Judging a Book by Its Cover

Many years back in my life, I lived in Ottawa, Kansas and served as the Training Officer for an Artillery Battalion.   Once in a while, mostly after a drill weekend and on a Monday I would go to the Country Kitchen for my usual.  Two eggs, over medium, hash browns and toast with coffee if you please.  That has been my go to breakfast for most of my life if I can get it.  One Monday morning, I was sitting there in my uniform eating breakfast and this guy with a beard asked me if I was in the local Guard unit.  I never passed up a chance to recruit even if this guy didn't look like the typical guy to join the Guard.   We talked and I asked him if he had been on Active Duty and he said he was a Aircraft Mechanic in the Marines.  The more we talked, the more interested in what we might do for him he became.  I talked him into stopping by the Armory and taking the aptitude test to see what the Army could match with his skills. 

Sure enough, he came over and after seeing the scores on his tests, it was plain that about anything we had he could do.  I hadn't seen scores that high in a long time.  I don't remember what he did initially but he served out the last of his 20 years in the guard.   Had I not looked past the beard and the dirty clothes, the Guard would have missed out on one of the best soldiers we ever enlisted.  Clearly my desire to talk to about anyone helped me look past that cover and see the man inside. 

The other day, the wife and I talked about being able to just talk to about anyone.  She is a little of an introvert and can talk with anyone should she choose to do so.  Me, I seek out conversations and am especially at home if it is with a little kid.  They are so honest and bright and I can get right down on their level. 

 

Today, I saw a Facebook page that said, "Is it just me or do you also get road rage in Walmart?"  I do some of my best visiting there and enjoy the time I spend there.  The only thing is when I go there I need to take a shopping list as there is so much to buy.  I might find myself in the sporting goods section and have no intention of playing sports or camping.  I do like to visit their bike section just to see what they are doing with bikes this next year.  I do my best to maintain my bike in good running order and there has been a time or two that I have updated a tire pump or such thing.   

Father Time at Wal*Mart

I wonder if it is the shoppers at Wal*Mart that upsets a lot of people.  I took the 57 Chevy for a test drive one day and as I passed by the Wal*Mart, I realized that I needed something.  I went in, found what I wanted and went home.  When I got home, I went into our bathroom downstairs.  There in the mirror was such a dirty disheveled mess  that it made me wonder what everyone else thought.  I could have been the poster boy for the People of Wal*Mart.   I will admit that my son worked the midnight shift at a call center and he told me that about 2 AM he see's zombies in Wal*Mart.  I guess if it is something serious enough to get you out at 2 AM to shop you really don't care about appearance.  A lot of times it was a young person that forgot to buy diapers or something important.

I am not sure why people seem to hate Wal*Mart.  I can spend hours roaming up and down the aisles and getting exercise.  It is a lot like I get a chance to see things even if I don't buy them all.  The lack of sales associates, and their limited knowledge doesn't upset me.  In fact I hate it when at Best Buy one of their salesmen follow me around and make stuff up hoping to get me to buy something.  There are times I just like to look and there are times I like to buy and generally I can do it by myself. 

In closing, I want to remind you that it is important to maintain a good appearance when you go to work to help those that do have to judge you will get a good impression.  What you do the rest of the time is on your own.

MUD

Common Core and Why I am Against It.

I am a conservative Republican and I have a college degree from Kansas University.  That alone should tell you that I am not opposed to standards set by others and required from the students.  It is the source of the solution that bothers me.

I do not believe that every problem or perceived shortfall can be fixed by a Government edict.  Our children deserve the best education they can get.  Any attempt to find a "One solution fits all" will fall short of the mark because it is not the idea of the local people.   When the Government offers guidance and $ to help the locals (County, school board and State) find the best way to teach their children there will always be the ownership question.  If it isn't mine, it can fail or not and not throw mud on me.   Our leaders at the more local level should be as committed to the best education we can provide not accept some edict from the Feds.

The other day, I told the wife that I do not even care how the Candidates feel about everything.  I want to know what they feel about the things the are responsible at their level.  I want the President tell us how he is going to Defend the Constitution and fund everything.  I think people would be surprised that the Budget is an allocation of Government funds that spells out just what the plan to support it are.  There are many unfunded mandates out there that for various reasons can not or will not be funded.  I would much rather hear straight forward answers to the problems and not pabulum about what the other guys did or did not do. 

In Kansas, there is a lot of criticism of our Governor's programs that have attempted to change the status quo.  I for one think that unless someone steps out of the mold, things will remain true to the old saying.  It Goes, "Doing the same thing over and expecting something different is the purest form of insanity."  When a Senator comes home to run a State, the challenge is will he be credited or discredited for the answers to problems. 

One thing that really bothers me is that quite often the leaders at the highest levels are given credit or blame for the things they cannot or should not change.  If the President is lucky enough to not have a 9-11 or a near depression happen on their watch they are given a giant OK.  With that said, we often re-elect the incumbent rather than to say, "Nice Try" and send them down the road.  I know people are tired of hearing me say that I don't know how the congress could have such a low approval level and get elected near the 80% mark.  I guess those few people that do get out and vote do know how important there votes are.   People really are mad at the Koch's because they spend millions to influence the congress.  How about the apathy of the unwashed millions that don't get up off their butts and vote?  

If you didn't, you are letting guys like me choose your leaders.

MUD

Reality

My perception is my reality.  What seems real from here in the Heartland is what I think is real, at least to me.  When a politician says we are going to change, I don't pay attentions to the words, I am like a snake in the grass and I watch his feet.  When we voted in the Civil Rights act, we didn't tell the blacks to go live on a reservation, we gave them the freedom to go assimilate anywhere anytime and be a part of the solution to their problems not remain rooted in the hatred of the plantation era.  One poor black man is killed by the Police and everyone is up in arms about racism.  What about the Black on Black deaths that happen every day in the big cities.  Is racism from a few people the cause of that?  I don't think so. 

I fought for your right to do or be anything you desire.

A week or so back, I was stopped for not slowing down enough in a small town in Central Kansas.  I calmly offered the Policeman my license, insurance card and registration.  I treated him with respect, offered him no negative feedback about speed traps or where he was parked.  He checked my driving record on his computer and he came back with a warning that I need to slow down a little faster next time.  The respect I showed him was returned by him in our meeting.  I didn't act like I was entitled to more than I gave.  Did you see any of that in the film clips on TV.  Nope, they were so offended that they went to Wal*Mart in their underwear and stole TV's.  Is that what is passed on as normal behavior?  Not in the heartland here at Rabbit Run.

Yesterday Barb made caramel nut rolls to take to work for our Daughter-in-law, Barb Jr.  I would like to point out that she has used Splenda for years when she make sweet things.  I think Barb knows that Diabetes runs in my family and I am a prime candidate just waiting for the Isles of Langerhans to stop working well.  I guess on a recent visit, Barb Jr. was informed that she like her father will have to start taking a pill for her poor performance on the latest test.  I sure hope it helps her start feeling better.  I know that we will do our best to help her where we can. 

What do you do to protect your health?   I see my dentist twice a year, my Doctor once a year for a physical and wellness visit.  I am keeping that information in the hands of the VA to make sure I don't get dropped from their rolls for inactivity.  I think I will try to get into the VA for a visit in September.  I want to stagger the visit with them with the visit to my family Doctor.  Several times each week Barb will tell me that it is time to get the bikes out for a ride around the lake.  Not a meal goes by that Barb doesn't say to me where are the veggies if I forget to nuke some.  Fruit is always on out shopping list.  Get up and do something for yourself. 

A smile on my face and in my heart

After writing and editing these posts, I save them and then hit the little "Next Blog" button at the top of the page.  Without fail, the first three or so posts will be some folksy blog where the author tries to be informing and in some cases a little preachy.  Then things will take an odd twist.  The system will take me off in a direction and stay there.  It will be an arts and crafts site, a cooking guide or some foreign language blog where it is in either a language I don't understand or in a type of writing I can't read.  After three or more of that, I have to close the program or continue on that vein forever.  I have noticed there are a lot of people that haven't hit a keyboard in two or more years.  Few, if any, write daily.  Oh well.

MUD

What The Heck?

It is just the second week in August and it was down in the 50's last night here in the Heartland.  I went out to get the paper in shorts and it was way too cold for these skinny white legs to be out uncovered.  My goose bumps got goose bumps.  At least the walking out to fetch the paper did help some.  I am glad I am not just homeless and out there without a mission.

That damned truck is at it again.  It started well and then nothing when I turned it off.  I am not sure what I did wrong or if it is a gremlin.   It acts like one of those intermittent problems that shows up only once in a while and I am going to go out and start the diagnosis all over again.  The good thing is that I have the time to fix it and money to pay someone else if I can't. 

My new cell phone is turning out to be a pain in the butt.  It appears that the last person that owned it was deeply in debt and has legal firms and finance companies chasing her.  I have politely told them all that if they don't stop calling my next call will be to the Attorney General's Office as I have registered this phone on the "No Call List" and I damn sure don't owe anybody anything.  Well, between property taxes and insurance it does feel; like I am renting this house.  Throw in Income taxes on all the sources of revenue and I feel like I am renting my life from some form of Government.  I Owe, I owe, it is off to pay I go.....

Once again, the County Commissioners are telling us the truth and it is a lie.  They are saying that they will not raise the Mill levy this year.  Most people don't have a clue what the mill levy is and how that contributes to the taxes you pay.  Simply put, the mill levy is not the source of the amount you pay.  The formula is the amount they need to run the Government the next year divided by the value of the houses determines the mill levy.  If the value of the houses in a county is raised by the appraiser, the mill levy will not go up but the amount of money  generated does.  Do you remember that letter from the county that told you what the appraised value of your house was last year?  That's what you need to watch.  In spite of the fact that most of us aren't getting more income, the Feds tell us the cost of living is not on the rise.   I would challenge them to come here and watch the rising costs and see if that isn't a surprise to them.  The only bright ray of sunshine is that at least for now, the monthly outgo is less than the income for Rabbit Run Farms. 

As soon as the latest upswing in the roofing business calms down, I am going to talk to a couple of the roofing companies about redoing the roof on one of my rental houses.  It is in serious need of a redo and I'm afraid it will also include a tear off of several layers of old shingles.  It wasn't a hailstorm, just old age.  I guess I will have to sit down and figure out how to expense that cost against rent for a year or two.  I have been trying to save up enough money to reroof but that is somewhat offset by the insurance and taxes that will be due this fall.  Oh well.



Even the wild life here are eating well.

Yesterday I listened to the radio and I am now more confused than ever about why people are rioting. I do understand that the people near St; Louis are up set that after a fight, the young black man put his hands up and got shot anyway.  I won't go into the reason for the shooting only to talk about the resulting looting and protests that occurred afterwards.  The talk show host in his almost 99% Brilliance ( Bravado times Bullshit in a lot of cases) tried to equate it to the frustration classes of people feel against the Government.  Someone else then asked how about those people that tear up cities when their sports teams win a Championship?   Are they so happy they cry?   Does athletic excellence bring out the high strung action?   I am a lot more of the Martin Luther King side of the house that points out that when the Government does stupid things, they should be protested against but violence only begets violence.  If a Governmental agency is so out of control that it shoots it's unarmed citizens, what do you think they will do when you rush down to Wal*Mart and start looting? I have been exposed to tear gas in my Military training and do not want to have it used on me. 

The Government is right out there issuing mixed messages to our Military.  They have started Reduction in Force (RIF) boards and have raised the standards for retention in the military and they are out there picking a fight with ISIS.  I am afraid that our good intentions are being overwhelmed with our inability to pay for all the things we have done in the past.   A year or so ago, I had a heated discussion with our 'Nother Daughter about the state of our economy.   I expressed doom and gloom and she was just sure that there is enough money out there to pay for it all and it is just the way money is reported that is the problem.   One her last visit, we all had a good laugh at all the goofs of our Government and her faith is not nearly as strong.  I wonder if the Trillion dollar label not the billion dollar label is finally starting to get her attention?  Probably now that she is working hard to be that great middle class and feeling the squeeze at the end of the pay period has her attention.  She got trapped by the age old tale.  I want a dog, I get a dog, I now need a house with a yard, I buy a house and now I have to continue to pay for it all.  Dogs are the source of unconditional love but they are also the way our veterinarians make a living.  They are the back bone of home ownership and have led us to more and more debt.  A lot of the costs in life comes from the simple, I want a dog idea.  Don't get me started on the idea of cats as pets. 

Does it seem to you that I am losing the reason for paragraphs a little more each time I write?  I started that last paragraph with the reduction in the Military forces and ended it with Cats.  I have a little bit of run off in my mind when I write.  Kind of like ADD that does get carried over in the writing.  Two cups of coffee will do that to you.  Perhaps it is my wanting to insert pithy stuff that is the cause.

Oh well, I need to get on with the important things.

MUD

OK, You Got Me!

"And they lived Happily Ever after" is like the saying "All's fair in Love and War."  Having been hurt in a relationship will convince everyone that Love can cause you feel like you butt has been kicked.  There are trials for atrocities committed during battles.  Life is complex and unless you get up ready to see where it takes you today, you might find that you want to be in Dodge.  I said to the wife I was ready to get out of Dodge and she replied that she is perfectly happy in Dodge and there are still tomatoes in the garden that need her attention.

The only thing she really has to be unhappy about is that after maintaining a vigilant attitude about squash bugs, her squash plants died anyway.  Me, I would have nuked them with a good bug spray but what do I know about organic?   I think the water this year was so inconsistent they died of the different amounts applied in each month.  In June we had at least an inch a week and things grew like gangbusters.  I think the month of July was almost nothing and it rained four times since the first of August.  Oh well, wait for next year.

The other morning as I went out to fetch the paper, I saw deer out in the orchard eating the apples knocked off the trees by the 60 MPH wind the night before.  I did a much needed thinning of the crop that culls the bad apples out of the crop.  The deer will probably be the main recipient of the apple crop after the wife makes apple butter.  I think she likes to make it with the Asian Pears the best as they hold their shape better.  What do I know.  I have eaten her pies made with apples and Asian Pears and like them both.  I guess I am like my mother in that she never met a pie she didn't like.

Now it is time to run and I will close here.



OK Fat Boy, where are those apples

MUD

Fun Evening

Yesterday the Capitol City Chorus of the Barbershop Harmony Society went to the VA and sand for two different groups of patients.  We had a good time and the audience seemed to like what we did.  I think the Chorus Director planned a more patriotic theme and the guys all seemed to like our performance of Barbara Ann the best.  I will admit that we enjoy singing that song the best.  By the time we got back over to the Church for practice, the energy level was pretty low.  We sang a few songs but I think you could have told that our heart wasn't in it as much.  But all in all it was a fun evening.

Over the weekend, the 53 Chevy Pick-up truck just wouldn't start.  I had AAA drag it home and when I got it out on the sidewalk and all jacked up, I yarded the starter and battery out.  First step in the process was to take them to the parts store for testing.  Both tested out fine.  I went home and installed them properly, then tested the starter.  It cranked and the truck started right up.  I thought it might be the ignition switch but that wasn't a problem.  I will call it preventive maintenance even if I did cuss all the work.  Oh well.

53 Hot Rod Truck w/ Bikes

This morning it was in the 60's when I went out to fetch the paper.  Looks like it will be a sunny day with the high in the 80's.  The normal fluxuation from low to high in Kansas is about 20 degrees.  25 degrees is an extreme fluxuation and at 30 degrees they issue a stockman's warning.   That normally doesn't occur except in the dead of winter when a polar vortex passes and it has been on the high side of a 50 degree swing.  When I was stationed at Fort Irwin, the average swing was 50+ degrees and we spent a lot of our time bundling up or stripping off layers.   One thing you didn't want to do is to have on too much during the day and be wet when the sun went down.  Sweaty just seems to let the cold sink in right down to your core.  I can stand the heat but am no lover of the cold. Throw in wet and I get miserable.

I always feel bad when I read that a celebrity commits suicide.  The truth of it is that for the most part, their passing won't change our lives that much.   I think we watched Robin Williams a lot like we did the antics of a lot of the other comics on the Tonight Show.  I think Buddy Hackett went on stage in a diaper and actually wet himself.  Robin did some remarkable movies and we could see him as a Doctor or a cross dressing grandma with equal ease. He could have played Tootsie but removing his copious amount of body hair would have doubled the production costs. I know that many of us young boys loved Pam Dauber but couldn't help laughing at Mork's stupid antics on TV.  RIP Robin Williams.

Just this morning, I told the wife that I was like the TV Gunslinger Paladin.  "Have CAR will travel." I could be coerced out of town pretty quickly.  With that said, my list of Honey Do's is fairly lengthy but a little motivation might get me down the road rapidly.  I think the Chorus won't do any performances until September.  There is one left in August but I will not be here for that one.  I guess I need to get it together and move out smartly ( or in my usual dumb manner).   Write if you get work.

 

MUD

Leadership

In Topeka, they have hired a new Superintendent for the main city schools. (USD 501)  The challenge she was given was to improve the standards for the schools and work on ways to make our kids perform better on the State's Standardized Schools.  The challenge is one that is large and one hairy monster to get everyone to help solve.  Having been in those shoes, I have several recommendations to help get that enormous task done.

The first thing is that the system needs to ensure that the resources are provided at the worker level to help develop a plan to get there.  Edicts from the top down is just more of the same.  The next time they have a teacher work day, the system needs to have the message of improvement delivered to the teachers, and then they need to have time to work together (I would start at the grade levels) on improvements.   The teachers need to put together a straw man for improvement and present it to the Principal.  I would hire substitute teachers for the half day to present the plan and do two grades each day.  Like any plan, they need to be realistic, measurable and easily understood.   This School Improvement  Plan (SIP) would be something that would be published and the superintendent of the schools  to sign off on.  The Principal and the Superintendent performance for the year would be based on how they helped make the plans work.  

In that, did you notice that I built the plan from the bottom up and the only way for the principal to know what the heck is being done is for him to get into each classroom and see for him/herself.  At least once a month, the teachers would have a substitute for half a day to hold grade level meetings.  There would not be all done on the same day, but staggered one per week.  I think that each district has enough substitute teachers to make that happen.  In my school, one Master teacher would work with the teachers to help them enrich the curriculum. That person would go to other schools during the first week of school to steal/share/learn new techniques to improve the school.  If we are going to improve the schools, it must start at the bottom after there is a clear discussion of the goals and then resources provided.  It should be mandatory for at least one grade to think outside the box to try different things. 

It really makes me wonder when the wife and I walk away from a discussion and seem to agree.  On at least this issue and one or two more we had a great discussion this morning.  There have been a lot of times that we didn't.  In fact, there are times that I feel a lot like Grandpa Pickles.

MUD 

Selfie

I will try to get my new Cell Phone up and running after I finish writing this and include a picture Selfie at the end of this post.   For right now, my focus is to attempt to do an honest written Selfie and see  where I think I am.  I will attempt to throw in some of the stupid things I have done and the strange results they caused.  I am a lot like Lew Grizzard and am not afraid to laugh at myself.  Leave my wife and mother out of your laughter and we'll get along just fine.

BACKGROUND - I think there is a lot to be said about both Nature and Nurture in everyone.  I know that I have to be careful about diabetes and just how crazy I am is left to be discovered.  Chances are that I will die older than my Dad but just how much older is again an unknown.  I am pretty sure that I am not Bi-Polar like my dad was but does anyone really know?   I have discovered that this crapshoot I call life is full of strange moments and outcomes.  I am a Baby Boomer and was born when my Dad got home from the Pacific.  Don't feel sorry for him, he spent the war at Barbers Point, Honolulu, Hawaii fixing airplanes for the Navy.  Where he was doesn't mean anything, it just was where he was.    The point is that I am 67 years old, retired and both my parents are dead.  I have a wonderful wife and son who has his version of a wonderful wife. 

Summer of 1948. One of the last times I was not at a dead run

I have always been a little headstrong.  (Ya Think?)  I am not sure why, but I seem to have my own drummer and based on a lot of good things that have gone right in my life, I think I have the ability to solve problems and thing fast on my feet.   Judging from the inability to remember the smallest details sometimes, I am on the back side of that ability.  In the Military, they have a term called the Military Crest of the hill.  That was the highest point you can get without standing above the skyline.  That gives you the maximum view and you won't be seen.  I always felt that I was right there and had a pretty good view of the events in my life.  I find that I have moved to the other side of the hill now and am not in complete defilade, Yet.  If I had to say what I think it was that helped me the most, it was that I was a money hungry little kid and would do anything for money (Well, almost)  I was never afraid of hard work and loved the rewards that came with money. 

I have read a lot about the order of your position in the arrival of brothers and sisters and how that tends to make you a different person based on that rank.  My sisters were 6 and 5 years older and I think I grew up without the close friendship that my wife had with her brother and sisters.  I don't remember seeing much of them as they were always steps ahead of me in school.  By the time I started elementary school they were almost Junior High and gone from home when I started High School.   I do have very fond memories of learning to read with their help.  My sister Carol also so loved to sing that I'm sure that had a big influence on my love of singing.  I think on the rank order being where I stood was a lot more like a first child than a middle child.   I grew up pretty independent and busy.

I think I need to throw in a short segment about the women I have loved in my life.  Who doesn't have the warm memories of their mother.  Mine was the "Earth Mother" to all of us.  If she hugged you, you felt hugged all the rest of the day. My sisters were a positive influence in my life and made girls a lot less hard to understand.  My first girl friend had  to be Lollie, my best friend's sister.  My little brother was five year younger and In my world was "Just a kid."  I moved on to older women in school and there was Janet who was one of the prettiest and smartest girls I ever knew.  Way out of my league and I don't think I ever held her hand.  There was a short fling with Sheila and Connie but both were not in my life at the right time or place.  I thought that Donna was the one but I think I never trusted her in my Heart of Hearts.  She was fun but not one that really made me really evaluate where I wanted to be in my life.   While I won't tell you that I have always understood my wife, I know that she is on the path to doing the right things right.  I have loved her since 1968 and will try my hardest to keep it that way. 

Mom and Why Dad fell in Love with her.

On the negative side, I think I have always had the ability to loose myself in things and can often get to the end of the day and wonder what the hell I did that killed that day.   I had to use a "Day Runner" as a Colonel in the Army.  I found that spending 15 minutes to realistically plan the next day helped me at least aim my day.    Having been a Military Planner most of my time did give a realistic understanding that Plans often are only a Guide and they last until the proverbial first bullet flies.  I grew up with the thought that the 70% solution done in a timely manner often had a better result that actions that take forever to get that mythical 100% solution.  There is a "analysis paralysis" that can just freeze all your good intentions if you try to get perfect.  Today I think a few moments with the wife asking "What's on your agenda today" is almost as good as a written plan.   There is a little hesitancy in telling her I plan on goofing off all day, but I think she understands a lot more than I sometimes give her credit for.  This is especially true if we both worked hard the day before. 

END RESULT  I am not sure how others feel when they finally retire but I am darned glad to be where I am.  Due to some great planning and a lot of luck, I have the financial assets to do almost anything we want to do.  I always try to have a few things on my bucket list but I find them aimed more at others now than I did earlier in my life.  My mother said one time, "If I can wear it or eat it, I don't need it."   I understand that a lot more now than I ever did.  In fact, I have started putting things on my reverse bucket list.   I do not ever plan on roller skating again.  I am pretty sure that snow or water skiing is also no longer planned.  I am nearing the time where I am more inclined to pay someone to work on my car that do it myself.  (Says a man with a truck in the driveway needing a starter)  I do find myself looking at the problem solving model with an hard look at "Smarter not Harder." 

Right now, my hobbies include singing as often as I can, writing this blog and keeping everything moving that needs to move.  I know that I mentioned the 70% solution I mentioned earlier will get you a "D" in school but doesn't "D" stand for Denny?  Just a short note, I wasn't the best student in school and I got a lot od D's.  I think the teachers didn't want to have me again the next year and kept me moving up the pipeline out of self preservation.    That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I had Barbara Take this and I'm sure that I was trying to tell her how to do it.
Yes, I know it isn't a Selfie if someone else takes it.

MUD

Baby Boomers Growing Up!

On Facebook, there was a short Power Point presentation about how good it was to grow up as one of the baby boomer generation.  Here are some of the challenges that we over came as we grew up:

    - First of all was the lack of central heating and cooling in most of our houses.  In winter most of the bed rooms weren't heated and I for one, slept under tons and tons of blankets, quilts and anything we could pile on to stay warm.  In the summer, we had a giant fan in the attic that sucked in whatever air was outside and I would turn from damp spot cooled by the passing air from the warm spot I was sleeping on. 

    -  One summer as the heat melted us relentless, one of the neighbor girls got sleeping sickness and darn near died.  It was supposedly from a mosquito bite and as I recall very few windows in our house had a screen. 

    -  As a kid, I think I had the majority of the diseases that are now protected by vaccination.  I  Had a recurring ear infection and every summer probably had millions of units of penicillin injected in my skinny gluteus minimus.     My skinny little butt was far from anything that looked Maximus. 

    -  For a few years in the early 50's, there were hundreds of cases of Polio and it scared the crap out of us.  It was like a mystery disease and there was nothing we could do to prevent or getting sick.  I absolutely could not stand the idea that I would be put in an iron lung and it would breathe for me.  When it would rain, we would go down to the sewage ditch at the bottom of our street and swim from one end to the other.  Later on, I found that the trailer court had a lagoon for the sewage.  That very trailer court had a polio case.   When it overflowed, it would drain in the parking lot that filled the sewer ditch we swam in.   

    - For years and years, we rode in cars that were unsafe and had none of the modern safety features of today's cars.  In 1961, I was coming home from the State Fair and our driver pulled out to pass and rolled a brand new Dodge Polara.  Side to side, end to end, in a car filled with glass shards and not a sign of a seatbelt.  Somehow the doors stayed shut and we all crawled out of that wreck alive and bleeding.

    -  What would you feel like if at least once a week someone told you to crawl under your desk and close your eyes?  The threat of Nuclear warfare was first and foremost on our minds.  Throw in the threat of tornado's without any hint of a shelter and you might understand that it was possible to suffer from analysis paralysis. Or not, in some cases, I am sure we were the cause of the stress.

    - I am not sure if it was because there were so many of us, and or we were expendable, it seems like parental supervision was pretty minimal in my neighborhood.  We went places and did things without any hint of the knowledge of our parents.  We swam in a pond where one of our friends drowned.  I don't remember hearing our parents telling us to keep away from there.  We played outside from the first light to way after midnight when the Beech Aircraft parking lot lights were turned off. 

    - I lived a block north of the Beech Aircraft plant number one on east Central Ave.  As the workers drove to and from work there, our neighborhood became like a dirt race track with cars sliding around corners and rushing to get the hell out of the parking lots.   The saying was, there were old dogs and there were bold dogs, but no old bold dogs where we lived.  Those dogs that ventured out during shift change died.    "Denny, why are you crying?"  "One of those crazy Beech Drivers hit my dog in the ass."  "No Denny, Rectum"   "Rectum hell, Killed Him!" 

OK, enough of the pity party.  We lived, loved, laughed and grew up what was normal for the time.  I just wanted everyone to know that if life was like a box of chocolates, they were probably melted or if they lasted long enough frozen.

MUD

Is it just me?

I look over the comments and for the largest part of over 350,000 hits, few, if any people comment.
here is the typical comment on the blog a couple of days ago:

"It doesn't take up to seek huddled. blank conscious furnishing can appear author thin, feature unilluminated-reddened blouses on top of your mold.

Be trusted you're on the cyberspace. We can easy trace you station direct ads,
whatever insight your payday give, cogitate again. A upshot..."

Does this make sense to you or am I just alone in my own little world?   Why would you post such stuff?

MUD

Stuff

I think Garage Sales are a Giant conspiracy to transfer the stuff from one home to another so you will think it has value and want to keep it and more.  In an effort to find good stuff for the garage sale this weekend, the First Mate (And only, I hope) is looking through the cabinets in the kitchen.  I am sure that you too have some that are crammed to the brim with things that in the light of day would normally be thrown away.   Just how many empty Tea Bag cans can you keep to make sure that you have enough?   When you can no longer close the door on the cabinet with the coffee cups, is it time to thin them down?    Somehow, spell checker changed thin to think as if I had the power to move things with telepathy.   I noticed the other day that my new cell phone doesn't underline misspellings, it changes things to what it thinks is close.  I also noticed that if I pay attention, it suggests words by the first couple of letters.  I haven't had it change any of those selected words that I noticed.  But my mind makes up stuff and sometimes it thinks I actually said it or mistyped it that poorly.

This morning in an effort to entertain myself, I went off on a YouTube trip back to the day when Robin Williams was funny not pathetic.  I even found George Carlin's solutions to four classes of people that should be removed from society.  I did find it strange that he close Kansas as the location of one of the groups but do understand that he also used Colorado, Wyoming and  Utah as the other three states and he did want to keep them contiguous.  His ten story fence did kind of need to have straight lines.   For the record, George has been dead long enough that  he didn't see the problem we are having along our southern border and just how hard it is to keep people out, let alone in.

Am I one of the few that think we as a people (The entire world, not just here in America) are so wrong that it would serve us right if we ceased to exist?  How is it that my god is so much better than your god that my solution is better than yours?   How can we decide to pick and choose what group of people die and who lives?  Is the Genocide in Syria worse than in Iraq?  Is the death of so many Africans to be ignored because it is Aids and we need to jump in if it is Ebola?   Am I just wrong if I think the Doctors that are sick should not be brought back into the US?   They went there to dedicate their lives to saving those people.  Why spend millions of dollars to bring them back here?  Where are the death panels everyone was predicting to oversee the spending of dollars in a wasteful manner.  Another myth shot dead.

Speaking of Health Care, in Kansas there has been a growing number of people that do not have any health care.  The percentage has grown by 3% since the passing of the bill.  Are people not able to afford the new insurance with higher costs or is there some stupid kind of thought that the Government will step in and offer it free that I don't know about?  Can this raise in the statistics be a part of better measurement of the numbers or what could be the cause?   Whatever the cause, the liberals are blaming it on the Republican Governor rather than trying to figure out why people can't afford AHCA or are unwilling to join a club  like that.   

The other day one of my friends deployed one of those portraits of JFK when he spoke about serving your country.   The very people that said Ronald Regan spoke in sayings not substance don't remember who started that mess.  I for one believe that having a President that tell us what we should be, isn't a bad thing unless he can't influence Congress to do the right thing.  If the way Washington D.C. is so screwed up is the Political parties, do we need to change that part?   Voting Democrat in Kansas feels wasted because the rest of the State will pile up Republican votes.  I wonder if I would feel that same thing in California as a Registered Republican?   Is that a part of the low voter turn out?  Shouldn't the first step in being unhappy with out Congress be a surge in the Voter turn out?   It seems that the only one with a lower approval rating is the President.  Our Apathy is a silence that I can hear but I always a little politically deaf.   HOW ABOUT YOU?

If you didn't vote and are unhappy about the Government leaders, Just remember that I got to select the people there.

Have a great day.

 

MUD 

Rain

We had more rain yesterday than we did in the whole month of July.  In fact, we had two rains storms blow through and each one gave us more than July did.  I didn't even look at the water bill last month because I know that Barbara worked hard to get the trickle system to water the garden in an efficient manner.  Based on the number of tomatoes she sure did something right.   The first storm had about a 60 MPH wind with it and we did loose power for a couple of hours. 

As we get nearer and nearer to our trip out west, I get more and more ready to get on the road.  No, I haven't even packed, yet.  I will throw a lot of my old clothes together and leave them when they are dirty.  I don't need to replace them as there is what I am sure a breeder shirt in the closet that is turning them out until the clothes rack falls off the wall, again.  I am sure that like most of you, I have almost a complete wardrobe of shirts and pants that are at least two sized smaller than the one I wear. There is always the hope that I might fit in them again and they hang there just waiting.  On the other hand, skinny people are doomed if they get sick.  Me, I am good for a hard two or three week illness and I will come out the other side healthy.  Skinny people will succumb in less than a week.  After all the good money I have spent on food, the extra padding should be good for something.

Here is the dilemma,  do I get the oil changed before or after our trip?   I know that changing the oil every 3,000 miles is not needed but it will be closer to 5,000 miles after the trip.  I am tempted to just go out and top off all the fluids and go on west smartly.  The only level that concerns me is that the rear end has developed a drip (I CAN SEE IT ON THE GARAGE FLOOR) and I am not sure if I can squeeze my fat butt under the car to check that fluid level.  I guess I will need to wait a couple of days until the driveway dries off and use my floor jack and jack stands.  I had a friend who's father went to a local salvage years ago and tried to take a transmission out from an old car.  He couldn't find the base plate for the bumper jacks so he just jacked the car up with a pair of them without the base plates.  He crawled under the car and the car started slowly sinking in the ground and he didn't notice it until it had him pinned.  Today he would have whipped out his trusty cell phone and called for help.  In the 60's, no such thing and he was crushed as a giant Buick anaconda sat on his chest.  They didn't find him over the weekend and he was one smelly dude when almost a week later they did drag him out and bury the leftovers.  I am sure that he would have qualified for the Darwin Awards had they been around. 

Speaking of death,  several of my relatives passed on this year and last.  Many people are expressing their sadness on Facebook.   I guess I am unusual in that I am doing my level best to only remember the good things and not how much I miss them.  I don't want people rolling on the floor laughing every time my name come up after my death but I sure don't want people to cry for hours at a time.  Life is for the living and the future is so dynamic that I think people need to keep looking forward and keep a level head.  I can get a smile out of people when I tell them that my mother was buried with a giant silver fork in her hand.  For the best part of her lifetime she loved to go to dinners at the churches.  As someone would gather the plates, there would be the admonition to keep your fork, something better is coming.  It was mostly a piece of pie and mom loved pie.  I also kind of tell people in a self deprecating way that it took a couple of years for me to not want to rush over to the phone to tell Dad to watch a program that had either the Navy of planes in it.   I am pretty sure that my Dad loved the cable TV better than about anything.  He loved to watch golf, bowling, tennis and anything with cars, train or planes in it.  There near the end of her life, my mother found a Western channel and that and Murder She Wrote kept her pretty damned busy. 

Seems like my life is running parallel to what I read in the funny papers more and more each day.  Pickles had a conversation between Grandpa and Grand ma about the fact that Grandpa can have arguments in his head with Grandma.  She said he could not do that.  He said not only did he have them, he even wins some of the time.  My perceptions are my reality, I don't care if there is a woman to tell me I'm wrong. 

I want to share a success story.  I called the Verizon Cell Phone Service Center to see if I could get my new voice mail mailbox to work.  I got a great young man, John, to help me and he got me up and rolling in just a few minutes.  It seems there is a default to the last 4 of the telephone number for the system and voice mail password.  If you do a dumb thing like I did and turn the speaker on when you are trying to set the password, your voice mail password will be the instructions to press two in Spanish.   I could not ever get that right even if I got shipped to Mexico for a year or so.  Oh, by the way, if they ever get things settled down in Mexico there is a bus that leaves Topeka about noon each day and my butt will be on it.

MUD

A Garage Sale

Looks like Barb is going to pull off a Garage sale this weekend over at our Son's House. She is going through her closets and sorting things out.  Seems like there is a lot of good things hiding in those closets.  I hope she does well and that no matter what, the stuff doesn't come back home.

Some time this morning, I am going to go over to Dave's and checking out the plumbing.  I fixed several leaks a couple of weeks ago and I sure hope they are all dry.   The plumbing is at least 25 year old PEX and the plastic is brittle.  Once the stuff starts weeping, the connectors rust and then it really starts leaking.  I am tempted to dig in there and make it so I can really get to the pipes.  Dave found a shut off valve that will connect to the inflow pipe and new hoses can be run to the fixtures.  It is a manifold and it has one pipe in and several out.  I think I can cut down on the number of elbows and chances of failure.

Yesterday I Voted.  It is amazing that so many people are unhappy with the way Government is being run and they don't participate in the process that selects those politicians.  Doing what you did and expecting different results is the surest way to describe insanity.  MY new Motto is "Never Re-elect Anyone (NRA)."

This morning one of the Movie Channels had five O'Henry stories in one movie on.   At least two of the stories, "The Ransom of Red Chief" and "The Gift of the Magi" are favorite stories of mine.  Every time I see a small child being rowdy in the store I tell the parents about the "Ransom of  Red Chief."  Seems there are two kidnappers that take a Banker's son and are told that when they are ready to pay, the banker will take the boy back.  It is a hoot to see how that boy wrecks havoc on those two hapless kidnappers.  The other stories were funny but I love the "Ransom" story the best.  It is a lot like the story "Home Alone" from a few years back. 

Yesterday one of my Facebook friends posted a saying by John F Kennedy about how our Politicians need to work together.  Am I the only person that cringes every time I hear people call John McCain a Republican in Name Only (RINO) when he tries to work with the Democrats to solve problems.  Seeing things in a way that might find a solution that is the best isn't being untrue to the voters, it is the way real groups get things done.  Unless and until the Politicians try to do the right things for us, the problems in Washington will not get fixed.  I would elect Dave Ramsey as the Secretary of the Treasury and have him teach those suckers what it means to try to pass new stuff when we can't pay for what we have.  I'll bet that a dose of reality would knock a bunch of that free money giveaway.  In my real world, it wouldn't take Billions of dollars to send the flood of illegal kids home.  I'm sure that there are Army Truck Companies just sitting in Motor Pools all over the USA looking for work.

Oh well, seems like I have climbed up on this soap box before.

MUD

Odds 'n Ends

The cell phone just rang and said that it was a notification of an attempted delivery last Friday and I needed to call a number to reschedule the delivery.  The recording just blasted past so fast that I didn't have a chance to write it down.  The really odd thing is that the telephone number , so I could call them back wasn't recorded in my phone so I have no idea who the heck it was.   Oh well, I didn't have anything on special order that I know of so I will tell Barb and just wait for them to either call me back or send a delivery person out.  It isn't like we moved or anything, we have been here since 1990 and the only new thing is that the cell phone is a new number to us.  It was my birthday but nothing was supposed to come here.  The UPS guy knows that they can leave packages on the front porch and we generally find them.

Election Day is here and I will go vote.  It is really worthwhile when I know at this time of the year the participation is way down and my vote will really count.   The message I want to send is that unless they change their ways, I will not vote for the incumbent.  The only time I might is in the primary where the opponent is a wacco.   Not like the city in Texas, that's Waco and a nice place to visit. 

This morning the paper had my daily guide telling me to get out and do something fun.  I wonder what that could be?  How do they know what I am up to when I am not sure what I am going to do until I get ready to do it?  Lets see, the rough draft of today's activities include this writing, voting and a quick nap.  One good thing is that since we have had little rain since the start of July the grass has stopped growing so mowing is out of the realm of need.  

On the farm here at Rabbit Run, there is an old well.  Years ago we tested the water and it was not potable.  I think the neighbors up the hill have a lagoon and that polluted the well.  The County told me that I could pump it dry and put in a gallon of Clorox but even then I'm not sure if I would want to drink it.  My little pump would have to work overtime to even touch the level.  I guess I should pick up a used pacer pump and see if it is even possible to clean it up enough to water the fruit trees.  I have a nice little trailer that could haul a tank and a tractor to pull it around.   Oh well, see what happens when I have a visit from the good idea fairy.  I should have an outline for these blogs to keep me in check.

Speaking of blogs,  when I finish writing my blog, I sometimes hit the button at the top of the page that says "Next Blog."   I generally send me to some folksy blog site and keeps me there until it hits a foreign language  blog or one that has a theme like dolls or art.  Then the next four of five times it takes me to places that I do not understand the writing or am pretty much completely not interested.  It does make me wonder how all the people that visit get to my blog daily.  Yesterday the hits were up to about 2500 and surely there is some reason the readership is so high.  It is totally not my fault as I don't have a clue how to manipulate the internet to bring people to my site.  I am not sure I would if I could.   Remember, the information you get here is worth exactly what you pay for it.  Do not try this at home is my disclaimer.  Or, do it if you want.  Either way, I have said many times that I do this for me and am not sure why.

Have a great day.  School is only a week away (or so).  Whatever happened to the old schedule of summer being from memorial Day to Labour Day (For my friends in Canada)

MUD

Oh Dear, the Deer are Eating the Apples

This morning as I went out to fetch the morning paper, I surprised a deer eating apples in the orchard.  I would approve if all they did was eat the stuff that has fallen on the ground.  I imagine that a deer standing on it's hind legs can reach almost as high as a tall man.  If they did a good job of thinning the apples out so the remainder get bigger I wouldn't mind as much.  After all, most years I do save all the remaining crop and feed them to the deer.  The deer get cracked corn and apples through December most years. 

The Deer Crowd waiting for me to feed them



Yesterday was a good day and yet somewhat sad.  Our visiting friends were off to see parents in Western Kansas and that's the last we will see of them for another year.  We have known them since Julie was a starting teacher in the Shawnee Heights School District.  We have been with them in their marriage, birth of two children and their adventures abroad.  With Julie's family history, it should not surprise anyone that she loves to be oversea's.  In fact we talked with her mother yesterday and she is thinking of going to India for a couple of years as soon as she can figure out where to go and what she will be doing.  I think her family has been in India for over 100 years.  Me, I want to stay home and feed the critters.  

Every once in a while, I stop and think, "What do I want to be when I grow Up?"  Then I realize that at 67, I should be pretty able to accept what I am for what I am.  I see on Facebook that a good friend has a new camper and is traveling.  Another friend has a boat along the coast of Florida and sends beautiful pictures of their adventures.   Me, just when the travel bug bites, I remember that about in 8 days and I want to be home where there are regular things to do.  At least for the first time in several years we don't have any animals that we are responsible for feeding unless you count the deer. 

I think I am doomed to have no voice mail box on my cell phones.  As I attempted to set up the mail box, I turned on the speaker and it recorded the directions in Spanish as my password.  I am in no shape at my age to remember such gibberish and don't have the directions of how to undo the recording.  I pretty much have the e-mail and can even text but I don't have a full up manual to guide me.  Oh well, perhaps this might be a good day to figure out such things.  At least until the contract runs out, Barbara will have to old phone to carry.  It is a pretty cheap emergency only phone and will be worth the price to be able to reach her when she's out and about.

Gotta go and get this cell phone thing worked out.   Dang I hate it that I have to learn another new technology.

MUD

Car Trip Today

Our visiting friends today are needing a ride to Hillsborough to see Mom Friesen.  I will be the designated driver and will do my best to smile and go along for the ride.  I think it is a turnpike ride to Emporia and a Highway 50 trip west to Hillsborough.  I haven't made that trip in a while and will rely on their judgment.  

This morning as I sit here on the computer I turned on the fan.  I noticed that on my left there was a strange clicking noise every time the fan went way left.  It sounded like it was coming from the front of me but there is nothing there that should make that noise.  It wasn't until I turned to look at the fan that I realized it was the shades on the door that are making a click as it made the shade fly with the wind.  I guess it is another victim of my being hard of hearing that I can't really tell where a noise is coming from.  In my younger years, I had the eyes of an eagle and the hearing of a dog.  Now sadly I have the vision of a Rhinerosis and the hearing of an old man.  The hearing problem started in the Military from shooting rifles and then the Howitzers.  It is fairly OK in the normal range but I can't hear squat in the higher range.  I guess that's why I am now a Bass in the chorus. (pronounce that as Base not the fish)

The other day, I saw a nice little S-10 pickup sitting for sale in a yard nearby.  It looks great and I called the number on the window.  My first question was about the Air Conditioning.  Here in Kansas that is a must.  Unfortunately it has a leak and a recharge in the system doesn't last the season.  No Go.   This is the year that I either need to do some body work on the 53 Pick-up or replace it.  I need to replace some body panels and install an A/C.  The other option is to find a nice little truck that will be the replacement.   There is also the option of dragging the 57 out of the garage and making it road worthy.  It too needs an A/C to live well in the Kansas heat and humidity. 

What would you do if you had the money to buy almost anything?   I find that more and more I am getting to the point that I don't really want to buy toys and I am getting cheaper by the day.   I watch the money programs and yell at the TV that everything they say is nearly a lie as the risk is way too high.  My motto today is the return of my money is more important than the return on my money.  It would also be nicer if the interest they pay is higher than the alcohol percentage in my near beer.  Last time I looked that level had to be below .005 percent.  Let me make that clear that it is less than one half of a percent.  Math is one thing that I am not always good at and writing things in Math even worse. 

The other day, one of my childhood friends wrote on a Facebook group that he loved our 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Funk.   He claims that she was his inspiration and he now writes well because of her.  She was in my opinion the worst teacher I ever had.  Instead of encouraging us to use the English language and the beauty and depth of the language, she focused on teaching the Walsh English Handbook and what the paragraphs said and meant.  She started me down the slide that ended in my flunking English in my 9th Grade Year.   The good thing that came out of that was at East High, I met a teacher that renewed my love for reading and writing.  I spent the year reading every book on the college prep list and writing a book report about them.  She focused on the words and not so much the structure.  What I said was more important than how I said it.  Kind of like reading this blog.  I welcome you to write your own if this gets hard for you to stand.   Keep in mind that it costs only what you pay to read my ramblings. 

The other day, I ran into a friend from my years in the National Guard.   She told me the dirt on what happened after I left and how several of the changes were made.  It made me sad that I was interested and relieved that I didn't have to go through that mess.   I guess every organization has it's ups and downs and the Party Politic of an organization can get messy.  There was a time that my acerbic wit was almost too much to handle and I should have toned it down.   I have a syndrome that causes me to not suffer fools gladly.   I tend to call out the fool when they make really bad decisions.  That included the General and his Chief of Staff.  I am not sure but there were others that if asked supported my leaving.  The really good news is that I have out lived several of them and am enjoying life about as much as I can.  

have I told you that I love my wife?   At least the person that I talk to after she has had her second cuppa tea in the morning.  She is the foundation of our life right now and we have settled into a routine that works for us.  I will tell you that she was like Dave Ramsey long before we ever saw anything he writes.  She was the person that helped develop our budget and our investing strategies
way back when retirement was just a thought.  One really good thing she did was make sure that anything we invested for retirement was in such a place that we didn't touch it for any reason.  I can think of only one time when we were one meal away from being broke.  I am sure that I could have borrowed enough to get by if needed but thankfully her annualized teaching salary gave us a check at the start of the year.  I did have to tap dance fast with KU to get them to let me stay enrolled until my first GI Bill check arrived.   It worked out well and it is all good.

How do you budget your money?   For us, it was pretty clear that we got paid once a month and it had to last all month.  The great times were when we got to the next payday with money left in the bank.  The feeling was like It was like food and we never had to go to bed hungry.  One nice thing was that I always put my check in the community pot and lived as much as I could on the extra money from part time jobs.   My National Guard check was a part of that.  I know that it paid pretty much for the overhaul of the 57 Chevy.

My 57 Chevy after the restoration

 Oh well, I hope you have a great day out there and nothing gets in your way of fun.

MUD

Dang, I hate it When That Happens!

There has to be some "Petty Things" that you hate too.  Here are just a few that bother the heck out of me:

    -  I get all juiced up to write a pithy blog and when I get here at the keyboard find that I don't have a clue what it was.  Probably because I look through Facebook and Gmail first and get side tracked.

    -  I love to grill but this time of the year is seems to attract flies in a large quantity.   Add to that the fact that we had six kids going in and out of the front door and we had to make a trip to the Hardware store to buy fly swatters.  I found them in the bargain bin with three of them in one package for a dollar.  I bought two packages and will bet that within a week will have to search for a swatter.

    -  Barb and I have for years driven our cars until the wheels fell off.  The idea of buying a new(er) car when there is good miles left in the old one just doesn't compute.  After all, isn't a car just transportation?  Barb's 97 Buick doesn't have a horn, A/C and the turn signals are intermittent.  I can smell anti freeze after driving it so I know the head gasket is only a minor amount of time from failing.   I keep telling her that the old car survival guide is that I carry a screwdriver to remove the Tag when it dies. 

    -  Most of the time, spell checker just underlines the mistyped words.  My new cell phone corrects the word and doesn't tell me.  As I tried to update the contact list one address self corrected three times to something it wasn't.  I think I finally forced it to accept the right thing but I won't know until I get somewhere and really need the right address. 

    -  Being somewhat anal about uniforms (31 years of the Military will do that to you) I have my Barbershop Chorus Shirt and pants laundered.  The shirt is about $3.85 and the pants are $6.60.  They look good and better than I could do but why would the pants be so expensive?

    - When I was looking at the guide for the new cell phone, there was a small note that it doesn't come with a Micro SD Card.  Seems like such a small thing that they should add one and raise the price.  I can't imagine that the kid at Best Buy didn't think to "upsell" one.  Some day I will share the problems during the trip to get the SD Card but enough about the technology that I don't understand.

    -  The other day, I was looking through my storage cabinet.  I realized that I had at least 30 VHS movies.  I plugged one into the VHS player and realized that it no longer worked.  I wonder how long that has been that way and just how long I would have held on to those tapes?   Would they have played if the player worked?   Now it is a collection of CD's and DVDs that is taking up room. 

   -  I wrote a lot of things while in the military.  I am direct and perhaps a little blunt.  I do have people that tell me that I am abrupt and too direct.  I guess that's the reason that I hate it when people write obtuse things on Facebook.  I expect you to tell me the truth when you lie to me. 

    -  This morning it thundered like crazy and I went out and rolled up the windows on the truck.  After a brief shower, the rain stopped.  I doubt that it would even have wet the seats.  Oh well, I did need to get up and go to the bathroom.

This was just a little fuel to get you thinking.  Write if you get a chance.

MUD

Politics Again

The PBS program called Sunflowers Journeys tonight focused on 25 years of the effects of politics on Kansas.  They talked about Frank Carlson and how he was one of the last Politicians that went to Washington D.C. and then returned home.  The trend today is for our Senators and Representatives to go there and remain as lobbyists to see they can influence the system to do what they could not get done when they were there.  The latest election campaign has alleged that our Senator from the Western part of the state doesn't really live here, but has a recliner in a supporter's home on a golf course near Dodge City.   One thing they did talk about was that today we are more divided than ever and people don't trust anyone.  How does that joke go, The most feared words are "I am from Washington and I'm here to help you."   

Probably one of the biggest arguments is what is our Government doing to and for us, and how much can we afford them to do?  The Conservatives want us to make the Government go as far away and to almost not have any effect on our lives.  They have some misconception that the People will treat everyone the same and in a good way.  On the other side, there is the feeling that only the Government can be trusted to protect our rights.  They truly trust the Government to do the right thing.  Having an IRS audit this last year over conflicting instructions from Turbo Tax I understand that many people don't trust anyone, organization or group to do the right thing without some motive, good or bad. 

One segment of the program talked about the League of Women's Voters.  They say their purpose is to increase the participation of the people in the political process.  I don't understand that the people without jobs are the people they feel don't have the time or opportunity to vote.  Seems like when I was working, I would go in early to be at the polls when they opened.  The ladies said they would take people to the polling place.  Sounds like they were focusing on the very people that are likely to vote Democratic.  They will tell me that they are not, but my daddy would say if it quacks and waddles, it just probably is a duck.

For my birthday, the wife agreed to a new cell phone.  Instead of the old Trac Phone, I did upgrade and again I'm faced with learning new technology just in time for it to become obsolete.  I got the phone home and on page two, it tells me that I need a Micro SD Card to store the music and pictures.  Why the hell didn't the people at Best Buy tell me that?  I had to go back with my phone in my hand and beg them to tell me why I needed one and most importantly how the hell to install it.  The cute lady there pried the back off to check there wasn't an SD card there and then closed the case.  Crap girl, if I had fingernails like those, I could probably pry the back off but that's why I'm here.  In stead of offering to hold the phone there with her while I went to buy the Micro SD card, she handed me the pieces and aimed me towards the accessories hanging on a rack.  Yes, I carried the card with the new card a the pieces to the cash register.  After I paid for the card, I then carried the pile back over to the Cell Phone desk.  Finally a guy standing there looked my way after standing there doing nothing for five minutes and I asked him how I could complete this deal.  He did finally help me put it together and I was glad to get out of there.

Hope you can communicate well.  I'm still learning how.

MUD

My Happy Birthday Party

Last night our friends from Far Away places were here for dinner and we also invited their family from Lawrence over to join in.  I thin there were 6 children (and me) here for the food and festivities.  If I were to try to have more fun, I'm not sure how.   It was an evening of good conversation and the kids had a ball. 

The only thing that wasn't up to my usual standards was that the brisket should have been in the crock pot as it was just a little tough cooked half on the grill and half in the oven.   I will throw it in the crock pot here in a little while for a good slow cooking.  I also over estimated the steak buy at least half.  That should be some spectacular Fajitas.  Might even have a couple of chicken breasts left for enchiladas.  If there is anyone that likes them better than me it is our son Dave. 

I'm not sure what today will bring other than a dinner at the Texas Road House.   I did get a kiss and a hug as a Birthday wish from Barb this morning and don't know what the rest of the day will bring.  I really have no other plans.   Well, I did get up early and take the trash out to the court.  I guess I also read the paper, but I do that every day.

One funny thing our guest said was that he forgot to weigh himself before he left on Vacation.  He did think that because of Ramadan he did lose some weight so he has some room left to grow a little on the trip.  He said that everyone tried to outdo the others by cooking him good stuff.  I had so much other good stuff that I didn't cook Brats.  Oh well, Barb doesn't like them as much the first time as I do like them even as left overs.

I would lie to you and tell you that I have better stop here and get on with things but I really don't have any pressing duties to go do.

MUD