillion before it could get enough votes to pass. Now, I love smoked Pork Loin but that was a double dipping of pure pork fat and it doesn't take 20/20 vision to be worried about the effect on the future. Why don't they care, or at least act like they do.


• A few years back the Oldsmobile dealer here in Topeka had the rear ends of their cars facing Kansas Avenue. To put it mildly, they were so ugly that I stopped into the dealership and complained. The sales manager let me rant and then he said, how would I like to work there and look at the rear of those cars all day? The cars were facing out because customers were driving into the lot and then driving on because the rear ends of the Oldsmobiles were so ugly. Needless to say, Oldsmobile as a brand closed shortly thereafter. This is the same feeling that I now have when I look at the Buick line. So, what line is GM being told to close? Pontiac. We are going to lose the line that produced the GTO, the Firebird and the Bonneville. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30438302/displaymode/1247/ Click here for the Pontiac story and pictures.
• Can you name any of the cars in the Buick line? What the heck is a LeSalle anyway? Where does common sense keep the GMC line open when it it is just a duplication of the Chevrolet Truck line?


• What does it say about our automobiles when a new PT Cruiser sells for $20,000 + and a two year old Cruiser is $12,000? A new Mini Cooper sells for the same $20,000 and two years old sells for $18,000. Guess who won't probably ever drive a new car again? (Unless I win the lottery)


• The average household Credit Card Debt in 2006 was just short of $10,000. That was an article today in the headlines of my home page. How come the Internet news site is using two year old data to make a point? Because the debt per household has fallen to just over $8,000. Sounds like someone was using bad data to support a worse idea. Instead of celebrating that the average debt has fallen almost 20% they just used old data. And they wonder why people don't believe in the media anymore.


• As far as I am concerned the electronic system has almost eliminated the check as a payment method. In fact a lot of the people we send snail mail checks send the bank an acknowledgement and not the check. The bank charges us if we really want our paper check copies back. Now if they could come up with a system that replaces Visa's name on my debit card. I don't want people to think that I have to use my credit card to buy things at Wal*Mart. If you want an insult, try writing a check at Wal*Mart. They think so little of your check that as soon as it goes through their machine they hand you back the paper. They don't want to even have their lowest paid workers handle the checks.

The weather her is typical spring in Kansas. The rain is scheduled to roll in all week and the rivers are bank full. By August there will be one inch cracks in the ground and we will wish some of that rain had waited. The only part of the rain that bothers me now is that it is too wet to mow and I need to get out soon.

MUD

Wet Stormy Weather

We watched the clouds a lot Saturday and Sunday

Larry was in Topeka this weekend

For those of us in the Heartland, it is fairly normal to spend at least one day in the spring watching the local channel and having them break away from the programming to show us the latest weather radar. Two days in a row we have watched big red globs lining up with the Kansas Turnpike somewhere down in Oklahoma and travel north like a freight train of wet windy weather. For the most part when they were loaded with winds going two directions (SPINNING) went either East of us or West. After having a tornado throw us out of our home in 1983, we are always a little more unsettled in bad weather. Saturday night I probably only got 5 or 6 hours sleep. I made up for it last night by sleeping at least 10, with a nap thrown in during the day.

Yesterday evening I just got tired of sitting on the couch and made a pie. This time I used a combination of sour cherries, blueberries and cranberries all from one package. The cherries didn't rehydrate as well as I would have liked but it was darned good pie. I did make a mistake and didn't wet down the cornstarch to melt it when I added it to the juice to thicken the pie. I had to strain out the lumps and clumps and add the cornstarch again. It worked out OK but it wasn't attractive in the sauce pan. Yes, I know there was a top crust on the pie and you couldn't tell in the finished product. One of these days I am going to try to do an apple pie with a crust from scratch.

Have you taken advantage of the pork loin roast prices lately? They vary from just over a dollar a pound to just less than 2 dollars a pound. Talk about your great white meat at a cheap price. I have a rotisserie on the Weber grill and do double duty when I cook my pork loin. I can cook chicken or beef on one side of the grill, put all the coals and hickory on one side and hang the loin right down the middle. One of these days I am going to find a way to keep the temp down about 200 degrees and do a long smoky stint for one of the loins. Right now I can get the temp down to 350 to 400 degrees and about 2 hours makes it done by temperature. There isn't many meats much better or versatile than a pork loin. With a good marinade and a stint over hickory smoke there isn't much better to cook with. I have had the loins cut into 3/4 inch slices with brown gravy, a wonderful sandwich on a hoagie bun and small pieces in pinto beans. There is enough left to put with one of those steam in bags of stir fry vegetables for one more meal. Heck, the night we had the medallions in brown gravy, the kids took home at least one meal of the loin and potatoes. That makes the cost of the meat to about 1 dollar for each person/meal served.

Yea, I heard the first newscaster call it the Human/swine flu virus. So it isn't all the pigs fault. Especially those poor Mexican pigs. If you kiss or shake hands with a pig, wash your hands a lot. If you feel sick, stay home and nurse yourself. Don't drag the flu to work and make others sick.

Over the weekend, Larry the Cable Guy came to Topeka. He filled the house at our Performing Arts Center. I did the numbers and saw there is just no way they could have paid him his $250,000 per night. With the max number of seats at 2500 and the tickets about $40 and two shows the max box office is about $200,000.00. Poor Larry he had to do two shows and I'm sure that it worked him hard to make about $75,000 and hour. According to the newspaper Larry and I both poke fun of Hillary and ALGORE. Most of my quotes can be printed in polite company and neither of his could.

Oh well, enough ramble, have a great day, week, year out there (Pick one) I will.

MUD

I Believe

Today I turned on the Sunday morning program of NPR to hear what the other side is saying about life. One of the topics is the final run of the "I Believe" segment. Almost 300 people have written what they believe strongly and that phase of the NPR broadcasts is finally closing. I truly think it is good for people to write what they believe and feel strongly about. A lot of you read this blog and know what I write and I hope that from that you can determine what I believe. Here are a few again:

• I believe in Free Speech. It isn't free speech if you can just holler "shut the fuck up" and have people go away. You don't truly want free speech unless you are willing to let the worst kind of people you know say the worst kind of things. You don't have to agree, you have to allow them to say it. Yes, I know I have written that stupid speech should be outlawed. You know what I mean. We have all heard things that just are fundamentally so stupid that deep down not even Rush Limbaugh could believe it. (Note, he will often say it but I don't think he believes everything he says)


• I believe that Liberals are for the most part as concerned about out liberties as conservatives. In my humble opinion, they feel that the role of Government is to pass laws to guarantee the rights of people. I feel that we already have too damn many laws and they often, while good intentioned, make it difficult for the majority. Perhaps life has been too easy for me and that has shaded my thinking but hell, I started out poor and worked darned hard to get here. Perhaps Barb worked hard to get me here but let's not split hairs.


• The only grass in my life is the kind that needs mowed. I plug my radio in and wear ear muffs to listen and get out there and mow. Barb thinks it is stupid to mow grass but she will sit and read a book for hours. To me they are a related activity and I think there is little better than the smell of freshly mowed grass and it is pretty.


• I think the editors of radio programs and newspapers owe it to their employees to tell them to think about what they write and say. For example just this morning it was reported that our Secretary of State went to Beirut to tell them that they need to bar outside influences in their upcoming elections. Isn't her telling them that outside involvement? Isn't reporting that information a part of what is wrong? If the current administration think we need to play nicer with the world, why are we telling the Lebanese what to do? Don't they have enough problems of their own that we need to export our thoughts to them? I think the reporter should have said that Hillary is there to consult with them about their upcoming elections.


• Isn't calling the latest round of the flu the "Swine Flu" kind of hard on the pigs? Isn't it enough that we use them for breakfast food and ham enough? Stay away from the pigs, you'll catch that flu and die. Especially those damned Mexican pigs. Everyone knows that south of the border no one can drink the water.

Oh hell, if all I am going to do is babble on, I might as well shut this train down. More from the station of IMHO in Tecumseh, By God, Kansas. And don't you forget it.

MUD

Greener Saturday

The warmer it gets, the more the world turns green here at Rabbit Run. In fact, I have already mowed a little and had my renter call that the air conditioner doesn't cool enough. I'm sure that I will continue to mow and the service guy will be there next Wednesday and put some coolant in the line. Not sure why it leaks but it does.
Some time in the future I am going to replace the furnace and air conditioner at that house but not today.

Today I am going to the Library and talk to the kids about food. Specifically we will make some trail mix for them and show them how much better the homemade type is. I am going to get a bag of chips and trail mix on the way there as an example. I don't think parents know just how much fat and salt there is in most of what the kids snack on. The kids don't care but it is a chance to meet and greet them with a little snack size baggy of Cheerios and pretzels. Throw in a scoop of dried cranberries and they all smile. (Did I mention a few pretzels?)

Barb's car is at 109,000 miles and still going strong. I thought that for sure it would get to Tulsa and have to limp home. Seems like a good run on the highway just makes it stronger. Probably will have to put a new set of tires on it if we are going to road trip it this summer. How many times this week has the phone at your house rang and there is a recording from someone telling you your warranty is about to expire and they want to sell you insurance to keep your car running? I have to tell you that the warranty on the 96 Buick expired over 50,000 miles ago and there is just no way that I'm going to join in some scam to ensure that it is on its way out. This is one time that insure or ensure both fit.

Better get my act together and go get ready for the fun and adventure with the kids at the Library.

MUD

Quick Trip to Skiatook

First thing Mom said to me was, "Sorry your razor broke"


This is my brother Rick and Mom

Does this look like $200 to you?

For some reason this sign just seemed strange to Barb. Hay Capitol of the world?

Yesterday Barb and I made a quick trip to Skiatook, OK to see my mother on her birthday. She turned 87 and we laughed at our old jokes. Barb picked out a card that played the song Tequila and as soon as the card started playing the cat ran out of the room as hard as she could and didn't come back while we were there.

It was in the high 80's there and feels like it is in the mid 80's here today. We made a stop at Arnold's Greenhouse (By Burlington, KS) and barb bought another car trunk full of green things to plant. I guess that's what Master gardeners do, Plant.

After four hours in the car and an hour in a green house, I feel a nap coming on. Have a great day out there.

MUD

Happy Earth Day

On the Farm Tour last year, we ended the day at a Bison Farm. No, not a buffalo as it is commonly called but a Bison ranch. At one time, the summer was marked by having hundreds of thousands of these creatures coming here each spring and an explorer once said that you could have crossed miles of the prairie by walking on their backs. The Republican river in north central Kansas would turn brown with bison crap after the heard crossed that area. The legend is that the Indians called it the shit river because of that.

Today I am going to the Library at 3 PM and working with the County people to show kids what a healthy snack looks like. We are going to measure the weight of grapes and mix some trail mix. Barb is going to Tecumseh South Elementary and planting the butterfly garden. Kids in several grades have been growing the plants from seeds and hopefully when they come back in the fall it will attract the Monarch butterflies as they head south.

Things here are getting green and we are slowly working to clean up the debris from dead plants as they overwintered. I had to take the chainsaw and cut up a downed tree in the front yard. Barb has the garden in good shape and will soon start planting the tender plants. Our cold frame is full of plants that are not quite ready to be transferred out to the garden. The weatherman is saying that at least a week out the weather will remain above the deep freezing weather that can kill plants. We'll see.

We have been in contact with our friends in Morocco and they have a great itinerary planned for our time there. We will fly in and out of Europe through Spain and travel by train, plane and bus to and from Morocco. I hope to have a lot of pictures for later viewing. Now if I can only find the 4 MB card and that extra set of batteries. I don't have any hope that my charger will work in Europe.

Have a great day out there and get out and do something green.

MUD

Am I turning Moderate?

These pictures have nothing to do with the content of this blog. Barb likes them and I love her so here they are.

As I age, I find more and more things that make me less uptight. No, I find fewer and fewer things that piss me off. I guess that age is beginning to temper the desire to fan the flames and shout at stupid people doing stupid things. I would encourage our government out there to show some common sense about the things we do. Just a few examples:

There was a revolution about taxation without representation. Now I think they need to worry about the revolution from Taxation with lousy representation. Our leaders need to show up with some understanding of what is going on out here in the real world. Those of us that are not unemployed understand that there is no unending pot of money and just because a few people want to live in Detroit is no reason to spend money like there is no tomorrow.

How come one of the leading banks got billions and the market goes all to hell when they put aside 14 billion to cover bad debts? Isn't that what the bail out was for? Who is in charge out there? I think our President needs to talk to us and build our faith in our Government before he tries to sell it to the rest of the world.

I heard about five minutes of Rush Yesterday and he was shouting about the fact that he doesn't talk to his enemies and neither should Obama. After 8 years of that, isn't it time to start trying to do something different? Just because we have a constitution, doesn't meant that we have to stick our feet in concrete and do just what we always did. Remember the old saying - Do what you did and you will get what you got. I am not saying that hopey change will solve all our problems but hey it might change a little if we talk about changing. After less than 4 months in office you can't expect it to be daylight at midnight. (Well, there are some parts of way up north that that happens but not here in the heartland)

I still recommend that the current congress slow down and answer the following questions. What is the biggest problem? What can be done to fix it? Can we afford to fix it? If so, fix that one and move on to the next problem. It is like they are hunting deer with a shotgun. Not with deer slugs, but bird shot. What the hell do they hit that they can fix? If 400 Billion was the solution to the banking problem why did that amount grow to one trillion? Turn the economy around and then talk about health care. We can't afford to fix it today.

Oh well, plant a garden folks, it may be a lean year out there.

MUD