OH, Get real!

This is why we have security screenings!

- This morning I ventured out into the blogs that are on my list of favorites but I don't really read daily. One of them claimed they were not going to fly ever again because of the security at the airports. Listen up People! There are service members out there that go in harms way every day and do a hell of a lot worse than a pat down to keep us free. Lets see if there is room in "Mamby Pamby Land" for those of you who whine that you might get groped once or twice to make sure people know are you are glad to see them and it is not a gun. I would much rather see a strong security than see my plane blown up by some moron that has the mistaken notion that killing me will help him to go to visit Allah. In my perfect world, there would be a curtain around the security area and an armed guard to make sure that everyone is screened right down to their underwear if necessary. Your dignity isn't as important to me as our security. Get in line, shut up or stay the hell home!

This situation reminds me of the time as a teenager, a spider crawled across my plate and I lost my appetite. After a year of living in Vietnam where there were no facilities to mention, that damned spider better not crawl across any plate of mine. I'll smack him with my spoon and wipe the spider juice off on my pants. You can bet I'll finish my meal and use that spoon. I'll try not to be so crude at the Thanksgiving table, but I sure as hell won't whine if the rolls are cool or the butter isn't soft. I freely offer myself up to my better half for a full on body search if it makes it safer for others to eat Turkey. Any one else damned better have a gun of at least be good looking with warm hands.

This morning there was an article in the paper about feeding the birds. It is to bring joy to you and soon you will be naming them looking out the window as you hug a cup of cocoa. Shit oh Dear, I have never read a more stupid piece in my life. The birds are nice to have in the yard, but naming them? Boy do you have to not have anything in your life if you have time to give them names. Oh, you think she means knowing the kind of birds they are? Well, I do know a Dove from a Blue Jay but I don't give a Tufted Titmouse if I call it a house wren or a flicker. If that damned wood pecker doesn't want to be called a red headed wood pecker, why does he have a red head? I sure as hell won't try to call each one by some name I make up.


One final note today is for everyone that thinks what our Government is doing isn't important. There is a day coming that we will have to start paying for all the things we have thrown Federal money at in the past. I don't think we will all have to get down to the level of Dave Ramsey's "Beans and Rice" every meal. But what the hell is so bad about beans and rice? I know people that fly to New Orleans (That's Nawlins for those of you from there) to eat beans and rice. Wait, that's where I started this post. When my reasoning gets circular, it must be time to quit.


Your Pal, MUD

Duh!

Is there anyone out there that doesn't know that Social Security was designed to help the poorest of our poor? The headlines in today's paper declared that delaying the retirement age will hurt the poor the most. DUH! I love the book Barb read in which a character said he didn't mind being poor, except for the shortage of cash. DUH! When will we stop being subjected to stupid actions from our Government and having it reported in even a more stupid manner by our Press. Paying off our debt should be done by everyone and yes, because they are poor, it will hurt the poor the most. But who will benefit the most in the long run? Not having around 30% of every dollar Government spent be borrowed will in the long run give us all a break. Who will get the biggest break? the Poor. Duh!

Does everyone remember why we have security at the Airport? Muslim extremists started using airplanes as bombs to blow up our buildings and places to blow up their underwear and shoes. Now, there is a group protesting that Muslim women should not have to show their face or be searched when they fly. A TSA Agent let a woman in a Burka on a flight after her family protested that she shouldn't have to show her face. My answer to that is stay home or drive if you don't want to have the rules applied to you. If it is politically correct to pat down and make him take off his shoes for a retired Colonel after 31 years of service to his country why the hell would it not be fair to have a Muslim woman show her face to match it with her ID? The only change I would make to the current searches is that I would have it done in an area behind a curtain like in Germany. There, they also have a guard with a machine gun watch to make sure the Agent does a good job. No one, including your family knows what is going on. You could tell the Guard's machine pistol was loaded and there were no exceptions. But, like I said, either submit to the rules or stay the hell home. If I threw a fit in the airport, they would not let me on the flight and probably put my name in the computer for future flights.

One of my favorite moments in the Airport was the time I carried my Army Crew member helmet bag as a carry on. I went through the screening process in Salt lake City and they had this new sniffer that beeped at nitrates. Did I tell you that I am a shooter and I carry my pistols in that same bag from time to time? No, not through the airport but yes, it set off bells and whistles. They didn't do a strip search, (or spankings like I wanted) they did empty the bag out there on the counter and waived the wand at all my non-public places. They just didn't want to try to understand that old Military guys used their bags to carry guns. The good news is that while I was being subjected to all that scrutiny, some poor old woman was being left alone and I did make my flight.

Yesterday I had a real senior moment. At the Post office the clerk gave me a stamp to put on a letter I was mailing. Like an idiot, I picked it up and licked it. Then, I watched as it failed to stick on the letter. I tried to quietly peel the backing off the self stick stamp and then put it on the letter. Dang, I hate it when things change and I don't remember the new way to do things.

Barb was complaining about the early use of the Christmas holiday in stores. She doesn't want them to use Santa until after Thanksgiving. When I tried to defend them, she said that to make it worse, I sang along with the background music. I guess I can't resist a good song especially when I know the words. It must be tough to be a rules, law and order person married to a contrairian. I think she should be glad that I have a fine voice and do most of the words to the songs I sing. OK, If the words to our Alma Mater weren't displayed on the score board at Allen Field House I would miss a few in the middle. Dang, I hate it when that happens.



Far above the golden valley
Glorious to view,
Stands our noble Alma Mater,
Towering toward the blue.
CHORUS:
Lift the chorus ever onward,
Crimson and the blue
Hail to thee, our Alma Mater
Hail to old KU.


MUD

Watches!

OK, I'll admit I am a watch junkie. In my dresser there are a bunch of working and non working watches that I just can't seem to give up. This morning I saw a watch ad from a jewelry store and found that I covet another watch. Dang, I hate it when that happens.




Like a lot of you, I went from the first manual watch that you wound daily without any calendar all the way to the Kinetic with a calendar. My brand preference is Seiko (Sayko or S i ko) and have no interest in a $3,000 Oyster perpetual Rolex. At least with the Kinetic, I have to move to keep it wound. The newest watch of my fantasies is the solar. You can lie on the beach (Hell, I can lie anywhere but tales told on the beach are the best) and keep the correct time. You don't have to even move. Now, when they manage to put the perpetual calendar on that watch I might break down and buy one.



My favorite watch story is about the first Timex Tin Man I bought. I was visiting my father who was in the VA Hospital here in Topeka. He saw my watch and said, "I have always wanted one of those." What's a guy supposed to do except give it to Dad. As he looked it over, he asked me if I could take the band off his old watch and put it on the Tin Man. Yes I can, and I did. A couple of days later, he looked at his watch and announced, "This watch tells me three things more than I need to know." I'll bet there are functions he didn't know how to use. When Dad died and we were at the mortuary for the family visiting, the subject of what was dad going to wear in the casket came up. By that time I was pretty sure that the new replacement watch I had was going to last a long time and that $29.95 Timex might as well be buried with Dad. I told Mom the watch story and she said, "OH yes, your dad wanted you to have something that is at the house." When I took her home, she gave me Dad's gold watch he got from Beech Aircraft for 25 years service. It is a Hamilton that spells out Beech Craft on the dial and has a little red airplane on the second hand. I don't wear it much except for special dress occasions. I got the best of that trade and will always wonder what was going on in Dad's mind.

FREEBEE WATCH THAT HAD A COUNT DOWN FUNCTION

In Vietnam, I was visiting our new headquarters in Dak To. I had just purchased a Seiko watch and was wearing it pretty much daily. One of the guys pointed out that it was probably a copy and a cheap one at that. My "Waterproof" watch was turning my wrist green from cheap brass and the face was foggy from a combination of Insect repellent on the outside and moisture on the inside. The crowning blow came when I slipped and fell while building a sandbag wall. I hit my arm on a metal stake and wiped the face, crystal and hands right off that watch. I threw it away. Somehow in the next week or so, I managed to get to the PX in Pleiku and purchased a real Seiko that worked fine. That watch lasted three or four years without fail. I was water skiing in Arkansas and Barb saw that I had my watch on. She asked my Dad to drive the boat close enough so she could take it and they tried. Somewhere in that maneuver, I tossed the watch to her and it splashed to the bottom of Beaver Lake. Somewhere out there is a watch that is probably still working.

Oh hell, by my new Seiko, I can see that I have managed to waste another hour or so writing about a subject no one probably cares about. Oh well, TIME TO GO.

MUD

Not Again!

- As a business school student, we were told that the stock value of a company was underwritten by the value of the capitol assets owned by the Company. Stock holders were the secured creditors of a company and even through bankruptcy, they would have something of value left as the company was dissolved. Tell that to my GM Stock! Last year my stock went in the toilet as the Government loaned GM 50 Billion Dollars of our money. According to the books, at that time, GM was worth about 90 Billion and that would have left the stockholders about 40 Billion dollars as their share of the company going broke.

No, somehow as a stock holder I was told my stock is not worth anything and I was to tuck my tail and go away. Now, GM is offering a new Stock offering that expects the shares to be worth somewhere between $25 and $35 a share. Do you want to know what it is worth to me? Nothing! Nada, Zip, Zilch. Never again will I invest as much as one dollar in GM. Hell, I'll buy lottery tickets but not one penny on GM stock. The good news is that I only had a grand total of 14 shares and 7 of that due to a stock split. It wasn't going to be the basis of my retirement funds, only a symbol of my ownership of a part of the Corporation I once worked for.

The weatherman has predicted that we might get a coating of snow today. They say the ground is too warm for it to last and the temperature might get into the mid 40's. It was nice to get some rain last Friday and it wouldn't hurt for us to get moisture in any form.

Have a great day out there.

MUD

Roundball Visit

Yesterday evening we met the kids at the "Mad Greek" in Lawrence. We had a nice visit and a great meal. After our meal, Barb and I went to see KU play Valparaiso. Right before the game, I asked the people seated near us if anyone had a clue where Valparaiso is? One guy out of about 25 said he thought it was in Indiana but he wasn't sure. What we were sure of is that it turned ugly and never got better for them. I don't think I have ever seen as KU team make the other team pay as bad as team did for the fouls. On at least three occasions KU players actually tripped Valpo players on their trip down the court. There was at least one tackle that was called and no one was sure who started it or ended it. For a while it looked like there could be a brawl but someone called time out and thankfully the announcers played an earlier play on the scoreboard. I don't think I have ever heard a bunch of KU fans boo a team as loud as this group did. Normally a player might get booed or a chant of Air Ball might ring out but the Valpo team were booed as they left the floor after the pregame warm-ups.

KU was so dominant in the game that only once did the +22 margin set by the paper was anywhere the score. I think it was 78 to 44 at the end. Should be a fun season for hawk fans. Not so much for the Valpo, Alpos.

Barb and I bought a 10 game packet of tickets and we have some pretty good seats. We sit above the students on the end with the band and there can sit through most of the game with an unobstructed view. We did buy some stadium seats to cut down on what I call bleacher butt. Mostly I needed some back support to sit for two hours on a wooden bleacher. It also lets us stake out our place on the bleacher. In the past, we have had people crowd us out and now there is no question where our seats are. Most of the people near our seats are pretty nice and other than some rowdy boys (different group each game) it has been a really pleasant time. I think this time there were three boys that thought it was time to wrestle between group yells of GO JAYHAWKS completely unrelated to what was going on on the floor.

We did discuss the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner plans on the way to Lawrence. We are two of the most traditional people I know and our list of foods could have been my mother's list. Start with a turkey, add garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, pie and rolls and that's a feast but so common it is not funny. Barb did discuss making an apple cobler and serving Well's Blue Bunny Cinnamon ice cream with it. Depending on the weather, I have also been known to grill the bird and smoke it good with hickory. We'll see.

Better get on with my day and do something productive.

MUD

Sad Things on a great Trip

At the very last minute, Dave couldn't get off so Barb and I had to make the trip south by ourselves. I really wanted to get to spend some time with them but alas they just couldn't get away. ON the positive side, I got to see the entire crew there and had a great time visiting with them all. Barb got her CF Card filled with pictures of Dexter and the family. With the help of my cell phone and our Garmin Nuvi I even managed to get over to see Kristy and Ethan. On Saturday I got to visit and tell Army stories with Dalton and on Sunday I got to share with Ethan. I just love telling war stories to little guys. Sure would love to have them closer.

The weather in Oklahoma was great. Both days we were able to shed our coats and be in short sleeved shirts. I'm not sure if Barb was as warm as I was but she hardly ever is. I thinks her hands are at least 10 degrees colder from 15 Sep to the middle of April every year. You know, cold hands warm heart or something like that.

Tonight we are headed over to Lawrence to see our Hawks play another game. It never ceases to amaze me how they just reload and can put winners on the floor. We have great seats this year and generally can sit down and watch the entire game. From the seats we got in previous years we were way up in the end zone and we had a better view from the scoreboard. We now are above the student section by the band and have a great view.

Oh well, better get a few things done here and move on.

MUD

Road trip!

We are headed south to visit our grand nephew Dexter before his family moves off to New York. Dave and his wife are going with us so it should be a fun trip. Having brought Barb to Kansas 40 years ago, I can't say anything bad about moving the wife away from her family base. I do wish Dexter had a little more time to let Becc and grandma Ann give that little guy sugar. Perhaps it is just as well that Dex is leaving before those two women just get too attached that they have to load up the car and move with them.

For Veteran's Day, we went out to eat at Applebee's. They had a nice little steak free for veterans and the other three meals were discounted by the Manager another 25% for the wait. All in all it cost us less than $30 to eat. A bargain in today's world. It was a zoo out there as so many people had the day off and took advantage of a free meal.

We finally got a little rain this morning. I'm not sure how much but it was a good start. perhaps we'll get more during the day today. I think it might get up to 50 today but not much more than that. It will be a good day to stay inside. Other than to get the dog food feeder ready for the weekend I don't have a lot to do out there. The Birds are all set with a new suet block, Black oil sunflower seeds and fresh water in the bowl. I'll plug it in in a week or so but for now I think it won't freeze over.

Better go get things rolling lots to do and miles to go. But, the company we are going with will be so great.

MUD

NIMBY!

I think that windmills slowly turning and generating power are beautiful. The field in Western Kansas and eastern Wyoming are pretty as a bunch of puppies.

For those who have not read NIMBY before, it means, "Not In My Back yard!" It is what people say when in spite of how bad things get, they don't want to pay a little of the price to fix what's broken. It is what the people living in the heartland say when Windmills are offered to help them pay for the cost of power. It is what people say when they know that Nuclear Power Plants can cut the cost of burning coal. It is what the retirees say when they don't get a Cost of Living (COLA) raise for two years. It is what people say when it comes to finding out ways to use hydrogen instead of sending billions to others for Fossil Fuels.

The paper today had the first brush look at a Congressional study into what it will take to stop spending into a deficit. One of the sponsors said he and the others may have to go into witness protection if it ever gets acted upon. Here are just a couple of their ideas:

• Reduce or eliminate the deduction from income tax the deduction on interest paid for the primary residence. If people think being tipped over on the value of their house was bad before, this will be a final blow to a lot of people.


• Needs testing for Social Security. Those of us that did have the willingness to save for retirement will be told to pay the price for those that didn't.


• Increasing the age for retirement. I guess if Social Security won't have any money, delaying the age for entrance to the retirement pool is probably the answer.


• No Federal Employee raises for five years and a reduction of 10% of the federal workforce size. Yep, more unemployed will fix that problem.


• Only down in the list of things is the cuts needed in spending. Can anyone tell me why we need a Federal Education Department? Why is the CIA not in the Defense Department? Why doe we not have just a Land Force, an Air Force and a Naval Force? Why do we have Marines who have their own Air Force? Why doesn't the Navy and the Coast Guard belong together? I guess if you think this applies why do we have a National Guard and Army Reserve? Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard?

Did you know that the budget Deficit this year will exceed one Trillion Dollars? Next year isn't projected to be much better. In my perfect world, Outgo would be less than or than equal to income. I know, many of you are already yelling NIMBY!

MUD

I Yam what I Yam

MEN ARE BINARY - EITHER THEY ARE TURNED ON OR NOT

I stole this from Becca cause it is so true.

I saw a part of the Oprah interview with George W. Bush (POTUS 43). I was struck by how he described how drinking snuck up on him and the effect it had on him. I am not an alcoholic, I am just a sober drunk. I gave up drinking years ago and and am much the better man for doing so. I too don't really remember when I crossed the threshold from just drinking to drinking "Too Much". It is possible that from the first drink, I was destined to drink too much. It was early and often that I needed a drink. I did not just like beer and Whisky, I needed it to help me deal with the stress at the end of the day. I don't think a day goes by that I don't want to take a drink. I stay sober for today and have stacked up a bunch of days together. OK, I borrowed this saying from AA. It is the powerless part of AA that I object to. Either I am the most powerful person in my life or I would give up. I let Mom do the praying for me.

Hell Yes, I was avoiding the solutions and adding problems to my life. I don't blame the Military for being the cause of my drinking, only for putting me in a place where it not only was allowed, it was required. My first assignment at Fort Irwin, CA in 1967 was in the place where the end of the world meets the lowest place on earth. The north end of Fort Irwin is the south end of Death Valley. I'm not saying that it is the place that the good lord would give the earth and enema, but you can see the insertion point from main post. At least twice a week we would have an Officer's call at the Officer's club and they played liar's dice for pitchers of beer. I was a terrible liar. The good news was that the beer was cheap and plentiful.

I continued drinking until I attended an Alcohol Information Workshop. It was sponsored by the Guard so in a way the Military was responsible for showing me the problem. Barb and I filled out a questionnaire about drinking if you answered three questions yes, you were in the opinion of the author, headed for problems. I answered 7 out of 10 yes and when I looked at Barb's card, she had 10 out of 10 marked yes. She said she had filled it our for me and generally I was to drunk to notice the last three answers she marked yes. I went out with a good friend for a happy hour on a Friday afternoon and about midnight, he called me from Jail and wanted me to come bail him out. On the way home, we discussed how two old worn out Military guys could have gone over the edge. We both pledged to stop drinking and I've been sober since that day.

Somewhere during that same time I gave up smoking. I have dreams about smoking my pipe now and then. I think it was much harder to stop smoking than drinking. I really had to taper off the smoking and I was truly addicted to nicotine. Oh well, that's another story for somewhere down the road. I am just glad that my path did not cross marijuana or cocaine cause from what I hear I would have been an easy target for their addictive properties. Well, I really think not because I'm the cheapest bastard around and would have never paid big bucks for a easy buzz.

MUD

How to Live like a Billionaire

Jean Folger wrote on MSN about ways to live like a Billionaire. Her comments are in bold and the Petty example follows.



1. Keep your home simple. I prefer to say you should have realistic expectations about what you have and know that everything will probably be replaced some where along the line. Our only mistake was not building earlier so it would have cost less. Perhaps we didn't need the extra 1000 sq feet but at the time it was cheap.



2. Use Self Powered/Public Transportation. We live in the country so there is no public transportation out here. We do ride our bikes a couple of times a week for 8-10 miles to stay healthy. I stopped smoking and drinking somewhere along those lines.



3. Buy your clothes off the rack. I'm so cheap that I buy a lot of my clothes off the clearance rack at Tractor Supply. Barb shops for clothes at the end of one season on sale. Yes, a lot of my shirts do say John Deere and Carhardt.



4. Keep your scissors sharp. I just found a barber that cuts hair for $7.00 a pop. That is down from $13.00 at my last barber. The new guy doesn't take appointments and I love that. I won't comment on Barb's beautician. She looks great and I'm proud.



5. Drive a Regular Car. If you knew me, you would wonder why I have always driven old cars. I have owned a couple of new cars in my life but nevermore. My latest car was a 2004 Crown Victoria with 18,000 miles purchased for 10 grand. My daily driver is a 53 chevy pickup and there is a 57 in the garage for weekends (If I can get it started). Barb's regular driver is a 96 Buick Skylark with 118,000 miles on it.



6. Skip Luxury Items. I was probably the last guy I knew to own a cell phone. As soon as AT&T could provide me a high speed line cheaper I dropped Direcway satellite Internet. Barbara is famous for finding things on sale. We discuss all purchases and she keeps me out of Nieman Markus. (and Best Buy unless Dave's Employee/family Discount plan applies)



7. Use the Public Library. (Barbara Bonus) At one time I bought a lot of new books and have many that I read once. I have read most of my WEB Griffin books more than once so they really don't count. Our public library allows Barbara to reserve books on line and then notifies her when they are available for pick-up. When we go to a book store, she looks at what is new and writes those titles down to put on order. I shop at a second hand book store for all my books on CD and take them back when we have listened to them.



8. Dennis Bonus - I bought the right tools to do jobs for myself instead of hiring a professional to do the job. Who do you think pays for his tools?



MUD

Just a Quick Note

The other day I mentioned that I liked the Sears Ads because of the wrenches and wenches in the same AD. Today I noticed that Kohl's has wenches and watches. That's all!

MUD

What is your Favorite Food?

For years, I loved cake and could not make up my mind which kind of cake I liked best. Red Velvet and German Chocolate cake were right up there on the top of the list. The other day I bought some Blue Bunny Cinnamon Vanilla ice cream and went straight for a pie to put it on. Humm, do you suppose that I really like pie better than cake? Dang, now I am going to have to pick a favorite pie. Oh, BTW I bought a pecan pie for the ice cream. Yummy!

The other day I was in HiVee and saw they had those wonderful Holiday Red Seedless grapes again. They are great big grapes and sweet and juicy. Put with a Honey Crisp Apple in a Waldorf salad and it was heaven. (Yes, Mayonnaise, celery and marshmallows are in there somewhere)

On a boat going to Vietnam, they served Mutton. I struggled with that bad taste for years and didn't even try lamb because i thought it had that strong taste. I tried Lamb chops one day and found that they are very delicious. I am not sure that I like Lamb chops better than Rib-eye steak but it is close. I have also been known to consume a big old hamburger. Ont the way back from Lawrence yesterday I bought one of those BBQ Boneless McRib sandwiches and remembered that the memory was better than the actual sandwich. Dang I hate it when that happens.

Somewhere I made a goof yesterday. I made an appointment to meet with Rick Frydman on a legal matter and I was 24 hours early. I planned on seeing the Hawks play Emporia. Yes, the game is today. I guess an 8 does look like a 9 with these old eyes and small numbers on a watch. The good news is that Rick was there and didn't make fun of me for being a day early. Rick is married to a cousin of mine and if you need a good lawyer in Lawrence, KS he's my go to guy.

This morning I'm going to make potato pancakes with a side of sliced ham. I think that my garlic mashed potatoes are about the best and made into pancakes they are the best.

Now that I'm really hungry, I'd better go.

MUD

Nature or Nurture

- This morning our Monday paper isn't in the driveway so I sat down with a cup of coffee and looked at the ads from the Sunday paper. To me, it is very apparent that either parents buy toys that are very differentiated by sex or the kids want toys that are very different. Nert has an arsenal of giant Nerf firing rifles this year. Nerf@N-Strike Stampede even has what looks like a magazine to hold more ammo. What little boy could resist the Jung Zhu Battle Arena or the Special Forces headquarters? Throw in the WWE Money in the Bank Ring with miniature ladder (action figures sold separately) or the Iron Man series of rock'em sock'em products. The Star Wars action figures are designed to storm other people's forts not to hold a tea party.

- And what does the little princess line look like this year? Yes dear one's that time worn "Easy Bake" oven is back. There is a myriad of Play-Doh items to shape things out of. The dolls are kind of neat as you can have them do all sorts of realistic things little mommies want from their children. There are a lot of what I call "Play and share" things on the girls side of the ads.

Yes, there are some outside play items but the boys bikes are designed to look like stunt bikes or dirt racers. The girls bikes come in pastel colors and have fluttery things hanging from the handlebars. The small electric riders are either the Barbie Jammin Jeep or the Polaris Outlaw Ride On. Guess which one has two little smiling girls and which has one boy looking like he just jumped over a major hurdle?

Even the Nintendo, X-Box and Wii have games that differentiate. For the boys, Aragon's Quest, Sports Champions and Dragon Quest. The other side has Dance Central, Poki Park and Super Mario Brothers. In the ad its self, there is one Boy throwing punches at the screen and in the Girls ad, two kids there watching one imitating dancing on the screen.

Are boys and girls by their nature really that different by Nurture or does the toys determine the competitiveness of our children? Do we buy a little lap dog for girls and a Lab to fetch sticks for the boys?

I grew up wanting to be the boss and lead people and Barbara grew up to be the best teacher she could be. I'll bet I had more guns than she had dolls. Barbara did have a brother and sisters near her age and my little brother was 5 years younger.

Yes, this is like the chicken and the egg question. Is the way our kids grow up a natural result of their nature or do we nurture the child to achieve the end result?

MUD

Oh No! I Must be Slipping!

One Rock at a Time - How Congress had better change

Temple of Sinawava in Zion

Virgin River in Zion w/Petty's at Play

As I left the kitchen this AM, Barb agreed with me about a political matter. There was an article in the paper about a Senator from South Carolina that said we need to hit the Military with a strike if we hit Iran because they are making Nukes. Shit oh Dear, I heard myself say "That's stupid, why would we get involved in another war with an Islamic country?" Barb pressed her "Like" button.

On the other hand, I completely disagree with her that the Republicans are really subject to not being able to change much in Washington. The Republican party will change or be changed like a dirty diaper. The people in the United States will no longer accept absolute tyranny from the Congress. The speech I heard from an unremembered source this week (I remember the quote just not the person that said it) said that the Republican House can offer up changes to the crap that came out of Washington over the past 4 years and then use it as ammunition to change the Senate and the Presidency. For example, change the provision in the health Care Bill that starts collecting fees for the change prior to the date of the change. To think that our government will start charging for something and save the money until later is folly. Would you give a kid a bag of candy and think he will save it for Halloween next year?

The House could make the CAP and trade bill charge only based on the proven results. Start changing C02 emissions into oxygen and then start charging. I for one will plant trees and focus on what I can change not what I can charge for. I would change the law and let the President have as many Czars as he could personally pay for. Ditto on the Air Force One cost. The president could easily fly on one of the small jets and save up a pants load of money. If strap hangers wanted to come along, let them ride in a C-130 with the cars.

Oh well, I guess it is just too easy for me to come up with good ideas living here in the Heartland. If the men and women there in Washington could just walk down the trail at the "Temple of Sinawava" in Zion national Park, they too could find a center of peace that tells them that you can't spend your way out of poverty. The only problem with that is they would want to bring along a press corps and staffers rather than focus in on their own core.

Will be 70 here in the heartland today. Just gotta ride on the bike today.

MUD

If You Don't save Daylight Does the change matter?

BBQ Bottle at Texas Basketball Game last year

Stupid questions sometimes deserve pithy responses. We have all listen to the tree falling question and groaned a little. Does it really matter if that damned egg or the chicken was first? Having the clocks set at the same time in an area just provides some control over when to go to lunch or home. Around here, most of the clocks upstairs that Barb watches are 5 minutes fast. Most of the one's I set are spot on to the second by WWV or the national center in Colorado. But, if time isn't important, what does all that preparation matter?

This was the year for new glasses. Barb got hers a while back and after stepping on mine, I decided to replace the old ones with a pair that at least aren't bent out of whack. For some stupid reason, I prefer my glasses to give me 20/15 vision when they are new. The Doctor sets the vision for each eye and when I am given the opportunity to see with both, it adjusts to line 15 at 20 feet. How can a conservative be far sighted? Also, Presbyopia or not, I am not afraid of Presbyterians. That's an inside joke that eye Doctors tell each other. I asked why the glasses I got 2 years ago seem to have almost no scratches. I was told that they now use polycarbonate lenses and they just don't scratch like toe old plastic one's did. They are also harder than hell and protect the eyes from BB Guns.

It almost got down to freezing last night. There was frost on the pumpkin, as well as damn near everything else. The remaining tree leaves won't last long now. Sometime early next week I'll finish picking up the hoses and mow the leaves into compost. Sometimes I pick up the dust and put it on the compost piles and sometimes I don't. It keeps me busy but doesn't seem to matter much.

We had dinner with Dave and his wife, Barb, last night and ate at Rib Crib. They changed their menu and finally have a sweet and sticky BBQ sauce that I like. In the past they served only a Texas or Carolina sauce that was vinegar and mustard Based sauce. I grew up here in the Heartland eating KC style BBQ and like the sweeter taste. I normally don't use BBQ sauce on my steaks or chicken but when I eat Sauce, bring on the Hickory Smoke KC Masterpiece. Throw in a side of fried Okra and you have a meal.

For Barb's birthday we got her a new computer chair. her old one was about on it's last leg and it was about time she had one that didn't hurt her back. I hope this new one helps.

Better see what the sunshine brings out there. have a great weekend.

MUD

Wenches and Wrenches

This isn't the deer I saw, It was his daddy

On Wednesday, our local paper is filled with the advertising flyers from the major chains. I can always count on the sears ads to fill my eyes and mind with images of wenches in bras and panties and pictures of shiny new wrenches. A lot of other flyers provide eye candy but none other provide stimulation of the SAE and Metric size. Other than that, the paper can be read in just a few minutes, fewer if you don't cart about Football. Wrap it up guys, they are playing roundball. Yep, checked the Obits and I am not there. Moving on...

This morning it is a lot colder than yesterday but it after 32 MPH winds, it is almost calm out there this AM. As I was putting on my shoes to go fetch the paper this morning, I spotted a deer moving in the woods about 50 yards west of the house. As I watched, I saw it moving through the trees and it was a Buck with nice sized antlers. I just stood there and watched it slowly move as his color matched the trees and leaves. When I told Barb about the deer, she asked me why I didn't go get her camera with the telephoto that was right there in the living room. I guess I was a lot like the hunter that see's his first deer of the season and just the view was so spectacular that nothing else mattered. "Buck Fever" just cancelled out my thinking like a picture of one of those Brazilian Bikini models on the beach at Ipanema. When I did finally venture outside, he spotted me and froze for about a minute. Then he waived his white flag tail and jumped through the brush as he fled to the west. He must have gone up by the fence on the west side as I heard the dogs up there bark to mark his appearance.

How come we never remember to buy some more trash sacks at the store until we are completely out? Barb and I both thought hard yesterday while we were out "Blowing the stink off." Could we either one remember those necessary items? Nope. Kind of like that issue with Toilet Paper. I can remember a brand name but not why. Is that brand name in my brain housing storage unit because I never want to buy it again or is that the one I like. Yes, there are brands of toilet tissue I like. Soft, durable and big rolls go a long way in being the brand of my ideals. For a while I started using my cell phone to make notes when I thought of things I need. Then, I started to forget where my phone was and that negated the entire use. Just a note, My dad used the term "Blowing the Stink Off" as something we all needed to do now and then after being cooped up in the house.

Today is Barb Jr's birthday and we are going to celebrate with them tomorrow. She will have her nephews (I Hope) and we will try to do something fun for them too. Young men are always such a joy to have around. I forget how much laughter they can bring you. I'm pretty sure that young women are like that too. My experience is much more limited in that area. Little girls giggle but teenage girls tend to have a lot of drama in everything.

Better close and move on smartly or whichever way old guys move.

MUD

Bass Ackwards

A really great person that I know and love grew up in Germany. She said that she still thinks in German and has to translate things to English and often things come out Bass Ackwards. I wonder if the Democratic Party thinks in German? I also wonder if the Republican Party will understand English for the next couple of years.

It is my opinion that people that go to Washington get wrapped up in the idea that they can do things with OPM (Other People's Money) and that it doesn't cost us overall. After all what difference does it make if California goes broke to those of us in the heartland? Well, I do care that there are pockets of poverty, but I can't make Detroit as good a place to live as it once was.

For some reason, the Congress has tried to make life easy for the unemployed and not figure out how to fix the problem. They have fixed the Banks and shored up Wall Street and fixed the problem for people that got into this mess through being greedy. If you live on an expense account and don't have to use your own money it is easy to not have to worry about other people. If I had my way, the Congress would only be allowed in Washington to conduct business about 4 months a year and the rest of the year they would need to be home living and talking to the people they were elected by. Yes, limiting the time in Washington should limit the amount of money they spend.

Ok, I'll go away and find something useful to do today. Bye.

MUD

It's Been "CrapTastic"

You want to know what worries the hell out of me? Will the victory in the House of Representatives by the Republican party signal them to start being as big a party of A holes as the Democrats were? This wasn't about the Republicans, but about Congress. What I and hopefully most of us want, is for them to sit down and find ways to fix problems and do it as quick and cheaply as they can. I personally would fire the first guy that says we can't, won't or oppose fixing what the hell is wrong.

Yes, I am aware that in general you can have things two of three ways. Put Cheap, good and quick in the hunt and generally you can have two of them not all three. The other day I heard a commentator say that putting people back to work was pretty easy in his mind. Lower the withholding taxes today to put more money in the hands of the working people. They are generally spending nearly 100% of what they make and if they have more money to spend, it will get spent. They are the people that visit the small businesses and will spend money there right now not after months of some Government program.

So, to the "CrapTastic" Congress, the challenge I leave in their hands is to go back to Washington, start down the road of fixing problems and spending money like it is their last term in office. Continue to do what you did and we won't settle for what we got last time. The sheeple have spoken it is now the time for Congress to listen. I for one wouldn't be all pissed off if the President listened and brought the Leaders of the new congress together and used a little of his Community Organizer experience to organize that goat rope and hold a rodeo that we can all be proud of. If not, he'll have another two years to write if he is a worse or better President than Jimma Carter was.

MUD

Mini Minor

Long before the Mini Cooper was this fast well known car, both Morris and Austin made a "mini" and in 1962-65 we had one. It was a go-cart and was ever so much fun to drive. The second best thing was the fact that if the battery was dead, you could push it yourself and jump in. slam it in gear and drive off. The battery was in the trunk and seemed like dead more often than good.

My dad was one of those guys that loved a good challenge and the Mini-Minor or the Morris 850 was one. Ours had been in a head on crash and according to the story I heard later on, the driver had been killed. Dad bought it cheap and spent quite a bit of time getting it running again. He used a torch to heat the fenders and straighten them out. I'll bet there was a couple of pounds of lead on the ground from earlier bodywork. The car started out white and ended a two tone primer and white.

It was a great little around town car and back when gas was cheap got at least 30 MPG in town and almost 45 on the road. That area is one that I don't recommend. We drove it to Arkansas one time and it was a little "feel every bump in the road" car. At best, the upholstery was a single layer of foam rubber covered with a slick plastic. Your butt bottomed out except in the front seat. The tires were 8.50X10 and while they stuck on the road in curves were rough as hell. Remember riding in a go cart? You were thrilled by the ability to slide around the corner and go fast? That feeling left as your butt got numb and the lack of AC caused you to sweat on the plastic seat. Back then, AC was an add on and almost none of the cars came with one standard. I'll promise you that there was no where to jamb a compressor or an under the dash unit in the mini.

Another area that was problematic was repair parts. I'm sure there were hundreds in every salvage in England but not one anywhere in the Heartland. There was an MG dealership in Wichita and he charged two prices for everything and it always took a couple of weeks to get it shipped from wherever it was they came from. I think a lot of the parts had to come from England and if you wanted it fast, add a third more to the price. Ship it by boat and add a month. Crap, but I loved that little car.

Today is going to be a fun day for us. Barbara is at a Master Gardner meeting this morning and tonight we'll get to see the KU JayHawks play their first game of the year. They open their doors to Washburn University from Topeka and it is a good thing for all. Without a doubt it will be a sell out and was part of a 10 game home ticket package. In a couple of months we will also get to see K-State at KU. On our way out of town, we'll probably stop and vote.

Better go see if there is any trouble I need to get into.

MUD

Photos

Angie & Barb

ISSAC


HALLOWEEN AT RABBIT RUN

LUCAS

SQUIRREL CITY

Who said that old folks have to stay home and can't have fun on halloween.

MUD

Happy Halloween

I guess it should be no surprise that Barbara loves Halloween. The only problem is that we live in the dark woods and have never had a trick or treater. When the Reimers were here in Topeka we would go over to their house and man the door there or take the girls out for the walk to the neighbors. This year we will probably go deliver treats to some of her friends just to say hi. You know the saying, you can take the adult out of the kids but you can never take the kid out of the adult. I never worry about what she will make as her treats, cookies and cakes are the best.

One of my favorite nieces was born on Halloween. (Just so you know, they are all special to me and I love them all) Barb was over looking through all of her pictures to find one of Jennifer when she was a little girl. It will be on Facebook soon as I just heard the scanner running.

Every year right before Halloween the DirecTV has a run on scary movies. This morning Jamie Lee Curtis was on for the umpteenth showing of Halloween. I like scary movies but every once in a while just want to watch a western. Nothing beats scary like Mongo knocking out a horse. I would even settle for a John Wayne shoot'em up with about a gazillion dead Indians. Nothing wrong with Indians, they were the only enemy we had in the 1860-1880 time frame. There may have been a few enemies out there external but nothing scared farmers like an Apache raid.

You may or may not know that I have been keeping all the short stories about Vietnam that I have posted over the years. The only book that I can find near to it is flavor is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. My experience in Vietnam was a collection of funny , boring and scary short stories. I'll continue to work on the venue to produce the final effect. Not yet though.

Have a scary Day out there.

MUD

Who, What, When, Where and Why; and Spiders

When I went to school, the teachers said that the first paragraph of a good news story needed to tell the Who, What, When Where and Why (If available). In today's paper, there were so many stories that failed to tell these important points that I felt like I wound up dumber for reading the paper. One story about a shooting in a Nevada WalMart never did tell you in what city in Nevada or the name of the person arrested. There was a quote from a Reno spokeswoman for the Reno Police but darned little info. I won't go on any more but to mention that an editor let the mention of Prostrate Cancer get through the process? That darned prostrate cancer will just lay you low.

Just so you know, Barbara is from the group of people that actually like spiders. She thinks that anything that eats other bugs is just fine with her. Her friend, the Shawnee County Extension Agent, Jamie Hancock wrote an article about them in today's paper. I know that this is the only person Barbara likes more than Martha Stewart. Most of us are really freaked out when we find ourselves directly involved with spiders. I really hate it in the late summer or early fall when they build webs across the path and I have to find them by having my entire body covered with those damned sticky webs and on occasion a spider or two. Dave's wife, Barb Jr. hates spiders and I don't hold it against her.

So, as Jamie and Barbara would say, leave them alone and they will leave you the same way.

MUD

Mention in History

Waiting for a Ride in a Bird Dog

Montaignard Village up the road from Ambush Alley

Convoy at Traffic Control Point in Dak To

View from back seat of Bird Dog

I was given a link to the history of the 1st Battalion, 92nd Field Artillery the other day and found out that I was mentioned in the history of the battalion. On the 5th of May 1968 I was flying as an aerial observer and called fire during an ambush of my unit. As usual, the Battalion Commander and the Battalion Signal Officer jumped in a helicopter and rushed to the scene of the clean up as most of the real ambush was busted up by the time they got there. The report went on to mention that the Battalion Commander and the Signal Officer were awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and I got mentioned in the notes. Oh well, the guys in my unit knew who was really there to save their bacon. It really made my day to know that most of my guys there went home safely.

Things like this make me wonder just how many times are we mentioned in some obscure publication and we don't even know. I know the Internet helps us find most of the posts if someone took the time to really enter the information. No, I don't think it is important to go back and try to recreate the past over one small award. The one thing I got home with was my body not poked with any new holes. No Purple heart for the Kid from Kansas and I was glad for that.

I did get home with Malaria and had enough blood taken over that 10 days in the VA Hospital to have filled a blood bank. They used a new medicine on me and I am fortunate to have never had a recurrence of Malaria. I had friends whose dad's had Malaria from WWII and at least once a year went back into the VA for treatment.

The weather here was down right cold yesterday and has turned warmer today. The wind has kicked back up and I doubt that Barb will want to ride if the temp is under 70 or the wind is +10 or over. I did have her bike looked at by our local bike shop to help fix the shifting problem. It was way out of adjustment on the rear wheel shifter and is OK now.

OH well, miles to go and things to do.

MUD

Gentleman Johnny Lott

In my time in the service, I met a lot of people that I remember very well. The XO of the gun battery I was first assigned to the 1st Battalion, 92nd Artillery was a fellow we all called Gentleman Johnny Lott. He was from the South and had a very soft drawl and whenever he would talk to the cannoneers in our unit he would say "Gentlemen, listen up." In spite of being one of the dirtiest bunch of guys you would ever want to meet, he always called and treated the guys as gentlemen.

He and I were not in the same place very much. He rotated home and I became the XO of the battery. I wish I could tell you funny stories about John but mostly I heard the stories about how calm he was and much he cared about the men in our battery. I hope he was able to carry the calm intelligent person he was into his later life.

MUD

Big Whoopee

Flying Crane bringing Joes and makin' Dust

Huey on helicopter pad

Chonook w/100 rounds and powder

Back in the late 60's, the Military was pushing to build up the "Boots on the Ground" strength in Vietnam to over 500,000. That was what General Westmorland said was the price to win the war. As we all know, there was never a number that would win the war once it was decided that the war was to be fought entirely in South Vietnam. We fought the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong to death in the south. After TET 68, we had the enemy on the run and could have won the war had we been willing to go on the offense. After we withdrew from the active battles in 1972, we were unwilling to go back in and re-join the fight and the North Vietnamese claimed a victory. Don't let any of the revisionists tell you that the Military lost that war, we all did for Political reasons.
Where I wanted to go with this was that the price of having so many soldiers in combat was that there just weren't enough of them to entirely fill the needs in our units. Instant access to the numbers was solved by Project McNamara or McNamara's Project 100,000. Someone finally decided that a hundred thousand of the category 3, or slightly lower intelligence soldiers would fill out our strength and because most of these guys would only serve as Privates and at best Specialist 4's, their lack of ablilty would not inhibit our efforts. In 1967, these draftees began to filter into the Army as Ammo handlers, truck drivers, grunts and Combat Engineers (Spelled with a shovel not heavy machinery).
One of these mental giants showed up in my battery in 1968 and immediately the guys started calling him "Big Whoopee" or Whoop for short. When something really intelligent or erudite was said he would say "Well Big Whoopee." Somewhere there is a football team that could use him as a defensive lineman as he was about 5 foot 8 and 250 lbs. He could also double as a tackling dummy but he would probably hurt too many teammates. His lack of intellect was made up for by his strength. He was a walking testament to leadership. On his own, he would not start any task but once started, he was the last man standing. Perhaps there was enough smarts to know when he was given the most menial tasks, but once properly instructed, he would finish most jobs with relish. There was one problem that his section Sergeant soon found out and that was that Whoop would stay at the old job site at the end of the project unless properly relieved. Not a major hurdle but waiting for a helicopter by the Helicopter Pad all day and night wasn't a good use of time.
Almost all of the guys on the guns hated for the Ammo resupply choppers to come in. Mostly in our 155 unit it was one of those flying cranes (CH-54's) and they could carry four or five hundred rounds at a time. That meant that if there were 10 guys on the detail, they would have to each hand carry 50 rounds at approximately 100 lbs each from the pad over to the guns. On a hot day in Vietnam, you almost can't drink enough water to match the sweat. Most of the guys could/would carry one round at a time and it was backbreaking work.
One day, Whoop claimed that he had hurt his shoulder and could not carry any more of "Those Damned Joe's" (Projectiles, 155mm High Explosive). He nursed that excuse for about 24 hours and it took a trick to get him back on duty. One of the other cannon crewmen said he could carry two projectiles at a time and he bet no one else in the section could. The projectiles came from the factory with a nose plug that had a carrying loop built in. If you had strong fingers, you could get two or three fingers in that loop and carry one with one hand. Most of us couldn't in a normal situation. Whoop. not to be outdone said he could carry four, no sweat. They went back outside and each member of the section tried one in each hand. Only a couple of them could do it. True to his word, Whoop just stuck his fingers in the loops of four rounds and picked them up off the ground. Someone said can you lift them up to shoulder height? He did and that ended the sick call excuse for the remainder of that tour.
During the monsoon season, it would rain day and night without a let up. If a unit was in contact, we would fire for them until they said stop. If you have ever seen a howitzer fire on TV, you would know that the force of the blast would put a lot of weight on the spades on the legs or trails of the howitzer and if the ground was wet it would really bury the spades down in the mud. After one hot contact mission, we awoke to find one howitzer had buried the spades in a big old mud hole. We dug that gun out and filled the hole with mud. There just wasn't gravel to do a proper job. Later on that day we got a fire mission and Whoop grabbed the lifting handle on one trail and began to help shift the gun. When he stepped in the mud hole, he began to be forced down in the mud. He hollered, "Help me, this thing is going to drown me in the mud!" I think he would have hung on to that trail and be forced down in the mud had one of the guys not told him to "let go of that damned trail." I think the sound of "Help Me, help me" was heard around the battery for at least a week. Always followed by laughter I might add.
A couple of weeks later, a strange helicopter landed at our fire base. No, it wasn't a strange helicopter but not one that normally came to our firebase. The only passenger was a Sergeant Major from one of the 4th Division units. I happened to be out by the pad when it arrived and I walked over to meet it. The Sergeant Major that got off what was obviously a command bird (clean and shiny) said he was "Private Johnson's" father and wondered if he could pay him a visit. I had no clue who he was talking about and shouted over to the guns to have them tell PVT Johnson to report over to the pad. Someone hollered back and said, "Which one, the black one or the white one?" "The Black One" the SGM Hollered back. Once I saw who his son was, it was pretty obvious that whoopee was built like his dad. Here came Whoopee at a dead run and picked up the Sergeant Major and lifted him over his head. Then came what would have been a crushing hug and tears from Whoop that he was sure glad to see his father. I left them to visit and finally after an hour or so, Whoop came over and said his dad wanted to talk to me.
When I got back over to the Helicopter pad, the SGM asked me to try to get Whoop through the rest of his tour without him going back to LBJ. LBJ was the Long Bin Jail where GI's served their jail time for minor infractions. It seems that Whoopee liked to smoke a little dope and at least out in the field his supply was very limited. Time in jail didn't count as time in the Nam and Whoop had already been in 'Nam over a year. I spoke with the other leaders in the unit and worked hard to keep Whoop on the straight and narrow for the rest of his tour. To the best of my knowledge, he at least left our unit on the way home. If he got there, I never knew.
I guess life is a lot like that. You will have some young men and women that will do their job to the best of their ability and then you have some that just don't know any better. At least Whoopee had a good attitude and smiled at good jokes. I wish him well where ever he is.

MUD (Ret)

Party!

Last night we had a Halloween Party for Austen and Kyler. We carved pumpkins, decorated cookies, grilled hot dogs and brats and went for a spooky walk in the Flying Bat Farm trail and generally laughed the evening away. The Triggs brought their daughter Rikku (3 Months old) and we all had a ball. We expected a few more kids, but it didn't get in the way of having fun. Poor old Dave had to work so he missed this year's edition of fun.

Hope you all have enough fun this fall to fill your hearts with smiles and laughter.

MUD

Just a few Things

Some Pictures are worth a Thousand Words

I think that is my Yashica Electro 35 from the pre digital days. Erma and Curly Fruits will live in our hearts forever.

- I don't know where you stand on Homosexuals in the Military, and really don't care. I personally have served with at least a couple (That I knew of) and found them able to do their job as well as the next person. I have a lot of love for a couple of homosexuals that are close friends and one is family. It has been my experience that "Don't ask, Don't tell" is a failure in leadership. I would tell everyone that I expect all military person's to conduct themselves as if matters of Race, Religion, Color, Creed, Sex and sexual preference don't matter. The Military has a code of conduct that requires people in uniform to perform their duties and obey the rules. If the POTUS and the Secretary of defense tells the Military to obey the rules or be fired, they will. It might take a few times that the hammer needs brought down but it will happen a lot better than people outside the military know.

- Leonard Peltier was an American Indian Movement (AIM) activist and it is about time that the POTUS sat down with the Director of the FBI and talked about the need to sign a presidential pardon. There has been a lot of doubt in the evidence that convicted him and enough time since his incarceration started that old wounds need to be closed. If we really are going to be a "stand up" Nation, we need to look at ourselves as the world see us. Right or wrong, Leadership needs to start in the White House.

- I want everyone to know that I do not blame Barack Obama entirely for the above items. There has been a Clinton and a Bush or Two that could have taken the high road on these issues. For some reason the Congress must think they must force us to change rather than using their leadership ability. True leaders would help us discover things in such a way that we think it is our idea. John McCain took a lot of flack from the hard Core Conservatives for his reaching across the aisle. Now that Nancy and harry don't they squeal like stuck hogs.

- Dave Ramsey has an interesting approach to savings vs investing. If it is less than 5 years, it should be considered savings. Longer periods should be investing. I would take it one step further in the definition. 5 years or less, I would call it savings/paying off debts. 5 to 15 years I would call it a diversified investment program and 15 years an longer I would call it buying a house. The key to it all is developing an understanding of a budget. I think his idea of paying minimum of all debts until you have a "snowball" built up is a good idea. His attack on the debts from smallest to largest is a good idea. I like his description of Beans and Rice as a great place to start on the road to financial security as good. I have a niece that needed some dental work right in the middle of this process. I think the fact that she acknowledged the need to put a halt in the process to pay that bill as a very adult thing to do. Dave might have wanted her to save up for and cash flow the expense but it wasn't his smile. Barb and I bought Dave's house on a note from the Credit Union and I'm sure that The Debt Doctor wouldn't have agreed. We have attacked this note with a vengeance and it will soon be paid for. If you can't borrow money to make things better, what can you do in the short term? One more time, Income should equal savings and outgo. If you have to exceed that for more than a year, you are in trouble.

MUD

Cool Mornings

Fall at Rabbit Run

Crown Vic waiting for a road trip
Taco with his stick.

It is around 50 this morning and that is jacket weather for me as I walk out to fetch the morning paper. As as soon as I finish here, I will go spend a few minutes with Taco dog and play his favorite game - Fetch with a Hickory stick. When we started this game a while back, he could hardly walk after the stick. He now runs after the stick and walks fast coming back. There is the delay of marking each tree in the yard but with a male dog, some of that is expected. Life is way too short to not play with the dog. I there is a smile in every throw of stick.

In the mornings here at Rabbit Run, we hear the Shawnee Heights band practicing for the weekend activities. We don't get to hear all the music, but the drum line sounds manage to work their way through the trees and valleys. Kind of like having our own Indian pow wow nearby. It is mostly the Tom Tom drums we hear. Yesterday the dog was barking like crazy and just as I walked out the back door, a hot air balloon fired his burners. he was right over the house and had to fire up to make the field over by 45th. I don't think he would have liked to set down in the woods here.

Today I am going to spend a few hours outside making the path ready for the Saturday night fright walk. I am going to make artificial spider webs with mono filament fishing line. One strand across the path and then just hang strands down in the path. Nothing creeps people out more than wondering where the spider is in the webs. I even have a package of rubber fishing lures (without hooks) to put on one of the strings. Creepy cold rubber things on one of the lines. I also need to find a good way to have electricity down at the well area for creepy sounds and lights for the ghost that will appear. I'm not sure if I have quite enough extension cords to get clear down there but we'll see.

Oh well, another fifteen minutes shot in the rear. Gotta go. Bye

MUD

OOPS

Yesterday I told everyone that I was back up and running. That lasted only so long as Barb was logged into the net. When she shut down, so did my connection. I just stayed off it for a day and about noon today I started all over again. I reset the router and started all over again. This time I did not tell the set up program anything, I just let it do its own thing. When it finished, both computers work and Barb is hard wired through the router and I'm wireless. Great stuff.

We are getting ready for a Saturday night Halloween party for the kids. Kyler and Austen each will bring five friends over and we will try to do entertaining things and eat. The finale of the evening will be the walk in the dark woods to visit the graves of the family killed here at Flying Bat Woods. I'm sure that there will be at least one or two scary things that will just show up for the fun of it. The funny part about the walk in the woods, is that everyone wants to have spooky signs and such. It will be darker than heck out there until the full moon comes out and people won't be able to see anything I don't want them to see. In the dark night, the imagination is scarier than the real stuff.

I think we have everything, or at least one of everything the store had for Halloween. Throw in a ton of food and the cabinets are all full. On to the fun....

MUD

It Died

- After 4 years of pretty much non stop use, our ATT 2Wire Modem died the other night. We had the ATT guy out last month to check our line and make it faster. I'm sure that it got so fast that the modem finally self destructed. Having a son that works at Best Buy really takes the sting out of the replacement. I am now back up on the air with Barb hard wired and me on a wireless net. Yes Barb, I know I have a mess on the floor over there and will pick it all back up in a little while.

I forgot how hard it is to speak computer with a semi English speaking person. I'm sure she said her name was John. There is a series of email names and passwords I just no longer knew. Then she kept telling me to look for the sticker on the bottom of the box. It was on the bottom of the modem - Duh Dennis... I will write all this crap down this time but probably won't be able to find the booklet in 5 years. Oh well....

The weather here in the heartland is with the shorter days, starting a little cooler and not getting quite as warm. The rain that was to land yesterday, made a little thunder and pout enough dirt on the windshield as to make me run the washer for one pass. We did get a couple of trees planted at Dave's.

We had a great day yesterday afternoon with Austen and Kyler. We are planning our great Halloween Bash for next weekend. The boys are really excited about the plans for the walk in the woods. We also had pizza for dinner and there isn't much left.

Better run - at least the computers work without having Dave come over to fix all my problems.

MUD

Our Fair or Fare Language

Fall Table decorations by Martha Jr (aka Barb)

Many of us use different figures of speech to emphasise things. Most of the time it is an appropriate saying such as "Can't dance and it's too wet to plow." But often some obscure words come out and no one really knows the origin of the saying or the exact meaning. "Heavens to Betsy" as an exclamation doesn't have a literal meaning, just that it sounds like what we mean. Is it fare to say that it is it complicated or that we need to pay the price (as in fare) to use them. The other night as we went to hear the Topeka Festival Singers, we were regaled with the Westborough Baptist Church's all girl "A Capella" choir singing their rendition of God Hates America. Instead of our favorite song, they filled it with all sorts of creative sayings some of which were amusing to me but none of them I will include here.

Here in the Heartland, a term I adopted because Ohio thinks they are in the Midwest, many sayings have come to us from whence we came. I grew up with Art's use of Gott in Himmel and I never was sure if it was jars in a figurine or god in heaven. All I was sure of was it was never said when a pretty girl walked by, only when something dastardly had happened. As a young man that loved food, I was easily swayed to his way of thinking by some of the great German food put on their table by Carrie. She was my kindergarten teacher and next door neighbor and always good for a graham cracker handout now and then.

Where I absolutely fell in love with the funny use of words was in the Army Field Artillery. They would take something like laying an aiming circle to make sure the guns are all pointing in the same direction and turn it into phrases. SAD-ULU was not a description of an African Warrior. It was simple subtract the Azimuth of fire from the Declination Constant and using the Upper, lower(floating the needle), upper motion putting that setting on the aiming circle. Another was take the fire out of the old lady. Subtract the Azimuth of fire out of the angle of the end of the Orienting line (Upper recording motion) and put it on the circle while siting on the end of the Orienting line (Lower Motion). Then of course, what young hot blooded male didn't want to yell, "The Battery is Laid" once the common direction is established.

I also love word stories that end with mixed up phrase such as, "People who live in grass huts shouldn't store thrones." I had a friend that would start every class he taught in the Guard with one of those funny twisted word stories. Most of us thought it was great if we could evoke a chuckle from the audience and he would absolutely shine if people threw paper wads at him when he would tell a bad pun. He once spent several minutes to set up a baseball story to use the line, "It was the bear that made Mef Famey walk us."

In my history of living in Kansas, I can't remember many falls that have been nicer or longer. The mornings start out cool enough to wear a jacket but the afternoons have been glorious. Almost too nice to stay inside for an afternoon nap. A year ago we about froze our butts off at the Lenexa Chili Festival. This year we wore short sleeved shirts and loved it. It is my hope that we can continue to ride our bikes at the lake until well after Thanksgiving. Yes, hard core people would ride outside all year long, but don't confuse me with that 20 year old hard core Lieutenant I 0nce was. I could "Hump a ruck" (carry a back pack) with the best of them once but now I work hard to remember punch lines.

MUD