Got a Little Rain

I think the weatherman said it was a little over 1/10th of an inch but every drop helps.  Did manage to get a little mowing done yesterday but only after sharpening the blade on the mower.  The oil didn't need changed as I did change it after the break-in period last summer.   Still wish I had spent just a little more and picked up a Hustler not a Cub Cadet.   Oh well.

Have you finished your taxes yet?  I have it almost done but the paperwork is on a card table right here by my computer.  I was told that the due date this year is the 18th.  Probably will get it done this week to avoid the rush.  I have to pay so there is no big hurry on my part. 

For some reason there was no paper outside this morning.  Not sure why but it really is no big deal.  I watched the local news and other than the funnies I am pretty much caught up.   I saw a good part of the women's finals in Basketball and I'll bet there are a lot of teams that were in the men's championship that UConn could beat.  They were pretty darned good.  It has always been interesting that season tickets to the KU women's games cost about the same as one game of the men's games.  Not sure why.

We have friends in Morocco and I thought for sure they would come back home when their daughters got to high school age.  Their oldest is 15 and so far no news about their return.   Dang. 

One thing I need to do is to get a haircut today.  Barrie the barber will probably fit me in somewhere.  He and I sing in the Barbershop Chorus and I am glad for his friendship. 

Last Monday, our Director said that he wanted Matt to sing the solo at the beginning of Loch Lomond.  I have been telling him that for at least a month.  Matt is a new baritone that has as pure a voice as we have had since the leaving of Christopher.  I can fill in but my almost 70 year old voice is far from pure.  Perhaps as a Bass but not on the high notes of a baritone.

It looks more and more like our Director is leaving and the Topeka Chapter of the Barbershop society will need a new director.   Is anyone out there interested?  The money isn't great but I will promise you that we will do our best to have fun.

Better go get cleaned up for the day and give Barrie a call.

MUD

Alternative Ways of Thinking

Here are just a few of the things that I sometimes think about:

• Where the heck does racism come from?  I am pretty sure that in my world, it is pretty not much of a factor.  I sing in a chorus with a black member and a black Director.  There is a black family that lives nearby and we waive when I drive by just like I do with the rest of the neighbors.   
• How can the Democrat Party have such a grip on the voting of the blacks?  In those areas where there are a lot of blacks there is a predominately Democrat leadership.  The failures there are historic.  Detroit, Ferguson, Birmingham, AL and many of the large cities are failing and wanting the Middle Class to come rushing in to save them.  The middle class is too failing and soon there won't be anyone to save us all.
• I hear over and over that the Government needs to pass more laws to fix the ails of our society.  Haven't you had enough watching the Government fail at one cause after another to put your faith in new laws and regulations. Just who the heck do you think sent or allowed our companies to send jobs overseas?  Then they allowed companies to not pay taxes on the profit they make.  Stupid.  This is a failure of both parties.
• Just when I want to complain about the fact that we are a disposable society, I find out that even if I did want to spend more on a printer repair than what a new one costs, there is no one pout there fixing printers.  Next time you are at Best Buy ask them what a printer tune up would cost.  The printer cartridges themselves often are more than the cost of a new printer.
• Just when you want to tell the schools they have to cover a new subject, ask yourselves where the heck they would fit it in.  We have gone to computer testing to see how our kids are doing and then the State wants to pre-test and the Feds want to test and the teachers have to teach the tests just to keep their jobs.  Just who the heck is this silent majority of people that have determined what it is that the kids should know to be successful in the real world?
• Wasn't Bernie Sanders an independent not very long ago? 

That's all folks...

MUD

   

Roy Who?

When Roy Williams left Kansas to go back to South Carolina, we developed the saying, "Roy Who?" when anyone brought up his name.  I think that Villanova just out snickered them in the National Championship.  If you don't defend a three point shot at the end of the game, you need to hang your head and go home.  Oh well...

Springtime is here in Kansas I can tell because the urge to mow is upon me.  I have to go spend a couple of hours sharpening blades and changing oil but I too will be out there mowing in no time.  The house here at Rabbit Run is full of new plants just getting started and soon we will have a garden up and running.  I have stakes and wire to make the supports for all the tomato plants.  I haven't put them in the ground yet but that's no small step for a tall stepper.

Oh well, I guess I'd better go find things that I need to do more than sitting here at the Computer.

MUD

Well It's Over

For the BIG XII fans, the playoff's are over.  Not sure what happened but Oklahoma just bombed out of the tournament.  It is just as well that I have things to do tomorrow night so I wouldn't have watched anyway.  I will probably buy season tickets and go to all the KU home games anyway. 

Lots to do now that the weather is getting the days right.  I will start outside and then work my way inside.  Probably will have to take a nap mid afternoon. 

Barb had her right eye worked on to fix a cataract.  With the help of a contact lens and reading glasses she has fairly normal vision until she gets the other fixed the middle of this month.  Not sure what she will finish with but probably a fairly light prescription and either bifocals or reading glasses.  

Barb and I have agreed to not talk politics.  This next Presidential election will be so messed up that no one can even get up the energy to discuss things rationally.  How do you chose between a Liar, a looser, and a Wackadoodle.  If you don't know who to put under each heading, you might understand what my dilemma is.  It is such a bad thing that no one will stand up and say,  America is so screwed up that we should stop writing new laws until we can figure out how to eliminate the bad one's.  I would nominate Dave Ramsey as Secretary of the Treasury.  His idea of making a budget and sticking to it just might wake up Washington.  I am pretty sure that no one in Washington can even spell Truth and get it right 5 out of 10 times.  I hear that the Republicans are screwing up the future for our kids.  Last time I looked, we were well on the road to hell many years ago.

Have you listened to the argument that Clinton balanced the budget?  Well, he did manage to, with the help of Congress to have out outgo equal income.  The real problem is that they did not pay even one dime of the national debt off and that elephant in the room is out there eating more and more or the income.  In fact it is costing us so much that we are borrowing about 30% of every dollar we spend.  How long will that last?  Probably about as long as we have things in the USA to sell to China, or they run out of money.

Oh well, Better run and see what is waiting for me outside.

MUD 

Great 8

Well, looks like Oklahoma and KU are both in the great 8.  It took some awesome defense for KU to stay in there last night but at this point in the season, they have the experience and talent to hang with about anyone.  Iowa State plays tonight to show the rest of the College teams that the BIGXII  was not overrated.  Another great evening of basketball.

What is on your Easter plans?  I for one will eat some ham for our friends in Morocco who can't.  I am not sure what they will eat but I'll bet they do it in good company.  I will probably do some cooking outside but mostly on the stove inside. 

Yesterday, I went to Pizza Hut to pick up some pizza for us as we went to Dave's to select the sites for some new fruit trees.  The clerk said it would be about 20 minutes.  After what turned out to be 40 minutes, I went to the counter to ask about my Pizza.  The clerk called out the manager when she couldn't find my order.  The manager said he saw the pizza but thinks it went out with a delivery driver.  Wonder where the heck it went.  They made a new order and it will be a cold day in hell before I will go back to Pizza Hut.  My last trip there was a disaster.  I ordered boneless wings and the cost was about $7.00 and I could have ordered chicken McNuggets from McDonald's for $2.99 and had more meat.  The manager assured me that that was the way they get them and I assured her that I won't be back there for wings.  Now I won't go back for Pizza either.

Oh well, gonna dig some holes today for fruit trees and we will wait until it is at least 60 outside before going to Dave's.  

Last weekend, 60 minutes had a segment on Medical Marijuana.  I am going to look it up on the net to see if there is any research on Fibro Myalgia.    Our Daughter-in-law has it pretty bad and it is a real hard disease to feel so bad all the time.  I don't want her to have to go to Colorado to live but if that is what it takes to make their life better, so be it.

Better get rolling.

MUD

Spring is Springing!

If the weather would settle down, we might get our garden planted early.  The problem is that we just might have one of those spring snows come rolling in and kill anything planted early.  We have a sunny room that is full of plants and need to be outside.  Oh well, I also need to get the garden ready.

I am mad at the Lawyers in Oklahoma.  They think we can just schedule things and then change at the drop of a dime.  The lawyer for the other side is again stalling and we can't seem to get ours to drop the dime on him.  Crap...

April is the month of singing for me.  The first weekend I will be in Dallas for the Harmony Brigade show.  I will practice the 12 songs and when I get there be assigned to sing with three other Barbershoppers to make up a quartet.  This will all end with a show on Saturday night and I am looking forward to hearing the Very Large Quartets all sing together.  The weekend of the 16th our local chorus will hold their 70th annual show.  Can't wait.  We sang our asses off at last night's practice.  The funny thing is that we are much better on the new songs than we were on the old one's. 

Today I have to start the spring cleaning.  Barb is talking about the Easter dinner and we need to get ready for company.  I notice there are still dog nose prints on the windows from our last doggy visitors.  It will be nice enough to also clean the windows on the outside. 

Better get started if I am going to get anything done.  Rock Chalk!

MUD

Bleary Eyed

I think I suffer from too many basketball games over the weekend.  It has been a fun ride and I have really enjoyed all the excitement.  I am very glad to see KU, Oklahoma and Iowa State still dancing as we enter the "Sweet 16."   There has been a game or two that didn't end the way I thought it would.  Most notably is the Texas A&M game that if it had been 30 seconds shorter would have ended differently.

Da barbs are out and about right now and I am here at Che' Rabbit Run all alone.  I am watching the baseball game between a couple of Major League Teams from the USA held there in Cuba.  This is a good start to having a normal relationship with Cuba.  I don't agree with the President on many things but this is one that has been needed fixed for about 50 years.   I hope to go to Cuba someday and I will just love to see the old cars there.  I own a 53 Chevy Pickup and a 57 Chevy Belair 2 dr.  On my "If I win the Lottery" list is to return these two to pristine condition.  Actually, I really plan to put disc brakes and an LT1 engine in the 57.  Did I say anything about A/C yet? 

I have been put on notice that the Easter Bunny has been feeling left out on treats for Easter.  She spends a lot of time putting baskets and treats together for us and no one has been bringing her anything.  She really loves those pecan/caramel apples from Hazel Hill.  They are downtown here in Topeka and have great treats.  I will probably throw in one of their specialty popcorn treats also. 

I have been sending out e-mail notices for people that attended last year's Barbershop Chorus Show.  After a year, not all that many addresses have changed.  Most of the returns have been typing errors and trouble reading the writing.  When I got the right address on the messages they went away.  At least I didn't get a message that the address was invalid.  Here is what I sent:

When you attended our show, you requested that we send you an e-mail notice of the next show.  Hope to see you there.

70th Annual Capital City Barbershop Chorus Show

"Across the Pond"
Saturday, April 16, 2016    One Show Only at 3:00 PM
Featuring Special Guests "Harmonium"
Many other Quartets Including our own "Young at Heart"
Adults are $14 in Advance and $16 at the door
Seniors and Students are $12 in advance and $14 at the door
Fairlawn Church of the Nazarene, 730 SW Fairlawn, Topeka KS 66606
For Tickets or show info call 785) 273-9514 or 785) 286-0619

Well it is time to get cleaned up for the day ahead.

MUD

What a Day

The hawks and the Shocks are both still dancing and things are good here in Basketball Land at Rabbit Run.  Our local Newspaper columnist said the hawks will need to be better if the expect to beat UConn.  If you saw yesterday's game, I am not sure what else anyone would want.  The starters got plenty of rest and the bench played their butts off.  If you saw any of the game you would recognize that when Evan Manning and Tyler Self get to play the game is over.  The hawks had a great time and UConn had better be ready to play their asses off, the hawks are!

This morning when I went out to fetch the paper, I didn't wear a coat.  Guess what, it was snowing.  It has been so warm that none of it is sticking but snow is falling and we need the moisture.  Good Stuff for the Master Gardeners. 

The other day I was working on Dave's car and when I was cutting some tape off, I stabbed myself with a razor blade.  It is on my thumb and about every time I do something I cause it to bleed.  The only way I can keep that from happening I need to have a band aid on and then when I get it wet, I have to replace the band aid.  Crap it is such a nuisance. 

One of these days, I hope that the congress really hauls the drug companies in and makes them answer some tough questions.  When on Blue Cross and BS, Selevilla costs $45.00.  When she lost that insurance they want over $600 a month.  It is highway robbery.

Well, I had better get running and see if there is further mischief I can avoid (Or get into)

MUD

Roundball Part Deux

Now that the real NCAA Men's basketball tournament games start, I hope everyone out there has as much fun watching as I will.  There is a lot of hopes that will get dashed today but each round will eliminate 50% of the team playing.  Start with 68, play down to 64, then 32, then 16, then 8 then 4 and finally the winner of it all.  Cheer for you team, wear their colors and be happy if you get to see the game at all.

One of my friends said he was going to a bar and will be there all day and watch the games until the end of the day.   My problem is that I would probably bee to drunk to watch if I started drinking when the first game started.  I really love beer and I have had to give it up for the sake of my liver.

We bought a car from a private person on Craig's List and yesterday he put an e-mail up and asked me to take a picture of the title and sent it to him.   Only problem with that is that the County takes the title away when I applied for Tags and a new title.  Did I mention how much the sales tax was? 

Oh well, better get things rolling here at Rabbitrun.

MUD

Oh No, It Has Started!

I am sure there are women all over America that are glad the NCAA Men's basketball playoffs have started as it will keep the men busy and out of their way for hours at a time.  Then again, my wife, the Master Gardener, will spend her share of time watching both KU and Wichita State play.  She graduated from WSU with her degree in Education and from KU with a Masters in Special Education.  I think this qualifies her with a dual citizenship for both KU and WSU Nations.  "Rock Chalk Woo Shock."

Yesterday I went down to get the TAG and the license for the Toyota and man did I ever get a sticker shock over the sales tax.    The tax was over $600 and with tags and all it was closer to $800.  I can't imagine buying a new(er) car.  No wonder it seems like making house payment to us old dudes.  The car is firmly in the hands of our son who's car was on it's last legs.   I have his car and will play with it some today but not long or hard.  Last night I pulled the dipstick and found that it was at least a quart low on oil in the two weeks since I filled it up.  I am going to throw in some oil and a can of an additive and see if I can get the bad cylinder to work better.   I will probably just get the title and turn it over to the junk yard.  

This daylight savings thing has  my system all out of whack.  I don't know if I need an afternoon or late morning nap?  I guess I'll just keep taking them both until fall.

Are you up for a couple of Political jokes?  Well here goes.  A prominent Republican was campaigning in rural Arkansas.  He stopped to talk to a farmer and told the farmer who he was.  The farmer said he would like to go get his wife, she had never met a Republican.  While the farmer was in the house, the politician looked for a podium to stand on.  All he could find was a very large pile of dried cow manure.   The wife came out and the politician gave them the best stump speech he had in his bag of lies.  The farmer and his wife were both impressed.  They allowed that it was the best speech they had ever heard.  The Politician said that "This was the first time I ever delivered a speech on a Democratic Platform."

There was a Democratic candidate running for office in a rural area and it was scheduled for the local grange building.  He arrived early and saw that the only heat in the place was an old coal stove.  He built a fire and when the allotted time for his speech arrived there was only one farmer and his wife in the audience.  He asked the farmer what should he do.  "Well, I recon that if I went out to the field to feed the cattle and only one came, I'd feed him."  The politician agreed and gave that farmer the full hour speech.  He again asked the farmer what he thought?  "Well, if I went out to feed the cows and only one came, I sure as hell wouldn't give him the full load." 

One Prominent politician went out to the Indian reservation to give one of his stump speeches.  When he got to one the high points in his speech, the crown shouted "BOHICA!"  Thinking he had really struck gold, he exaggerated his promises again to  the shouts of "BOHICA!"   Just before the  Politician got back in his car to leave, he had to cross a farm yard.  The Chief said, be careful and don't step in the bohica.

I am not sure if my nerves are up to the time between now and the election.  I am pretty sure there is enough hate and division out there to fill any campaign cart of promises.  Lets start with some of the promises - If elected there are people that will want to cut the Military budget to pay for some increased social programs.  Now, if you cut the budget, what is the largest part of the cost?  Yep, Pay and Allowances.  If you cut them, you will have to cut the number of people in uniform.  The people n uniform pay taxes and if you make them unemployed, the income to the Government goes down and the unemployment rate goes up.  Isn't that exactly the wrong thing to do in a recession?  Instead of giving kids a free education through college, How about we have them join the Military and ear the payments through the GI Bill?  Oh no, we are going to cut the size of the military to pay for that idea.   Your guess is as good as mine what we will do but that seems like a stupid idea.

I had better get moving if I am going to get all the good ideas done today.  "BOHICA!"

MUD

That's not silly, It's Crazy

This morning there was an editorial that started out that the writer thought that at one time he thought 100% of the people we in favor of the United States being a Republic.   This guy has a master's Degree and is working on his Doctorate and he gets away with writing that in the opening line of an editorial?  The Editorial Board should have balled up that paper and thrown it away.  Any one that thinks you can get 100% of the people to think any thing is so far out of touch as to need to be in a rubber room.  

In a letter to the editor, one person is real harsh on Donald Trump about his not telling the truth.   Well, how do you tell when a Politician is Lying? "His Lips are Moving."  I am sure that he must believe Hillary's every word and that Bernie can redistribute the wealth and fix all our problems.

This morning there was and article in the paper abut a car that was driven all over town and responsible for five or six accidents and the death of his passenger.  My first reaction was to wonder, wait for it - WHY?  I stooped to the age old question of what causes people to do unreasonable things.  By my own actions I am not silly, I am crazy!

I hear from a lot of TV shows that people do not just want to know who did very violent things, they want to know WHY?   Time and time again, I hear that the very act of the death penalty will give them some kind of closure.  Then, the show tells us that that is not the case.  In our family, we had a niece raped and killed by another family member.  I call him not an in-law, but an outlaw.  That cretin has been sitting on death's row in Arkansas longer than our beloved Andi was alive.  There are times that I again stoop to the stupid question of WHY?  Why did he do it? Why did it take us so long to pursue the death penalty and Why is the review process taking over 15 years?  Thinking like that is not silly, It is Crazy!

By asking the question WHY, I am not being silly, I am being Crazy.  Oh well, it does appear that I am in good company. 

Here is my really crazy question of the day?  Why would anyone want to have the worst job in the USA?  Why would anyone freely think that they are powerful enough to be the target of all the hate and derision that goes along with the job of the president?   There are lists of people that not only ran for the job but a list of those that ran for re-election.  I am amazed that the history books are not filled with people like Lyndon Johnson that said - I will not seek the re-election to the office of the Presidency.  

The world is not silly, It is Crazy!

MUD

West Virginia Who?

The Jayhawks beat a good West Virginia team in Kansas City last night.  They should be proud of their accomplishments as will the hawks be proud.  I hope the smile on Devonte's face will be there at the end of the Big Dance.  He earned the title of Most Valuable Player.  Had Buddy been there at the end and thrown in the game high points in a victory he might have ben the winner of the award.  Devonte earned it.

During the TV coverage of NC and Virginia, Roy Williams had one of those spells where he lost his balance and almost fell down.  I too suffer from the vertigo and episodes of falling down.  It generally involves darkness and periods of inactivity not the bright lights of an arena and all the hype and madness.  I wish him well.  If I had his money, I would go somewhere and live out the rest of my life in quiet solitude.  Oh Hell No!   I would watch as much basketball and I could no matter what.

Did anyone else hear that Oklahoma State is in the process of firing their coach?  That is a real shame when they are the victim of injury to key players not bad coaching.  I wonder how much money they are willing to throw at Bill Self to try to lure him there?  I hope he is immune to that kind of talk.  I am pretty sure that right now he is not even considering anything but the dance before him and his current team.

Looks like Barbara has finally closed the deal on a newer car for Dave.  It is a Toyota with not that many miles on it and should be a good car for years to come.  Now I need to work on her to upgrade her car.  My mechanic friend a few years back said we needed to lift up the steering wheel and drive a new car under it.  Oh well it will be only an errands car and the one we need to worry about is the Crown Vic with 140,000 miles. 

It has finally decided to start the spring rains here in the heartland.  Not hard ones, but gentle and small rains that will help enrich the ground water in our fields.  Barb's garden will need some attention this next week.  I have a tiller that will need to be tuned up and refueled.

Barb just reminded me that I need to reset my watch and wall clock.  At least the computer is right.  Spring Forward means I lost an hour somewhere but it really is not important.

MUD

Heart Attack City

With the hawks ahead by 16 points, Bill Self put in dang near all the subs to give them some playing time in last night's Conference game against Baylor.  I am pretty sure that Baylor took it as a snub and played their butts off.  The result was that Coach Self had to reinsert his starters to preserve the win.  I put the following note on Facebook:   NOTE TO COACH BILL SELF - Most teams will replace their starters throughout the game one or two at a time.  Replacing them all at once is deleterious to the health of your fans.  I almost had a heart attack! 

The game with Oklahoma against Iowa State was one of the best games I have seen all year.  The Buddy Hield show was one of greatness.  Watching the counterpoint by Georges Niang was so much fun.  Watching the West Virginia shut down of Buddy last night was a total downer.  Great coaching by West Virginia but a lousy game to watch.  I wonder what WV will have in store for the Hawks this afternoon. Makes me wonder what the selection committee will do with the WV and OK teams on Sunday?  I think WV played themselves into a number two seed.  OK should fall to a three.  One thing sure is that there are coaches all over the nation hoping that West Virginia doesn't show up in their bracket.

We have been talking to a guy about buying his Toyota.  He doesn't seem to be very savvy of ways to do business.  He shot us a high bid and we low balled him.  He didn't even look for a bid in the middle, he just went away.  Then he has been in touch with us on e-mail and we re-bid right in the middle.  He responded by asking where I bank.  I told him that I will be able to bring a certified check when and if we buy the car.  He sent an e-mail that he will sell the car on Saturday and wanted to know if we banked downtown.  I am not sure if the language barrier is getting in the way of doing this job.  If he would set up a visit about 10 or 11 AM, we can go to my bank and get a certified check and have the bill of sale and title notarized.  Oh well.

This darned conference tournament has my days all mixed up this week.  I guess it is Saturday.  We did get a little moisture last night but nothing like what is going on east and south of here.  We will take all the light rain mother nature wants to give us.

Better get rolling.

MUD

What Did You Expect?

Looking at the BIG XII Tournament the semi finals are the top four teams.  Kansas will play Baylor tonight and that will pit West Virginia against Oklahoma.  If this were a shot group on a target on a rifle range you could say you could put a quarter on the shot group at 100 yards.  The only difference is that KU has been on a roll on the second half of the season and should/could probably win out.  Either way, I won't bet the farm on the outcome.

What are the dreaded words you don't want to hear at the breakfast table?   "What's on your agenda today?"  I hated to admit that my agenda sounds kind of like I'm just planning on goofing off.  I  really will update my blog, catch up on Facebook, answer my E-Mails and listen my way through the music for the upcoming events.  I will sing in Dallas on the 1st and then our program will be on the 16th.   Both have different song so it will be a challenge to get all the words and music right.  It was once no big deal but now days it is a lot more challenging. 

The weather here in the heartland is about 20 degrees above the normal for this time of year.  Normally I wouldn't have any problems with that but I am afraid that all the trees will bloom out and we will be a second year without any fruit on the trees in the orchard.  Last year a wind storm came through right about the time the fruit began to set on.  The deer had a feast as they cleaned up the fallen fruit about the day it all hit the ground.  It all worked out as they would probably would have been eating it until Thanksgiving.  The had it early last year,

This morning the papers had an article about the coached in the BIG XII and how some of them might be on the way out.   I think that kind of thinking is way short of reality.  KU has been able to attract the top recruits and then Bell Self has been able to get the best out of the players.  Why other schools think that is a knock on their coach is not understandable. 

Have I told you lately just how frustrated I am with the Presidential campaign?  We seem to be able to put Donald and Hillary on the top line when I am hard pressed to find many redeeming values in either one.   There are several people out there that I think could do the job well and that are well qualified.  The other day I saw Colin Powel on TV and I have always thought he was very smart and I know he knows what goes on in the White House.  Throw in Condalesa Rice and that is two people who could get the job done.  If you ask the people here in the Midwest they would want Bill Self to go to Washington.  Many of us think he is well qualified and others would want him to go away from the BIG XII. 

I for one am really tired of people say they want the big money taken out of the political races.  Just how cheap would you sell your vote?  As for me, no amount of money would influence me to change my vote.  Speaking of that, what will it take for the young crowd to get out and vote?  I think that the estimate was that less than 11% of the young people got out and voted in the Caucus.  Based on my experience, there were a few very young kids there but the majority of the caucus voters here in Topeka were 40+.  In my perfect world, that would be a National Holiday and everyone would be given a time to vote based on their last name.  I am not sure how I would enforce this but it should be a requirement.

Oh well, better run and see what I need to do outside.  Great day here in the Heartland.

MUD

The Dance has Started

Up to now, the games have been played to start the shake out to the top 66 teams in the nation.  The BIG XII tournament starts tonight with the bottom four teams trying to get another win.  It is win or go home for two of the teams.  They will not be in the Big Dance for sure.  I can not pick the winner as they al have played tough games and won in the talented conference.  We'll see.  I do hear rumblings from the west that the K-State coach has only one more year to produce a better team or he too will go home.  someone  posted a picture of a T-shirt I want.  It said "I love Bird watching" with a picture of a Jay hawk.

I am listening and singing along with the music for our show in April and the Bde sin out in Dallas on the first.  It is kind of hard to sing with all the dust and pollen in the air.  Oh well, I'll do my best to learn the words and I'm sure my voice will be OK by the time I need it.   How would you tell a guy that he needs to stop singing with the baritone section?  He is a Lead and just ruins the unity of our sound.  The Director stopped us and asked what was wrong because we sounded so bad?  I guess I should have told him that it was Jason that made it tough but I didn't want to do that in front of the entire group.  I guess I will need to send a private e-mail to them and make my point.

How many times have I told you that I hate to get old?  Several times a week things happen that just show me how old I am getting.  The other day I needed to put some diesel fuel in the tractor.  I could not climb up on the front scoop and manage to lift my leg high enough to get it where I needed.  It is the kind of thing that would have been a snap not all that long ago.  The thing that is really worry some is that my balance is getting a lot worse.  I told Barb that when and if we get season tickets next year I will need to be on the aisle.  After sitting during a game I just stagger going down the stairs.  The bad part is the lack of hand rails in the Phog.  Oh well, those tickets are very expensive but cheap compared to a stay in the hospital if I fall.

The other day we looked at a Toyota and it was a nice little car with few miles.  Barb low balled the owner and he put us on hold while his wife looked for another car.  They need a larger car and I am sure that their car would make a nice little trade-in at the dealership.  We'll see.

Better get moving of I might find myself glued to this chair.

MUD

Are Blogs Passe?

Am I just wasting my time writing this Blog?   At one time I had many hundreds of readers each day and I was well over 900,000 hits on this blog.  Many others in my family wrote blogs and now my readership is down to a couple of hundred and almost no one else is writing a blog.  I wonder what is changing about society that is causing this lapse.   (Other than the ceaseless news cycle about the election)

If you are on my blog, at the top of the page there is a box you can click and it takes you to the next blog.  Look at the dates and see how many are several years out of date.  Don't these old blogs go somewhere and die?  Do they live in the electronic world out there without deleting or just going away bit by bit? As I warned many of you very early in the life of this blog, I don't write this for you but for the therapeutic effect on my life.  I write, therefore I am.  Or at least so I think.

Now moving on the funny things in life.  The republican party is facing such a dilemma that I just have to laugh at how we got here.  If the Republicans can find a way to throw "The Donald " out of the race, he would probably just splinter off into a third party and split the Republican vote that would lead to the election of Hillary.  If they don't get him to go away, that too will probably lead to the election of Hillary.  Seems there was another Clinton that wanted a woman in the White House. 

Bernie has a real following with a lot of the very people that won't turn out to vote.  Our Political parties would have to run and hide if the 20 somethings got out and voted.  It is unfortunate that they are the people that will be around the longest and have the most to lose.  Sure Bernie will see that they have a free education through college.  What will he do to make sure there is a job when they all graduate.  If it is free, a College Degree will so glut the market that it will be like the High School Diploma.  We will all be able to tell you about the Theory of Relativity but no one will be able to fix a car.  That's OK, because the kids will be in debt so much that they won't have the money to buy a car.  At least the crushing debt they will have will not be student loans but the debt of the Government trying to give everything to everyone. Perhaps if they were forced to take a few classes in economics, they might understand the theory of Other People's Money went away with the Soviet Union. 

Oh well, such is life and I close this with the reality it doesn't matter what I write.  There will be people that read and some that don't. 

MUD

Finished Dave's Car

A while back, Dave's car had a failure to charge and we diagnosed it as a problem with the security system.  Well, we were wrong!  Dave was over and pulled up a video on how to replace the alternator and yesterday was such a nice day that I pulled the alternator off.  Took it to the Auto Parts store and sure enough, it was a shot puppy.  $218 later, I had the new one and put it on in short order.  I would have taken the old one off much faster had I thought about the ground wire on the bottom of the alternator.  After struggling with it for about 30 minutes, It came right out once the wire was undone. DUH Dennis.  His car still has a problem with the motor having a bad cylinder but hey, it runs and will last until it dies.

If some of the spelling looks wonky, the blog site just told me there is a problem with the spell checker.  Must be the computer making all those errors.  Well, perhaps it is these big fat fingers hitting two or more keys at the same time.  I am positive it is not my spelling ability.

Did I mention just how much I hate getting old?  This morning after a few hours in the garage yesterday, my back really aches.  I just scratched an itch on the back of my hand and I may soon have to go get a bandage for bleeding.   Oh well, every day above the ground has to be better than the alternative. 

This morning I told the wife that I was going to the Caucus but I couldn't remember the name of one of the Republicans.  I could remember Trump and Cruise but Rubio just remained nameless.  I was face blind and name blind at the same time.  I have a niece that one time was hit by lightning and she described her memory loss as there are big holes where she had memory stored.  Heck, I can't even remember what green the holes were on let alone the holes.  In our Chorus practice, the director will stop us to work on a small thing and then start from the nearest place that makes sense to him.  I sing with the CD and from front to back not somewhere in the middle.  I would sing the way he wants if I could but alas, I lack that ability.

Barbara is about to undergo cataract surgery the end of the month.  I have plans to go to Dallas and she was going to drive Barb Jr to Austin.  I have many doubts that she will be able to drive that soon.  She might not even have her new glasses yet.  I know that one eye will remain bad until that surgery is completed.  Oh well, half of her vision will be good.

I reset all the mouse traps in the garage for my defense in depth and this morning there were no dead mouse's anywhere.  I hope I have eliminated all the interlopers.  I am sure there will be more somewhere but not sure where or when.

Oh well, better get ready to go caucus, what ever that means.

Dennis

Am I Just Getting Old or What?

In all my years of voting, I do not remember Kansas having a Caucus.  I guess I will go downtown Saturday morning and find out what all this is about.  No, I don't have any idea of what I am going to do there but I will vote for somebody.  I refuse to vote for a person that tries to find a scapegoat for all of our problems and makes faces like a Junior High student.  Damn, that about eliminates everyone in the Republican field.  Oh well.

When that madness is over, I am going to Lawrence to be there for Senior Day in the Phog.  They have to beat Iowa State and that will be no small task.  That will make 40 in a row in the Phog and it won't change the standings in the BIGXII for KU.  Can't wait.

The other day, Barbara saw a mouse in the kitchen so I went to the hardware store to buy some new mouse traps.  I really like the victor traps with the big yellow paddles.  I put a little peanut butter in the holes and the mice just can't seem to help themselves.  In fact, I caught two mice last night.  I guess I need to go out in the garage and step up my defense in depth.  I thought the mice would be moving out but evidentially there is not enough food out there yet. 

Life has been pretty good to us here at Rabbit Run.  I do need to get out and do some clean up of the brush piles when the days warm up and the wind dies down.  I don't think I will ever reach the level of clean of the German forests, but it sure could be a lot cleaner.  I really need to have a good place to burn the downed trees and not burn up the rest of them. 

One of these days I will return to working on cars also.  They all need some maintenance and have minor problems.  Well, Dave's car is in my garage and it has some really major problems.  In addition to the need of an alternator, it has one cylinder that does not have any compression to speak of.  Probably once I get the alternator fixed, the darned thing will die ugly somewhere between Lawrence and here.  Dave has Prius Taste and a used Chevy budget.  We'll see.

Better run

MUD

Bi-Polar, Manic Depressive or just nuts

When I was a kid, my father's Manic Depression reared it's ugly head.  Life didn't make a lot of sense to me and Dad even made it harder to understand.  When my father was on a high, he would come home of Friday after work, hand everyone a grocery sack and tell us to be in the car in 15 minutes because we were going to Arkansas. If you forgot your toothbrush or clean underwear, it was only the weekend so get you ass in the car.  When he was on a low, he would spend most of his time in bed or asleep on the couch.  When he would say "Come Here," you didn't know if he was going to hit or kiss you.  I never thought he was sick, just nuts.

Probably the one time that sticks out in my mind was the year we went to Sear's to spend my birthday money.  or some strange reason I discovered fishing at Beech lake as a thing to do that took me away from the rest of my life.  I would take a couple of raisins with me and the Perch that gathered around the dock would bite on them and then I would use perch parts as bait.  Hours would fly by and I had worn out my old fishing rod.  I had been given a few dollars and I asked Dad if he could take me to Sears to get a new rod.  After selecting a new rod, Dad picked up a reel and placed it on the counter.  I protested that I didn't have enough money for the rod and reel, he paid for both of them.  We put it in the trunk of the car and went home.  In a couple of weeks, Dad was in the Hospital and I had forgot the new rod and reel.  The next spring one day Dad asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him.  As we unloaded the fishing tackle from the trunk, Dad looked at the new equipment and asked, "Where did you get that?  Steal it."  I was absolutely crushed. 

Later on, Dad told us the stories of the electro shock therapy he was given in the Hospital.  He said he would have to get out of bed and look at the chart to see who he was.  Memory was fleeting and he really didn't know or remember where I got the reel.  I really became aware that his illness wasn't a conscious thing.  He said that when he was depressed, he just couldn't get over it.  He asked me if when I had a cold and someone said get over it, could I.  That was the reality of his depression.

Later on in life, I helped Mom get dad into Menninger's Clinic here
in Topeka.  They diagnosed his disorder and put him on Lithium. He became the same dull person as the rest of us. So, as a kid, Manic depression, Bi-Polar didn't mean anything to me,  He was just nuts. 

MUD

I Must Be Getting Old(er)

Yesterday I was in the car with the wife, and because of a vision problem she still lets me drive, and I looked at my watch to see what day of the month it was.  At first I thought it said it was the 3rd.  Wrong, it said it was the 31st.  I guess I am so retired that the date really doesn't make all that much difference.  My watch doesn't recognize that normally there isn't but 28 days in a normal February.  Throw in an extra day for leap year and things really get weird.  Oh well,  At least I still know where my watch is.  I can find it because I seldom take it off.

That reminds me of a story.  Once my Dad was in the VA hospital and I went over to visit him.  I had just bought a new Timex "Tin Man"  watch and Dad noticed it.  He said, "I have always wanted a watch like that."  To me, the watch was just something to tell time with not something special.  As I handed it to him, he wanted me to put the old rubber watch band from the old watch on the new one.  Sure Dad, who wouldn't have given their Dad about anything.  A couple of days later, I went up to visit and he said, "This watch tells me two more things than I needs to know."  He didn't elaborate on what they were but I think he only needed to know the time so he didn't miss a meal.  A few months later, I was over at Mom's after Dad had passed.  I told her the watch story and she said that Dad had told her to give me an old watch he had to make up for the new one I gave him.  It turned out to be the Beech Aircraft watch he was given for working there for 40 years.   I feel that I was way ahead in that trade. 

This morning as I went out to fetch the paper, I was hit in the face with a brisk wind and cool temperatures.  After a couple of days of early spring, we are back to the normal March weather.  If you think the wind blows in March in your State, you should live in Kansas.  Actually the phenomenon of the wind is because Oklahoma Sucks...   Combine that with there is nothing but a Barbed Wire fence between here and the North Pole and you might understand Kansas weather.  There are 4 true seasons here in the heartland and it is what I think of as home.  It might be fun to make a visit to the beach in February but I wouldn't want to live there.

A lot of older people watch TV for the company.  I think I do to augment my trivia knowledge.  For example Napoleon build the Arch de Triumph as a tribute to his soldiers.  The thing most of us know is the Nazi troops marching underneath it during WWII.  Now if I could just remember when Napoleon was in power.  Normally I remember dates of Military engagements but nothing is stored there. 

Well, things to do and places to go.  Barb saw a mouse so it is time to put out the traps for my defense in depth.  Live in the woods and in the spring and fall the mice try to move in.  As long as they are suckers for peanut butter, I will remain the king of Mice hunters. 

MUD 

In My Perfect World

First let me start with this disclaimer that I know I have no such thing as a perfect world.  This is just my view of what would make a perfect world.  Buckle up Boys and Girls, Here Goes...

We need a leader that believes that the power in politics flows from the people through the elected officials and from there into the laws and policies that guide us. I know that we are a hell of a long way from living in a perfect world. Just once I would like to hear that there is a great orator that can calm the storms in Washington and get all sides to even begin to recognize the real problems and from there solutions we can all agree on and afford.  I really want this kind of leader at all levels, local State, nation and World...

Does Donald trump know that his rants just piss most of us off?  I know there can't be a teacher out there that doesn't recognize his behavior is normal in Junior High but not on today's streets.  Is his act just that to see how many people he can piss off so the Clinton's can once again live in the White House?  

Speaking of Whack-a-doodles, (I'll bet some of you thought I was going to attack Bernie again)  can the Governor of Kansas be more out of touch than to continue to cut tax breaks until the State runs out of money?  Just how many millions of dollars can they continue to spend without doing something to increase revenues?  I am not talking about turning our State into a complete socialist one.  I think that we all want there to be a floor that catches the poor as they fall on really hard times.  I just don't think we can afford to have a floor big enough if we let the entire State fail.

Just for a little while, I would like to have the legislature tell us the truth when they are busy telling us what they think we need to hear.  I know that the Military tells all the Military writers to dumb down their manuals to the sixth grade reading level but do we really need speakers to dumb down every thing they report. 

The other day, I told a friend that thanks to Photo Shop, you can never trust any picture to be the absolute truth.  I am afraid that the same thing applies to all the written and spoken words.  Some of that stems from the use of snippets on the internet.  It was on Facebook, it just has to be true.  Yeh, right!  I know there are a bunch of kids out there that never watch the news on TV and when their car radios are on it blasts music from a CD. 

I do not want us to reach the point where Stupid Speech gets to be illegal.  I just would like to have disclaimers.  "Warning, the following may be just made up and is suspected to be in the category of Stupid Speech.  If you believe it, it may cause others to laugh at you when you repeat it."  Sounds like a good warning label to me.

In the paper today, someone said that there was a guy in Italy that thought he could make the trains run on time.  This is not true.  Mussolini did in fact make the trains run on time, it was the rest of his ideas and ways of leading that made it bad for everyone else.  Did Donald trump study some of Mussolini's facial expressions as he got his campaign ready?    

OK, now that I have calmed down a little bit, I will just go back to my jobs here around rabbit run and see if I can improve things here.  Yes, I know that I can not make it perfect but a little better isn't the worst thing.

MUD

Well, the BIC XII Race is over

Monday nights are when the Barbershop Chorus has their practice I hate to miss a KU game.  In spite of the game last night, I went to sing.  As I came out of practice about 9:30, I heard the score was 74 to 42.  They didn't say who was leading and I just assumed that KU had a let down after winning a tie in the conference race.  After all, the Las Vegas line was KU by 2.  Well, a few blocks later they talked about the complete shut off of Texas scoring for the first 5 minutes and the 30 point lead by KU.  By the time I got home, Evan Manning and Tyler Self were both on the floor playing so I knew that  the game was over.  I really can't wait for the Senior Day activities on Saturday.

Does anyone know what the hell the Caucuses here in Kansas are all about?  Our parties are awarded votes at the conventions based on our votes in the General Election.  At 68, I don't ever remember hearing the word Caucus mentioned in Kansas.   There are people complaining that our caucuses will be held at the same time as the KU game.  I don't get it.

Yesterday the temperatures were in the 70's.  Not so much today.  The low temperature and the wind have signaled the return of winter here in Kansas.   I have seen that in many yards, the surprise lilies and "Naked Ladies" are starting to grow out of the ground.  They will get their little buds nipped off tonight. 

In the military, we had a saying that you should train as you fight.  Our director last night kept starting and stopping our songs and it made the process very hard to get started right.  To make it worse, I was the only Baritone.  At one point, someone said that could not hear the lead section because the Baritones were so loud.  Five of them could not out sing one Baritone singing in a Falsetto voice.  Sheesh, I raised my hand and told them I was their Huckleberry and the five leads should be ashamed of themselves.    The director smiled and spent the next five minutes working on the leads part.  I went over and sat down.

This morning I went out to get the paper and I saw a deer on the road between our houses.  The next thing, I noticed that it was not a deer but 8 of them.  I guess I need to go get some more chopped corn to feed the mob.  It will be a lean month or two if we don't feed them.  Things are pretty brown for a while.  Once things green up, they will be OK but that won't be at least until April.

On Friday I will probably go over to Wamego and be there for the funeral of a good friend.  CW5 (Ret) Mark Jensen  and I go a long way back and I should go pay respects to him.  I really want to see his family and how the kids are.  They were so cute when they were little.  Thankfully they looked like his wife.  I know, that is rude but Mark would laugh cause of the truth involved.

Yesterday Dave called and asked if I could take him to a Dr's appointment.  He has had an ear infection for a week and his eardrum burst. He said he was way too dizzy to drive.  On top of that he was running a fever.  I sure hate to see him like that. 

Oh well, better get on with the day.

MUD

Extra Day?

What will you do with your Leap Day?  Is it really an extra day or just another one thrown in to make the calendar people happy?  I for one will go downtown and visit with a friend who is in town.  He is a teacher in Kingman and here for an event that the Kingman students are attending.  He is a licensed bus driver and they love to have him sponsor an event so he can drive the bus.  'Cides he is a really nice guy.   I  have known Ron Sawyer since I was 4 and he was 5. I remember that when he moved in he still hade a trike.  Ron was fresh off the farm in Morril, Kansas when he and his family moved to Wichita.

Ron lived across the street from me on Byrd Street.  His mother was a teacher at Minneha and his Dad was one of the custodians.  As I look back on my life, I find Ron in a lot of the stories that were fun.  Like most of us, we are lucky that some of the events we participated in didn't kill us.  I wouldn't change a thing.   Well, there was one thing I might change.   Ron had a 56 Chevy that he was really proud of.   I had a little dog that I would let out in the morning and I would tell him to go over and pee on Ron's car tires.   I swear that little dog would do that on a regular basis. I swear he understood what I was saying. 

I wish there was a way that an illness of a good friend could get published.  I would have driven to Wamego to visit Mark Jensen when he was sick.  Now I have to go visit his funeral.  65 is way too young to die.  There was a time that Mark and I would stop on the way home from work on Friday night and have a beer.  It was unfortunate that one of those Friday's he didn't go home after one or two.  That was the night that I took the pledge to stop drinking.  First and last time I ever had to bail a friend out of jail. I wish you could have been there when we got to his house.  His wife met us at the door.  She had one child hugging her leg and another in her arms and she said, "Mark, you didn't call."   It was better than any soap opera.  I think at least for a while he stopped drinking also.  I don't know if that lesson lasted to the end.

Mark lived in Wamego, Kansas.  It is my wish that everyone get to spend one 4th of July in Wamego. They have a car show in the park, a parade and that night a fire works display.   It is what America was years ago and I wish it was again.  The parade has children on bikes and tricycles.  The is always a wagon or two with a toddler in it.  The next to last thing is the tractors and then the horses.  Well, I think there is always a city worker that scoops up the road apples the horses leave. 

Oh well, I hope you all get out and take advantage of the great weather.  I think it will be in the 70's and a very light breeze.  Should be a great day.

MUD

Can we say 12 Boys and Girls?

It was a pleasure to watch the hawks beat Texas Tech yesterday.  We were in a hurry to get to a Birthday party at 2 so we didn't stick around for the festivities at the end of the game.  Did see a short review of them on TV.  I am glad to see the team proud of their win.  When they were 5 and 3, it was in doubt.  They have won the rest of their games and clearly have the title in hand even if they lose a game or two, they can't do worse than share it. Oklahoma lost to Texas yesterday so they are out of the running and West Virginia is two games behind with two to play.

Everyone in the Chorus was saying that we should not have practice tomorrow night for various reasons.  I said that we should practice with those that show up.  I didn't realize the Texas game was on Monday or I might have voted different.  Oh well, I will get to see the Iowa State game next weekend at the Phog.

It is warm here and I am noticing that a lot of the plants don't realize that there be freezing weather out there in the coming month.  In fact our last frost free day is mid-April.  Oh well, it will be what it will be.

Today will be in the 70's so I will probably have to find something fun to do that includes my better half.  She gets cranky when the weather is nice and I sit around the house all day.  Not so much if there is college basketball on TV but she does nee me to get out and "Blow the stink off."  That's the old saying my dad brought home from the Navy.  One time I was a substitute teacher for the pre schoolers and I said that to them and one of the kids replied,  "But Teacho, we don't stink."  They really didn't for the most part.

I think I have shared the wash machine problem Barb had and her efforts to replace the one that died. She found a model in Kansas city at the Sear's Outlet store in KC, MO.  I drove the 53 pickup over to get it and I won't drive up I-35 across KC, KS and KC, MO again.  Coming home I took I-70 and bailed out of  Missouri as fast as I could and it made the drive much easier.  I think the lighter traffic and the fact I knew the way better helped.  I try to leave a gap in the traffic ahead of me and everyone in the cities think it is just a place for them to slip their car in.  Oh well...

Have I mentioned how much I hate getting old?  I just went to plug in a CD of my Barbershop music and shut off the computer.  Crap... The only good part is the computer has an automatic update on the blog and I didn't lose much but my place and a few minutes.

Well better get on the road.

MUD

Why Best Buy is Enroute to Failure

For my birthday this past summer, we went to best buy to buy a travel computer.  Our Bank had moved and we started a new account with a local credit union.  We are also trying to use cash as much as possible per the Dave Ramsey program so the majority of our checks go to the utility companies not places like Wal*Mart or Best Buy.  I would bet we spend about the same as most people in our income range.

If you knew the Petty's we are really in a good place financially and I think the account we were going to buy the computer out of had well over $20,000 in it.  Of all the consumers in Topeka you would want in your store, we should be on the list of the invited. 

For some unknown reason, the Tele Check approval company used by Best Buy thought we do not write enough checks and said we were not approved.  We still had an account in the bank that moved, and it had well over $5,000 in it.  Because the first check was disapproved, Tele Check would not let us use the account we had used for over 25 years.  We just left the store shaking our head and moved on.

We went to Nebraska Furniture Mart a couple of days later and they didn't even hesitate to take our check.  I am the proud owner of a HP notebook and am very happy with it. 

Now let me tell you why I think Best Buy is on the road to failure.  Once a salesman has a problem, the store manager or assistant manager should have been able to just call the bank and verify the check was good.  Instead, even the corporate guys claim that Tele Check is their go to guys and they have the utmost faith in their services.  No flexibility, no authority no ability to approve a small check.  If they had the ability to check their computer, they would find me somewhere in there for the Microwave and many other items. 

I would challenge anyone to check any or all of my credit history and find anything lacking.  In fact, I would challenge any of the corporate guys to try to match my balance sheet with theirs.

Here is really why I think Best Buy is in trouble.  Barb and I are pretty typical consumers and about every year one or two of our old major appliances will need replaced.  Where do you think we are going to shop?  Yep, you can bet that it won't be Best Buy.  There is just nothing I can't buy elsewhere in a store in Topeka.  What do you think my comments are if someone asks us about Best Buy? 

I hope you have a lot better experience if you Shop at Best Buy, but remember that they do not allow their store personnel to sell a $600 computer without the approval of Tele Check.  There is not a check cashing store in Topeka or anywhere that would not cash a check for that amount anytime, any day. Every store I walk into will give me a credit card on the spot.  Not Best Buy...

MUD. 

Great Day

Yesterday was a day that will go down in my book as good food and great visit with family.  Amy, my niece from Alabama is in KC for a Golf Show.  She works for the Trent Green Golf Tour and they had a booth at the show. She brought her son Ryan and it was great to see everyone.  It was great to get to see her again.

Did I mention the great food?  My niece, Carrie had a new "Spiralizer" that cuts veggies into spirals and she made a salad that was just great.  It had zucchini, olives, yellow squash, some meat, artichokes with a oil and vinegar dressing.  Her brisket was pretty darned good also.  Throw in  all the other dishes and Ray's brownies and it was all good. 

It is kind of funny how children of the same families can be so different.  Both Amy and Carrie's first children were kind of quiet and the second boys seem almost like "Wild Childs" in comparison.  If you look at them without the contrast of the older brother, they both are pretty normal little guys and Carrie's son Joe is doing well in Law School at Berkley.  His fiancé is also with him out west and she was accepted into the PA school out there.  They both will complete their education at the same time.  Now to see if they can afford to pay back all the debt from the education(s).  Oh well, life is short and there is time to do as much as will be needed. 

The Hawks are 2 games out in the lead of the BIG XII with 4 games to go.  Even if the lose the road games they will remain in a tie for the Conference Championship.  They play tomorrow night on the road and it will be interesting to see if Perry Ellis has recovered.  It might be that Coach Self will hold him out of the game so he can really heal.  Perhaps he might consider holding Carlton Bragg out to keep Perry from getting any more injuries.  

How can I stress to all my friends that the majority of the basketball players are just students attending school and hopefully working on their education.  No one should be mad at their players if they don't win a game.  It is after all a game played by students.  If you expect a win all the time, go watch a pro team.

Oh well, I went to sleep so early last night that I find myself up and att'em early.  I will go see if I can find something to do.

MUD

Can You Get Too Much Basketball?

Yesterday I started early and finished late watching the BIG XII teams play each other.  What a day.  Some of the best basketball I have watched.  The only thing I didn't get was the fouls at the end of the KU  vs KSU game.  When you are down two or four, it makes sense to foul so you can get the ball back.  When you are down 8 with 8 seconds left, let the game play on.  Oh well, other a little damage to Perry Ellis, things ended like I thought they would.

We bought a new wash machine a week or so back and are totally frustrated that Maytag would put their name on such a piece of crap.  In addition to being the loudest machine ever in our house, it didn't even get the clothes wet let alone get them clean.  It had a tub that would hold 8 elephants but wouldn't have gotten one wet or clean.  Once the repairman opened the top, it was clear to me why it didn't work.  Anything that would have made the machine quieter was left off this machine.  A little foam and insulation would have made a big difference.  No matter what setting the wife tried, the EPA standards just left out the water.   According to the repairman, if we are unhappy with a top loader, stay away from the front loaders.  He said that almost 100% of his calls are to fix front loaders.  We will stop at Nebraska Furniture Mart on our way to KC.

Barba and I are looking at cars to see if we can find a solution to the dilemma we are having with the one we have that is not running.  To add to that problem, Barb's old Buick is what Dave is driving back and forth between here and Lawrence.  One day it may not run any better.  That may be we will have to buy two cars this year. 

Today we are going to Kansas City to have lunch with the family.  I am going to make a crock pot of hot German potato salad.  It has been a while since I made it but with such good things as cheddar cheese and bacon how could it not be great.  Speaking of that, I had better get started.

MUD

The Big XII Title will go through Lawrence - Again

I am not sure what the goal of the rest of you is, but I really want the Big XII to put 6 teams in the "Big Dance" and for a final to be with Oklahoma and Kansas.  But realistically, I want the teams to all to play well and for the end of the season to come to a close with out any major injuries.  I don't care about wounded pride, hurt feelings or any of that, just want the kids to be able to finish their educations.   For the first time in a long time, KU has a lot (5)of seniors on this team.  I hope they can replace these guys with good players ready to play for more than "One and Done." 

Oh well, I am off to make a dump run this morning sometime.  I need to work on the trailer tail lights first but that's no big deal.  The good news is that I have a set of taillights that will plug into the wiring of either the truck or the Ford.  Just will take a little time.  I have time to spend.

We had lunch yesterday with Amy and Ryan.  Yes, there was a lot of other people there too.  Shock, Dave and his wife Barb made it.  Barb took pictures and guess who was not in the photos?  Yep, Barb and I didn't make it.  The good news is we look like we always did except that I needed a Haircut.  Probably need a shoe shine but that would not have shown anyway. 

Yesterday we had a long talk about dogs and the effect they have had on our lives.  My first dog was a brindle Manchester Terrier I called Rex.  I can tell stories about that dog for hours.  He did not know he was small and got in some great dog fights.  Most of which he did not win and he had to have some horrible wounds fixed by Dr Gump.  The thing I will remember is the fierce loyalty he had for me.  I guess he returned the love I shared with him.  The one Rex story that stands out is the time someone said dogs won't eat sauerkraut.  I said Rex would if I gave it to him.  After small wager, I fed some to him and sure enough he ate it.  He even came back for seconds.  The bad news is that that night he passed some of the worst farts ever.  So the moral of this story is don't feed Kraut to anyone you plan on sleeping with. 

Oh well, better move on.

MUD 

Did Someone say Basketball?

One of the worst losses this year was the KU loss to OSU at Stillwater.  They stunk up the joint and went home with their tails between their legs.  Last night at the Phog, they avenged that loss and won going away.  Seems to me that the coach has been substituting more players into the game and the entire group plays hard for their time on the floor.  Rock Chalk,  Jayhawk.

The only shortcoming about last night was I had to miss the Barbershop Chorus practice but after spending many hours on Fri and Saturday singing, I don't feel too bad.  I will listen to the music at least an hour a day for the next couple of months.

Well, we have the bigger rental house rented to a nice guy and I hope he will be happy there.  I saw that he is a BBQ chef and I told him that I might want to bring my hickory to a cook out and watch the master work. 

Last night was kind of like old home week at the KU game.  I invited Walt Frederick to go with me and we saw two other old Guardsmen there.  On top of that, we saw a great game.  great times.

This week I lost one of my mentors in the guard.  Brigadier General Harold Sommers passed away and the world will miss him.  He had a calm way of helping others teach their lessons to share the growth of the units.  One year I was the commander of a Firing Battery of 105 Howitzers.  I had 5 brand new Lieutenants that had graduated from OCS the year before.  When we went to Annual training, Then Lieutenant Colonel Sommers told me to focus on the future and rotate all of them through each leadership position.  I did and it was one of the best Annual trainings we had.  Later on, I was able to see that group of officers all grow in the guard and be the best kind of people. 

I guess that Leadership is a different thing to a lot of people.  If you focus on the present, you might get better but only to the current capability of the people.  If you focus on teaching each person to learn new things, you have the potential they have and in my opinion that is always better than what you have.   Kind of the saying - Do what you did and you will get what you had.(got)  I guess the word training in the term Annual training means a lot if you focus on getting better. 

We bought a Maytag washer and it is the noisiest washer I have ever heard.  It goes clunk, buzz and bangs more than Barb can stand.  They will get it back.  As the repairman opened the machine, it was clear that they had skipped the sound deadening and used a lot of plastic where the old parts were metal.  I would insulate it some and put some foam where it bangs if we were going to keep it.

OH what a great month.  Get out there and enjoy life some.

MUD

Valentines

Our Barbershop Quartet delivers Valentines songs each year.  This year I drove a quartet to deliver ma rose, a box of candy and two songs all over NE Kansas.  It is a fun couple of days.  I will admit that we were able to squeeze in time to watch the KU vs OU game so all in all it was a great weekend.

With Barb at the lawn and Garden Show.  I didn't realize I was standing so far forward of the group

It is my wish for you all not to have all the money in the world, but that you will find something in your life that makes you smile all the way into your heart.  This is my way.  Oh by the way, that 's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.

OK, buckle up, this might get a little political.  If the system really works the way it should, the President should nominate the new member of the Supreme Court and the Senate should either approve or not, that nomination.  There have been great people nominated and great people not selected.   If the Senate wants to show it's true colors, they will really look into the heart of the nominee and see if that person can look at the laws and really make the kind of rulings we need, not just political choices.  I want the law to be evolving some but basically hold to the principles we are founded on.  For the strict constitutionalists, remember that if we were not to change, we would still have slavery and the women could not vote.  Neither one is my choice for a way to live.

One question that hit me is the talk about income inequality.  There was a time when the Vanderbilt's, Rockefellers and Getty's had a lot of the nation's wealth .  As we were building as a Nation, that had to be that the rich were wealthy and the poor very poor.  I don't remember that the history books are filled with the discussion about the rich being detrimental to the grown of our nation. I laugh when I hear people say that the rich have too much money and then say they are influencing our politics by giving money to candidates.  One way or the other boys and girls. 

OK, enough of that, I have a lot to do so I need to get on with the game.

MUD

Busy Times

You might think that the winter months would give me a lot of time to sit and contemplate.  Wrong!  My rental house became vacant at the end of December and because I was not able to work hard or long, I has taken most of January to get it ready.  I even had to hire help to paint and do floors.

With the Valentine season upon us, our throw together quartet will be busy singing between now and Monday.  It will be a lot of fun but now that Barb and I are down to one car, It does throw things into a crimp. I will try to go out in the garage and see if I can fix Dave's car so Barb can get her's back.  We'll see if perhaps I don't need to rent a van for the weekend or not.

The cleaning at the rental house has made me a lot more aware of the need to do some spring cleaning here at home.  As soon as I can find a way to play CD's while I work, I will get started at that. Perhaps next week.

Right now, KU is in control of their own destiny for the BIG XII Championship.  They are in a 3 way tie for the lead in the conference and Saturday they will get to play Oklahoma for the tie breaker.  To shop you how slow my mind is, I could not spell breaker and spell checker was little help.  I finally through the process of elimination found something it approved of.  As long as it doesn't have that squiggly red line underneath, it is what you will get.

My present to Barb is on the left

Can you tell which one I wrapped and which one Barb wrapped? 

Batter get moving if I am going to get everything done today.

MUD

KU vs Kentucky at the Phog

This evening Barb and I will be sitting in Allen Field House as KU plays Kentucky.  Should be a great game and I have high hopes that the KU team that has played so well shows up.  They have had their problems on the road but if your goal is to get into the NCAA playoff's, they will play good enough. 

People that wonder how KU has done so well over the years didn't read the sports page this week.  Just as three seniors graduate, they sign a 6'11" player and a 6'8" player.   It is always fun to watch the hawks Re-load their teams from year to year.  It always amazes me when I watch a pro game and hear the names of  past KU players as they do well in the NBA.   I wish that Joel Imbied didn't have a broken foot so he could show his talent.  It is the kind of injury that may mean he never gets to play in the Pro's. 

As you have been told from time to time, I am a landlord and have spent most of the past two weeks rehabbing the damage done to one of my houses by the last tenant.  I hope some day she has her own home and comes to realize that that pack of kids can do more damage than wolves.  I had an electrician come over to see why one of the electrical outlets didn't work.  Evidentially they unscrewed the fuse when they unhooked the washer hoses.  We found the loose fuse when the electrician was looking at the second panel.  Crap.  At least he didn't charge me for the call.  I did buy them lunch so it worked out fairly well.  The two guys were old like me and we laughed all through the visit.  I will save you the details but tell you that old guys have common things wrong and so long as we can laugh at them we'll be ok. 

Once upon a time, I had a friend tell me that he didn't understand the concept of suicide.  He did understand getting as gun and shooting the other sombitch that made him feel that way.  I keep my guns locked in a safe and as long as I can remember where I hid the combination I'll be OK. 

Well, the wash machine died this week after chewing up a fairly new KU shirt.  Barb and I will go over to the west side of town and see if we can get a replacement.  Bet for the right kind of money we can. 

Better run.

MUD